STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, May 12, 2011

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, May 12, 2011

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Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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    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

May 12 08:30 Initial Claims 05/07 400K 423K 474K
May 12 08:30 Continuing Claims 04/30 3700K 3700K 3733K
May 12 08:30 PPI Apr 0.5% 0.5% 0.7%
May 12 08:30 Core PPI Apr 0.1% 0.2% 0.3%
May 12 08:30 Retail Sales Apr 1.0% 0.6% 0.4%
May 12 08:30 Retail Sales ex-auto Apr 1.0% 0.5% 0.8%
May 12 10:00 Business Inventories Mar 1.0% 0.9% 0.5%

Read more: http://www.briefing.com/Investor/Public/Calendars/EconomicCalendar.htm#ixzz1M8SAnVGa

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-wholesale-prices-rise-08-in-april-2011-05-12?dist=beforebell

U.S. wholesale prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.8% in April, once again driven by surging fuel costs, the government reported Thursday. Wholesale prices have jumped an unadjusted 6.8% in the past year, the largest 12-month increase since September 2008. The more closely followed core producer index rose 0.3 in April. The core index is usually viewed by investors and the Federal Reserve as a better gauge of inflationary pressure because it excludes the volatile food and energy categories. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had predicted a 0.8% increase in overall producer prices and a 0.2% increase in the core rate. Wholesale energy prices climbed 2.5% in April while wholesale food prices rose 0.3%

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/weekly-us-jobless-claims-drop-44000-to-434000-2011-05-12?link=MW_home_latest_news

Applications in the U.S. for unemployment compensation fell by 44,000 last week to 434,000, partly reversing a large spike earlier in April, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected applications for jobless benefits to decline to seasonally adjusted 428,000 from an upwardly revised 478,000 in the prior week. The average of new claims over the past four weeks rose by 4,500 to 436,750, the highest level since November. The four-week average is considered more accurate a gauge of employment trends because it lessens week-to-week volatility in the data. Meanwhile, the number of workers who continue to receive state compensation increased by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.76 million in the week of April 30. Altogether, 7.98 million people received some kind of state or federal benefit in the week of April 23, down 31,247 from the prior week. It's the first time in several years the number has fallen below 8 million

SINGAPORE – Oil prices hovered near $98 a barrel Thursday in Asia as investors anticipate the possible end of an aggressive U.S. monetary stimulus that has weakened the dollar.

Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 23 cents to $97.98 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped $5.67 to settle at $98.21 on Wednesday.

In London, Brent crude for June delivery was up 1 cent to $112.58 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The second round of a Federal Reserve program of buying Treasury bonds, known as quantitative easing, has helped boost the money supply and weaken the U.S. dollar, making commodities such as oil cheaper for investors with other currencies.

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

Gas prices were up 4 cents at my local station last night to their highest level in two years.

yippee

How is it going, doing this thread?

I am going to have a really crazy Friday. I think for his birthday, I'll give Fuddnik the honor of running the Weekend Economists entirely!

Or it might not get off the ground until Saturday....

With my job and other things going on in my personal life, I feel like I don't have the time to devote to it that I should. I'm sure that ozy is still missed. However, it's pretty easy to set up in the morning and I'm glad to keep it going.

I'm off on a field trip today. I'll see you all later!

Anybody hear from Ozy? I do miss his commentary.

PBD - and we appreciate that you set up the daily thread! Thanks!
:applause:

He's been pretty busy with teaching, graduate school, his blog and family.

I'll drop him a note to tell him folks are asking about him, and if he has time, to pop in and say hello.

I'm serious about Friday.

It wouldn't be as good of a job as you do, but I can get it started.

I really appreciate it. You pick a theme, anything you like.

Grumpy Old Men!

great choice--lots of material.

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12685

The following are recent remarks made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:



With all due respect, Mr. Majority Leader, how long have you been in power? When are YOU going to do something about this?---Love, Demeter

There's an election next year, so he's got to talk tough and do nothing.

Then you've got Mary Landrieu and Begich both on the Senate floor crying crocodile tears for the big oil companies. "It's just not fair", they say.

Helluva majority we've got there.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/us-markets-oil-idUSL3E7G601S20110512

(Reuters) - Oil slipped to around $112 a barrel on Thursday, extending the previous session's sell-off, after a report from the International Energy Agency added to concern about high prices and demand destruction.

The IEA, which advises 28 industrialized countries, cut its 2011 global oil demand growth forecast to 1.29 million barrels per day (bpd) from 1.43 million bpd, citing high prices and a weaker economic outlook for developed economies.

Brent crude fell 68 cents to $111.89 a barrel by 0935 GMT, adding to Wednesday's $5 drop which was sparked by rising U.S. gasoline inventories and falling domestic demand for the fuel. U.S. crude lost $1.05 to $97.16.

"We clearly have seen demand growth slowing compared to last year's level and we're seeing it very much concentrated where the price feed through is most direct, notably in North America in terms of gasoline," said David Fyfe, head of the IEA's Oil Industry and Markets division.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/us-gasoline-widowmaker-idUSTRE74B0RR20110512

(Reuters) - Big oil traders who bet on a rise in gasoline prices relative to heating oil ahead of the summer driving season may have thought they broke the curse of a "widowmaker" trade even as oil prices crashed.

They were dead wrong.

Some of the traders who shun the big, directional bets that hedge funds love have crowded into a common springtime trade: betting gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) will hold at a premium to heating oil futures as consumption accelerates into the summer.

They have been counting their winnings since March, when the spread staged its biggest seasonal rise since 2007. The surge accelerated earlier this week as the Mississippi River swelled, threatening refinery operations in Louisiana and Tennessee.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2015029314_congressoil12.html

WASHINGTON — Seventeen U.S. senators called Wednesday for a regulatory crackdown on speculative Wall Street trading in oil contracts, insisting excessive betting in oil markets is driving energy prices far beyond supply-and-demand fundamentals.

The lawmakers — including both Washington state senators — all but one of whom caucus with Democrats, pressed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to adopt limits on speculation in markets where contracts for future delivery of oil are traded.

"With the average retail price of regular grade gasoline now $3.95 nationwide, and well over $4 in many parts of the country, we have entered a time of economic emergency for many American families," the 17 senators wrote to CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler. "While there has been little change in the world's oil supply and demand balance since 2008, oil prices have jumped around from $147 per barrel, to $31, to $86, to around $104 today."

By the time the letter was made public, the price for contracts of oil and gasoline had tumbled sharply in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price of gasoline contracts dropped by more than 7 percent, and the price for a barrel of crude oil fell $5.67, settling at $98.21, below the $100 psychological threshold.

Stocks fell for a second day and commodities extended declines as investors scaled back bets on economic growth and China raised its reserve ratio. U.S. index futures dropped after Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO)’s profit forecast trailed analyst estimates.

The MSCI World (MXWO) Index slid 1 percent to a three-week low at 6:31 a.m. in New York. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures lost 0.7 percent. The S&P GSCI index of 24 commodities fell 1 percent as oil sank 1.6 percent and copper retreated to a five-month low. The euro depreciated against the dollar and the yen, while Australia’s currency weakened versus all 16 of its major peers. The yield on the Greek two-year note surged as much as 1.48 percentage points to a record.

Almost one in three investors said they will put more money in cash and 30 percent indicated they would cut commodity holdings, according to a Bloomberg survey of 1,263 market participants. China raised reserve requirements for banks by 0.5 percentage point, the central bank said. The International Energy Agency today cut its 2011 global oil demand forecast for the first time, and the European Union said industrial output unexpectedly fell in March.

Stocks “have started to look much less positive in the emerging markets arena,” Charles Diebel, head of market strategy at Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets in London, wrote in a note today. “Having seen very strong speculative inflows previously, most commodities have turned somewhat more corrective.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-12/asian-stocks-ringgit-drop-on-commodities-retreat-earnings-euro-advances.html

I feels like today is yet another day that if the reports are bad, it could be a bloodbath. So my prediction is that the reports will be fine. (Note: I'm a cynic who doesn't believe the reports anymore.)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-12-07-15-33

BANGKOK (AP) -- World share markets sank Thursday after a slide on Wall Street sparked by tumbling demand for oil and fears of slackening growth in the U.S.

Oil prices hovered near $98 a barrel, continuing two weeks of volatile sea-saw trading. The dollar was up against the yen and the euro.

European shares were lower in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.9 percent to 5,924.76, while Germany's DAX dropped 1.1 percent to 7,416.21. France's CAC-40 lost 1.1 percent to 4,013.45.

U.S. futures pointed to a lower opening on Wall Street, with Dow Jones industrial futures down 60 points to 12,533 and S&P 500 futures losing 7.7 points to 1,331.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/us-markets-stocks-idUSTRE7481EV20110512

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday as a continuing slide in commodities prompted an unwinding of bets on risky assets, including equities, while a sour outlook from Cisco hurt technology stocks.

Investors will focus at 8:30 a.m. on the latest data on weekly applications for unemployment insurance. A Reuters survey shows expectations of 430,000 new applications were filed compared with a surprise jump to 474,000 in the previous week.

Also at 8:30 a.m. the Labor Department releases the April Producer Price Index. Forecasters are looking for a 0.6 percent rise compared with a 0.7 percent increase in March.

Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) warned on Wednesday that it would fare worse this quarter than Wall Street had feared and laid out plans for global job cuts as it struggles to revive growth. Its shares were down 3.3 percent in premarket trade.

They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it.

Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate subcommittee that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their clients. America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn't leave much doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial.

The great and powerful Oz of Wall Street was not the only target of Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse, the 650-page report just released by the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, alongside Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Their unusually scathing bipartisan report also includes case studies of Washington Mutual and Deutsche Bank, providing a panoramic portrait of a bubble era that produced the most destructive crime spree in our history — "a million fraud cases a year" is how one former regulator puts it. But the mountain of evidence collected against Goldman by Levin's small, 15-desk office of investigators — details of gross, baldfaced fraud delivered up in such quantities as to almost serve as a kind of sarcastic challenge to the curiously impassive Justice Department — stands as the most important symbol of Wall Street's aristocratic impunity and prosecutorial immunity produced since the crash of 2008.

But Goldman, as the Levin report makes clear, remains an ascendant company precisely because it used its canny perception of an upcoming disaster (one which it helped create, incidentally) as an opportunity to enrich itself, not only at the expense of clients but ultimately, through the bailouts and the collateral damage of the wrecked economy, at the expense of society. The bank seemed to count on the unwillingness or inability of federal regulators to stop them — and when called to Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing? crime — a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511

EXCELLENT article. Highly recommended.

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 38-billion dollars. Good day.)
Slower morning with no job today. Nice.
(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)
= 9,681,417,347,166.90 + 4,650,105,450,714.71
UP 237,893,268.24 + UP 5,500,358,825.06

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 $3.21 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,205.36 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.62, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 311,976,992 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 $45,937.76.
A family of three owes $137,813.27. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 to 32 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 3,006,348,357.37.
The average for the last 30 days would be 2,204,655,462.07.
The average for the last 32 days would be 2,066,864,495.69.
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$/day.
There were 151 reports in 222 days of FY2011 averaging 5.10B$ per report, 3.47B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 621 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 15.2 and 17.5T$.
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)
05/10/2011 14,331,522,797,881.61 BHO (UP 3,704,645,748,968.53 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 +0,769,899,766,989.90 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,265,826,193,474.39 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
04/20/2011 +000,031,154,878.79 ------------*******
04/21/2011 -029,604,944,039.31 -
04/22/2011 +000,169,463,975.78 ------------********
04/25/2011 +000,297,069,525.13 ------------******** Mon
04/26/2011 +000,207,526,568.97 ------------********
04/27/2011 -002,332,483,455.54 --
04/28/2011 -007,710,203,842.40 --
04/29/2011 +013,870,888,452.00 ------------**********
05/02/2011 +043,070,259,587.79 ------------********** Mon
05/03/2011 +000,283,435,714.90 ------------********
05/04/2011 +000,080,372,925.23 ------------*******
05/05/2011 -017,721,236,989.45 -
05/06/2011 +000,087,184,054.82 ------------*******
05/09/2011 +000,429,272,774.96 ------------******** Mon
05/10/2011 +000,237,893,268.24 ------------********

1,395,653,399.91 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=4847089&mesg_id=4847340

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 28-billion dollars. Good day.)
Fell asleep too early.
(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)
= 9,681,617,664,759.55 + 4,640,440,091,757.58
UP 200,317,592.65 + DOWN 9,665,358,957.13

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 $3.21 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,205.29 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.62, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 311,984,192 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 $45,906.36.
A family of three owes $137,719.07. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 2,468,055,332.97.
The average for the last 30 days would be 1,809,907,244.18.

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$/day.
There were 152 reports in 223 days of FY2011 averaging 5.00B$ per report, 3.41B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 620 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 15.2 and 17.5T$.
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)
05/11/2011 14,322,057,756,517.13 BHO (UP 3,695,180,707,604.05 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 +0,760,434,725,625.40 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,244,657,734,768.03 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
04/21/2011 -029,604,944,039.31 -
04/22/2011 +000,169,463,975.78 ------------********
04/25/2011 +000,297,069,525.13 ------------******** Mon
04/26/2011 +000,207,526,568.97 ------------********
04/27/2011 -002,332,483,455.54 --
04/28/2011 -007,710,203,842.40 --
04/29/2011 +013,870,888,452.00 ------------**********
05/02/2011 +043,070,259,587.79 ------------********** Mon
05/03/2011 +000,283,435,714.90 ------------********
05/04/2011 +000,080,372,925.23 ------------*******
05/05/2011 -017,721,236,989.45 -
05/06/2011 +000,087,184,054.82 ------------*******
05/09/2011 +000,429,272,774.96 ------------******** Mon
05/10/2011 +000,237,893,268.24 ------------********
05/11/2011 +000,200,317,592.65 ------------********

1,564,816,113.77 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=4848373&mesg_id=4848380

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 14-billion dollars. Good day.)
they're out of french dressing.
(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)
= 9,666,109,562,809.12 + 4,641,689,778,754.69
DOWN 15,508,101,950.43 + UP 1,249,686,997.11

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 $3.21 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,205.22 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.62, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 311,991,392 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 $45,859.6.
A family of three owes $137,578.79. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 1,582,078,997.56.
The average for the last 30 days would be 1,160,191,264.88.

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$/day.
There were 153 reports in 224 days of FY2011 averaging 4.88B$ per report, 3.33B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 619 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 15.0 and 17.5T$.
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)
05/12/2011 14,307,799,341,563.81 BHO (UP 3,680,922,292,650.73 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 +0,746,176,310,672.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,215,867,649,086.24 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
04/22/2011 +000,169,463,975.78 ------------********
04/25/2011 +000,297,069,525.13 ------------******** Mon
04/26/2011 +000,207,526,568.97 ------------********
04/27/2011 -002,332,483,455.54 --
04/28/2011 -007,710,203,842.40 --
04/29/2011 +013,870,888,452.00 ------------**********
05/02/2011 +043,070,259,587.79 ------------********** Mon
05/03/2011 +000,283,435,714.90 ------------********
05/04/2011 +000,080,372,925.23 ------------*******
05/05/2011 -017,721,236,989.45 -
05/06/2011 +000,087,184,054.82 ------------*******
05/09/2011 +000,429,272,774.96 ------------******** Mon
05/10/2011 +000,237,893,268.24 ------------********
05/11/2011 +000,200,317,592.65 ------------********
05/12/2011 -015,508,101,950.43 -

15,661,658,202.65 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=4848373&mesg_id=4849676

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/opinion/12thu1.html

The jury in the illegal insider trading case against Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund, did what the government has largely failed to do: hold a major Wall Street figure accountable for his reckless behavior. It is an important step toward restoring trust as a prerequisite of America’s financial markets...Mr. Rajaratnam is by far the most prominent of the 36 found guilty in an extensive crackdown led by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. (In all, 47 have been charged.) He was convicted on all 14 counts against him, of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit it, and he could face up to 19 1/2 years in prison and tens of millions of dollars in fines.

The classic insider case involves one person tipping another in individual transactions. Mr. Rajaratnam created a network of tipping networks that seemed cynically designed to go to the edges of the law on obtaining insider information without breaking it. By providing him with a mosaic of information from many sources, his defense contended, no single source or piece of information was material to a decision to invest even though, added up, they gave him a vital edge as an investor...The prosecution countered that by focusing on five of his many sources, relying primarily on testimony of three and wiretaps of four and their gossipy, shameless and illicit phone calls with Mr. Rajaratnam. A prosecutor summed up, “Cheating became part of his business model.”

The crimes he was tried for began in 2003 and ended in 2009, a period when markets were out of control. Had he been acquitted, Americans might have concluded that it was O.K. for an insider to play the markets as dishonestly as he did because they are basically rigged.

Thirty years ago, America’s financial markets weren’t perfect, but the exposure of market manipulation by Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken and others was shocking because their insider trading was so unexpected. The corruption felt like an anomaly in the world’s best markets...Now our markets remain opaque and of disputed trustworthiness. It’s common to sniff illegal insider trading, but hard to prove it in court because it requires proof of intentional or knowing wrongdoing. Prosecutors must show that trades were based on material, nonpublic information knowingly used...Mr. Rajaratnam tried to disguise those tips, but the government showed that he got illegal, material, nonpublic information by illegal means, and used it to make tens of millions in criminal gains.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/dont-let-go-of-the-anger/

One of the most frustrating facts of the recently abated financial crisis is that those who might have been partly responsible for it have got off scot-free. The only two people prosecuted criminally — the Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin — were found not guilty by a jury in Brooklyn. Other potential culprits — Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial, Joseph Cassano, chief executive of AIG Financial Products, and Dick Fuld, the chief executive of Lehman Brothers — were either slapped with a small civil penalty, in the case of Mozilo, or the Justice Department made the decision not to prosecute after months of investigation.

What’s worse, not only did bankers escape with no penalty, they walked off with millions of dollars in their pockets while American taxpayers got left holding the bag. Since the crisis was caused by greedy decisions made by one leader after another at various Wall Street firms and at other businesses, like mortgage originators and credit ratings agencies, that attached themselves to Wall Street like pilot fish on a shark, the dearth of prosecutions, or even attempted prosecutions, seems especially unconscionable. The least the Justice Department could do, in declining to prosecute, would be to make available the reams of documents on which it based its decisions, so that the American public can understand why prosecutors let these people walk. Without seeing what the prosecutors have seen, we are left with a sense of frustration and injustice...



Indeed, what we hear from the likes of Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Bob Diamond, the chief executive of Barclays PLC, is that the time has come to stop bashing the banks and their executives for their roles in causing the Great Recession. “Not all banks are the same and I just think that this constant refrain ‘bankers, bankers, bankers’ is just unproductive and unfair,” Dimon told a panel at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, in January. “People should just stop doing that.” At the same conference, the French president Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out at Dimon. “Don’t be accusatory of us,” Sarkozy told him in front of a group of hundreds. “The world has paid with tens of millions of unemployed, who were in no way to blame and who paid for everything.” Sarkozy was right then, and he is still right: We must not let the passage of time dim our ire at those who have yet to be held responsible for causing this financial crisis. We must register our dissatisfaction — in the streets if need be — with a system that rewards the fat cats for their outrageous behavior at our collective expense and that re-established the status quo on Wall Street without a moment’s reflection on whether the system itself needed an overhaul.

Now, it seems, some people are sufficiently fed up to “fight back,” as they are saying. This Thursday, after a week of demonstrations, including at Goldman Sachs’s new headquarters on West Street in Manhattan and at Bank of America’s New York new headquarters on West 42nd Street, a group calling itself onmay12.org has organized a series of protests on and around Wall Street itself to “make big banks and millionaires pay.” The group is a coalition of labor unions, community and progressive groups that were catalyzed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed city budget that cuts childcare services, teachers and public safety, among others, while continuing to give tax benefits to corporations that remain in the city...Where such protests take us is never certain, of course. They might lead to an emboldened grass-roots effort to push politicians and regulators in Washington to insist on some measure of accountability for Wall Street executives, or they could just be more meaningless blips in the never-ending 24-hour news cycle. Either way, the protests are long overdue.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/ME13Ad02.html

SYDNEY - China and the United States have raised the feel-good factor with headway on a raft of issues, including cooperation between what are now the world's two biggest economies, by the end of their third annual talks. They remain stuck on significant concerns, not least America's open sore over the value of China's currency.

Modest progress in market access, investment, protection of intellectual property rights and promises in strengthening consultation in the military field and on regional affairs, and implementation of a comprehensive framework to further cement bilateral cooperation was made at the two-day United States-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED), which concluded


on Tuesday in Washington.

Both parties make "very significant progress" on economic policy, according to US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, citing moves on transparency. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan called the talks a "success", saying both parties agreed to "reject protectionism". He also said the Chinese government was more open to US firms investing in China.

The two hardy perennials - the value of the Chinese currency and its human-rights record - remain stark differences in an otherwise growing relationship, as Washington views China's swelling trade surplus as a symptom of Beijing's continued undervaluation of the yuan. Geithner said he was less positive on progress regarding the yuan, adding that he hoped China sped up its revaluation.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/ME13Ae03.html

HO CHI MINH CITY - Pervasive and ongoing power shortages represent perhaps the biggest hurdle to sustaining Vietnam's fast economic growth and attractiveness as a manufacturing base to foreign investors. The country will need to add an additional 4,600 megawatts of generating capacity per year from now to 2016 just to keep pace with demand, according to government estimates.

While other countries in the region rethink their nuclear power plans in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that destroyed nuclear power plants in Japan, Vietnam has stood firm behind its ambitious designs. Vietnam plans to build 14 nuclear reactors with Russian, American and Japanese assistance over the next two decades. The first, in Ninh Thuan province, is under construction.

Hanoi's decision to pursue nuclear power dates back to the mid-1990s when market reforms started to take root. Prime Minister


Nguyen Tan Dung has since made industrialization by 2020 a key goal of his economic development agenda, but drought-stricken hydropower dams and diminishing coal supplies have contributed to frequent power outages and put Dung's industrialization ambitions in doubt.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110512a1.html

Tokyo Electric Power Co. decided Wednesday to accept the government's conditions for helping it compensate victims of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant crisis.

Tepco is expected to face trillions of yen in compensation demands.

The government's conditions for aid include maximum cost-cutting efforts, not capping compensation payments in advance and allowing an investigation into its management to be conducted by a third-party panel set up by the government.

The government presented the conditions Tuesday evening after Tepco President Masataka Shimizu asked for help in making the enormous compensation payments for the radiation-related problems triggered by the March 11 mega-quake and tsunami earlier in the day.

To raise the funds, Tepco is planning to sell more than ¥500 billion worth of assets, sources said.

Vietnam is too poor a country to even think about taking that kind of risk. One accident, and it will be a wasteland: economically and ecologically, and definitely not home to any kind of manufacturing...

not a good feeling about this.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110512a1.html

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it expects that its damaged domestic production lines will rebound to 70 percent of capacity by June, a month earlier than initially scheduled, thanks to efforts made after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami slowed some of its plants in the northeast.

At the same news conference, Toyota reported that its group net profit for the business year ended March 31 doubled to ¥408.18 billion from the previous year, as robust sales in Asia and other emerging markets overcame the negative impact of the surging yen and natural disasters. The results, however, fell short of the ¥490 billion forecast announced in February.

Citing continued uncertainty about the full impact of the quake, Toyota declined to release its forecast for the business year that started April 1, but said it would make the announcement by mid-June.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110512a2.html

The benchmark composite economic index posted its sharpest ever fall in March as the devastating earthquake and tsunami that month disrupted electricity supply and industrial production, the government said Wednesday.

The index of coincident indicators, including output, shipments and retail sales, dropped 3.2 points from the previous month to 103.6 against the 2005 base of 100, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report. Comparable figures have been available since 1980.

The pace of decline was faster than the previous record of a 3.1 point fall marked in November 2008 after the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. two months earlier.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-12-07-08-27

BEIJING (AP) -- China ordered most of its banks on Thursday to increase the amount of money they hold in reserves in a new move to curb inflation after higher-than-expected price rises in April.

The central bank's order was the fifth reserve increase this year and came a day after the government reported April inflation was 5.3 percent.

Stubbornly high inflation has frustrated communist leaders who have declared taming surging living costs their priority this year. They have raised interest rates four times since October and ordered companies to restrain price rises.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-05/12/c_13871020.htm

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Inflation may rise further after it hit 5.3 percent year-on-year in April, economists said, but policymakers should not increase interest rates, at least in the short term, if they want to avoid a "hard-landing".

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key gauge of inflation, was 0.1 percentage points lower than the 32-month high of 5.4 percent in March, but it is still significantly higher than the government's 4 percent target for this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.

"The decline indicates that the government's previous measures to tame inflation have taken effect," Sheng Laiyun, spokesman for the NBS, said at a news conference.

However, soaring raw material prices and excessive liquidity in global markets may continue to increase inflationary pressure in the short term, Sheng said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-05/11/c_13869283.htm

BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese banks extended 739.6 billion yuan (113.9 billion U.S. dollars) in local currency loans in April, a decrease of 20.8 billion yuan from a year earlier, the central bank said Wednesday.

By the end of April, the balance of outstanding yuan-denominated loans stood at 50.21 trillion yuan, up 17.5 percent from a year earlier, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced in a statement on its website.

The rise was 0.4 percentage points lower than that at the end of March and 4.5 percentage points lower than that at the end of April 2010.

China's broad money supply, which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 15.3 percent year on year to 75.73 trillion yuan by the end of April. The rise was 1.3 percentage points lower than that in March and 6.2 percentage points lower than that in last April.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/11/c_13869829.htm

BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday that the country's fiscal revenue rose to 1 trillion yuan (154 billion U.S. dollars), up 27.2 percent year-on-year, in April.

The growth rate climbed slightly from 26.7 percent in March, but eased from the 36 percent increase in the first two months of this year when surging imports boosted fiscal revenue, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

The growth of fiscal revenue is expected to continue to slow down in the following months, it added, without elaborating.

In April, the central government collected 521.4 billion yuan and local governments gathered the rest, the statement said.

The active ingredient is either alcohol or chocolate...

:evilgrin:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AP_POLL_OBAMA_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-12-07-18-56

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans are growing more optimistic about the U.S. economy, a sentiment that is benefiting President Barack Obama despite public disenchantment with his handling of rising gasoline prices and swollen government budget deficits.

An Associated Press-GfK poll shows that more than 2 out of 5 people believe the U.S. economy will get better, while a third think it will stay the same and nearly a fourth think it will get worse, a rebound from last month's more pessimistic attitude. And, for the first time since the 100-day mark of his presidency, slightly more than half approve of Obama's stewardship of the economy.

Both findings represent a boost for Obama, though he still must overcome ill will over government red ink and the price of gas at the pump, now hovering around $4 a gallon.

But the public's brighter economic outlook also could signal a boost to the current recovery, which relies to a great degree on consumer behavior. A public that is confident about economic performance is more likely to spend more and accelerate the economy's resurgence.


:eyes:

I have no hope. I see no future.

There is a future out there...the self-styled Elite can't keep all those plates in the air any longer. Already a few have come crashing down. More will follow.

In the ensuing "chaos of the Elites", ordinary people will find they are set free again. Suddenly, all kinds of things will become possible. Including remunerative work.

Hang in there, Hotler. You made it this far. Just a little bit farther...

:pals:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_SWEDEN_SAAB?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-12-07-11-55

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Struggling car maker Saab Automobile faced renewed uncertainty Thursday as the financing deal with China's Hawtai Motor Group fell apart, raising fresh concerns about the company's future.

Spyker Cars NV, which bought Saab from General Motors Corp. in 2010, said it was "forced to terminate" the $223 million (euro150 million) agreement with Hawtai since the Chinese company was not able to obtain all the necessary consents, including approvals from different shareholders.

The money from Hawtai was crucial to Spyker's plans to rescue cash-strapped Saab, which was forced to stop production at its plant in Trollhattan, Sweden, on April 6.

Saab spokeswoman Gunilla Gustavs said the company is in talks with other potential Chinese partners, but declined to give any names.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/12/imf-eurozone-crisis-fix-banks

The International Monetary Fund has warned that the eurozone debt crisis could spread across the region unless European countries step up efforts to fix their banks.

In its latest economic outlook for Europe, the IMF said that the debt crisis in Greece, Portugal and Ireland could hit the wider eurozone by hitting bank lending and delivering a confidence shock, despite the rescue packages that are already in place.

"Financial linkages between countries with sovereign debt troubles and the rest of Europe could potentially pose more risk to the outlook," the IMF said on Thursday. "Restoring fiscal health, squarely addressing weak banks, and implementing structural reforms to restore competitiveness are key."

The Washington-based organisation stressed the importance of stress tests on banks, saying they are a key opportunity to force those found to be weak to raise new capital to bolster their finances. The European banking regulator is busy running a new round of stress tests and will publish the results in June. Tests conducted last year were regarded as too easy.

Or AnneD :hide: :hide: :hi:

:rofl:

Well, Tansy and AnneD, now you know what HE thinks of YOU! Surprised I didn't get nominated, too!

Of course, I tend to go to extremes, myself....

we are running on the same ticket.

Our new campaign slogan, We don't bust balls-we fix 'em! Does that work for you Fudd.

I bet you fixed Roscoe but in case you think he misses them they sell Neuticals, for that more natural look and feel. Available in assorted sizes.

www.neuticles.com

PS...Most of the endorsements came from male owners. I think that is way too much anthropomorphizing.

I think that's why he kicks my toes so much. He doesn't have any balls to lick.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/12/inflation-rise-predicts-mervyn-king

Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, warned yesterday that the economy has hit a "soft patch" and consumers must brace themselves for a continued squeeze on living standards, with inflation likely to hit 5% this year.

At his quarterly inflation report briefing, the governor said growth would be weaker, and inflation higher, than the Bank set out in its last set of forecasts three months ago. "There is no doubt that we are facing a difficult time ahead," he said.

The Bank is expecting domestic gas bills to increase by 15% and electricity bills by 10% this year in the latest blow to household finances from high energy prices.

King admitted that inflation is "uncomfortably high", and warned there is "a good chance" that it will reach 5% before dropping back in 2012 and 2013.

http://www.truthout.org/britain-still-awaits-good-results-bad-ideas/1305036855

The bad gross domestic product number for Britain, announced on April 27, wasn’t a surprise — in fact, judging from market response, investors seem to have expected something even worse. Still, if you step back and look at what has been happening, it’s double-plus-ungood: zero growth over the past six months, with every reason to be worried looking forward, as Prime Minister David Cameron’s austerity bites deeper.

Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research in Britain, got to the nub of it in an article for the Financial Times that day: “On fiscal policy, the message is that we should listen to economists, not credit rating agencies. Most mainstream economists argued that the impact of the government’s fiscal consolidation on confidence and consumer demand would be negative; so it has proved,” he wrote.

.......................

Economics 101, buttressed if you like by fancier New Keynesian models, says that contractionary fiscal policy is, well, contractionary.

Yet much of the world of movers and shakers bought into the exotic notion that expectational effects — the confidence fairy — would make contractionary policy expansionary. And they clung to this belief even as the supposed historical evidence in favor of expansionary austerity was thoroughly debunked.

READ THE WHOLE THING--IT'S SHORT, IT'S PITHY, AND IT'S BLACK HUMOR AT ITS BEST.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/may/12/house-repossessions-up-cml

The number of UK homes repossessed by mortgage lenders rocketed by 15% to 9,100 in the first quarter of 2011, according to latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The figure is well up on the 7,900 homes repossessed in the final quarter of 2010, but is 10% lower than the same period last year and equal to the average quarterly number of repossessions throughout 2010.

The number of mortgages with arrears equivalent to 2.5% or more of the outstanding balance fell to 166,900 from 170,000 last quarter, and represent 1.47% of the 11.3m outstanding first-charge (original) loans. But the number of arrears exceeding 10% of the mortgage balance increased slightly from 27,400 at the end of 2010 to 27,700.

Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, said the quarterly rise in repossessions "highlights the fact that a significant number of homeowners are at risk, particularly if economic activity is muted and unemployment moves over the coming months as tighter fiscal policy bites.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/12/manufacturing-data-disappoints

A raft of disappointing manufacturing figures from the UK and the eurozone on Thursday triggered fresh fears that the economic recovery is losing momentum.

British industry disappointed last month when output rose less than expected, suggesting the sector is running out of steam and adding to the sluggishness of the economy. In the eurozone, the figures were even worse, with industrial production falling by 0.2% last month following a 0.6% rise in February.

The data came as the International Energy Agency warned that high oil prices could dent the fragile recovery of the world economy. "Persistently high prices at this stage of the economic cycle may ultimately sow the seeds of their own destruction," the Paris-based agency said. It cut its demand growth forecast, predicting that gasoline prices of close to $4 a gallon in the US is prompting drivers to cut back.

UK industrial production, which includes mining and oil and gas extraction, rose by 0.3% in March following a 1.2% fall in February, the Office for National Statistics said this morning. This is less than half the 0.8% rise forecast in the City.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkish-economy-suffers-blow-to-8216achilles8217-heel8217-2011-05-11

Turkey’s current account deficit, regarded as the Achilles’ Heel of its economy, surged to an unprecedented level in March, boosted by an exceptionally high level of profit transfer by foreign operations to their parent companies abroad. The $9.8 billion monthly figure, which was above market expectations of $8.2 billion, more than doubled from $4.3 billion in March last year.

It was the biggest deficit since the Turkish Central Bank began releasing monthly figures in 1984, Bloomberg News reported.

A current account deficit occurs when a country's total imports of goods, services and transfers is greater than its total export of goods, services and transfers. The gap makes the country a net debtor to the rest of the world. When the deficit is financed by short-term capital inflows, such as investments in stocks and bonds, financial stability hangs in the balance – and a sudden exit of that capital or failure to attract more of it could trigger a crisis. Indeed, many crises that Turkey has gone through in the past five decades were preceded by a booming current account deficit.

The gap exceeded estimates because of a larger-than-usual repatriation of $1.8 billion in profits by foreign companies based in Turkey, said Tevfik Aksoy, London-based head of emerging-market economics for the region at Morgan Stanley. “This will be a one-off issue and we should not see a surprise like this for a long time,” Bloomberg quoted him as saying.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/markets-britain-stocks-idUKLDE74B0DY20110512

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - A slide in commodity prices pummelled miners and energy stocks on Thursday, which led a broad-based fall for Britain's top share index.

A drop of more than 5 percent in oil prices on Wednesday dragged U.S. stocks sharply lower, and Asian and European equities have followed suit as worries about the demand outlook makes investors cautious on equities that are exposed to global growth.

Silver miner Fresnillo (FRES.L) was the top faller, off 3.5 percent, hurt by a sharply lower silver price XAG=. Miners .FTNMX1770 were the biggest drag on the index.

Energy stocks were also weaker, reflecting the sharp falls in crude overnight. BP (BP.L) fell 1 percent.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/markets-europe-stocks-idUKLDE74B11H20110512

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - European shares fell on Thursday, with heavyweight miners and oil majors hit by a sharp sell-off in commodity prices on the back of growing demand uncertainties and a stronger dollar, sapping the appetite for risky assets.

Analysts, however, said the longer-term demand outlook for raw materials was strong as the economic recovery remained intact despite recent signs of a slowdown in momentum.

By 1040 GMT the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top shares was down 1.3 percent at 1,138.53 points, on track to reverse two straight sessions of gains.

The STOXX Europe 600 basic resources index .SXPP shed 3 percent as copper prices CMCU3 tumbled to their lowest in five months on the back of demand worries from top consumer China and a strengthening dollar .DXY. Gold XAU= and silver XAG= also suffered hefty losses.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/12/c_13871983.htm

PARIS, May 12 (Xinhua) -- France's consumer prices index (CPI) registered a month-on-month rise of 0.3 percent in April following a March increase of 0.8 percent, national statistics bureau Insee said Thursday.

The lower CPI increase was due to slower growth in energy prices, which registered a 1.3-percent increase in April compared with 4 percent in March.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/12/c_13871961.htm

MADRID, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) confirmed on Thursday that the consumer price index (CPI) in Spain rose by 1.2 percent in April.

The INE studies also show April's CPI jumped 3.8 percent year-on-year.

The increase in inflation is due to rises in the prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks, which are partly resulted from rising fuel and transport costs.

http://www.truthout.org/helping-neediest-among-us/1305119849

...Some days when you read the news, you don't know whether to go crazy, go bowling or go very deep into the woods and weep -- and this was one of those days...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/precious-factors-idUSLDE74B0DJ20110512

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - Gold surrendered Thursdsay's
early gains and shed more than half a percent, echoing a broad
sell-off in other commodities, as investors also took advantage
of a stronger dollar to book profits on this week's gains.

For latest market report, see



PRICES
* Spot gold XAU= was bid at $1,491.55 an ounce at 0652 GMT
from $1,499.75 late in New York on Wednesday.

* Silver XAG= was at $33.88 from $35.06.

* Platinum XPT= at $1,757.50 from $1,770.10.

* Palladium XPD= at $706.97 from $713.83.

http://blogs.forbes.com/robertlenzner/2011/05/12/soros-gold-sale-leading-indicator-for-market-top/

George Soros may have picked the top. His liquidation of gold below $1600 an ounce has been followed by a whole series of volatile actions in commodity markets that look to be massive trouble for the real asset players, who may be pulling their bets.

Soros seems to have correctly figured inflation risk greater than deflation; higher interest rates coming, and he got out before speculators put to rout by the regulators installing higher margin requirements. Take that Warren Buffett, John Paulson and all you gold fanatics. Not to speak of the silver freaks.

Yesterday’s harsh selloff in commodity stocks like the provervial flavor of the resource play– Freeport McMoran, and global suppliers like Vale and giant integrated oils warrant sweaty anxious scrutiny. FCX broke $50 on the downside and closed ast $48.27, down almost 6%.

Well, that is his style...

:spray: well said!!!

http://www.truthout.org/galleons-rajaratnam-found-guilty/1305128918

Mr. Rajaratnam, who was convicted on all 14 counts, could face as much as 19 and a half years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, prosecutors said on Wednesday. He will be sentenced on July 29...Mr. Rajaratnam, dressed in a black suit and a khaki green tie, had no expression as the verdict was read in the overflowing courtroom...His lawyer, John Dowd, said he would appeal.

Prosecutors had asked that Mr. Rajaratnam be placed in custody, arguing that he is a flight risk. They said that he has the means to leave the country, noting that he owns property in Sri Lanka and Singapore.

Judge Richard J. Holwell ordered home detention and electronic monitoring for Mr. Rajaratnam.

Someone who answered the phone at Mr. Rajaratnam’s home and would only describe himself as a family friend expressed surprise at the verdict. Mr. Rajaratnam “was confident that nothing would happen,” he said...

http://www.truthout.org/inflation-fears-real-or-hysteria/1305048606

Debate continues to rage between the inflationists who say the money supply is increasing, dangerously devaluing the currency, and the deflationists who say we need more money in the economy to stimulate productivity. The debate is not just an academic one, since the Fed's monetary policy turns on it, and so does Congressional budget policy.

Inflation fears have been fueled ever since 2009, when the Fed began its policy of "quantitative easing" (effectively "money printing"). The inflationists point to commodity prices that have shot up. The deflationists, in turn, point to the housing market, which has collapsed and taken prices down with it. Prices of consumer products other than food and fuel are also down. Wages have remained stagnant, so higher food and gas prices mean people have less money to spend on consumer goods. The bubble in commodities, say the deflationists, has been triggered by the fear of inflation. Commodities are considered a safe haven, attracting a flood of "hot money" - investment money racing from one hot investment to another.

To resolve this debate, we need the actual money supply figures. Unfortunately, the Fed quit reporting M3, the largest measure of the money supply, in 2006.

Fortunately, figures are still available for the individual components of M3. Here is a graph that is worth a thousand words. It comes from ShadowStats.com (home of Shadow Government Statistics, or SGS) and is reconstructed from the available data on those components. The red line is the M3 money supply reported by the Fed until 2006. The blue line is M3 after 2006.



The chart shows that the overall US money supply is shrinking, despite the Fed's determination to inflate it with quantitative easing. Like Japan, which has been doing quantitative easing (QE) for a decade, the US is still fighting deflation. Here is another telling chart - the M1 Money Multiplier from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis:



Barry Ritholtz comments, "All that heavy breathing about the flood of liquidity that was going to pour into the system. Hyper-inflation! Except not so much, apparently." Ritholtz quotes David Rosenberg: "Fully 100% of both QEs by the Fed merely was new money printing that ended up sitting idly on commercial bank balance sheets. Money velocity and money multiplier are stagnant at best." If QE1 and QE2 are sitting in bank reserve accounts, they're not driving up the price of gold, silver, oil, and food, and they're not being multiplied into loans, which are still contracting.

The part of M3 that collapsed in 2008 was the "shadow banking system," including money market funds and repos. This is the non-bank system in which large institutional investors that have substantially more to deposit than $250,000 - the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance limit - park their money overnight. Economist Gary Gorton explains:



Before the banking crisis, the shadow banking system composed about half the money supply, and it still hasn't been restored. Without the shadow banking system to fund bank loans, banks will not lend, and without credit, there is insufficient money to fund businesses, buy products, or pay salaries or taxes. Neither raising taxes nor slashing services will fix the problem. It needs to be addressed at its source, which means getting more credit (or debt) flowing in the local economy. When private debt falls off, public debt must increase to fill the void. Public debt is not the same as household debt, which debtors must pay off or face bankruptcy. The US federal debt has not been paid off since 1835. Indeed, it has grown continuously since then, and the economy has grown and flourished along with it.

As explained in an earlier article, the public debt is the people's money. The government pays for goods and services by writing a check on the national bank account. Whether this payment is called a "bond" or a "dollar," it is simply a debit against the credit of the nation. As Thomas Edison said in the 1920's:



That is true, but Congress no longer seems to have the option of issuing dollars, a privilege it has delegated to the Federal Reserve. Congress can, however, issue debt, which, as Edison says, amounts to the same thing. A bond can be cashed in quickly at face value. A bond is money, just as a dollar is.

An accumulating public debt owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or to foreign banks is to be avoided, but compounding interest charges can be eliminated by financing state and federal deficits through state- and federally owned banks. Since the government would own the bank, the debt would effectively be interest-free. More important, it would be free of the demands of private creditors, including austerity measures and privatization of public assets.

Far from inflation being the problem, the money supply has shrunk and we are in a deflationary bind. The money supply needs to be pumped back up to generate jobs and productivity and, in the system we have today, that is done by issuing bonds, or debt.

Creative Commons License

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

THE MONEY NEEDS TO GO TO PEOPLE, REAL PEOPLE, WHO WILL SPEND IT, PUTTING IT BACK INTO CIRCULATION. EMPTY THE BANKSTERS' HOARDS, DRAIN THE OBSCENELY WEALTHY OF THEIR FAT, AND WE WILL HAVE AN ECONOMY AGAIN.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/12/least-developed-countries-business-networking

Gregor Avril, from Haiti, was dubious about attending the UN conference for least developed countries (LDCs) in Istanbul this week. The executive director of Haiti's association of industries had been invited by the UN Global Compact, the UN's voluntary corporate responsibility initiative that is reaching out to the private sector, to take part in the trade fair that forms the private sector track of the conference on LDCs. There are also civil society, government and parliamentary tracks.

Avril, with hundreds of other business representatives, has been networking furiously – mostly with Turkish businesses it has to be said – in the bowels of one of the conference buildings, while government officials make worthy speeches in the plenary sessions above.

Sitting at his booth at a small desk displaying coffee, pasta, snacks and – pride of place – bottles of Barbancourt rum, described as the "cognac of rums", Avril said the conference was much better than he had expected. He is a regular on the trade show circuit in the US, but he said he didn't know why he was invited to Istanbul.

"This was totally unknown to me. I didn't know the nature of the show and I was sceptical," said Avril, reaching into a cardboard box full of business cards. "But interest in Haiti has been much more intense than I had expected." He said several Turkish Cameroonian and Bangladeshi businesses have asked him for information about manufacturing companies in Haiti. "I have promised them information, trying to do some matchmaking and give people details about a particular sector they are interested in." The interest has come mainly from importers and exporters, with some companies interested in distributing Haitian rum. One was interested in extracting granite for processing outside of Haiti.

http://www.truthout.org/threats-business-and-business-threats/1305039044

More and more, we hear that nothing can be done to tax major corporations because of the threat of how they would respond. Likewise, we cannot stop their price gouging or even the government subsidies and tax loopholes they enjoy. For example, as the oil majors reap stunning profits from high oil and gas prices, we are told it is impossible to tax their windfall profits or stop the billions they get in government subsidies and tax loopholes. There appears to be no way for the government to secure lower energy prices or seriously impose and enforce environmental protection laws. Likewise, despite high and fast rising drug and medicine prices, we are told that it is impossible to raise taxes on pharmaceutical companies or have the government secure lower pharmaceutical prices. And so on.

Such steps by "our" government are said to be impossible or inadvisable. The reason: corporations would then relocate production abroad or reduce their activities in the US or both. And that would deprive the US of taxes and lose more jobs. In plain English, major corporations are threatening us. We are to knuckle under and cut social programs that benefit millions of people (college loan programs, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, nutrition programs, and so on). We are not to demand higher taxes or reduced subsidies and tax loopholes for corporations. We are not to demand government action to lower their soaring prices. And if we do, corporations will punish us...

Of course, there are always two possible responses to any and all threats. One is to cave in, to be intimidated. That has often been the dominant "policy choice" of the US government. That's why so many corporate tax loopholes exist, why the government does so little to limit price increases, why government does not constrain corporate relocation decisions etc. No surprise there, since corporations have spent lavishly to support the political careers of so many current leaders. They expect those politicians to do what their corporate sponsors want. Just as important, they also expect those politicians to persuade people that its "best for us all" to cave in when corporations threaten us.

What about the other possible response to threats? Government could make a different policy choice, define differently what is "best for us all." In plain English, it could persevere in the face of business threats and to do so, it could counter-threaten the corporations. When major corporations threaten to cut or relocate production abroad in response to changes in their taxes and subsidies or demands to cut their prices or serious enforcement of environmental protection rules, the US government could promise retaliation. Here's a brief and partial list of how it might do that (with illustrative examples for the energy and pharmaceutical industries):

CONTINUE AT LINK

http://www.truthout.org/forget-rich-tax-poor-and-middle-class/1305035795


...last week Republicans like Utah's Orrin Hatch, ranking member of the US Senate Finance Committee, grabbed hold of an analysis by Congress' nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation and wrestled it to the ground. The brief memorandum reported that in the 2009 tax year 51 percent of all American taxpayers had zero tax liability or received a refund. So why, the Republicans asked, are Democrats and others so mean, asking corporations and the rich to pay higher taxes when lots of other people -- especially the poor and middle class -- don't pay taxes either?

Hatch told MSNBC, "Bastiat, the great economist of the past, said the place where you've got to get revenues has to come from the middle class. That's the huge number of people that are there. So the system does need to be revamped... We have an unbalanced tax code that we've got to change."

All of which flies in the face of reality. As Travis Waldron of the progressive ThinkProgress website explained, "The majority of Americans who do not pay federal income taxes don't make enough money to qualify for even the lowest tax bracket, a problem made worse by the economic recession. That includes retired Americans, who don't pay income taxes because they earn very little income, if they earn any at all.

"And while many low-income Americans don't pay income taxes, they do pay taxes. Because of payroll and sales taxes - a large proportion of which are paid by low- and middle-income Americans - less than a quarter of the nation's households don't contribute to federal tax receipts -- and the majority of the non-contributors are students, the elderly, or the unemployed."

What's more, ThinkProgress notes, "The top 400 taxpayers -- who have more wealth than half of all Americans combined - are paying lower taxes than they have in a generation, as their tax responsibilities have slowly collapsed since the New Deal era.” In the meantime, "working families have been asked to pay more and more."

So maybe death and taxes are no longer certain, but one thing remains as immutable as the hills. In the words of another golden oldie, there's nothing surer - the rich get rich and the poor get poorer.

Creative Commons License

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12677

Squeezing, gouging, soaking, it's all the same, and it's all wrong. The richest Americans, we hear it said, pay most of the federal income taxes. That's true. But since 1980 their tax benefits have tripled. That's a trillion dollars a year in extra income for the wealthiest 1%.

A trillion dollars is seven times more than the budget deficits of all 50 states combined...A trillion dollars, if it hadn't been redistributed to the rich, would provide an extra $10,000 a year for every family that has contributed to American productivity since 1980.

The defenders of unlimited wealth insist that the very rich have earned their money. But what does earn mean? Does it mean that the million richest families worked harder than the other 99 million families for thirty years? Does it mean that one man can bet against the mortgage industry and make enough money to pay the salaries of 100,000 health care workers? Does it mean using American research and infrastructure and national security to build a corporation that pays zero federal income taxes?...Most of the fortunate 1% benefited from tax cuts, financial system de-regulation, ownership of 50% of the stock market, and a 15% capital gains tax. According to a study by the University of California, in 2008 only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries.

The very rich claim that their income growth stimulates the economy. But it hasn't happened. Low-income earners spend a greater percentage of their overall income on consumption, but they have less purchasing power than they had thirty years ago. What the very rich won't admit is that they benefit the most from government-funded research, national security, infrastructure, property rights, and a financial industry tailored to their pleasure and profit.

Instead, they claim that anyone can be rich if only they work hard. Much of America wouldn't know if this is true. They haven't had a chance to work lately.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/05/11/Home-Sales-Double-Punched-by-Financial-Regulation.aspx?utm_source=The+Fiscal+Times+Latest+News&utm_campaign=465000ee9d-Latest_News_from_the_Fiscal_Times_05_11_11&utm_medium=email

Too awful to quote...

From the article -



So if we return to appraisals who throw caution to the wind, everything will work out? Maybe we can get AIG to sell insurance on bad loans, using bad loans as reserves. Again.

They don't really give a damn about people, about jobs or schools or bridges. Just throw all the regs out and let them make money, perhaps on the backs of widows and orphans, the most gullible, and anyone who they can convince the future is going to be bright enough to pay whatever they can borrow.

I wonder if Mr. Molony would be comfortable with a provision that requires them to inform the buyer that economic conditions and current sales indicate a very good probability that the house will be worth a bit less in 3 years than they are buying it for today?


Thank you for the post

http://warisacrime.org/content/ny-times-takes-pentagon-spending-two-hands-tied-behind-its-back

*

The New York Times has posted seven super-short columns on how to cut the U.S. military. All seven seem to support cutting the military in one way or another. That's excellent, and I don't mean to complain, but . . . .

The United States has the largest military in the world. We could cut it by 85% and still have the largest military in the world. And that's without counting all the military spending that we funnel through departments other than the Pentagon, spending that brings our annual total to around $1 trillion.

Seeking to dominate the entire planet by force is a losing proposition, but it isn't challenged in the New York Times' columns. In fact, the case for even teeny cuts to the military isn't so much made as assumed, as is the case for ending current wars. But the possible need for future wars is simply accepted, and the damage the wars do -- outside of budgetary concerns -- is either avoided entirely or reduced to purely U.S. terms:

"The lethality of the World War I battlefield -- a war in which we sustained 310,000 casualties in less than six months -- was far greater than anything we've witnessed over the last 10 years in Iraq or Afghanistan."

Tell that to 1.3 million dead Iraqis.

That's the headline. If you're a skimmer of the news you think, great news. The economy is getting better!
Nope. The 4th paragraph in where it's explained, "Foreclosure times are stretching out partly as a result of last fall's revelations that many foreclosure documents were improperly prepared."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2011-05-12-foreclosures-taking-longer_n.htm

http://www.truth-out.org/big-retailers-versus-big-banks-it-makes-big-difference/1304948422

The battle of the "swipe fees" has been hard to miss the last few weeks. The big banks are spending millions of dollars on TV, radio and Internet ads telling us that the government should not limit the fees that they charge on debit cards transactions. On the other side, a coalition of major retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Target, has been funding a comparable campaign to stop the bank gouging....

According to research from the Federal Reserve Board, the fees on debit card transactions average 48 cents. The Fed estimates that the networks can cover their overhead and operating costs with a fee of 12 cents per transaction. The difference, which comes to $12 billion a year, is pure frosting. It's additional profits for the banks and credit card networks. (Some of this is shared with debit card customers with various rewards, like frequent flyer miles.)

The biggest losers in the current system are cash paying customers. Retailers are required by the companies to charge the same price to everyone. When they raise their prices to cover the debit card fees, they also must raise prices to customers who pay in cash, who tend to be poorer. So, we have a system in which low-income consumers pay higher prices to increase the profits of the big banks and give frequent flyer miles to higher income consumers...


The moral of this story is that we should get used to seeing some of the bad guys in our camp. And if we are going to design policy that has any chance of being implemented, we have to find ways to bring more of them on board.

We needed some papers notorized a couple of months ago, so we went to the bank. Before the manager would notorize the papers she tried to sell us a new mortgage, a new checking account, blah, blah. Then she said we could get a savings account with 5% interest. I said hold on, let me run back home and get my safe deposit box key.

She said no, we couldn't deposit directly into the account, but that every time we used our debit card, they would transfer $1 from checking to the 5% account. I said I never or rarely use my debit card. She said "Oh, I use mine for everything! If I buy a cup of coffee, I swipe my card!", like this was greatest thing since Hawaiian pizza. I just looked at her and said, "Merchants absolutely hate you". She seemed hurt, that someone would object to paying a bank a $0.50 fee to process her $0.79 purchase.

When we had the pizza shop, Capitol One's headquarters was a major lunch delivery customer. About 10 times a day, someone would call in an order for 6-7 people, and they would go on 6 different credit cards and one for cash. So, it was like $3.00 in fees for one delivery.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/commodities/bear-calloil-courtesy-dollar-rise-angel-broking_542822.html

Other than financial markets which have been acting up, the commodity space has also been acting very volatile. Naveen Mathur, Associate Director, Commodities and Currencies, Angel Broking, in an interview on CNBC-TV18 spoke about the different asset classes in the commodity basket and gave his view as how to best play them.

Below is a verbatim transcript of his interview with CNBC-TV18’s Udayan Mukherjee and Sonia Shenoy. For the complete details watch the accompanying video.

Q: How are you approaching crude now after the instability of the last couple of days?

A: Crude is actually looking forward to a bearish trend. We have seen the prices touching an all time high of approximately USD 147 in 2008. Today they are at around USD 120 for the Brent or say around USD 100 or USD 99 odd for the WTI. It’s quoting around USD 97 on the NYMEX right now. The bearish trend would continue because of the dollar appreciation which we are going to see.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/market-edge/global-gloom-overshadows-iip-surprise-dip-below-5500-scary_542807.html

Equity benchmarks fell quite sharply in the second half of trade - down 249 points on the Sensex, especially after sell-off in the European markets. Even better-than-expected industrial output data could not support the market because data was quite better only on sequential basis, but it is still bad when calculated on an anually basis.

The 50-share NSE Nifty closed below the 5,500 mark on Thursday, down 79 points to close at 5,486. The 30-share BSE Sensex plunged 249 points, to settle at 18,335.

Here's how traders can gain from tomorrow's Assembly polls

Sajiv Dhawan, JV Capital Services says more than the dip the most scary matter is the short positions in the market which been between 5600-5700 on the Nifty.

“If I was a short seller why would I cover those positions back and in a real hurry, I am quite happy to maybe to see the markets drop to 5600 or 5700 even and probably short sell again there is just too much bad newsflow at the moment,” Dhawan explains.

http://www.firstpost.com/investing/markets-fall-on-european-decline-metals-biggest-loser-8796.html

A sideways market fell rapidly during the second half of the day as soon as European markets opened. Good news like a better than expected IIP numbers and lower food inflation barely helped the market.

The BSE Sensex fell by 249 points to close the day at 18,335.79 points while the NSE Nifty was down by 79 points to 5,486 points. All but three index stocks were in the red. Commodity stocks were the worst affected as Sterlite fell by 4.76% and Hindalco by 4.66%. ONGC was the biggest gainer with a 0.6% rise to Rs 301.95 followed by Hindustan Unilever which traded 0.5% higher at Rs 301.40. Realty firm DLF was on a positive turf with the stock climbing 0.18% to Rs 227.60.

http://www.firstpost.com/business/industrial-output-is-up-7-3-but-keep-your-fingers-crossed-8706.html

When you are expecting bad news, any lack of it is cause for celebration. This is the case with the latest Index for Industrial Production (IIP) for March, 2011, which rose by a healthy 7.3% over the corresponding period of the previous year.

So is all rosy now on the industry front? We think not. For one, the latest numbers appear good right now in large part because of the serious downward revision of expectations following four months of sub-four percent growth. A look at the monthly growth figures over 2010-11 reveals that IIP has seen better days, growing in double digits during April, May, July and October.

If growth had remained robust, the March figure would actually have looked like a disappointment instead. This is also seen from a comparison with the 2010-11 figures, which have risen by a higher 7.8% – five percentage points higher than the March growth rate.

Second, the 2010-11 IIP growth figures of 7.8% are much lower than the 2009-10 figures of 14.8% over the previous year on a broad-based softening in mining, manufacturing and electricity. It can be argued that the 2009-10 growth was on a low base (IIP grew by 2.8% in 2008-09). However, our estimates suggest that even with a higher base, 2010-11 figures look relatively weak by comparison.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoft/2015029604_microsoft12.html

Microsoft has spent 21 years — more than half its lifetime — fighting antitrust battles with the U.S. government. It has earned a page in the history books, waging one of the biggest monopoly wars in this country.

The company barely escaped being split up after it was ruled an unlawful monopolist in 2000 for using its stranglehold on the PC market with its Windows operating system to cripple competitors, such as Netscape's Navigator Web browser.

A court settlement approved in 2002 and a consent decree curbing some of its practices saved Microsoft.

Both sides will finally be at peace Thursday, when the decree expires.

It's gonna be a doozy.

on Skype:argh:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-att-t-mobile-20110512,0,7476741.story

Tough questioning by skeptical senators showed the chief executives of AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA just how difficult it's going to be to get regulatory approval for their proposed $39-billion merger.

"The more providers of cellphone service, the lower the price, the better the quality of service and the more innovation that results," said Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), chairman of the Senate's antitrust subcommittee.

"So the burden will squarely be on AT&T and T-Mobile to convince us why this merger is desirable, how it will benefit consumers, and to put aside our concerns that it may very well harm competition," he said Wednesday during the first congressional hearing on the huge wireless deal.

AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson and T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm struggled to do that.


i'd be surprised if this turns out to be something other than kabuki.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/05/dollar-euro-rally-commodities-silver-gold-oil-china-economy-growth.html

Finally, the dollar is getting a bounce. But will it last?

The battered greenback rallied against a host of other currencies on Wednesday, reacting in part to renewed fears that Greece’s debt woes could trigger a new financial crisis in Europe.

The euro slid to $1.420, a six-week low and down 1.4% from $1.441 on Tuesday.

The DXY index (charted below), which measures the dollar’s value against the euro and five other major currencies, rose 0.9% to 75.31, its highest level since April 18. The index has rebounded 3.3% since reaching a 33-month low on April 29.

The buck’s revival, though modest, has been one factor slamming commodity prices over the last 10 days. A weak dollar had been good for silver, gold, oil and other raw materials by making them cheaper for foreign buyers who have the benefit of strong currencies.

not gonna make a dime's worth of difference

Anybody up for a pool?

I don't think so

I got no skin in the game. This is a spectator sport only. As such, I take it about as seriously as I do any other farce.

love virtual bettin on the market. Makes it more interesting and I get to keep my shirt!

Also what constitutes a flash vs. an ordinary market crash, like 2008? 400-500 point drops were common.

I have little doubt that we are returning to that point again where all bubbles must pop again.

http://blogs.forbes.com/janetnovack/2011/05/11/richest-400-took-record-share-of-capital-gains-during-market-meltdown-year/

The 400 highest-income Americans reaped a stunning 13.1% of net capital gains reported to the Internal Revenue Service for 2008, a year which ended with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 33.8%, the S&P 500 index down 38.5% and the NASDAQ composite off 40.5%.

That’s just one of the fascinating tidbits in the Internal Revenue Service’s latest annual report on the 400 highest income taxpayers, available here. Still, the new report shows the highest income folk, who are heavily dependent on capital gains, felt the market pain too. Overall, the top 400 taxpayers posted an average of $153.7 million in gains each (or a total of $61.5 billion in gains) down from $228.6 million (or a total of $91.4 billion) in 2007. As a result, the average adjusted gross income of the 400 declined nearly 22% to a mere $270.5 million, from a record $344.8 million for 2007. It was still the second highest on record, topping 2006’s average AGI of $263.3 million. The cut-off for making the top 400 in 2008 was AGI of $110 million, down from $139 million in 2007.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/12/c_13870277.htm

BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- "The Chinese market is one of the most important markets to Procter & Gamble in our global development range," Shannan Stevenson, P&G's President-Greater China, said in an interview with Xinhua.

Earlier this month, the company started construction on its 10th plant in China, which will be one of P&G's largest production bases in Asia upon its completion.

Stevenson said the plant not only marks P&G's commitment to providing the Chinese market with better products, but it is also part of the company's plan to invest at least 1 billion U.S. dollars in the Chinese market by 2015.

P&G's choice may be representative.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/strong-australian-dollar-sparks-shock-plunge-in-job-numbers-surprising-economists/story-e6freqmx-1226054946631


THE nation's "patchwork economy" shed more than 22,000 jobs last month as the soaring Australian dollar heaped pressure on manufacturers and retailers.

Bucking economists' expectations for a 17,000 increase in the number of people working, the surprise decline in employment is the biggest in more than two years.

The news wiped more than two and a half cents off the Australian dollar and nearly 2 per cent from the benchmark ASX/200 as traders punted that the Reserve Bank of Australia would hold off on its next interest rate rise following the latest sign of weakness in the economy.

Australian Bureau of Statistics' monthly labour force report showed yesterday that total employment fell for the third time in five months in April. The number of full-time roles fell by 49,100, but this was partly offset by a 26,900 increase in part-time positions.




oh looky -- their surprised down under too!

http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/state-business-failures-at-record-high-and-worse-to-come-after-floods/story-e6freqmx-1226054936829

BUSINESS failures reached a record high in Queensland for the year to March, figures show, but worse may be on the horizon as the impact of January's floods begins to bite.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission reported 9672 businesses became insolvent nationally over the period. In Queensland 1942 businesses entered external administration in the year to March most wound up by creditors (nearly 39 per cent) and the court (26 per cent).

Director of liquidating firm Dissolve Cliff Sanderson warned the result was Queensland's highest for a year period.

"Over the long term the proportion of insolvencies in Queensland compared to the rest of Australia, has been steadily increasing," he said.

along the Mississippi and the drought in Texas-look for high commodity prices in corn, sorghum, etc, etc, etc.

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get the hell off my lawn. :grr:

different sock puppet name, first post.

x(

a newbie that just doesn't know better and someone looking to drum up business by getting some free advertising. This was the latter.