"Should Auld Weekends Be Forgot" Economists Ring Out 2010

[Demeter]

Stick a fork in it, this year is DONE. Listen to the Capitol Steps 7PM Eastern on
NPR, Pull the bubbly out of the fridge, tell us what is on your mind as the world turns into 2011.



I'm feeling the year. Yesterday I hired help and moved several large pieces of furniture out of a room, in the never-ending floor laying exercise. Then since it was MY bed that was dismantled, I slept on the futon. So I'm not sure exactly WHY I hurt, but take it as given, yesterday is when the injury happened.

But the injury to the economy---that's a massive trauma mystery. So many vectors, so many fingers in the pie, it's worthy of "Bones" or CIS" or any of those modern TV dramas the Kid likes so much...post what evidence and conjecture you've got! And best wishes for the year 2011!

[DemReadingDU]

1. Happy New Year! 1st rec!

and 1st post!
:party:


Tomorrow is our family Christmas gettogether in Indiana. So I'll look around and see what's going on tonight to add to the thread's festivities!

[Demeter]

7. Bon Voyage! Come back safe

[some guy]

2. Happy MMXI

:toast:

[Demeter]

6. Thanks, Guy! Same to You!

[kickysnana]

16. Is that pronounced Maxi? n/t

[Tansy_Gold]

69. No. It's Moxie. ;-) n/t

[Demeter]

3. Need Some Music to Go With that...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMi4AH0npZU&feature=related

[Demeter]

4. The Capitol Steps Were Outstanding, As Usual

with John Boehner as the Phantom of the Opera, and other guest stars cutting up.

http://www.capsteps.com/ First link on the left will take you to it.

[Demeter]

5. At Year's End, Everybody Has a Story To Tell: Mark Fiore Starts

http://www.markfiore.com/political-cartoons/watch-year-end-wrap-up-animation-health-care-tax-cuts-ground-zero-mosque-animated-video-mark-fiore-political-

[Demeter]

8. Sheila Bair has given the staff te weekend off again--No Banks Failed

[Demeter]

9. J.P. Morgan Chase Sued Over Petters Ponzi

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703909904576051740808855946.html

The trustee attempting to recoup money for the companies of convicted Ponzi scheme figure Tom Petters has sued J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., seeking more than $300 million in multiple lawsuits.

The suit alleges J.P. Morgan knew, or should have known, that the funds Tom Petters used to buy Polaroid were from his Ponzi scheme.

The money involved includes millions the bank took from Mr. Petters's accounts after his downfall and profits and fees it got from Mr. Petters's purchase of iconic camera company Polaroid Corp., which had been majority owned by J.P. Morgan's private-equity arm at the time.

In the latest lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Minnesota, Douglas A. Kelley, the court-appointed receiver for Mr. Petters's companies, alleged that the bank knew, or should have known, that the funds it seized from Mr. Petters's J.P. Morgan accounts after his arrest were fraudulently obtained. The suit also reiterated earlier claims Mr. Kelley made that J.P. Morgan and its One Equity Partners also knew, or should have known, the funds used by Mr. Petters to buy Polaroid were also from his Ponzi scheme.

The latest lawsuit seeks $25 million the bank received from liquidating Mr. Petters's holdings after he was arrested.

"We saw this as J.P. Morgan trying to get a step ahead of the victims," Mr. Kelley said in an interview.

[Demeter]

10. Bankers: Go The ‘Latvian’ Option By Michael Hudson

The “Latvian option” is the buzzword of the moment among European bankers and financial journalists. In October, the Latvian people voted in a coalition headed by the incumbent prime minister Valdis Dombrovskis, whose government had savaged social benefits, cut pay and inflated unemployment in 2009. Was this proof that austerity measures could not only work, but actually be popular? Was Latvia the model that Greece, Ireland and Spain should emulate?

The Wall Street Journal, for one, has published several articles promoting this view. Most recently, Charles Doxbury advocated Latvia’s internal devaluation and austerity strategy as the model for Europe’s crisis nations to follow. The view commonly argued is that Latvia’s economic freefall (the deepest of any nation from the 2008 crisis) has finally stopped and that recovery (albeit very fragile and modest) is under way.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/20/latvia-debt-economy-europe-austerity

[jotsy]

15. Caught Mr Hudson in a great interview with Thom Hartmann this week

They discuss the possible need for another bailout and the most recent round of quantitative easing.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gub6PigiOBY&feature=player_embedded>

Happy new year Ms. Demeter.

[Demeter]

18. Thanks Jotsy, Back At Ya!

He does get around, that Mr. Hudson.

[Demeter]

11. This Bonus Season on Wall Street, Many See Zeros

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/business/20bonus.html?_r=2&ref=business

Bonus season is fast approaching on Wall Street, but this year the talk does not center just on multimillion-dollar paydays. It’s about a new club that no one wants to join: the Zeros.

Drawn from a broad swath of back-office employees and middle-level traders, bankers and brokers, the Zeros, as they have come to be called, are facing a once-unthinkable prospect: an annual bonus of ... nothing.

“It’s going to a cause a lot of panic on Wall Street,” said Richard Stein of Global Sage, an executive search firm. “Everybody is talking about it, but they’re actually concerned about it becoming public. I would not want to be head of compensation at a Wall Street firm right now.” ...

[Demeter]

12. Wall St's 10 Biggest Lies of 2010

http://www.alternet.org/story/149361?page=entire

What a great year for Wall Street: profits up, bonuses up and, best of all, criticism down, especially from Washington. Somehow Wall Street has much of America believing its lies and rationalizations. We're even beginning to forget that Wall Street is largely responsible for the economic mess we're in.

So before we're completely overtaken by financial Alzheimer's, let's revisit Wall Street's greatest fabrications for 2010...

[Demeter]

13. Did Pfizer Bribe Its Way Out of Criminal Charges in Nigeria?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27149.htm

Well, Cheney and Halliburton did...look in the financials under 'Bribes'.

[Demeter]

14. Obama Likely to Pursue Corporate-Tax Cut, Way to Pay for It

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204204004576049651801089800.html

All signs point to President Barack Obama pursuing far-reaching changes to the corporate income tax, seeking to lower one of the highest statutory corporate-tax rates in the world by eliminating deductions, credits and loopholes.

If he proceeds, the administration will insist that any changes raise as much revenue as the existing, 35% corporate tax. That's to constrain those who want to lighten the business-tax burden and those who want to get more money from business. But the constraint means that for every company that saves a dollar, another will pay a dollar more.

The White House says no decisions have been made and that the president has yet to have a session with his economic team devoted to corporate taxes. But Treasury tax technicians are sifting through options, CEOs are buzzing and the president has voiced his druthers: "We would be very interested," he said in October, "in finding ways to lower the corporate-tax rate so that companies that are operating overseas can so do effectively and aren't put at a competitive disadvantage." In a recent NPR interview, Mr. Obama talked about "a conversation over the next year" aimed at "simplifying the system, hopefully lowering rates, broadening the base."

Any Obama pitch, perhaps in the State of the Union, will be that corporate-tax reform will make America "more competitive," induce more companies to invest here, reduce costly complexity and improve long-term growth prospects. Truth be told, this won't do a whole lot to boost growth, but this is one of the options that is free and doesn't widen the budget deficit. Congressional Republicans say they're at least interested in talking.

Unlike income and payroll taxes, the corporate tax has been shrinking. From 3.8% of gross domestic product, the value of goods and services produced in a year, in the 1960s, it was down to 2% of GDP before the recent recession. "The corporate tax is a shadow of its former self," Congressional Research Service economist Jane Gravelle has said. It's largely a big-company tax: Half of all business profits go to entities organized to be taxed as individuals, a way to pay less in taxes; 85% of corporate income taxes are paid by 0.5% of companies, fewer than 10,000 in all...

AND THAT'S NOT COUNTING THE FRAUD AND EVASION!

[Demeter]

17. Retailers Swipe at Credit-Card Plan

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704543004576051700823490970.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

The Credit Card Act signed into law last year was supposed to stop financial institutions from sleazy antics. But instead, some retailers say, it may restrict stay-at-home moms.

Dress Barn Inc., Home Depot Inc., Citigroup Inc. and other companies are urging the Federal Reserve to drop a proposed rule that would require credit-card issuers to consider only a borrower's "independent" income rather than household income. The new standard, which would apply to new credit-card accounts and requests to increase limits on existing accounts, could make it difficult for some customers to get credit on the spot, especially stay-at-home moms.

The proposed rule "would unfairly restrict the ability of many consumers, particularly women not working outside the home, to qualify for credit," wrote David Jaffe, president and chief executive of Dress Barn in a letter to the Fed this month. The company operates 2,477 stores for women and young girls...

[Demeter]

19. Curiously Weak Consumer Confidence

http://economistsview.typepad.com/timduy/2010/12/curiously-weak-consumer-confidence.html

There was a bit of angst regarding (Monday's) Conference Board consumer confidence report. See, for example, Mark Thoma and Brad DeLong. The report appears to contradict the generally positive Univ. of Michigan report - still weak compared to pre-recession, but at least moving in the right direction. More interestingly, it is at odds with recent consumer spending reports, not just early reports of the best Christmas season (in terms of year-over-year gains) since 2005, but also the most recent trends in personal consumption expenditures.

Something is off-kilter, and has been since mid-year. Consumer confidence appears too low relative to actual consumption. Either confidence should be moving higher, as the Univ. of Michigan survey suggests, or consumption needs to slow dramatically. Place your bets.

Consider the recent trends in real consumer spending (percentage change are log difference approximations):GRAPHIC PORN AND EXPLICATIONS AT LINK

[Demeter]

20. Wish you were here? President spends $1.5m on holiday in Hawaii... America faces bleak New Year

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1342850/The-cost-quick-Christmas-break-U-S-President-Barak-Obama-Thatll-1million.html#ixzz19kqSidkh

...the Hawaii Reporter claimed yesterday: ‘They could have chosen a less expensive and more secure place to stay such as a beachfront home on the Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station – just a two-minute drive away from the Kailuana Place property where they are now.

‘The president visits the military base daily to workout, bowl with his kids or enjoy the more private beach there. ‘He also could have stayed at a home 15 minutes away on the beach fronting Bellows Air Force Base as President Bill Clinton did.’


SENSITIVITY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WgLhKFS9t8&feature=related

[Demeter]

21. Italian judge upholds seizure of Vatican assets

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40754048/ns/world_news-europe/

A judge has upheld the seizure of euro23 million ($30.2 million) in Vatican assets in a money-laundering probe involving the Holy See's bank, the second time the bank has been denied the return of the funds.

Italian authorities seized the funds in September as part of a probe into whether Vatican banking had violated Italian laws mandating transparency in money movement — a key weapon in the war against organized crime and political and business corruption.

News reports quoted Judge Maria Teresa Covatta as saying the intended beneficiaries of the transactions from the Vatican bank account at a Rome bank were still unclear. The Vatican bank is formally named Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, in Italian.

Covatta said that nothing had changed in the way the Vatican guards the identity of its clients since its initial appeal in late October. She added that Italian authorities lack "the possibility of checking" the identities of the beneficiaries of clients receiving checks or fund transfers through Italian banks while IOR continues to conduct business in this way...

SO THE VATICAN NEEDS A BANK TO DO LAUNDRY FOR THE MOB?

[Demeter]

22. Assange Alerts His Hostages

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/12/29/assange-alerts-his-hostages/

Remember how I suggested that Obama was establishing a practice of only making deals with people–whether they be Republicans or Democrats–who take hostages?

Well, Julian Assange just made it clear who his hostages are:

Top officials in several Arab countries have close links with the CIA, and many officials keep visiting US embassies in their respective countries voluntarily to establish links with this key US intelligence agency, says Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks.“These officials are spies for the US in their countries,” Assange told Al Jazeera Arabic channel in an interview yesterday.

The interviewer, Ahmed Mansour, said at the start of the interview which was a continuation of last week’s interface, that Assange had even shown him the files that contained the names of some top Arab officials with alleged links with the CIA.



“If I am killed or detained for a long time, there are 2,000 websites ready to publish the remaining files. We have protected these websites through very safe passwords,” said Assange.

TOO BAD IN THIS GAME, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE THE HOSTAGES...

[Demeter]

23. 'The Next Financial Crisis is Not Far Off'

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27160.htm

THE DISMAL SCIENCE STRIKES AGAIN

[Demeter]

24. Justice Has Prevailed. Khodorkovsky's trip to the slammer: "Booyah, Putin" By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27162.htm

Vladimir Putin summed it up best when he said, "A thief should sit in jail." Right on. It doesn't matter if he is the richest man in the country or not. If he's done the crime, he's got to do the time. It's that simple...

IN AMERICA, IT WOULD HAVE TO BE FICTION, BECAUSE NOBODY WOULD BELIEVE IT.


...Khodorkovsky was convicted because he's a crook and because the Russian justice system is less corrupt than the one in the US. His incarceration is a victory for the people who want to see the law applied fairly regardless of how rich someone is.

[Demeter]

25. Woman Deceased in 1995 Continued to Robo Sign Till at Least 2008

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/12/woman-deceased-in-1995-continued-to-robo-sign-till-at-least.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

[Demeter]

31. Linda Green Robo-Signing Shows Massive Document Fraud

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/11/24/linda-green-robo-signing-shows-massive-document-fraud/

[AnneD]

56. Hmmmmm....

Touched by an Angel or Fondled by Satan :dilemma:

[Demeter]

57. That's just gross, AnneD

happy New Year, anyway.

[AnneD]

71. Just call me the ....

Cryptkeeper.

Sorry, I went to a really strict religious college for a year and it left me pretty snarky sometimes. Also, I got a wonderful gift set of the complete Twilight Zone series as a gift. I have been watching it and so it has gotten under my skin a bit.

Boy, do I have some rather creative, twisted way to off some of these deserving bankers. The best way would be to simply turn the tables on them and let them deal with the same problems that their banks are forcing on those that are weak and powerless. They may think they are getting away with something but one thing I have come to know...Karma is a bitch.

[Demeter]

26. Why the Rich Are Getting Richer

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67046/robert-c-lieberman/why-the-rich-are-getting-richer?page=show

...This is what the political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson call the "winner-take-all economy." It is not a picture of a healthy society. Such a level of economic inequality, not seen in the United States since the eve of the Great Depression, bespeaks a political economy in which the financial rewards are increasingly concentrated among a tiny elite and whose risks are borne by an increasingly exposed and unprotected middle class. Income inequality in the United States is higher than in any other advanced industrial democracy and by conventional measures comparable to that in countries such as Ghana, Nicaragua, and Turkmenistan. It breeds political polarization, mistrust, and resentment between the haves and the have-nots and tends to distort the workings of a democratic political system in which money increasingly confers political voice and power.

It is generally presumed that economic forces alone are responsible for this astonishing concentration of wealth. Technological changes, particularly the information revolution, have transformed the economy, making workers more productive and placing a premium on intellectual, rather than manual, labor. Simultaneously, the rise of global markets -- itself accelerated by information technology -- has hollowed out the once dominant U.S. manufacturing sector and reoriented the U.S. economy toward the service sector. The service economy also rewards the educated, with high-paying professional jobs in finance, health care, and information technology. At the low end, however, jobs in the service economy are concentrated in retail sales and entertainment, where salaries are low, unions are weak, and workers are expendable.

Champions of globalization portray these developments as the natural consequences of market forces, which they believe are not only benevolent (because they increase aggregate wealth through trade and make all kinds of goods cheaper to consume) but also unstoppable. Skeptics of globalization, on the other hand, emphasize the distributional consequences of these trends, which tend to confer tremendous benefits on a highly educated and highly skilled elite while leaving other workers behind. But neither side in this debate has bothered to question Washington's primary role in creating the growing inequality in the United States.

IT'S THE GOVERNMENT, STUPID

Hacker and Pierson refreshingly break free from the conceit that skyrocketing inequality is a natural consequence of market forces and argue instead that it is the result of public policies that have concentrated and amplified the effects of the economic transformation and directed its gains exclusively toward the wealthy. Since the late 1970s, a number of important policy changes have tilted the economic playing field toward the rich. Congress has cut tax rates on high incomes repeatedly and has relaxed the tax treatment of capital gains and other investment income, resulting in windfall profits for the wealthiest Americans...

[Demeter]

48. ACTUALLY, IT'S BECAUSE THEY CHEAT, AND CHEAT BIG

[snot]

63. Sounds like an excellent analysis --

Although I didn't see any mention in the review of the role of p.r./media consolidation (brainwashing), although perhaps the book does mention it.

[Demeter]

27. The Consequence of a Shattered Safety Net: Return to the Poorhouse?

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/12/29/the-consequence-of-a-shattered-safety-net-return-to-the-poorhouse/

Ryan Grim and Arthur Delaney do the nation another excellent service today by examining what the world would be like without Social Security. It isn’t too hard to imagine – you just have to dive back into the pre-1930s history books. And you will see the world of the poorhouse, the last refuge for the elderly and the infirm, the farms run by private charities which provided a dour and often cruel existence for those on the edges of society. Grim and Delaney begin with a fitting example of someone bound for the poorhouse back in 1896:

The woman “could not give street and number, but could ‘fotch’ the agent to her place,” according to a case study labeled “Aunt Winnie” in one of the organization’s annual reports from near the turn of the century. “Old age, with a heavy load on top and a strong wind blowing, made the walk a trying one. At last the 8×10 cabin was reached. In it was a stove in many pieces held together with wire, a bedstead with rags for mattress and rags for covering. From the leaky roof the floor was wet through and through.”

Aunt Winnie, the report said, had no income save the 50 cents she made every two weeks for taking in the wash. In summertime she raised herbs and greens, but in winter she “suffered for food and fuel.” Her children had all been sold away to slavery, and a nearby niece was too poor to offer any support. Her neighbors helped, providing money for the stove and cot, and a “colored friendly visitor was found to carry broth and other comforts to her.” The neighborly charity wasn’t enough to persuade the agent, who was essentially a private sector version of a social worker, that the old woman should be on her own.

This was a common occurrence in the days before Social Security, which basically wiped out extreme elderly poverty in America. But to a growing number of conservatives, this Gilded Age era represented the salad days, where people rose and fell on the basis of their talents without big government propping them up. They long for a return to a nation without a safety net, where private charities possibly pick up the slack, and where rugged individualism rules the day. To them, there’s no greater government than one which refuses to help people...

[Demeter]

28. What's Your Political News IQ?

http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/

[Demeter]

29. Yours truly rated 94% / 10 out of 12

and that's only because it perceived two of my selections wrong...watch for the moving text!

[Tansy_Gold]

41. Bragging. . . .

. . . . without apology -- 12 outta 12!

[Hugin]

55. Ditto!

Except on one question I gave them the answer they wanted to hear rather than what I believe is the true answer.

Am I bad?

[snot]

65. Yeah, that made it tricky.

[AnneD]

60. I scored 98....

I need to pay more attention to Great Britian, missed the PM. ARGH

I put the amount of TARP paid back at over 1/2 paid back, but in my heart, I fear it is much lower as I think too much of this pay back is with toxic assets.

[snot]

66. That was esp. hard, 'cuz it depends how you count it--like, what of $ paid & re-loaned?

[snot]

64. I got 10 right and it said I was in top 4% -- others must have done worse since you took it.

Wish they'd asked about our political leanings.

[bread_and_roses]

58. 11 out of 12 , a woman economist predicts crisis, and a New Year good wish to all the WE crew!

11 because for some inexplicable reason I put McConnell instead of Boehner as Speaker - this may be because the very names make my eyes go blood-red and my hands shake, or because all the Trog-licans morph into the same gaping, slathering, spouting maws in my brain - whichever. Also gave them the answer they wanted on the TARP and UI.

I don't think this was posted yet, but I didn't make it all the way down the thread - got distracted by the Arne apologists in a thread - so apologies if it's already here.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/12/30-4

Jayati Ghosh: 'The Next Financial Crisis is Not Far Off'
We were told the world economy was back on track, but festering problems threaten to hit developing countries hard

by Jayati Ghosh

It's been an difficult year globally. It began with much relief and congratulations all round, based on perceptions that the financial crisis had been handled effectively, that the Great Recession was over and that significant economies (especially in the developing world) were powering their way back to rapid growth. But it is ending on a much more tentative and even troubled note.

The rebounding of output barely touched unemployment, which remains at historically high levels in most countries. The sovereign debt problems in Europe are just an indication that the financial crisis is far from over, and will continue to reveal itself in new forms for quite some time to come. Meanwhile, the stingy and (so far, at least) visionless response of the stronger economies to the crises in peripheral Europe has condemned them to intensified contraction and ensured that the EU will generate little growth and much instability in the near future.

But those shaking their heads from a distance over difficulties in the eurozone should be considering the other financial problems that continue to fester and will raise their ugly heads soon enough: the persistent depression in housing and real estate markets in the US and other developed and some developing countries, which contributes to asset deflation; the many other bad debts that are piling up quietly, like student loans and consumer credit; the continued incentives for risky behaviour by banks that have benefited from large government support; renewed speculative activity in commodity markets, which has pushed up primary commodity prices to close to their peaks of 2008.

Jayati Ghosh is is one of the world's leading female economists. She is professor of Economics at JawaharlalNehru university, New Delhi, and the executive secretary of International Development Economics Associates (IDEAS). She is a regular columnist for several Indian journals and newspapers, a member of the National Knowledge Commission advising the Prime Minister of India and is closely involved with a range progressive organisations and social movements

Though we can expect neither peace nor health in the world in the New Year, I wish all of you and yours health in the New Year and peace in all our hearts.

[AnneD]

62. And A Happy, Safe, and Prosperous New Year.....

to all my friends on SWT and WEE.

We had a warnings on SWT as early as 2006 regarding this economy and to batten down the hatches. The honest assesment of the facts are that things are still turbulent and we must still keep those hatches closed. Eventually thing will calm down, but it will never be like it was. The old world has passed and a new world has taken its place. It is not just a New Year that is coming about, but a major shift in what we have always know and accepted as the order of things.

I still look forward to the New Year. I use the information I glean from the great contributors, to protect my investments and my family.

[Demeter]

30. Town May Seize Factory to Prevent Dismantling by Vengeful Owner

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/11/town-may-seize-factory-to-prevent-dismantling-by-vengeful-owner.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

...the very peculiar case of the battle between Esterline Technologies, its unions, and now the town of Taunton, Mass.

Esterline is in the process of shuttering its Taunton manufacturing operation, Haskon Aerospace, which specialized silicone-rubber seals and gaskets for military planes and the airline industry. Even though the company has always been profitable, Esterline is moving production to non-union operations in Mexico and California.

Here’s where it gets ugly. Esterline had given the union, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers union, the right of first refusal to buy the facility and operate it itself. But the company decided to renege on the deal when the union had to insist that the company obey Massachusetts law and pay for three months of medical care after employees were let go. Esterline started dealing in bad faith, and said it would cut the already-agreed-upon severance package by $143,000. That’s not kosher; it’s called “regressive bargaining” and the unions have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

Esterline has now turned punitive. Its latest position is that it needs to compensate for these additional severance costs (since when is complying with the law an add on?) and has scheduled an auction for the plant’s equipment. The union went to the Taunton town council and have secured a preliminary commitment for it to use its eminent domain powers under the Fifth Amendment, which permits governments to take control of private property for public purpose (the council is waiting for the results of a legal analysis before it takes a formal vote). Huffington Post reported that the town solicitor presented his preliminary findings, and the council voted unanimously to call on Esterline to postpone the auction while he completes his research.

Esterline posted nearly $120 million in profits and paid its CEO in excess of $6 million last year. This scorched-earth battle is over an operation that employs 100 people...

[bread_and_roses]

70. UE is far more "worker-centric" and more militant and confrontational

It was a UE local that took over the factory in Chicago in '08. They seem to have resisted the path taken by the AFL-CIO to become a subsidiary of the Democratic Party and look to politics as the way to protecting workers - and we all know how that's worked out (and I say this as a member of an AFL-CIO affiliated union, and with great admiration and regard for many of the National staff I've met - but the path was and is the wrong path - Obama has been the final proof of that, if anyone still had any doubts. Unfortunately, though there have been a few stirrings and murmurs, we're really not seeing much different - yet. I still hold out a slim hope that our leadership will take a different road)

from UE's webpage: http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/uewho.html (quoted sections taken from different pages in the "about UE" section)

What do we mean by
"Rank-and-File" unionism?

The term "rank-and-file" is defined as "those who form the major portion of any group or organization, excluding the leaders and officers." In UE, we use the term "rank-and-file unionism" to describe how our union operates: it simply means it's the members who run our union ... in a democratic and collective manner. The members set the policies of the union and make all of the decisions of importance that affect their own local unions.

Long-time UE officer and organizer Ernie DeMaio defined UE's unique style of rank-and-file unionism this way: the members elect the union's officers (local, district and national) who, in turn, are required to report on their stewardship of the union concerning its "policies, program, expenditures and contract negotiations which must have the prior consent of the members and their approval on all of the actions taken, and contracts negotiated, on their behalf. The essence of rank-and-file unionism is not democratic rhetoric, but democratic practice. The members run the union."

...UE carefully avoids the top-down, top-heavy, bureaucratic style of many unions by promoting membership control. The salary of the union's three top elected officers is limited by the UE Constitution to the top wage paid in the industry (currently set at less than $51,000.) It's hard to think (or act) like a big shot on a worker's wage. More important, this policy keeps UE leaders in touch with the lives of our members — we believe it's too easy for labor leaders to develop "boss-like" points of view if they've become comfortable with "boss-size" salaries.

... UE devotes more of its resources to organizing, on a per capita basis, than most other national unions. UE's creative approaches to organizing — like the Workers' Rights Board established originally in Vermont — have become a model for the entire labor movement. UE's stubborn, relentless, militant rank-and-file approach have won union rights and union contracts in the face of opposition by lawbreaking corporations.

[Demeter]

32. Elizabeth Warren Helped Shoot Down Bill That Would Have Sped Foreclosures, Calendar Shows

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/24/elizabeth-warren-calendar_n_788120.html

TOLD YA SO!

[Demeter]

33. REMEMBER FABULOUS FAB? Goldman Sachs’s Tourre Facing New Claim in SEC Lawsuit

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-24/goldman-sachs-s-tourre-facing-additional-sec-claim-on-subprime-mortgages.html

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission expanded its complaint against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trader Fabrice Tourre, accusing him of giving the company “substantial assistance” as it misled investors in a product linked to subprime mortgages.

The SEC, which reached a $550 million settlement with Goldman Sachs in July, included the new claim against Tourre in an amended complaint filed Nov. 22 at U.S. District Court in New York. The London-based trader, accused of helping the Wall Street firm defraud investors in a product known as Abacus, may face trial after failing to win dismissal of the SEC’s case.

Goldman Sachs and Tourre were sued April 16 by the SEC, which accused them of failing to tell investors that hedge fund Paulson & Co. helped pick the underlying securities for the collateralized debt obligation and planned to bet against them.

The SEC “is clearly preparing for this case to go the distance,” said Jacob Frenkel, a partner at Potomac, Maryland- based law firm Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker. “They want to make sure that their allegations are sufficiently broad” so that a jury could still find him responsible for aiding fraud even if they determine he wasn’t the primary violator, he said...

[Demeter]

34. New foreign takeover controls on farms?

http://www.claytonutz.com/publications/news/201011/25/new_foreign_takeover_controls_on_farms.page

WHY IS THE US NOT TAKING ANY PROTECTIVE MEASURES? WHY?

[Demeter]

35. Fewer Americans Pay For Cable TV

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/11/23/131548390/fewer-americans-pay-for-cable-tv?ft=1&f=93559255

[Demeter]

36. Two Cords of Wood – An Intimate Look at Unnecessary Foreclosure

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/11/guest-post-two-cords-of-wood-%E2%80%93-an-intimate-look-at-unnecessary-foreclosure.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

...I had to tell my client that she should not buy the firewood, as I knew that it was planning an eviction within days. I had managed to penetrate the executive offices in Cleveland, Ohio, telling the “Executive Client Relations” person in the “Office of the President” how foolish it was to evict this woman, who had reduced income but a real willingness to devote as much of that as she could to continued second mortgage payments. The letter that I received in response told me how much KeyBank “valued” this woman as a client, how it “is committed to providing her with excellent service,” and how it regrets “any inconvenience or frustration your client may have experienced.” The letter closed by telling me, “e appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns with quality and integrity.” That letter also told me that it was not willing to do anything at all to restructure this woman’s loan or to stop the eviction process.

After spending over $4,000 on foreclosure costs and legal fees, it purchased my client’s interest in the property at its foreclosure sale (there were no other bidders for this worthless second interest) and it did evict this woman from her home at the beginning of October. She is now living in the basement of her daughter’s house. Since the interest in this home that it purchased was still subject to the outstanding first mortgage, it then paid $50,000 to the first mortgage holder so that it could own full title to the property as it made plans to re-sell it. Thus, at this point it had over $54,000 invested in gaining full title to this property. Last week, KeyBank listed this property for sale for $44,000. It will surely net no more than $40,000, if it can sell it at all. This will leave the bank with a real cash loss of over $14,000, a woman living in her daughter’s basement who was willing to pay at least some level on her second mortgage, her community with an empty and devalued property in its midst, and a very sour taste for all of us who try to help these people.

Looking only at this loan and the personal situation of its borrower, KeyBank’s actions make no sense at all. However, along with all of the other major lenders and loan servicers in this foreclosure crisis, it does not look at these loans from a personal perspective. Everything is driven by “the numbers.” Those numbers tell financial institutions like KeyBank that it makes economic sense to avoid the costs of evaluating these loans on an individual basis. The numbers tell them not spend the money to pay employees to make individual decisions on whether a situation such as the one described here makes sense or whether ways can be found to work with the homeowner. KeyBank and the other large financial institutions and loan servicers do not care if they needlessly ruin the lives of some of their customers, as long as they can minimize the expense of dealing with their individual situations. The only “quality and integrity” that these institutions care about is the quality and integrity of their bottom lines...

[Demeter]

37. An Alternative to Body Scanners at the Airport

http://urbangrounds.com/2010/11/advanced-body-scanners/

FINALLY – A great alternative to body scanners at airports . . .

The Israelis are developing an airport security device that eliminates the privacy concerns that come with full-body scanners at the airports.

It’s a booth you can step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on you. They see this as a win-win for everyone, with no crap about racial profiling. It also would eliminate the costs of long and expensive trials. Justice would be swift. Case closed!

You’re in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter an announcement comes over the PA system . . . “Attention standby
passengers – we now have a seat available on flight number XXXX. Shalom”

Perfect. I’d be willing to consent to that...

[snot]

67. love it! --

[Demeter]

38. The Un-foreclosure

http://www.angrybearblog.com/2010/11/banks-walk-away-from-houses.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FHzoh+%28Angry+Bear%29



What could be worse than a foreclosure? An Un-foreclosure (HT: Columbus Dispatch) also known as a dropped foreclosure or a bank walkaway.

Although exact statistics are hard to come by, the un-foreclosure is apparently become very common in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. At some point the bank decides the economics of taking title do not justify further action, and walks away.

The General Accountability Office is investigating the problem, and believes as many as 50% of the drops are in these three states. Senator Sherrod Brown (D, Ohio) has gotten involved.

The mortgage servicer forecloses on the property and evicts the former owners, but then fails to take title to the property, leaving the property in limbo. No owner equals no property taxes paid, no insurance, and probably no maintenance. The property is left to rot, damaging the neighborhood. Ironically, due to the failure of the bank to take title, the former owner may still be on the hook for property taxes, and not know it.

The bad news just keeps on coming.

[Demeter]

39. When the rich abandoned America -- and what that has to do with defense

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/11/19/when_the_rich_abandoned_america_and_what_that_has_to_do_with_defense

A MUST READ IDEA FOR ACTION

[Demeter]

40. DOWN TO 180 EMAILS! HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!

I think I can, I think I can...

[Demeter]

42. This bail-out blackmail must be stopped

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/8145531/This-bail-out-blackmail-must-be-stopped.html

Taxpayers cannot be expected to pay for all the banks’ bad debts, says Jeremy Warner...What’s happening in Ireland right now is not, at root, a sovereign debt crisis, but another banking crisis. The reason it has spilled over into a problem of national solvency is that it has overwhelmed the country’s capacity to afford further bail-outs.

By the same token, the reason European policymakers are trying to force a rescue package on a reluctant Brian Cowen, the Irish prime minister, is not because Ireland has run out of money: in fact, its debt is fully funded until the middle of next year. It is because they fear Ireland’s banking crisis will become their own, as bad loans to Irish banks trigger a wave of insolvencies across Europe. They also worry that excessive use by Irish banks of European Central Bank liquidity, as everyone else dashes to get their money out, is undermining the ECB’s integrity, and therefore that of the euro as a whole.

The problem is that you cannot ultimately fix an underlying solvency problem by forcing a country to borrow even more. That only further reduces the chances of the debt ever being repaid. And if markets begin to believe that the countries on the periphery of the eurozone will be permanently underwritten by the rest, it will weaken the creditworthiness of the core: there is already some evidence of this in German bond yields.

In any case, constantly having to bail out the insolvent fringe will eventually become politically unacceptable among those forced to pick up the tab. In Germany, the EU’s bail-out fund is already subject to legal challenge, while in Britain, there is understandable horror at being roped into the Irish rescue. Why should our highly taxed businesses be forced to subsidise super-low rates of corporation tax in Ireland? It’s unfair and objectionable. Small wonder that senior officials at the Bundesbank have come round to the view that strong countries would do better to concentrate on shoring up their own banks against debt defaults in weaker countries, rather than propping up the weaker economies....

For Britain and the US, there is a reasonable chance of managing the debt back on to a sustainable footing. For Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain, the odds are zero. As I say, the taxpayer cannot indefinitely be blackmailed into further bail-outs. Even if they were politically feasible, it would mean that Europe would limp from one crisis to the next, as one bail-out was succeeded by another.

An alternative way of resolving these crises must be found, in a manner that doesn’t plunge us all back into the dark ages. That means setting up a system that enables some form of managed default, both of individual banking systems and entire countries...I don’t deny that the loss to private creditors won’t be extreme. The affected nations will feel it brutally, through their pensions and other forms of saving. But whoever said that going bust should be painless? That’s the kind of attitude which led to the crisis in the first place.

[Demeter]

43. Looking at Ireland, I don't know whether to laugh or cry MUST READ

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/20/colm-toibin-imf-in-dublin

In the spring of 1985 while I was reporting on the trial of Leopoldo Galtieri and the other Argentinian generals for crimes against humanity in Buenos Aires, I was asked by a friend who lived outside the city to collect two American guys on a Saturday morning in a city centre hotel and go with them to San Isidro in the suburbs. We were going to spend the weekend sailing on the river Plate.

In the railway station as we waited for the train I discovered that the two American guys were in the city to deal with the economic crisis which was affecting Argentina in the aftermath of the generals' rule. One was from the World Bank and one from the IMF. As the train got going, I remarked on what a fantastic service it was, that it ran every half hour even through the night, and the tickets were incredibly cheap. The two Americans looked at one another and then one of them told me that this would not be continuing, that it made no sense, that they had been studying the economics of public transport in the city, and the system was insane. It would be cheaper, one of them said, actually to pay people to go on this train than to maintain the current way of selling and checking the tickets, especially if you included pension costs. I should enjoy the train while it lasted, they said, because it would not be in existence much longer in its present state.

When I told them what I was doing in Argentina, they seemed mildly bored. Every day witnesses were coming into court to tell of how they had been detained illegally and tortured. Most of the stories were horrific and beyond belief. The trial, which was reported each day in the newspapers, was likely to go on all year. Finally, my American friends said that they believed it was a waste of money and a waste of time. Argentina, economically, they said, was a basket case, in desperate need of root and branch reform. The trial was, at best, a distraction.

We had a good weekend sailing and I saw them a few times over the weeks that followed. I remember one evening as we made our way from the hotel to a restaurant in a taxi we found that streets were blocked, and then we came right up against a group of angry protesters, with placards about jobs being lost and wages cut. One of the guys I was with grew really angry, could barely contain himself in the taxi. This was the last thing Argentina needed, he said. Protests like this were not just a waste of time, but they were irresponsible.

The country was going to have to go through years of hardship, he said, to get to a position where it could begin again. There were no choices. Argentina was not just broke, it owed a fortune and the costs of public services were outlandish. Protesting would not make the slightest difference...

[Demeter]

44. Why MERS Needs to be Taken Out and Shot

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/11/why-mers-needs-to-be-taken-out-and-shot.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

...We’ve been told that Constitutional scholars have said that repeated Supreme Court decisions have found real estate transactions to be beyond the reach of Commerce clause, and hence not subject to Federal intervention. So the idea that MERS can be legitimated by Congress appears far-fetched.

But what are the problems with MERS? The focus so far has been on its questionable legal standing, but its operational failings are every bit as serious.

Although critics have provided a number of arguments against MERS, the most fundamental relate to MERS’ claim that it acts as mortgagee of record. While the language it uses to register mortgages in the name of MERS in local courthouses says it is both the nominee for the mortgagee and the mortgagee (a legal impossibility), in depositions its executives have repeatedly said that MERS is the mortgagee (see here and here for examples).

In 45 states, that position would seem to be a non-starter. In those states, the note (the borrower IOU) is the critical document; in these states, the mortgage is a mere “accessory” to the note and has no independent force. Indeed, in these states, you cannot be a mortgagee unless you are also the creditor. But in depositions, MERS has repeatedly acknowledged that it does not lend money and does not collect interest payments. But MERS effectively takes the position that you can separate the mortgage from the note and reunite them, a position that was rejected in an 1873 (no typo) Supreme Court decision, Carpenter v. Longan (Carpenter v. Longan, 83 U.S. 271, 21 L.Ed. 313 <1873>)):

.The note and mortgage are inseparable; the former as essential, the latter as an incident. An assignment of the note carries the mortgage with it, while an assignment of the latter alone is a nullity...

[Demeter]

45. Low incomes make poor more conservative, study finds

http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-incomes-poor.html

...Conversely, when inequality declines, the public becomes more liberal. The public works projects and other social programs following the Great Depression helped promote decades of declining inequality into the 1960s, Enns said. "And then there's a shift," he said. "Once inequality starts going back up, it appears to be perpetuated by public opinion. If inequality declined in the United States, our results suggest that then the public would become more supportive of government redistribution."...

[Karenina]

46. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

:loveya:

[Demeter]

49. And on earth, peace to men of good will

Those with bad will get 20 to life.

[Demeter]

47. The levelling-off in OTC derivatives

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/11/16/405716/the-levelling-off-in-otc-derivatives/

GRAPHIC PORN GALORE

[Demeter]

50. Losing the Battle, Winning the War?

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2010/11/losing_the_batt.html

Or, the Economic Implications of the G-20 Meeting's Aftermath

The narrative emerging in the wake of the G-20 meetings (EARLY NOVEMBER) is that, not only is the rest of the world angry at us over quantitative easing, but we also achieved none of our diplomatic objectives regarding rebalancing (the coverage seemed particularly negative on CNBC). In addition, the outcome has been taken as a harbinger of the end of US dominance over economic policymaking, to the extent the US no longer has the intellectual high ground (given the failure to regulate the financial system in a sensible way) and the relative decline in economic weight.

Effective Economics versus Meaningful Communiques, and Strategic Interactions

I think one important point is to realize that achieving economic goals and diplomatic successes are not always the same. From a diplomatic standpoint, it would have been useful to have agreement that countries should limit current account balances, as in the US proposal. It might have been economically useful, to the extent that this put additional pressure on China to take more rapid action to rein in their current account surplus by way of exchange rate appreciation, and restructuring of the economy. Of course, at the panel I was on several weeks ago, PBoC deputy governor had already made a commitment to putting the Chinese CA/GDP ratio on a glide path towards reduction (but not necessarily as a share of world GDP), so it's not clear what economic impact an agreement would have made.

I have also been thinking about the anger with which the policymakers and economists in the rest-of-the-world (as well as certain US politicians) have greeted QE2 with. In some ways, the fact that they are angry speaks volumes about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of QE2. (In other words, to criticize QE2 as having no effect, and then to be angry that it is being undertaken, are internally inconsistent views.)

My view is that anger at the US position is currently being driven by an understanding that QE2 has been surprisingly effective at depreciating the dollar, and that the rest-of-the-world has limited scope in countering that depreciation. In a game theoretic context, we usually think of competitive devaluation as a form of the prisoner’s dilemma, where the devalue option dominates the no-devalue option, and both parties end up with a devalued currency, but no net improvement because countries cannot all devalue against each other...

GRAPHIC PORN AND WONKY DETAILED ANALYSIS AT LINK!

[Demeter]

51. Paychecks for CEOs Climb

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704756804575608434290068118.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

The chief executives of the largest U.S. public companies enjoyed bigger paydays in their latest fiscal year, as share prices recovered and profits soared amid the country's slow emergence from recession.

At these 456 companies, the median pretax value of CEO salaries, bonuses and long-term incentives, such as grants of stock and stock options, rose by 3% to $7.23 million, according to an analysis of their latest proxy filings for The Wall Street Journal by consulting firm Hay Group.

Investors made out well, too, with total shareholder return (based on the change in stock price plus reinvested dividends), coming in at 29%. The companies' total net income doubled from a year earlier to $510.9 billion....

[Demeter]

52. Shocking State Fair Scandal, Wage Theft Epidemic, Spur Nationwide Protests

http://www.truth-out.org/shocking-state-fair-scandal-wage-theft-epidemic-spur-nationwide-protests65115

..As much as $19 billion is stolen from American workers annually in unpaid overtime and minimum wage violations and, in some cases, through the human trafficking of legal immigrant workers. The latest case to come to light involves alleged horrendous conditions for immigrant workers reportedly hoodwinked in Mexico by a food services contractor for the New York State Fair and kept in near-slavery conditions of $2 an hour.

Indeed, the scandal surfaced when some of these legal guest workers showed up several weeks ago at a Syracuse area clinic, severely dehydrated and malnourished after allegedly being kept in virtual imprisonment in a trailer at the fair and at other locations; they were reportedly being denied thousands of dollars in legal wages owed them while working about 100 hours a week at fairs for months, according to legal filings and Danny Postel, communications coordinator for Interfaith Worker Justice.

"It's one of the most shocking cases of wage theft," Postel says.

The contractor, Pantelis Karageorgis, is the target of a labor standards class-action lawsuit filed last month by Farmworker Legal Services and a Labor Department investigation. But criminal charges by the U.S. Attorney's office have been dropped— "dismissed without prejudice"—and instead a modest settlement involving some back payment for the workers is being hammered out, knowledgeable sources say...

[Demeter]

53. Which of These Banks Was 2010's Most Shameless Corporate Outlaw?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/which-of-these-banks-was_b_802887.html

Bankers. The red carpet's still being rolled out for them in Washington, but if there's a stain on it they'll pout for days. Jason Linkins documents the latest set of cheap white whines from very wealthy white men. (Discrimination lawsuits are a routine part of their legal troubles, too.) This time they're upset because nobody from the six largest banks in America was invited to the president's CEO Roundtable.

They're offended because they didn't meet with the president? From the looks of things they're lucky not to be meeting with the warden. Their collective rap sheet includes fraud, sex discrimination, collusion to bribe public officials... even laundering drug money for Mexican drug cartels. One of them is accused of ripping off some nuns! None of this criminal behavior has stopped them from sulking over a presidential slight. Let's review the record for these corporate malefactors, and then decide:

Which of these six banks was "America's Most Shameless Corporate Outlaw" in 2010? (I mean, really: Nuns?)

THE CANDIDATES:

1. Bank of America

2. JPMorgan Chase

3. Citigroup

4. Wells Fargo

5. Goldman Sachs

6. Morgan Stanley

SEE THE RAP SHEETS AT THE LINK--WATCH THIS SPACE FOR INDICTMENTS (YEAH, RIGHT)

[Demeter]

54. Obama & Wall St.: Still Venus & Mars

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=2A8140B2-C586-FED2-2F5B406630C0DD88

On the mental list of slights and outrages that just about every major figure on Wall Street is believed to keep on President Barack Obama, add this one: When he met recently with a group of CEOs at Blair House, there was no representative from any of the six biggest banks in America.

Not one!

"If they don't hate us anymore, why weren't any of us there?" a senior executive at one of the Big Six banks said recently in trying to explain his hostility toward the president.

"It's not so much just this one thing,” he said. “Who cares about one event? It's just the pattern where they tell you things are going to change, that they appreciate what we do, that capital markets are important, but then the actions are different and they continue to want to score political points on us."

Still, the executive understands that it makes political sense for the White House to stiff-arm Wall Street, if not bash it with a massive sledge hammer.

After all, polls suggest most Americans believe Obama has handled the titans of Wall Street with an exceedingly light touch. He supported the deeply unpopular $700-billion bank bailout, pushed a financial reform package that stopped short of breaking up the biggest behemoths and, just this month, signed off on tax cuts for the wealthiest and continued low rates on capital gains and dividends.

And, of course, big-time bonuses at bailed-out banks are back, even as average Americans continue to get tossed out of their homes, corporate America has turned in its most profitable quarter in history and the stock market is at a two-year high.

Yet the executive dislikes Obama with, what seems like, an almost irrational passion. And he is not alone.

Along the gilded corridors of Manhattan's largest banks, hedge funds and private equity firms and inside Washington's financial lobby shops, Obama and the rest of his administration are regarded with a disdain so thick it often blurs to naked loathing, a fact that has significant implications for the president's reelection campaign and his ability to operate over the next two years.

In an effort to understand such animus POLITICO interviewed a dozen senior Wall Street denizens, including C-suite executives, investment bankers, traders and financial lobbyists, who were promised anonymity in return..."You would really have to go back to 1934 to find a time when Wall Street was this angry at an administration following a crisis that was largely of Wall Street's own making," said Charles Geisst, a financial historian and professor at Manhattan College. "Back then, Wall Street basically went on strike and would not issue bonds for corporations. They stomped their feet like little kids. The same thing is happening now." ..."You have to understand, it is very personal. He raised money from us," one executive at a top bank said. "Then he started calling us bad people. So forgive us for not wanting to buy him a drink after getting punched in the eye."

I'D CLASSIFY THIS AS HUMOR, IF IT WEREN'T TRUE...IT'S A MUST READ PSYCHOLOGICAL/POLITICAL GOLD MINE

[bread_and_roses]

59. Venus and Mars maybe, but still married

... though Obama as concubine might be a better analogy.

[Demeter]

61. More Like a House Slave

to be only partially un-PC

[AnneD]

72. If Obama is WS concubine...

then the Middle class must be the 4th wife.

[Demeter]

68. 10,000 Boomers a Day Need Jobs: Getting Back to Where We Once Belonged

AND THAT'S NOT COUNTING THE KIDS AND GRANDKIDS!

http://blogs.forbes.com/shenegotiates/2010/12/31/10000-boomers-a-day-need-jobs-getting-back-to-where-we-once-belonged/?partner=yahoofpapp

Yahoo reported yesterday that starting tomorrow, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years.”

That is not good news.

We boomers are not our parents’ retirees. We are not thinking Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) or scrap booking at Vail (MTN) while our grandchildren learn to ski.

We are thinking unemployment, foreclosure, and bankruptcy. We are wondering where the money for our Plavix (SNY) will come from.

Women Particularly Hard Hit

For those women who have spent their lifetimes in jobs, the retirement outlook is particularly bleak with long-term job prospects worsening.

Economics professor and investment advisor, Douglas Rice, citing the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics for the over-55 set, says that the employment scene appears to be better for women (6.2%) than for men (8.1%). “When you compare unemployment figures for today’s boomer women with their numbers at the beginning of the recession,” says Rice, “the picture is far gloomier. Only 2.9% of women over 55 were unemployed year-end 2007, so the numbers of boomer women looking for work has doubled since the beginning of the downturn.”...

[Demeter]

73. How a Different America Responded to the Great Depression

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1810/public-opinion-great-depression-compared-with-now

Were confirmation needed that the American public is in a sour mood, the 2010 midterm elections provided it. As both pre-election and post-election surveys made clear, Americans are not only strongly dissatisfied with the state of the economy and the direction in which the country is headed, but with government efforts to improve them. As the Pew Research Center's analysis of exit poll data concluded, "the outcome of this year's election represented a repudiation of the political status quo.... Fully 74% said they were either angry or dissatisfied with the federal government, and 73% disapproved of the job Congress is doing."

This outlook is in interesting contrast with many of the public's views during the Great Depression of the 1930s, not only on economic, political and social issues, but also on the role of government in addressing them.

Quite unlike today's public, what Depression-era Americans wanted from their government was, on many counts, more not less. And despite their far more dire economic straits, they remained more optimistic than today's public. Nor did average Americans then turn their ire upon their Groton-Harvard-educated president -- this despite his failure, over his first term in office, to bring a swift end to their hardship. FDR had his detractors but these tended to be fellow members of the social and economic elite...

[Demeter]

74. Housing Pain Pits Neighbor Against Neighbor in Florida

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703326204575616340542578852.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

Few things agitate Sid Schulman, who often shoots the breeze with other retirees and flirts with women friends at their condominium complex here.

But it galls him when neighbors stop paying their mortgages and maintenance fees, and leave the cost of community upkeep to others. "I am paying for these guys," said the 75-year-old sitting poolside, a diamond stud in his left ear.

Condo Quarrels

Last year, he took matters into his own hands. Near the mailbox of each condo building he posted a list of residents delinquent on their maintenance fees, with the message "Pay up or move out" and the same in Spanish, Pague O Mudese. He also tried, unsuccessfully, to get the cable company to cut off service to nonpayers.

The public shaming angered some of those named. "You know where I live—come and tell me that to me face," said Lorena Garcia, 36, who lost her job and ability to pay...

The condo complex Mr. Schulman and Ms. Garcia share, called International Village, has installed a fingerprint-scanning device at its central clubhouse, to keep residents who are more than 90 days behind on their maintenance fees from swimming in the pools, playing on the racquetball courts and using the game room, where canasta and mah-jongg competitions are held...

[Mojorabbit]

95. A shame they did not instead

pool together to help some of their neighbors pay the maintenance fees.

[Demeter]

75. EU wants power to block China's technology purchasing power

http://www.itworld.com/business/132043/eu-wants-power-block-chinas-technology-purchasing-power

The European Union's industry commissioner wants the power to block China from buying up European tech companies.

Commissioner Antonio Tajani made the comments in an interview with German daily paper Handelsblatt. Europe should establish a new authority with powers to block foreign takeovers of strategic European businesses, he said. "Chinese companies have the means to buy more and more European enterprises with key technologies in important sectors," said Tajani.

The commissioner envisions an authority along the same lines as the United States' Committee on Foreign Investment. The proposed E.U. authority would determine "if the acquisition (of a company) with European know-how by a private or public foreign company represented a danger or not".

The comments will likely strain even further the already tense China-E.U. trade relations. There are currently a number of Commission investigations of Chinese firms under way. E.U. companies also argue that China should also remove its restrictions on foreign investment to ensure a level playing field.

[Demeter]

76. Greetings From Around the World!

Happy New Year -
Felix sit annus novus -
Gelukkig nieuwjaar -
Onnellista uutta vuotta -
Bonne année -
Selamat tahun baru -
Boldog új évet -
Feliz año nuevo -
Gott nytt år
- Ein gutes neues Jahr
- Gleðilegt nýtt ár

[Demeter]

77. Outing Ben Bernanke By Eric Fry

...Recent disclosures from the Federal Reserve reveal that honesty was one of the earliest casualties of the 2008 financial crisis. These disclosures contain a number of juicy tidbits, like the fact that Goldman Sachs received tens of billions of dollars in direct and indirect succor from the Fed.

Thanks to these spectacularly large taxpayer-funded bailouts, Goldman was able to continue “doing God’s Work” – as CEO Lloyd Blankfein infamously remarked – like the work of producing billion-dollar trading profits without ever suffering a single day of losses.

Thanks to the Fed’s massive, undisclosed assistance, Goldman Sachs managed to project an image of financial well-being, even while accessing tens of billions of dollars of direct assistance from the Federal Reserve.

By repaying its TARP loan, for example, Goldman wriggled out from under the nettlesome compensation limits imposed by TARP, while also conveying an image of financial strength. But this “strength” was illusory. Goldman repaid the TARP loans with funds it procured days earlier from the Federal Reserve. Then, over the ensuing months, Goldman recapitalized its balance sheet by selling tens of billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities to the Fed.

And the public never knew anything about these activities until two weeks ago, when the Fed was forced to reveal them.


Read more: Outing Ben Bernanke http://dailyreckoning.com/outing-ben-bernanke/#ixzz19t3tveJh

FOR SNARK AND OUTRAGE ALONE, IT'S A MUST-READ!

[Demeter]

78. Goldman’s Perfect Quarter By Eric Fry

While the European Central Bank (ECB) was busy manipulating markets and making headlines Monday, Goldman Sachs was quietly revealing a different story of market manipulation…or something that walks and quacks very much like a market manipulation duck.

In an SEC filing, Goldman disclosed its first-ever “perfect” quarter. The firm’s proprietary trading desk navigated the first quarter without producing a single day of losses, the first time it had accomplished such a feat.

How is this possible? Please permit us to offer a simple explanation: It’s not.


Read more: Goldman's Perfect Quarter http://dailyreckoning.com/goldmans-perfect-quarter/#ixzz19t58NmSZ

ANOTHER HOWL OF OUTRAGE!

[Demeter]

79. ANOTHER SNARK

“The firm did not record a loss of even $0.01 on even one day in the last quarter,” Durden says. “The statistic probability of this event is itself statistically undefined. Goldman is now the market – or, in keeping with modern market reality, Goldman is the ‘house,’ it controls the casino, and always wins. Congratulations America: you now have far, far better odds in Las Vegas that you have making money with your E-Trade account.”

Read more: Goldman's Perfect Quarter http://dailyreckoning.com/goldmans-perfect-quarter/#ixzz19t5X7QYf

[DemReadingDU]

80. Tragedy in our area, horrible way to start New Year

I was in Seymour Indiana visiting my my family, and come home to Enon Ohio to this tragic news that a sheriff deputy was shot and killed, and another deputy shot in a shootout. I had posted a couple videos at this link, but I can repost here.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4679735&mesg_id=4680076


1/1/11 Interviews with local residents
http://www.whiotv.com/video/26340813/index.html 7 minutes video

1/1/11 Sheriff Kelly interview, press conference. 10 minutes
http://abc.daytonsnewssource.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wkef_vid_5207.shtml


So I've lived here about 20 years, appx 5 miles south of the shootings. We are landlocked, there really is no 'beach'. The Enon Beach is actually a small lake with campers and trailers. We have met Sheriff Kelly, he is one of the best. We do not know the officers who were shot. This is very tragic for our village.

info about Enon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enon,_Ohio


Edit to include today's newspaper articles

1/2/11 Deputy responded to report of shots fired
Residents say gunshot shattered a window in their Enon Beach trailer.
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/crime/deputy-responded-to-report-of-shots-fired-1043657.html

1/2/11 Deputy was ‘good woman,’ true professional
Condolences pouring in for mother of two who was an 11-year veteran of Sheriff’s Office.
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/crime/deputy-was-good-woman-true-professional-1043683.html

[AnneD]

87. And these are the very professionals....

that the current admin seeks to demean and take away their pensions and cut their salaries.

Frankly they can't pay me enough to be a law enforcement officer or a firefighter.

I know that as a Nurse, when an officer, firefighter, soldier, or a child hits the emergency room, Docs and Nurses really go to the mat to save them. We code longer and work harder to bring them back.

DemReading, my heartfelt sympathy to the town and those poor children. It is so shocking and so sad.

[DemReadingDU]

92. This is a very disturbing trend

My son is a police officer in Dayton. I worry that something similar could happen to him. There are always jerks to be taken to jail, but it is when the unexpected happens that gives one pause for fear and concern.

[Demeter]

81. The Housing Non-Recovery By Whitney Tilson

So where are we today?

Two thirds of American homes have mortgages – 56 million mortgages outstanding. A little over half are owned or guaranteed by government entities. 35% are held on the balance sheets of banks and thrifts, and 15% are so-called private label securities that went to Wall Street. This last piece was the sub-prime stuff that was some of the very worst mortgage debt ever written.

It’s very easy to get complacent about the mortgage market, as housing prices have stabilized and foreclosures have stabilized, you know, ‘we don’t have to worry about that anymore.’ But I’d argue to the contrary, let me show you why.

Fourteen percent of America’s 56 million mortgages are already delinquent or in foreclosure. So if you multiply 56 million by 14%, that means that 7.8 million people right now are not paying their mortgages. 7.8 million homeowners have been delinquent for 30, 60 or 90 days…or are in foreclosure already. 91% of the people who are currently not paying are never going to get back to current, according to recent statistics. So that means that of 7.8 million people not paying their mortgage, 7.2 million are never going to get back. So that’s a problem. 7.2 million homes. 7.2 million mortgages will go into foreclosure…eventually.

Mortgage Delinquencies and Foreclosures

And the real story is even worse than the nearby chart suggests. Because of loan modification programs, the government, banks and servicers have dramatically slowed down the foreclosure process. The banks have been modifying everybody, slowing down the foreclosure pipeline and not taking properties onto their books.

So what this means is that the rate of NON-foreclosure on delinquent borrowers is climbing sharply. As the nearby chart illustrates, 24% of the people who have not made a mortgage payment during the last two years have still not been foreclosed on. That’s how clogged the foreclosure pipeline is.


Read more: The Housing Non-Recovery http://dailyreckoning.com/the-housing-non-recovery/#ixzz19t6ZAaqq

ANOTHER MUST READ

[Demeter]

82. Son of Subprime By Addison Wiggin

Now in an entirely different sector – probably the last place you’d look – the clouds are turning black once again. Strip out the finer details, and you’ll find the very same mechanics that brought the subprime market from boom to bust:

* Widespread investor acceptance
* Complicated derivatives
* Intense incentives for banks to make deals
* Boneheaded assumptions of endless return on investment
* Underqualified borrowers
* Stunning amounts of leverage and debt
* A loosely regulated multitrillion-dollar market
* Overstated credit ratings from Wall Street
* Social and political pressures to maintain growth

This crisis-yet-to-be is…municipal bonds

Munis have been a long-standing pillar of stable return. Only bonds from sovereign governments and blue chip corporations have a better reputation for credit-worthiness than munis. So when a city or state sells bonds to build a new school, sewer or stadium, investors form a line around the block. In the history of the union, only one US state has ever defaulted on its debt (Arkansas 1934). A few cities here and there have also done so. In other words, munis have performed admirably over the years.

But reputations, as this credit crisis has taught the world, no longer mean jack. Ask debt holders of “blue chip companies” like GM, or “sovereign” states like Greece. Investors are learning an old lesson the hard way: No asset class – not one in the history of the world – is a sure thing.



Read more: Son of Subprime http://dailyreckoning.com/son-of-subprime/#ixzz19t8J254w

[Demeter]

83. MasterCard Hosted Mossad Assassins, Blocked WikiLeaks

http://mathaba.net/news/?x=625621



The Israeli assassins using false Australian passports, used the U.S. MasterCard credit card company to pay bills


The U.S. credit card company MasterCard, has hosted murderous Israeli intelligence agents from the terrorist state's MOSSAD secret service. The wanted criminals had used passports from other countries including Australia whilst carrying out the murder of an Arab leader in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in the Arabian Gulf.

Australia has not retaliated against Israel for the regime's crime of using Australian passports to carry out murder.

U.S. diplomatic cables leaked by Australian editor Julian Assange's WikiLeaks web site, reveal that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had asked for U.S. government assistance in finding out more about the owners of the MasterCard credit cards used by the assassins.

Prior to this cable release, MasterCard had cut off the handling of any donations toward the legal defense of Julian Assange, who was languishing in a London jail at the time, in violation of international norms since no crime had been committed and he was being held by British police for his own protection, pending bail and in solitary confinement at the request of his lawyers...

[Demeter]

84. How WikiLeaks Enlightened Us in 2010

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20026591-503543.html

...WikiLeaks' revelations also have many major implications for world relations. The following is a list of the more impactful WikiLeaks revelations from 2010, grouped by region.

The United States

- The U.S. Army considered WikiLeaks a national security threat as early as 2008, according to documents obtained and posted by WikiLeaks in March, 2010.

- Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his top commanders repeatedly, knowingly lied to the American public about rising sectarian violence in Iraq beginning in 2006, according to the cross-referencing of WikiLeaks' leaked Iraq war documents and former Washington Post Baghdad Bureau Chief Ellen Knickmeyer's recollections.

- The Secretary of State's office encouraged U.S. diplomats at the United Nations to spy on their counterparts, including collecting data about the U.N. secretary general, his team and foreign diplomats, including credit card account numbers, according to documents from WikiLeaks U.S. diplomatic cable release. Later cables reveal the CIA draws up an annual "wish-list" for the State Department, which one year included the instructions to spy on the U.N.

- The Obama administration worked with Republicans during his first few months in office to protect Bush administration officials facing a criminal investigation overseas for their involvement in establishing policies that some considered torture. A "confidential" April 17, 2009, cable sent from the US embassy in Madrid obtained by WikiLeaks details how the Obama administration, working with Republicans, leaned on Spain to derail this potential prosecution.

- WikiLeaks released a secret State Department cable that provided a list of sites around the world vital to U.S. national security, from mines in Africa to labs in Europe...

[DemReadingDU]

85. Detroit in ruins

1/2/11 Detroit in ruins, 16 photos
Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's extraordinary photographs documenting the dramatic decline of a major American city
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jan/02/photography-detroit#/

[AnneD]

86. We had our niece from Detroit visit us...

several week ago. These pictures confirm what she told me. Detroit is going the way of NOLA.

But I wonder, where do the people go. I know we have a lot here in Houston.

Just makes me want to cry. And again I ask, where is our media?

[Demeter]

88. Detroit Emptied Out Starting in 1967 with the Riots

The metropolitan area is larger than the city ever was--

Not everyone did what my parents did; they moved 850 miles to New England...far enough that relatives wouldn't drive over for casual visits. Of course, uprooting oneself and ones dependents from a family seat of 4 generations to take one's nuclear family out into another culture without any economic or practical support nearly put my family into total disaster...as it was, my father was more than distraught when his new job laid him off within 2 years...after taking out a big mortgage...and neither brother really survived the transition, but became part of the Lost Boys and still are lost to this day.

My sister and I, not being blessed with Y chromosomes, succeeded in spite of the family expectations, with the timely help of the feminist movement and cheap tuition at state colleges. My tuition was $200/year; unbelievable, isn't it?

Sis married well and had no children but contracted MS and is disabled, I did the opposite.

And Detroit is rather like the Incan ruins, majestic, desolate, overgrown and abandoned.

[DemReadingDU]

91. Detroit is an early window into what will become of other cities

It is a matter of time, and lack of money, as more and more people lose their jobs which result in a lower tax base overall to fund basic services.
:(

[AnneD]

96. That is what I fear.....

we are rotting from the inside out.

[bread_and_roses]

93. It must be the teachers' fault (n/t)

[Demeter]

89. A Quote for the History Books

Reaganomics: a tax policy based on a notion of incentives which says that "the rich aren't working because they have too little money, while the poor aren't working because they have too much."

– John Kenneth Galbraith

[Demeter]

90. Fraud and Complicity Are Now the Lifeblood of the Status Quo (Banality of Financial Evil, Part 2)

http://www.oftwominds.com/blognov10/fraud-is-lifeblood11-10.html

The status quo would collapse were systemic fraud and complicity banished. Rather than the acts of evil conspirators, they have become the foundation of the U.S. economy and financial system.

Though fraud and complicity are presented in the mainstream media as isolated conspiracies outside the status quo, the truth is that the status quo is now entirely dependent on fraud and complicity for its very survival. Every level of the status quo would immediately implode were fraud and complicity suddenly withdrawn from the system.

How is this true? let me count the ways.

1. The mortgage market.

2. Foreclosures and our Banana Republic system of "law".

3. Housing and commercial real estate (CRE).

4. Wall Street.

5. The stock market.

6. Corporate accounting.

7. Politics.

8. The entire status quo, from worker bees to Power Elites and the Political Class.

FOR DETAILS--SEE THE LINK. IN CONCLUSION:

When a system becomes dependent on fraud and misrepresentation of risk for "business as usual," then all that is required of the complicit is to "dot the i's" and fill out the report, court order, balance sheet, act of Congress, etc., just like everyone else does.

AND THAT IS THE BASIS FOR DISAPPOINTMENT IN OBAMA, IN A NUTSHELL.

[Demeter]

94. MAY THE NEW YEAR BRING YOU JOY!

I'm going to drink the champagne, I've cooked the lobster, eaten the fruitcake and chocolate, bought the last designated Christmas present, and called it a day.

176 emails to go. Goodnight folks! It's 19F and falling. So much for the 50's.