STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, October 18, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, October 18, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON October 17, 2011

Dow 11,397.00 -247.49 (-2.17%)
Nasdaq 2,614.92 -52.93 (-2.02%)
S&P 500 1,200.86 -23.72 (-1.98%)
10-Yr Bond... 2.13 -0.03 (-1.48%)
30-Year Bond 3.11 -0.02 (-0.77%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours

Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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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 = 12

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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

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Today's Reports

Oct 18 08:30 PPI Sep 0.3% 0.2% 0.0%
Oct 18 08:30 Core PPI Sep 0.1% 0.1% 0.1%
Oct 18 09:00 Net Long-Term TIC Flows Aug NA NA $9.5B
Oct 18 10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index Oct 14 15 14

Read more: http://www.briefing.com/investor/calendars/economic/2011/10/17-21/#ixzz1b87VCl3S

[Roland99]

38. U.S. wholesale prices leap 0.8% in September

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-wholesale-prices-leap-08-in-september-2011-10-18?link=MW_home_latest_news

The U.S. producer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.8% in September to mark the biggest increase since April, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had predicted a 0.4% gain. Higher wholesale prices were driven by a 2.3% increase in energy costs and a 0.6% rise in food costs. If those two categories are excluded, "core" wholesale prices rose a lesser 0.2%. Economists were expecting a 0.1% increase. Over the past 12 months, wholesale prices have climbed an unadjusted 6.9%. Omitting food and energy, wholesale prices have risen a more modest 2.5% in the past year.

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. Oil hovers above $86 amid Europe debt plan doubts

SINGAPORE – Oil prices hovered above $86 a barrel Tuesday in Asia after comments from Germany that downplayed a possible plan to contain Europe's debt crisis.

Benchmark crude for November delivery was down 24 cents at $86.14 a barrel at afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 42 cents to settle at $86.38 in New York on Monday.

Brent crude for December delivery was up 20 cents at $110.36 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Crude has risen from $75 two weeks ago as investors bet European leaders will soon announce a plan that will stem the contagion from a possible Greek sovereign debt default. However, German finance chief Wolfgang Schaeuble on Monday dampened expectations that they'd hammer out a comprehensive solution at an upcoming summit this weekend.

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. U.S. Stock Futures Flat Before Goldman Earnings

U.S. stock futures were little changed, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will halt its biggest drop in two weeks, as investors awaited earnings reports from Goldman Sachs Groups Inc. and Bank of America Corp. (BAC)

IBM, the biggest computer-services company, sank 4.5 percent in early New York trading after reporting sales that missed analyst estimates. Intel Corp. (INTC) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) fell before their earnings reports today.

Contracts on the S&P 500 that expire in December slid 0.2 percent to 1,191.6 at 11:33 a.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 29, or 0.3 percent, to 11,272.

“Until we get good news from emerging markets and companies, the market won’t gain. Earnings reports will be important,” said Clemence Bounaix, who helps oversee about $3.4 billion at KBL Richelieu Gestion in Paris.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-18/u-s-stock-futures-rise-reversing-earlier-drop-on-europe-china.html

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. Goldman earnings were bad, bad, bad.

Look for the opening to be rocky.

[Demeter]

32. HOW BAD WERE THEY? Goldman reports $393m loss

Goldman Sachs reported a third-quarter net loss of $393m on Tuesday, only the second time since it went public in 1999 that Wall Street’s most admired and reviled investment bank has not announced a profit.

The loss of 84 cents per common share compared with earnings of $2.98 per share in the third quarter last year. Net revenues plunged from $8.9bn to $3.6bn.

Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive, acknowledged the bank was “disappointed” with a performance that he attributed to lower confidence among corporate clients and investors and declining asset prices in a summer of turmoil
on global markets.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/B5IWP6/VTVRG/622RNK/PFLFSH/N9/t?a1=2011&a2=10&a3=18

[wordpix]

52. poor GS has to cut back to $293K per 9 mos./employee now. Another thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5030060

That's over $390K/year :nopity:

[Roland99]

39. A tale of two banks (Bank of America ... and.... Bank of America)

Bank of America Posts Adjusted Loss Excluding "Benefits" From Spread Blow Up
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bank-america-posts-adjusted-loss-excluding-benefits-spread-blow

Bank of America profit up on one-time gains
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-of-america-profit-up-on-one-time-gains-2011-10-18?link=MW_home_latest_news

[Demeter]

44. Are you a good bank, or a bad bank?

[Demeter]

4. The World Did Not End Last Night--Neither a Bang, Nor a Whimper

Instead, the opposition didn't even show up. As a result, we had a VERY productive committee meeting.



We need a Cheshire Cat smilie, as well as a chicken soup one.

[xchrom]

6. ...

:evilgrin: :toast:

[Demeter]

47. Get this!

The condo president has just suggested by email that he and I talk before tonight's meeting...

...I usually prefer to talk first, and hurl the accusations later, when talk proves ineffective...but as the French say: "À chacun son goût" or, not everyone thinks the same way or likes the same things, that we must tolerate diversity.

Interestingly, English speakers use this expression considerably more than the French, though it has been slightly twisted into "chacun à son goût" (literally, "each one to his taste") or "chacun a son goût" ("each one has his taste"). The correct French expression, however, is (à) chacun son goût.

http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/a-chacun-son-gout.htm

I'm studiously avoiding email, since I'm too busy working to reply.

[xchrom]

7. morning...

:donut:

[Demeter]

14. Morning, X

How are you feeling today? Any better?

This is a bad time to get sick, with the weather rapidly going downhill and fluctuating as it does...take care of yourself!

[xchrom]

25. i'm better today -- thank you.

i NEED to get my flu shot. -- i do not do well w/ respiratory stuff -- never have even as a kid.

[Fuddnik]

28. Me and the wife got ours last night.

Neither of us has ever gotten one before. But, on the 30th we're going on a 7-day cruise, and with everything going around on cruise ships lately, we figured it would be a good move.

[Demeter]

30. Airplanes are the Preferred Vector for Spreading Flu

Cruise ships specialize in gastrointestinal diseases....for which, I believe, there are no immunizations (with the possible exception of some forms of hepatitis...)

[Fuddnik]

43. Tell me about it.

The last really bad bout I had with the flu was about 11 years ago, after a glorious 4 day, drunk as a skunk flight from Vegas. I thought I had the Mother of All Hangovers, and couldn't shake it. Went to the Doc, and he said it was flu.

[Demeter]

45. The only benefit to shutting down air flight after 9/11

was that the flu season was delayed several weeks, and never got up and running.

[AnneD]

57. You forgot the truly preferred method of transmission....

school kids. Hope when the next pandemic hits, they are smart enough to close the schools at the first sign. In fact, a school Nurse was the first in this country to identify the H1N1 at her school several years back.

After 20 years, I am damn near immortal. Hubby always says that if I come home with the sniffles, he can count on being knocked out in bed for at least 2 weeks. During my first year of being a school Nurse, I used up all of my sick time and then some. After that, I developed the immune system of an elephant. In fact, the docs at the hospital love when I donate platelets. They are a beautiful big bag of liquid gold (literally). Guess I should go in more-haven't had time in a while.

[AnneD]

59. Suggestions for GI bugs....

Travel with Immodium tabs and and anti emetic (scpolimine patches or air sickness patches). I travel with Tylenol and a thermometer in my first aid kit along with neosporin, band aids, and a re hydration mineral kit.

Preventitive...well cooked food from a good source. Well washed fruit (I use bottled water to wash my fresh fruit if I eat the peels). Bottled water only in some regions of the world.

Once it happens, I am on a BRAT diet. Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast as soon as I can keep food down. Water and re hydration mineral by mouth if I cannot keep solids down.

I am very sensitive to stomach bugs so this info was gleaned from experience.

[xchrom]

8. Banks Start to Make More Loans

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/banks-start-to-make-more-loans/

Despite all the bleak economic news, a funny thing has been happening in the financial industry over the last few months: the banks have quietly turned on the lending spigot.

Loan growth is still modest. And it remains heavily weighted toward the strongest corporate and consumer borrowers. But after several quarters of having their loan balances plunge or flatten out, several of the nation’s biggest banks are reporting increases.

On Monday, Citigroup officials said the bank recorded loan growth, compared with a year ago, in almost every one of its businesses during the third quarter, and in almost every corner of the globe. Wells Fargo executives said new loan commitments to small businesses were up 8 percent, while lending to bigger companies has been growing for 14 months in a row. Across the industry, analysts expect credit card loan balances will start increasing before the end of the year.

“The narrative that banks aren’t lending is incorrect,” Timothy J. Sloan, Wells Fargo’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “Lending is strong, and based on what we’re seeing,” he added, it will “continue to grow.”

Still, the stocks of both banks, and the sector as a whole, dropped on Monday as the sluggish economy and revenue figures pointed to broad drags on the banks, including low returns on making loans and exposure to the European debt crisis.

[Demeter]

17. How convenient

"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle."

Thomas Jefferson

[xchrom]

19. Indeed. It's interesting to see the propaganda. Nt

[xchrom]

9. A Pipeline Merger Meets a Need, and Perhaps Resistance

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/a-pipeline-merger-meets-a-need-and-perhaps-resistance/

Kinder Morgan’s planned $21.1 billion takeover of the El Paso Corporation is seen as a potential catalyst for consolidation in an unheralded but increasingly important part of the energy industry: the companies whose pipes carry the oil and gas.

Kinder Morgan’s deal is based on the belief that natural gas will become an increasingly important fuel for the nation, and that its growth is hampered by a lack of adequate pipeline networks.

“It’s a bet that hydrocarbons are going to be the most significant component of our energy mix for a long, long time,” E. Russell Braziel, a managing director of the consulting firm Bentek Energy, said.

[xchrom]

10. asia: Outlook cut amid slowing overseas Kyodo

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20111018a2.html

he government gave the economy its first downgrade in six months Monday as the slowdown in overseas economies continued to weigh on industrial production and exports last month.

"The Japanese economy is still picking up although the pace has decelerated, while difficulties continue to prevail due to the Great East Japan Earthquake," the Cabinet Office said in its October report.

The September report did not mention that the recovery was slowing.

Production and exports were also downgraded, with the report saying that the recovery in production is decelerating and that exports are leveling off.

[xchrom]

18. Hong Kong stocks slide as short squeeze ends, China shares weaken

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/markets-hongkong-china-stocks-update-idUKL3E7LI1FS20111018

HONG KONG, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks fell sharply in thin trade on Tuesday, with short-term investors knocking down Chinese financial, property and material stocks and aiming to retrace most of October's gains after a bout of short covering fizzled out.

Support for falling share prices was lacking, as the level of short-selling had dropped significantly following the Hang Seng Index's 16 percent bounce, as of Monday, from a 2-1/2-year low plumbed on Oct 4.

"The problem now is that nobody is willing to buy at current levels...we rallied quite a bit in the past week, the short squeeze that sustained that rally is over for now," said Alex Wong, Ample Finance Group's director of asset management.

The Hang Seng Index closed down 4.3 percent at 18,076.5 points, holding above a gap that formed when the benchmark rose significantly on Sept. 11 -- between the high on Sept. 10 at about 17,800 and the low of Sept. 11 at about 18,041.

[xchrom]

20. Nikkei falls from 6-wk high, shaken by euro zone doubts

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/markets-japan-stocks-idUKL3E7LI12C20111018

TOKYO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average fell 1.6 percent in thin trade on Tuesday, slipping from a six-week high on concerns that Europe's plan to contain its debt crisis might not be as fast and comprehensive as some investors had expected.

Shares in Olympus Corp continued to plunge in volatile trading, ending down 9 percent and having lost 43 percent of their value since it ousted its CEO, with the camera maker under pressure to disclose details of payments to advisers in the buyout of a UK-based medical equipment firm.

Exporters, which had benefited from optimism on the euro zone's debt plan, underperformed the overall market and were also pressured by news that China's economic expansion slowed in the third quarter to its weakest pace since early 2009.

[xchrom]

22. UPDATE 1-Japan still considering total nuclear power pullout

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/japan-nuclear-idUKL5E7LI2D520111018

(Adds Additional comment from press briefing) (Adds context)

By Marie Maitre

PARIS Oct 18 (Reuters) - Japan has not ruled out the possibility of complete closure of its nuclear power stations as one option for the country's future energy policy after the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years, economy minister Yukio Edano said.

"I am certain that we are going to reduce nuclear power generation but whether we are going to reduce it to zero is a separate issue," Edano, the economy, trade and industry minister told Reuters on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting hosted by the International Energy Agency in Paris.

Asked whether pulling out of nuclear was being considered, Edano said: "Yes, it is still under consideration."

Earlier Edano told a press briefing that Japan was working on improving its energy efficiency and would promote the development of renewable energy sources and of gas powered generation plants to make up for lost nuclear output.

[Demeter]

48. And What Will It Take To Get Japan to "Yes"?

Another cataclysm?

[xchrom]

55. It's a very good question. Nt

[xchrom]

11. europe: Inflation hits 3-year high of 5.2 percent in September

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/uk-inflation-idUKTRE79H1F120111018

(Reuters) - Inflation in Britain hit a three-year high in September driven by soaring gas and electricity bills, data showed on Tuesday, adding to a severe squeeze on Britons' living standards as wages fail to keep up with rising prices.

The jump highlights the risk to the Bank of England's recent move to revive the faltering economic recovery with a fresh dose of quantitative easing, which could add to inflation already way above the Bank's two percent target.

The central bank expects inflation to drop sharply next year when one-offs, like this year's value-added tax rise fall out of the equation and the weak economy dampens wage and price increases.

Consumer prices rose 0.6 percent last month, taking the annual inflation rate to 5.2 percent, the highest since September 2008, the Office for National Statistics said.

[xchrom]

13. The Greeks Are Being Unfairly Maligned by Global Financiers: The Truth Is Very Different

http://www.alternet.org/story/152759/the_greeks_are_being_unfairly_maligned_by_global_financiers%3A_the_truth_is_very_different._?akid=7732.277129.C0wRyD&rd=1&t=12

October 17, 2011 |
Yiannis manages a small inn in Crete. The 50-year-old from Heraklion with salt-and-pepper hair and a hefty moustache has a son just graduating from college.

“We tell the young people to leave,” he says quietly. “There’s nothing for them here.” Protests and strikes are sweeping the nation, but Yiannis doesn’t like talking about the economy. I sense a feeling of pride holding him back. But he does offer this insight: “We know that it is the ordinary people, not the rich and the powerful, who pay for this.”

The Lazy Greek Meme

Greece is a land of ancient myth. But more recent myths have made Greeks like Yiannis cringe when foreigners start asking questions.

Greeks are lazy. They don’t work. They’re profligates who are taking down Europe. The caricature has become so common that a recent TV commercial in Slovakia used it to sell beer, drawing a contrast between the virtuous Slovak and the paunchy Greek indulging himself on a beach.

[Tansy_Gold]

36. One of these days. . . .

. . . one of these governments is going to fall, and whatever replaces it is going to do what should have been done in the first place -- which is to rein in the obscenely wealthy. It might be done peacefully, or it might not. It might be Greece or it might be Italy or it might be Spain. Or some other country we aren't watching quite as closely.

But wherever it is, and however it happens, it will be the first domino to fall, and it will push all the others over.

And whether the resulting cascade is calm and orderly and "civilized" or rough and bloody and terrible remains to be seen.

One way or another, sooner or later, it will happen.


It will.



I wrote the above last night on another thread about Greece somewhere on DU. Doesn't matter where.

But somewhere, someday, some hard-working person is going to declare that they've had enough and they're going to do something that will set off another hard-working person and another and another and another. And a government is going to fall and all hell is going to break loose.

I do not think the OWS movement, such as it is, will be the primary actor in this drama. OWS is like Tolkien's Ents, lots of talking and talking and talking, but not really a whole lot of action, at least not yet. Other players will set off the American Ents.

One of my professors said that the reason American labor has lagged behind its European cousins is that European labor came together in the 19th C to gain the vote and saw that as a very precious acquisition. In contrast, American labor (male and white, at least) got the vote without the same kind of struggle and therefore never developed much in the way of working-class solidarity. Without that kind of shared goal, unity has been difficult to achieve.

We'll see what happens next.



TG

[Demeter]

49. Tansy....

I am minded of the chapters in which the Ents were finally roused...it wasn't a pretty picture. Rather like that Japanese earthquake and tsunami, changing the earth entirely forever.

If it takes a while, that's physics, or the politics. But the result will be no less complete.

What you are looking for is some Hobbits, to stir up the soup...

[Ghost Dog]

63. I think I've spied some such Hobbits hopping the pages of DU

right here!

Now tell me I'm wrong, Agent Mike?

[Tansy_Gold]

70. There sure were some in the Puerta del sol the other day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjUIEAZr4Yo

[xchrom]

15. Miners lead European shares lower on China data

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/uk-markets-britain-stocks-idUKTRE79H1HU20111018

(Reuters) - European shares fell on Tuesday, with miners among the biggest casualties after top metals consumer China reported lower growth rates, while French stocks underperformed following a warning from Moody's about the country's credit rating.

Strategists said a summit this weekend, which may result in a plan to tackle the euro zone debt crisis, remained key to market sentiment.

Copper prices fell sharply, leading to weaker share prices of miners, after China's economic expansion slowed in the third quarter to its weakest pace since early 2009 as euro-debt strains and a sluggish U.S. economy took their toll.

The STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources Index .SXPP fell 3 percent, and has lost more than 32 percent in 2011.

[xchrom]

16. French credit review threatens euro zone rescues

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/uk-eurozone-idUKL5E7LG0LK20111018

(Reuters) - Doubt cast on France's triple-A credit rating by Moody's raised uncertainty over Europe's hopes of drawing a line under its sovereign debt crisis, five days before a crucial EU summit.

The U.S. ratings agency said late on Monday it may slap a negative outlook on France's Aaa rating in the next three months if slower growth and the costs for helping bail out banks and other euro zone members stretch its budget too much.

"The deterioration in debt metrics and the potential for further contingent liabilities to emerge are exerting pressure on the stable outlook of the government's Aaa debt rating," Moody's said in its annual report on France.

The warning, which sent the risk premium on French government bonds shooting up to a euro lifetime high, came as European Union leaders are preparing measures to protect the region's financial system from a potential Greek debt default.

[xchrom]

23. Portugal budget predicts worst recession for three decades

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Portugal/budget/predicts/worst/recession/for/three/decades/elpepueng/20111017elpeng_6/Ten

he Portuguese government on Monday unveiled a budget for next year that foresees the country suffering its deepest recession in 30 years and heralds further hardship for its already struggling population.

The latest deficit-reduction measures coincided with the main unions proposing a general strike in protest.

The budget unveiled by the center-right government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho predicted GDP will shrink 2.8 percent next year, the biggest contraction since 1981. Unemployment is expected to rise to 13.4 percent. The Bank of Portugal recently forecast GDP would shrink by 2.2 percent.

In a television address last week, Passos Coelho had flagged some of the additional austerity measures, which include public-sector employees and pensioners earning more than 1,000 euros per month having to forgo their summer and Christmas extra payments.

[xchrom]

26. Gas discovery made in Basque Country

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Gas/discovery/made/in/Basque/Country/elpepueng/20111016elpeng_6/Ten

A gas field potentially sufficient to meet Spain's needs for the next five years has been discovered in the Basque Country. Basque regional premier Patxi López says that surveys in Álava province have identified 13 unconventional gas holdings of some 180 billion cubic meters in an area known as Gran Enara. The find would be enough to keep the Basque Country itself supplied for 60 years.

López said that the Basque regional government will invest 40 million eurosin the project while the two privately held US companies, Heyco Energy and Cambria Europe, will invest 60 million euros between them.

Two wells are to be drilled initially see if extraction is technically feasible and economically viable.

"This is a strategic project for the country, a guarantee of future sustainability," said López during a visit to Dallas, Texas on Friday, where he is travelling with a group of Basque business leaders.

[Ghost Dog]

62. UK is not Europe,

neither economically nor politically, and not really socially either.

Air Strip One.

[Demeter]

12. That Cartoon is Too True

I am increasingly concerned by the remote-controlled weapons (predatory and spy drones) of which the Army and its C in C are so enamored. This revolution in ultimate warfare has pushed through to complete lawlessness.

When the atomic bomb came along, the US was prevented from the ultimate insanity by the MAD concept: Mutually Assured Destruction. The bullies in this country were restrained by the knowledge that they and the nation would suffer from unbridled aggression from Soviet forces. While there were diplomatic gestures: Test Ban Treaties which apparently didn't actually "ban" anything, reductions in force that somehow weren't, etc., there was no reduction in imperialism on the part of the "winner", the USA, which nearly spent itself into oblivion while trying to spend the USSR into oblivion via the arms race.

When the USSR collapsed and disintegrated, there were fears of liberated nukes or nuclear materials floating around in a black market into unfriendly and unscrupulous hands.

Well, now it seems the unscrupulous hands are born in the US of A. And those hands are sitting in Nevada and other undisclosed but guessed-at locations, spying and bombing all the peoples of the world without restraint and with impunity, including American citizens--making the whole damn Constitution, international treaties, and 500+ years of law irrelevant.

Considering how successful the banksters have been at destruction by economic warfare, usually with the complicity, if not actual co-operation by the USA and its vassal organizations: IMF, World Bank, UN, and others, one has to wonder WHY it's considered necessary to fight this war on two fronts.

Either one is sure to provoke retaliation sooner rather than later--one might say that 9/11 was the first sign of response to both economic and tactical warfare pursued by the USA.

In other words, we asked for it, and it's not over. And TSA is the logical response of a fascist state caught with its pants down at an inopportune (for the US) time.

OWS is desperately needed to change the rules, the players and the game. I only hope it isn't too late, and that the American 99% is up to the job. Also, it would be a great help if the 99% outside the USA also institute real reforms of the power situation. Otherwise, it's Goodbye, Humanity, Hello, cockroaches.

[Demeter]

24. Marine Veteran is Free to Tell the Story of America’s Nuclear Test Subjects

http://www.nationofchange.org/marine-veteran-free-tell-story-americas-nuclear-test-subjects-1318714458

...Several decades ago, during the darkest days of the Cold War, with the threat of nuclear annihilation, the U.S. military tested more than 1,000 nuclear weapons in the deserts of Nevada and the waters of the Pacific. Many of the thermonuclear detonations involved the presence of large numbers of soldiers, sailors and Marines, who began to think of themselves as "guinea pig ground grunts." It's a largely forgotten part of American history, mostly because the government didn't want it known. In today's world, it can be difficult to fathom using regular troops, given essentially no protection, as test subjects in an experiment in how to take advantage of the post-nuclear bomb drop.

"These guys were sworn to secrecy," said R.J. Ritter, national commander of the National Association of Atomic Veterans. "For the official record, it didn't happen. They were told by a CID officer, 'What you saw and heard here today didn't happen.' Now after all these years they're free to tell their story, but they are hard-pressed to find someone old enough, including in the military, to understand that it happened."

All told, about 400,000 Americans would be classified as "atomic veterans," about half of whom served in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during occupation duty in the late 1940s. The rest were exposed during aboveground nuclear weapons tests between 1945 and 1962. After 1962, the military detonated nuclear weapons underground because of airborne contamination that eventually sickened thousands of civilian "downwinders" in Nevada, Utah, Arizona and the Marshall Islands. Some of the veterans, as well as the civilians, died prematurely, some came down with cancers, some had children with genetic deformities. VA officials, however, say that only 1,500 veterans registered exposure at or above 5 rem, considered the occupational limit for a year. "A majority of individuals, even if they were in those tests, did not get exposed to a high level of radiation," said Dr. Paul Ciminera, director of the environmental agents service with the Veterans Affairs Department in Washington...

WELL, THAT'S ALL RIGHT, THEN....

[Demeter]

42. When Americans Fought to End the Draft

I'm sure the consensus was that ending the draft would end wars of aggression due to lack of cannon fodder. Starve the Beast, and all that.

The bloodthirsty, greedy Capitalists countered with the Volunteer Army assisted in recruitment by a deliberate economic job squeeze. The Bloodlusty then used these volunteers like disposable tissues. And suddenly, the Army didn't seem like a viable or honorable Career Path but more closely resembled Slavery in all its horrible aspects. Only the totally desperate or the congenitally stupid were enlisting, and the legitimate complaints of the soldier-victims were getting louder and more widely known at home. Old soldiers were warning off their progeny, for chrissakes....

So, eliminate the American grunt entirely! That will do the trick. As an interim step, they tried mercenaries, but mercenaries were not only expensive, they were out of control, generating more and more bad press at home and retaliation abroad.

So, in a case of Life Imitating Art, predator drones were conceived and built and deployed. A Drone tells no tales, gets no veteran's benefits, leaves no survivors or next of kin. It's the perfect solution, right out of Skynet.

I am so ashamed that we cannot figure out how to stop these murderers and pirates and Fascists, once and for all time. War should be regarded in the same fashion as cannibalism, which is frowned upon worse than murder or incest. Because cannibalism is disgusting and unnecessary for survival...and so is war.

[Ghost Dog]

64. ... predator drones conceived and built by General Atomics, the MIC corporation

apparently owned and operated by some faction of the CIA...

[xchrom]

21. PRECIOUS-Gold slides as macro worries lift dollar

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/markets-precious-idUKL5E7LI0UG20111018

LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Gold fell on Tuesday after evidence of slowing Chinese growth and mounting worries over the euro zone following a warning from a ratings agency over France's triple-A credit rating weighed on the commodities complex and boosted the dollar.

Moody's Investor Services warned France's top-notch credit rating could be at risk if the cost of bailing out banks in the euro zone's second-largest economy stretches its budget too much, while a reading of German business confidence fell to its lowest in nearly three years this month.

The Chinese economy expanded at its slowest pace in two years in the third quarter of this year, which compounded fears that growth in the emerging world may be insufficient to offset slowing developed economies in Europe and the United States.

Adding to the anxiety over the euro zone ahead of a key summit on Oct. 23, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble doused optimism over the ability of EU leaders to find a lasting solution to the debt crisis at the meeting, which further curbed investor appetite for risk.

[DemReadingDU]

27. Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner Jr. dies at 92;

10/18/11 Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner Jr. dies at 92;
his empire included baseball, banks, bananas

Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner Jr., who used his experience running the family dairy store to build a business empire whose reach included baseball, banks and bananas, has died. He was 92.

He died Monday night after being taken gravely ill to a hospital that morning, said a person close to the family who was not authorized to speak until a statement had been issued.

Lindner became controlling partner and chief executive officer of the Cincinnati Reds in a 1999 deal that ended Marge Schott’s rocky 15-year reign as owner. In contrast to her grandstanding, Lindner stayed mostly in the background — save for a lasting memory in 2000 when he picked up Ken Griffey Jr. at the airport in his Rolls-Royce following the blockbuster trade.

Lindner was chairman of Cincinnati-based American Financial Group, a publicly traded financial holding company that had more than $17 billion in assets. In 2009, Forbes magazine estimated Lindner’s personal wealth at $1.75 billion, placing him among the 400 richest Americans.

Lindner ruled over a complex maze of corporations with nearly 70,000 employees worldwide.

more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/cincinnati-financier-carl-lindner-jr-dies-at-92-his-empire-included-baseball-banks-bananas/2011/10/18/gIQAllfNtL_story.html

[rfranklin]

41. Was he ushered into the luxury suite in Heaven?

Or did get a lounge chair next to the pool of hellfire?

[Fuddnik]

46. Think Chiquita.

Central American death squads, repressive fascist governments. Probably Eric Holders biggest fan.

I hope he retires to a VERY warm climate.

[Tansy_Gold]

50. Please, not THIS Chiquita

[Fuddnik]

54. That looks like a good Chiquita.

Like banks, there are good Chiquitas and bad Chquitas.

I had a neutral Chiquita for breakfast.

[Demeter]

29. Do We Need ‘Student Loans’ For Billionaires? By Sam Pizzigati (DREADFUL HEADLINE)

http://www.nationofchange.org/do-we-need-student-loans-billionaires-1318862349

Polly Toynbee, a commentator for Britain’s Guardian newspaper...asked: Why not levy a one-time 20 percent tax on the total wealth of Britain’s richest tenth, a tax “graduated” to ensure that the richest 1 percent pay at a higher rate than households at the bottom of this top 10 percent?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/10/public-sector-workers-plan-c?newsfeed=true

This one-time “windfall taking” tax, Toynbee suggested, could help “save services, save jobs, expunge the national debt, kick-start growth, and set the economy on the road to recovery...The worst ever crisis,” she added, “needs better solutions than any currently on offer for the grim decade ahead.” The source of Polly Toynbee’s wealth tax proposal, Glasgow University’s Greg Philo, certainly thinks so. Philo first laid out the proposal last year and even had a national poll commissioned to gauge public reaction. That survey found 74 percent of the UK population approving.

Britain’s richest 10 percent currently hold £4 trillion — about $6.3 trillion — of the UK’s £9 trillion in personal wealth. A 20 percent tax on that £4 trillion would raise £800 billion, enough, says Philo, to “pay off the national debt” and “avoid the need for deep and harmful cuts” in public services...Philo’s plan anticipates one major objection. Few affluent households have 20 percent of their wealth in readily available cash. They have much of their wealth in property of various sorts that would have to be sold, perhaps at a great loss if all the wealthy had to sell at once. Not a problem. The wealth tax, under Philo’s plan, would not have to be paid all at once. But if a wealthy household wanted to delay payment, that household would have to pay interest on its outstanding wealth tax liability.

“It would be akin,” says Philo, “to a student loan for the rich.”

A 20 percent tax on the wealth of Britain’s richest 10 percent, points out the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee, would essentially “push back downwards the money hoovered upwards in the last decade.” The billions “hoovered upwards,” Glasgow University’s Philo adds, have largely “been directed into inflated property values.” A wealth tax could recirculate this “dead money” into government expenditures that could stimulate growth. A one-time 20 percent wealth tax, Philo sums up, “offers a real alternative” that would “move debt off the government’s books, using money that is largely trapped in the housing market, from people who will not miss it.”

[Roland99]

60. The Fraud At The Heart Of Student Lending Exposed - The One Sentence Everyone Should Read

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2138861

[Demeter]

31. Occupy Wall Street Aims Ire At Foreclosures By Ben Hallman and Michael Hudson

http://www.nationofchange.org/occupy-wall-street-aims-ire-foreclosures-1318586973

As many as a dozen "Occupy Wall Street" protestors and their allies were arrested Thursday afternoon as they tried to stop a foreclosure auction inside a courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y. As the auctioneer called the proceeding to order, the protestors, who had been sitting quietly in the courtroom, broke into song. “Mrs. Auctioneer, all the people here are asking you to hold all the sales right now,” they sang, in surprising harmony. “We’re hoping to survive, but we don’t know how.” Their voices filled the courtroom and, for a while at least, brought the proceedings to a half. After a few minutes, a court security officer warned them to stop or face arrest, but he could barely be heard over the singing. The singing continued for about a half an hour until they were led off in plastic handcuffs, still singing.

The disruption coincided with a larger protest outside the state Supreme Court building in downtown Brooklyn, across the East River from Wall Street.

“We all know there are hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their homes through nothing but outright theft,” housing activist Frank Morales told a crowd of more than 100 outside the courthouse. The courtroom action was planned in secret by protestors linked to Occupy Wall Street and another group, "Organizing for Occupation," which had previously formed an “eviction blockade” at the home of an 82-year-old grandmother in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn. So far, the group has been able to prevent the woman's eviction, but the outcome of Thursday’s sing-in in the courtroom was less certain. After the protestors were arrested, the courtroom was opened back up for the foreclosure auction. For sale on the courtroom docket was at least one residential home as well as two commercial properties. It is not known who owned the home, or what led to the foreclosure...Outside the Brooklyn courthouse Thursday, protestors held signs with various messages critical of the banking industry. “Stop lootin’ start prosecutin’,” read one. Another named the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase & Co.: “The United States of Jamie Dimon? No! STOP unlawful foreclosures.”

...People involved in the auction sat stone-faced as the protestors inside the courtroom began to sing. After a while, the protestors began clapping as well. As more and more security officers, some wearing “special response team” vests, filed into the courtroom, the protestors stood and swayed, raising their voices even louder. Occupying for Occupation said later Thursday afternoon that at least seven and as many as a dozen protestors were arrested inside the courthouse. A reporter observed about a dozen people led away in handcuffs. Soon after, the court officer ushered the remaining crowd back into the courtroom and the auction resumed.

[Demeter]

33. Greek austerity plans threaten growth

FT research shows that Athens’ planned tax increases and spending cuts are equivalent to about 14% of average take-home pay

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/J0VG55/XHCBH1/OFBYP/C44T6Q/FKQ508/6C/t?a1=2011&a2=10&a3=18

[Demeter]

34. US budget dilemma as taxes on rich expire

Cash-strapped US states debate whether to renew levy on millionaires, which has raised $4.6bn a year in New York alone since 2009

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/J0VG55/XHCBH1/OFBYP/C44T6Q/4C78PP/6C/t?a1=2011&a2=10&a3=18

WHAT ON EARTH ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT, I WONDERED....SO I WENT LOOKING


...During the recession, at least seven states imposed temporary measures raising their top tax income rates. Such taxes in Maryland and California have already been dropped, and the budget battle in New York’s legislature this year included a fight over its levy...

[banned from Kos]

35. Bank of America .56c profit - if sustainable that is a strong multiple of 3

they set aside $500 million for litigation costs.

Buffett scores again.

[Roland99]

40. it was all smoke and mirrors

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=5029978&mesg_id=5030083

[banned from Kos]

51. .32c ex-items - still a strong buy

If you are an investor. Multiple of 5x.

[wordpix]

53. BoA just bought up my small local bank in CT; actually it was a BOA subsidiary

but when you read the fine print, you see it was BOA

[Demeter]

37. Ian Bremmer: Germany will never leave the eurozone

Predictions and prescriptions for a eurozone break-up are skyrocketing – but there is no chance of the eurozone dissolving. Peripheral countries such as Greece will stay put. Germany will never leave.

Germany accounts for little more than one per cent of the world’s population – and nearly nine per cent of its exports. A common currency ties its strength to the eurozone’s relative weakness. The shared euro is significantly weaker than the standalone German currency would be. This subsidises German exports, making them more affordable internationally.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/GDJYZN/4VXHZ/JEE609/7AWAUU/UP/t?a1=2011&a2=10&a3=18

DOESN'T SOUND LIKE A WAY FORWARD, IMO

[Fuddnik]

56. A little diversion for football fans.

Old Fart Football

An old married couple no sooner hit the
pillows when the old man passes gas and says, 'Seven Points.'

His wife rolls over and says, 'What in the world was that?'

The old man replied, 'its fart football.'

A few minutes later his wife lets one go and says, 'Touchdown, tie score...'

After about five minutes the old man lets another one go and says, 'Aha. I'm ahead 14 to 7.'

Not to be outdone the wife rips out another one and says, 'Touchdown, tie score.'

Five seconds go by and she lets out a little squeaker and says, 'Field goal, I lead 17 to 14.'

Now the pressure is on the old man. He refuses to get beaten by a woman, so he strains real hard. Since defeat is totally unacceptable, he gives it everything he's got, and accidentally shits in the bed.

The wife says, 'What the hell was that?'

The old man says, 'Half time, switch sides!'

[Demeter]

58. That was truly disgusting, Doc

[AnneD]

61. That is almost as good as....

hallway sex.

The three stages of marital sex.....

1)Kitchen sex... When newlyweds have sex anywhere it is convient, kitchen table etc.

2)Bedroom sex...sex is restricted to the bedroom because of the children.

3)Hallway sex...the kids are gone, you're older. You pass each other in the hall and say "FU", "Well FU too", to each other.

[Fuddnik]

65. Social Security to hand out first raises since '09

Social Security to hand out first raises since '09
Published: Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 1:22 PM Updated: Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 1:24 PM
Associated Press business staff By Associated Press business staff


WASHINGTON -- Social Security recipients will get a raise in January -- their first increase in benefits since 2009. Experts project the increase will be about 3.5 percent, and on Wednesday, about 55 million beneficiaries will find out for sure.

The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a measure of inflation that Congress adopted in the 1970s. Since then, it has resulted in annual increases averaging 4.2 percent.

There was no COLA in 2010 or 2011 because inflation was too low. That, however, has been small comfort to the millions of retirees and disabled people who have seen their retirement accounts dwindle and their home values drop during the economic downturn.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

66. Unbelievable.

[Roland99]

67. I think I heard the faint utterings of the last person holding shorts saying "I give up...I give up"

2 trillion euro EFSF is going to save the day!

Europe is healed!!


It's a miracle!!

[Tansy_Gold]

69. Okay, I'm really stupid

What the fuck is EFSF?


TG, who sometimes ignores the abbreviations she doesn't recognize because she thinks she'll figure 'em out eventually but usually doesn't

[DemReadingDU]

71. European Financial Stability Facility

Something to do with bailing out Europe

[Tansy_Gold]

72. Now that I know what EFSF is

What the hell is it?

:evilgrin:


TG, probably doesn't want to know.

[Demeter]

73. It's a Fiddle, a Con, a...

just go watch The Sting, again. And Ocean's 11, 12 and 13.

[Roland99]

75. French for TARP.

:)

[alterfurz]

68. The place where optimism flourishes most is the lunatic asylum. -- Havelock Ellis

[Demeter]

74. Couldn't Be a More Apt Comment on the Whole Day than that!

Thanks for joining us! Come out more often!