STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 24 September 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

Last edited Wed Sep 24, 2014, 08:04 AM - Edit history (1)

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 24 September 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 23 September 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 23 September 2014
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Dow Jones 17,055.87 -117.00
S&P 500 1,982.77 -11.52 (-0.58%)
Nasdaq 4,508.69 -19.00 (-0.42%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.53% -0.03 (-1.17%)
30 Year 3.25% -0.03 (-0.91%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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(click on link for latest updates)
http://tools.investing.com/market_quotes.php?
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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
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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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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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
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
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.
05/19/14 Credit Suisse, which has an investment bank branch in NYC, agrees to plead guilty and pay appx. $2.6 billion penalties for helping wealthy Americans hide wealth and avoid taxes.
09/08/14 Matthew Martoma, convicted SAC trader, sentenced to 9 years in prison plus forfeiture of $9.3 million, including home and bank accounts







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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]

[littlemissmartypants]

1. Thank you. nt

[tclambert]

2. We are the generation that fiddled while the whole world burned.

[Warpy]

30. We are the generation deemed superfluous by a cadre of facists

It's not like we're consulted on anything.

[Crewleader]

3. $

[Demeter]

4. What is this, back to the future? September 4?

I started a new gig this morning...the people seem nice, and the work is not stressful. I will see if the hours work, but the paper route continues to Oct 23rd, since it requires 30 days' notice.

If I'm not crazy by then, it should work out fine...until the next scheme comes to mind.

[Fuddnik]

5. I lost my golf course job, while taking care of Good 'Ole Pappy.

They told me when I was leaving for a few days, take your time, you have to take care of family, you're covered. I went back yesterday, and I was replaced.

Their whole deal of hiring workers as volunteers is illegal, under Federal labor law. Karma is gonna be a real bitch for those assholes when I call the Dept. of Labor tomorrow.

On the bright side, I get to drive to SC again this week and bring Good "Ole" Pappy back to Florida to an assisted living community.

Guess I picked the wrong week to quit drinking.

[Demeter]

6. You can wrap it up nice and tight if you can get guardianship

Of course, you have to prove complete incompetence...ornery stupidity isn't sufficient.

Isn't Florida one of the places that gutted guardianship, due to humungous abuses?

If I could get drunk, I would. As it is, it's a cheap sleeping aid.

[Demeter]

13. How Uber's Efforts to Squeeze Drivers Have Compelled Them to Fight Back

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/how-ubers-efforts-squeeze-drivers-have-compelled-them-fight?akid=12245.227380.B7sn-w&rd=1&src=newsletter1019485&t=5




Last week in Long Island City, a waterfront neighborhood in western Queens, over 1,000 Uber drivers went on strike, protesting against several recent policy changes that directly cut into their wages. LIC is cab country, home to countless car service companies, and it can sometimes feel like every passing vehicle is a taxi of some sort: a classic yellow cab, a town car, a green taxi or, more likely than not, a ridesharing car. So it came as no surprise that drivers who work for Uber—a smartphone app that connects drivers with people looking for a ride—chose the company’s Long Island City headquarters to protest their labor practices.

One driver grievance was the decision to extend a summer discount, where the base price for standard rides was slashed from $12 to $8, into the fall, requiring drivers to work more hours to make the same money. The other is slightly more complex, but just as damaging to workers’ earning potential. There are several distinct tiers of Uber service (UberX and Uber XL, the cheapest services offered in New York City, and UberBlack and UberSUV, the higher-end black car services), and drivers for the higher-end versions earn more, in part to compensate for the higher costs of their vehicles, which they must supply themselves. Without any advance warning, the company told drivers for “Black” and “SUV” that they would now be sent cheaper fares as well, and that declining those fares could lead to their deactivation from the service.

The coordinated outcry from their workers got Uber’s attention, and, in an abrupt turnaround late on Friday morning, the company sent a mass email to their New York drivers giving them permission to decide if and when to receive UberX requests. Though this conflict may seem like a minor technical issue, it speaks to the increasingly fraught dynamic between the San Francisco-based company and its international network of independently contracted drivers.

Uber has built its reputation on providing reliable, safe rides at any time and at any location in the urban centers where it operates. In 205 cities in 45 countries across the world, it is now possible to take out your phone, select a car from a map showing nearby Uber vehicles, and have a cab waiting at your doorstep in under five minutes. Because customers’ accounts are linked to their debit or credit cards, payment is seamless. The convenience and usability of the app have inspired devoted fans, and few would argue against the practicality of Uber and its ever-expanding list of peers, including Sidecar, Lyft, SheTaxis and Halo. But in their focus on customer service, ridesharing companies have pushed the concerns of their workers aside...

[Fuddnik]

19. I quit them when they cut their rates a second time.

I'm not working for peanuts. They are the epitome of non-responsive corporate turds.

When I started, a call would include a contact number for the customer. And the customer would see my cell phone #. I guess they had a couple of complaints of drivers harassing female clients in New York, so they created a generic number for both the client and the driver to communicate with each other. Problem is, it didn't work.

I pulled up to a gated community one morning, and I was picking up a passenger, who was running late for a flight. I tried calling him to get the gate codes. Couldn't get through. He was trying to text me. He couldn't get through. The next thing I know, here comes this guy dragging his luggage down the street to the gate. If it had been the next day, when we had a day-long cloudburst, that would have been one pissed off customer.

And any interaction we had with the company was through e-mail. I never met a human who worked for Uber. And when you tell them about a problem, all you get is a bunch of corporate "zombie-speak", about how things are "supposed" to work. If you tell them it doesn't, they ignore it.

[Demeter]

7. This is your brain on narcissism: The truth about a disorder that nobody really understands

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/20/this_is_your_brain_about_narcissism_the_truth_about_a_disorder_that_nobody_really_understands/?source=newsletter

In Greco-Roman myth, Narcissus, a beautiful young man, catches sight of his reflection in a body of water and falls deeply in love with his own image. This is, of course, where we get the word “narcissism.” What many in today’s culture overlook when tossing around the term “narcissism,” explains Jeffrey Kluger, author of “The Narcissist Next Door,” is that it is actually a clinical personality disorder affecting 1 to 3 percent of the population. Kluger’s book goes beyond cautionary tales of narcissism — like that of Narcissus — and explores how the disorder affects daily life, relationships, government, Hollywood, sports and elsewhere...(Narcissism is a) very widely used word culturally, a bit of a shorthand to describe all kinds of behavioral phenomena...(being) far too self-absorbed, having far too much of a sense of entitlement, being far too uninterested in listening...

Is there a correct amount of narcissism?

There’s no sort of fever chart where, below (this level), you are a healthy narcissist, or above (this level) you are an unhealthy narcissist...there is a level of narcissism that energizes and motivates, that makes you creative, that makes you particularly value the reward of recognition, but not become drunk off that reward of recognition. And it can be very, very beneficial. The level of narcissism that helps you step forward with confidence and tell your ideas in an engaging and charismatic way can be really helpful...Whatever else people may like or dislike about Bill Clinton, the man can work a room like nobody’s business, because he wants to be recognized, he wants to make a difference. Even if we don’t necessarily respect the gratification he’s getting from that — the narcissistic gratification he’s getting from that — the fact is that he’s doing to make a difference, to make the word a better place. So, you know it depends on what your larger goal is and how you’re deploying those talents to achieve it.

What were some of the most interesting examples of extreme narcissism that you found when writing your book?

Well I certainly think you see it at almost epidemic levels in politicians. Richard Nixon was clearly suffering from mass-model narcissism, a level of grandiosity that conceals its direct opposite. It is often the case when you’re simultaneously trying to reconcile those two incompatible world views — I’m the best and I’m the worst — that you can generally engineer your own destruction that way...Clinton did that in a much smaller way. Good lord. He knew that if there was one thing his enemies were lying in wait for when he took office, it was the sex scandal. So he went right ahead and served it up to them, because he was incapable of controlling his own lack of narcissistic impulse control. Incapable of seeing something he wanted and denying himself that. So he’s a very good example of that...Lyndon Johnson is a terrific and terrible example of narcissism with his monomaniacal prosecution of the Vietnam war, and his inability to stand down from it because his point was peace with honor, and “I won’t be the first American president to lose a war.” You may have to sit with that historical fate, in order to save the lives of 58,000 Americans. So clearly Johnson was a terrible, quite literally bloody, example, even if that wasn’t his intention...We see it in less consequential ways with people like Justin Bieber. You can’t look away from Justin Bieber, because he’s an unfolding train-wreck.So you know we see these examples of people who do great damage to the world, or damage to themselves by not being able to keep their narcissistic demons under control.

...Do you think that there needs to be greater awareness that this is something that people should get treated in some way? Or at least recognize? Or is it even possible to recognize and treat?


...personality disorders like narcissism, paranoia, histrionic personality disorder and borderline personality disorders are what is called egosyntonic. You think you’re not narcissistic, you really are better. You’re not paranoid, there really are people who are after you. So until you get over that belief, until you can stop fighting on behalf of your disorder, you’re never going to get into a psychologist’s office in the first place. And I also think that for a lot of narcissists, they only get there under duress, and when they get there they still believe that they are smarter than the shrink, and they’re only there because nobody understands them. And they fire the doctor very quickly and go on and continue to make a mess of their lives and the lives of the people around them. So, I agree with you that greater awareness of this as a clinical personality disorder is necessary. But I fear that no amount of banging narcissists over the head with evidence of their issues is going to make a difference, as opposed to someone with OCD or anxiety.

...There’s narcissism of the individual and there’s narcissism of the group, and in both cases it’s essentially the same thing. We are better, we are more entitled, we are different or at least less interested in the people around us, or the tribes or nations around us, because we’re worthier than they are. Our people are the prettiest, our language is the most musical, our clothes are the most stylish. And these people are barbarians or at the very best civilized but crude. We are deserving of resources just as I, as the individual, am deserving of the raise, or deserving of the job or deserving of the hottest girl at the party because I’m better than the other guys around me. Now this has its benign expression in sport, except when people are killed, in soccer brawls or when a fan of the San Francisco Giants is beaten up in a parking lot by a Dodgers fan. Obviously it can get ugly sometimes...almost all that behavior comes from pain. Almost all of that behavior comes from some kind of internal suffering. So, I’d like to have Kanye West’s money and his fame and his privilege, but whatever drives those self-adoring demons can’t feel that great. The same is true of anyone. Anyone who is so tormented by internal doubt and a private personal history that affects the way you behave — I wouldn’t want to feel the pain the raging narcissist feels.

MORE---THE DISEASE OF THE AGES AND THE EMPIRES

[Demeter]

8. Understanding Organizational Stupidity

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2014/09/understanding-organizational-stupidity.html#more

...A country blowing itself up is quite a sight to behold, and it makes us wonder about lots of things. For instance, it makes us wonder whether the people who are doing the blowing up happen to be criminals. (NARCISSISTS!--DEMETER) (Sure, they may be in a manner of speaking—as a moral judgment passed on the powerful by the powerless—but since none of them are likely to see the inside of a jail cell or even a courtroom any time soon, the point is moot. Let's be sure to hunt them down once they try to run and hide, though.) But at a much more basic and fundamental level, a better question to ask is this one:

“Why are we being so fucking stupid?”

What do I mean when I use the term “fucking stupid”? I do not mean it as a term of abuse but as a precise, if unflattering, diagnosis. Here is as good a definition as any, excerpted from American Eulogy by Jim Quinn:

If you had told someone on September 10, 2001 that ten years later America would be running $1.5 trillion annual deficits, fighting two wars of choice in countries that despise our presence, and had not only not addressed the $100 [trillion] of unfunded welfare liabilities but added billions more with Medicare D and Obamacare, they would have thought you were a crazy doomster predicting the end of the world. They would have put you away in a padded cell if you had further predicted that politicians would cut taxes three separate times, that the Wall Street banks that leveraged themselves 40 to 1 and destroyed the financial system [would be] handed $2 trillion of taxpayer funds so they could pay themselves multi-million dollar bonuses, and that the Federal Reserve would triple its balance sheet to $2.45 trillion by running its printing presses at hyper-speed and handing the money to those same Wall Street Mega-Banks.

Well, the evidence is in, and that crazy doomster in his padded cell has turned out to be amazingly prescient, so perhaps we should listen to him. And what would that crazy doomster have to say now? I would venture to guess that it would be something along these lines:

There is no reason to think that those who failed to take corrective action up until now, but remain in control, will ever do so. But it should be perfectly obvious that this situation cannot continue ad infinitum. And, as a matter of general principle, things that can't go on forever—don't.

Back to the question of stupidity: Why are we (as a country) being so fucking stupid? This question has puzzled me for some time. It appears that the problem of stupidity is quite pervasive: look at any large human organization, and you will find that it is ruled by stupidity. I was not the first to stumble across the conjecture that the intelligence of a hierarchically organized group of people is inversely proportional to its size, but so far the mechanism that makes it so has eluded me. Clearly, there is something amiss with hierarchically organized groups, something that causes all of them to eventually collapse, but what exactly is it? To try to get at this question, last year I spent quite a while researching anarchy, and wrote a series of articles on it. I discovered that vast hierarchies do not occur in nature, which is anarchic and self-organizing, with no chains of command and no entities in supreme command. I discovered that anarchic organizations can go on forever while hierarchical ones inevitably end in collapse. I examined some of the recent breakthroughs in complexity theory, which uncovered the laws governing the different scaling factors in natural (anarchically organized, efficient, stable) systems and unnatural (hierarchically organized, inefficient, collapse-prone) ones.

But nowhere did I find a principled, rigorous explanation for the fatal flaw embedded in the very nature of hierarchical systems. I did have a very strong hunch, though, backed by much anecdotal evidence, that it comes down to stupidity. In anarchic societies whose members cooperate freely, intelligence is additive; in hierarchical organizations structured around a chain of command, intelligence is subtractive. The lowest grunts or peons are expected to carry out orders unquestioningly. Their critical faculties are 100% impaired; if not, they are subjected to disciplinary action. The supreme chief executive officer may be of moderately impaired intelligence, since it is indicative of a significant character flaw to want such a job in the first place. (Kurt Vonnegut put it best: “Only nut cases want to be president.”) But beyond that, the supreme leader must act in such a way as to keep the grunts and peons in line, resulting in further intellectual impairment, which is compounded across all of the intervening ranks, with each link in the chain of command contributing a bit of its own stupidity to the organizational stupidity stack.

I never ascended the ranks of middle management, probably due to my tendency to speak out at meetings and throw around terms such as “nonsensical,” “idiotic,” “brainless,” “self-defeating” and “fucking stupid.” If shushed up by superiors, I would resort to cracking jokes, which were funny and even harder to ignore. Neither my critical faculties, nor my sense of humor, are easily repressed. I was thrown at a lot of special projects where the upside of being able to think independently was not negated by the downside of being unwilling to follow (stupid) orders. To me hierarchy = stupidity in an apparent, palpable way. But in explaining to others why this must be so, I had so far been unable to go beyond speaking in generalities and telling stories...so I was happy when I recently came across an article which goes beyond such “hand-waving analysis” and answers this question with some precision. Mats Alvesson and André Spicer, writing in Journal of Management Studies (49 November 2012) present “A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organizations” in which they define a key term: functional stupidity. It is functional in that it is required in order for hierarchically structured organizations to avoid disintegration or, at the very least, to function without a great deal of internal friction. It is stupid in that it is a form intellectual impairment: “Functional stupidity refers to an absence of reflexivity, a refusal to use intellectual capacities in other than myopic ways, and avoidance of justifications.” Alvesson and Spicer go on to define the various “...forms of stupidity management that repress or marginalize doubt and block communicative action” and to diagram the information flows which are instrumental to generating and maintaining sufficient levels stupidity within organizations.

MUCH MORE TO REFLECT UPON--HOW MUCH OF AN ANARCHIST ARE YOU?

[Demeter]

9. OR, AS DILBERT SAYS

AND AS FOR FOREIGN POLICY...DON'T GET ME STARTED!

[Demeter]

10. Shoddy Journalism About Russia Triggers $1 Trillion Hit to US Taxpayers

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics_ukraine_opinion_media_watch/2014/09/24/10-48-00am/shoddy_journalism_about_russia_triggers_1

The costs of the mainstream U.S. media’s wildly anti-Moscow bias in the Ukraine crisis are adding up, as the Obama administration has decided to react to alleged “Russian aggression” by investing as much as $1 trillion in modernizing the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. On Monday, a typically slanted New York Times article justified these modernization plans by describing “Russia on the warpath” and adding: “Congress has expressed less interest in atomic reductions than looking tough in Washington’s escalating confrontation with Moscow.”

But the Ukraine crisis has been a textbook case of the U.S. mainstream media misreporting the facts of a foreign confrontation and then misinterpreting the meaning of the events, a classic case of “garbage in, garbage out.” The core of the false mainstream narrative is that Russian President Vladimir Putin instigated the crisis as an excuse to reclaim territory for the Russian Empire. While that interpretation of events has been the cornerstone of Official Washington’s “group think,” the reality always was that Putin favored maintaining the status quo in Ukraine. He had no plans to “invade” Ukraine and was satisfied with the elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych. Indeed, when the crisis heated up last February, Putin was distracted by the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Rather than Putin’s “warmongering” – as the Times said in the lead-in to another Monday article – the evidence is clear that it was the United States and the European Union that initiated this confrontation in a bid to pull Ukraine out of Russia’s sphere of influence and into the West’s orbit.

This was a scheme long in the making, but the immediate framework for the crisis took shape a year ago when influential U.S. neocons set their sights on Ukraine and Putin after Putin helped defuse a crisis in Syria by persuading President Barack Obama to set aside plans to bomb Syrian government targets over a disputed Sarin gas attack and instead accept Syria’s willingness to surrender its entire chemical weapons arsenal...


AND THAT'S NOT COUNTING THE BLOWBACK ON THE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS, WHICH WILL SIMULTANEOUSLY TAKE OUT BOTH THE EURO AND THE PETRO-DOLLAR, REDUCING EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES TO THIRD WORLD FAILED STATES....

[Demeter]

11. Dark Age America: The End of the Old Order

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2014/09/dark-age-america-end-of-old-order.html

... people eagerly seeking such peace and safety as a dark age may provide them...

Outside the elites, which have a different and considerably more gruesome destiny than the other inhabitants of a falling civilization, it’s surprisingly rare for people to have to be forced to trade civilization for barbarism, either by human action or by the pressure of events. By and large, by the time that choice arrives, the great majority are more than ready to make the exchange, and for good reason.

Let’s start by reviewing some basics. As I pointed out in a paper published online back in 2005—a PDF is available here: http://ecoshock.org/transcripts/greer_on_collapse.pdf —the process that drives the collapse of civilizations has a surprisingly simple basis: the mismatch between the maintenance costs of capital and the resources that are available to meet those costs. Capital here is meant in the broadest sense of the word, and includes everything in which a civilizations invests its wealth: buildings, roads, imperial expansion, urban infrastructure, information resources, trained personnel, or what have you. Capital of every kind has to be maintained, and as a civilization adds to its stock of capital, the costs of maintenance rise steadily, until the burden they place on the civilization’s available resources can’t be supported any longer.

The only way to resolve that conflict is to allow some of the capital to be converted to waste, so that its maintenance costs drop to zero and any useful resources locked up in the capital can be put to other uses. Human beings being what they are, the conversion of capital to waste generally isn’t carried out in a calm, rational manner; instead, kingdoms fall, cities get sacked, ruling elites are torn to pieces by howling mobs, and the like. If a civilization depends on renewable resources, each round of capital destruction is followed by a return to relative stability and the cycle begins all over again; the history of imperial China is a good example of how that works out in practice.

If a civilization depends on nonrenewable resources for essential functions, though, destroying some of its capital yields only a brief reprieve from the crisis of maintenance costs. Once the nonrenewable resource base tips over into depletion, there’s less and less available each year thereafter to meet the remaining maintenance costs, and the result is the stairstep pattern of decline and fall so familiar from history: each crisis leads to a round of capital destruction, which leads to renewed stability, which gives way to crisis as the resource base drops further. Here again, human beings being what they are, this process isn’t carried out in a calm, rational manner; the difference here is simply that kingdoms keep falling, cities keep getting sacked, ruling elites are slaughtered one after another in ever more inventive and colorful ways, until finally contraction has proceeded far enough that the remaining capital can be supported on the available stock of renewable resources.

That’s a thumbnail sketch of the theory of catabolic collapse, the basic model of the decline and fall of civilizations ... MUCH MORE

[Demeter]

12. The US is now involved in 134 wars or none, depending on your definition of 'war'

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/war/140911/the-us-either-134-wars-or-none-depending-your-definition-war?page=0,0

READ IT AND WEEP, OR GET ANGRY...

[xchrom]

14. All Is Not Well At Europe’s Biggest Carmaker

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-in-push-for-top-spot-volkswagen-hits-labor-robot-problems-2014-9

WOLFSBURG Germany (Reuters) - In an era of automation, robotics and spotless factory floors, you don’t expect to see car workers lugging metal along a production line.

But at Volkswagen's main Wolfsburg plant earlier this year, workers had to resort to handing metal sheets to robots working on the E-Golf, said people who saw it happen.

The improvisation came after the electric model failed a simulated U.S. crash test. Planners at the 76-year-old plant decided to stiffen the frame of the car. But there was nowhere to put extra robots on the crowded assembly line, they said.

The worker-robot dance that ensued is just one sign that all is not well at Europe’s biggest carmaker.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-in-push-for-top-spot-volkswagen-hits-labor-robot-problems-2014-9#ixzz3EERgPlJR

[Demeter]

27. True for Big business in general, it appears

all that nifty MBA indoctrination is failing, where the rubber meets the road, or Reality meets untried and untested, unproven theory.

[xchrom]

15. 10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

http://www.businessinsider.com/opening-bell-sept-24-2014-2014-9

The SEC IS Probing PIMCO. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating investment firm PIMCO for artificially boosting returns, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Air France’s Pilot Strike Is Causing Chaos. France’s transport minister said Wednesday morning that the company’s plans to launch a low-cost airline had been abandoned, but the airline is now arguing that is not true.

The US And Arab Allies Have Bombed ISIS on the Iraq-Syria Border. The bombing missions carried out included one of the sons of Saudi Arabia's crown prince.

Starbucks Wants To Be Big In Japan. The firm is taking full ownership of its Japanese arm, spending $900 million on the 60.5% of the business that it does not already own.

Japan’s Manufacturing Output Hit A Six-Month High. Figures out overnight indicate that industrial production is stabilizing after a sharp slump in demand following a sales tax increase in April.

European markets are mixed. France's CAC 40 is up 0.31%, with Air France shares rising despite the company's confusion. Germany's DAX is down 0.09%, and the UK FTSE 100 is down 0.19%. In Asia, the Hang Seng closed up 0.35% and the Nikkei closed down 0.24%.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/opening-bell-sept-24-2014-2014-9#ixzz3EESAwjjz

[Demeter]

28. As a target, or as a bomb-fighter? That son of Saudi Crown Prince...

[xchrom]

16. The $100 Billion Jet Market 'Has Been A Magnet For Money'

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-aircraft-lessors-wary-as-new-rivals-crowd-into-aviation-2014-9

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Aircraft leasing companies voiced confidence in steady jetliner demand, but warned new aviation investors that they may take a painful hit when central banks start unwinding their efforts to stimulate the economy.

Deterred by poor returns elsewhere as interest rates remain at rock bottom, new money has been pouring into aviation in the hope of capturing greater profits thanks to a combination of ample liquidity and demand for jets.

"Established lessors have enjoyed a positive interest rate environment but at the same time, the industry has been a magnet for money," said Steven Udvar-Hazy, chief executive of Air Lease Corp seen as a founder of the jet leasing industry.

Aviation leasing companies account for up to 40 percent of aircraft being delivered and say they help to smooth swings in the market by renting out jets where demand is strongest. Many have overhauled their balance sheets to avoid new market shocks.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-aircraft-lessors-wary-as-new-rivals-crowd-into-aviation-2014-9#ixzz3EETxlw8X

[xchrom]

17. South Korea To Buy 40 F-35 Jets For $7 Billion

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-south-korea-to-sign-deal-this-month-to-buy-40-f-35-jets-for-7-billion-sources-2014-9

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will sign a deal this month to buy 40 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets for about 7.34 trillion won ($7.06 billion) for delivery in 2018-2021, two people with knowledge of the transaction told Reuters on Wednesday.

South Korea in March became the 10th country to choose F-35 fighter jets, with which it will replace aging warplanes and strengthen its defense against restive neighbor North Korea.

South Korea has since conducted tests and negotiations, and dismissed concerns stemming from an engine fire on a U.S. Air Force F-35A jet in June that grounded the entire F-35 fleet for several weeks.

The U.S. government's head of the F-35 program said in an official document to the South Korean government that the engine failure was within the realm of possibility considered during development, one of the people said.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-south-korea-to-sign-deal-this-month-to-buy-40-f-35-jets-for-7-billion-sources-2014-9#ixzz3EEUUjhrQ

[xchrom]

18. The ECB Will Keep Interest Rates Low

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-ecb-to-keep-easy-policy-until-inflation-nears-2-percent-draghi-2014-9

PARIS (Reuters) - European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said on Wednesday that euro zone monetary policy would remain accommodative for a long period and that the goal was to push ultra-low inflation back up closer to the two percent level.

"Monetary policy will remain accommodating for a long time and I can tell you that the (ECB) Governing Council is unanimous in committing itself to using the tools at its disposal to bring inflation back to just under two percent," Draghi said in an interview on French Europe 1 radio.

"Interest rates will remain low because they can’t get much lower," he added.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-ecb-to-keep-easy-policy-until-inflation-nears-2-percent-draghi-2014-9#ixzz3EEV1SWjV

[xchrom]

20. Japan's Manufacturing Output Reaches A 6-Month High

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-japan-september-flash-manufacturing-pmi-falls-to-517-output-at-six-month-high-2014-9

TOKYO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Japanese manufacturing activity eased slightly in September but output rose at the fastest pace in six months, a preliminary survey showed on Wednesday, suggesting industrial production is stabilising after a sharp slump in demand following a sales tax increase in April.

The Markit/JMMA flash Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to a seasonally adjusted 51.7 in September from a final reading of 52.2 in August.

The index remained above the 50 threshold that separates expansion from contraction for a fourth straight month.

The figures could ease fears that manufacturers would scale back production as stocks of unsold goods swelled after the tax hike.

The output component of the flash PMI index rose to 53.4 from a final 52.9 in August to reach the highest level in six months.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-japan-september-flash-manufacturing-pmi-falls-to-517-output-at-six-month-high-2014-9#ixzz3EEYXa9Ec

[xchrom]

21. Asian Stocks Dip

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-asia-stocks-dip-lower-yields-keep-dollar-in-check-2014-9

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks tracked an overnight decline on Wall Street and dipped early on Wednesday, while the dollar was kept in check after U.S. yields fell on geopolitical woes and dovish statements by a Federal Reserve official.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> fell 0.2 percent, sliding to a fresh four-month low.

Tokyo's Nikkei shed 0.6 percent.

U.S. stocks fell overnight, weighed by downbeat European data and as the first U.S.-led air strikes in Syria against Islamic State fighters dampened investor risk appetite.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-asia-stocks-dip-lower-yields-keep-dollar-in-check-2014-9#ixzz3EEZ5Y3r7

[xchrom]

22. US, CALIFORNIA RELEASE ROADMAP FOR SOLAR PROJECTS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SOLAR_DESERT_BOOM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-23-20-33-15

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- State and federal officials sought Tuesday to bring order to California's boom for renewable-energy plants in the Mojave and other southern California deserts, releasing a roadmap covering 22.5 million acres that designates some areas for large-scale solar, wind and geothermal plants and others for conservation of desert habitat and animals.

"We have amazingly special places here," U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a news conference at a desert wind farm near Palm Springs with U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and other officials releasing the multi-agency draft plan.

By taking a look at the desert as a whole, Jewell said, the plan's designers are ensuring "the areas that should be protected are set aside. The areas that should be developed are streamlined" for building utility-scale renewable energy plants.

The release of the plan follows a renewable-energy building boom in southeastern California's deserts during the first term of the Obama administration, when the federal government gave billions of dollars in loans to developers placing sprawling, utility-scale solar projects in virgin desert.

[Tansy_Gold]

29. "...billions of dollars in loans to developers ..."

Could have been better (meaning, more progressively) spent giving grants to property owners to install small-scale solar systems. Less impact on environment, more cooperation from public.

Every school, every fire station, every municipal, county, state, federal facility should have solar. For crying out loud, New Jersey has solar-power traffic lights! New Jersey!

Edited to add:

But what the fuck do I know? I'm just a dumb social scientist. I'll remember that next time.

[xchrom]

23. GERMAN BUSINESS CONFIDENCE DROPS FOR 5TH MONTH

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-24-04-58-18

BERLIN (AP) -- Business confidence in Germany, Europe's largest economy, has dropped for the fifth consecutive month - continuing a slide that has been fueled by the persistent turmoil in Ukraine and sluggish growth in Europe and China.

The Ifo institute said Wednesday that its confidence index dropped to 104.7 points for September from 106.3 last month as the mood among executives darkened regarding both the current situation and the outlook for the next six months.

The fall took the index, a closely watched economic indicator, to its lowest level since April 2013. It was also bigger than anticipated - the consensus in the markets was for a more modest fall to 105.8.

Ifo president Hans-Werner Sinn said "hardly any stimulus is expected from export business." Exports are a key driver of the German economy.

[xchrom]

24. STOCKS DRIFT AS DIVERGENT ECONOMIC FATES WEIGHED

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FINANCIAL_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-24-04-43-49

KEEPING SCORE: France's CAC 40 was little changed at 4,358.30 while Germany's DAX shed 0.2 percent to 9,576.82. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.2 percent to 6,665.45. Futures pointed to gains on Wall Street after sliding Tuesday. Dow futures were up 0.2 percent at 16,988 and S&P 500 futures gained 0.2 percent to 1,975.40.

THE QUOTE: "Bulls and bears continue to play a game of cat and mouse, with the bulls looking for a floor in the recent sell-off while the bears consider adding to shorts. With choppy price action being the dominant theme, patience will be key in this environment," said IG market strategist Stan Shamu. "The losses seen in European and US trade haven't quite been replicated in Asia today."

ASIA'S DAY: Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average shed 0.2 percent to 16,167.45 while Seoul's Kospi rose 0.3 percent to 2,035.64. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.4 percent to 23,921.61. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.7 percent to 5.375.80. China's Shanghai Composite jumped 1.5 percent to 2,343.57. Southeast Asia markets mostly rose.

CHINA FACTORIES: China's manufacturing unexpectedly improved in September, according to a preliminary survey released Tuesday, though there were some mixed messages in the report. New orders and exports increased at a faster rate but employment fell. Overall, the report helped to ease jitters about a deeper slowdown in the world's No. 2 economy.

EUROPE STAGNATES: A closely watched gauge of business activity for the region fell to a nine-month low. Investors have been dealing with meager economic growth in Europe for months. The eurozone economy has been flat or barely growing since April, hobbled by the lingering effects of a debt crisis, uncertainty over a conflict in Ukraine and a lack of confidence among European consumers, businesses and banks. European market indexes sank after the economic news. Germany's DAX fell 1.6 percent, France's CAC 40 fell 1.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 lost 1 percent.

[xchrom]

25. LIMITS ON OVERSEAS MERGERS PROMPT RENEWED DEBATE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OVERSEAS_TAX_BREAKS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-23-07-59-30

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration's decision to curb the ability of U.S. corporations to skirt taxes by merging with foreign companies kicked off an immediate election-season debate over when and how to tackle the nation's complex corporate tax code.

Following through on a populist appeal from President Barack Obama for a new era of "corporate patriotism," the Treasury Department stepped in Monday with new regulations designed to limit the ability of U.S. firms to seek refuge in lower tax countries.

The Treasury will make these so-called corporate inversions less lucrative by barring creative techniques that companies use to lower their tax bill. Additionally, the U.S. will make it harder for companies to move overseas in the first place by tightening the ownership requirements they must meet.

"This action will significantly diminish the ability of inverted companies to escape U.S. taxation," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said. He added that for some companies considering inversions, the new measures would mean inverting would "no longer make economic sense."

[Crewleader]

26. adding another :)