STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, May 16, 2011

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday May 16, 2011

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Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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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 16 08:30 Empire Manufacturing May 17 18 21.7
May 16 09:00 Net Long-Term TIC Flows Mar NA NA $26.9B
May 16 10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index May 16 16 16

Read more: http://www.briefing.com/Investor/Public/Calendars/EconomicCalendar.htm#ixzz1MVo0kUxu

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Manufacturing activity grew in the New York region in May at a slower pace than in April, according to the Empire State manufacturing survey released Monday by the New York Fed. The Empire State index fell to 11.9 in May from 21.7 in April, which was the highest level in a year. The drop in May was larger than expected. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected the index to inch lower to 19.7 in May. The index is now at its lowest level since December. The decline was driven by fewer businesses reporting that conditions improved over the month. In addition, the new orders index fell to 17.2 in May from 22.3 in April, while the shipments index fell to 25.6 from 28.3. The two employment indexes were stronger. The prices paid index rose to 69.9, its highest level since August 2008.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/empire-state-index-shows-slower-growth-in-may-2011-05-16?link=MW_latest_news

Mississippi barge traffic (or lack thereof) begin to be felt.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/empire-state-manufacturing-index-plunges-comes-119-down-217-and-big-miss-expectations-1955

And the US stagflation continues. The just released Empire Manufacturing index has plunged nearly by half from 21.7 to 11.9 in May. The general business conditions index fell ten points to 11.9. The new orders index declined fi ve points to 17.2, and the shipments index slipped three points to 25.8. The inventories index climbed to 10.8, its highest level in a year. The prices paid index rose to 69.9, its highest level since mid-2008, and the second highest ever, while the prices received index held firm at 28.0. And more on the stagflation as defined by the ongoing surge in Prices Paid: "The prices paid index rose sharply, indicating that price increases accelerated over the month. The index advanced twelve points to 69.9, its highest level since mid- 2008, with roughly 70 percent of respondents reporting price increases, and none reporting price declines. This index has moved up a cumulative fifty points over thepast six months." Downward GDP revisions are a-coming.

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell to near $98 a barrel Monday in Asia amid investor concern soaring U.S. fuel costs are undermining crude consumption.

Benchmark crude for June delivery was down $1.45 to $98.20 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract settled at $99.65 per barrel Friday, up 68 cents.

In London, Brent crude for June delivery was down $1.06 to $112.77 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

With gasoline topping $4 a gallon in some parts of the U.S., some traders are worried oil demand growth will eventually suffer in the world's largest crude market.

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

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NABE_SURVEY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-16-06-31-07

NEW YORK (AP) -- Economists are dialing back their expectations for U.S. economic growth this year.

A survey from the National Association for Business Economics predicts GDP will grow 2.8 percent this year - down from the group's February prediction that it would grow 3.3 percent. Their outlook for consumer spending and the housing market also weakened, in part because they expect oil prices to remain above $100 a barrel through 2012.

In a survey that the NABE releases Monday, a panel of 41 economists also said they "remain highly concerned" about the growing federal deficit, and said that growth in the first three months of the year had been weaker than expected.

The predictions of the economists reflect the jitteriness of a public that is still recovering from the financial crisis and now getting squeezed by rising prices for gas, groceries and other household items. Retailers of all stripes are paying more for the raw materials they need to make and transport their products, such as fuel, cotton and wood pulp, and saying they have no choice but to pass along the price increases to customers.

Iraq will miss its target to quadruple its oil production by 2017, say senior industry executives and western officials, dealing a blow to hopes that surging output from the country would lower global oil prices by the middle of the decade

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/2SRI11/FX5JHZ/T10SH/NSKEZO/KEXF3C/D5/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=15

THE BEATING WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES

U.S. stock futures fell, signaling the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may extend its two-week retreat, as Greece prepared to ask for an increased bailout amid renewed sovereign debt concerns in Europe.

Alcoa Inc. (AA), the largest U.S. aluminum producer, and ConocoPhillips, the nation’s third-biggest oil company, dropped in German trading as crude and metal prices declined. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Citigroup Inc. (C) led a retreat in banks.

S&P 500 futures expiring in June lost 0.5 percent to 1,327.6 at 10:49 a.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.5 percent to 12,501 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures slipped 0.2 percent 2,364.25.

“Markets are concerned by the loss of economic momentum and the resurgence of risk in the euro zone,” said Mike Lenhoff, chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin Securities Ltd. in London. “It is a market that has good fundamental support in the background, but what’s lacking right now is some stronger lead that will take the market upward.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-13/u-s-stock-index-futures-climb-as-commodities-rebound-on-growth.html

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/markets-stocks-idUKN1626798420110516

NEW YORK, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday as investors shed riskier assets before euro zone finance ministers meet to discuss the region's debt crisis.

The arrest in New York on Sunday of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, on charges of attempted rape of a hotel maid added to uncertainty about euro zone and IMF efforts to solve the sovereign debt crisis.

Oil fell more than $1 per barrel as worries over the restructuring of euro zone debt and doubts about the pace of global growth encouraged investors to reduce risk.

The euro dropped to its lowest since March ahead of the euro zone meeting in Brussels on the debt crisis, foremost Greece, which investors fear is at risk of default.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-05-16/stocks-oil-fall-on-greek-aid-talks-as-swiss-franc-strengthens.html

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks fell for a fourth day, the longest streak for the MSCI World Index since February, as international finance leaders debated extending aid to Greece and New York manufacturing growth slowed more than forecast. Oil declined and the Swiss franc strengthened.

The MSCI World Index lost 0.6 percent at 9:37 a.m. in New York and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.4 percent. Greece’s ASE Index sank to a 13-year low and the yield on the government’s 10-year bond rose 17 basis points to 15.607 percent. The 10-year Treasury note was little changed. The Swiss franc appreciated against all 16 of its most-traded peers. Oil fell 0.7 percent while wheat rebounded from last week’s slide.

Greece will plead for a boost in its 110 billion-euro ($155 billion) rescue from European governments and the International Monetary Fund in Brussels, with IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn absent from the talks because of attempted-rape charges in New York. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its weighting on Japanese and South Korean shares, citing the weaker global outlook. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s manufacturing gauge for May slid amid a surge in commodity costs.

“There’s nothing close to a resolution” for Europe’s debt crisis, Norval Loftus, the chief investment officer at Allegra Investment Management Ltd., said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Francine Lacqua in London. “There’s a lot of risk in the system. It’s a very important time to maintain a slightly risk-averse outlook.”

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-start-lower-on-economic-worries-2011-05-16

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks shelved the bulk of morning losses Monday as equities meandered and investors entered a seasonal lull that often comes as first-quarter earnings wind down.

The ‘sell in May and go away’ adage has some fundamentals behind it, given markets tend to move higher on economic data and earnings, said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.

After first-quarter earnings, what compels markets higher often comes down to consumer spending, and “summer is not when that happens. After Easter, outside of the Fourth of July holiday you don’t have sales generated because of holidays until back-to-school spending in September,” Pado said.

“If there was a real catalyst for fear, money would be coming out of the market, but instead it is being rotated,” said Pado.

NEW YORK — Handcuffed and haggard, International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was escorted by detectives from a New York police station late Sunday in his first public appearance since being accused of trying to rape a hotel maid.

Strauss-Kahn, the early favorite in France's presidential election, was led by detectives to a waiting police sedan in front of a battery of television cameras.

An arraignment expected Sunday night was postponed until Monday. Strauss-Kahn's lawyer William Taylor said testing for evidence delayed the arraignment.

The IMF leader submitted to a forensic medical exam with police looking for scratches or other evidence of the alleged assault.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43043502/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

I thunked they pulled him off a plane, not outa bed :shrug:

edit to add...

Apparently he lost his cell phone and called the hotel to see if he left it there. The hotel said the phone was there, and asked where he was and told him the phone would be brought to him.

Gotcha!

Handcuffs only required when being paraded in front of MSM cameras on the way between police station entrance and waiting police vehicle (going for 'forensic tests').

Isn't trial by media wonderful.

Perps for the salacious sex stuff. Forget that WS has screwed over the entire middle class of this country....I guess that isn't salacious enough for the evening news.

http://www.firstpost.com/economy/subbarao-as-imf-chief-10445.html?utm_source=MC_HOME

In an interconnected world, the arc of history bends to connect seemingly unrelated events. And even when it doesn’t, we can on occasion bend it to our advantage.

We are at just such a moment following the sensational arrest of IMF’s Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn for allegedly sexually assaulting a hotel maid in Manhattan.

Equity and currency markets around the world are nervous as hell because Strauss-Kahn’s exit has plunged the ongoing talks to resolve the European debt crisis into disarray. Greece, that blessed country that operates in a parallel economic universe, is on the verge of a technical default on its debt, the consequences of which will have serious consequences on global markets.

With Strauss-Kahn now cooling his heels in the slammer, Eurozone has lost a man who lent considerable heft to the talks to resolve the debt crisis. The IMF has named Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky to step up, but – here’s the problem – the man is already counting down the days to his retirement in August.

This is not the most fashionable argument one could make so soon after the events in New York at the weekend. But let me say it flat out: I believe the case for a European successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn is overwhelming.

To be clear: I am not supporting the principle that the managing director of the International Monetary Fund should, by default, be a European. On the contrary, I believe the job should always go the most capable candidate. I just believe that considering the IMF’s current priorities, one should not be so quick to rule out a European candidate at this point.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/P75VYY/18H4QA/LSLXF/5CHO8U/FX7J7B/JY/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=16

http://www.firstpost.com/world/the-sordid-sexual-history-of-dominique-strauss-kahn-10581.html

Where there is shocking news, there must be a conspiracy theory. So it is that the arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest for sexual assault has spawned its own spate of wild speculation. “The hypothesis of a piege, or trap, set by his political enemies is taken surprisingly seriously by some intelligent people, to whom the idea that a man in his position would assault an unknown woman in the middle of the day seems improbable enough to feed a certain paranoia,” writes Adam Gopnik in his New Yorker blog.

Or as an acquaintance exclaimed over lunch yesterday, “It’s crazy! Why would a guy in his position do something like this.” Surely a powerful, wealthy man who can afford a $3000-a-night hotel room can easily buy his pleasures – if not get them for free. This is after all a man who was known in France as “the great seducer.” A reputation supported by none other than his own wife, Anne Sinclair, who told L’Express magazine, “It’s important for a politician to be able to seduce.”

Even those who don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories are wont to view the incident as a bizarre, temporary loss of self-control. A passing moment of madness, perhaps. Yet a closer look at Strauss-Kahn’s long sexual history reveals several other such “moments” – and indeed a conspiracy, not of his rivals, but his supporters to keep his true identity out of the spotlight.

"Did the droit du seigneur exist elsewhere in the world? Possibly in some primitive societies. But most of the evidence for this is pathetically lame--unreliable travelers' accounts and so on.

A few holdouts claim we don't have any definite evidence that the right of the first night didn't exist. But I'd say most reputable historians today would agree that the jus primae noctis, in Europe anyway, was strictly a male fantasy.

None of this is to suggest that men in power didn't or don't use their positions to extort sex from women. But since when did some creep with a sword (gun, fancy office, drill sergeant's stripes) figure he needed a law to justify rape? "

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1139/did-medieval-lords-have-right-of-the-first-night-with-the-local-brides

OTHER OPINIONS:

http://www.snopes.com/weddings/customs/droit.asp

Of all the historical forms of "first night" practices, the droit du seigneur is the most familiar in popular culture, and it is often cited as not just a widely-practiced custom, but as a codified part of medieval law. Both the prevalance of the practice and its legal status in medieval Europe are highly questionable, however.

The Encylopedia Britannica, for example, notes:
The droit du seigneur is paralleled in various primitive societies, but the evidence of its existence in Europe is almost all indirect, involving records of the redemption dues paid by the vassal to avoid enforcement, not of actual enforcement. Many intellectual investigations have been devoted to the problem, but, although it seems possible that such a custom may have existed for a short time at a very early date in parts of France and Italy, it certainly never existed elsewhere.1

The historical record shows far more resistance to the droit du seigneur than evidence of its occurrence, which might indicate that it was primarily a concept employed as a means of extorting money from vassals rather than an actual practice. Alain Boureau argues that the droit du seigneur was largely a myth perpetuated for political reasons (e.g., monarchists in the late Middle Ages cited the droit du seigneur to rally public opinion against local lords; partisans of the French Revolution used it as proof of the corruption and depravity of the Ancien Régime). Wendy Doniger writes that we might regard the droit du seigneur "in which the king controls the sexuality of his female subjects, as merely the extreme political form of the much more common practice of arranged marriages, in which the father controls the sexuality of his daughter," a myth which dramatizes "the tension between duty, in which women had little choice, and desire, in which they had some choice." In conclusion, she notes that although the specifics of the "first night" myths may be exaggerated or false, the broader concept — the historical use political power used for sexual purposes — still holds true:

Surely the use of political power to secure sexual favors is ancient and widespread. The droit du seigneur in the broadest sense — political pressure for sexual favors, what we now call sexual harrassment — must have been invoked informally all the time but was formalized in the myths as if it were a kind of unofficial law or right, one that was, from the start, intolerable. It may never, or seldom, have been technically legal, but it was not "just a myth."3

Sources:

1. Encyclopedia Britannica.
15th ed., 10.610 (unsigned article).

Boureau, Alain. The Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit De Cuissage.
Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN 0-226-06743-2.

2. Doniger, Wendy. The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex & Masquerade.
Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN 0-226-15642-7 (pp. 271-273).

3. Panati, Charles. Sexy Origins and Intimate Things.
New York: Penguin Books, 1998. ISBN 0-14-027144-9 (pp. 84-87).

a demented Droit de Seigneur!

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/second-rape-investigation-against-dsk-launched-tristane-banon-officially-deposes-complaint-r

Yesterday we brought up the likelihood that more women would step up against DSK now that his supposed reign of terror is over, with revelations that journalist Tristan Banon, goddaughter to his second wife, may have been raped by the IMF head some time ago, a topic now picked up by the Guardian. Well according to BFMTV, as of this morning she has officially deposed a complaint in the police office of Neuilly-sur-Seine (92), France for rape and sequestration. As a result DSK is now technically under two rape investigations: one in the US and one in France. And this is just the beginning.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511?page=1

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...

http://www.rollingstone.com/plus/home

He expands upon various aspects of this massive criminal conspiracy...

Goldman Steals Tips From Beer Servers

Testimony, Goldman-Style; A Tour Through the Levin Report

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSwWy4E6I04

Max Keiser takes offense to Goldman Sachs story (pt1 of 2)

Max Keiser takes offense to Goldman Sachs pt2 of 2 oligarchy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7OEkhkKAUI&feature=related

"Forgive me," began Charles Ferguson, the director of Inside Job, while accepting his 2011 Oscar for Best Documentary. "I must start by pointing out that three years after a horrific financial crisis caused by massive fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong." The audience erupted in applause.

Ferguson is not the first to express outrage over the lack of criminal cases to spring from the financial crisis, and his speech triggered a wave of similarly prosecutorial sentiments. Since that February night, financial journalists, bloggers, and who knows how many dinner party guests have debated the trillion-dollar question: When will a Wall Street executive be sent to jail?

There are those who have implied that prosecutors are either too cozy with Wall Street or too incompetent to bring cases to court. Thus, in a measured piece that assessed the guilt of various financial executives, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera lamented that "Wall Street bigwigs whose firms took unconscionable risks … aren't even on Justice's radar screen." A news story in the Times about a mortgage executive who was convicted of criminal fraud observed, "The Justice Dept. has yet to bring charges against an executive who ran a major Wall Street firm leading up to the disaster." In the same dispassionate tone, National Public Radio's All Things Considered chimed in, "Some of the most publicly reviled figures in the mortgage mess won't face any public accounting." New York magazine saw fit to print the estimable opinion of Bernie Madoff, who observed that the dearth of criminal convictions is "unbelievable." Rolling Stone, which has been beating this drum the longest and with the heaviest hand, reductively asked, "Why isn't Wall Street in jail?"

Taken from the top, these sentiments imply that the financial crisis was caused by fraud; that people who take big risks should be subject to a criminal investigation; that executives of large financial firms should be criminal suspects after a crash; that public revulsion indicates likely culpability; that it is inconceivable (to Madoff, anyway) that people could lose so much money absent a conspiracy; and that Wall Street bears collective guilt for which a large part of it should be incarcerated.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43024309/ns/business-us_business/

A disgusting article; MSNBC has had several of these lately.

:puke: :puke: :puke:

The bubble was the result of the fraud, not vice versa.

It sounds like the Tea Party delusions, with better spelling.

A new docu-series.

:(

They don't want our crap currency either.

http://www.zerohedge.com/

:hi:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ME17Df04.html

The recently concluded round of United States-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington covered the entire gamut of bilateral and global problems concerning the world's two most formidable powers, trade, market access, currency valuation, regional security in the Asia-Pacific, military strategy and human rights.

In terms of the high-level attendance of American and Chinese government and business officials as well as the breadth of issues under the scanner, this annual dialogue stood out as ground zero of global policymaking.

Yet, the elephant in the room of this most consequential of all diplomatic forums was literally the elephant. There was no seat for India at the table, even though all prognoses indicate that India


will join China and the US in a triumvirate of the world's largest economies in the coming decades.

The purely bilateral framing of the whole event in Washington belied awareness that changes to contemporary strategic relations among China, India and their traditional third-party interlocutor - the United States - militate towards engagement in trilateral dialogue.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_FINANCIAL_CRISIS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-16-05-56-46

LONDON (AP) -- The euro briefly fell to a six-week low against the dollar Monday following the arrest of the International Monetary Fund's managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but the selling pressure diminished as the markets concluded that it would have little immediate impact on Europe's debt crisis.

However, in the longer-term, analysts said, the arrest of Strauss-Kahn could trigger a fairly seismic overhaul at the Washington DC-based fund, not least whether it will continue to be headed by a European, as it has been since its creation after World War II.

"His (Strauss-Kahn's) personal involvement in pushing for a greater role for the IMF post-Lehman has been important and indeed he has been heavily involved in the European bailouts," said Robert Ryan, an analyst at BNP Paribas. "Should he step down, any changes in approach by his successor will be important."

For now though, the reaction in the markets has been fairly guarded and the euro was trading 0.3 percent higher at $1.4113 in late-morning trading in London. Earlier, during Asian trading hours, the single currency had fallen as low as $1.4046, its lowest level since March 29.

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 14-billion dollars. Good day.)
Too lazy this weekend, need to do laundry.
(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

WASHINGTON — The debt-laden US government's credit card will hit its limit Monday, creating a cash crunch that puts the country's credit standing at risk as politicians battle over its long-term deficit.

Reaching the $14.29 trillion ceiling set by Congress will not have an immediate impact on government finances, because the Treasury has found about ten weeks of wiggle-room in short-term adjustments and an unexpected April jump in tax revenues.

But with Republicans refusing to increase the ceiling without massive future spending cuts, the longer the fight over bridging the country's deficit goes on, the higher the stakes will get.

If nothing is done by about August 2, there is a chance the United States, which has always merited a top-grade credit rating, could do the unthinkable -- default on its debt payments.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/15/united-states-to-hit-debt-ceiling-on-monday/

(OVER the old debt limit of 14.294-trillion dollars by 14-billion dollars. Good day.)
There are still libraries in Lansing.
(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)
= 9,666,271,678,566.97 + 4,642,113,503,083.13
UP 162,115,757.85 + UP 423,724,328.44

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 $3,205.14 makes 1T$.
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 311,998,592 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 10/04/2010 04:37 -> 310,403,677
Currently, each of these Americans owe $45,860.42.
A family of three owes $137,581.25. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 23 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 23 reports is 1,923,383,591.47.
The average for the last 30 days would be 1,474,594,086.80.

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$/day.
There were 154 reports in 225 days of FY2011 averaging 4.85B$ per report, 3.32B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 618 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)
05/13/2011 14,308,385,181,650.10 BHO (UP 3,681,508,132,737.02 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 +0,746,762,150,758.40 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,211,414,155,674.74 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
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 -
05/13/2011 +000,162,115,757.85 ------------********

15,654,309,984.72 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=4852460&mesg_id=4852475

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/opinion/13krugman.html?_r=4&adxnnl=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB&adxnnlx=1305306135-EiOEpnr5tHm8W/BpwGXrLg

...Between an aging population and rising health costs, then, preserving anything like the programs for seniors we now have will require a significant increase in spending on these programs as a percentage of G.D.P. And unless we offset that rise with drastic cuts in defense spending — which Republicans, needless to say, oppose — this means a substantial rise in overall spending, which we can afford only if taxes rise.

So when people like Mr. Boehner reject out of hand any increase in taxes, they are, in effect, declaring that they won’t preserve programs benefiting older Americans in anything like their current form. It’s just a matter of arithmetic.

Which brings me back to those Republican freshmen. Last year, older voters, who split their vote almost evenly between the parties in 2008, swung overwhelmingly to the G.O.P., as Republicans posed successfully as defenders of Medicare. Now Democrats are pointing out that the G.O.P., far from defending Medicare, is actually trying to dismantle the program. So you can see why those Republican freshmen are nervous.

But the Democrats aren’t engaging in scare tactics, they’re simply telling the truth. Policy details aside, the G.O.P.’s rigid anti-tax position also makes it, necessarily, the enemy of the senior-oriented programs that account for much of federal spending. And that’s something voters ought to know.

http://truthout.org/health-insurers-making-record-profits-many-postpone-care/1305385072

The nation’s major health insurers are barreling into a third year of record profits, enriched in recent months by a lingering recessionary mind-set among Americans who are postponing or forgoing medical care.

The UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest commercial insurers, told analysts that so far this year, insured hospital stays actually decreased in some instances. In reporting its earnings last week,Cigna, another insurer, talked about the “low level” of medical use.

Yet the companies continue to press for higher premiums, even though their reserve coffers are flush with profits and shareholders have been rewarded with new dividends. Many defend proposed double-digit increases in the rates they charge, citing a need for protection against any sudden uptick in demand once people have more money to spend on their health, as well as the rising price of care.

Even with a halting economic recovery, doctors and others say many people are still extremely budget-conscious, signaling the possibility of a fundamental change in Americans’ appetite for health care.

as if "appetite" for health care drove one to wait for hours in Dr's offices or ER, endure unpleasant tests, spend $1000's on medication ...

How much damage to our national conversation do these unchallenged, boiler-plate RW phrasings do?

A brief musical interlude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwXMkfeH95k

RIP, Warren.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/markets-precious-idUSLDE74F0FO20110516

LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - Gold steadied on Monday, as the
twin forces of deepening concern about the euro zone debt crisis
and the growing strength of the dollar offset each other, while
investors kept silver pinned near last week's 2-1/2 month lows.

The euro slid to a seven-week low against the dollar after
IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a key voice in euro zone debt
talks, was charged with sexual assault, increasing uncertainty
on aid for Greece and other indebted euro zone countries.

The dollar index .DXY, a measure of the greenback's
strength against a basket of currencies, advanced to its highest
since early April.

Spot gold XAU= was little changed at $1,494.49 an ounce by
0838 GMT, after ending flat in the previous week. Prices had
fallen by about 5 percent from the lifetime high of $1,575.79
hit on May 2.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/precious-factors-idUSLDE74F0BY20110516

MARKET NEWS

* Asian equities dipped and the dollar rose to a six-week
high against the euro on Monday with further gains seen as
renewed concerns of a possible euro zone debt restructuring
prompted market players to reduce risk.

* The euro slid to a six-week low against the dollar and a
two-month trough against the Japanese yen on Monday and is seen
testing pivotal support areas after IMF chief Dominique
Strauss-Kahn was charged with sexual assault on the weekend,
increasing uncertainty on aid for Greece and other indebted euro
zone countries.

* U.S. oil futures slipped to as low as $98.35 a barrel on
Monday as the dollar index rose to a six-week high on worries
that Greece may restructure its sovereign debt.

* European stock index futures pointed to a lower open on
Monday, hurt by rekindled jitters over the euro zone debt crisis
that sent the euro to a six-week low. <.EU>

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/commodities/india-gold-steady-physical-demand-remains-weak_543821.html

India's gold futures were treading water on Monday afternoon as the overseas market was steady amid a fall in the Indian rupee, and local demand was weak as buyers awaited a price fall, jewellers and analysts said.

The most-active gold for June delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) was 0.25% higher at Rs 22,016 per 10 grams at 2:43 pm.

"There wasn't any change in buyers' perception. They were waiting for a correction in prices," said Ghanshyam Nichani of Dhanraj Jewellers based in Mumbai. "Wedding season wasn't enough to lift demand."

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-gains-as-oil-futures-slip-in-early-dealings-2011-05-16

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures climbed Monday morning, rebounding after suffering a more than $13-an-ounce loss on Friday as futures prices for crude oil edged lower to hold below $100 a barrel. June gold /quotes/comstock/21e!f:gc\m11 GCM11 +0.54% climbed $5 to $1,498.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/tepco-credit-idUSL4E7GG1UE20110516

May 16 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service cut its credit rating on Tokyo Electric Power to one notch above junk status, saying damage at its crippled nuclear plant was worse than previously thought and citing uncertainty over its burden to compensate victims.

Moody's said the ratings were kept on review for further possible downgrades.

The downgrade of Tokyo Electric's (Tepco) long-term issuer rating to "Baa3" from "Baa1" followed the government's announcement on Friday of a plan to help the utility handle compensation while remaining in operation and listed on the stock exchange.

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/may2011/pi20110513_269017.htm

he search for yield is driving investors toward stocks that pay dividends—and some of the most generous yields are in Asia, where stock prices are among the world's cheapest. While most international dividend mutual funds are heavily allocated to North America and Europe, few have major exposure to Asia. The main reason for that is U.S. investors tend to associate Asian companies with torrid growth and believe that profits are being reinvested in their businesses at the expense of dividends, much like at U.S. technology giants Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG).

But that conventional wisdom is not completely accurate, some portfolio managers say.

"If you look at history, Asia has been yielding over the years 75 to 100 basis points higher than the U.S. So this is nothing new," says Jesper Madsen, lead manager of the $2.3 billion Matthews Asia Dividend Fund (MAPIX) in San Francisco. "It seems like the marketplace is not fully appreciating the fact that Asia does offer the yield and that it also comes with a higher growth rate alongside."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/markets-japan-stocks-idUKL4E7GG0VR20110516

TOKYO, May 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average hit a
1-month low to end just under a key technical level on Monday,
hurt by volatile commodities as well as concerns about global
growth and market participants said a decisive break below that
level could trigger further losses.

Banks and utilities lost further ground on worries about how
much they will have to contribute to help troubled nuclear
operator Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) compensate
victims of the crisis at its tsunami-hit nuclear plant.

The mood was also soured after Goldman Sachs downgraded its
recommendation on Japanese stocks to "underweight" from "market
weight", citing a weaker global macro backdrop, supply chain and
electricity supply problems after the March 11 earthquake as
well as a stronger yen.

"We have entered a 'risk-off' stage in Tokyo. The
earnings season is slowly coming to an end so traders are again
shifting their focus from micro factors like earnings to the
broader macro picture," said Makoto Kikuchi, chief executive
officer at Myojo Asset Management.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110514a1.html

Just as automakers were starting to recover from the slump triggered by the 2008 global financial crisis, along came the March 11 disasters to knock them down again.

While most carmakers reported upbeat earnings results for the year ended in March, Japan's eight major automakers withheld their forecasts for the current year because of the uncertainties caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Carmakers saw sharp profit growth in fiscal 2010 thanks to brisk sales in emerging economies that more than offset weak domestic demand.

Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. doubled their group net profits from the previous year, while Nissan Motor Co. saw its group net profit jump 7.5-fold as global vehicle sales reached a record 4.19 million units.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/16/c_13876929.htm

BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua) -- China's trade surplus may drop to around 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, the China Securities Journal quoted a central bank advisor as saying in a Monday report.

Li Daokui, a member of the monetary policy committee of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, made the remarks at the 3rd International Business Development Forum held in Beijing on May 14, according to the report.

Li said in the report that the country's trade surplus is likely to decrease to 120 billion or even 100 billion U.S. dollars by the end of the year, compared with 2010's trade surplus of 180 billion U.S. dollars.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/14/c_13874546.htm

BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The uranium subsidiary of China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPG) has said it is developing two large mines in the mainland.

The two mines will be located in south China's Guangdong province and northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to Saturday's China Daily.

The move is likely to add as much as 1,000 tonnes to the country's annual production capacity of the nuclear fuel.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/16/c_13877099.htm

SEOUL, May 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's trade terms worsened in the first quarter as import price growth outpaced export price rise, the central bank said Monday.

Net terms-of-trade index for goods, calculated by dividing per- unit export price index by per-unit import price index, stood at 80.6 in the first quarter of this year, down 5.6 percent from a year earlier, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in a statement.

The aggravated trade terms came as the per-unit import price growth outpaced per-unit export price advance amid rising commodity prices, according to the BOK.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-05/16/c_13877636.htm

BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said Monday that China will continue to provide convenience of investment for European Union (EU) firms, while urging the EU to expand export of high-tech products and recognize China's market economy status.

Hu made the remarks during talks with visiting European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in Beijing.

"China will continue to provide convenience for investments from EU firms," said Hu, adding that "the EU should take proactive measures to expand export of high-tech products to China, recognize China's market economy status and create a loose policy environment for Chinese firms to invest in EU countries."

During Van Rompuy's first official visit to China since becoming European Council president, he will also meet with Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice President Xi Jinping, respectively.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-05/16/c_13877322.htm

WUHAN, May 16 (Xinhua) -- A lingering drought in central China's Hubei Province has rendered 1,392 reservoirs virtually useless as only dead water remains in them, said the local water authority Monday.

Known as the "land of a thousand lakes" and a major producer of grain and cotton in the country, Hubei is suffering from a drought that has lasted for five months.

As of Sunday, water in four medium-sized and 1,388 small-sized reservoirs had dropped below the allowable discharge level for irrigation and other purposes, said Yuan Junguang, director with the reservoir management office of Hubei Provincial Water Resources Department.

One fourth of all small-sized reservoirs in Hubei were unusable with just dead water remaining in them which could only be pumped for use in an emergency, he said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/13/c_13873999.htm

HONG KONG, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The Statistics Department of the Hong Kong government said Friday in a report that it has revised the full-year GDP forecast for 2011 to 5-6 percent, up one percentage point from the February forecast of 4-5 percent, after the city registered a higher-than-expected GDP growth of 7.2 percent in the first quarter.

According to the report, HK's underlying inflation rate for the first three months of 2011 stood at 3.7 percent. Given recent rise in prices of large commodities and in rental price, underlying inflation rate for the whole year is forecast to rise further and reach 5.5 percent.

ROBUST GROWTH

Growth in the first quarter was slightly higher than the already appreciable 7.0 percent growth for 2010 as a whole, marking the 5th consecutive quarter that growth was distinctly above the average annual growth over the past 10 years, the report said.

Among the major drivers of the HK economy, export witnessed the largest year-on-year growth in the first quarter.

http://www.truthout.org/actually-rich-dont-create-jobs-we-do/1305380742

...The idea that there are producers and parasites... has become a core philosophy of conservatives. They claim that wealthy people "produce" and are rich because they "produce." The rest of us are "parasites" who suck blood and energy from the productive rich, by taxing them. In this belief system, We, the People are basically just "the help" who are otherwise in the way, and taxing the producers to pay for our "entitlements." We "take money" from the producers through taxes, which are "redistributed" to the parasites. They repeat the slogan, "Taxes are theft," and take the "money we earned" by "force" (i.e. government.)

...Lots of regular people having money to spend is what creates jobs and businesses. That is the basic idea of demand-side economics and it works. In a consumer-driven economy designed to serve people, regular people with money in their pockets is what keeps everything going. And the equal opportunity of democracy with its reinvestment in infrastructure and education and the other fruits of democracy is fundamental to keeping a demand-side economy functioning.

When all the money goes to a few at the top everything breaks down. Taxing the people at the top and reinvesting the money into the democratic society is fundamental to keeping things going....


This idea that a few wealthy people -- the "producers" -- hand everything down to the rest of us -- "the parasites" -- is fundamentally at odds with the concept of democracy. In a democracy we all have an equal voice and an equal stake in how our society and our economy does. We do not "depend" on the good graces of a favored few for our livelihoods. We all are supposed to have an equal opportunity, and equal rights. And there are things we are all entitled to -- "entitlements" -- that we get just because we were born here. But we all share in the responsibility to cover the costs of democracy --
with the rich having a greater responsibility than the rest of us because they receive the most benefit from it. This is why we have "progressive taxes" where the rates are supposed to go up as the income does...

of an irish republican bomb in central london.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/uk-britain-security-idUKTRE74F1XG20110516

(Reuters) - A central London avenue leading to Buckingham Palace was closed in a security alert on Monday on the eve of a visit to Ireland by Queen Elizabeth and a week before U.S. President Barack Obama visits Britain.

In a separate incident, police carried out a controlled explosion to destroy a suspicious bag in a central London street, although it turned out to be harmless, a police spokesman said.

The spokesman said there was an "ongoing security alert" in central London but refused to say what had prompted it or whether it was connected to next week's state visit by Obama.





me: i can't help but feel they blew up some poor woman's purse.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/us-nasdaq-ice-idUSTRE74F2B820110516

(Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX Group Inc and IntercontinentalExchange are withdrawing their bid for rival exchange NYSE Euronext, saying it became clear they would not win approval for the deal from the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division.

actually surprising that it hasn't happened yet.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/14/us-aviation-solar-idUSTRE74C3M920110514

(Reuters) - A solar energy plane made the world's first international flight powered by the sun on Friday to show the potential for pollution-free air travel.

The Solar Impulse took off from an airfield at Payerne in western Switzerland on Friday morning and landed at Brussels airport after a 13-hour flight.

"The objective is to demonstrate what we can do with existing technology in terms of renewable energy and energy savings," project co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg told Reuters by telephone during the flight.

Borschberg believes such solar-harnessing technology can be used to power cars and homes. "It is symbolic to be able to go from one place to another using solar energy," he said.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2011/05/arrest_dominique_strauss-kahn

EVERYTHING was in place to enable Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF head, to declare next month his candidacy for the Socialist primary, ahead of French presidential elections next year. Polls consistently showed that he was the most popular Socialist candidate, and the best placed to beat President Nicolas Sarkozy in a run-off. But Mr Strauss-Kahn’s arrest on May 14th in New York, for an alleged sexual assault, has thrown all those plans in the air, and looks almost certain to wreck his political future.

Mr Strauss-Kahn was arrested when he was already aboard an Air France plane at Kennedy International Airport, just minutes before it was due to take off. New York police said he was charged with “a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, and an unlawful imprisonment in connection with a sexual assault” on a chambermaid in a Manhattan hotel. Reports suggested that Mr Strauss-Kahn had left his hotel room in a hurry. His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told Reuters that his client would plead not guilty.

The news has rocked the political class in Paris. Martine Aubry, the Socialist Party leader, called it a “thunderbolt”. Others talked of a “cataclysm”. Even were Mr Strauss-Kahn to be cleared eventually of the charges, the prospect of a court case and the intense scrutiny of his private life would make it virtually impossible for him to return to France to fight a primary. Already, in 2008, he faced an internal IMF investigation into an affair with a fellow member of staff. In the end, the fund concluded that Mr Strauss-Kahn had not abused his position, but he accepted their view that he had made “a serious error of judgment”. His wife, Anne Sinclair, a popular and well-known French television journalist, stood by him. The Fund's decision then to keep him on now looks timid and ill-judged.

... the head of the IMF was to run as a Socialist? The IMF? Which I had always thought another tool of the Oligarchic Kleptocracy?

same s*** different containers....

it's so depressing. but better to face it than not.

personalities fuck everything up.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/markets-britain-stocks-idUKLDE74F1AY20110516

LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - Energy stocks pulled down Britain's top share index by midday on Monday on continuing concerns about global growth and banks fell as euro zone ministers met to discuss the region's debt problems.

The FTSE 100 .FTSE was down 50.23 points or 0.9 percent at 5,875.64 by 1115 GMT, heading for April's low of 5,858.32.

"The market's not really sure that economic growth is going to be as resilient as they might wish ... a lot of that negativity is being factored into the share prices," said Tim Rees, fund manager at Insight Investment, which has around 115 billion pounds of funds under management.

Energy .FTNMX0530 firms fell as crude CLc1 retreated by around 2 percent, hurt by global growth concerns and a strong dollar .DXY extending its winning streak to its highest level in a month.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/eu-finmins-idUKLDE74F1M120110516

May 16 (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers are likely to back a bailout package for Portugal on Monday, with new conditions set by Finland.

Following are comments made by finance ministers and officials ahead of their talks.

FRENCH ECONOMY MINISTER CHRISTINE LAGARDE

ON ABSENCE OF IMF'S DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN FROM TALKS:

"I am pleased to say that the dialogue today is continuing, with the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, which will obviously be represented here."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2015041457_apapfneufranceearnseads.html

PARIS —

Airbus parent company EADS on Friday blamed an accounting change for a first quarter loss but said it was on track to hit its annual sales and delivery targets.

Toulouse, France based EADS reported a net loss of 12 million euros ($17 million) in the first quarter compared to a profit of 103 million euros a year earlier.

In a statement, the European aerospace company said a "negative accounting revaluation" of its U.S. dollar and British pound cash assets following the euro's slide between December 2010 and March, 2011 caused its earnings to slip into the red for the quarter.

But EADS said it still expects to deliver between 520 and 530 commercial aircraft this year and to report full year revenues above last year's 46 billion euros. The company also still maintains its target for operating profit of around e1.3 billion euros, which is in line with last year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/16/high-street-faces-ten-years-of-gloom

Tough conditions for high street retailers will last for a decade, as household budgets are squeezed and people focus on paying down debt, according to economics thinktank the Ernst & Young Item Club.

With disposable incomes now falling, the thinktank predicts it will be 2013 before consumers themselves can start enjoying any economic recovery.

Data to be released this week is expected to show the economy reversing the gains of last year with higher inflation, rising unemployment and falling average incomes.

City analysts said inflation figures on Tuesday would show a return to the upward trend of the last year, with many fearing it will hit 5% in coming months.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/may/16/treasury-sustained-cyberattack-george-osborne-reveals

Foreign intelligence agencies are carrying out sustained cyberattacks on the UK Treasury, targeting it with malicious emails and programs designed to steal information, the Chancellor, George Osborne, has revealed.

He said that government systems are the target of up to 20,000 malicious emails every month, and said that in 2010 "hostile intelligence agencies made hundreds of serious and pre-planned attempts to break into the Treasury's computer system". In fact, Obsborne said, "it averaged out as more than one attempt per day".

Speaking to an invited audience at Google's Zeitgeist conference being held near Watford, Osborne said that the Treasury was the "most targeted" organisation in Whitehall by malicious software.

He cited an example where a "perfectly legitimate" email related to the G20 summit was sent to the Treasury and some other international partners – and then appeared again within minutes, sent to the same distribution list but with the attachment on the email swapped to one that contained malicious code that could infect machines running Windows. "To the recipient it would have looked like the attachment had been sent twice," Osborne said. "Fortunately, our systems identified this attack and stopped it."







me: payback for stuxnet?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/16/high-pay-commission-wage-disparity

Wage disparity between the UK's top earners and the rest of the working population will soon return to the levels of the Victorian era unless action is taken to curb executive pay, a new report by the high pay commission claims.

At the same time a new ICM poll shows that 72% of the public think high pay makes Britain a grossly unequal place to live, while 73% say they have no faith in government or business to tackle excessive pay.

The high pay commission was set up last November to scrutinise the rising pay of those at the top of the public and private sectors. Its research suggests that if current trends continue, the top 0.1% of UK earners will see their pay rise from 5% to an estimated 14% of national income by 2030, a level not previously seen in the UK since the start of the 20th century. At present, top earners in this group take as big a slice of national income as they did in the 1940s, the report says.

Deborah Hargreaves, chair of the high pay commission and a former business editor at Guardian News & Media, said that the report provided evidence that the pay gap between the corporate elite and the general public was widening beyond control. "Set against the tough spending measures and mixed company performance, we have to ask ourselves whether we are paying more and getting less," she said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/16/c_13877717.htm

MOSCOW, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) has grown 4.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2011, the Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) said in a Monday statement.

"In the first quarter of 2011, the physical volume of gross domestic product compared to the same period of 2010 amounted to 104.1 percent to preliminary estimates," the service said in a statement, adding that it will give more details about Russia's Q1 GDP growth in the middle of June.

However, the growth was slower than a previous forecast of 4.5 percent from the Economy Ministry.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/16/c_13877573.htm

BUCHAREST, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Romanian annual inflation reached 8.4 percent in April, maintaining the highest rate of the 27 EU member states for the ninth month consecutively, showed the preliminary estimations released on Monday by Eurostat, the European Office for Statistics.

According to Eurostat, the average annual inflation rate in the EU rose to 3.2 percent from 3.1 percent in March, while in the euro area, the average was up at 2.8 percent from 2.7 percent.

Romania is followed by Estonia (5.4 percent) and Lithuania and Hungary (4.4 percent each), while the lowest annual rates were witnessed in Ireland (1.5 percent), the Czech Republic (1.6 percent) and Sweden (1.8 percent).

http://www.firstpost.com/world/ch-india-past-future-6028.html

Economic philosopher Amartya Sen, writing recently in the New York Review of Books, tempered the excitement in India and abroad centred around speculation that India’s economic growth rate may soon catch up with – and perhaps even surpass - China’s.

“It is surely silly,” Sen noted with a sniffy, professorial air, “to be obsessed about India’s overtaking China” on the GDP growth rate measure, while overlooking the manifest differences between them on other parameters – such as education, basic health, or life expectancy. On all these metrics, China fares demonstrably better than India.

Sen’s point was that economic growth wasn’t an end in itself, but an “important means for achieving things we value.” Others, like MIT scholar Yasheng Huang, argue that in fact, the foundation for China’s economic success was laid in the 1970s and 1980s, with emphasis on education and public health, especially in the rural areas.

Yet, the feverish excitement in India about the possibility of surpassing China’s GDP growth rate is easily explained.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/commodities/oil-falls-to-below-usd-99-as-us-dollar-rallies_543659.html

Oil prices fell below USD 99 a barrel today in Asia as crude became more expensive for investors with other currencies amid a US dollar rally.

Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 84 cents to USD 98.81 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract settled at USD 99.65 per barrel Friday, up 68 cents.

In London, Brent crude for June delivery was down 44 cents to USD 113.39 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Oil has retreated from a 30-month high near USD 115 at the beginning of the month as the dollar has strengthened.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/market-edge/monday-blues-experts-pray-to-rain-gods-for-better-cues_543813.html

It has been a bit of a struggle for the market today. The Nifty gained a couple of points in early trade and looked like it might manage to nudge closer to 5550 but to no avail, closing below the 5500-mark.

The Sensex shut shop at 18345.03 down 186.25 points or 1.01% and the Nifty closed at 5497.35, down 47.40 points or 0.85%

The session was low on volumes and the breadth dismal at 1,101 shares advancing to 1,719 shares on the declining side, while 821 shares remain unchanged. (Click here for the full low-down of today's trade)

Directionally, the market seems to be sideways right now, said Rahul Mohindar of viratechindia.com. "I believe most Nifty traders at this point would still prefer to take shorts," he said adding, "I don't see any kind of breakout on the upside in some of the significant heavyweights."

http://www.firstpost.com/business/price-hit-petrol-to-get-dearer-by-rs-5-a-litre-tonight-9882.html

New Delhi: Indians who own a car or uses a car that runs on petrol will have the Election Commission of India to thank, not for the smooth conduct polls but for saving them this far from the shocker today. With no polls immediately in sight, the state-owned oil companies on Saturday increased petrol price by about Rs 5 per litre with effect from midnight tonight in the steepest hike ever.

The increase in petrol price, which the oil firms had been holding since January even though crude oil had touched a two-and-a-half-year high, came a day after election results of five state assemblies were announced.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2015065642_apdrugwarbusiness.html

MCALLEN, Texas —

Dozens of Mattel Inc. employees were on their way to another day of work making Power Wheels in Mexico's industrial heartland when gunshots erupted around them and a grenade ripped into one of their buses, killing one worker and wounding five.

The battle between drug traffickers and the army near the city of Monterrey last week was the sort of violence that is frightening U.S. companies away from new investments south of the border, where organized criminals are increasingly turning to kidnappings, extortion and cargo thefts despite a government offensive against drug cartels.

"These acts of violence are not happening in a vacuum; they're happening in the street that could be right out in front of your building. Bullets get shot and they have to stop somewhere," said Dan Burges, a senior director at Freightwatch Inc., an Austin-based cargo security firm.

As a result, only half of the U.S. firms surveyed recently by the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce said they would go ahead with new investment plans in Mexico and several companies, including Whirlpool Corp., have recently announced they would put new factories elsewhere citing concerns about safety.

Hard on the Mexicanos, though.

http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2011/05/is_a_well_lived_live_worth_anything.html

How would you define a good life? It's a bafflingly tough question. An even tougher one: does the economy we have today value such a life? Does it help us create one?

Here's what I see when I look not just at the surface, but deep inside the heart of the economy today:

Instead of an "energy industry," I see a resource addiction that saps money and preserves self-destructive expectations. I see, instead of food and education "industries," an obesity epidemic and a debt-driven education crisis. Instead of a pharmaceutical industry, I see a new set of mental and physical discontents, like rates of suspiciously normally "abnormal" mental illnesses and drugs whose lists of "side effects" are longer than the Magna Carta. Instead of a "media industry," I see news that actually misinforms instead of enlightening — rusting the beams of democracy — and entertainment that merely titillates.

In short, I see an outcomes gap: a yawning chasm the size of the Grand Canyon between what our economy produces and what you might call a meaningfully well-lived life, what the ancient Greeks called eudaimonia.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-meyerson-europeans-20110515,0,3990894.story

The newest slumlord in Los Angeles is a pillar of German capitalism. Earlier this month, the city attorney's office filed suit against Deutsche Bank, the world's fourth-largest bank, for letting many of the more than 2,000 L.A. homes it has foreclosed on descend into squalor and decay.

A yearlong city investigation of the properties on which Deutsche Bank foreclosed turned up tenants compelled to live in crumbling apartments the bank would not fix, houses taken over by gangs, faucets from which water either wouldn't flow or wouldn't stop, and the occasional unidentified dead body. Nothing, in other words, that would be allowed to happen to bank holdings in Frankfurt, the neat-as-a-pin German city that is home to Deutsche Bank and much of the rest of German finance.

Deutsche Bank responded to the suit by blaming the loan servicers that were supposed to have maintained the bank's properties. But City Atty. Carmen Trutanich insisted the blame belonged with the owner. "We are not going to allow them to play the shell and nut game," he said.

But slumming in America is fast becoming a business model for some of Europe's leading companies, and they often do things here they would never think of doing at home. These companies — not banks, primarily, but such gold-plated European manufacturers as BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen and Siemens, and retailers such as IKEA — increasingly come to America (the South particularly) because labor is cheap and workers have no rights. In their eyes, we're becoming the new China. Our labor costs may be a little higher, but we offer stronger intellectual property protections and far fewer strikes than our unruly Chinese comrades.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/dubai-stocks-fall-after-dubai-bank-takeover-400139.html

UAE bourses tumbled to a five-week low after the Dubai government's announcement that it will take over Dubai Bank.

Dubai's government took control of troubled Islamic lender Dubai Bank on Monday to stave off a potential collapse that would undermine the emirate's banking sector.

Dubai's benchmark ended 1.4 percent lower at 1,563 points, its lowest closing since April 7.

Emaar Properties a shareholder in Dubai Bank, fell 2.2 percent, while other property stocks also closed lower.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BUILDER_SENTIMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-16-10-01-07

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. homebuilders are concerned that the struggling housing market won't recover in the near future.

The National Association of Home Builders says its index of industry sentiment for May was unchanged at 16. It has been at that level for six of the last seven months. Any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the market. The index hasn't been above that level since April 2006.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/16/glencore-could-dynamite-commodity-boom

Glencore could dynamite the commodity boom

The west struck a Faustian bargain with China in the 1990s and early 2000s. Manufacturing jobs would be outsourced to east Asia in exchange for cheap goods coming in the other direction. That was bad for western production workers, good for consumers.

Now it transpires China's growth miracle is not especially good for western consumers either. The rise in global commodity prices stimulated by China's overheating economy is making fuel, food and industrial goods dearer, thus squeezing living standards.

It is not only western consumers feeling the pinch. For all but the poorest in the west, rising food prices are an inconvenience; in the least developed countries, they mean hunger.

The picture is complicated by the fact that the boom in commodities creates winners and losers. Countries pumping oil or mining metals are enjoying booms on the back of strong growth in China and its big rival India. China's imports from Australia, Latin America and Africa were almost 50% higher in the first quarter of 2011 than a year earlier. Imports from Canada almost doubled.

because being a billionaire isn't enough anymore.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/16/christian-aid-hunger-report-commodities-food-prices

Hunger is a scourge that has many causes. Some are natural, the cyclones and tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that devastate communities and destroy crops.

Others are entirely our own fault. They include wars – the spectre of hunger is never far away when fighting starts – and the hapless economic policies foisted on poor countries by richer nations in recent years as the price for trade and aid. Tax-dodging by some unscrupulous multinationals, which deprives developing countries of badly-needed revenues, is another problem.

Today, hunger is growing as food prices reach record levels, and a further 44 million people, according to the World Bank, have found themselves reduced to conditions of extreme poverty since the middle of last year. The figures are imprecise but, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, about a billion people now live in chronic hunger – a scandal in what should be an age of plenty.

As the numbers increase, suspicion has mounted that a new factor has been helping to push food prices beyond the pockets of the poor – the vast amounts of money poured into the commodities market in recent years.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/market-drops-on-us-uncertainty/story-fn7j19iv-1226056658914

THE share market fell to a two-month low on a weak Wall Street lead, softer commodity prices and domestic economic data, and with investors' awaiting Greece's economic fate.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed 61.4 points, or 1.3 per cent, lower at 4,650, while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 63.1 points, or 1.32 per cent, at 4,724.2.

Both indices tumbled to an eight-week low.

On the ASX 24, the June share price index futures contract was 52 points lower at 4,661, with 30,282 contracts traded.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/business-climate-better-for-top-300-firms-study/story-e6frf7ko-1226056820541

AUSTRALIA'S top 300 listed companies recorded stronger business conditions in the March quarter and also expect to perform better than smaller companies in 2012, a bank survey has revealed.

National Australia Bank's (NAB) inaugural ASX 300 business confidence survey found business conditions for large corporates are stronger than for conditions across the broader economy.

Across 90 companies which responded to the survey, rising labour costs are a concern and sales margins have declined with high levels of discounting among companies aiming for volume-driven profits, NAB said.

"In terms of expectations, ASX 300 companies also expect to perform better than smaller peers ... for Q1 2012," the bank said.

http://www.news.com.au/business/business-smarts/australia-shuts-up-shop-malcolm-farr-on-the-effect-the-gfc-has-had-on-your-local-stores/story-e6frfm9r-1226056709832

SMALL shops are still badly wounded from the global financial crisis, with exclusive analysis for news.com.au showing that more than 30,000 of the most vulnerable small businesses disappeared between the 2007 and 2010 elections.

In some localities as many as 1000 of the smallest small operators - called micro enterprises - simply vanished, taking with them up to 4000 jobs from neighbourhoods.

An analysis of research presented by the Parliamentary Library in Canberra shows there were 528,669 small businesses employing one to four staff just before the 2007 election.

Just before last year's election, the number of those businesses fell to 497,141.

That meant 31,528 of the smaller operators closed their doors, shutting down from 30,000 to 126,000 employment opportunities.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/business-smarts/australia-shuts-up-shop-malcolm-farr-on-the-effect-the-gfc-has-had-on-your-local-stores/story-e6frfm9r-1226056709832#ixzz1MWqe7aMt

http://www.news.com.au/business/bloomingdales-macys-saks-on-fifth-avenue-offer-international-shipping-to-australia/story-e6frfm1i-1226056635359


NEW York's famous Fifth Avenue department stores are to open up international online stores in a move that will delight Australian consumers but instill fear in home-grown retailers.

Bloomingdale's, Macy's and Saks will open up websites with international shipping next month, Sky News reports.

The move means that Australian consumers will have access to the latest fashion trends months before they appear in Australian stores.

And with the Australian dollar riding high they will be able to save a bundle on top quality fashion.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/bloomingdales-macys-saks-on-fifth-avenue-offer-international-shipping-to-australia/story-e6frfm1i-1226056635359#ixzz1MWreU1Qg

http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/uk-shows-danger-of-coles-supermarket-price-war-dairy-farmers/story-e6frfkur-1226056585833

LESSONS from a milk price war in Britain need to be learned in Australia before the domestic industry suffers irrevocable damage, dairy farmers say.

"Good UK farmers have gone under and left the industry due to the tactics of the supermarkets there," said Queensland Dairyfarmers' Organisation (QDO) president Brian Tessmann.

"Farmers and consumers end up being worse off as retailers squeeze the supply chain and increase the market share of supermarket home-brand products.

"If you're buying milk in parts of Europe, you need a search party or the CIA to find fresh milk," Mr Tessmann said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/uk-shows-danger-of-coles-supermarket-price-war-dairy-farmers/story-e6frfkur-1226056585833#ixzz1MWsJl0oy

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-05/16/c_13877100.htm

WELLINGTON, May 16 (Xinhua) -- A poll of New Zealand voters released three days before the government announces its financial plan for the next year shows almost half the country believe it is on the wrong economic track.

A Horizon Research survey of 1,864 people found 48.4 percent of New Zealanders said the country was on the wrong track, 34.6 percent on the right track, while 17 percent did not know.

More people generally disapproved of the government's handling of the economy (43.8 percent) than approved (32.8 percent) while 20.5 percent were neutral and 2.9 percent did not know.

None of this makes sense. Gonna go see the real world for a while.

:hi: :toast:

5/15/11 Treasury to tap pensions to help fund government
The Obama administration will begin to tap federal retiree programs to help fund operations after the government loses its ability Monday to borrow more money from the public, adding urgency to efforts in Washington to fashion a compromise over the debt.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has warned for months that the government would soon hit the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling — a legal limit on how much it can borrow. With the government poised to reach that limit Monday, Geithner is undertaking special measures in an effort to postpone the day when he will no longer have enough funds to pay all of the government’s bills.

more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/treasury-to-tap-pensions-to-help-fund-government/2011/05/15/AF2fqK4G_story.html?hpid=z1



5/15/11 Treasury Confirms Debt Ceiling To Be Breached Today; Will Tap Pension Funds
It's official: the US credit card has officially been maxed out, just as we predicted on Wednesday, and througout Q1 and Q2. The United States is expected to reach the legal limit on its debt later on Monday and will start dipping into federal retirement funds to give the country more room to borrow, a Treasury official said. As Reuters reports further, The U.S. Treasury will settle $72 billion in maturing bonds on Monday, which will push the country right up against its $14.294 trillion borrowing cap, the official said. To all those who thought only the insolvent government of Ireland will plunder pension funds, our condolences.

more...
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/treasury-confirms-debt-ceiling-be-breached-today-will-tap-pension-funds

:mad:

Then all the Bushes.

To happen. But you know they will find a way to save their money and take the money from the rank and file.

INTERESTING OBSERVATION





1. The sport of choice for the urban poor is BASKETBALL.





2 The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is BOWLING.





3 The sport of choice for front-line workers is FOOTBALL.




4 The sport of choice for supervisors is BASEBALL.





5 The sport of choice for middle management is TENNIS.

And....




6 The sport of choice for corporate executives and officers is GOLF.


THE AMAZING CONCLUSION:


The higher you go in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become.
There must be a ton of people in Washington playing marbles!

:rofl:

The game is being on the steps of Congress...

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ss-trust-fund-we-lost-11-trillion-last-year

Yes, that is a correct headline. In its annual report to Congress last week SS acknowledged that its condition had sharply deteriorated in 2010. This sentence from the report is all you really need to know about what the status is: "The open group unfunded obligation over the 75-year projection period has increased from $5.4 trillion (present discounted value as of January 1, 2010) to $6.5 trillion (present discounted value as of January 1, 2011)."


Note that this is a present value calculation. The total unfunded obligation has grown by a cool $1.1 trillion in just a year. In other words, if we had to shore up the TF to the level that it was just a year ago the USA would have to write a check for $1.1 T. The unfunded status was a disaster a year ago at $5.6T, it got worse by 20% during 2010. The cost of “fixing” SS goes up as a result. To put things in balance one of these two extremes are now required:

For the combined OASDI Trust Funds to remain solvent, the payroll tax rate could be increased an immediate and permanent 2.15%, (or) scheduled benefits could be reduced by an immediate and permanent 13.8%.


If you think this a ho-hum result, think again. If benefits get cut across the board by 14% we will have many seniors who will fall into a hole. An increase in payroll taxes of 2.15% is simply not going to happen anytime soon. There is no support in Congress for an increase like that. It would mean that taxes on all workers/employers would have to go up by $110b in the first year and rise every year thereafter. This would be a very regressive tax increase that hurts lower end workers the hardest. For 2011 there is already a payroll tax holiday of 2%. If the required increases take place in 2012 it would mean a 3.2% reduction in wages. Kiss the economy goodbye under that scenario.

I underlined the TF’s use of the words immediate and permanent as this language highlights the fact there can be no delaying on the fixes necessary at SS. One thing that you can take to the bank is that nothing will happen with SS in 2011 or 2012. This is a problem that will simmer for at least another 24 months. This delay will prove to be very costly for all involved. Both the required tax increases and/or the required cutbacks will be much larger than today...The NPV of the unfunded liabilities at SS are now growing by at least $100b a month. One would think that this massive cost would spur some response in D.C. Don’t count on it. As a result, SS is going to come off the rails in about two years.

ALL I CAN SAY IS: FOREVER IS A LONG TIME. IF WE SHAKE OUT THE FRAUD AND THE CROOKS, THINGS WILL IMPROVE DRAMATICALLY...IF!

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/05/16/3-Million-High-Paying-Jobs-or%20more-Lost-Forever.aspx

* Hourly pay for factory workers is 2.4 percent below the U.S. average.
* 27 percent of small-business employees have no health insurance.
* 72 percent of small business employees have no retirement plan.

The quality of the jobs the U.S. is creating right now in terms of pay, benefits, hours, and skills leaves a lot to be desired. The problem is not only the depth of the recession and the sluggishness of the recovery. It also reflects the changing structure of the U.S. economy, as more manufacturing operations shift to overseas locations, while service businesses, which often pay much less, take a more dominant role in job creation.

Previously high-paying jobs in manufacturing have gone the way of the Edsel. U.S. factories lost 3 million jobs from 2000 to 2004, jobs that did not return during the boom leading up to the recession, along with another 2.2 million from 2007 to 2010. Those are unlikely to come back, as well. Manufacturing jobs were 20 percent of private-sector payrolls in 1990, 15 percent in 2000, and just over 10 percent in April. Large multinational corporations have cut 2.9 million U.S. jobs over the past decade, while adding 2.4 million workers to their overseas operations.

More important, pay in manufacturing is not what it used to be. Hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers, which had held well above the private-sector average for decades, slipped below the average in 2006, and the ratio continues to trend gradually lower. In 2004, factory pay was about 3 percent above average. In April it was 2.4 percent below the $19.37-per-hour private-sector mark for production workers.

The recovery, so far, has generated a majority of lower paying jobs. Economists at UBS, who track payrolls in industries where hourly wages are above the overall average vs. sectors with pay below the average, say that job growth in low-wage industries has been generally faster since the recovery began in mid-2009. In particular, job gains in the retail-trade and leisure-and-hospitality sectors, where hourly pay is 32 percent and 43 percent, respectively, below the average for all private-sector employees, have accounted for 27 percent of this year’s job growth.

At the other end of the pay scale, and in addition to the 5.2 million jobs already lost, the recession wiped out nearly three million high-paying jobs in construction and finance, where average hourly pay is 11 percent and 20 percent, respectively, above the $22.95 average for all private-sector employees, which includes both production workers and management. Those jobs are not coming back any time soon, if ever. One bright spot has been professional and business services, including legal, accounting, computer systems design, and consulting. Jobs there typically pay 20 percent higher than average, and they have accounted for 30 percent of all private-sector job growth over the past year....

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International w/ their online sales. That's going to do some damage to
Workers in small retail outlets.

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