STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday December 3

[ozymandius]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday December 3, 2010

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON December 2, 2010

Dow 11,362.41 +106.63 (+0.94%)
Nasdaq 2,579.35 +29.92 (+1.16%)
S&P 500 1,221.53 +15.46 (+1.27%)
10-Yr Bond... 2.99 -.00 (-0.13%)
30-Year Bond 4.25 -0.02 (-0.38%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours

Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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Handy Links - Market Data and News:Economic Calendar    Marketwatch Data    Bloomberg Economic News    Yahoo! Finance    Google Finance    Bank Tracker    
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Handy Links - Government Issues:
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Handy Links - Videos:
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    William Black: This Economic Disaster    Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn

Bush Administration Officials Convicted = 2
Names: David Safavian, James Fondren
Dishonorable Mention: former House majority leader, Tom DeLay

Bush Administration Officials Charged = 1
Name(s): Richard Lopez Razo

Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = 11

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This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.

Read more: du

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[ozymandius]

2. Today's Reports

[Ghost Dog]

8. Fears grow over length of US jobs crisis

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The latest snapshot of the US labor market due Friday was expected to show painfully high levels of unemployment persisting, in more troubling news for President Barack Obama. Economists expect the November report will show a jobless rate stuck at 9.6 percent for the fourth consecutive month, as millions of Americans struggled to get back to work.

...

With the employment market unable to untether itself from recession, the jobless rate has remained above nine percent for the last 18 months. While that high rate of joblessness is a constant worry for the eight-plus million Americans who lost their jobs during the crisis, policymakers are increasingly concerned about how long the trend has persisted.

...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this week warned that entrenched high levels of unemployment could have a "very long-term effect" on the US economy. Job creation, he said, is "probably the most important economic issue facing America today."

...

"This is very unusual and very worrisome," Bernanke said, warning workers could become detached from the workforce, skills could erode over time and firms become more skeptical about the unemployed. "This could have a very long-term effect on people's wages, on their employability," he added.

/... http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101203/bs_afp/useconomyunemployment_20101203070655;

[Roland99]

18. Jobs report....

Nov. factory jobs down 13,000
Nov. retail jobs down 28,000
Nov. jobless rate above 9.6% expected
Nov. jobless rate highest since April
Nov. payroll rise below 155,000 rise expected
Nov. jobless rate 9.8% vs 9.6% expected
U.S. Nov. nonfarm payrolls up 39,000

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nonfarm-payroll-up-39000-in-nov-rate-at-98-2010-12-03

Job growth unexpectedly stalled in November, the Labor Department said Friday. Total non-farm payrolls increased a slim 39,000 in November, much lower than the 155,000 gain expected by Wall Street economists. The unemployment rate moved up to higher to 9.8% in November from 9.6% in the previous month. Economists forecast the unemployment rate to hold steady at 9.6%. This is the highest unemployment rate since April. Average hourly earnings were essentially unchanged at $22.75. Economists had been expecting a 0.2% gain. Earnings are up 1.6% in the past year. The average workweek was steady at 34.3 -hours

[Roland99]

19. DJIA futures make 90pt turnaround on jobs numbers.

Now down 50 points.

[rfranklin]

21. Perhaps it is time to take some dramatic measures...

Trying to paper over the out-of-control financial industry is not working.

[Roland99]

22. It's obvious what is needed....

tax cuts for the RICH!!


huzzah!

[Dr.Phool]

26. Where's that guy who was making all those rosey predictions a couple of days ago?

Ain't quite what he expected, is it?

[TheWatcher]

27. Indeed. He was posting educational links from about.com

Attempting to educate all of us "clueless" fools about Economics 101.

I can't WAIT to see the in depth analysis on today's unemployment numbers.

Perhaps he'll Boldly Go Where No Cognitive Dissonance Has Gone Before.

9.8%.

SPIN THAT.

[Dr.Phool]

28. The Tasmanian Devil is just getting revved up!

[TheWatcher]

35. At Your Service, Sir. :)

[Ghost Dog]

55. Speaking of education, that reminds me to ask, because I am clueless here:

In Europe, even in less-well-off parts like southern Spain here, unemployment comes with state-paid compensation/benefits, depending on employment history and contributions paid into the common fund, covering not only housing costs and living expenses, but also providing opportunities for further education, skills training and job-seeking support services free of charge and even further subsidised by direct 'stimulus' payments by the state. Not generally here in Spain but surely elsewhere such as in more Scandinavian parts of the Union even more socially responsible services will be provided such as free childcare... Medical cover is of course a given...

Is there anything like that, particularly in the eductation/training area, available in any State of the USA?

[Demeter]

56. AHAHAHAHAHAH

:rofl:

Any time we have such programs, they work so well that they are immediately cut....Clinton's safety net was shredded long ago--and he started it.

[jtuck004]

65. We have a somewhat different program.

First, we increase tuition, and let you apply for student loans with provisions that prevent them from being discharged in bankruptcy. Their size quite commonly means you will have to live with them for decades. The likelihood that there will be a job for you when you leave school is, at least lately, a fleeting hope at best, but we prefer not to address such problems because, generally, that is the fault of the student and their inability to actually find a job. Because hard work means you can be anything you want to be.

For health care we have a unique plan - called Cobra, in which we charge you hundreds of dollars per month, perhaps under the assumption that much of the food you would otherwise eat is bad for you so paying insurance premiums is much healthier. If you choose (we are big on choice here) not to purchase that insurance, our health insurance companies are nearly destitute, so we allow them to deny you coverage if you haven't purchased that Cobra between jobs, because we can't imagine anything worse than a health insurance company without any money.

Finally, we have a unique approach to re-employing you. Instead of creating job programs that would stimulate demand, we pay you enough money to buy some food and pay for some of your housing, although transportation for job hunting may require you to borrow money from relatives. Because we enjoy sports so much, we have these people called Republicans and Democrats who play what might be termed "political volleyball" with those payments, so you never know from quarter-to-quarter whether your payments will continue. The Republicans point out, quite rightly (in their opinion), that the responsibility for finding a job is totally under the control of the unemployed. If they are unsuccessful, they are quite probably lazy. While it is true that there is only 1 job for every 6 workers, and that doesn't count the other 15 or 30 willing to work the same job for a third of the pay in countries such as China. But this doesn't alter the Republican position that we are simply paying people to remain unemployed. On the other other side of the volleyball net are the Democrats, and they, well...the Democrats, uh...prefer to look at the optimistic view.

So far it has worked very well for us, and if other countries would adopt capitalism (defined as free markets unencumbered by job killing regulation) they could do as well as we do, because we are #1, #1, #1, go U.S.A., go U.S.A....

__________________________________________________-

Ok, that was silly. We have sort of a patchwork of state programs that vary from nothing to offering some help, mostly assistance with food and some emergency health care for people under a federal poverty line, though it is barely enough in many cases. (Actually we have a law that lets anyone get care in any emergency room any time - but they often must wait until they are quite sick, and that usually leads to worse outcomes. Minimal primary care would prevent a lot of that, and that is sometimes available for children). Some states offer a sort of vocational training (though often for jobs that are not available), and there is some federal provision for college (postsecondary) grants. Several cities and states are bankrupt, and being kept afloat with loans and grants from the federal government, so these programs are not what they could be. There are other programs here and there, but no concentrated or planned effort to deal with cyclical downturns on a national level. Strikingly there has been no program of a size sufficient to deal with the current case where we have a combination of 40 years of hollowing out our industrial job base and the deliberate removal of laws and programs designed to protect the population against economic downturns. This was exacerbated by reckless, bordering on criminal, behavior by investment banks whose indiscretions in the use of financial derivatives have precipitated a financial crisis from which we may not recover. Other than that, we are doing ok.

And I feel the hot breath of the central censors on my neck...

___________________________________________-

I am curious. Has Spain or the other nations had a point where 1 out of 5 workers, or 20% of the workforce, is unemployed or underemployed?

[Hugin]

67. Goooooo TEAM!

Yay! :cheerleader:

[Ghost Dog]

85. Spanish unemploment last peaked in the early 1990s at around 20%

[tclambert]

73. In America, we believe you shouldn't reward lazy people for not working.

That's why Republicans want to cut off jobless benefits. Pay people for no work? With Christmas coming? Ridiculous, Mr. Cratchit.

Personlly, I'm expecting a surge in self-employed criminal activity. Because it is every jobless American's right to own a gun.

[hamerfan]

66. Contrary to "popular opinion" over there

I want nothing better than solid economic growth without artificial bubbles to overheat and explode in our faces, and full employment for all who want it.
I'm thinking this would be best achieved under a Democratic administration.
But I'm losing hope.....

[Demeter]

32. "Nobody could have imagined..."

[Roland99]

O M G !

:puke:



You owe me some cleanup costs (my keyboard is a mess!)




;-)

[Demeter]

37. I apologise for my crankiness prank

Fridays will do that to ya. Especially when it stays below freezing for a week, after being in the 60's.

[Roland99]

53. :-)

[Dr.Phool]

38. If you don't fix this economy.......

[Demeter]

40. FRSP, Doc! FRSP

[AnneD]

58. Ahhhh.....

my peeps, my peeps, I got peeps.

Between Dr.Phool and Tansy Gold and her ITYS/FRSP, we have the ecomony covered.

[Demeter]

61. Peeps?

And FRSP is MY very OWN.

[AnneD]

69. Sorry Demeter.....

:spank: Must give credit where it is due. Peeps is ghetto slang for people, but I can go for the real peeps if they are properly aged (a bit dried out-they become chewier)

[Tansy_Gold]

47. It's a damn good thing

I read the subject lines of the posts before I read the posts themselves, 'cause I knew your sick warped frozen-north brand of humor would stick a sick, disgusting, spew-inducing pic like that.


A woman after my own heart! :evilgrin:




TG, NTY

[Demeter]

57. It's Colder in Poland

NPR says it's 5F, sometimes going negative, and people are freezing in the streets (homeless and drunk). 40 deaths at last report....

[ozymandius]

71. My eyes!

That's uncalled for.

[ozymandius]

78. That's gonna leave a mark.

The bad news is that this is the good news. Holiday hires are off the unemployment books.

[ozymandius]

3. Oil hovers near $88 in Asia amid economic optimism

Signs the U.S. economy is gaining strength have spurred a rally on Wall Street this week, and that in turn drove oil prices up. U.S. manufacturing activity, retail sales and the housing market all improved. And while more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the average over the past month fell to a two-year low.

Strong manufacturing data from China, a major crude importer, also lifted sentiment and turned attention away from European debt problems to the underlying strength of global oil demand, Barclays Capital said in a report.

In other Nymex trading in January contracts, heating oil fell 1 cent to $2.45 a gallon while gasoline shed 1 cent to $2.35. Natural gas fell 1.1 cent to $4.33 per 1,000 cubic feet

more

We have seen the same scenario cycle many times since 2002. Optimism like this tends to fade when rising crude prices permeate everything that relies on transports, causing a cascade of higher prices. Spending and optimism fall until petroleum prices reach a new low. People then feel like they can resume their normal levels of discretionary spending.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

[ozymandius]

4. OCC: Banks May Face Fines from Foreclosure Document Flaws

Fraudclosure has developed a new angle. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) oversees enforcement of banking rules. This is a very powerful agency and can assert meaningful effects if they decide to use their authority to enforce the rules.

Dow Jones Newswires reports:

Julie Williams, chief counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said the agency is directing banks "to take immediate corrective action" to fix the problems.

Several major lenders, including Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) have been reviewing thousands of foreclosure cases after revelations that they used so-called robosigners to file large numbers of foreclosure documents without reviewing their contents. Bank regulators and attorneys general in 50 states are investigating.

This OCC investigation operates concurrently with the fifty state level investigations from attorneys general. Penalties may include fines plus civil and criminal action.

[ozymandius]

5. Revived Economic Hopes Also Revive Junk Bond 'Get Poor Quick' Schemes

Insurance companies and pension funds show renewed interest in junk bonds because of a dearth of instruments that offer substantial returns.

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The market for junk bonds is reviving, after at least seven companies pulled sales last week, signaling investors are gaining confidence that Europe’s sovereign debt crisis won’t infect the global economy.

The average yield on junk debt of 8.04 percent compares with the 4.01 percent on investment-grade bonds and 1.7 percent on Treasury notes, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show. The asset class has returned 13.6 percent this year, beating the 9.5 percent on higher-rated corporate and 6.9 percent on U.S. government debt.

Sales of junk bonds, rated below Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service and lower than BBB- by S&P, have reached $3.24 billion this week, compared with $1.56 billion in the period ended Nov. 26, which was the least since the five days ended Sept. 3, Bloomberg data show.

Speculative-grade issuance, which surpassed the annual record in September, has reached $268 billion this year, Bloomberg data show. Borrowers sold $73.1 billion of the debt in September and October, the most in a two-month period.

more

Housing and banking sector declines are reportedly "already priced in" bond prices and credit default insurance with lower fees due to the amount of cash some companies have on hand.

[ozymandius]

6. Iceland Bankruptcy-to-Rebound Path Ireland Won’t Take

Ahh... to think of how Ireland's fortunes could have been brighter.

Iceland’s taxpayers face a smaller debt burden than their Irish counterparts, where the government’s guarantee of the financial system in 2008 backfired this year when the banks came close to insolvency. Iceland’s budget deficit will be 6.3 percent of gross domestic product this year and will vanish by 2012, compared with the 32 percent shortfall in Ireland, the European Commission estimates.

Ireland and Iceland boasted growth rates in excess of 5 percent from 2005 to 2007 as they opened their economies to international investment. Both then succumbed to an overheated financial industry that outgrew their economies. Iceland’s recession will be deeper this year than Ireland’s, though the Atlantic island will overtake the euro member in 2012, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report published Nov. 18.

more

Paul Krugman has commented extensively on the Iceland/Ireland paradox:

Krugman says Ireland’s “orthodox” response -- pushing through austerity measures and guaranteeing bank liabilities to stay in the euro -- contrasts with Iceland’s “heterodox” solution -- devaluing the currency, restructuring bank debt and putting capital restrictions in place. “Heterodoxy is working a whole lot better than orthodoxy,” according to Krugman.

This brings to question why Iceland would be so eager to join the EU and adopt the euro.

[ozymandius]

7. Have a nice day, everyone.

:donut: :donut: :donut: Time to go to work.

:hi:

[Demeter]

9. good morning, ozy and crew

Winter has landed like a Great Dane on the solar plexus. It is cold, below freezing day and night. It is windy. Snow flakes do a kind of strip tease, drifting, blowing, laying a sheet of white that sublimes within hours. It's like living in a snow globe under constant agitation.

I would like to continue exploring the world's religions for the next few weekends. Since this is Hanukkah, Judaism is the next stop. Comparative religions is a very organized subject for which I have no qualifications--nevertheless, that is the goal.

As a basic pagan, I find all religions entertaining, when they don't threaten the foundations of life itself, as so often happens. But since religion is so widespread, rather like an uncontrolled and communicable form of mental illness at its peak of power, it is worthy of contemplation.

Much of what passes for economic theory these days also resembles religion, with similar life-threatening results. Hence the tie-in.

[Dr.Phool]

20. Great Dane to the solar plexus?

How about getting your ears chewed off with puppy needle teeth?

16 weeks old, and Sasquatch is almost as big as Sara.

[Demeter]

30. Sasquatch?

Is this a new dog, or a new name?

[Dr.Phool]

31. No, Rosco has feet like a Clydesdale.

He weighed 10# when we got him 6 weeks ago. 25# at the vet last week.

He just looks like a Sasquatch with those big feet.

[Roland99]

23. I hear ya on old man winter making his presence known

Had to wear a jacket while putting up lights on the roof yesterday evening and I almost turned on the heat last night! ;-)

It's actually going to dip to highs in the 50s next week. I know I've only been down here in FL for only my 2nd winter now but even that is too cool me anymore :)

[Dr.Phool]

83. That's about the right length of time.

My second year, I started crying when it got below 70.

And, I did turn the heat on last night.

[Demeter]

10. Kalamazoo's stimulus package

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120205212.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

...As communities across the country try to figure out what to do about falling property values, struggling schools and other symptoms of an ailing economy, Kalamazoo has a daring solution...in 2005, out of nowhere, came a gesture of generosity that would change everything. A group of residents anonymously established and endowed "The Kalamazoo Promise," offering Kalamazoo public school graduates full tuition at any of Michigan's prestigious public universities or colleges. The goal was to revitalize the schools, but also the local economy and community.

Even in the program's infancy, the results have been dramatic, halting the community's hemorrhaging of jobs, population and money, according to a study by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. In the Promise's first two years, real estate values rose by 8 to 10 percent (compared to an average statewide loss of 2 percent). Kalamazoo public school enrollment increased by more than 1,000 students. Instead of being shackled to a deteriorating local economy threatened by an exodus of young, well-educated workers, Kalamazoo is becoming a more attractive location for economic investment and innovation. After all, companies can, at no cost to their bottom lines, offer prospective hires a perk that few other towns can match.

As a Teach for America alumnus who's interested in education reform, I find the Kalamazoo Promise particularly interesting. In contrast to other private cash infusions into public education systems - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's recent investment in Newark's schools comes to mind - the Promise is transforming primary and secondary schools indirectly. Instead of funding everything the public schools might ask for, the Promise fundamentally changes the district's guiding objective. Now that every student can afford college, preparing students for college has become the district's primary concern. Consider the ramifications this has for the development of teachers, course curricula, administrative priorities, parental and student expectations and even attendance and behavioral policies.

This is also a perfect way to cut across ideological lines in the education reform wars. Small-government advocates get a chance to prove - as they often claim - that private philanthropy can address social injustices more effectively than public initiatives can. After all, what better way to shrink the size of government by proving its programs unnecessary? Meanwhile, progressives can applaud the emphasis on equal opportunity and the constructive approach to improving student performance without demonizing teachers or administrators.

Can every town expect a generous anonymous gift to resuscitate its schools and local economy? No. But even while private donations are down across the country, a number of communities, including Detroit and Pittsburgh, are launching versions of a Promise program. The structure of these efforts varies: El Dorado Promise is funded by Murphy Oil, a local corporation, while College Bound Scholarship Program in Hammond, Ind., is supported by taxes on local gambling. Different communities may need different models, but there are ways to make it work...

A PIECE OF THE PUZZLE, PERHAPS, BUT NOT THE ENTIRE SOLUTION. NOT EVERY JOB REQUIRES COLLEGE, NOR IS EVERY STUDENT SUITABLE FOR IT...AND WORK SHOULDN'T REQUIRE JUMPING SUCH A BARRIER FOR A LIVING WAGE.

[tclambert]

15. The Kalamazoo Promise is one of the best programs I've ever heard of.

Programs like this have popped up before, usually one school at a time. And they always, always transform the schools overnight, the way no other educatonal "reform" program ever has. The problem has never been teacher motivation nor school administrator motivation. It's about the students. It's not that the students are dumb, either. The problem is the students are smart, smart enough to figure out if their families can afford to send them to college, or not. Really, what is the point to working your butt off studying if you know, you absolutely know, you cannot go to college?

I sometimes imagine if I get rich what it would be like to visit a school in a poor neighborhood, susposedly to give a motivational speech, to look out at the bored, restless kids fidgeting in the auditorium, and then say, "I'm going to pay your way to college. You have to make the grades and earn decent scores on the entrance exams. You have to do the hard work. But if you can qualify academically for college, you no longer have to worry about qualifying financially. I gotcha covered."

I imagine the kids would roll their eyes and make snide remarks to their friends as a teacher or principal introduced yet another boring motivational speaker to pointlessly beg them to study harder. Then I walk to the podium and drop a bomb. I imagine the auditorium would become dead quiet as the kids suddenly start paying attention, then start buzzing with "What? What did he just say?" I imagine I would have to repeat the announcement, maybe a few times. But right then, in that one minute time span, you could see that school change from a warehouse for hostile kids to an academic powerhouse, a center for students who WANT to learn.

[tclambert]

11. Harvard Scientists Reverse Aging in Mice

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have reversed the aging process in mice and hope to apply this research to combat the symptoms of human aging.

The scientists, working at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, had expected to simply stabilize the aging process.

“Instead, we witnessed a dramatic reversal in the signs and symptoms of aging,” said the study’s senior author, Medical School Professor Ronald A. DePinho. . . .

The mice’s worn-out organs were physically regenerated, according to DePinho. The result was that shrunken brains increased in size, the neural stem cell reserves were replenished, and coat hair was restored to a healthy sheen. The mice also regained fertility.

“This is the first time that a very severely aged, degenerative state, equivalent to what you might see in somebody who’s in the eighth or ninth decade of life, has been reversed in an animal,” DePinho said.

The research could possibly be applied to human health, according to DePinho.

??This potentially could lead to increased years of healthy living,” he said.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/12/1/aging-depinho-mice-according/
________________________________________

Not one word on the potential economic impact of greatly extended lifespans. Of course, at first only the wealthiest mice will be able to afford the rejuvenation treatments. Insurance plans for working class mice will refuse to cover such "experimental" treatments. Eventually, though, the average gray mouse will qualify, and the New York City sewer system will quickly become clogged with the exploding population of immortal mice.

One poster on another thread suggested we will need to raise the retirement age to 211. I don't know why 211, but picking a specific ridiculous age struck me as adding to the humor.

The researchers did say the treatment may not work as well for humans. They switched on teleromase genes in the mice, which repaired the telemeres at the end of their genes. Unfortunately, doctors consider teleromase a risk factor for cancer. The Fountain of Youth causes cancer.

[jtuck004]

52. One of our cats stops aging in mice. n/t

[tclambert]

74. They didn't just stop aging, they reversed it.

Organs repaired, coats shinier, . . . and more S-E-X.

[jtuck004]

77. He makes them disappear too. Maybe there is more sex wherever they

go.

The Anatolian Shepherd is quite fascinated by it all. She tried to make the cat disappear once, but he's still around.

[AnneD]

70. Between the...

botox, breast implants, and Viagra... The Alzheimer's unit is filled with perky seniors that can't remember what to do with their equipment. :evilgrin:

The last thing we need is them walking around Zombie like for 200+ years. Besides as poor as Nurses' health care is, we will be long dead and they won't have enough staff to take care of these wealthy SOBs.

Yeah, Nurses have poor health care and frequently rely on professional courtesy from Docs.

[tclambert]

76. The article said they didn't just extend the lifespan, they reversed the aging process.

Fountain of Youth. Or, the Joe Pesci version, Fountain of Yute.

[AnneD]

82. You are not taking into account....

Murphy's Law and it's first corollary.

The part about the Nurses still would hold true.

Anne

[Demeter]

12. Too Big to Succeed By THOMAS M. HOENIG

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/opinion/02hoenig.html

THE world has experienced a severe financial crisis and economic recession. The Treasury and the Federal Reserve took actions that saved businesses and jobs and may very well have saved the economy itself from ruin. Still, the public seems ungrateful, expressing anger at these institutions that saved the day. Why?

Americans are angry in part because they sense that the government was as much a cause of the crisis as its cure. They realize that more must be done to address a threat that remains increasingly a part of our economy: financial institutions that are “too big to fail.”

During the 1990s, Congress, with encouragement from academics and regulators, repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era law that had barred commercial banks from undertaking the riskier activities of investment banks. Following this action, the regulatory authority significantly reduced capital requirements for the largest investment banks.

Less than a decade after these changes, the investment firm Bear Stearns failed. Bear was the smallest of the “big five” American investment banks. Yet to avoid the damage its failure might cause, billions of dollars in public assistance was provided to support its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase. Soon other large financial institutions were found to also be at risk. These firms were required to accept billions of dollars in capital from the Treasury and were provided hundreds of billions in loans from the Federal Reserve.

In spite of the public assistance required to sustain the industry, little has changed on Wall Street. Two years later, the largest firms are again operating with bonus and compensation schemes that reflect success, not the reality of recent failures. Contrast this with the hundreds of smaller banks and businesses that failed and the millions of people who lost their jobs during the Wall Street-fueled recession...

HOENIG THEN GOES ON TO PROPOSE SOME REARRANGEMENT OF THE DECK CHAIRS...INTERESTING TO SEE HOW SUPERFICIAL THE THINKING IS!



Thomas M. Hoenig is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

[Demeter]

13. Fed Thumbs Its Nose at Audit the Fed; Withholds Data Required on $885 Billion of Collateral

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/12/fed-thumbs-its-nose-at-audit-the-fed-withholds-data-required-on-885-billion-of-collateral.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

...In this case, as reported by Bloomberg, the Fed has withheld information that was of the collateral posted by borrowers to secure $885 billion of loans. Without this information, it is impossible to ascertain the risks undertaken in various emergency facilities. Dodd Frank specifically requires this detail be released: the relevant language is boldfaced:

(c) PUBLICATION OF BOARD ACTIONS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Board of Governors shall publish on its website, not later than December 1, 2010, with respect to all loans and other financial assistance provided during the period beginning on December 1, 2007 and ending on the date of enactment of this Act under the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, the Term Securities Lending Facility, the Term Auction Facility, Maiden Lane, Maiden Lane II, Maiden Lane III, the agency Mortgage-Backed Securities pro- gram, foreign currency liquidity swap lines, and any other program created as a result of section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act (as so designated by this title)—

(1) the identity of each business, individual, entity, or foreign
central bank to which the Board of Governors or a Federal reserve
bank has provided such assistance;

(2) the type of financial assistance provided to that business,
individual, entity, or foreign central bank;

(3) the value or amount of that financial assistance;

(4) the date on which the financial assistance was provided;

(5) the specific terms of any repayment expected, including
the repayment time period, interest charges, collateral, limitations
on executive compensation or dividends, and other material terms; and

(6) the specific rationale for each such facility or program

In other words, there is no way to pretend that this information was not part of the stipulated disclosure. The terms of the various types of support extended are to be revealed by borrower, in particular the details of the various types of support extended, including the collateral posted. Instead, the Fed provided the data on an aggregated basis, by asset type and rating and then only for three of six facilities.So what is the Fed trying to hide?

[Demeter]

14. Fed's Delay on Release of Transcripts Will Be Reviewed by Issa

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-02/fed-s-delay-on-releasing-monetary-policy-transcripts-to-be-probed-by-issa.html

The prospective head of the U.S. House Oversight Committee said he will consider whether the five-year lag time for the release of transcripts of Federal Reserve meetings should be shortened.

“If the Fed’s full transcripts can be released sooner, they should be,” said Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican who’s set to chair the panel in January, in an interview. “If they’re going to have some definable negative effect on their deliberations or ability to do their job and on markets, then we have to be cautious.”

Issa’s proposal comes amid rising criticism of the central bank by Republicans, who won control of the House in November elections. John Boehner, the presumptive House speaker, and three other Republican leaders have criticized the Fed’s plan, announced a day after the election, to buy $600 billion of assets to boost the economy, saying it risked weakening the dollar and fueling asset bubbles.

Shortening the time before transcripts are disclosed is the first specific Fed issue Issa has indicated he will examine after pledging to intensify scrutiny of the central bank. The Fed in 1995 began its policy of releasing verbatim discussions with the time lag under pressure from Henry Gonzalez, the Democratic chairman of the House Banking Committee in the early 1990s...

[AnneD]

72. Where is...

Wikileaks when you need them!!!!!!!

I would love to see just one good wikileak on the Fed. I bet the results would not shock those on this thread, but it might have the population baying for blood and some congressional reps being held accountable.

[Festivito]

16. Debt: 12/01/2010 13,834,918,581,977.03 (DOWN 25,855,177,041.40) (Wed)

(Down some. Good day.)
Kenny called while I worked late.
(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 9,269,344,310,610.90 + 4,565,574,271,366.13
DOWN 5,680,380,232.98 + DOWN 20,174,796,808.42

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 311-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.22 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,217.24 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.65, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 310,824,992 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 10/04/2010 04:37 -> 310,403,677
Currently, each of these Americans owe $44,510.32.
A family of three owes $133,530.95. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 21 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 21 reports is 5,801,460,742.84.
The average for the last 30 days would be 4,061,022,519.99.

There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 251 reports in 365 days of FY2010 averaging 6.58B$ per report, 4.53B$/day.
There were 42 reports in 62 days of FY2011 averaging 6.51B$ per report, 4.41B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 781 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.9 and 17.9T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
12/01/2010 13,834,918,581,977.03 BHO (UP 3,208,041,533,063.95 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,651,794,027,380.00 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
FY2011 +0,273,295,551,085.30 ------------* * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,608,917,357,195.72 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
11/09/2010 -000,005,858,868.46 -----
11/10/2010 +001,354,516,168.52 ------------*********
11/12/2010 +001,236,686,699.48 ------------*********
11/15/2010 +065,794,144,300.11 ------------********** Mon
11/16/2010 +000,750,562,513.87 ------------********
11/17/2010 +000,670,859,874.97 ------------********
11/18/2010 -002,271,166,541.35 --
11/19/2010 +002,392,756,046.31 ------------*********
11/22/2010 +000,068,056,529.55 ------------******* Mon
11/23/2010 -000,022,584,331.05 ----
11/24/2010 +000,282,063,227.86 ------------********
11/26/2010 +003,743,380,701.15 ------------*********
11/29/2010 +000,134,381,143.81 ------------******** Mon
11/30/2010 +065,487,463,946.10 ------------**********
12/01/2010 -005,680,380,232.98 --

133,934,881,177.89 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4638680&mesg_id=4638995

[Festivito]

87. Debt: 12/02/2010 13,840,966,239,053.15 (UP 6,047,657,076.12) (Thu)

(Up a little. Good day.)
A little unhinged with a new hinge and a clean keyboard.
(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 9,270,171,314,129.54 + 4,570,794,924,923.61
UP 827,003,518.64 + UP 5,220,653,557.48

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 311-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.22 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,217.17 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.65, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 12 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 310,832,192 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 10/04/2010 04:37 -> 310,403,677
Currently, each of these Americans owe $44,528.74.
A family of three owes $133,586.22. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 21 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 21 reports is 5,571,056,104.47.
The average for the last 30 days would be 3,899,739,273.13.

There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 251 reports in 365 days of FY2010 averaging 6.58B$ per report, 4.53B$/day.
There were 43 reports in 63 days of FY2011 averaging 6.50B$ per report, 4.43B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 780 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.9 and 17.9T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
12/02/2010 13,840,966,239,053.15 BHO (UP 3,214,089,190,140.07 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,651,794,027,380.00 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
FY2011 +0,279,343,208,161.40 ------------* * * * * * BHO
Endof11 +1,618,416,999,665.26 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
11/10/2010 +001,354,516,168.52 ------------*********
11/12/2010 +001,236,686,699.48 ------------*********
11/15/2010 +065,794,144,300.11 ------------********** Mon
11/16/2010 +000,750,562,513.87 ------------********
11/17/2010 +000,670,859,874.97 ------------********
11/18/2010 -002,271,166,541.35 --
11/19/2010 +002,392,756,046.31 ------------*********
11/22/2010 +000,068,056,529.55 ------------******* Mon
11/23/2010 -000,022,584,331.05 ----
11/24/2010 +000,282,063,227.86 ------------********
11/26/2010 +003,743,380,701.15 ------------*********
11/29/2010 +000,134,381,143.81 ------------******** Mon
11/30/2010 +065,487,463,946.10 ------------**********
12/01/2010 -005,680,380,232.98 --
12/02/2010 +000,827,003,518.64 ------------********

134,767,743,564.99 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4640272&mesg_id=4640329

[DemReadingDU]

17. Columbus Ohio National Century Financial - bonding company must pay $100,000 bond

12/2/10 Judge rules Rebecca Parrett's bonding company must pay $100,000 bond
Thursday, December 2, 2010 10:18 AM

Former fugitive Rebecca Parrett's years on the lam will cost her bonding company $100,000, a federal judge in Columbus has ruled. U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley has ordered Garcia Bail Bonds of Phoenix, Ariz., to pay the $100,000 bond it put up on Parrett's behalf in 2006 when she was charged with fraud by federal prosecutors.

Parrett disappeared from her Arizona home a few days after she was convicted in 2008 of fleecing investors in the National Century Financial Enterprises fraud. She was arrested in Mexico in late October and returned to the United States, where she faces a prison sentence of 25 years.

The court ordered Garcia Bail to pay the bond in January 2009. Garcia appealed that order two weeks later, arguing that the government had allowed Parrett to return to her home in Arizona after her conviction without notifying Garcia Bail or obtaining its permission.

Marbley had ordered that Parrett be on house arrest with electronic monitoring in Arizona, but she never showed up to arrange the monitoring there. Marbley rejected Garcia's appeal in April 2009, and Garcia filed a motion to alter the judgment.

In the decision filed yesterday, Marbley said Garcia's surety bond permitted Parrett to travel and did not require electronic monitoring or home confinement. He said under federal rules a bond forfeiture may be set aside if the bonding company finds and returns the fugitive or "it appears that justice does not require bail forfeiture."

The judge's ruling says that government agents, not Garcia, found Parrett and that Garcia made no effort to locate her after she jumped bail.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/12/02/02-national-century.html?sid=101


Link backwards to previous articles
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4638680&mesg_id=4638789

[DemReadingDU]

24. #$%&@#&*$#

another thread moved to the unmentionable place.
#$%&@#&*$#

[Demeter]

36. What?

From here? link?

What are you trying to do anyway, start a revolution? (Nice try)

[Dr.Phool]

41. Is everybody drinking already this morning?

[DemReadingDU]

44. Hot chocolate!

[Dr.Phool]

45. Add a little Yukon Jack.

[DemReadingDU]

43. nah, not from here

I was reading elsewhere, and then poof, to that other place.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Demeter]

39. "What a maroon!"

[TheWatcher]

46. "Oh I Deuh-Deuh Don't Know HOW We Could Have Doubted Him!"

"Shall We Spend The Gold All In One Place?"

"Or Perhaps Deuh-Deuh Double Down On Some Apple Stock?"

:rofl:

[Demeter]

29. GM Confirms, Yes, We're Losing Money on Every Volt We Build

http://www.greencarreports.com/blog/1052107_gm-confirms-yes-were-losing-money-on-every-volt-we-build

Doug Parks, vehicle line executive for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, GM's range-extended electric vehicle, confirmed Tuesday that the company loses money on every Volt it sells.

This should hardly be a surprise.

It's called R&D, folks

Every major automaker spends billions of dollars a year on research and development costs. And they know that when they launch certain new technologies, they will lose money for some years before costs fall and volumes rise to let economies of scale make a particular new feature or technology profitable.

Toyota's investments in its hybrid program, which has given it roughly two-thirds of the global market for hybrid-electric cars, are estimated to have cost it upwards of $10 billion over 15 years...

[Ghost Dog]

64. Ah: Fiat Turns to Natural Gas as Toyota, GM Go Electric

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- As Sergio Marchionne brings back Fiat SpA to the U.S. after nearly three decades, he may add another Italian speciality: the natural gas engine.

Marchionne, who is chief executive officer of Fiat and Chrysler Group LLC, says natural gas engines offer a better way to cut emissions because they’re cheaper than competing technologies. He also argues electric cars, which General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. are betting on, present “too many obstacles” such as the recharge time for batteries.

“Natural gas is very suitable for the U.S.,” Constantinos Vafidis, who oversees transmission and hybrid development at Fiat’s research center in Turin, Italy, said in an interview. “Especially for public services and goods transportation, where vehicles are refueled from a central base.”

Fiat is the market leader in Europe in natural-gas engines, with an 80 percent share of methane-powered cars and 55 percent of light commercial vehicles. Bolstering Marchionne’s view, the U.S. has the natural-gas supply for the engines after becoming the world’s largest producer last year.

“Fiat will use its technological leadership in natural gas, in a region discovered to have huge reserves,” said Giuliano Noci, a professor at the MIP management school of Milan’s Polytechnic university. “It’s almost a mandatory strategy. Fiat should lead the natural-gas car market as it’s far behind in the electric vehicle sector.”

/... http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a1PXFF_zGl5s&pos=15

[tclambert]

79. I'm sure some analysts will insist we should give up on all the costly new technology stuff.

Many of them only look ahead one year, some only one quarter. Actually, a lot of them only look backward and project all the trend lines from last year and pretend that is forecasting.

There have been a few articles now about how analysts are disappointed in the electric car market because customers have adopted the new technology slower than they expected. How can they have expected customers to have bought more electric cars, when none had gone on sale yet? The Volt went on sale, like 3 days ago! The Nissan Leaf and Ford Focus EV don't go on sale for months or a year. Idiots.

[xchrom]

33. kick

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tansy_Gold]

49. WHERE'S MY FUCKIN' PONY???

(don't answer that.)


(P.S. -- in that pic, the woman on the right at the back, grey hair, blue jacket, that's how I imagine the frootloops all look. Same moronic vacuous grin. . . . . at nothing.)



Tansy Gold, in a very strange bitter angry mood today.

[jtuck004]

50. Moronic vacuous grin - where have I see that...

Oh yeah

[tclambert]

80. Keep digging. When there's that big a pile of horse manure, there must be a pony somewhere.

[Demeter]

42. Deaf to History’s Rhyme: Why President Obama is Failing

http://www.thomaspalley.com/?p=179

The great American novelist Mark Twain observed “history does not repeat itself but it rhymes.” Today the rhyme is with the 1930s, and if you don’t hear it read FDR’s great Madison Square Garden speech of October 1936:

“For twelve years this nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing government. The nation looked to government but the government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years with the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that government is best which is most indifferent.”

Despite this clarity, the Obama administration insists on hearing a rhyme with the 1990s. That tone deafness has its roots in political choices made at the administration’s outset and explains why the administration has stumbled so badly in its first years. If continued, the economic and social consequences will be grave....

[jtuck004]

48. Did anyone just listen to Secretary Hilda L. Solis from D of Labor?

They asked her something along the lines of "Do you understand that business needs demand to hire workers"

Her answer was that she "heard" at a luncheon that governers want some construction workers back to repair roads, that will create some jobs..


oh, dog...

I'm guessing that means she is not working on a multi trillion WPA-CCC program.

And from above -

"This is very unusual and very worrisome," Bernanke said, warning workers could become detached from the workforce, skills could erode over time and firms become more skeptical about the unemployed. "This could have a very long-term effect on people's wages, on their employability," he added.

Ben, did you just wake up?

I get the feeling we are not in good hands...

[Dr.Phool]

51. The Beltway Bubble in all it's beauty.

You would think that Solis, if anyone would have a clue. The Ben Bernank never had a clue to begin with.

They might need some construction workers. Maybe three million of them?

We're caught in a vortex going down the drain. No jobs-no business. No business-no jobs. Round and round the drain.

But, Wall Street should get some extra large x-mas bonuses. That should be good for a couple of temporary jobs at Saks.

[bread_and_roses]

54. Oh no, not Hilda too? I had some confidence in her.....

...but I wonder how much she's under a thumb, here? I mean, when the Pres of the AFL-CIO is babbling on about "small business hiring" at the One Nation march, we can see a clear leash right back to the White House ("small business" is not Labor's turf - we don't generally organize small business, for one thing but more importantly OUR job is to make sure that workers earn enough to BUY from business - small and otherwise).

(Trumka has gotten a little - actually a lot - more on-target since One Nation - the lapdog bit wasn't working out so well for America's workers.)

http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/

[Demeter]

59. Tomgram: Andy Kroll, How the Oligarchs Took America

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175326/tomgram:_andy_kroll,_how_the_oligarchs_took_america/


...Most accounts of American income inequality begin in the 1980s with the reign of President Ronald Reagan, the anti-government icon whose "Reaganomics" are commonly fingered as the catalyst for today's problems. Wrong, say Hacker and Pierson. The origins of oligarchy lay in the late 1970s and in the unlikely figure of Jimmy Carter, a Democratic president presiding over a Congress controlled by Democrats. It was Carter's successes and failures, they argue, that kicked off what economist Paul Krugman has labeled “the Great Divergence."...


No understanding of the rise of our New Oligarchs could be complete without exploring the effects of the Supreme Court's January Citizens United decision, which set their power in cement more effectively than any tax cut ever could. Before Citizens United, the rich used their wealth to subtly shape policy, woo politicians, and influence elections. Now, with so much money flowing into their hands and the contribution faucets wide open, they can simply buy American politics so long as the price is right....What the present Supreme Court, itself the fruit of successive tax-cutting and deregulating administrations, has ensured is this: that in an American “democracy,” only the public will remain in the dark. Even for dedicated reporters, tracking down these groups is like chasing shadows: official addresses lead to P.O. boxes; phone calls go unreturned; doors are shut in your face....Indeed, pundits predict that spending in the 2012 elections will smash all records. Think of it this way: in 2008, total election spending reached $5.3 billion, while the $1.8 billion spent on the presidential race alone more than doubled 2004's total. How high could we go in 2012? $7 billion? $10 billion? It looks like the sky’s the limit.

We don't need to wait for 2012 to arrive, however, to know that the sheer amount of money being pumped into American politics makes a mockery out of our democracy (or what's left of it). Worse yet, few solutions exist to staunch the cash flow: the DISCLOSE Act, intended to counter the effects of Citizens United, twice failed in the Senate this year; and the best option, public financing of elections, can't even get a hearing in Washington.

Until lawmakers cap the amount of money in politics, while forcing donors to reveal their identities and not hide in the shadows, the New Oligarchy will only grow in stature and influence. Left unchecked, this ultimate elite will continue to root out the few members of Congress not beholden to them and their “contributions” (see: Wisconsin's Russ Feingold) and will replace them with lawmakers eager to do their bidding, a Congress full of obedient placeholders ready to give their donors what they want.

Never before has the United States looked so much like a country of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.

[Demeter]

60. Point of Purchase Bank Card Surcharges: Will They Help or Hurt Consumers?

http://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2010/12/point-of-purchase-bank-card-surcharges-will-they-help-or-hurt-consumers.html

Did you know that merchants are considering tacking on a point-of sale fee for purchases made with a debit or credit card? In other words, at 2%, a $100 purchase would cost $100 in cash, but $102 when charged. I have seen this sort of thing in Europe, so will it happen here? If so, who will it hurt and help? The argument for imposing such a fee is that cash customers are now bearing part of the cost of processing all those bank card payments. In other words, the cost of goods is going up because without bank card purchase costs to absorb, merchants could charge all of us less for their products. As a credit card doubter and a vehement proponent of a cash economy, I was on board with this thinking. Why should I support all those card carrying members of the debt society?

Um…except that, my assumptions were all wrong. Cash users are not carrying the water of card users; rather, it is the other way around. Shockingly, cash is more expensive to process than card payments. Not so shockingly, accepting plastic increases a retailer’s market share. And as we know, people buy more with plastic than with cash. Given all this, and the fact that 56% of all retail sales are made with plastic, accepting plastic is already a win win for retailers. All this caused author Allen Rosenfeld, writing for the New American Foundation, to conclude that at the end of the day, point-of sale surcharges will transfer wealth from consumers to retailers, and will not, surprise surprise, lower the cost of goods.

[Demeter]

62. Imminent Eurozone Default: How Likely?

PERSONALLY, I THINK THEY'D WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE HOLIDAYS...

http://baselinescenario.com/2010/12/02/imminent-eurozone-default-how-likely/

The big question of the week in Europe is deceptively simple – will any countries that share the euro as their currency default on their government or bank debts in the foreseeable future? The answer to this question determines how you regard bonds from countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Belgium.

Answering this question is not as simple as it seems, however, because it involves taking a view on three intricate issues: What exactly is the eurozone policy now on bailouts, can big eurozone countries really be bailed out if needed, and what happens to the politics of these countries and of the eurozone has a whole as pressure from the financial markets mounts?

The prevailing consensus – and definite official spin – is that over the weekend European leaders backed away from the German proposal to impose losses on creditors as a condition of future bailouts, i.e., from 2013. The markets, in this view, should and likely will calm now; there is no immediate prospect of any kind of sovereign default or (more politely) “reprofiling” on debt, including the obligations of big banks...

COMPLEX, WONKY, MUST READ FOR THE SERIOUS STUDENT

[Demeter]

63. Hangover theory and morality plays

ANOTHER COMPLEX, WONKY, MUST READ FOR THE SERIOUS STUDENT...

http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/1004.html

[DemReadingDU]

68. Shock and Awe

People would be so stunned, that would be an advantage to TPTB.

[StarburstClock]

75. Jobs? Who needs jobs? Did you say jobs? I didn't say jobs. You said jobs.

The old Martin Short Sat. Night Live skit in which he was the nervous, smoking lawyer covering his ass. That's what the entire U.S. corporate media has become, nervous, fake-tanned, butchered-faced, bleached blond propaganda reciters who know they are lying but do it anyway. Of course they're just repeating what's fed to them by the fascist overlords of political pomp who live in a lala land of 9.8% unemployment. Remember, if we don't give them 100s of billions we'll have "chaos" and "outsourcing creates jobs" and "liberals are fucking retarded" and "it's off the table".

So we'll extend the trickle-down tax breaks for the rich that have proven never to work because if we don't appease GOPukes we'll have "chaos". We'll keep letting torturers go free while shutting down wikileaks because if we didn't we'd have "chaos"! "Drill drill drill"! "Keep shopping or the turrists win"! "Change we can believe in"!

Oh well, today's societal norms suggest that there are 2 choices: become a babbling sloganeering robot or struggle every single second of every single minute to be a thinking human being. And people wonder why Alzheimer's is on the rise.

[tclambert]

81. The Republican solution for high unemployment: All those lazy people should just go find jobs.

"We'll give 'em an incentive by cutting off unemployment benefits. That way we can afford tax cuts for millionaires. That's who the government should help, the people who are making lots of money already."

What amazes me is that so many working class (or non-working class) people vote for that. It makes logical sense for the most selfish of the wealthiest 2%, but why, oh why do so many non-wealthy people vote against the interests of 98% of Americans, including their own? NASA, if you are looking for intelligent life, stay far away from Sol Three.

[Roland99]

84. Oil pushing $90/bbl.

must be from that increased demand from the booming economy

[tclambert]

86. "All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again."