The Week-End Economists Grumpy Old Men Weekend Show!

I'll start it off this weekend. Demeter unfortunately had to go into rehab after an accidental overdose of cold weather. A day or so of wine therapy, and she's expected to make a full recovery.



Why Grumpy old men? Well, I turn 59, I mean 29 tomorrow, so I'm almost one now. Unless you ask my wife, and she'll say I've been one for a while. At least I don't feed the dogs Hormel Chili.

And besides, who's a sexier Social Security Queen than Ann Margaret? Sit down Betty White, you're not even close.



And if my keyboard starts slurring, I started the birthday celebration a little early.

So, in the meantime, GIT OFF MY FRIGGIN' LAWN!!!!!!

Everything on the West Coast?

She's leaving in less than a month...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/financial-regulation-bair-idUSN1217874120110512

U.S. regulators should impose even higher capital requirements on large financial firms until they prove they can be wound down if they became insolvent, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair said on Thursday. Bair, in prepared testimony for a Senate Banking Committee hearing, said higher capital requirements would have a "relatively modest" effect on the cost of credit and economic activity..."I believe we should impose even higher capital charges on systemic entities until they have developed a resolution plan which has been approved as credible by their regulators," Bair said.

.....

Bair, who is leaving the FDIC on July 8, at the end of her term, also said regulators need to collect detailed information from a limited number of potentially "systemic" financial firms. But she said the request will not automatically mean regulators would designate such a company a "systemically important financial institution," or SIFI.

The SIFI designation comes with strict supervision by the Federal Reserve, higher capital and liquidity requirements and the potential to be dismantled by the FDIC in a crisis. Under last year's Dodd-Frank Wall Street law, bank holding companies with assets of $50 billion or more automatically fall under "systemic" supervision. That means firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and JPMorgan would likely be among the SIFIs. Big financial firms that fall outside the banking world have been making their case to the Fed on why they should not be considered for heightened supervision.

Bair also used her testimony to address widespread mortgage servicing problems among U.S. lenders, and congressional struggles to address long-term deficit issues. She said despite a recent government review, U.S. regulators still do not have a good handle on how bad the servicing errors are, including "robo-signing" and other documentation issues..."I want to underscore that the housing market cannot heal and begin to recover until this problem is tackled in a forthright manner and resolved," Bair said. Speaking about long-term fiscal troubles, Bair said financial stability critically depends on Congress reaching an agreement on how to reduce federal debt and deficit levels..."It is likely that the capital markets themselves will continue to apply increasing pressure until a credible solution is reached," she said.

She also said Congress should change the tax code to reduce or eliminate incentives for financial firms to become excessively leveraged.

Greece had 13 off-market derivative contracts with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), most of which swapped Japanese yen into euros in a 2001 transaction aimed at concealing the true size of the nation’s debt, according to the European Union’s statistics office.

The amount borrowed through the swaps was due to be repaid with an interest-rate swap that would have spread payments through 2019, Eurostat said in a report on its website today. In 2005, the maturity was extended to 2037, the report said. Restructuring the swaps spread the cost over a longer period, leading to an increase in liabilities and debt, Eurostat said.

Repeated revisions of Greece’s figures, beginning in 2009, spurred a surge in borrowing costs that pushed the country to the brink of default and triggered a region-wide debt crisis. The use of off-market swaps, which Greece hadn’t previously disclosed as debt, let the country increase borrowings by 5.3 billion euros ($7.5 billion), Eurostat said in November.

Today’s report provides details of Eurostat’s analysis of data obtained by its inspectors in Greece last year. Eurostat said most issues surrounding the swaps were resolved in September, when Greece agreed to correct its debt figures.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-12/greece-had-13-currency-swaps-with-goldman-eurostat-says-1-.html

you'll find a Goldman Sacked under it.

Thanks Fuddnik for filling in for Demeter.

And..............

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

I'll drink to that.

To someone that has reached the hallowed status of old fartdom.

True story......

I have always lovingly referred to my step dad as old fart-which he loves. When my daughter was born, I was careful not to call him that in earshot of her, lest her impressional young mind think that was an acceptable form of address for any person of a certain age. Well, little bit came home from first grade all excited because she had got to use the computer to write a letter to "grandma far far" (away)-my mother living in Arizona. The letter read something like this....


Granma Far Far,

I am fin. I mis you. How s the old fart?
Luv
Leila

I was horrified. I ask her if the teacher had proof read the letter. No she replied, she was too busy. I thought it was priceless-she misspelled so much but got the old fart spelled correctly. Now where did you hear the words old fart? That is his name Mommy-Grandma Far Far calls him that. :eyes:

I sent the letter to Mom and of course it was framed and hung in a place of honor with all the other grandchildren's fine works of art.

So enjoy your exhalted status as an old fart. Pull you waist band high for all the world to see. Wear those socks and sandals with pride. Your a senior living in Florida...tell them to give you your senior discount damn it and hurry it up, you're late for Bingo.

Centrist???? Think Tank Conducts Study, Finds US Default "Could" Push Country Into Recession
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/13/2011 16:29 -0400



And for today's second most surreal piece of news (the first being that Osama was a fan of RedTube and Adult Friend Finder, whose stock tumbled 25% after its IPO on news that such a loyal customer is now dead), we turn to Reuters which brings us news of a "report" by centrist think tank Third Wave, due out on Monday, which finds that "the United States could plunge back into recession if inaction in Washington forced a debt default, according to a new analysis that arrives as the country reaches the legal limits of its borrowing authority....Some 640,000 U.S. jobs would vanish, the housing market's woes would deepen, stocks would fall and lending activity would tighten if the country were unable to pay its bills, according to a report by the centrist think tank Third Way due out on Monday." And yes, first Dow Jones and now Reuters confirms what we have been warning all this week, namely that "the Treasury Department is expected to hit its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit on Monday, making it unable to access the bond markets again. Lawmakers from both parties say they won't approve a further increase in borrowing authority without steps to keep debt under control." Yet back to the topic at hand: which is that someone actually paid money to discover what will happen to America when it filed for bankruptcy. If this was a paper out of the San Fran Fed we understand, but private industry? If there is one margin hike we approve of it is for the CME to hike the margin to 1000% cash in trivial common sense BS.

And for those who don't have blood shooting out of their eye sockets at this point, here are the details of what the debtors prison circle of hell would look like for the US.

Treasury bonds would lose their aura of safety, leading to a half-point increase in their interest rates. That would push up the U.S. government borrowing cost once lending activity resumed, leading to a $10 billion increase in annual budget deficits over the short term.
The higher interest rates would ripple through the economy, causing gross domestic product to decrease by 1 percent and employers to shed 640,000 jobs.
Banks would curtail lending. Small businesses would have a harder time expanding and credit-card interest rates would rise. Student loans and car loans would become more expensive.
The S&P 500 stock index would lose 6.3 percent in value over three months, causing retirement portfolios to shrink, the report said, citing research by financial services firm Janney Montgomery Scott.
The U.S. dollar's status as the world's reserve currency could be threatened as investors move cash to Swiss francs, Japanese yen, or Euros. That could boost U.S. exports but raise the cost of consumer goods like gasoline and electronics.
Home mortgage rates, which are tied to U.S. Treasury rates, would rise. Homebuyers taking out an average mortgage for a new home, currently $221,900, would pay an extra $24,738 over the life of the loan, dealing another blow to an already struggling housing market.

"Defaulting on our debt is not an abstract idea that might affect a few institutions on Wall Street; it would harm tens of millions of Americans in profound and lasting ways," the report says.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/centrist-think-tank-conducts-study-finds-us-default-would-push-us-recession

Have Pensions Lost The Battle With Ratings Firms?
Submitted by Leo Kolivakis on 05/13/2011 16:40 -0400

Via Pension Pulse.

Blogger was down last night and I had to post my Wednesday piece on the NDP pension priority again on Friday because I lost it. Guess operational risk is present on the blogosphere as even the almighty Google can experience some slip-ups here and there.

My comment will be brief. Bruce Friesen of Global Investment Solutions sent me an article by Michael Corkery of the WSJ, Ratings Firms Notch Legal Victory:

Ratings firms won another victory against legal claims that they should be held responsible for billions of dollars in losses suffered by investors during the financial crisis.



A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Moody's Corp., Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings can't be held liable for their ratings of mortgage-backed securities.



In a decision upholding a lower court's dismissal of the case brought by pension funds in Wyoming and Detroit, the Second Circuit judges wrote that ratings firms provided "merely opinions" about the credit-worthiness of the securities.

Opinions are protected by the First Amendment, a defense the rating firms have often used in the past.

(snip) more

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/have-pensions-lost-battle-ratings-firms

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In other words, "Suck on it, serfs"!!!!!!

I don't get it.

I am 7 months older than you, to the day! I was also a Friday 13th baby. I have chosen to believe that makes me some sort of witch (of the benign, healing, wise-woman sort, of course) rather than unlucky, though life has put a few deep gouges in that one.

Thank you for subbing for Demeter. I know I haven't been around much, but I do manage to scan the threads almost every day. I'd surely miss WE if it were not here. K & R.

:rofl:


and a Happy Birthday!

No longer have to remember dates of any kind (it COULD be the beginnings of Alzheimer's y'know); no longer have to mow the yard, change the oil or any other physical task; can sleep as late as you like on weekends; can eat what you want (Hey, I got to be this age by eating this!), and get to be in charge of the remote (now, sweetie, let grampa choose, because he may not be here much longer).

So enjoy!

Thanks for providing great comments here and on SMW, as well as handling this thread today - I don't comment often, but I'm a faithful reader and reccer.

That was an overdose of accidental HOT weather. 3 days of 80+F and humid! The poor spring blossoms are wilting before they even open fully.

When it's that hot, beer is the only answer. Or ice cream.

Think of the grumpy old men running our economy....bunch of sorry losers and sad sacks. They've been in training for this their entire lives, and they are failing miserably!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s

Our thoughts are with our neighbors to the South in their time of flooding.

Made me put on a Neil Young album.

If you give me your attention, I will tell you what I am:
I’m a genuine philanthropist – all other kinds are sham.
Each little fault of temper and each social defect
In my erring fellow-creatures, I endeavour to correct.
To all their little weaknesses I open people’s eyes;
And little plans to snub the self-sufficient I devise;
I love my fellow creatures – I do all the good I can –
Yet everybody says I’m such a disagreeable man!
And I can’t think why!
To compliments inflated I’ve a withering reply;
And vanity I always do my best to mortify;
A charitable action I can skillfully dissect;
And interested motives I’m delighted to detect;
I know everybody’s income and what everybody earns;
And I carefully compare it with the income-tax returns;
But to benefit humanity however much I plan,
Yet everybody says I’m such a disagreeable man!
And I can't think why!

I’m sure I’m no ascetic; I’m as pleasant as can be;
You’ll always find me ready with a crushing repartee,
I’ve an irritating chuckle, I’ve a celebrated sneer,
I’ve an entertaining snigger, I’ve a fascinating leer.
To everybody’s prejudice I know a thing or two;
I can tell a woman’s age in half a minute – and I do.
But although I try to make myself as pleasant as I can,
Yet everybody says I’m such a disagreeable man!
And I can’t think why!
CHORUS. He can’t think why!

from Topsy-Turvy - If You Give Me Your Attention

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS-QVduoUPU

Even as the ink is drying on Portugal’s European Union and International Monetary Fund bail-out agreement, evidence is mounting that last year’s bail-outs of Greece and Ireland have failed.

Far from improving their access to the financial markets, Greece and Ireland face record borrowing costs. Notwithstanding the slightly less draconian terms of Portugal’s agreement, it will surely suffer a similar fate.

The EU will try to get away with “soft” restructurings, involving a combination of longer maturities and lower interest rates. But this will not work and by 2013 there will be no viable alternative to “hard” restructurings (default), comprising debt write-downs of 50 per cent or more. Unfortunately, in the case of Greece and Portugal at least, even this will not guarantee continued membership of the euro.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/YIQXNN/FX5EKT/VTVRG/JI55KI/EWZXLG/CM/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=12

5/13/11 Greece Defaulting on Debts Anticipated by 85% in Global Poll of Investors

International investors view a sovereign default by a euro-area nation as more likely than not with more than four-fifths betting Greece will eventually fail to pay off its debt.

Eighty-five percent of those surveyed this week said Greece probably will default, with majorities predicting the same fate for Portugal and Ireland, which followed Greece in seeking European Union-led bailouts, a new Bloomberg Global Poll shows. The outlook for all three countries deteriorated since January.

“All these countries will go bust at some stage,” said Wilhelm Schroeder, a poll participant who helps manage the equivalent of about $172 million for Schroeder Equities GmbH in Munich. “I just can’t see a scenario in which these countries get out of their debt problems.”

more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-13/greece-defaulting-on-debts-anticipated-by-85-in-global-poll-of-investors.html

http://www.economist.com/node/18681704


A bail-out strategy as bankrupt as Greece should be ditched. It probably won’t be...

IF APRIL is the cruellest month for poets, May is the harshest one for European leaders. A year ago they tore up the rule book to bail out Greece and to ward off market attacks on other fiscal reprobates in the euro area. The first anniversary of the rescue mission has been nothing to celebrate. Despite a year of grinding hardship Greece looks ever more likely to have to restructure its debts. The official rescue funds hastily mustered in May 2010 have had to be deployed twice more since then, first to support Ireland late last year, and now to keep Portugal afloat.

The most pressing concern is Greece. The big hitters in the euro area—in particular Germany and the European Central Bank—are squabbling furiously about how to deal with the country’s debt burden. News of a “secret” meeting on May 6th between finance ministers from Greece and its main euro-area creditor states leaked out along with a report that Greece might leave the euro. That claim was strenuously denied. But policymakers seem unable to agree on much else.

The original plan in May 2010 was conceived on the notion that Greece faced an acute but temporary funding problem. A liquidity issue could be addressed by using official lending from the euro area and the IMF of €110 billion ($157 billion) to replace funding from the markets, which were by then demanding punitive rates. The country would meanwhile take drastic steps to reduce its deficit. That would rebuild investor confidence and allow Greece to return to the bond markets, partially in 2012 and completely by mid-2013.

That schedule now looks hideously overoptimistic. Investors have become even more loth to provide long-term funding: ten-year bond yields now exceed 15%, compared with a peak of 12.3% a year ago. This reflects, in part, an appreciation that Greece’s fiscal woes are even graver than they first appeared. The starting-point in 2009 for both debt and the deficit turned out to be worse than realised; tax revenues have proved disappointing as austerity measures have undermined growth. As a result Greek government debt at the end of last year was close to 145% of GDP and the deficit for 2010 was a colossal 10.5% of GDP, well above the original target of 8.1%.

World demand for oil is flatlining for the first time since 2009 as high prices hit American consumers, the International Energy Agency has said

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/JIKFJ6/52KB7/XTF3OA/WLNHAN/E4/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=13

IT'S CALLED DEMAND DESTRUCTION (OR SOUR GRAPES)

India’s industrialists are fighting a sharp rise in salary demands as they strive to hold on to scarce talent in the world’s fastest growing large economy after China

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/JIKFJ6/52KB7/XTF3OA/EWZKFT/E4/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=13

:mad: words used to squash our wages here too -- don't fall for it india.

Dissent in the ruling Democratic party has forced the government to delay a plan to ensure Tokyo Electric Power can fund compensation for victims of nuclear crisis

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/JIKFJ6/52KB7/XTF3OA/QFQ36I/E4/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=13

Democratic senators grilled the top five US oil executives at a congressional hearing, dubbing their defence of $2bn in annual tax breaks as out of touch with the struggles of ordinary Americans and the need for fiscal restraint in Washington

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/JIKFJ6/52KB7/XTF3OA/EWZKF9/E4/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=13

The bank’s shares tumbled to an eight-month low amid mounting concerns that the bank’s legal and regulatory headaches may worsen

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/S3RBPY/IEP5S/LQWKP2/M9DJN9/82/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=13

:sarcasm:
Anybody done a study to see how our economy would do with honest bankers, and the worst abuses (derivatives, crooked hedge funds,frontrunning, dark markets, and the more abusive forms of arbitrage, short selling, and municipal bonding) outlawed, a couple thousand bad guys in jail, and theives like Goldman Sachs seized and liquidated?

Shares in AIG rallied after the insurance group and the US Treasury outlined plans for a scaled-back share offering in the company

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/R5WAEE/WLPBEN/204L2/M9XX8R/9ZOVGS/KI/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=12

Figures from DP World and AP Møller-Maersk, two of the largest companies handling marine container trade, provided evidence of the sector’s continuing recovery from recession

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/R5WAEE/WLPBEN/204L2/M9XX8R/JI4K75/KI/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=12

Brother and I have been having some serious discussions about building a house from shipping containers. We were kicking around the pros and cons not knowing that this is a big deal by architects doing green designs. We have been kicking around the idea of building in Okla. We figured a sunking container home would be tornado resistant and easy to cool/heat, not to mention cheap to build.


http://www.google.com/search?q=container+house&hl=en&client=safari&prmd=ivnsl&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=C0vOTaa2OYG4tweV3oWPDg&ved=0CDEQsAQ&biw=980&bih=1208

without a water table to worry about, it ought to work--but you would need to insulate it on the sides so you don't cook like sardines in a can.

But we were thinking of sinking it to the ground or into a hillside. It would not require much less energy to cool or heat, much like a cave or the sod houses of the prarie.

This is talk right now, but the more I research the more I like. Bro is not into sports so when we get together for family gatherings, we talk ideas like farming,hydrology,passive and alternate forms of energy. He loves to experiment as much as I do.

Some of the plans I've seen for container housing have a sun shade/roof over the container(s). And I would think that earth-berming with old tires would work quite well.

Berming with tires but had thought of fridge crates. They are more expensive and less available from my initial searches. I think old tires might be toxic and how tornado resistant are they. We want the least impact and to recycle safely.

Filling them with earth to make retaining walls mitigates most of the issues with tires pretty well. Used tires aren't very toxic - any outgassing is over long before they are worn out, and filling them with dirt and planting ground covers ensures they won't catch fire. and you won't find many things more tornado resistant than a half-buried tire full of dirt!
The major ecological impact of old tires are standing water (breeds mosquitos BAD) and fire hazard - tires are hard to start burning, but they have a lot of fuel value, and the smoke is pretty toxic when they burn in the open. And they can't be landfilled, because they tend to resurface due to their resiliency.
Some of these are good things, in your case - because you can get paid (typically $1 to $3 ea.) to take them!

http://www.makingthishome.com/2009/05/27/earthship-tour-aka-tire-house-tour/

The pic shows a nice option. Thanks for the website. It has some good ideas.

Corporate America stepped into the political battle over the US debt limit, pleading for lawmakers to raise the country’s borrowing authority in a “timely fashion” to avoid damaging the economy

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/GK4I88/9MEOW/EW22JY/TPSF5O/82/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=12

THIS COULD GET VERY INTERESTING!

Germany signals it could shut the last of its 17 reactors in a decade, when a government commission said replacement wind farms and natural gas plants could be built by 2021

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/GK4I88/9MEOW/EW22JY/9ZOVNO/82/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=12

French lawmakers have voted to ban a controversial technique used to extract shale gas and oil that opponents say contaminates the environment

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/GK4I88/9MEOW/EW22JY/RNQJ7H/82/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=12

Eyes closing....sleep well, all!

thoughtful from the Chairman of the Board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwv-DxOPhSc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I've exhausted my recollections of appropriate songs for this happy occasion.

Grumpy Old Men Outakes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhts_PuVFW4

Grumpier Old Men Trailers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahk9HdvCp2o&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-D1xhq5In8&feature=related

Barack Obama is granting the oil and gas industry a one-year extension on leases companies hold in parts of Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, fulfilling a small but significant request on the industry’s Washington wish list. The administration also announced it would begin conducting annual lease sales in Alaska’s petroleum reserve, with at least one lease to be sold by the end of 2011.

The news, which comes as the US president faces increasing political pressure because of high petrol prices, will be especially welcomed by Shell, which has faced significant drilling delays on its existing lease in Alaska because of litigation with environmental groups

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/720KWN/MJTKN/ZB31SR/26TACJ/SN/t?a1=2011&a2=5&a3=14

A SUBSIDY BY ANY OTHER NAME

A young Jack Lemmon and Shirley McClain...

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=CkzEGjfYStw

...But much of the gain came from a surge in gasoline and food prices.

Retail sales rose 0.5 percent in April after a 0.9 percent increase in March, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Excluding a 2.7 percent jump in gasoline sales, the increase was a much smaller 0.2 percent...

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/05/12/AP-Retail-sales-up-for-10th-straight-month-in-April.aspx

SHOULD ANYBODY HAVE "GOALS" FOR GROWTH? WOULDN'T IT BE BETTER, MORE ORGANIC AND SUSTAINABLE, TO GO WITH THE FLOW?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/13/germany-gdp-idUSLDE74C0CY20110513

Soaring growth lifted Germany's economy back to pre-crisis levels in the first quarter, data showed, reflecting a broad-based recovery that points to robust if slightly slower expansion rates through the rest of the year.

Domestic demand boosted seasonally adjusted growth to 1.5 percent quarter on quarter, the country's statistics office said on Friday, surging above all expectations in a Reuters poll of 38 economists, which had forecast an average of 0.9 percent.

The surprisingly strong figure boosted the euro by a third of a cent and drew ecstatic reactions from some in the market.

A more cautious government said only it left Germany well placed to hit a full-year growth forecast of 2.6 percent -- just half of the annual rate hit in the first quarter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/business/global/13auto.html?_r=1

Two months after Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, Japanese automakers in the United States continue to struggle with significant supply disruptions.

Toyota, which gets up to 15 percent of the parts used in its North American plants from Japan, is experiencing shortages of 150 critical parts. The company is operating at about 30 percent of normal capacity in the United States, with full operations not expected before November or December.

But American automakers are mostly winding down their disaster response operations — and though some supply problems remain, they are taking stock of a crisis averted. Analysts said the near-term outlook remained bleak for the Japanese automakers, while their rivals in Detroit, Korea and Europe are past the most difficult period.

The largest American automaker, General Motors, which spends about 2 percent of its parts-buying budget in Japan, identified 118 products that it needed to monitor for shortages but has resolved problems with all but five. The company’s chief executive, Daniel F. Akerson, predicted last week that the Japanese disruptions would have no material impact on G.M.’s earnings...

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0512/Gas-prices-could-drop-20-cents-by-Memorial-Day-experts-say

Gas prices are expected to drop – perhaps quite a bit – as the wholesale price of gasoline tumbles. The size of the drop will depend on how long commodities prices remain low.

Perhaps even by this weekend, the price of regular grade gasoline could be as much as 10 cents a gallon lower and by Memorial Day another 20 cents a gallon lower.

Behind the falling gas prices: a collapse of the price of gasoline on the futures market...

Guns, gold, cash, flee to Guatemala---

no talk of democracy--Bonner called democracy "overrated". NO talk of real patriotism--saving the people and their country. forget ecology--that's a swear word!

This is the folly of those who haven't kept in touch with reality, who plunder the earth and cherry-pick their way through the facts, who cannot imagine sacrifice for the future. Bonner preaches about generational wealth-building, so the children can exceed the parents. But other people's children? Let them get their own wealthy parents!

You want grumpy old men? I got your grumpy old men at DR.Com.

I used to subscribe to one of his newsletters back in the early 90's. He was talking about high-tailing it to Guatemala back then. And, he hasn't left yet. He must have some real estate for sale down there.

And his investment letter consistently lost money if you followed his advice. I didn't.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28072.htm


THE ONLY THING THAT KEPT THE ECONOMY RUNNING BEFORE WAMU WAS SHUT DOWN WAS THE CASH ECONOMY OF THE DRUGLORDS.....AND THEY WITHHELD THE CASH WHICH TRIGGERED 2008, AND THEN WHEN THEY LET IT FLOW AGAIN, THE BANKS DIDN'T CRASH.

SO THERE IS NO ECONOMY BUT THE BLACK MARKET IN DRUGS.

YOU MUST SEE/HEAR THIS VIDEO.

No wonder this nation is so corrupted, no wonder our economy is a joke. The commentary one the same page as Keiser's report reads like a rap sheet.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-12/investors-shifting-to-cash-from-commodities-as-outlook-dims-in-global-poll.html

Global investors have tempered their optimism about the U.S. and world economies and plan to put more of their money in cash and less in commodities over the next six months, a Bloomberg survey found...Almost 1 in 3 of those questioned say they will hold more cash, while 30 percent intend to reduce investments in commodities, according to a quarterly Bloomberg Global Poll of 1,263 investors, analysts and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers. Both results were the highest since the survey began asking the question last June.

A plurality -- 40 percent -- expects oil prices to fall in the next six months, the first time respondents felt that way since the inception of this poll in July 2009.

The “big stimulus game is over,” said Bill O’Connor, a poll participant and founder of Sagg Main Capital hedge fund in New York, in explaining why he’s moving money into cash as the Federal Reserve winds up its bond-buying program and U.S. lawmakers look to cut the budget...Fewer than 4 in 10 of those surveyed described the U.S. and global economies as improving, down from about 50 percent who felt that way back in January. U.S. economic growth slowed to 1.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, down from 3.1 percent in the final three months of 2010. Home prices fell in more than three-quarters of U.S. cities in the first quarter of 2011, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The poll, conducted May 9-10, also found that investors’ ardor for stocks is cooling. Two in 5 intend to increase their exposure to equity markets over the next six months, down from almost 3 in 5 in the last poll in January. U.S. investors in particular have become less keen on stocks: Just 37 percent say they are increasing their exposure, down from 57 percent in the previous poll...More than half of those surveyed expect silver prices to fall further in the next six months. Sixteen percent identified commodities as one of the markets that will suffer the worst returns over the next year, more than double the proportion that said that in January...Commodities have “become a bubble, with a lot of non- specialist investors,” said Ken Welby, a salesman at KNG Securities LLP in London and a poll participant. “Demand cannot cope with the price rises that we have seen.”

While the attractiveness of the U.S. is ebbing, it still comes out on top when survey participants are asked to name the best countries to invest in. Thirty-one percent cited the U.S. as among the markets that will offer the best returns over the next year, down from 37 percent in January...U.S. investors are more enthusiastic about their country than those in either Europe or Asia. Almost 2 in 5 Americans picked the U.S. as a top market. Only one-third of Asians and less than a quarter of Europeans felt that way... Brazil and China trailed the U.S. in the poll, with 1 in 4 investors citing those countries as good places to put money. Fifteen percent singled out Japan, almost double the amount that did so in January, before the country suffered a devastating earthquake and tsunami that left 24,837 dead or missing as of May 7 and cratered its stock market...

Guest OP designer/starters. Works for me.

What am I bid for next week? It's supposed to be the end of the world, I hear...

In case anyone wants to pop in and say hello. Maybe invite him to be a guest host/starter.


http://macroindex.blogspot.com/

I linked to it. I hope traffic is a good thing. Maybe this can be posted on SWT to give him a boost. It is not taking away from DU, just complimenting it and being nice to someone that gave lots of sweat equity.

:silly:

The link was in the New York Times. I posted it appx 8:30 when details were sketchy, perhaps 6 sentences. I would like to know who 'self-deleted' it, and what was wrong with a link from the New York Times.

Link again, but ,lots more detail

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/nyregion/imf-head-is-arrested-and-accused-of-sexual-attack.html?hp

My dad used to fire those steamers. It was all diesel when I started.

Pat Methany's last train home.


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

Thanks for the link, Fuddnik.

http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=feelin_bad

...Tens of millions of Americans believe that the American economy -- which was the marvel of the world and spawned the world's largest and most vibrant middle class -- isn't coming back. Confirmation of their pessimism is everywhere around them. Corporations are swimming in cash, but they're not rehiring workers or raising their pay. The share of Americans who are working continued to shrink in 2010 and is now at its lowest level since 1983. The share of working-age women in the workplace rose until 1995, when it hit a plateau. The share of working-age men who are employed has declined from 85 percent during the 1950s to 65 percent today.

Many of the jobs that Americans previously held have gone abroad. New data from the Commerce Department show that U.S.-based multinational corporations cut their domestic workforce by 2.9 million during the 2000s while raising their employment abroad by 2.4 million. That doesn't include the millions more overseas who work for foreign contractors making American consumer goods, like iPhones and laptops, for American companies, like Apple. And, to the nearly 3 million domestic jobs that multinationals directly eliminated, we need to add all the further jobs cut by their domestic suppliers and the merchants who sold those workers goods and services.

This net job drain is something new. In the 1990s, multinational companies added 4.4 million jobs within the U.S. But that was before China opened its doors to our manufacturers (or, rather, before Congress threw those doors open even wider by voting for permanent normalized trade relations with China). That was before Asian markets really started to boom and before mercantilist Asian nations made generous offers that American companies couldn't refuse...Since the business of America is increasingly conducted abroad, many conventional remedies for curing a sick economy have fallen flat. The Federal Reserve's most recent efforts to put more money into the economy failed to overcome the multinationals' reluctance to invest at home. Meanwhile, as jobs have fallen prey to corporate flight and automation and private-sector unions have all but disappeared, pay has stagnated or declined.
.......................

In fairness to our pols, the problems of the American economy are so deeply embedded in the very nature of American capitalism that they are not susceptible to easy or even moderately difficult solutions. Still, it would be nice if some enterprising leaders took these problems seriously enough to propose some fundamental policy changes. They could start by rewriting the tax code so that it rewards domestic production, punishes offshoring, and taxes income derived from investing in far-flung multinationals at a higher rate than it does wages. Such measures could begin rebuilding our private-sector economy before it's winnowed down to just Wall Street and Wal-Mart.

Until that rebuilding commences, Americans are likely to stay in a funk. Understandably so.

The economic model we are living, is unsustainable. It is doubtful my toddler grandbabies will live to see an economic recovery.

:(

If your idea of humor is food poisoning and girls gone gross, this is for you.

I escaped to the ladies room, found out there was yet an hour to go, and couldn't force myself to endure another moment. This is why I carry Sudoku with me everywhere....

Whoever that sad woman with the awful hair is, she's no more funny than Ellen Degeneres, whom she resembles. Avoid it and her at all costs!