STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 7 May 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 7 May 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 4 May 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 4 May 2012
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Dow Jones 13,038.27 -168.32 (-1.27%)
S&P 500 1,369.10 -22.47 (-1.61%)
Nasdaq 2,956.34 -67.96 (-2.25%)


[font color=green]10 Year 1.88% -0.03 (-1.57%)
30 Year 3.07% -0.04 (-1.29%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
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Yahoo Finance
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison



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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[Demeter]

1. Joseph Stiglitz: The 99 Percent Wakes Up

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/02/joseph-stiglitz-the-99-percent-wakes-up.html

Inequality isn’t only plaguing America—the Arab Spring flowered because international capitalism is broken. In From Cairo to Wall Street: Voices from the Global Spring, edited by Anya Schiffrin and Eamon Kircher-Allen, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz says the world is finally rising up and demanding a democracy where people, not dollars, matter—the best government that money can buy just isn’t good enough.

**************************************************************

There are times in history when people all over the world seem to rise up, to say that something is wrong and to ask for change. This was true of the tumultuous years of 1848 and 1968. It was certainly true in 2011. In many countries there was anger and unhappiness about joblessness, income distribution, and inequality and a feeling that the system is unfair and even broken. Both 1848 and 1968 came to signify the start of a new era. The year 2011 may also. The modern era of globalization also played a role. It helped the ferment and spread of ideas across borders. The youth uprising that began in Tunisia, a little country on the coast of North Africa, spread to nearby Egypt, then to other countries of the Middle East, to Spain and Greece, to the United Kingdom and to Wall Street, and to cities around the world. In some cases, the spark of protest seemed, at least temporarily, quenched. In others, though, small protests precipitated societal upheavals, taking down Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, and other governments and government officials.

Something Is Wrong

That the young people would rise up in the dictatorships of Tunisia and Egypt was understandable. They had no opportunities to call for change through democratic processes. But electoral politics had also failed in Western democracies. There was increasing disillusionment with the political process. Youth participation in the 2010 U.S. election was telling: an unacceptably low voter turnout of 20 percent that was commensurate with the unacceptably high unemployment rate. President Barack Obama had promised “change we can believe in,” but he had delivered economic policies that seemed like more of the same—designed and implemented by some of the same individuals who were the architects of the economic calamity. In countries like Tunisia and Egypt, the youth were tired of aging, sclerotic leaders who protected their own interests at the expense of the rest of society. And yet, there were, in these youthful protesters of the Occupy Movement—joined by their parents, grandparents, and teachers—signs of hope. The protesters were not revolutionaries or anarchists. They were not trying to overthrow the system. They still had the belief that the electoral process might work, if only there was a strong enough voice from the street. The protesters took to the street in order to push the system to change, to remind governments that they are accountable to the people.

The name chosen by the young Spanish protesters—los indignados, the indignant or outraged—encapsulated the feelings across the world. They had much to be indignant about. In the United States, the slogan became “the 99 percent.” The protesters who took this slogan echoed the title of an article I wrote for the magazine Vanity Fair in early 2011 that was titled “Of the 1%, for the 1%, and by the 1%.” The article cited studies that described the enormous increase in inequality in the United States—to the point where 1 percent of the population controls some 40 percent of the wealth and garner for themselves some 20 percent of all the income. In other countries, the lack of opportunities and jobs and the feeling that ordinary people were excluded from the economic and political system caused the feeling of outrage. In his essay, Egyptian activist Jawad Nabulsi discusses how the system was fixed in favor of the upper classes, and he uses the word fairness repeatedly to describe what was lacking in Egypt under Mubarak.

Something else helped give force to the protests: a sense of unfairness. In Tunisia and Egypt and other parts of the Middle East, it wasn’t just that jobs were hard to come by, but those jobs that were available went to the politically connected. In the United States, things seemed more fair, but only superficially so. People who graduated from the best schools with the best grades had a better chance at the good jobs. But the system was stacked because wealthy parents sent their children to the best kindergartens, grade schools, and high schools, and those students had a far better chance of getting into the elite universities. In many of these top schools, the majority of the student body is from the top quartile, while the third and fourth quartiles are very poorly represented. To get good jobs, one needed experience; to get experience, one needed an internship; and to get a good internship, one needed both connections and the financial wherewithal to be able to get along without a source of income. Around the world, the financial crisis unleashed a new sense of unfairness, or more accurately, a new realization that our economic system was unfair, a feeling that had been vaguely felt in the past but now could no longer be ignored. The system of rewards—who received high incomes and who received low—had always been questioned, and apologists for the inequality had provided arguments for why such inequality was inevitable, even perhaps desirable. The inequities had been growing slowly over time. It is sometimes said that watching changes in income inequality was like watching grass grow. Day by day, one couldn’t see any change. But as those who live near abandoned subprime houses know all too well, within a few months, scrub and weeds can quickly replace the best of manicured lawns. Over time, the change is unmistakable, and so too, over time, the inequality has increased to the point where it cannot be ignored. And that’s what’s been happening in the United States and many other countries around the world...MORE

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Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University and the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics. He served on President Clinton's economic team as a member and then chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisors in the mid-1990s, and then joined the World Bank as chief economist and senior vice president. Stiglitz has received the John Bates Clark Medal. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University, held the Drummond Professorship at All Souls College, Oxford, and has taught at M.I.T, Yale, Stanford, and Princeton.

[Demeter]

3. Are Humans Getting Better? By Peter Singer (DEPENDS ON THE DAY AND THE CONTEXT, I EXPECT)

http://www.nationofchange.org/are-humans-getting-better-1336226471

With daily headlines focusing on war, terrorism, and the abuses of repressive governments, and religious leaders frequently bemoaning declining standards of public and private behavior, it is easy to get the impression that we are witnessing a moral collapse. But I think that we have grounds to be optimistic about the future. Thirty years ago, I wrote a book called The Expanding Circle, in which I asserted that, historically, the circle of beings to whom we extend moral consideration has widened, first from the tribe to the nation, then to the race or ethnic group, then to all human beings, and, finally, to non-human animals. That, surely, is moral progress.

We might think that evolution leads to the selection of individuals who think only of their own interests, and those of their kin, because genes for such traits would be more likely to spread. But, as I argued then, the development of reason could take us in a different direction. On the one hand, having a capacity to reason confers an obvious evolutionary advantage, because it makes it possible to solve problems and to plan to avoid dangers, thereby increasing the prospects of survival. Yet, on the other hand, reason is more than a neutral problem-solving tool. It is more like an escalator: once we get on it, we are liable to be taken to places that we never expected to reach. In particular, reason enables us to see that others, previously outside the bounds of our moral view, are like us in relevant respects. Excluding them from the sphere of beings to whom we owe moral consideration can then seem arbitrary, or just plain wrong.

Steven Pinker’s recent book The Better Angels of Our Nature lends weighty support to this view. Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, draws on recent research in history, psychology, cognitive science, economics, and sociology to argue that our era is less violent, less cruel, and more peaceful than any previous period of human existence. The decline in violence holds for families, neighborhoods, tribes, and states. In essence, humans living today are less likely to meet a violent death, or to suffer from violence or cruelty at the hands of others, than their predecessors in any previous century. Many people will doubt this claim. Some hold a rosy view of the simpler, supposedly more placid lives of tribal hunter-gatherers relative to our own. But examination of skeletons found at archaeological sites suggests that as many as 15% of prehistoric humans met a violent death at the hands of another person. (For comparison, in the first half of the twentieth century, the two world wars caused a death rate in Europe of not much more than 3%.) Even those tribal peoples extolled by anthropologists as especially “gentle” – for example, the Semai of Malaysia, the Kung of the Kalahari, and the Central Arctic Inuit – turn out to have murder rates that are, relative to population, comparable to Detroit, which has one of the highest murder rates in the United States. In Europe, your chance of being murdered is now less than one-tenth, and in some countries only one-fiftieth, of what it would have been had you lived 500 years ago.

Pinker accepts that reason is an important factor underlying the trends that he describes. In support of this claim, he refers to the “Flynn Effect” – the remarkable finding by the philosopher James Flynn that since IQ tests were first administered, scores have risen considerably. The average IQ is, by definition, 100; but, to achieve that result, raw test results have to be standardized. If the average teenager today took an IQ test in 1910, he or she would score 130, which would be better than 98% of those taking the test then. It is not easy to attribute this rise to improved education, because the aspects of the tests on which scores have risen the most do not require a good vocabulary, or even mathematical ability, but instead assess powers of abstract reasoning. One theory is that we have gotten better at IQ tests because we live in a more symbol-rich environment. Flynn himself thinks that the spread of the scientific mode of reasoning has played a role. Pinker argues that enhanced powers of reasoning give us the ability to detach ourselves from our immediate experience and from our personal or parochial perspective, and frame our ideas in more abstract, universal terms. This, in turn, leads to better moral commitments, including avoidance of violence. It is just this kind of reasoning ability that improved during the twentieth century. So there are grounds to believe that our improved reasoning abilities have enabled us to reduce the influence of those more impulsive elements of our nature that lead to violence. Perhaps this underlies the significant drop in deaths inflicted by war since 1945 – a decline that has become even steeper over the past 20 years. If so, there would be no denying that we continue to face grave problems, including of course the threat of catastrophic climate change. But there would nonetheless be some reason to hope for moral progress.

FAR TOO OPTIMISTIC FOR MY SENSIBILITIES...WHAT DO YOU THINK?

[Demeter]

2. Hello, World, Again!

&feature=related

Maybe we should do a cowboy theme...don't think that's been used yet. After all, Mother's Day is every year...

[AnneD]

35. I'm always ready ....

to saddle up for a cowboy theme. I'll send you some links if you want. These days, the only real cowboys are Indians ....Anne

[Demeter]

4. Plutocracy, Paralysis, Perplexity By Paul Krugman

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/opinion/krugman-plutocracy-paralysis-perplexity.html?_r=1

Before the Great Recession, I would sometimes give public lectures in which I would talk about rising inequality, making the point that the concentration of income at the top had reached levels not seen since 1929. Often, someone in the audience would ask whether this meant that another depression was imminent.

Well, whaddya know?

Did the rise of the 1 percent (or, better yet, the 0.01 percent) cause the Lesser Depression we’re now living through? It probably contributed. But the more important point is that inequality is a major reason the economy is still so depressed and unemployment so high. For we have responded to crisis with a mix of paralysis and confusion — both of which have a lot to do with the distorting effects of great wealth on our society.

Put it this way: If something like the financial crisis of 2008 had occurred in, say, 1971 — the year Richard Nixon declared that “I am now a Keynesian in economic policy” — Washington would probably have responded fairly effectively. There would have been a broad bipartisan consensus in favor of strong action, and there would also have been wide agreement about what kind of action was needed. But that was then. Today, Washington is marked by a combination of bitter partisanship and intellectual confusion — and both are, I would argue, largely the result of extreme income inequality...MORE

[Warpy]

54. Inequality wouldn't matter if the bottom 99% were paid adequately

as they were during the years the New Deal was in effect.

What this bunch of plutocrats has done is not only starve the workers by keeping wages down, they've also starved government of the money it takes to create and maintain infrastructure while insisting on wars of convenience to squander what little is left.

In other words, they want a bloated military to support their trade routes but they don't want to pay a dime to keep it going.

As a result, the country is in serious decay with vulnerable systems all over the place: highways and bridges, the electrical grid, the electronic grid, even the satellites are starting to fail and we have no funding to replace them.

That we're in another depression is absolutely no surprise to me. I've been warning about it for 30 years.

I gotta change my name to Cassandra.

[Demeter]

55. Cassandra is my middle name

And her fate is mine, too.

[Demeter]

5. Hollande snatches victory in France

François Hollande grabbed a narrow victory in the French presidential election on Sunday, defeating Nicolas Sarkozy who became the latest victim of an anti-incumbent backlash that has felled leaders across the eurozone.

Mr Hollande, a 57-year old former socialist party leader who has never held ministerial office, took just under 51 per cent of the vote, according to official projections, a much closer margin than most polls had predicted over the past month.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/VKY5JJ/AML2WA/ULCJB/16W7XZ/B5BK8H/MQ/t?a1=2012&a2=5&a3=6

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT...BUT WITH NO MARGIN, HE'LL HAVE TO ACT DECISIVELY...THERE'S NO ROOM TO WAFFLE, NO EXCESS OF SUPPORTERS TO THROW UNDER THE BUS...NO MANDATE FOR CRAZY NEW WARS OR TAX CUTS OR ANYTHING, REALLY....I ENVY FRANCE.

[Demeter]

6. Greek far left poised for strong election result

Exit polls published shortly after the polls closed in Greece’s general election indicate strong gains for Syriza, a radical leftwing party that rejects the country’s bailout programme as “barbarous” yet wants to stay in the euro.

The polls showed a dramatic collapse in support for the two main parties, the centre-right New Democracy and Pasok, raising fears they would not be able to form a viable coalition government.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/UXDMSS/QN5SN4/T10SH/8ZQD9X/7A15LT/CM/t?a1=2012&a2=5&a3=6

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT! UNLESS THE GREEKS CREATE THEIR OWN EURO, I CAN'T SEE THAT WORKING OUT FOR THEM...THEY COULD CALL IT THE GYRO...

[Demeter]

7. UK faces higher gas bills as LNG heads for Asia

The completion of Japan’s nuclear shutdown raises the threat of higher winter gas prices and bigger energy bills for UK consumers as cargoes of liquefied natural gas are diverted to Asia

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/2OJHBR/FDFZE/ZG58RZ/16RVP9/PJ/t?a1=2012&a2=5&a3=6

[girl gone mad]

8. Well, well...

?dl=1

[Demeter]

9. I like it!

When you have nothing to lose, you can begin again...

[Demeter]

10. Risk assets shunned after European elections

The euro and equity markets fell sharply and bond yields in the eurozone’s periphery nations climbed after France elected a new president and support for pro-Europe parties in Greece collapsed.

Europe’s single currency fell below the $1.30 support level – falling more than 1 per cent as low as $1.2964 – after election results in France and Greece raised concerns about failing public support for the eurozone, its costly bailouts and the austerity measures implemented across the currency bloc.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/ZE9K33/16JGXS/JQU4J/DWF9NO/2OFMO7/50/t?a1=2012&a2=5&a3=7

[Demeter]

11. The daunting tasks for President Hollande

For winner, who declared during the election his ‘true adversary’ was world of finance, it will be vital markets do not start to bet against France

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/HYOWX1/WH2F8/TUV1I2/5VPM4I/6C/t?a1=2012&a2=5&a3=7

IF THE BANKSTERS F**K WITH FRANCE, FRANCE WILL BREAK THE EURO. I PREDICT.

IT WON'T BE A WEAK NATION THAT THROWS IN THE TOWEL, IT WILL BE ONE THAT CAN SURVIVE THE CHAOS.

[AnneD]

37. Considering the French history with bankers...

and those they finance... part of my wager is on France. Your argument is compelling.

Italy, Spain, and France are the big economies in the EU that could drag it under. But the interesting thing is that the German people had to be sold on the Euro. In fact, they never gave up their love for the Deutschmark.

We are living in interesting times.

[Demeter]

12. Greek politicians suffer backlash to austerity

Political earthquake after polls in Sunday’s general election suggested the surprise collapse of its two biggest parties

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/HYOWX1/WH2F8/TUV1I2/YB90CU/6C/t?a1=2012&a2=5&a3=7

[Demeter]

19. Austerity Loses As Greece's Fringe Parties Win Big by Sylvia Poggioli

http://www.npr.org/2012/05/06/152147996/austerity-loses-as-greeks-fringe-parties-win-big?ft=1&f=1001

According to exit polls, angry Greek voters have overwhelmingly punished the two major parties that endorsed draconian international loan agreements.

There is no front-runner in sight, but the fringe parties on the left and the right that strongly oppose the bailout terms have benefited the most. The socialist PASOK and the conservative New Democracy parties that have alternated for four decades — and uneasily co-governed for the last six months — are imploding. In the last elections in 2009, PASOK won 44 percent, while New Democracy — at its then- historic low — garnered 33.9 percent. Exit polls today attribute to each party only about 20 percent of votes cast...In a major upset, Syriza, the Coalition of the Radical Left, was running second behind New Democracy and ahead of PASOK. On the other side of the spectrum, the neo-Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn appears poised to enter parliament for the first time. According to the Greek electoral law, the party that wins the most votes gets a bonus of 50 seats in the 300-seat parliament. So, despite what appears to be their extremely poor results, PASOK and New Democracy might be able to scrape through and continue their governing coalition.

But it would be a very weak government facing widespread opposition to the bailout terms and austerity program. The next government also has the tough task of slashing another $15.5 billion from the state budget over the next two years in a country where some 20 percent of the population already lives under the poverty line.

Analysts pointed out a significant fraying of old party loyalties. They say that today, 6 out of 10 voters switched from previous allegiances.

...It is not clear whether a rebellious Greece could be forced legally out of the euro-zone. The pressure on Greek voters was intense — Berlin officials said Greece will have to bear the consequences if the next government does not respect its commitments. But many Greeks did not think the threat of banishment, bankruptcy and further impoverishment was credible. Many voters cast their ballots pinning their hopes on what they see as a mood shift throughout Europe: They no longer see themselves as the isolated, international financial pariah. The anti-austerity movement is growing in Spain, Italy, Ireland and even The Netherlands. It's even toppled Germany's loyal ally President Sarkozy of France. Greeks are hoping this could be a game-changing moment in Europe that weakens the austerity-first crowd and offers alternative policies focusing on growth rather than cutbacks.

[girl gone mad]

48. This is the one that has me hopeful.

I think Hollande will disappoint, but the Greeks seem to have finally had enough.

[Demeter]

13. Those Revolting Europeans By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/opinion/krugman-those-revolting-europeans.html?pagewanted=print

The French are revolting. The Greeks, too. And it’s about time.

Both countries held elections Sunday that were in effect referendums on the current European economic strategy, and in both countries voters turned two thumbs down. It’s far from clear how soon the votes will lead to changes in actual policy, but time is clearly running out for the strategy of recovery through austerity — and that’s a good thing.

Needless to say, that’s not what you heard from the usual suspects in the run-up to the elections. It was actually kind of funny to see the apostles of orthodoxy trying to portray the cautious, mild-mannered François Hollande as a figure of menace. He is “rather dangerous,” declared The Economist, which observed that he “genuinely believes in the need to create a fairer society.” Quelle horreur! What is true is that Mr. Hollande’s victory means the end of “Merkozy,” the Franco-German axis that has enforced the austerity regime of the past two years. This would be a “dangerous” development if that strategy were working, or even had a reasonable chance of working. But it isn’t and doesn’t; it’s time to move on. Europe’s voters, it turns out, are wiser than the Continent’s best and brightest.

What’s wrong with the prescription of spending cuts as the remedy for Europe’s ills? One answer is that the confidence fairy doesn’t exist — that is, claims that slashing government spending would somehow encourage consumers and businesses to spend more have been overwhelmingly refuted by the experience of the past two years. So spending cuts in a depressed economy just make the depression deeper. Moreover, there seems to be little if any gain in return for the pain. Consider the case of Ireland, which has been a good soldier in this crisis, imposing ever-harsher austerity in an attempt to win back the favor of the bond markets. According to the prevailing orthodoxy, this should work. In fact, the will to believe is so strong that members of Europe’s policy elite keep proclaiming that Irish austerity has indeed worked, that the Irish economy has begun to recover. But it hasn’t. And although you’d never know it from much of the press coverage, Irish borrowing costs remain much higher than those of Spain or Italy, let alone Germany. So what are the alternatives?

One answer — an answer that makes more sense than almost anyone in Europe is willing to admit — would be to break up the euro, Europe’s common currency. Europe wouldn’t be in this fix if Greece still had its drachma, Spain its peseta, Ireland its punt, and so on, because Greece and Spain would have what they now lack: a quick way to restore cost-competitiveness and boost exports, namely devaluation. As a counterpoint to Ireland’s sad story, consider the case of Iceland, which was ground zero for the financial crisis but was able to respond by devaluing its currency, the krona (and also had the courage to let its banks fail and default on their debts). Sure enough, Iceland is experiencing the recovery Ireland was supposed to have, but hasn’t.

Yet breaking up the euro would be highly disruptive, and would also represent a huge defeat for the “European project,” the long-run effort to promote peace and democracy through closer integration. Is there another way? Yes, there is — and the Germans have shown how that way can work. Unfortunately, they don’t understand the lessons of their own experience...MORE

[Demeter]

27. In the Euro Zone, False Narrative Dominates Debate By Paul Krugman

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/8896-in-the-euro-zone-false-narrative-dominates-debate

So, the euro crisis is risk on again. And this time it’s centered on Spain — which in a way is a good thing, because now the essential craziness of the orthodox German-inspired diagnosis of the crisis is on full display. For this is really, really not about fiscal irresponsibility. (Just as a reminder: On the eve of the crisis Spain seemed to be a fiscal paragon.) What happened to Spain was a housing bubble — fueled, to an important degree, by lending from German banks — that burst, taking the economy down with it. Now the country has 23.6 percent unemployment; 50.5 percent among the young. And the policy response is supposed to be even more austerity, with the European Central Bank, natch, obsessing over inflation — and officials claiming that the incredibly foolish rate hike last year was actually something to be proud of.

I’m really starting to think that we’re heading for a crack-up of the whole system.

Ken Rogoff’s Bad Parable

Ken Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard, published a commentary article in the Financial Times on April 23 comparing Europe’s woes to those of a family with a shared checking account, some of whose members start abusing the privilege...It’s a cute story — but it’s almost completely wrong. “Almost” because of yes, Greece. But Ken is basically buying into the German-preferred frame that it’s all about fiscal irresponsibility, which is completely wrong for everyone else — above all for Spain, the heart of the crisis.

For the umpteenth time, the key crisis countries did not have large deficits before the crisis struck. Taken as a group, the debt/gross domestic product ratios of the G.I.P.S.I.’s (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy) were falling, not rising. What brought on the crisis were huge private capital inflows. Don’t think runaway politicians; think German Landesbanken lending money to Spanish cajas, fueling a real-estate bubble.

MORE

[Demeter]

14. Harvard and M.I.T. Team Up to Offer Free Online Courses By TAMAR LEWIN

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/education/harvard-and-mit-team-up-to-offer-free-online-courses.html?src=me&ref=general

In what is shaping up as an academic Battle of the Titans — one that offers vast new learning opportunities for students around the world — Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday announced a new nonprofit partnership, known as edX, to offer free online courses from both universities.

Harvard’s involvement follows M.I.T.’s announcement in December that it was starting an open online learning project, MITx. Its first course, Circuits and Electronics, began in March, enrolling about 120,000 students, some 10,000 of whom made it through the recent midterm exam. Those who complete the course will get a certificate of mastery and a grade, but no official credit. Similarly, edX courses will offer a certificate but not credit.

But Harvard and M.I.T. have a rival — they are not the only elite universities planning to offer free massively open online courses, or MOOCs, as they are known. This month, Stanford, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan announced their partnership with a new commercial company, Coursera, with $16 million in venture capital.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Thrun, the Stanford professor who made headlines last fall when 160,000 students signed up for his Artificial Intelligence course, has attracted more than 200,000 students to the six courses offered at his new company, Udacity...

[Demeter]

29. The Crushing Burden of Student Debt

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/8901-the-crushing-burden-of-student-debt

...I’m sort of walking along the corner of Broadway and Liberty, and there’s this guy, he’s playing a carnival barker, and he says, “Step right up! Write down what you owe to the bank; write down what you’re worth to the 1 percent!” He had these huge sheets of paper, and he had probably, you know, two dozen markers, and people were writing down what they owed and what type of debt. I actually walked by and went into the park and had this weird hesitation about putting that number down—because I would have to think about it. I would have to think about how much money I owed. But, as we were leaving, I went and I took the marker and I wrote it down, and it was $42,000. I felt sick to my stomach. Behind me, a girl who couldn’t have been more than 22 or 23 years old writes down $120,000 of student debt. And I thought, this is a radical moment, because we are articulating this number out loud, and we are putting it in a political context, and this is the moment I’ve been waiting for. I’ve known that something was wrong with this, people haven’t been really discussing this issue, something’s happening.

...Graduating seniors in 2010 carried an average debt of $25,000, while unemployment for that same group was at 9.1 percent. College tuition has increased more than 400 percent since the 1980s, with of course no appreciable increase in wages or inflation; it outstrips inflation. The debt default rate at for-profit institutions is 29 percent, and more than half of the student population at these for-profit colleges is African American or Latino. It’s a problem that affects the whole spectrum. Student loan debts are exceptional in that they’re afforded no protections. Student debtors are not protected from bankruptcy; student loan debt can follow you to the grave. As of 2005, benefits like Social Security can be garnished, which is unprecedented. It’s very easy for loans to double or triple in a period of ten years—you fall behind on a payment, suddenly there’s this whole chain of fees that is triggered, and you’re sort of like underwater trying to get back, just recovering those fees, and then you start paying the interest, let alone getting to the principAL.

All that is to say that student loans are predatory loans. And they’re not loans taken out—you know, it’s not a privilege. There’s a view like, “Well, you know what you’re getting into, taking out student loans, you know, this is like a privilege problem.” Well, it’s not a privilege problem, for several reasons. One is that a college degree has become a prerequisite in a knowledge economy. You have to take on student loan debt to get this degree, but then you graduate with this debt increasingly into an economy where you can’t get a job. So you’re already in a position of indenture-tude. The Occupy Student Debt campaign launched a few weeks ago, and it centers around a student debt pledge of refusal.

The pledge begins, “As members of the most indebted generations in history, we pledge to stop making student loan payments after one million of us have signed this pledge.” There’s also a pledge for faculty supporters; there’s a pledge for non-debtors, a non-debtor pledge of support. Pledges in the campaign are based around four principles: 1) That the federal government should cover the cost of tuition at public colleges and universities, which incidentally would be a price tag of about $70 billion as of this year, which is a paltry sum actually—it sounds like a lot but it’s not. 2) We believe that any student loans should be interest-free. 3) We believe that private and for-profit colleges and universities, which are largely financed through student debt, should open their books. So these for-profit universities and private schools like the New School and NYU, they’re financed through student debt, and yet their operations are a private matter. They’re not a matter of public record. And finally, 4) the current student debt load should be written off.

MUCH MORE AT LINK

[Demeter]

15. Schäuble backs wage rises for Germans

‘Europe and the G20 are relying on us remaining an engine of growth’ finance minster tells magazine. ‘Wage increases ... reduce imbalances within Europe’

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/HYOWX1/WH2F8/TUV1I2/97TXD3/6C/t?a1=2012&a2=5&a3=7

[Demeter]

16. Buffett says $8bn deals were ‘peanuts’

Berkshire Hathaway will be expected to make bigger purchases in future, says chief – and could spend $30bn on an acquisition next year

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/WDI4RR/WTYPIB/Q38E1/R30PDO/2OFAA0/7V/t?a1=2012&a2=5&a3=7

[Demeter]

17. These Islands Aren’t Just a Shelter From Taxes By ROBERT M. MORGENTHAU

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/opinion/sunday/these-islands-arent-just-a-shelter-from-taxes.html

...if sales figures are any indication, the real music capital of the world may not be America, but Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a tax haven, and Apple funnels more than a billion dollars worth of iTunes sales through that tiny country to avoid paying higher taxes.

These tax strategies are nothing new — and, no doubt, Apple has taken advantage of tax rules that allow them. The Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 2008 estimated that at least $5 trillion to $7 trillion was sheltered in offshore jurisdictions like the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Bermuda and the Bahamas — not just by Americans, but by everyone. These jurisdictions have little or no income tax.

The favorable tax rates encourage corporations to avoid paying American taxes by structuring complicated international transactions, like Apple’s “Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich,” recently described by The New York Times. But it’s not just the low tax rates that make these jurisdictions attractive to those following the rules. The secrecy of offshore jurisdictions allows some individuals and corporations to engage in outright tax fraud, costing America at least $40 billion each year.

And that secrecy makes offshore tax fraud almost impossible for law enforcement to detect. When I was the Manhattan district attorney, we learned of offshore accounts only through whistle-blowers, cooperators and serendipity...MORE

[xchrom]

18. it's monday morning -- the greeks and the french have spoken -- and the markets?

[Demeter]

21. DJIA FUTURES -62 AT 7 AM

[Demeter]

30. -51 AT 8 AM

[Roland99]

32. Geez...I fly to Boston for a weekend what happens?

Oil tanks almost $10/bbl, the EURUSD dropped below $1.30.

maybe I should keep going up to Boston for weekends?


BTW, walked The Freedom Trail with our personal guide who lives in Back Bay/South End. Walked past one of John Kerry's homes in Beacon Hill. Drove past Harvard (where our friend just finished up a Fellowship at the Kennedy School).

I tell ya...it felt good being in a bastion of liberal thought up there.


oh...and France elects a *GASP* Socialist?!?

[xchrom]

33. What a nice weekend! Nt

[bread_and_roses]

38. Active thread on this in LBN

Posted by OmahaBlueDog http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014114919

Asian markets, euro dive on Europe election results
Source: AFP via Google

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g_HLaBzqtdcnMoFgNo_LLlc7vYPg?docId=CNG.9acfd658a4e2dc4596cde4aee8ce77d8.1d1

There's some of the same-old same-old we heard in '08-'09: "if the Markets crash we'll all die" stuff - but more seem to have woken up.

[Demeter]

46. That's an amazingly ignorant and unaware bunch of postings

I despair for the people.

[Tansy_Gold]

50. Thanks for the warning

I was thinking of going there but won't now. I can't deal with the looniness.

[Fuddnik]

52. Chicken!

I went by earlier, and all it did was inspire me to go out in the heat and do some yardwork.

I'm back in now for a couple of beers to cool off, put a new chain on the saw, and wait for a UPS delivery.

Then back out and try to get some more done. But right now my back is yelling at me, and I'm trying to decide between a pain pill or a pain drink.

[Demeter]

20. Geithner’s World, Part 1: Three Years of Immunity for Bad Bankers By Richard (RJ) Eskow

http://www.nationofchange.org/geithner-s-world-part-1-three-years-immunity-bad-bankers-1336224817

Here's a walk down memory lane that's worth taking, even if it makes your blood pressure spike a little: Three years ago Tim Geithner was in the position of having to explain why the Federal government wasn't going to nationalize the nation's failing banks. In 2009 many people expected that to be part of the government's bank rescue plan.

Only three years. It seems so long ago, doesn't it?

In 2009 there was a very compelling argument for a Federal takeover over these failing institutions, which had been so negligently (and very possibly criminally) mismanaged, THEY could no longer survive on their own. And while nationalization wasn't the only course worth considering, this snapshot from our national past reflects the gravity of the crisis caused by bankers. It's also a useful reminder of the extent to which bank CEOs failed to pass even the most basic test of executive competence - namely, not destroying your own corporation. Three years ago bank CEOs expected that the Administration would take firm measures against them as it rescued and restructured their institutions. That would have been the logical thing to do. After all, an entire set of corporations has failed spectacularly, shattering the global economy and forcing taxpayers to provide them with hundreds of billions of dollars in rescue money...But no, Geithner told reporters, there were no plans to nationalize these failed, collapsing institutions. Instead Geithner said he was beginning a process he described as ""efforts taken to date to improve transparency and accountability." What else was in the news in early-to-mid 2009?

Three years ago journalists were reviewing Geithner's work history as head of the New York Federal Reserve, and noting some rather dramitic shortcomings in his performance there, like his failure to spot impending doom at Citigroup . That's like being the astronomer on asteroid watch who misses the fact that our planet is about to be struck ... by Jupiter. Widespread concerns about Geithner's coziness with Wall Street were even being reflected in the comments of nonpolitical observers like Christopher Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics, who was troubled by his relationship with Goldman Sachs. Economics and law professor William K. Black was even more blunt in his assessment of Geithner's plans three years ago, saying that Geithner was continuing predecessor Hank Paulson's "policy of violating the law." As Black wrote in February 2009:

"The law mandates that the administration place troubled banks, well before they become insolvent, in receivership, appoint competent managers, and restrain senior executive compensation (i.e., no bonuses and no raises may be paid to them). The law does not provide that the taxpayers are to bail out troubled banks."

But three years later most of those banks' leaders are still in place. Bankers have continued to receive enormous bonuses and raises, despite the fact that Geithner was insisting that the bank bailouts came with firm conditions for the fortunate recipients...MORE


(Coming up - "Geithner's World, Part 2: Guilt and Innocence&quot

[Fuddnik]

39. In one of Obama's first acts as President, He told Geithner to break up Citi.

Geithner promptly ignored him. Or slow walked it as they call it.

Two months later at an Economic Advisors meeting, which Timmeh didn't attend, The President asked how the plan on Citi was coming along. Christina Romer replied, "Mr. President, there is no plan". "There had better be!", he yelled.

Afterward, she had her as reamed by Rahm Emmanuel for ratting poor little Timmeh out, without him being there to defend himself.

It was never brought up again.

From Ron Suskind's "Confidence Men".

[xchrom]

22. Euro declines on French and Greek election results

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17980446


The euro fell against the dollar and the pound on Monday following weekend election results.

Poor performances by pro-bailout parties in Greece and the victory of Francois Hollande in France, who wants to focus more on growth, have cast doubt on European austerity plans.

The euro fell as low as $1.295, its lowest since January, and dropped to three-year lows against the pound.

European stock markets fell, with Germany's Dax trading 1.2% lower.

[xchrom]

23. Indonesia's economy grows at slowest pace in 18 months

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17980123

Indonesia's economy grew at its slowest pace in 18 months amid a slowdown in exports as demand from key markets such as the US and Europe weakened.

The economy grew by 6.3% in the first quarter from a year earlier, down from 6.5% in the previous three months.

Analysts said strong domestic demand and state spending helped cushion the impact of a slowdown in exports.

However, they warned that domestic demand may be hurt in coming months, not least due to a weakening currency.

[xchrom]

24. Unemployment set to keep on rising, says forecaster {UK}

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17979559

Unemployment in most parts of the UK is likely to continue to rise over the next five years, according to an economic forecasting group.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) says the overall jobless rate could hit 10.7% by 2016, the highest for more than a decade.

The CEBR also believes unemployment could in time rise to levels not seen since the recession of the early 1990s.

UK unemployment fell by 35,000 to 2.65m between last December and February.

[Demeter]

25. Robert Reich: The Stall Has Arrived

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/8944-the-stall-has-arrived

Friday’s jobs report for April was even more disappointing than March. Employers added only 115,000 new jobs, down from March’s number (the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised the March number upward to 154,000, but that’s still abysmal relative to what’s needed). We need well over 250,000 new jobs per month in order to begin to whittle down the vast number of jobs lost in the Great Recession. At least 125,000 new jobs are necessary each month just to keep up with an expanding population of working-age people. With only 115,000 jobs in April, the hole is getting even deeper.

Most observers pay attention to the official rate of unemployment, which edged down to 8.1 percent in April from 8.2 percent in March. That may sound like progress, but it’s not. The unemployment rate dropped because more people dropped out of the labor force, too discouraged to look for work. The household survey, from which the rate is calculated, counts as “unemployed” only people who are actively looking for work. If you stop looking because the job scene looks hopeless for you, you’re no longer counted.

In the winter months — December, January, and February – hiring had seemed to pick up, averaging over 250,000 new jobs per month. Then the mini-surge stopped. The simplest explanation is that the mild winter across much of the United States gave an unusual boost to hiring then, leading to a correction by the spring. Most of the job gains in April were in lower-wage industries – retail stores, restaurants, and temporary-help. That means average wages continue to drop, adjusted for inflation – continuing their long-term decline. Most of the new jobs that have been added to the U.S. economy during this recovery have paid less than the jobs that were lost during the downturn. What does all this mean? Together with other recent data showing slower economic growth during the first quarter of this year, it’s safe to say the economy has stalled.

This is bad news for millions of Americans.

It’s also bad news for Obama and the Democrats. Voters don’t pay much attention to the economy in an election year until after Labor Day, so it’s not necessarily a huge help to Romney and the Republicans. But it’s a bad political omen nonetheless. No set of policies between now and Election Day are likely to expand the economy. To the contrary, government at all levels continues to contract, acting as a fiscal drag when government needs to be doing the exact reverse – boosting the economy through additional spending. In 2013, when spending major cuts are scheduled, we’ll fall off a fiscal cliff.

Obama needs to push back loudly and clearly, saying he won’t support additional spending cuts until the economy is showing clear signs of improvement...MORE

[Demeter]

26. The Economy and the Presidency By Martin Feldstein

http://www.nationofchange.org/economy-and-presidency-1336316745


...At the moment, America’s economy is limping along with slow growth and high unemployment. Output grew by just 1.5% last year, and real GDP per capita is lower now than before the economic downturn began at the end of 2007. Although annual GDP growth was 3% in the fourth quarter of 2011, more than half of that reflected inventory accumulation. Final sales to households, businesses, and foreign buyers rose at only a 1.1% annual rate, even slower than earlier in the year. And the preliminary estimate for annual GDP growth in the first quarter of 2012 was a disappointing 2.2%, with only a 1.6% rise in final sales.

The labor market has been similarly disappointing. The March unemployment rate of 8.2% was nearly three percentage points above what most economists would consider a desirable and sustainable long-run level rate. Although the rate was down from 9% a year ago, about half of the change reflected a rise in the number of people who have stopped looking for work, rather than an increase in job creation and the employment rate.

Indeed, the official unemployment rate understates the weakness of the labor market. An estimated 6% of all employees are working fewer hours per week than they would like, and about 2% of potential employees are not counted as unemployed because they have not looked for work in the past few weeks, even though they would like to work. Adding these individuals to those officially classified as unemployed implies that about 15% of potential labor-force participants are working less than they want.

Solid increases in payroll employment at the start of the year contributed to a general sense of confidence. But the rate of increase in payroll employment fell in March to less than half of the rate recorded in previous months, and the number of workers claiming unemployment benefits recently jumped to a four-month high. Even those who are working are seeing their incomes shrink. Real average weekly earnings have fallen in recent months, and are now lower than they were 18 months ago. The broader measure of real per capita after-tax personal income has also been falling, and is back to levels last seen a year ago...MORE...The economy is thus shaping up to be a serious liability for President Barack Obama, who is likely to place the blame on the conditions that he inherited from President George W. Bush, and on the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. But the public is likely to place the blame on the president, and surveys indicate that a growing number of Americans believe that Mitt Romney, the almost certain Republican candidate, would do a better job than Obama at managing the economy. The polls are very close, and voters have not yet locked in their decisions. The economy could rise more sharply than expected in the months ahead. If not, Obama will try to shift attention from the overall economy by emphasizing his plan to raise taxes on high-income individuals. And a variety of other issues, including immigration and the role of women, might influence voters. But the state of the economy is usually the most important determinant of who wins national elections in the United States. And US economic conditions now favor Romney.

[xchrom]

28. Greece election: EU and Germany firm on Athens bailout

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17975370

The EU and Germany have stressed Greece must keep to the terms of the two EU/IMF bailouts, after a surge of voter support for anti-austerity parties.

The two main parties, New Democracy and Pasok, attracted less than a third of the vote, in an election plunging Greece into political uncertainty.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Greece's reforms were of "utmost importance".

New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras will now face a struggle finding parties prepared to join a government.

[Fuddnik]

36. Note to Merkel.

You're next.

You can go retire to Dallas and get another nice back rub from a chimp.

[DemReadingDU]

31. the toon: The Sun King, also known as Louis XIV, was a 17th century French monarch

http://www.ctevans.net/Versailles/Site/Louisxiv.html

[xchrom]

34. Lloyds owns stake in US firm accused over CIA torture flights

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/06/lloyds-computer-sciences-corporation-cia-rendition

Lloyd's Banking Group has become embroiled in a row over its investment in a company accused of involvement in the rendition of terror suspects on behalf of the CIA.

Lloyds, which is just under 40% owned by the taxpayer, is one of a number of leading City institutions under fire for investing in US giant Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), which is accused of helping to organise covert US government flights of terror suspects to Guantánamo Bay and other clandestine "black sites" around the world.

Reprieve, the legal human rights charity run by the British lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, alleges that during the flights, suspects – some of whom were later proved innocent – were "stripped, dressed in a diaper and tracksuit, goggles and earphones, and had their hands and feet shackled". Once delivered to the clandestine locations, they were subjected to beatings and sleep deprivation and forced into stress positions, a report from the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

CSC, which is facing a backlash for allegedly botching its handling of a £3bn contract to upgrade the NHS IT system, has refused to comment on claims it was involved in rendition. It has also refused to sign a Reprieve pledge to "never knowingly facilitate torture" in the future. The claims about its involvement in rendition flights have not been confirmed.

[Roland99]

40. US Markets avoid a case of the Mondays

S&P and Nasdaq already Back in Black.

[Fuddnik]

41. They're all red now.

Dow is down 42, but Dow futures are down 182.

This could get ugly.

[Roland99]

43. reality setting in

[xchrom]

42. CITI: This Is Why We Now Think There's A 50-75% Chance Of Greece Leaving The Eurozone

http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-this-is-why-we-now-think-theres-a-50-75-chance-of-greece-leaving-the-euro-2012-5

CITI analysts are making headlines this morning, increasing their assessment of the likelihood that Greece will leave the euro currency.

Before yesterday's elections, they had believed there was a 50 percent chance the country would see a "Grexit." Now they believe that the likelihood of a Greek exit is now 50 to 75 percent.

With diminished support for austerity and the likely fragility of any coalition that forms in the wake of the election (if it forms at all), Guillaume Menuet and Jurgen Michels predict that the ECB/EU/IMF troika will soon be forced to withhold the funding that is keeping the Greek government from a more complete default:

'Overall, the outcome of the Greek election shows that it will be very difficult to form a viable coalition and to implement the measures required in the MoU. Particularly, the identification of the 7% GDP of budget savings for 2013 and 2014 by the end of June looks very unlikely to us. As a consequence, in a first step, the Troika is likely to delay the disbursement of the next tranche of the programme. Note that for 2Q 2012, disbursements of €31.3bn from the bailout programme are scheduled. If Greece does not make progress, in a second step, the Troika is likely to stop the programme. If that happens, the Greek sovereign and its banking sector would run out of funding. As a consequence, we expect that Greece would be forced to leave the euro area. With the outcome of the election, to us the probability of a Greek exit is now larger than our previous estimate of 50%, and rises to between 50-75%. However, even after the elections in Greece, France and Germany, we regard the probability of a broad-based break up of the monetary union as very low. We continue to expect that in reaction to Greece leaving the euro area, more far-reaching measures from governments and the ECB would be put in place.'


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-this-is-why-we-now-think-theres-a-50-75-chance-of-greece-leaving-the-euro-2012-5#ixzz1uC91ufvF

[Demeter]

47. "Grexit", rhymes with "Corexit"

Turns the Mediterranean into a Dead Sea....

[xchrom]

44. Valencia pays more than Greece for six-month debt

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/05/04/inenglish/1336134749_607911.html

The highly indebted region of Valencia sold 500 million euros of six-month bonds on Thursday, but had to pay yields of seven percent. That's higher than the cost of debt for the three euro-zone countries that have come to symbolize the financial crisis: Greece, which pays 4.947 percent; Portugal, 2.226 percent; and Ireland, 0.988 percent.

Valencia carried out the operation to refinance a debt that was due to be repaid today, and will be followed by another two repayments: 500 million euros on May 9, and 473 million on May 27. In total, the region will have to renew five billion euros of public debt over 2012.

Given that its rating has been lowered to junk-bond status, the region has repeatedly warned that it will need help from the central government to cope with its finances.

Regional government sources on Thursday only went so far as to say that the high yields were the conditions being demanded by the market, and that given the situation, it would have been more serious if the region had been unable to refinance.

[DemReadingDU]

45. ZeroHedge: The Animated Annotated French Presidential Election

5/7/12 The Animated Annotated French Presidential Election
In a little over 80 seconds, this animated clip provides everything you need to know about exactly what Hollande's victory today means to Europe's glorious future.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/animated-annotated-french-presidential-election

[Warpy]

49. The end of the Euro? The end of austerity might be its saving.

Austerity does not work. It cripples already damaged economies.

The only thing that works is revamping the tax code to increase revenue while paying living wages to workers.

Just don't try to tell the bankers. Anything that distracts from their finger pointing at working people as the cause of all the world's problems will refocus attention on them and how their actions started this whole mess.

[bread_and_roses]

51. The economists have another word to bedazzle us with

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-06/hysteresis-undermining-labor-pattern-becomes-bernanke-fed-focus

Hysteresis Becomes Bernanke Fed Focus

Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said April 11 that continued monetary accommodation is warranted because of the risk that high unemployment may cause “more persistent structural problems” if temporary joblessness becomes more permanent. While she, like Bernanke, doesn’t see any “substantial” evidence of hysteresis yet, it might occur if the labor market doesn’t heal fast enough, she said in New York.

The term hysteresis, meaning that which comes later, was used in classical physics before gaining popularity among economists to describe disenfranchised workers in periods of high unemployment, according to an entry in “An Encyclopedia of Macroeconomics” by economist Rod Cross. Referenced “occasionally” since the 1940s by Paul Samuelson, Edmund Phelps and others, it became more widely used in the 1980s, including by Olivier Blanchard and Larry Summers, Cross wrote.

I am considered to have a vocabulary far above average. Despite the article saying it's "been around," I never heard it before. Nor did I know what it meant.

[Demeter]

53. Hysteresis is an Engineering term for what happens when you magnetize a chunk of ferrous metal

The magnetism lingers, even after the original field is removed.

http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/electromagnetism/magnetic-hysteresis.html

This means economic bullshit. But you knew that.