STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday April 6

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday April 6, 2010

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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 - 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

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

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

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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

14:00 Minutes of FOMC Meeting

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SINGAPORE – Oil prices hovered near 18-month highs above $86 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as traders mulled whether a recovering U.S. economy warranted further gains. ....

Oil has jumped 24 percent since early February.

Crude had traded between $69 and $84 for about nine months before breaking out last week amid investor optimism an improving U.S. economy will eventually boost crude demand. On Monday, reports showed strong improvements in demand at services businesses and in the housing market. ....

In other Nymex trading in May contracts, heating oil fell 0.61 cent to $2.2614 a gallon, and gasoline dropped 0.80 cent to $2.3422 a gallon. Natural gas jumped 2.5 cents to $4.302 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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

to change that contract crude:spot market crude formula. Right now, it's the spot market price that's driving the price at the pump and we're headed for $3.00/gallon soon if the speculative bubble doesn't pop again.

Be sure to thank Golden Sacks, as well as the other hedge funds, every time you fill up.

LONDON (AFP) – European stock markets rose on Tuesday as investors played catch-up after the Easter holiday weekend, digested solid US economic data and awaited official declaration of a May election in Britain.

Reports of an imminent tie-up between auto makers Renault of France and Daimler of Germany were also a focus of interest.

In morning trading, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top shares rose 0.59 percent to 5,779.68 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 added 0.30 percent to 6,254.32 and in Paris the CAC 40 gained 0.55 percent to 4,056.25.

The Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares increased by 0.45 percent to 2,991.87 points.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100406/bs_afp/stockseurope

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Stronger reports on jobs and the nation's services industries lifted stocks Monday and pushed the Dow Jones industrial average toward the 11,000 mark. Growing confidence about the economy hurt demand for Treasurys and drove up interest rates. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note briefly rose to 4 percent, its highest level since June.

The government's report Friday that the economy posted its biggest job gain in three years in March raised expectations that a recovery is taking hold. Reports Monday of strong improvements in demand at services businesses and in the housing market added to an optimistic mood among traders.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100405/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_box

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....
Regulators are examining the structure of U.S. equity markets, including "co-location," or allowing brokers and trading firms to rent space next to an exchange in order to gain quicker access to the markets.

"The Securities and Exchange Commission should take a hard look at co-location," said SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar at the Reuters Global Exchanges and Trading Summit.

"I am not sure banning co-location will solve anything because it will just move to the next building or the building after that," said Aguilar, one of the five commissioners who makes decisions on federal securities rules.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100405/bs_nm/us_exchanges_summit_aguilar_colocation

NEW DELHI (AP) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met Tuesday with Indian leaders to discuss steps to strengthen economic ties and boost U.S. business prospects in the fast-growing South Asian economy, officials said.

Geithner started off his two-day visit to India with a stop at a store in the capital that offers mobile banking services, highlighting steps to expand Indians' access to financial services. He spoke briefly to a street vendor who irons clothes and is a customer of the mobile banking shop.

Geithner later met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Indian counterpart, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, and took part in the first meeting of the U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership, designed to promote trade and investment. ...

India is a member of the Group of 20 nations, which brings together the wealthiest industrial countries and major developing economies such as China, India and Brazil. The G-20 was designated by President Barack Obama and other leaders at a summit last September in Pittsburgh as the top policy-setting group for the global economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/asia/AP-AS-India-US.html

They should have demanded someone competent and hands-on.

April 6 (Bloomberg) -- The fastest growth in global currency reserves since the credit crisis is blunting a rise in Treasury yields even as concern increases about record U.S. borrowing to finance an unprecedented budget deficit.

Worldwide reserve assets climbed 18 percent to $7.8 trillion in the 12 months ended in March, the biggest increase since the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos. in March 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bank of America Corp. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc forecast that growth in reserves, led by Asian nations, will sustain demand as Greece’s fiscal woes raise concern about the risk of holding sovereign debt and corporate bonds offer the slimmest yield premiums over Treasuries since November 2007.

The Obama administration is counting on foreign investors, who own half of the outstanding $7.4 trillion in marketable Treasury debt, to continue buying while the Federal Reserve begins a shift in monetary policy. Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross have said that yields will rise, lifting borrowing costs and reducing demand for Treasuries, as the U.S. borrows record amounts to support an economy emerging from the worst contraction since the 1930s. ....

Yields on 10-year notes, the benchmark for everything from mortgages to corporate bonds, reached 4 percent yesterday for the first time since June. At the same time, data last month showed that foreign holders added Treasuries for a ninth consecutive month as the global economy recovered. The U.S. will sell $2.43 trillion of notes and bonds this year, according to 10 primary dealers in a Bloomberg News survey.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=ar_HJj23WYTU

:donut: :donut: :donut:

Thanks. I found quite a bit of humor in it considering how the calls for repeal have gone silent except among the nuttiest of the conservative/teabag horde.

:toast:

WASHINGTON — The panel established by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis has been hobbled by delays and internal disagreements and a lack of focus, according to interviews with a majority of its members and government officials briefed on its work.

In recent months, a top investigator resigned, frustrated by delays in assembling a staff. Behind closed doors the panel’s chairman and vice chairman have had heated disagreements over whether to make public preliminary findings or revelatory documents. Entities like Citigroup and the Treasury have complained that the panel’s requests for information have been vague and voluminous. ....

In an interview, the commission’s chairman, Phil Angelides, said the panel was struggling to satisfy a broad mandate to examine the role of 22 factors in bringing about the crisis. He pointed out that the panel had a budget of just $8 million, compared with the $38 million spent by a federal bankruptcy trustee who dissected the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Even though the panel is backward-looking and will not issue formal recommendations, Mr. Angelides said he hoped its findings would be authoritative and useful for future policy makers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/business/06panel.html?ref=business

The banksters have gotten the government they've paid for.

From DailyKos diarist Meteor Blades:

The New York Times is reporting that the Angelides Commission seems to be hamstrung. You remember the commission, right? It's the belatedly put-together, belatedly started panel that was supposed to dig deep into what caused the financial meltdown and make recommendations about it. Well, the Times says that "it has been hobbled by delays and internal disagreements and a lack of focus, according to interviews with a majority of its members and government officials briefed on its work."

What a shocker!

.....

It now appears that lipstick on a pig would have been an improvement over the Angelides Commission. That was already pretty much in evidence during the commission's hearings in January. The tough questions, even the mildly impolite ones, didn't get asked. And that set the we're-really-just-pretending-here-folks tone. And now the Times confirms it, if a little too gently.

Well, let's face it, thinking there was even a 1% chance that Government-Sachs Goldman-Sachs might be given at least a once-over by a modern Pecora Commission was a fever-dream from the get-go. The fact that the final report isn't due until December, well after Congress passes and the President signs whatever inadequate financial regulation and oversight bill into law, shows clearly where we're headed. ....

Pecora was the last head of the banking probe that looked into what happened leading up to the 1929 crash. As I noted previously, in Pecora's 1939 book, Wall Street Under Oath, he described what the bankers had been up: "Had there been full disclosure of what was being done in furtherance of these schemes, they could not long have survived the fierce light of publicity and criticism. Legal chicanery and pitch darkness were the banker's stoutest allies."

When Pecora took over as the fourth and final commissioner of the banking probe, he discovered that its Republican-appointed investigators had left a few stones unturned. Thanks to pressure from FDR on the new Democrat-controlled Senate, Pecora’s request to extend the life of the commission was granted. He subpoenaed bankster after bankster into the hearing rooms to answer his pitbull questions in what a Time magazine cover headlined as "Wealth on Trial." He dug into their financial records. Read auditors' reports. He didn’t stop until he got answers. And resignations.

Out of his investigation came government controls, including Glass-Steagall, the banking regulation law that was so cavilierly dismantled 11 years ago because not enough people with clout would stand up to the Chicago Schooled economists who said unfettered markets know best and nothing can go wrong. The Securities and Exchange Commission was passed into law, too. But, as we learned, it began taking its oversight duties in a rather relaxed fashion in the past couple of decades.

more at link....

That's only 6 more years...it's not like the banksters will stop their criminal ways in the interim. There will be plenty of crooks to catch...

Maybe with the power of the Internet(the REAL power of the press is owning it) we can shorten the amount of time it takes to get an accounting and retribution and real laws.

Or maybe in 6 years it will so come crashing down that the banksters jump out of windos, saving us the need for defenestration.

Regulators like the Fed and SEC have said they didn’t know about Lehman’s use of Repo 105s to hide its mountain of debt.

But in a must-read New York Times Op-Ed, law school professors Susan P. Koniak, George M. Cohen, David A. Dana, and Thomas Ross point out:

Our bank regulators were not, as they would like us to believe, outside the disco, deaf and blind to the revelry going on within. They were bouncing to the same beat. In 2006, the agencies jointly published something called the “Interagency Statement on Sound Practices Concerning Elevated Risk Complex Structured Finance Activities.” It became official policy the following year.

What are “complex structured finance” transactions? As defined by the regulators, these include deals that “lack economic or business purpose” and are “designed or used primarily for questionable accounting, regulatory or tax objectives, particularly when the transactions are executed at year end or at the end of a reporting period.”

How does one propose “sound practices” for practices that are inherently unsound? Yet that is what our regulatory guardians did. The statement is powerful evidence of the permissive approach bank regulators took toward the debt-dissolving financial products that our banks had been developing, hawking and using themselves for years. And it’s good reason for Americans to be outraged by the “who me, what, where?” reaction of Mr. Bernanke and the S.E.C. to the revelation of Lehman’s Repo 105 scam.

As the law professors point out, you can have all sorts of laws on the books, but if regulators aren’t enforcing them, they are not worth the paper they are written on.

Much more at Naked Capitalism

Off with ALL their heads!

Some people have argued that measured is inflation is declining mostly because of the Owners' Equivalent Rent component that is being pushed down by the record high rental vacancy rate. Economists at the San Francisco and New York Fed argue that there is "a broad pattern of subdued price increases across most consumption goods and services and (housing) is not distorting the broad downward trend in core inflation measures."

One way to consider the effect of the price of housing on core inflation is to calculate a core PCEPI that excludes housing. This is done in Figure 1, which contains three time series. The first is 12-month growth in the core PCEPI. The second is a comparable measure of inflation for the housing component of the core PCEPI. The final time series is a core PCEPI that excludes housing expenditures.

Three things stand out in this figure. First, the standard core inflation measure shows substantial disinflationary pressures at work. ...

Second, part of the drop in measured core inflation is undoubtedly due to the deceleration in the price of housing. ...

Third, it turns out that this drag is rather small. The decrease in housing inflation only accounts for a small part of the overall disinflationary pressure on core PCEPI. ...

Consequently, the evidence in Figure 1 offers little cause for concern that the recent behavior of core inflation might be a misleading signal of the underlying inflation trend.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/04/frbsf-economic-letter-housing-drag-on.html

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For anyone new to this area: Housing (and, therefore, OER) is the largest component of the Consumer Price Index.

(Down a drop. Good day all.)

(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)
= 8,294,087,559,961.41 + 4,468,659,639,555.34
DOWN 783,098,135.53 + DOWN 1,348,613,965.90

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 309-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.23 each THAT'S 1B$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.7, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ 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 10 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 309,143,838 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 11/07/2009 08:19 -> 307,879,272
Currently, each of these Americans owe $41,284.17.
A family of three owes $123,852.51. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 24 reports in the last 30 to 31 days.
The average for the last 24 reports is 10,138,478,084.64.
The average for the last 30 days would be 8,110,782,467.71.
The average for the last 31 days would be 7,849,144,323.59.
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$/day.
There were 126 reports in 184 days of FY2010 averaging 6.77B$ per report, 4.64B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 1,024 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.2 and 20.8T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
04/02/2010 12,762,747,199,516.75 BHO (UP 2,135,870,150,603.67 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 +0,852,918,196,005.00 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof10 +1,691,930,117,075.14 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Linear Projection

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
03/15/2010 +060,487,338,970.60 ------------********** Mon
03/16/2010 +000,241,513,784.66 ------------********
03/17/2010 +000,318,864,879.69 ------------********
03/18/2010 +020,986,560,998.86 ------------**********
03/19/2010 +000,244,805,712.35 ------------********
03/22/2010 +000,662,784,714.13 ------------******** Mon
03/23/2010 +000,796,033,080.11 ------------********
03/24/2010 +000,495,755,553.04 ------------********
03/25/2010 +024,094,622,106.32 ------------**********
03/26/2010 -000,521,947,711.23 ---
03/29/2010 -000,032,502,739.57 ---- Mon
03/30/2010 +000,146,146,107.03 ------------********
03/31/2010 +089,964,337,654.53 ------------**********
04/01/2010 +004,832,827,050.45 ------------*********
04/02/2010 -000,783,098,135.53 ---

201,934,042,025.44 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=4332635&mesg_id=4332866

(Up a lot. Good day all.)

(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)
= 8,315,716,104,736.67 + 4,470,842,955,615.91
UP 21,628,544,775.26 + UP 2,183,316,060.57

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 309-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.23 each THAT'S 1B$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.7, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ 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 10 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 309,169,758 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 11/07/2009 08:19 -> 307,879,272
Currently, each of these Americans owe $41,357.73.
A family of three owes $124,073.19. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 to 31 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 10,993,415,045.45.
The average for the last 30 days would be 8,061,837,700.00.
The average for the last 31 days would be 7,801,778,419.35.
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$/day.
There were 127 reports in 187 days of FY2010 averaging 6.90B$ per report, 4.69B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 1,021 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.2 and 20.8T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
04/05/2010 12,786,559,060,352.58 BHO (UP 2,159,682,011,439.50 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 +0,876,730,056,840.80 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof10 +1,711,264,549,448.62 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Linear Projection

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
03/16/2010 +000,241,513,784.66 ------------********
03/17/2010 +000,318,864,879.69 ------------********
03/18/2010 +020,986,560,998.86 ------------**********
03/19/2010 +000,244,805,712.35 ------------********
03/22/2010 +000,662,784,714.13 ------------******** Mon
03/23/2010 +000,796,033,080.11 ------------********
03/24/2010 +000,495,755,553.04 ------------********
03/25/2010 +024,094,622,106.32 ------------**********
03/26/2010 -000,521,947,711.23 ---
03/29/2010 -000,032,502,739.57 ---- Mon
03/30/2010 +000,146,146,107.03 ------------********
03/31/2010 +089,964,337,654.53 ------------**********
04/01/2010 +004,832,827,050.45 ------------*********
04/02/2010 -000,783,098,135.53 ---
04/05/2010 +021,628,544,775.26 ------------********** Mon

163,075,247,830.10 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=4333769&mesg_id=4333825

http://hbr.org/2010/04/the-myth-of-shareholder-capitalism/ar/1

Cross posted in GD

For me, the most telling paragraph:

And yet, in an important 2007 article in the Journal of Business Ethics, 31 of 34 directors surveyed (each of whom served on an average of six Fortune 200 boards) said they’d cut down a mature forest or release a dangerous, unregulated toxin into the environment in order to increase profits. Whatever they could legally do to maximize shareholder wealth, they believed it was their duty to do.

And what has that got us...factories offshored, toxic investments, and a major recession that could become a depression.

:(

Spirit Airlines announces plan to charge for carry-on bags

By Steve Huettel, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Apr 06, 2010 12:18 PM

Spirit Airlines, the leisure airline that pioneered new add-on fees, will begin charging as much as $45 each way to put a carry-on bag into the overhead bin.

Spirit could be the first airline anywhere to charge for carry-ons. Other discount carriers that were early proponents of fees for services that used to be free — such as Allegiant Air and Ireland's Ryanair — haven't gone so far as to charge for carry-on bags.

But now that Spirit opened the door, experts are asking if major airlines will follow suit. The revenue from fees is huge: more than $2 billion in the third quarter of 2009 alone, up 36 percent from the same period a year earlier.

South Florida-based Spirit has led the charge. It was among the first to charge for checked bags, a policy adopted widely by major, full-service carriers and discounters as well. But Spirit has gone beyond most competitors, charging for buying a ticket on its Web site and for reserving any seat in advance.

The airline says the fees allow it to offer really cheap fares — sometimes less than $10. Along with the carry-on fee, Spirit announced Tuesday it will launch "Penny Plus'' fares. The deal means customers will pay one cent air fare, plus a charge for fuel, government taxes and fees.

(snip)

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/airlines/spirit-airlines-announces-plan-to-charge-for-carry-on-bags/1085432
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They just never quit, do they?

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I guarantee this is the funniest thing you will read today, at the VERY LEAST.

Fed keeps eyes out for speculative bubbles

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve officials at their March meeting stressed the importance of making sure record-low interest rates don't feed new speculative bubbles in stocks or other assets.

Some officials said the Fed's pledge to keep rates low for an "extended period" doesn't mean a fix period of time. Rather, it depends on the strength of the economy, according to minutes of the meeting. Analysts have taken the pledge to mean rates need to stay at record lows for roughly six months to help underpin the recovery.

Those Fed officials argued that the pledge won't stop the Fed from boosting rates if the economy showed signs of picking up substantially or if inflation took off. On the other hand, the pledge "could last for some time" if the economy took a turn for the worse.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fed-keeps-eyes-out-for-apf-3930377589.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

You know, usually I'd have something bitingly acerbic to say or some caustic analysis, but really, are words even necessary here?

They think the American people are THIS Stupid.

And sadly, outside of this tiny little thread, I think most of the American people agree with them in their assessment.

What a completely, utterly Broken Nation we are.

It's Official.

The World Is Flat.

Praise Marty Moose.

:crazy:

IOW: Horseshit Bullshit.

Meaningless.

Soviet Style Propaganda, we are finally getting the chance to see first hand.

"Keeping an eye out for Speculative Bubbles?"

Um, other than the ONE THEY ARE CURRENTLY FACILITATING IN THE DOW?

This is beyond insane.

Well, I'm off to buy 10 new iPads so I can have a killer setup to watch American Idol in my new Escalade, and scarf up some Netflix shares with the change.

Viva Recovery!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111

:crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy:

My condolences.

jk

:rofl:

I know, I know.

It's been going on a lot longer than either of us would want to believe.

Idiocracy is probably a documentary that came 20 years too late, as well.

"I Like Money....."

I thought you'd be kind of interested in my observation here. I think the (R) party is dead, proven wrong and corrupt and racist for decades it'll never come back. That leaves (D)s who are now conservatives, just as stupid, brainwashed, paid off and easily duped and, (P)s who are the real majority, the actual "centrists" who want universal health care, out of both illegal wars, torturers and other war criminals held accountable and regulations to be fully enforced.

I think it's an actual change but as I suspected a long time ago, it's only leading to huge black markets wherein people make their own economy. Still, that's a lot better than just taking all the lies and crimes.

Hmm... Could possibly be true. :/

Watch for bubbles. Sporadically. When it seems like a good idea. Vigilance has worked so well before...