Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Wed 03.31.2010
G-8 Nations Press for New Sanctions on Iran, As China Resists By Matthew Lee, Associated Press Ottawa (AP) - Top diplomats from the world's leading economies are ramping up pressure on Iran to prove its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, renewing calls for the country to be hit with new international sanctions if it fails to comply. In meetings outside the Canadian capital on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her fellow foreign ministers from the Group of Eight main industrialized nations will warn Iran again it faces fresh penalties if it doesn't come clean on its nuclear program.
Western Civilization and the Economic Crisis By: Andrew G Marshall - MarketOracle.co.uk The Impoverishment of the Middle Class The western nations of the world have built their great wealth and societies on the exploitation and plundering of the people and resources of the rest of the world. The wealth, freedom, and structures of our societies have been built on the starvation, robbery, deprivation and murder of millions upon millions of the world’s people, both historically and presently.
Healthcare and Economic Realities by Ron Paul - FinancialSense.com With passage of last week’s bill, the American people are now the unhappy recipients of Washington’s disastrous prescription for healthcare “reform.” Congressional leaders relied on highly dubious budget predictions, faulty market assumptions, and outright fantasy to convince a slim majority that this major expansion of government somehow will reduce federal spending. This legislation is just the next step towards universal, single payer healthcare, which many see as a human right. Of course, this “right” must be produced by the labor of other people, meaning theft and coercion by government is necessary to produce and distribute it.
Inflation raises the value of US coins: NIA NEW JERSEY(Commodity Online): Sustained inflation has rised the denomination values of US coins over the years, according to National Inflation Association which has launched 'Coin Melt Values' as a new feature in its website http://inflation.us/coins. It is updated daily with the latest melt values of U.S. coins that are currently in circulation or were previously in circulation. The purpose of NIA's new feature is to demonstrate how over time, inflation makes U.S. coins worth more than their denomination values, a NIA press release said.
Markets Set To Surprise by Captain Hook - FinancialSense.com Within the space of 24-hours we discover the Fed is still scared stiff (of deflation), the ECB is bailing out Greece (because deflation is already occurring), and the Japanese are doubling recent monetization efforts (because they have been deflating for decades), all pointing to a continuation of a highly accommodative stimulus disposition world wide. This is a large part of the reason stocks are enjoying a record advance, where now we also know why bonds look precarious moving forward, with US Treasuries center stage given a breakout from long-term resistance (see Figure 2) is in the making. Here, it appears the reason this will be occurring is not just due to exploding government deficits; but also, continued strength in stocks aided by bearish speculators who don’t seem to be able to get enough puts in their portfolios as well.
Three Breakouts That Could Break the Rally by Justice Litle - FinancialSense.com Three “breakouts” of recent days – interest rates, the U.S. dollar and China trade tensions – give ample reason to be cautious. . . . . . . . .
Breakout #1: Interest Rates. . . Because Uncle Sam borrows in his own currency, it is technically impossible for the U.S. government to default. It’s just a matter of printing more scrip. But if the U.S. government is forced to “monetize” its debt – i.e. pay it off by printing reams of fresh dollars – that could be a de facto default if not a de jure one. (“De facto” is a Latin expression that means “by the fact,” or “in practice.”) When a government monetizes beyond the point of no return, bad debt becomes bad currency. The value of the currency then plummets. . .
Breakout #2: The $USD. . .
Breakout #3: China Trade Tensions. . .
Gold Finds "Strong Physical Demand" Even as Dollar Rallies; Scrap Supplies Light By: Adrian Ash - GoldSeek.com THE PRICE OF GOLD gave back a 0.6% rise as New York trade began on Tuesday, slipping back to $1107 an ounce as world stock markets struggled near 18-month highs and the Dollar rose on the currency market. Silver Prices earlier rose to their best level since March 18, up 4.4% from last week's low, to hit $17.41 an ounce at the London Fix. German Bunds rose slightly, UK gilts fell, and US Treasury bonds held flat, with 10-year debt yielding 3.87%. Crude oil ticked below $82 per barrel. "Strong underlying physical demand for gold has continued," reports Walter de Wet at Standard Bank in London, "[and] in recent days has become even stronger.
Hoarding, Penny-Pinching And Buying Gold Karlyn Bowman - Forbes.com How Americans are coping with the recession. Fifty-four percent of Americans surveyed in the Pew Research Center's latest poll said there had been a time in the past year when they or someone in their household had been without a job or looking for work. A year ago 39% gave that response. That's a huge change--and only one of the many survey indicators revealing the widespread pain from the recession. In another question in the poll, only 10% said there were plenty of jobs available in their communities, while 85% said jobs were hard to find.
Gold Price Manipulation, Fact or Fantasy? By: Toby Connor - MarketOracle.co.uk If gold is being manipulated by the powers that be how then in the world did gold manage to rise from $250 to over $1200? I have to say if someone is manipulating the price of gold they are doing a damn poor job of it. I have to ask, when gold was rallying hard last November, where was the manipulation then? I didn't hear a peep from the conspiracy crowd all month. When gold was rocketing higher in late 2007 and early 2008 where, were the conspiracy buffs? Was there a conspiracy to raise the price of gold at that time?
Gold advances on euro gains SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold prices advanced in Asian trade Tuesday as the dollar eased against the euro ahead of the quarter end. Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $1110.39 an ounce at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while April delivery was at $ 1110.24 an ounce at the same time. However, other precious metals like Silver, platinum and palladium lost strength after rallying in the previous session on news that China's annual economic growth will reach 12 percent this quarter following strong industrial output growth last month.
Here’s What a Veteran Trader Sees for Gold Prices… By Adam Hewison, Guest Writer, Money Morning Gold has made some dramatic moves in the last 18 months and we expect it will undergo some equally dramatic moves in the future. But not right now. While I recognize that gold is one of the few "commodity" markets that people are really passionate about, the purpose of this article is not to take sides either with the gold bugs or those who reject the argument that gold is "forever." Rather, I want to discuss my interpretation of the market's cycle.
Is it the right time to buy gold? Stewart Thomson - CommodityOnline.com A wipeout may be coming. A stock market wipeout. To get a real wipeout, you need to have a convergence of a number of major fundamental events. The factors are not exactly in place for a wipeout, but they are moving quickly towards that scenario. Since price anticipates fundamentals, the situation may be even more dire. I want to take you back to Dow 6500, to gold 680. The theme at Dow 6500 and gold 680 was a major selling climax. Huge numbers of the investment world engaged in a maniacal “sell it all, short it all” frenzy.
‘Silver expected to have greater volatility’ From a U.S. perspective, we still see gold between $900 and $1,200 an ounce, and continue to believe that we could see gold at $1,500 by year end. Likewise for silver, $15 to $20 an ounce appears to be a reasonable trading range, and with silver we would expect to have greater volatility. The case has never been better for having a position in precious metals as a store of value. With the bailout of Greece or Portugal, the euro may be in trouble, and yet the U.S. is also becoming an increasingly uncertain place to do business.
Manipulation, Fact or Fantasy By: Toby Connor - GoldSeek.com Amazingly enough...or maybe it's not so amazing, every time gold corrects we see the conspiracy theories flying thick and heavy. I've questioned these theories I don't know how many times and I have yet to receive a logical answer. Now that I think about it, I don't believe I've ever received any answer. If gold is being manipulated by the powers that be how then in the world did gold manage to rise from $250 to over $1200? I have to say if someone is manipulating the price of gold they are doing a damn poor job of it. I have to ask, when gold was rallying hard last November, where was the manipulation then? I didn't hear a peep from the conspiracy crowd all month.
What Could Be the Largest Fraud in History Andrew Maguire & Adrian Douglas - KingWorldNews.com Andrew is an independent metals trader turned whistleblower at the center of a storm for exposing what could be the largest fraud in history involving countries, banks and government leaders. Adrian Douglas Board of Director from GATA, the man who Andrew reached out to joins in this interview where they discuss a fraud so extraordinary and so unimaginable that it is the kind of thing that only happens in Hollywood thrillers. They also discuss the CFTC sponsored meeting on metals which was an unmitigated disaster because it additionally exposed the fraud on a grander scale.
By Andrew Maguire - KingWorldNews.com From: Andrew Maguire Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 12:51 PM To: Ramirez, Eliud [CFTC] Cc: Chilton, Bart [CFTC] Subject: Silver today
Dear Mr. Ramirez:
I thought you might be interested in looking into the silver trading today. It was a good example of how a single seller, when they hold such a concentrated position in the very small silver market, can instigate a selloff at will.
These events trade to a regular pattern and we see orchestrated selling occur 100% of the time at options expiry, contract rollover, non-farm payrolls (no matter if the news is bullish or bearish), and in a lesser way at the daily silver fix. I have attached a small presentation to illustrate some of these events. I have included gold, as the same traders to a lesser extent hold a controlling position there too. . . .
CFTC Hearing; Poised to Act! (CFTC aiming to regulate silver market!) by Jason Hommel I was pleasantly surprised by the CFTC meeting in Washington DC on March 25th, it was much better than I expected. I think the CFTC is likely to do something to help stop the excessive and concentrated short position in silver at the COMEX, and there are many reasons why, as I detail below. I was very impressed with the quality and intelligence of the questions asked by the CFTC commission members. CFTC chairman, Gary Gensler continually brought up issue of the large silver concentration as being a potential problem to deal with. The main questions seemed to be "how to deal with it", and "what would happen"? I don't think he would ask that, unless he knew there was a problem that needed to be fixed.
China May Let Yuan Strengthen Next Month, BlueGold’s Jen Says By Simon Kennedy March 30 (Bloomberg) -- China may allow its currency to trade freely next month, helping to counter criticism it’s giving its exporters an unfair advantage, said Stephen Jen of BlueGold Capital Management LLP. “I maintain the view that it is likely that China refloats the renminbi in April,” before a meeting of U.S. and Chinese officials in Beijing, Jen, a managing director at BlueGold in London, wrote in a report to clients today.
China Economists Urge Renewed Yuan Rise China should allow the yuan to resume its gradual appreciation, two new advisers to the central bank said on Tuesday, as Beijing faces intense U.S. pressure to let its currency rise. The clock is ticking down toward an April 15 ruling by the U.S. Treasury on whether China is deliberately manipulating its currency to keep its exports competitive and gain an unfair advantage in global markets. Beijing allowed the yuan to rise 21 percent against the dollar between July 2005 and July 2008 before effectively repegging the currency, also known as the renminbi, near 6.83 to the dollar to help its exporters ride out the global credit crunch.
China shows new divisions on yuan Victoria Bi and Kevin Yao, Reuters China displayed new divisions on Tuesday over how to respond to mounting U.S. pressure to let its exchange rate rise. Two new advisers to the central bank called for the yuan to resume its gradual appreciation, but they were slapped down by Commerce Minister Chen Deming, who said a stronger currency would not wipe out China's trade surplus with the United States.
G-20 Leaders Seek Cooperation on Currencies for Balanced Growth By Simon Kennedy -- March 30 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama and four other Group of 20 leaders said currencies should be taken into account in efforts to deliver balanced global growth, a statement that may presage increased international pressure on China. “We need to design cooperative strategies and work together to ensure that our fiscal, monetary, foreign exchange, trade and structural policies are collectively consistent with strong, sustainable and balanced growth,” Obama, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote to their G-20 counterparts in a letter.
Greece Isn’t Europe’s Only Problem By William Pfaff - truthdig.com The Greek crisis has precipitated the existing crisis of the European Union. The EU crisis began with the abortive attempt to write a European constitution that could find ratification, and with the expansion of the EU to 27 members. These two events effectively terminated postwar Europe’s attempt to establish a political federation. A monetary union, however, was successfully created, with its common currency, the euro, but the threat to its success, known from the start, was that national economic differences, dictating different policy choices, with consequent national budget discrepancies, would eventually undermine the euro.
Irish Banks’ ‘Appalling’ Lending Puts Them in $43 Billion Hole By Dara Doyle and Colm Heatley -- March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Ireland’s banks need $43 billion in new capital after “appalling” lending decisions left the country’s financial system on the brink of collapse. The fund-raising requirement was announced after the National Asset Management Agency said it will apply an average discount of 47 percent on the first block of loans it is buying from lenders as part of a plan to revive the financial system. The central bank set new capital buffers for Allied Irish Banks Plc and Bank of Ireland Plc and gave them 30 days to say how they will raise the funds.
Fraud on the Street Robert Reich The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday it had begun an inquiry into two dozen financial companies to determine whether they followed accounting practices similar to those recently disclosed in an investigation of Lehman Brothers. Where on earth has the SEC been? It’s now clear Lehman Brothers’ balance sheet was bogus before the bank collapsed in 2008, catapulting the Street and the world into the worse financial crisis since 1929. The Lehman bankruptcy examiner’s recent report details what just about everyone on the Street has known since the firm imploded – that Lehman defrauded its investors. Even Hank Paulson, in his recent memoir, referred to Lehman’s balance sheet as bogus.
Bill Gross May Be Predicting Bull Run in Stocks by David Pauly March 30 (Bloomberg) -- This may be the best news for stocks in a long time: Bill Gross, who manages the world’s biggest bond fund, says the 30-year bull market in fixed-income securities is ending. Though Gross, who runs Pacific Investment Management Co.’s $214 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, would never tell you to buy stocks, isn’t that what he means? Pimco, which Gross co-founded, more or less said as much in December. It announced the Pimco Global Opportunities Fund, which will invest in stocks, though it also will buy bank loans, junk bonds and distressed securities.
Banks: Time to Take Money Off the Table By MICHAEL PANZNER - DailyFinance.com Bank shares have been something of a one-way bullish bet for quite some time. But several developments suggest the sector, especially small and mid-size lenders, could come under significant pressure in the months ahead. For one thing, authorities have in recent days stepped up their warnings about looming problems in commercial real estate (CRE), which will almost certainly hurt the industry. Elizabeth Warren, chairperson of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, noted in a CNBC interview that there were nearly 3,000 banks that have "'dangerous concentrations in commercial real estate lending.'" As a result, she said, "the economy will face a 'very serious problem' that will have to be resolved over the next three years."
Fitch Downgrades Illinois and Warns of Further Actions as Budget Gap Widens JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN -- Illinois is financially the fifth largest US state with a 2008 GDP of approximately $633 Billion. To put this in perspective, the 2008 GDP for the nation of Greece was approximately $357 Billion. The largest state is California with $1.8 Trillion in 2008 GDP, roughly on a par with Russia, Spain, or Brazil. The US is also considering accounting rule changes that will require the states to more accurately reflect and more fully fund their pension obligations for government employees.
State Debt Woes Grow Too Big to Camouflage By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH - NYTimes.com California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay. And states are responding in sometimes desperate ways, raising concerns that they, too, could face a debt crisis.
States Rights… Bye, Bye! by David N. Vaughn - FinancialSense.com Good Morning Americans! It’s Friday…somewhere. What is the price of gold? Who cares? As long as those blue days of under 300 an ounce don’t return. Dear heaven forbid. I’ll never forget those days. Everyday you watched the gold price hoping it would at least climb over 280. And then one day it might hit 291 and you were ready to celebrate with a bottle of Champaign. And all during this time you watched exploration, production companies and even fair size companies you never thought would fail…go bankrupt. Bankruptcy was an every day event.
Congressman McFadden's Speech - 1934 On the Federal Reserve Corporation The Federal Reserve - A Corrupt Institution "Mr. Chairman, we have in this Country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks, hereinafter called the Fed. The Fed has cheated the Government of these United States and the people of the United States out of enough money to pay the Nation's debt. The depredations and iniquities of the Fed has cost enough money to pay the National debt several times over.
Marx or Mises by James Cook - FinancialSense.com Hatred of capitalism appears to be widespread among liberals these days. In fact, this animosity seems to be more virulent than ever. This worrisome trend needs to be confronted and neutralized lest it spread. If too many people begin to see capitalism as an evil they will vote for politicians who will destroy capitalism and the country will face certain ruin.
How Americans Have Coped With Decline By: Rick Ackerman - GoldSeek.com . . . . In order to cope with this development, meaning finding a way to keep that “normal” alive, Americans adopted coping mechanisms. First was the double-earner family, but when that failed to suffice, it was credit, credit, credit. Those that benefit(ted) from this were happy to oblige. Both changes had their costs, and they were not only financial. The loss of a stay-at-home parent (usually the Mom) had many non-economic costs as well. (To those women who chose to work instead of mother, this was not a loss; but many had no choice but to work).
Aging Boomers May Bring Fiscal Blessings Instead By Chris Farrell - BusinessWeek.com Older workers who can't retire comfortably are likely to be needed in the workplace as the economy grows, easing threats of an entitlement load In 1935, Harry Hopkins, head of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, took a call at his home from U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morganthau Jr. Both were on the New Deal committee whose work led to the creation of Social Security. At one point their conversation focused on the demographics of aging. Hopkins: "Well, there are going to be twice as many old people 30 years from now, Henry, than there are now." Morganthau: "Well, I've gotten a very good analysis of this thing…I'm simply going to point out the danger spots…I'm not trying to say what they should do—I want to show them the bad curves…." Hopkins: "That old age thing is a bad curve."
The Fannie May and Freddie Mac debacle by Sol Palha - FinancialSense.com When Geithner states that they will do everything to make sure these institutions have the capital they need to function, he is basically stating that they are willing to use tax payer’s money to fund two worthless entities, instead of dismantling them. Trying to keep these agencies floating is akin to pouring money into a bottomless pit. One of the old lines was that these two agencies helped make housing affordable by providing an avenue for individuals who would not normally qualify for a mortgage. The following quote was extracted their site.
U.S. housing market shifts from liar loans to hard cash Barrie McKenna - Globe and Mail About 27 per cent of home sales in March were made in cash Remember the NINJA mortgage? No income, no job, no assets. Exotic U.S. mortgages are disappearing in the Spartan post-meltdown era, supplanted by a decidedly old-school mode of financing – cash. In what experts say is a sign the battered U.S. housing market is cautiously finding a bottom, more Americans than ever are choosing to plunk down cold, hard cash to buy homes. Cash was the currency of choice in 27 per cent of all homes purchased in the United States in March, according a survey by the U.S. National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Almost Every Mortgage Written Last Year Underwritten by US Government By Bill Bonner - The DailyReckoning.com . . . . Congress passed a bill permitting the US government to take over the health sector...about 17% of US GDP. Let's see. The feds don't have any money, right? They've got the biggest deficits ever, and will have to borrow $2.4 trillion this year just to keep the lights on. And now comes news that Social Security has gone into deficit for the first time ever...and 7 years ahead of schedule. The feds took over the mortgage finance industry last year. Practically every single mortgage written last year was underwritten by the US government.
Home prices inch up, but analysts fear rebound is fading By Renae Merle - Washington Post Home prices rose modestly in January, according to a closely watched index released Tuesday, but some housing industry analysts remain concerned about the sustainability of the housing sector rebound. Home prices in 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index rose 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in January compared with December. That was the eighth consecutive monthly increase in the index. Compared with the same period a year earlier, prices were down 0.7 percent.
Home price dip extends to 4th month By Les Christi - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The market seems to have pulled the rug out from under housing industry hopes for a sustained early recovery. After a five-month run-up in home prices starting last spring, prices have now fallen for four consecutive months, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 cities, a gauge of market values, released Tuesday.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Reports Mortgage Interest Rates by FHFA - realestaterama.com -- Washington, DC - March 30, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) — The Federal Housing Finance Agency today reported that the average interest rate on conventional 30-year, fixed-rate, mortgage loans of $417,000 or less increased 3 basis points to 5.13 percent in February. The average interest rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans of $417,000 increased 11 basis points to 4.65 percent in February.
Census Day Is Near, Carrying a Weight Far Beyond the Raw Numbers By KATE ZERNIKE and JIM RUTENBERG - NYTimes.com -- Thursday is Census Day — the date when Americans are urged to fill out their census forms if they want to avoid a visit from a federal worker — and the deadline will put to test a months-long campaign by antigovernment activists who are encouraging people not to complete the questionnaires. The census has been subject to boycott efforts before, but officials fear that participation rates will be particularly low this year, as a wave of sentiment against the establishment has been stoked by Tea Party groups and politicians who court them.
Census Numbers Uncensored by Vedran Vuk - FinancialSense.com The Census aims to be every man’s hero. It promises an economic stimulus, a reduction in unemployment, and greater funds for every community. Of course, the reality is much closer to a game of musical chairs with your money. And guess who will be left standing? The most immediate impact of the Census is that it distorts unemployment rates. With 1.2 million hired temporarily during the fall, the Census is already skewing the unemployment numbers in the government’s favor. Specifically, the fall data shows unemployment at 9.8% (Sept), 10.1% (Oct), and 10% (Nov).
IT Problems Put Accuracy of Census at Risk, Say Government Auditors By Edwin Mora - CNSNews.com -- Washington D.C. (CNSNews.com) – Information Technology (IT) problems at the U.S. Census Bureau could cause inaccuracies in this year's constitutionally mandated decennial tabulation of the U.S. population, according to government auditors. “IT problems place the efficiency and accuracy of Non-Response Follow-Up at risk and final decennial costs remain uncertain,” testified Judith Gordon, the principal assistant inspector general for Audit and Evaluation at the Department of Commerce, which runs the Census Bureau.
Obama: 'Tea party' features 'core group' against him By AP - WashingtonTimes.com WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Obama said Tuesday he believes the "tea party" is built around a "core group" of people who question whether he is a U.S. citizen and believe he is a socialist. But beyond that, Mr. Obama told NBC, he recognizes the movement involves "folks who have legitimate concerns" about the national debt and the government taking on too many difficult issues simultaneously.
Most Say Tea Party Has Better Understanding of Issues than Congress Rasmussen Reports -- In official Washington, some consider the Tea Party movement a fringe element in society, but voters across the nation feel closer to the Tea Party movement than they do to Congress. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 52% of U.S. voters believe the average member of the Tea Party movement has a better understanding of the issues facing America today than the average member of Congress. Only 30% believe that those in Congress have a better understanding of the key issues facing the nation.
LaRouche Reiterates Danger of Assassination Attempt on Obama -- Mar. 29, 2010 (EIRNS) — This release was issued today by the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC). The proliferation of terrorist threats, such as that represented by the "Christian militia" arrests in Michigan, should be taken very seriously, said Lyndon LaRouche today. We're in an environment like that before JFK's assassination, and President Obama should cut his bravado out now. His ego is his biggest vulnerability, and if he wants to survive, he should restrict his activity, and keep himself safe. As in the run-up to the JFK assassination, many of these so-called militia and terrorist groups will be bogus," LaRouche continued. "Most of them will be nothing—but they will create a cover for a real operation to go ahead. Just as before 9/11, when the advertised threat was a terrorist incident through demonstrations in Washington, D.C., but the reality was the Saudi-assisted plane-bomb operations which occurred.
Militia Raids Part Of Government Effort to Provoke Violence, Purge Dissent Steve Watson & Paul Watson - Prisonplanet.com -- News of a bust on nine members of a militia group in Detroit who were planning to “levy war” against the United States and “oppose by force” the nation’s government, should be treated with extreme suspicion, given that every major terror bust in the U.S. in recent years has been contrived. According to an indictment (PDF) unsealed this morning in U.S. District Court in Detroit, eight men and one woman were training in modern combat techniques for a prophesized battle with the anti-Christ.
Feds: Militia plotted uprising against U.S. By John Seewer ASSOCIATED PRESS WHEATLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- Members of a rural Michigan-based Christian militia who believed a battle with the Antichrist was coming were plotting to attack police officers in hopes of fomenting a violent uprising against the government, federal prosecutors allege. Seven men and one woman believed to be part of the group called Hutaree were arrested over the weekend after raids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. A ninth suspect was arrested Monday night after a search in southern Michigan and was expected to be arraigned Tuesday.
Militia arrests timed to prevent violence, official says By CNN.com Detroit, Michigan (CNN) -- Federal authorities decided to arrest members of the Hutaree militia group upon learning they were planning an exercise in April that might have included violence, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday. "They talked about doing a covert reconnaissance exercise," said Barbara McQuade, U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Michigan, in an interview with CNN's Drew Griffin. "And they did also say that, in connection with the exercise, if they came upon anyone from the public or law enforcement who kind of stumbled upon them in the midst of this exercise, they were prepared to kill them." That moved authorities to act, she said.
America I'm 63 and I'm Tired" By Robert A. Hall - GoldCoastChronicle.com I'm 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired. I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.
Dollar stores have plenty of items made in America Marlene Alexander - walletpop.com If you're not a regular dollar store shopper, you might be surprised to learn that there are many items in store that were not made in China. In one short visit, I found many products that were made in America, passing over any item with the phrase "distributed by" prefacing a U.S. company and choosing only the ones that declared themselves to be manufactured by an American company in a U.S. state.
Secret Experiment Going on While You Sleep Did You Know? By A.J. Plourde - GCC/Staff Geneva, Switzerland is known as the place of the headquarters of the World Court in The Hague. It is also the home to the world's largest Atom Smasher, called the LHC. Last Friday, the LHC was once again started and a new experiment in Mass Matter separation and reorganization began. All this without any fan fare, or bally hoop, as a lead up to the most colossal experiment of this type to take place to date. The entire major Physicists' of the world are in Geneva observing the test.
CIA: Iran capable of producing nukes By Bill Gertz - WashingtonTimes.com Report finds Tehran keeping options open Iran is poised to begin producing nuclear weapons after its uranium program expansion in 2009, even though it has had problems with thousands of its centrifuges, according to a newly released CIA report. "Iran continues to develop a range of capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so," the annual report to Congress states. A U.S. official involved in countering weapons proliferation said the Iranians are "keeping the door open to the possibility of building a nuclear weapon."
China Said to Execute Thousands in ’09 By MARK McDONALD - NYTimes.com HONG KONG — China executed more people last year than the rest of the world combined, according to a report published Tuesday by Amnesty International. Amnesty said there were “thousands” of Chinese executions in 2009 — the precise number is considered a state secret — and the rights group called on Beijing to divulge how many it carries out. The report said that at least 714 people were executed in 17 other countries, led by Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Methods of execution included beheading, stoning, electrocution, hanging, firing squads and lethal injection.
China Hospital Dumps 21 Babies as Medical Waste into River The bodies of 21 babies, believed dumped by hospitals, have washed ashore on a riverbank in eastern China, state media reported Tuesday. Video footage showed that the bodies — stashed in yellow plastic bags, at least one of which was marked "medical waste" — included some infants several months old. Some wore identification tags with their mothers' names, birth dates, measurements and weights. The official Xinhua News Agency said there were also fetuses among the bodies.
Obama Says He Wants Tougher Iran Sanctions in Weeks By Julianna Goldman and Helene Fouquet March 30 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he believes the United Nations will agree on new sanctions for Iran in a matter of weeks if the Islamic republic fails to comply with resolutions aimed at limiting its nuclear program. Obama said he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed at their meeting today on the need for tougher steps. “The door remains open if the Iranians choose to walk through it,” Obama said at a joint news conference with Sarkozy at the White House. “In the interim we are going to move forcefully on a UN sanctions regime.” Sarkozy said France and other European nations will support stronger action at the UN.
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David Walker Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility David Walker, President, CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation; Former Comptroller General of the U.S.; Author, Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility One of Americas foremost independent financial experts, former comptroller general of the U.S. and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office from 1998-2008, Walker will discuss a range of compelling ideas, including how to control spending, save Social Security, dramatically alter our health-care system, reform our tax system and re-engineer the base of the federal government all taking into account the Obama administrations efforts to-date to do the same. He will address a range of policies and operational and political reforms needed to ensure that Americas future will be better than its past.
BY OVERWHELMING REQUEST:
Kitty Werthmann Interview
Kitty Werthmann Part 2
Kitty Werthmann Part 3
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don't Let Freedom Slip Away Fort Worth Christianity & Culture ExaminerRene Girard By: Kitty Werthmann What I am about to tell you is something you've probably never heard or will ever read in history books. I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide - 98% of the vote.. I've never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force. . .
Freedoms can disappear in a hurry if we aren't careful Kitty Werthmann For the Argus Leader published: 3/11/2003 Kitty Werthmann, 77, of Pierre, is president of the South Dakota Eagle Forum. She lobbies the state Legislature on family issues. She has lived in the United States since 1950 and has been a U.S. citizen since 1962. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. I lived in Austria under Adolf Hitler's regime for seven years. Dictatorship did not happen overnight. It was a gradual process starting with national identification cards, which we had to carry with us at all times. We could not board a bus or train without our ID card. Gun registration followed, with a lot of talk about gun safety and hunting accidents. Since the government already knew who owned firearms, confiscation followed under threat of capital punishment.
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Tues 03.30.2010
CIA: Iran capable of producing nukes By Bill Gertz - WashingtonTimes.com Iran is poised to begin producing nuclear weapons after its uranium program expansion in 2009, even though it has had problems with thousands of its centrifuges, according to a newly released CIA report. "Iran continues to develop a range of capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so," the annual report to Congress states. A U.S. official involved in countering weapons proliferation said the Iranians are "keeping the door open to the possibility of building a nuclear weapon."
Hollow recovery Robert Higgs - NYTimes.com Growth without more jobs and rising incomes The Federal Reserve on March 15 reported that industrial production increased 0.1 percent in February. Before the politicians start celebrating, they should realize that credit goes to the winter weather - which boosted mining and utility production by increasing energy demand - not to their "stimulus." Indeed, while overall industrial production rose slightly in February, manufacturing fell by 0.2 percent. Meaning, the recovery's strength remains unimpressive. Consider personal income. According to the Commerce Department, personal income declined in 42 states last year. It rose in just six states and the District of Columbia, where government payments were the driving force.
Can Obama avert a fiscal catastrophe? By Fred Hiatt - WashingtonPost.com Last summer President Obama told me that once health reform became law, he could pivot to the "broader structural changes" needed to bring the federal deficit under control. Without health reform, he said during a July telephone interview, there would be no hope for fiscal reform. With it, he would be in a position to "start laying out a broader picture about how we are going to handle entitlements in a serious way." Well, it's been six days since he signed the bill, and he still hasn't saved Social Security. Just kidding. We can give him another day or two. But the long-term threat is no joke, as Obama has acknowledged many times. If Obama does not pivot, the country will be in serious trouble.
Obama Transcends Ideology by Riling Both Flanks Commentary by Albert R. Hunt March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama, charges former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, is “the most liberal president” in modern times, pursuing “an agenda that really is foreign to mainstream America.” Other Republicans routinely talk about the president’s “socialist” agenda. Simultaneously, the left wing says he’s a traitor to their cause. Liberal bloggers regularly accuse him of selling out to corporate interests, claiming that he has failed to keep his campaign commitments. Former Democratic Party Chairman and ex-presidential candidate Howard Dean has echoed some of these sentiments.
Why Your Grandfather's Economics Was Better Than Yours Steven Kates presents the Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture at the 2010 Austrian Scholars Conference. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno. The ASC is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, and is for scholars interested or working in this intellectual tradition. Held at the Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama, March 11-13, 2010.
Rapid Rise in US Budget Deficit Projection By: Reported by Steve Liesman, written by Michelle Lodge - CNBC.com -- Many Americans know the deficit has exploded this year. What may be less well-known is that the problem is not confined to this year or next, but stretches out at least a decade and represents a historic, multi-trillion-dollar change in the country's fiscal fortunes. CNBC, working with the Congressional Budget Office, found that the 10-year outlook for the nation's deficit has deteriorated by almost $8 trillion. In effect, every man, woman and child in the United States has taken on an extra $25,000 in debt, CNBC has learned.
Gold rises as dollar weakens; China demand seen growing By Nick Godt & Claudia Assis, MarketWatch Commerzbank sees potential for retracement to $1,100 this week NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures rose Monday on dollar weakness, improved market sentiment, and expectations that Chinese demand for gold could double in the next 10 years. Gold for June delivery, the most actively traded contract, settled $6.10 higher, or 0.5%, at $1,111.50 an ounce by the close of floor trading in New York. The shortened trading week leading up to Good Friday and Easter opened with commodities moving broadly higher as investors embraced prospects that a worldwide economic recovery is on track.
Gold Near Highest in a Week as Economic Optimism Lifts Stocks By Kim Kyoungwha -- March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Gold traded near a one-week high as Asian stocks gained after higher U.S. consumer spending and improving confidence in Europe bolstered optimism that the global economy is on course for a recovery. Gold for immediate delivery fluctuated between a gain of 0.2 percent and a loss of 0.1 percent and last traded $1.07 lower at $1,108.65 an ounce at 9:18 a.m. in Singapore. The metal is headed for a quarterly gain of 1.1 percent, after advancing 8.9 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31.
China gold demand to double, mines may drain WASHINGTON (Commodity Online) : World Gold Council on Monday said world’s largest gold producer China’s gold demand is expected to double over the next decade. In a report, WGC said China’s domestic gold demand is expected to double from current levels over the next decade due to jewellery consumption and investment needs. But China's domestic gold mines may be exhausted within six years, the council said
In gold we trust Alexandra A. Seno - Globe and Mail In the cool weather of the first few months of the year, India’s wedding season swings into high gear. Indian brides and grooms of means like to stage lavish celebrations, and on display at those nuptials is another grand Indian love affair: gold, for which the country has had a long-standing affection. India is the world’s biggest consumer of the commodity, and much of it goes into women’s jewellery.
China's gold demand "snowballing", WGC says By Tom Miles and Eadie Chen BEIJING (Reuters) - China's gold demand is expected to double over the next decade due to jewellery consumption and investment needs, the World Gold Council (WGC) said in its first report on the world's fastest growing consumer of the metal. Currently the world's second-largest gold consumer after India, China has seen its gold demand grow at an average rate of 13 percent per year over the past five years.
China emerging as largest gold consumer: WGC BEIJING (Commodity Online): Gold is glittering in China, the largest producer and second biggest consumer of the yellow metal in the world. There is a gold buying frenzy across China that the yellow metal is becoming the best investment bet in the country. According to a report from the World Gold Council (WGC), China has emerged as the largest and fastest growing consumer of gold in the world, overtaking India. Currently, though India is the biggest gold consumer, growing demand and increasing appetite for the yellow metal in the Chinese rural areas and towns are making the dragon country a truely ‘golden country.’
Dollar Near Week Low Versus Euro as Recovery Saps Safety Demand By Yoshiaki Nohara and Ron Harui March 30 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar traded near a one-week low against the euro as signs the global economy is improving damped demand for the U.S. currency as a refuge. The greenback was close to the lowest level in a week versus the Australian currency before reports today that may show France’s economy grew at the fastest pace since March 2009 and U.S. consumer confidence rebounded. The yen rose against the euro, snapping a four-day loss, on speculation exporters took advantage of its slide to the lowest level in almost two weeks to buy the currency. Australia’s dollar also held onto yesterday’s gains after commodity prices surged.
Prepare for the Worst Presented by Congressman Ron Paul at "The Failure of the Keynesian State," the Mises Circle in Houston, sponsored by Jeremy S. Davis. Recorded Saturday, 23 January 2010. Includes introductory remarks by Mises Institute president Douglas E. French, and by Institute founder and chairman Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr..
Greece Raises $6.7 Billion in Bond Sale By DAVID JOLLY - NYTimes.com Just days after European Union leaders agreed to stand behind Greece as it struggled to restore its public finances, the authorities in Athens put their new guarantee to the test Monday, selling 5 billion euros of seven-year bonds to refinance debt. The bonds, worth $6.7 billion, were priced to yield 6 percent, according to banks that managed the sale, meaning that Greece was paying a princely 3.34 percentage points above what Germany, considered the European benchmark, pays to borrow at a similar maturity. It was also well above the rates paid by the governments of Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy, other countries where indebtedness has caused concern.
Greece Pays Bond Investors 5 Times Spain Yield Spread By Caroline Hyde and Sonja Cheung March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Greece, the European Union’s most indebted member, offered more than five times the yield premium of comparable Spanish debt to lure investors to its first bond sale since a bailout was agreed to for the nation. Greece priced the 5 billion euros ($6.7 billion) of seven- year bonds to yield 310 basis points more than the benchmark mid-swap rate, according to a banker involved in the transaction, who declined to be identified before the sale is completed.
Greece to Issue Seven-Year Bond By CLARE CONNAGHAN And MARK BROWN - WSJ.com Greece continued to pay a stiff premium Monday to raise €5 billion ($6.71 billion) in its third syndicated bond offering of the year, a demonstration that the announcement last week of a possible European Union rescue package has done little to lower the troubled country's high cost of borrowing. Compared with Greece's two previous bond issues in 2010, demand was relatively subdued. The seven-year bond attracted around €7 billion in bids. Greece's two earlier bond offerings this year had seen bids totaling three times what was eventually sold. Greece is paying a coupon of 5.9% on the new bond, more than twice what Germany—Europe's safest credit—pays for comparable borrowing.
Sarkozy, Obama set to face off for market control By David M. Dickson - WashingtonTimes.com Two very different visions on how to regulate markets and prevent the next world economic crisis will clash when President Obama hosts French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the White House on Tuesday. Even as Mr. Obama spars with congressional Republicans over tougher regulations of the U.S. financial markets, he faces criticism from Mr. Sarkozy and other Western European leaders that Washington is being too timid, criticisms that Mr. Sarkozy repeated in only slightly veiled form the day before his Washington stop.
The Ballad of Sallie Mae WSJ.com - A cautionary tale of public subsidy and arbitrary politics. President Obama today signs his nationalization of the college student loan market, which will put the Department of Education directly in charge of doling out cash to students and colleges. It's one more plank in the cradle-to-grave entitlement state, but this landmark is also a good moment to recount the rise and fall of Sallie Mae. It's a cautionary tale for our times about public subsidy, arbitrary politics and doing business with the government.
Treasury to begin selling Citi shares WashingtonTimes.com NEW YORK (AP) -- The Treasury Department said Monday it will begin selling the stake it owns in Citigroup Inc., which could result in a profit of more than $8 billion. The government received 7.7 billion shares of Citigroup in exchange for $25 billion it gave the bank during the 2008 credit crisis. It said it will sell the shares over the course of this year, depending on market conditions. Like any investor, the government likely will hold on to its shares if prices fall steeply. However, Citi shares have been rising steadily with the broader market in recent months, which means the Treasury Department stands to pocket a hefty profit. Citi shares rose 8 cents to $4.39 in early trading Monday. The government would make about $8.8 billion in profit on its stake in Citigroup if it sells the stock for $4.39 a share. The Treasury Department received its stock for a price of $3.25 a share last year.
U.S. Treasury Plans to Sell Citigroup Common Shares in 2010 By Michael J. Moore and Rebecca Christie March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc.’s largest shareholder, the U.S. Treasury Department, is planning to sell its 27 percent stake this year in what could become the biggest profit for the bank-bailout program. The Treasury will dispose of its 7.7 billion common shares of New York-based Citigroup over the course of 2010 using a “pre-arranged written trading plan,” the agency said yesterday in a statement. The Treasury’s stake had a market value of $32.2 billion as of yesterday’s closing price, for a paper profit of $7.2 billion.
S.E.C. Looks at Wall St. Accounting By LOUISE STORY - NYTimes.com The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday it had started an inquiry into about two dozen financial companies to determine whether they followed accounting practices similar to those recently disclosed in an investigation of Lehman Brothers. The commission is interested in transactions known as repurchase agreements, which are a common way that investment banks provide funds for trading activities. The commission wants to know whether other Wall Street players used tactics like those that Lehman used to mask their debt levels from investors.
Rothschilds Bring In an Outsider to Run the Show By JULIA WERDIGIER - NYTimes.com LONDON — More than 200 years ago a German banker, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, sent his five sons to different European cities to guarantee the survival of what became one of the most prominent banking dynasties. This month, his great-great-great-grandson David de Rothschild, a baron, took an equally unusual step to ensure the future of the family-owned firm: For the first time, he passed some responsibilities of running Rothschild to someone outside the family.
Punks and Plutocrats By PAUL KRUGMAN - NYTimes.com Health reform is the law of the land. Next up: financial reform. But will it happen? The White House is optimistic, because it believes that Republicans won’t want to be cast as allies of Wall Street. I’m not so sure. The key question is how many senators believe that they can get away with claiming that war is peace, slavery is freedom, and regulating big banks is doing those big banks a favor. Some background: we used to have a workable system for avoiding financial crises, resting on a combination of government guarantees and regulation. On one side, bank deposits were insured, preventing a recurrence of the immense bank runs that were a central cause of the Great Depression. On the other side, banks were tightly regulated, so that they didn’t take advantage of government guarantees by running excessive risks.
Is America ‘Yearning for Fascism’? By Chris Hedges - TruthDig.com The language of violence always presages violence. I watched it in war after war from Latin America to the Balkans. The impoverishment of a working class and the snuffing out of hope and opportunity always produce angry mobs ready to kill and be killed. A bankrupt, liberal elite, which proves ineffectual against the rich and the criminal, always gets swept aside, in times of economic collapse, before thugs and demagogues emerge to play to the passions of the crowd. I have seen this drama. I know each act. I know how it ends. I have heard it in other tongues in other lands. I recognize the same stock characters, the buffoons, charlatans and fools, the same confused crowds and the same impotent and despised liberal class that deserves the hatred it engenders.
American Federalism and the Civil War Mises Daily: by Lord Acton Excerpted from a lecture delivered in 1866 and published in 1907 in Historical Essays and Studies. For many years before the outbreak of the Civil War, the United States had become an object of anxiety or of envy to many, of wonder and curiosity to all mankind. Their prosperity, attached by a thousand beneficent links to the prosperity of England, seemed even more splendid and more secure. The rapid growth of their population united the marvels of Lancashire with the marvels of Australia; it created vast cities, and peopled an enormous territory with their overflow.
The Constitutional Crisis Started Long Ago By Frank Salvato ChapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com The cry that our country is in the midst of a “constitutional crisis” is heard frequently in our society but those who are making the claim at this particular point in time are correct. The United States Constitution and the entirety of the Charters of Freedom are under attack and the well-being of our country, nay, its very existence as the Framers intended, hangs in the balance.
David Walker Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility David Walker, President, CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation; Former Comptroller General of the U.S.; Author, Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility One of Americas foremost independent financial experts, former comptroller general of the U.S. and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office from 1998-2008, Walker will discuss a range of compelling ideas, including how to control spending, save Social Security, dramatically alter our health-care system, reform our tax system and re-engineer the base of the federal government all taking into account the Obama administrations efforts to-date to do the same. He will address a range of policies and operational and political reforms needed to ensure that Americas future will be better than its past.
States Could Lose $1,400 Per Person Missed in 2010 Census Count By MATTHEW SCOTT - DailyFinance.com If you think all of those reminder notices asking you to send in your Census 2010 form by the suggested April 1 deadline date are overkill, think again. States could stand to lose an average of $1,400 for each person not counted. Even worse, taxpayers will end up footing the bill for the $1.5 billion it will cost to track down those who fail to send in the forms by mail.
No mail on Saturdays: The first step By Annalyn Censky NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Saturday mail could be one step closer to cancellation when the United States Postal Service submits an official proposal to a government regulatory board on Tuesday to eliminate six-day delivery. A new five-day delivery schedule could save the cash-strapped Post Office $3 billion annually, the agency said. Earlier this month, USPS said it plans to incur about $238 billion in losses in the next 10 years if it doesn't revamp its outdated business model.
$600 million in housing aid on the way for 5 more states By Hibah Yousuf - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Five more states will receive federal funding to help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure, the Obama administration announced Monday. Last month, President Obama unveiled the Hardest Hit Fund, which pumped $1.5 billion into state housing agencies in California, Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Michigan. These five were originally identified because they had been hardest hit by the housing bust, with prices declining more than 20%.
Subprime Debt Rallies as U.S. Enhances Loan Aid: Credit Markets By Jody Shenn March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Subprime-mortgage securities are rising at an accelerating pace as the U.S. begins to encourage reductions to homeowners’ balances, which may lead to fewer foreclosures and a quicker end to the housing slump. A Markit ABX index of credit-default swaps tied to 20 subprime-loan bonds rated AAA when created in the first half of 2006 climbed 3.2 percent last week to 49.1, the highest since January 2009, according to Markit Group Ltd.
Commercial Real Estate Collapse
Overqualified? Yes, but Happy to Have a Job By MICHAEL LUO - NYTimes.com GRANDVIEW, Mo. — Don Carroll, a former financial analyst with a master’s degree in business administration from a top university, was clearly overqualified for the job running the claims department for Cartwright International, a small, family-owned moving company here south of Kansas City. But he had been out of work for six months, and the department badly needed modernization after several decades of benign neglect. It turned out to be a perfect match.
Recession lightens wallets BY DAVE FLESSNER - TimesFreePress.com First drop in income since 1949 With nearly one in every five Americans out of work sometime during the past year, personal income fell for the first time in 60 years. The average Tennessean earned $744 less in 2009 than he or she did the previous year, according to a new government report. The income drop was even greater in Georgia, where per capita income fell by $1,063, according to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. "The last time we had a decline in personal income was in 1949," said David Lenze, a spokesman for the bureau.
Thousands to lose jobless benefits April 5 By Jennifer Liberto WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- Extended jobless benefits will run out for at least 212,000 Americans out of work after April 5 because the Senate closed up shop Friday afternoon without a deal to extend filing deadlines. Senate Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on passing a House version of the extension of deadlines to apply for federal unemployment benefits and the COBRA health insurance subsidy.
Rep. Burgess: Government Can Force Us to Buy General Motors Products If Obamacare Mandate Upheld in Court By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter -- (CNSNews.com) – Representative Michael Burgess (R-Texas) told CNSNews.com that if the mandate in the health care law requiring individuals to purchase health insurance or be penalized is upheld by the courts, the federal government could mandate anything, such as requiring all Americans to purchase a General Motors car.
CNN Poll: Americans divided on repealing health care law Washington (CNN) - Most Americans disapprove of the health care reform law, but that does not translate into majority support for the "repeal and replace" strategy backed by most GOP leaders, according to a new national poll. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday indicates that 56 percent of the public disapproves of the new legislation, with 42 percent approving of the bill that President Obama signed into law last week. Tuesday the president signs into law fixes to the original legislation that were approved by Congress last week.
Obama's health care reform: VAT or Sinkhole? by Shawn Tully (Fortune) -- In President Obama's 2011 budget, a kind of fiscal "cigarette warning" appears in a box on page 146 under a table displaying a future of big deficits and mounting debt. The Administration, the warning declares, is creating a "Fiscal Commission" to "achieve sustainability over the long-run." With those bland words, the Administration is acknowledging that the immense weight of the national debt poses a dire threat to the economy, unless America takes radical action. Yet with the signing of the $931 billion healthcare overhaul, fixing future budget problems becomes far more difficult. The reform will immensely swell the amount of federal borrowing, even while the Administration touts the bill as a model of fiscal responsibility.
Judge Invalidates Human Gene Patent By JOHN SCHWARTZ and ANDREW POLLACK - NYTimes.com -- A federal judge on Monday struck down patents on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The decision, if upheld, could throw into doubt the patents covering thousands of human genes and reshape the law of intellectual property United States District Court Judge Robert W. Sweet issued the 152-page decision, which invalidated seven patents related to genes whose mutations have been associated to breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York joined with individual patients and medical organizations to challenge the patents last May: they argued that genes, products of nature, fall outside of the realm of things that can be patented. The patents, they argued, stifle research and innovation and limit testing options.
Companies Push to Repeal Provision of Health Law By STEVEN GREENHOUSE - NYTimes.com An association representing 300 large corporations urged President Obama and Congress on Monday to repeal a provision of the health care overhaul that prompted AT&T, Caterpillar and other companies to announce substantial charges for the current quarter. The association, the American Benefits Council, said the provision — which reduces the tax deductions for companies with drug coverage for their retired employees — would deal a significant blow to corporate profits and would discourage companies from hiring more workers.
Obama’s Medicare Nominee May Rekindle Health Debate By Drew Armstrong and John Lauerman March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Donald M. Berwick, a Harvard University scholar and long-time critic of U.S. health care, will be thrust into the political fight over the overhaul law as President Barack Obama’s choice to run Medicare and Medicaid. Obama will nominate Berwick, 63, to oversee medical programs for more than 100 million poor, elderly and disabled Americans, an administration official said March 27, insisting on anonymity. The pick, requiring Senate confirmation, follows last week’s approval of the biggest revamp of the U.S. system since the 1960s, without support from a single Republican.
Sen. Carper: ‘Not Likely’ That States Can Overturn Individual Mandate in Health Care Law By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter -- (CNSNews.com) -- Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) did not say where in the Constitution Congress is given the authority to mandate that people buy health insurance, but said it is "not likely" the states will be able to overturn the individual mandate that is in the health care bill, which was signed into law on Tuesday. So far, attorneys general from 13 states have filed lawsuits against the federal government, arguing that requiring people to buy health insurance is unconstitutional.
Carper: 'Not Likely' States Can Overturn Individual Mandate CNSNews.com interviewed Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) regarding state suing the federal government over the individual mandate in the health care law.
FDA pressured to combat rising 'food fraud' By Lyndsey Layton - Washington Post The expensive "sheep's milk" cheese in a Manhattan market was really made from cow's milk. And a jar of "Sturgeon caviar" was, in fact, Mississippi paddlefish. Some honey makers dilute their honey with sugar beets or corn syrup, their competitors say, but still market it as 100 percent pure at a premium price. And last year, a Fairfax man was convicted of selling 10 million pounds of cheap, frozen catfish fillets from Vietnam as much more expensive grouper, red snapper and flounder. The fish was bought by national chain retailers, wholesalers and food service companies, and ended up on dinner plates across the country.
GM unveils 40 mpg compact CNNMoney.com - The automaker's new Chevrolet Cruze ECO will get very high gas --mileage without relying on any hybrid technology GM unveiled details this weekend about the new Chevrolet Cruze Eco. Available later this year, the Cruze ECO will get more than 40 mpg on the highway -- without the use of hybrid technology. The car's city fuel economy hasn't been announced yet, and neither has its price. The Cruze Eco will essentially replace the Cobalt XFE high-efficiency car, since the Cobalt line has been discontinued.
Will a Tea Partyer save Harry Reid's job? By Marc A. Thiessen - WashingtonPost.com This past weekend, the Tea Party rallies moved from the steps of the U.S. Capitol to Searchlight, Nev., home of the man activists hold responsible for passage of Obamacare: Senate majority leader Harry Reid. On Saturday, traffic into the tiny mining town where Reid grew up (population 700) was backed up for miles, as 7,000 people gathered for the Tea Party Express "Showdown in Searchlight." Activists carried signs that read, "Harry: Searchlight Needs You, America Doesn't." And Sarah Palin drew raucous cheers when she told Reid, "You're fired." But will a self-proclaimed Tea Party candidate end up saving Harry Reid's job in November?
Tea and Mockery By JAMES TARANTO - WSJ.com The Bloomberg news service takes a cheap shot. As the mainstream media's campaign against the tea-party movement has grown more vicious, Heidi Przybyla, a reporter for the Bloomberg news service, decides to take a different approach: (relatively) gentle mockery. "Tea Party Advocates Who Scorn Socialism Want a Government Job," reads the headline of a dispatch she filed Friday, reporting on a new Bloomberg poll. . . . . . . . Is it really possible that Przybyla or her editors can't imagine ways in which the federal government could foster job creation other than by expanding the government payroll? The headline is designed to portray tea-party sympathizers as hypocrites and losers, but to anyone paying attention, it actually shows Bloomberg to be biased to the point of dishonesty.
Nine Charged in Militia Plot By ALEX P. KELLOGG, LAUREN ETTER AND TIMOTHY W. MARTIN - WSJ.com Michigan Religious Group Plotted Violent Government Offensive, U.S. Charges ADRIAN, Mich.—Nine members of an anti-government militia group were charged Monday with conspiring to kill a law-enforcement officer in an effort to start a "war" against the U.S. government, authorities said. The group, known as Hutaree, planned to kill an unidentified local law-enforcement officer in April and then attack local, state and federal officers who came to Michigan to attend the funeral, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan said in a 12-page indictment.
China struggles with stance on nuclear power as summit nears By John Pomfret - WashingtonPost.com -- BEIJING -- Two weeks before the United States hosts a summit on nuclear security, one of its most important invitees, China, has yet to RSVP. Chinese President Hu Jintao will be in the neighborhood for a meeting in Brazil three days after the Washington summit is scheduled to end April 13. But China's coyness in accepting an invitation that went out to the leaders of more than 40 countries reflects an uncertainty about how to deal with the Obama administration's call for a nuclear-weapons-free world and its role as a rising nuclear power, even while the United States and Russia move to cut their nuclear stocks, according to Chinese government sources and Western analysts.
China Missed Chance for Open Rio Trial, Rudd Says By Marion Rae March 30 (Bloomberg) -- China “missed an opportunity” to be transparent and give companies more confidence by hearing charges of industrial espionage against four Rio Tinto Group executives in secret, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. China had the chance “to demonstrate to the world at large transparency that would be consistent with its emerging global role,” Rudd said in Melbourne today. There are “serious unanswered questions” about the conviction of Stern Hu, the Australian executive who led Rio’s iron ore unit in China.
Moscow Attack a Test for Putin and His Record Against Terror By CLIFFORD J. LEVY - NYTimes.com -- MOSCOW — Brazen suicide bombings in the center of Moscow on Monday confronted Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin with a grave challenge to his record of curbing terrorism, and raised the possibility that he would respond as he had in the past, by significantly tightening control over the government. The explosions, set off by female suicide bombers in two landmark subway stations, killed at least 38 people and wounded scores of others, touching off fears that the Muslim insurgency in southern Russia, including Chechnya, was once again being brought to the country’s heart.
Russia braces for terrorism's return as 38 die in subway bombings By Philip P. Pan - WashingtonPost.com -- MOSCOW -- With a pair of powerful blasts on Moscow subway cars that killed at least 38 people Monday, two female suicide bombers shattered Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's claim to have contained a separatist insurgency in Russia's southwest and forced the nation's capital to brace for a terrorist comeback after several years of calm.
Suicide blasts kill 38 in Moscow subway By David Nowak ASSOCIATED PRESS Female Chechen rebels suspected in bloody strike MOSCOW | Female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Monday in twin attacks on Moscow subway stations packed with rush-hour passengers, killing at least 38 people and wounding more than 60, officials said. The carnage blamed on rebels from the Caucasus region follows the killings of several high-profile Islamic militant leaders there. The blasts come six years after Islamic separatists from the southern Russian region carried out a pair of deadly Moscow subway strikes and raise concerns that the war has once again come to the capital, amid militants' warnings of a renewed determination to push their fight.
UAE: Head of largest sovereign wealth fund missing DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The United Arab Emirates state news agency says the head of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund -- the world's largest -- is missing after his glider crashed in Morocco.
Pyongyang not ruled out in sinking of warship By Jean H. Lee ASSOCIATED PRESS SEOUL | A naval mine dispatched from North Korea may have struck the South Korean warship that exploded and sank near the Koreas' disputed sea border, the South's defense chief told lawmakers Monday, laying out several scenarios for the maritime disaster. Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said there was no sign of a direct attack from rival North Korea, but military authorities have not ruled out North Korean involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan late Friday night.
Kitty Werthmann Interview
Kitty Werthmann Part 2
Kitty Werthmann Part 3
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don't Let Freedom Slip Away Fort Worth Christianity & Culture ExaminerRene Girard By: Kitty Werthmann What I am about to tell you is something you've probably never heard or will ever read in history books. I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide - 98% of the vote.. I've never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force. . .
Freedoms can disappear in a hurry if we aren't careful Kitty Werthmann For the Argus Leader published: 3/11/2003 Kitty Werthmann, 77, of Pierre, is president of the South Dakota Eagle Forum. She lobbies the state Legislature on family issues. She has lived in the United States since 1950 and has been a U.S. citizen since 1962. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. I lived in Austria under Adolf Hitler's regime for seven years. Dictatorship did not happen overnight. It was a gradual process starting with national identification cards, which we had to carry with us at all times. We could not board a bus or train without our ID card. Gun registration followed, with a lot of talk about gun safety and hunting accidents. Since the government already knew who owned firearms, confiscation followed under threat of capital punishment.
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Mon 03.29.2010
Seven arrested in FBI raids linked to Christian militia group Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News At least seven people, including some from Michigan, have been arrested in raids by a FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana as part of an investigation into an Adrian-based Christian militia group, a person familiar with the matter said. The suspects are expected to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Monday. On Sunday, a source close to the investigation in Washington, D.C. confirmed that FBI agents were conducting activities in Washtenaw and Lenawee counties over the weekend in connection to Hutaree, a Christian militia group. Detroit FBI Special Agent Sandra Berchtold told The Detroit News the federal warrants in the case are under court seal and declined further comment.
Fed raids in Michigan may be tied to Hutaree, a Christian-militia group BY NIRAJ WARIKOO - DetroitFreePress.com -- Federal agents conducted raids over the weekend in Lenawee and Washtenaw counties that news media reports linked to Hutaree, a Christian-militia group in the area. Agents also conducted raids in Indiana and Ohio and arrested at least three people. FBI spokesman Scott Wilson in Cleveland said agents arrested two people Saturday after raids in two Ohio towns. A third arrest made in northeast Illinois stemmed from a raid in northwest Indiana. The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation led by the FBI in Michigan, according to a statement from agents in Illinois.
The coming of an American Reichstag? By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director 25 March 2010: A federal intelligence source reported in an interview last evening that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have been called in to “actively investigate incidents of violence and threats” made to at least ten Democrats and one Republican lawmaker since Sunday. Their involvement was reportedly requested by top House leadership and one unnamed, high-level White House official. According to this source, who agreed to speak to this writer under the strict condition of anonymity, “a ‘watch list’ has already been created that specifically names and turns their focus on various pro-life and tea-party organizations and individuals who are considered a threat to domestic security, continuity of government operations, and to the lives of lawmakers and their families.”
Four banks fail; FDIC pulls back on loss shares by Karey Wutkowski (Reuters) - Four small banks across the United States were seized by regulators on Friday evening, ticking up the year bank failure tally to 41. The continued parade of bank collapses comes as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is pulling back on loss-share agreements designed to lure bidders into taking on the assets of troubled banks. Two of the banks that were seized were in Georgia, which has accounted for about one-sixth of all failures since the beginning of 2008.
U.S. Bank Failures Reach 41 This Year as Four Lenders Are Shut By Phil Mattingly - BusinessWeek.com -- March 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. regulators shut down four banks in Arizona, Georgia and Florida, bringing the total for the year to 41 as small lenders struggle with bad loans tied to commercial real estate. The banks seized March 26, including Desert Hills Bank of Phoenix, Arizona, had total assets of $1.24 billion and deposits of $1.1 billion, according statements from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Regulators have seized 181 U.S. lenders since the start of 2009.
Fed's Warsh warns on inflation risk complacency by Kristina Cooke and Steven C. Johnson (Reuters) - Central bankers should keep "a very open mind" about potential economic shocks that could emerge in the United States and overseas, a top U.S. central bank official said on Friday. Federal Reserve Board Governor Kevin Warsh told a Shadow Open Market Committee conference that the United States should not be complacent about inflation risks, adding that market signals and economic data were sending a variety of messages.
How the Next Middle East War Could Start By RONEN BERGMAN WSJ.com The three most plausible scenarios all involve Iran. This May, Israel will celebrate its 62nd Independence Day. And barring the unexpected, the country will have good reason to celebrate. This will have been the safest year in a decade and a half for Israeli civilians—the year with the fewest fatalities in acts of war or terror. Ironically, Israel's most bitter foes are responsible for this achievement. The leadership of both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza have imposed a temporary policy of nonconfrontation on their respective followers, as well as on other armed groups operating within the territories they control. They are now part of the administration and don't want to be blamed for igniting another war in the region. As a result, the once almost daily rocket attacks on civilian targets in the north and south of Israel have been reduced to a trickle.
America and the Next Major War By: Clif Droke - GoldSeek.com In the current phase of relative peace and stability we now enjoy, many are questioning when the next major war may occur and speculation is rampant as to major participants involved. Our concern here is strictly of a financial nature, however, and a discussion of the geopolitical and military variables involved in the escalation of war is beyond the scope of this commentary. But what we can divine from financial history is that “hot” wars in a military sense often emerge from trade wars. As we shall see, the elements for what could prove to be a trade war of epic proportions are already in place and the key figures are easily identifiable.
Axelrod: World has united against Iran By ASSOCIATED PRESS - WashingtonTimes.com WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top White House adviser said Sunday the United States is making progress in its efforts to find allies to hold the line on Iran's nuclear ambitions. David Axelrod, President Obama's senior political adviser, told CNN's "State of the Union" that at the start of the Obama administration, Iran was united while the world was divided on how best to deal with Iran. Mr. Axelrod said the situation now is reversed -- the world is coming together while Iran itself is divided. He said he's pleased with the cooperation that the Russians have offered and believes Moscow will support fresh penalties against Tehran.
The Final Treaty by J. R. Nyquist - FinancialSense.com More than twenty years ago, working on a book that was later titled Origins of the Fourth World War, I inserted a quote from the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, which states: "That nuclear weapons, whose terrible effects are suffered, indiscriminately and inexorably, by military forces and civilian population alike, constitute, through the persistence of the radioactivity they release, an attack on the integrity of the human species and ultimately may even render the whole earth uninhabitable." The treaty further states: "That general and complete disarmament under effective international control is a vital matter which all the peoples of the world equally demand."
Sell-off in US Treasuries raises sovereign debt fears By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk Investors are braced for a further sell-off in US Treasuries after dramatic moves last week raised fears that the surfeit of US government debt is starting to saturate bond markets. The yield on 10-year Treasuries – the benchmark price of global capital – surged 30 basis points in just two days last week to over 3.9pc, the highest level since the Lehman crisis. Alan Greenspan, ex-head of the US Federal Reserve, said the abrupt move may be "the canary in the coal mine", a warning to Washington that it can no longer borrow with impunity. He said there is a "huge overhang of federal debt, which we have never seen before". David Rosenberg at Gluskin Sheff said Treasury yields have ratcheted up 90 basis points since December in a "destabilising fashion", for the wrong reasons. Growth has not been strong enough to revive fears of inflation. Commodity prices peaked in January and US home sales have fallen for the last three months, pointing to a double-dip in the housing market.
Treasuries Find Greenspan’s Canary Fainting in Mine By Susanne Walker - BusinessWeek.com March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s warning that rising yields on government debt will drive up American borrowing costs is resonating with the world’s biggest bond traders, who say this month’s losses in the market for U.S. Treasuries are just the beginning. Higher yields are the “canary in the mine,” Greenspan said in a March 26 interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt.” The increases reflect concern over “this huge overhang of federal debt which we have never seen before,” he said. The budget deficit, which hit $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2009, will drive Treasury sales to a record $2.43 trillion this year, a February survey of 10 dealers showed.
Credit Crisis, Outrage, Far From Over Bob Chapman - InternationalForecaster.com Bernanke re-nominated, outrage at banks, insolvency the real state of banks, crime pays when you are at the top, sovereign debt crisis around the world, debt and derivatives products were all just a ponzi scheme, the problem wont go a way when the system is purged, PIMCO Bill Gross warns of inflation, big cutbacks in services... The re-nomination of Ben Bernanke, as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has to be one of the ultimate political insults, particularly coming from Republicans, as did his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, both have taken America and the world down the sewer. Ben Bernanke saved Wall Street, the banks, insurance companies and a myriad of other Illuminist firms.
Feds Warsh: Fed cannot be "ultimate rescuer" WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve must steer clear of dabbling in fiscal policy or risk losing its hard-fought independence, a top Fed official said on Friday. "The Fed, as first responder, must strongly resist the temptation to be the ultimate rescuer," Fed Governor Kevin Warsh said in a speech prepared for delivery to the Shadow Open Market Co. "No matter the congressional calendar or the pleadings of the elected, the Fed is not a repair shop for broken statutes or broken financial ecosystems," he said.
Europe has left Greece hanging in the wind By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk However you dress it, the Greek package agreed by EU leaders is a capitulation to German-Dutch demands. There will be no European debt union as long as Angela Merkel remains Iron Chancellor of Germany. The Frankfurter Allgemeine summed up the deal succinctly: "No member of Europe's monetary union should be liable for the debts of another state. Bilateral credit from Berlin for Athens is not the same as German acceptance of responsibility for Greek debt." This shatters the assumption since Maastricht that monetary union leads inexorably to fiscal union. By drawing the IMF into Euroland's affairs, Germany has broken the spell and reduced EMU to a fixed-exchange system with knobs on, like the 1930s Gold Standard that it so resembles. No wonder Jean-Claude Trichet at the European Central Bank is cross.
Ron Paul on Healthcare and Foreign Policy
Gold: The United States Of Crisis John Ing Last year it was Wall Street's debts, this year it is sovereign debt problems. Just when everybody was told it was safe to go into the water, once again investors are told that yet another bailout is needed to stem the threat of a default. This time it is sovereign defaults. Taxpayers are again being asked to pony up as governments pile up more debt, further devaluing their purchasing power. When will it end? Investors are losing confidence in propping up heavily indebted governments, banks and corporate entities, either explicitly or implicitly. Inflation and currency depreciation is next.
Gold may trade above $1,100 this week By Dr Jeffrey Lewis - CommodityOnline.com Gold may trade above $1,100 this week. A move to $1,140 or even higher is quite possible based on short-term short covering. There have been heavy volumes of buying and selling between $1,084 and $1,130 over the last two weeks, reflecting a battle between shorter term investors liquidating positions based on a stronger dollar and economic indicators and longer term investors taking price dips as opportunities to buy.
The Gold Price will be affected by the Oil price in future – How? Julian D.W. Phillips - FinancialSense.com -- For many years it was believed that the oil price had a direct impact on the gold price. Then the ‘credit crunch’ arrived, after the oil price had hit $145+ before tumbling to $35 a barrel. Since then the oil price has been treated as irrelevant to the gold price. We at Gold Forecaster believe it only had an indirect influence on the gold price in the first place.
Big Oil Entering the Shale Natural Gas Arena by Hans Wagner - FinancialSense.com Successful exploration of natural gas from shale has contributed to a drop in natural gas prices during the past two years. Yet the large energy companies have taken notice of the potential from natural gas from shale, lead by Exxon’s acquisition of XTO Energy and the Total/Chesapeake joint venture. Does the move by “Big Oil” indicate a strong future for shale based natural gas?
IMF Gold Not Up For Sale? GoldSeek.com I wish I could talk about the recent CFTC hearings in regards to position limits on metals in a more favourable light, but it seems all the build-up was for naught. There were too many opposed to limits and when it really comes down to it the powers that be are the ones who don’t want position limits, so there is a snowballs chance in hell of ever seeing any as far as I can see. Is that so bad after-all? Perhaps not.
Divide home loans with ounce price of gold! By Adrian Ash - CommodityOnline.com It is hard to say quite how the latest slug of tax-payer cash thrown at US housing will affect prices. Because at first glance, the $14 billion of aid (aka meddling) apportioned on Friday seems set to both inflate and depress prices. Subsidizing over-priced contracts stops the market from clearing, and people whose homes are worth less than their mortgage can now seek government-backed loans to cover the difference. But that's only thanks to lenders writing down what they're owed – or rather, what the securitized bonds holding their debtors' mortgages are due at maturity – thus resetting the existing loan's value closer to current reality.
Is IMF holding back its gold sale plan? By Tyler Durden - CommodityOnline.com In an exclusive report, Kitco has just released yet another stunner in the world of precious metals. It turns out that Eric Sprott has attempted to purchase gold from the IMF, according to information provided to Kitco by Frank Holmes, CEO of US Global Investors. "I just spoke with Eric Sprott, who bid to buy [the IMF's remaining gold on the block] and they refuse to sell it." As Kitco points out, "the IMF might be holding out for a bigger buyer or a central bank or for higher prices. But Holmes argues the IMF's rejection of Sprott's bid means markets are being manipulated."
ECU Group's Philip Manduca "We Are At A Tipping Point" And The Only Thing That May Save The Euro Is A Collapse Of The US by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com -- For once, some actually good insight from a CNBC guest. Philip Manduca, Head of Investment of the ECU Group, discusses Greece and the very severe implications of what the final outcome will look like. "Trichet said the Greeks are crooks, and they've been lying about the numbers. There is a deeply embedded corruption within the Eurozone. Combined with the endemic European socialism and there is just no way you are going to get spending cuts and tax raises and maintain a GDP that makes any sense of the percentage aspect of debt to GDP. So the whole show is wrong. This is an intractable situation, this is going to continue on and on. The only hope for the Eurozone, and the Euro as a currency, is that someone takes the spotlight soon, and that may be the United States." Watch the rest as Philip's perspective is spot on...Not to mention that he sees gold as the only alternative to the fiat bonfire soon to engulf the western world.
Gold is the long term currency of choice . . . get long of gold
Former Goldman Commodities Research Analyst Confirms LMBA OTC Gold Market Is "Paper Gold" Ponzi GoldSeek.com -- When we put up a link to last week's CFTC hearing webcast little did we know that it would end up being the veritable (physical) gold mine (no pun intended) of information about what really transpires in the commodities market. First, we obtained direct evidence from Andrew Maguire (who may or may not have been the target of an attempt at "bodily harm" as reported yesterday) of extensive manipulation in the silver market. Today, Adrian Douglas, director of GATA, adds to the mountain of evidence that the commodities market, and the CFTC, stand behind what is potentially the biggest market manipulation scheme in the history of capital markets (we are assuming for the time being that all allegations of the Fed manipulating the broader equity and credit markets are completely baseless). Using the testimony of a clueless Jeffrey Christian, formerly a staffer at the Commodities Research Group in the Goldman Sachs Investment Research Department and now head and founder of the CPM Group, Douglas confirms that the "LBMA trades over 100 times the amount of gold it actually has to back the trades."
GATA's Murphy produces evidence suggesting specific instance of silver and gold manipulation at CFTC hearing Author: Lawrence Williams - MineWeb.net -- Testimony from GATA's Bill Murphy to the CFTC hearing in Washington could be embarrassing for some major investment banks. Some observers feel that the Gold Anti Trust Association (GATA's) long held views on a conspiracy by some major banks and government entities to manipulate precious metals prices are off-target, but the latest evidence produced by GATA chairman Bill Murphy in open testimony at the CFTC hearing is compelling assuming the source material is accurate.
Bill Murphy of GATA Reveals Whistle-Blower in Gold Price Suppression
Silver can pull you out of debt By Dr Jeffrey Lewis - CommodityOnline.com Make no mistake about it: silver is an investment for trying times. As one the most beautifully shiny metals, silver's true economic beauty shines through in a world ruined by rampant inflation and growing debt. The Barter Economy A barter economy is one of the most primitive economic models, wherein goods and services are traded, with each party believing it received the better end of the bargain. An example would be that of a plumber and an electrician. The plumber can fix pipes, install a toilet and improve the general condition of a variety of plumbing, but likely could not rewire the light switch.
‘Silver gives better opportunity for investments’ By Dr Jeffrey Lewis - CommodityOnline.com As observed by many analysts across the world silver has been surpassing gold investments in yielding attractive returns for the investors. In last one year, silver has drawn attention of global investor community as the grey metal has outperformed gold by gaining over 24% against 16% return in gold. India, which has been the largest consumer of gold, is now found changing its focus to better yielding precious metals like silver. Several bullion traders in India have shown their interest in launching varied products for silver investments.
Dollar to Fall as U.S., U.K. ‘Two Peas In a Pod’, Barclays Says By Inyoung Hwang March 26 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar may weaken versus the pound as expanding record budget deficits in the U.S. begin to weigh on the economic recovery and the world’s primary reserve currency, according to Barclays Plc. Even though the U.S. and U.K. suffer from being consumption-driven economies with large deficits, the financial crisis had a harsher effect on sterling, Paul Robinson, a currency strategist in London at Barclays Capital, wrote in a note to clients today. He said the greenback benefited from its status as a safe-haven currency and the view the budget deficit in the U.S. would be easier to cut than in the U.K.
Ron Paul: Executive Orders are Unconstitutional We Need a Private Option in Healthcare
Tedbits 2010 Outlook by Ty Andros - FinancialSense.com When Hope Turns to Fear, Part V 2010 Outlook Conclusions As we near the APEX of the countertrend rallies in many markets and economies, the air is full of HIGHLY-COMBUSTIBLE situations just waiting for someone to light the MATCH. The full debacle of the next leg down in developed world economies is at the doorstep. What event will act as catalyst is unknowable, and the list of candidates is mountainous. Corruption and criminality within the public sectors, crony capitalists and banksters set the stage for an explosive cocktail, are set to immolate the private sectors that still produce wealth and the public at large.
S&P readying for a crash…..to 1110-1120 By SHAILY - InvestingContrarian.com This week COT data was quite illustrative of what the big boys are doing. Infact it was deja vu for me as it gave me taste of what the big boys aim to do when they need to get off their positions. I was part of all this as we used to unload huge and massive speculative postions and leaving the small guys holding the batter. For the first time in the last 6 months, we have the small traders (even retail) becoming hopeful of the rally to go on. And guess what? The big boys including the commercials and large funds and traders have gone short. This is bearish. Very!
Bank-Tax Concept Gains Momentum By BOB DAVIS - WSJ.com WASHINGTON—The U.S. and European governments are moving toward a consensus on taxing large banks to cover the cost of any future bailouts rather than asking taxpayers to foot the bill, as happened regularly in past banking crises. The tax proposals vary. Germany and Sweden would use the money to fund a "resolution authority" that would use the money to shut troubled banks whose failure would put the broader economy at risk. Others, such as France, would assess the fee after a crisis passed.
Scrutiny rises of failed bank purchases By Suzanne Kapner and Helen Thomas in New York - FT US regulators to rethink rules on buying discounted assets US regulators are stepping up their scrutiny of rules that enable buyers of failed banks to take an accounting gain – dubbed “Christmas capital” – by acquiring assets at a discount, according to people familiar with the discussions. Regulators are discussing guidelines to limit how much of a bank’s capital can be comprised of such gains. The talks involve leading bank regulators, including the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
China warned of growing ‘land loan’ threat By Geoff Dyer in Chongqing - FT.com Local governments use public terrain as collateral The Guanyinxia forest stretches up to the mountains north-west of the big central Chinese city of Chongqing. Most is protected land. “Our purpose is mainly preservation – not to make money,” says Liu Siyang, Communist party secretary of the government bureau that manages the forest. Yet the same forest has a double life in the commercial world. It has been used as collateral by a company controlled by the local government forestry bureau to help secure a Rmb300m loan it took out last year from a state-owned bank, which was then spent on infrastructure projects in Chongqing.
Think deficits don't matter? Just ask Portugal MoneyWeek.com What happened yesterday? Little of consequence. At least, not here in the UK. Alistair Darling stood up. He gave a speech in which he tried to clear the Labour party of any responsibility for the state of the economy they've been running for the past 13 years. He bribed first-time buyers. He battered cider drinkers. Then he sat down.
GMAC unit sold to Wells Fargo By Helen Thomas and Suzanne Kapner in New York - FT Wells Fargo said on Wednesday that it had agreed to buy a division that provides financing to small businesses from GMAC, the troubled car and home lender, cementing its position as a leader in the field. The division provides working capital to about 150 small and medium-sized businesses, mainly suppliers of consumer products to large retailers such as Walmart and Target.
Supply fears start to hit Treasuries By Michael Mackenzie in New York and David Oakley in London - FT -- The bond vigilantes are finally flexing their muscles. A long period of stability for the US government bond market showed signs of cracking this week as a lack of investor appetite for new debt sent the benchmark 10-year yield to its highest level since last June. For more than a year, analysts have been warning that record sized debt sales by the US Treasury were at odds with a 10-year yield sitting comfortably below 4 per cent. This week, the yield on 10-year notes jumped from 3.65 per cent to a peak of 3.92 per cent on Thursday. On Friday it was 3.87 per cent.
Fed Officials Signal Asset Sales to Play Bigger Role By Craig Torres and Scott Lanman March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve officials are moving toward a consensus that asset sales will play a more prominent role in their exit from the most expansive monetary policy in the central bank’s history. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told legislators yesterday that “restoring the size and composition” of the Fed’s record $2.32 trillion balance sheet to a “more normal configuration” is a long-term policy goal. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said in an interview the central bank must start making plans now for future asset sales.
US Justice Department Names JP Morgan and UBS as Conspirators in US Muni Bond Fraud and Bid Rigging JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN -- The big American banks are starting to look more like criminal enterprises than a well managed financial system that is put forward as 'the envy of the world." Just yesterday a whistle blower stepped forward and named J. P. Morgan in a price manipulation scheme in the metals markets that reaps millions in profits by cheating investors. The CFTC commissioners said in this same public meeting that the markets have never been more transparent and efficient, even as they had known of this allegation for months, and apparently failed to seriously investigate. And there was no mention of this in the mainstream media.
CBO report: Debt will rise to 90% of GDP By David M. Dickson - WashingtonTimes.com President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years, $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected, and raise the federal debt to 90 percent of the nation's economic output by 2020, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday. In its 2011 budget, which the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released Feb. 1, the administration projected a 10-year deficit total of $8.53 trillion. After looking it over, CBO said in its final analysis, released Thursday, that the president's budget would generate a combined $9.75 trillion in deficits over the next decade.
FHA's Florida fiasco By Tami Luhby - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- What the hell happened to the FHA's loans in Florida? The state dominates the list of troubled metro areas for Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgages. In fact, 16 of the top 25 locales with the highest default rates are in Florida, as of December, with tiny Punta Gorda on the Gulf Coast leading at 22.7%. The poor performance of Florida's FHA loans has helped drag the agency down to its lowest point in decades, raising concerns that taxpayers will have to bail it out. The agency is in the midst of overhauling its operations to shore up reserves, which have fallen well below the level required by Congress.
FDIC Stands Between J.P. Morgan and a WaMu Payoff By DAN FITZPATRICK - wsj.com The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. backed away from its support for a $1.4 billion tax break benefiting J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., setting up a battle between the regulator and the nation's second-largest bank. The tax benefit stems from J.P. Morgan's acquisition of Washington Mutual and is part of the bankruptcy proceedings of the failed Seattle thrift's parent company. Washington Mutual is eligible for $2.7 billion to $2.8 billion in refunds based on a 2009 economic stimulus bill that allowed companies to apply losses from 2008 and 2009 against taxes paid in the previous five years.
Convoy of U.S. Military Armored Personnel Vehicles I was driving home from work today and did a double take as I rounded the Shuster Park Way bend to Tacoma. On the tracks behind an BNSF train [engine #5394] I saw railcar after railcar of U.S. Military Armored Personnel Vehicles heading southbound towards Oregon. If it wasn't for the Northbound Sounder transit train causing this train to pause, I would have missed it entirely.
Europe agrees IMF-EU rescue for Greece By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk After weeks of discord, Europe's leaders have agreed to an emergency facility for Greece backed by the International Monetary Fund and bilateral loans from eurozone states. The accord was vague on figures and aid can be invoked only as a "last resort" if Greece is shut out of the capital markets. Since Greece is already paying an untenable debt premium, the wording once again leaves it unclear what exactly has been settled. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch premier, leaders of the two key creditor states, imposed their demand that the IMF must be central to any rescue. While the Eurogroup is to play a "co-ordinating" role, Germany and Holland will retain a veto over use of the facility. Greece said it was "satisfied" by the terms.
Papandreou Faces 15.5 Billion-Euro Bond Burden After Aid Plan By John Fraher and Simon Kennedy -- March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, fresh from winning a European Union aid package last week, now has to prove he can keep his nation’s finances afloat. His government still has to raise as much as 15.5 billion euros ($21 billion) by the end of May, almost as much debt as it sold in the first quarter, says Petros Christodoulou, head of the country’s debt agency. Failure to do so could spark a new round of the fiscal crisis and trigger the use of the aid plan crafted by EU leaders in Brussels on March 25.
Gerald Celente on Politics & Religion Another economic collapse coming this year; no real economic recovery
Obama, scolding GOP, makes 15 appointments By Kara Rowland - WashingtonTimes.com Now that Congress has left for spring break, President Obama is making more than a dozen recess appointments to fill key administration posts at the Departments of the Treasury, Homeland Security and others, the White House announced Saturday. Citing "months of Republican obstruction," Mr. Obama made 15 appointments in all, including Craig Becker, a controversial nominee to head the National Labor Relations Board. The Senate last month voted against proceeding to confirm Mr. Becker, a former union lawyer.
White House defends special appointments By ASSOCIATED PRESS - WashingtonTimes.com WASHINGTON (AP) -- David Axelrod, President Obama's senior political adviser, has defended a decision to do an end run around Congress on 15 appointments to federal boards and agencies. Mr. Axelrod said in an interview to be aired Sunday morning on CNN's "State of the Union" that the administration faces a "huge number of vacancies" and Republicans won't act on the nominations of 77 people.
Social Security Makes History With Negative Cashflow By Bill Bonner -DailyReckoning.com 03/26/10 Baltimore, Maryland – The US government is going broke. An item in The New York Times tells us that for the first time in its history, this year the Social Security program is turning cashflow negative. Social Security “surpluses” were the source of the Clinton administration’s claim to have been running a balanced budget. Well, it was balanced…if you counted the excess Social Security contributions. But now the Social Security system is running in the red, just like everything else. And now the government is in charge of our health too.
TARP watchdog slams Obama foreclosure program By Tami Luhby NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President Obama's foreclosure prevention program will likely fall far short of its goal and may even do more harm than good, a government watchdog said Tuesday. The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said the Treasury Department set targets that weren't "meaningful," mismanaged the implementation of the program, and now risks a substantial number of "re-defaults," with many participants ultimately losing their homes anyway
Second mortgages complicate efforts to help homeowners By Renae Merle - WashingtonPost.com As government regulators and lenders work to stabilize the housing market, one of the factors that helped propel the housing boom of the past decade is now taking a central role in thwarting their efforts: second mortgages. Programs to help distressed borrowers so far have focused on lowering the payments on their primary mortgage. But during the go-go years of the housing market, millions of homeowners took out a second or even third loan backed by their home. Many were piggyback mortgages, which enabled home buyers to put little or no money down, while others took advantage of rising home prices to secure home-equity lines of credits.
Obamacare' cops: $1 billion to force new tax compliance 16,000 new IRS agents to be required under health-care reform By Jerome R. Corsi - WND.com -- Collecting taxes under the Democrats' newly passed health-care plan will cost the federal government more than $1 billion a year in salaries alone, Republicans in Congress estimate. The legislation will require the IRS to hire as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees to investigate and collect billions in new taxes imposed on Americans, according to a House Committee on Ways and Means Committee Republican report prepared March 18 for ranking members Reps. Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Charles Boustany, R-La.
Healthcare Reform Losers: BY KERRI SHANNON, Associate Editor, Money Morning Companies Providing Retiree Benefits Face Multi-Million Dollar Tax Costs After sending letters of protest to Congress in the months prior to the healthcare law's approval, U.S. companies are now facing multi-million dollar after-tax hits this year due to a tax provision in the new legislation, labeling them healthcare reform losers instead of winners. Part of the new healthcare law places a federal income tax on government subsidies given to companies that provide retirees and their spouses with drug benefit plans. The 28% subsidy was created as Medicare Part D, adding a prescription plan for senior citizens to the Medicare Act of 2003. To encourage companies to continue offering retirees a drug plan, the tax-free subsidy reduced companies' costs. Fewer senior citizens then went through Medicare's prescription program - which would have cost taxpayers much more than the subsidy price.
Health-care overhaul begins now By Ezra Klein - WashingtonPost.com As someone who has spent the past year tangled in the minutia of excise taxes and curve bending and subsidy levels, it is good to finally say this: With the passage of the reconciliation fixes, the health-care reform debate is finally over. But if you're thrilled to hear that, then I also have some bad news: Health-care reform itself is just beginning. This bill marks an evolution, not a revolution, for our health-care system. Whether it proves the cornerstone of a better, fairer, more affordable system or simply another expansion of the federal welfare state has as much to do with what happens when the law is implemented as with what's written in the legislation.
Obamacare bait & switch By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - Editorial Campaign health plan promises fail reality test The health care bill that President Obama signed last week bears little resemblance to the reform package he once touted from the campaign trail. With the final legislative product in hand, it's worth evaluating how it compares to the promises Mr. Obama made to voters regarding the plan's cost, its features and the reform process itself. The difference between then and now couldn't be more stark.
Obama dares GOP to repeal HealthCare CNN.com Obama returns to Iowa to sell health care Iowa City, Iowa (CNN) -- President Obama hit the road Thursday to sell the merits of the newly enacted health care law, telling an enthusiastic Iowa crowd that the measure will lead to greater economic security for most Americans. "This is your victory," Obama said at the University of Iowa. Health care reform "was about the future of our country. And today ... that future looks stronger and more hopeful and brighter than it has in some time." The crowd, in turn, repeatedly chanted Obama's campaign theme: "Yes, we can." Obama made his remarks as the Senate passed a package of changes to the health care law. Congressional Democrats have promised to approve the changes before the end of the week.
Health reform's immediate impact: Your benefits By Parija Kavilanz - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Under the new health care legislation, experts say the first changes Americans with employer-based insurance will see is in their benefits. Companies don't have to make any immediate tweaks to their plans, but they will have to incorporate a few of the federally mandated changes by open enrollment time late in 2010, said Tracy Watts, partner with employee benefits consulting firm Mercer.
Brewer wants AZ legislators to let her sue federal government over health care mandates Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks -- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is asking the Legislature to grant her the authority to sue the federal government over new health care reforms and mandates. Brewer, a Republican, opposes the health care reforms approved by the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama. She does not like federal mandates on states, employers and individuals and argues it's an over-reach of federal power.
Companies say health care costs hard to swallow By JOSH FUNK (AP) The health care overhaul will cost U.S. companies billions and make them more likely to drop prescription drug coverage for retirees because of a change in how the government subsidizes those benefits. In the first two days after the law was signed, three major companies — Deere & Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Valero Energy — said they expect to take a total hit of $265 million to account for smaller tax deductions in the future. With more than 3,500 companies now getting the tax break as an incentive to keep providing coverage, others are almost certain to announce similar cost increases in the weeks ahead as they sort out the impact of the change.
Ron Paul's Definition of Our God-Given Rights Article by Anna Webb. Life, liberty, and the right to keep the fruits of our labor – not health care nor education. Crowds cheered former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul's claim that "the revolution is alive and well in Idaho," in a speech Saturday at the Morrison Center that at times took on the feel of a revival meeting. Americans, he said, have misunderstood the definition of "rights," which are God-given and include "life, liberty and the right to keep the fruits of our labor." Those rights include neither education nor health care.
Continental to lay off 150 more workers Houston Business Journal Continental Airlines Inc. is laying off 150 ground workers, including bag handlers, at seven U.S. airports and hiring contractors in their place. The Houston-based carrier said late last week that the layoffs would take effect on June 1 in Providence, R.I.; Greensboro, N.C.; Richmond and Norfolk, Va.; Pensacola, Fla.; St. Louis and Kansas City.
Hawaii loses 4,200 construction jobs Pacific Business News (Honolulu) Hawaii’s construction employment plunged 12.4 percent, or by 4,200 jobs, year-over-year in February. The state’s seasonally adjusted construction employment totaled 29,600 jobs in February, down from 33,800 a year earlier, according to the latest statistics from the Associated General Contractors of America, based in Washington, D.C. Hawaii ranked No. 21 among the states in terms of percentage change in construction jobs, with No. 1 being the best. Construction job counts declined in 49 states and the District of Columbia between February 2009 and February 2010.
U.S. Michigan Consumer Index remains Flat by Anthony Cherniawsk - FinancialSense.com Confidence among U.S. consumers was higher than anticipated in March as companies slowed the pace of job cuts and stocks advanced. Gains in confidence and fewer job losses may help sustain consumer spending and fuel the economy in coming months. A pickup in Americans’ purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, hinges on employment growth that has yet to materialize. Bernanke Wants to End Bank Reserve Requirements Completely: Does it Matter? What Chaos will Result?
Doctor-starved: America's heartland in crisis By Parija Kavilanz NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- For one doctor practicing in America's heartland, the new health care law and its incentives to keep doctors on the farm is a start, not a solution, to the medical care crisis afflicting rural America. "It's good that there will be an increase in Medicare and Medicaid payments to primary care doctors who work in underserved areas," said Dr. Downs Little. "But there is still a lot of work to be done." For Little, 60, these new measures came too late. Little, a primary care internist, closed his Lottsburg Va.-based practice on Dec. 31. Lottsburg, located in Northumberland County, is in one of the nation's designated Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA).
Why a $14/hour employee costs $20 By Catherine Clifford - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- You probably cost your boss a lot more than you think you do. For Jim Garland, who owns a corporate aircraft cleaning and support services company, a $14 per hour worker has a true cost of $19.63 per hour, or about 40% more than base pay. This so-called "loaded rate" includes fixed expenses -- federal and state taxes, health insurance, workman's compensation, uniforms, and paid time off -- along with soft costs like the time spent training a new hire.
'Tea Party Express' stop in Phoenix draws crowd by Parker Leavitt - The Arizona Republic The "Tea Party Express" was greeted by about 1,200 to 1,500 supporters as it rolled into Phoenix on Sunday, the third stop on a three-week, cross-country tour that ends in Washington, D.C., on April 15. Activists from across Arizona and from as far as Seattle gathered at the Arizona State Capitol complex to sing, chant and voice their distaste of taxes, health-care reform and big government.
Tea Party priorities split Ohio GOP BY JON CRAIG AND LISA D. PRESTON COLUMBUS - When the Tea Party movement began last year, it was all about reining in government spending, questioning the massive federal stimulus package and defeating the Obama administration's health-care plan. This year, it is all about electing candidates who will do that for them. In Ohio, that has led to a split in Republican ranks, with party regulars and Tea Party activists lining up on opposite sides in GOP primaries for secretary of state and Ohio auditor.
Tea Party activists protest in Buffalo Posted by: Kate McGowan - WIBV.com Rus Thompson gives plan for upcoming election BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Tea Party activists have protested twice in the past week in Buffalo. On Saturday, organizer Rus Thompson laid out his plan for the upcoming election. "I co-founded an organization called Primary Challenge and our whole objective was to run people against the incumbents in the primary," Rus explained. Supporters are now demonstrating on a regular basis.
1 in 4 Americans censoring thoughts under Obama By Bob Unruh - WND.com Confidence in constitutional liberties plunges further still Nearly one American in four routinely censors his or her own thoughts "much" or "always" under President Obama's administration, and those who believe their personal liberties have plunged since inauguration day have grown significantly from 49 percent to more than 55 percent in just one month. This month, of course, was when Democrats rammed through a bill that essentially nationalizes health care, creating new requirements for consumers to purchase a government-chosen plan or face penalties.
Gun Charges After FBI Raids in 3 States FOXNews.com - AP The FBI conducted weekend raids in three states and arrested at least three people, and a militia leader in Michigan said the target of at least one raid was a Christian militia group. ADRIAN, Michigan -- The FBI said Sunday that agents conducted weekend raids in three states and arrested at least three people, and a militia leader in Michigan said the target of at least one raid was a Christian militia group. The raids took place in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, the FBI said. Federal warrants were sealed, but a federal law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said some of those arrested face gun charges and officials are pursuing other suspects. Some of the suspects were expected in court Monday.
Colorado Taxi Drivers to Spy for Cops Marybeth Brush - KKTV Making our community safer; that’s the goal of a new partnership starting today with a local business and Colorado Springs police. The drivers of Yellow Cabs will now be an extra set of roving eyes and ears to help police catch criminals. One of those drivers is Andy Michopoulos. A Yellow Cab has been his office for three years. But now he will be doing double duty in an effort to help keep our city safe. “As a driver who’s out at all times of night and all over the city, you see things going on and to have a direct way of reporting that to the police is definitely a plus,” says Michopoulos.
Massive 'maelstrom' to blast incumbents By Bob Unruh - WND.com 2010 'will make 1994 election look like light summer breeze' A new survey shows a political "maelstrom" brewing in the U.S. that threatens not only Democrats in power but Republicans who have the tag "incumbent" attached to their name. "They say movie sequels are never as strong as the original film, but politics can be different. There is every indication that, following the passage this week of the massive national health-care legislation, the political maelstrom brewing across the country is building to proportions that will make the 1994 Republican Revolution look like a light summer breeze," said Fritz Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies. "But this time, Democrats may not be the only endangered incumbents, as this data shows Republican congressmen are also in serious danger."
Palin to tea party rally: Don't sit down, shut up By MICHAEL R. BLOOD SEARCHLIGHT, Nev. (AP) - Sarah Palin told thousands of tea party activists assembled in the dusty Nevada desert Saturday that Sen. Harry Reid will have to explain his votes when he comes back to his hometown to campaign. The wind whipped U.S. flags behind the former Alaska governor as she stood on a makeshift stage, holding a microphone and her notes and speaking to a cheering crowd. She told them Reid, fighting for re-election, is "gambling away our future." "Someone needs to tell him, this is not a crapshoot," Palin said.
2010 Will Be a Tough Census By Conor Dougherty - WSJ.com The 2010 Census is likely to be one of the more challenging population counts in recent history, a fact that could raise the cost of the census and reduce the accuracy of the count. “The recession could make it a lot harder to find people,” says Sean Reardon, a professor at Stanford University, who studies income inequality. It all comes down to bad timing. The government always knows when the census will be, but the state of the economy is a crapshoot. This year’s census will take place in the aftermath of the worst recession in a generation. While economists say it’s likely the U.S. emerged from recession sometime around summer 2009, the jobless rate is expected to remain well above 9% for the remainder of the year.
Washington Murdered Privacy At Home And Abroad by Paul Craig Robert - TakiMag.com In the Swiss newspaper Zeit-Fragen, Professor Dr. Eberhard Hamer from Germany asks, “How Sovereign is Europe?” He examines the issue and concludes that Europe has little, if any, sovereignty. Professor Hamer writes that the sovereign rights of Europeans as citizens of nation states were dissolved with the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on Dec. 1, 2009. The rights of the people have been conveyed to a political commissariat in Brussels. The French, Germans, Belgians, Spanish, British, Irish, Italians, Greeks, and so forth, now have “European citizenship whatever this may be.”
China’s Geely to Buy Ford’s Volvo in Record Deal By Ola Kinnander and Keith Naughton - BusinessWeek.com March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Zhejiang Geely Holding Co. agreed to buy Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Co. for $1.8 billion in the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese automaker more than one-and-half-years after the two companies first entered discussions. The price includes a $200 million note and the remainder to be paid in cash, Ford Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said yesterday in Gothenburg, Sweden. Time spent on seeking regulatory approval in different jurisdictions means the companies now aim to complete the deal in the third quarter, Geely Chairman Li Shufu said.
U.S. and E.U. Agree to Expand Open Skies Accord By JAMES KANTER and NICOLA CLARK BRUSSELS — The European Union and the United States agreed Thursday to expand a three-year old accord that allows airlines to operate more freely across the Atlantic. The move will increase access to each other’s markets and narrow differences over environmental regulations, but industry executives were disappointed that no agreement was reached to remove the remaining barriers to foreign ownership and control of airlines. Siim Kallas, the European Union transport commissioner, hailed the agreement as a “major step forward” that would remove “constraints on foreign investment and market access that have been holding back the development of the most important aviation market.” Mr. Kallas said he would seek approval by the bloc’s 27 transport ministers and the European Parliament by the end of June.
Arabs to unite against Israel at annual summit AFP - breitbart.com Arab leaders open their annual summit on Saturday determined to send a clear message to Israel that any plan to "Judaise" Jerusalem would spell doom for the Middle East peace process. The summit is the first to be hosted by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, the longest-serving Arab head of state who considers Israel the "enemy" and has frequently lambasted Arab countries who seek peace with the Jewish state.
LIBYA: Arabs pledge $500 million to Palestinians in East Jerusalem LATimes.com -- Arab foreign ministers gathered in the Libyan city of Surt in preparation for Saturday's Arab League summit announced their plan to more than triple aid to Palestinians living in East Jerusalem from $150 million to $500 million in response to the construction of new Israeli settlements, Secretary General Amr Moussa told reporters Friday. The request for more aid was made by the Palestinian Authority, which would presumably be responsible for distributing the money.
Chinese Activist Surfaces After a Year in Custody By ANDREW JACOBS - NYTimes.com BEIJING — Gao Zhisheng, the Chinese rights activist who has been missing for more than a year, has resurfaced near his hometown in northern China. In a brief telephone interview on Sunday, Mr. Gao said that he was no longer in police custody, but that he could not give any details of his predicament. “I’m fine now, but I’m not in a position to be interviewed,” he said from Wutai Mountain, the site of a well-known Buddhist monastery. “I’ve been sentenced but released.”
Agencies Suspect Iran Is Planning Atomic Sites By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD - NYTimes.com -- WASHINGTON — Six months after the revelation of a secret nuclear enrichment site in Iran, international inspectors and Western intelligence agencies say they suspect that Tehran is preparing to build more sites in defiance of United Nations demands. The United Nations inspectors assigned to monitor Iran’s nuclear program are now searching for evidence of two such sites, prompted by recent comments by a top Iranian official that drew little attention in the West, and are looking into a mystery about the whereabouts of recently manufactured uranium enrichment equipment.
On the Edge with Max Keiser - 26 March 2010 - (1/3)
On the Edge with Max Keiser - 26 March 2010 - (2/3)
On the Edge with Max Keiser - 26 March 2010 - (3/3)
USA's Coming Crisis, Peter Schiff, David Walker, Jim Nussle, Ron Paul(NWO SERIES/Economic Collapse)
Like Christmas By Larry Wilke - CapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com "It’s just going to be like Christmas. It’s going to be great. You know, no worries about the bills..” This was the cathartic cry of one DeCarlo Flythe, yet another of the fifties of millions of new beneficiaries of today’s Bolshevik benevolence. What was once a “privilege” has now been “changed” into a “right” through collectivist chicanery and socialist sorcery. This became a “right” based solely upon the totalitarian tenets of “fairness” enabled by sclerotic socialism, not the Constitution of the United States but these type of annoying details do not matter when you have an “agenda” to impose..
U.S. Plans Big Expansion in Effort to Aid Homeowners By DAVID STREITFELD - NYTimes.com The Obama administration on Friday will announce broad new initiatives to help troubled homeowners, potentially refinancing several million of them into fresh government-backed mortgages with lower payments. Another element of the new program is meant to temporarily reduce the payments of borrowers who are unemployed and seeking a job. Additionally, the government will encourage lenders to write down the value of loans held by borrowers in modification programs.
Obama To Take Big New Step On The Foreclosure Crisis, As He Orders Lenders To Cut Jobless Homeowners A Break by Joe Weisenthal - BusinessInsider.com -- Things are starting to happen on the foreclosure front which will probably have long-tern negative consequences, but which in the short term may mitigate the the situation somewhat. Until now, the big news of the week has been Bank of America (BAC) announcing plans to get serious about principal reduction -- the one one form of mortgage mod that actually can work in some cases.
Obama Administration to Announce Expansion of HAMP Principal Reductions and Help for Unemployed Mandelman Matters Okay, so I feel a little bit like Charlie Brown looking at Lucy holding out a football, but that being said… On Friday, the White House is expected to announce an expansion of the president’s Making Home Affordable loan modification program to include reducing the mortgage loan balances for some homeowners, and providing additional temporary assistance to unemployed homeowners. Although unofficial, the rumors are that the expansion will allow unemployed borrowers to make significantly reduced payments—or potentially a break from making any payments at all—for at least three and in some cases, up to six months. The changes are also said to require banks to consider writing down principal loan balances as part of the formula for lowering monthly payments under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP.
Obama's New Radical Foreclosure Plan: Pay People To Sell Their Homes Short by Jonathan Miller - BusinessInsider.com The Obama administration has come up with a radically aggressive plan to reduce foreclosure activity which has remained alarmingly high. The key ingredient is to encourage lenders/services to allow more short sales – selling the home for less than the amount of the mortgage without going after the debtor for the shortfall. Mortgage modification plans have not been successful to date. The New York Times page 1 story today Program Will Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss does a masterful job in presenting the program and summarizing the problems of the issue to date, I just wish the title wasn’t so simplistic.
US Debt: A Bigger Threat than Terrorism? By Dave Gonigam - DailyReckoning.com 03/25/10 Baltimore, Maryland – Public opinion polls are a dime a dozen. But put a few of them together, and an interesting picture starts to emerge… Let’s start with the one that hits like a two-by-four: 79% of Americans polled by Fox News and Opinion Dynamics believe it’s possible the US economy could “collapse.” Republican, Democrat, independent – doesn’t matter, the majorities are overwhelming.
US Debt Reaches Tipping Point By: Dr. Jeffrey Lewis - GoldSeek.com Even the most statist economists can understand that a country’s debt has reached its saturation point once the change in Gross Domestic Product is less than the change in the federal debt. However, now the metrics of the American economy look even worse than the picture painted above. For each new dollar in federal debt, with productivity as measured by an increase or decrease in the GDP, 45 cents of wealth is destroyed.
Will Fed Finagling Send Gold Skyrocketing Again? By PETER COHAN - DailyFinance.com Investors don't expect the Fed to raise interest rates for a while. According to CNNMoney, the spread on a 10-year interest rate swap, reflecting how much an issuer of floating-rate bonds would pay to fix the interest rate on those bonds, turned negative this week for the first time. This is great news for gold bugs, who love nothing more than a chance to chatter about the Fed's out-of-control money printing. But this prolonged low-interest theory is at odds with the opinions of analysts at Moody's (MCO), which threatened to downgrade its U.S. debt ratings last week. The credit rating agency is worried that the rate the government pays to borrow money for five years will "nearly double between now and 2012," according to CNNMoney, and that higher interest expense could crowd out other, more productive, ways to spend government money.
Gold ticks higher as euro bounces By Lewa Pardomuan of Reuters SINGAPORE - Gold has regained strength after the euro rebounded from a 10-month low against the US dollar, while steady purchases from jewellers in Asia offered additional support. Bullion has dropped nearly $US14 this week, mainly due to a rally in the dollar and uncertainty over a bailout package for debt-ridden Greece, but an increase in ETF holdings showed gold still attracted investors as currencies remained volatile. The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust , said its holdings stood at 1,124.647 tonnes as of March 25, up 4.568 tonnes from the previous business day.
Was gold price really manipulated? By Jon Nadler - MarketOracle.com Following their (sovereign debt jitters-induced) worst drop in seven weeks, gold prices managed to stabilize in the overnight period. Bullion climbed back towards the $1095.00 value zone after the euro regained a bit of lost ground ahead of the start of an EU summit later today. The common currency remains not too far from ten-month lows against the US dollar however, as credit problems in various EU nations continue to roil the markets and unnerve investors. For the moment, however, the euro got a bit of a reprieve following assurances by ECB President Trichet that emergency collateral rules will be extended beyond the end of this year.
EU Worries Jump-Start Spot Gold By Andrea Tse - TheStreet.com NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- New York spot gold prices have gained ground late afternoon with European Union leaders convening at a Europe Union summit, and troubleshooting Greece's debt troubles at the top of their priority list. "Following their (sovereign debt jitters-induced) worst drop in seven weeks, gold prices managed to stabilize in the overnight period," Kitco analyst Jon Nadler writes. "Bullion climbed back towards the $1,095 value zone after the euro regained a bit of lost ground ahead of the start of an EU summit later today."
Gold/Silver ratio moves sharply in favor of Silver Is silver performing better than gold? If so, why is silver turning out to be a better investment proposition than gold? In its latest Metals Monthly, VM Group research for Fortis Bank Nederland says that the gold/silver ratio has moved sharply in silver’s favor. Here is what Fortis Bank Nederland says on silver investment: "Silver has performed strongly recently, especially in comparison with gold.
CFTC to probe silver market manipulation By Debbie Carlson - MarketOracle.com The CFTC said it continues to look into allegations of market manipulation in the silver market from August 2008 when prices fell, but an acting director of surveillance at the agency proposed possible reasons why it may have happened. In written testimony at the CFTC’s hearing about possible position limits on the metals futures markets, Steve Sherrod, acting director of surveillance at the CFTC’s division of market oversight noted when Comex silver prices fell sharply there was no magnitude change in the aggregate long or short positions in the commitment of traders’ positions in the agency’s weekly data. Nor was there a significant change in open interest during the period of July and August 2008. These are some of the reasons critics claim manipulation.
China may keep yuan cheap, increase gold reserves By Thomas Hart Wilkins, CFA At a Meeting of the New York Society of Security Analysts entitled, “Gold: A Necessary Asset Class Not Just for the Doomsday Scenario” New York City, March 25, 2010 I wish to start our discussion tonight by assuming that we are turning the clock to a new Day Light Losing Standard by saying today’s date is June 5, 1947 rather than 2010. I start June 5th by saying: “Tomorrow will be the 3rd anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy and I have just learned that Secretary of State, George Marshall, will speak in a few minutes at Harvard University. He will advocate a plan for economic recovery of Europe of Western Europe. This will prevent European governments from destabilizing.
The Competitive Currency Devaluation Era Gains Momentum Ed Rollins - GoldSeek.com You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising budget is big enough. Portugal has just had its credit rating cut and both Greece and Spain are now begging the EU to set up a bailout fund to help the beggar nations (PIIGS) who are unwilling to curb their spending habits. In our previous article, we made the following comments. Indirectly they have been begging for assistance from the very start. This aid package will trigger other beggar members of the PIIGS group to eventually join the handout club. Next in line is probably Spain. If the top members of the EU wanted to send a strong message to the weak members they should have stuck hard and fast to their previous claims that no aid would be forthcoming. Euro Woes, Part II: Have We Entered the Devalue or Die Era?
China Officials Wrestle Publicly Over Currency By KEITH BRADSHER - NYTimes.com BEIJING — Signs are emerging of conflicting views among China’s leaders over whether to allow the country’s currency to rise against the dollar. The conflict, which has broken into rare public view, seems to be mainly between China’s central bank and its Commerce Ministry. But how it is eventually resolved could decide the course of trade tensions between China and the United States. Many experts contend China deliberately undervalues its currency, the renminbi, making Chinese exports more competitive on global markets and creating jobs in China at the expense of employment elsewhere.
Greenberg Says China Ties at Risk From U.S. Debate Over Yuan by Sara Eisen and Andrew Frye -- March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the investor and executive who helped open the insurance market in China, said U.S. politicians are putting relations with that country at risk by openly demanding a stronger yuan. “Doing this publicly is just a very tragic mistake,” said Greenberg, who led American International Group Inc. as chief executive officer for nearly four decades until 2005. “The risk is that we’ll have a relationship with China that’ll go down the toilet,” he said yesterday in a telephone interview with Bloomberg Television.
Niall Ferguson Repeats The Line About China Not Revaluing Its Currency Because Its Leaders Have Big Egos by Joe Weisenthal - BusinessInsider.com -- Here's a video of Niall Ferguson on Bloomberg today talking China, the yuan, and all the same trade stuff that everyone's been chewing on for awhile now. At one point he's asked why China doesn't revalue it, and he gives the stock answer about China not wanting to be bullied, but how they should. This whole thing about China, and its ego, and its desire not to be bullied or humiliated is an old story and it gets repeated about a whole host of topics.
Niall Ferguson
Admiral: China's buildup aimed at power past Asia By Bill Gertz - WashingtonTimes.com U.S. role in region challenged The commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific said Thursday that the buildup of Chinese armed forces is continuing "unabated" and Beijing's goal appears to be power projection beyond Asia. "China's rapid and comprehensive transformation of its armed forces is affecting regional military balances and holds implications beyond the Asia-Pacific region," said Adm. Robert F. Willard, the Pacific Command leader. "Of particular concern is that elements of China's military modernization appear designed to challenge our freedom of action in the region."
Swap Spreads Plunge as Portugal Downgrade Boosts Risk By Liz Capo McCormick March 24 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. interest rate swap spreads plunged to the lowest levels in over two decades after Fitch Ratings’ downgrade of Portugal raised the risk of owning sovereign debt and corporate bond issuance surged. The difference between the rate to exchange floating- for fixed-interest payments and comparable maturity Treasury yields for 5 years, known as the swap spread, touched 11.25 basis points, the narrowest since at least 1988, or as far back as Bloomberg compiles data. Ten-year swap spreads turned negative yesterday for the first time. Seven- 30-year swap spreads were also negative, while two-year swap spreads touched the narrowest since 1993 at 9.635 basis points.
Constitutional Awakening By Walter E. Williams - CNSNews.com If there is anything good to say about Democrat control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, it's that their extraordinarily brazen, heavy-handed acts have aroused a level of constitutional interest among the American people that has been dormant for far too long. Part of this heightened interest is seen in the strength of the tea party movement around the nation. Another is the angry reception that many congressmen received at their district town hall meetings. Yet another is seen by the exchanges on the nation's most popular radio talk shows such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and others. Then there's the rising popularity of conservative/libertarian television shows such as Glenn Beck, John Stossel and Fox News.
Sean Hannity: 'If You Look Up the Dictionary Definition of Socialism, This Is It' By Terence P. Jeffrey - CNSNews.com -- In a preview of his book "Conservative Victory-Defeating Obama's Radical Agenda," due to be released Monday, Sean Hannity said of the policies President Barack Obama has been pursuing: "If you look up the dictionary definition of socialism, this is it." Hannity made the observation in a video interview with CNSNews.com.
CNSNews.com: Sean, what is the consistent theme you see in these earlier associations of Barack Obama--the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers--and what he's doing as president? What is the theme that you see there?
Sean Hannity: That's a great question. Well, because, look, Obama is a socialist. If you take over banks, if you take over car companies, if you take over financial institutions, the way that he has--now the health care system. If you're going to use every crooked deal that you can come up with to get a bill like that passed--most recently the health care bill--that is by definition, if you look up the dictionary definition of socialism, this is it.
Fed's Hoenig Backs More Diverse Financial System By Luca Di Leo - WSJ.com The U.S. economy would be better off with a system in which there are fewer big financial firms that were at the root of the recent crisis, a top Federal Reserve official signaled on Wednesday. In a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig endorsed a proposal that could force large banks to get rid of divisions that make risky bets with their capital. "I suggest that our economy would be better served by a more diverse financial system," Hoenig said. The growth of big financial companies to a level were they pose a threat to the overall economy has distorted the financial system, the Fed veteran added.
Bernanke Hints at Timing of Exit Strategy By SEWELL CHAN - NYTimes.com WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, hinted on Thursday that the central bank might be open to selling part of its huge portfolio of mortgage-backed securities when the time came to start tightening credit. In testimony Thursday before the House Financial Services Committee, Mr. Bernanke did not depart from the Fed’s stance that it intended to keep short-term interest rates near zero for “an extended period,” given that unemployment remained high and inflation was expected to remain low.
Budget 2010: Little to safeguard UK's AAA rating By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk Bond vigilantes and rating agencies gave a frosty reception to the Budget, warning that Alistair Darling has done little to restore faith in UK finances or safeguard its AAA rating. "Public debt does not fall materially until after 2014-15. This projected path leaves the public finances vulnerable to shocks," said Brian Coulton from Fitch Ratings, responding to the Budget. While eurozone states are cutting their deficits to 3pc of GDP within three years, Britain is cutting to 5.2pc over four years. "We don't see why the UK thinks it has more time than other countries," he said.
Jim Rogers quizzed on euro, Greece bailout, EU future
Chinese Banker Faults Greece Efforts By ALEX FRANGOS And KATIE MARTIN - WSJ.com A senior Chinese central bank official criticized the handling of the Greek debt crisis, highlighting global concern about the situation in Europe. Speaking at a conference in Hong Kong, Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, also said China "should and could" import more goods to keep its trade surplus small. And he noted that the central bank's efforts to tighten monetary policy were having their intended effect, even without China having to raise interest rates.
Eurozone agrees to Greek rescue deal By Quentin Peel, Ben Hall and Joshua Chaffin in Brussels Eurozone leaders on Thursday night agreed a rescue package for Greece including assistance from the International Monetary Fund as well as bilateral loans from fellow euro-member states. “We hope that it will reassure all the holders of Greek bonds that the eurozone will never let Greece fail,” said Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council. “If there were any danger, the other members of the eurozone would intervene.” The agreement followed a breakthrough earlier in the day between France and Germany on the principles of a rescue.
Trichet comments damp risk appetite By Telis Demos in New York - FT Euro tumbles to fresh 10-month low First, a senior Chinese central banker warned that the Greek crisis was just the beginning. “We don’t see decisive actions telling the market we can solve this,” Zhu Min, a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, was reported as saying. His comments caused the euro to dip to a 10-month low versus the dollar, and encapsulated a nagging worry among investors that high levels of government indebtedness is one of the main risks facing the global economy.
Britons Cling to Services, Despite Debt By LANDON THOMAS Jr. - NYTimes.com LONDON — Britain operates one of the largest welfare states in Europe. And that, it seems, is just fine with many of the British. Despite the worst recession since World War II, many people here show little appetite for shrinking a system that eats up half the nation’s economic output, more than in Portugal, Greece or Spain — all of which are trying to push through painful cuts. Indeed, as Britain’s Labour government confronts a yawning budget deficit, public sector workers are mobilizing to head off any reductions in wages or jobs.
Regulators push InterBank to find buyer Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Chris Newmarker InterBank, a Maple Grove-based savings and loan mired in bad mortgages, has until June 30 to find a buyer or face further sanctions, according to a recent order from regulators. The prompt corrective action directive, issued March 18 by InterBank's regulator the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), orders the thrift to arrange a merger, or find a party willing to buy its assets and liabilities. InterBank, which has $701.2 million in assets, lost $16.3 million in 2009. It lost $23.4 million the previous year. Its risk-based capital ratio is 6.6 percent; a financial institution typically needs a ratio above 10 percent for regulators to consider it well-capitalized.
Citigroup signs up for mortgage modification program NEW YORK - Citigroup Inc. today became the latest lender to commit to the government's program to modify second mortgages as a recovery in the housing market appears to be in jeopardy. With Citi on board, now four big owners of home mortgages in the U.S. have joined the program - part of the Obama administration's $75 billion loan modification plan aimed at reducing monthly payments to help customers stay in their homes. Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. already participate. A collapse in the housing market late in 2007 helped push the economy into recession as home prices fell and defaults skyrocketed. A recovery in the sector has been slow and uneven as customers continue to struggle to pay their loans. Home sales are sliding, prices are stalling and foreclosures are rising. Making matters worse, mortgage rates will likely climb after next week when the Federal Reserve ends a program that has driven them down.
Bank Launches Big Plan to Cut Mortgage Debt By JAMES R. HAGERTY And NICK TIMIRAOS - WSJ.com Under pressure by Massachusetts prosecutors, Bank of America Corp. said Wednesday it would reduce mortgage-loan balances as much as 30% for thousands of troubled borrowers, in what could presage a wider government effort to encourage banks to offer debt reduction to ease the mortgage crisis. The plan is one of the boldest moves yet to address the plight of millions of U.S. homeowners who are "under water," owing more on their homes than they're worth. It could make it easier for the Obama administration to move in a similar direction with its existing loan-modification program, although senior government officials and many bankers remain very wary of offering to cut loan balances as the main way of helping distressed borrowers.
Bernanke: Fed Likely to Sell Some of Its Mortgages Eventually By Jon Hilsenrath Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke carves out new ground in his testimony to Congress today, saying the Fed is likely to start at some point gradually to sell some of its large holdings of mortgage backed securities. His goal, he says, is to get his $2 trillion balance sheet down to below $1 trillion. One way to do that is to sell mortgage-backed securities. This matters a lot for millions of Americans because if the Fed sells pieces of its trillion-dollar mortgage portfolio, it could put upward pressure on mortgage rates.
Washington to run student loans By Jennifer Libert WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- Congress passed a bill Thursday to make Washington the one-stop shop for cheap student loans and to boost need-based scholarships. Starting July 1 nearly all federally backed student loans, like Stafford loans, will come directly from the federal government. The measure prevents private student lenders, including Sallie Mae (SLM, Fortune 500) and Nelnet (NNI), from making loans, although both have federal contracts to service government loans to students.
Futile Attempts To Reflate The Housing Bubble & The Deadly Cost By: Daniel R. Amerman, CFA When a financial bubble bursts – can it be reflated? And what are the risks for all of us the reflation attempt fails? In this article we will briefly review the six factors that came together to create the real estate bubble in the United States. As we will cover, the government has deemed a return to a normal housing market – one which is governed by market forces – to be politically unacceptable. Instead, an artificial mortgage market has been created with massive interventions in three different categories as the government attempts to reflate the housing bubble. Quite a risky undertaking, but the politicians have decided they are willing to risk everything the taxpayers and savers have, in an attempt to remain in office. These interventions include the Federal Reserve effectively creating money out of thin air to fund almost the entire mortgage market at below market rates. We will explore why the three interventions will not succeed in replacing the six sources of the bubble, and the severe risks for all of us when attempting the economically impossible becomes politically mandatory. We will close with a discussion of the likely implications for the housing market and the value of the dollar, as well as a brief discussion of alternative solutions for protecting your net worth.
Homeowners Facing Foreclosure Take Own Lives Walt Hunter - PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) The foreclosure crisis in Philadelphia is now becoming a matter of life and death. Eyewitness News has learned that in the past month, two homeowners took their own lives before sheriff's deputies arrived to tell them that they were being evicted. On March 5, deputies arriving to post an eviction notice on Lynda Clark's South Philadelphia home found she had hanged herself. "It's devastating for everyone. We're not even family members and it's just devastating to us," Captain Albert Innaurato of the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office said. Less than three weeks later, owner Gregory Bellows shot and killed himself shortly before deputies arrived to evict him from his Roxborough home.
Apartment rents cheaper than stays in homeless shelters By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY Cities, states and the federal government pay more to provide the homeless with short-term shelter and services than what it would cost to rent permanent housing, the U.S. government reports. A study of 9,000 families and individuals being released today by the Department of Housing and Urban Development finds that costs to house the newly homeless vary widely, depending on the type of shelter and social services provided by the six cities in the report.
Negative equity homes in Atlanta years from turnaround Atlanta Business Chronicle Metro Atlanta homeowners who are underwater in their mortgages are not expected to reach positive equity until 2016, according to First American CoreLogic research published Thursday. A borrower is in negative equity if he or she owes more on the mortgage than the home is worth. First American CoreLogic said more than 11.3 million -- or 24 percent of -- residential properties with mortgages in the United States had negative equity at the end of the fourth quarter of 2009. For the typical underwater borrower in the United States, it will take until late 2015 or early 2016 for negative equity to disappear.
Social Security to pay more in benefits this year than it takes in USAToday.com - OnDeadline.com The Social Security system this year will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, The New York Times reports, quoting the Congressional Budget Office. The switch comes six years earlier than expected, The Times says. The newspaper quotes Stephen Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, as saying payments have risen more than expected during the recession because jobs disappeared and people applied for benefits sooner than they had planned. At the same time, he says, there are fewer paychecks to tax.
Will America break up? By Jeffrey T. Kuhner - WashingtonTimes.com Abortion threatens to split the nation like slavery President Obama is splintering America. The passage of Obamacare was a historic victory for liberal governance. Yet, its true cost may be that it triggers the eventual breakup of the country. Mr. Obama has achieved what his liberal predecessors - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Bill Clinton - could only dream of: nationalized health care. Obamacare signifies the government take-over of one-sixth of the U.S. economy. It has dealt a mortal blow to traditional America. We are now a European-style socialist welfare state. The inevitable permanent tax hikes, massive public bureaucracy and liberal ruling elites will stifle competition and initiative.
More Doctors Giving Up Private Practices By GARDINER HARRIS - NYTimes.com WASHINGTON — A quiet revolution is transforming how medical care is delivered in this country, and it has very little to do with the sweeping health care legislation that President Obama just signed into law. But it could have a big impact on that law’s chances for success. Traditionally, American medicine has been largely a cottage industry. Most doctors cared for patients in small, privately owned clinics — sometimes in rooms adjoining their homes.
Study: Retired couple will need $250,000 for health care BOSTON (AP) — Relief to seniors facing high prescription drug costs is one of the first changes to come under the health care overhaul. But that won't offset the relentless increase in retirees' medical expenses. A couple retiring this year will need a quarter of a million dollars, on average, to cover medical expenses in retirement, according to a study to be released Thursday by Fidelity Investments. The estimate is up 4.2% from Fidelity's projection last year. The financial services company has updated its estimate annually since 2002 as part of its business helping employers design workplace benefits programs.
Final health care bill approved; on to Obama By Jennifer Haberkorn - WashingtonTimes.com Passes in House 220-207 Congress passed the final repairs to President Obama's landmark health care overhaul plan Thursday, successfully pulling off a plan to circumvent a Republican filibuster put together shortly after Senate Democrats lost their supermajority in January. The bill passed the Senate 56-43 with five more votes than needed, but it had to go back to the House for another vote after Republicans were able to delete two provisions.
Final Piece of Health Bill Hits Snag By GREG HITT - WSJ.com WASHINGTON-The last piece of President Barack Obama's remake of the nation's health-care system hit a parliamentary snag early Thursday in the Senate, and will be headed back to the House for one final vote before becoming law, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said. The legislation makes a handful of changes to the sweeping health bill, including bolstering government subsidies to help individuals purchase health insurance and closing a politically unpopular gap in prescription-drug coverage under Medicare, the health insurance for seniors. The measure has been debated in the Senate since Tuesday, and Democratic leaders had hoped to conclude Senate action Thursday.
Cantor Says Campaign Office Was Shot At, Accuses Dems of Exploiting Threats FOXNews.com Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor said Thursday that his Richmond campaign office has been shot at and that he's received "threatening e-mails" -- but at the same time the House minority whip accused top Democrats of trying to exploit the threats they've been receiving for "political gain." Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor said Thursday that his Richmond campaign office has been shot at and that he's received "threatening e-mails" -- but at the same time the House minority whip accused top Democrats of trying to exploit the threats they've been receiving for "political gain."
Markey Received Threats Over Health Care Vote Alan Gathright, 7NEWS TheDenverChannel.com Caller: 'Better hope I don’t run into you in a dark alley with a knife, a club or a gun' FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Colorado Rep. Betsy Markey is among more than 10 Democrats in Congress who have received threats over voting for passage of the hotly contested health care reform bill. A man called Markey's congressional office the day before the Sunday vote and told an assistant that "[you] better hope I don’t run into you in a dark alley with a knife, a club or a gun," MSNBC reported Wednesday. The FBI is investigating threats against the lawmakers after acts of vandalism that included shattered windows at four Democratic offices in New York, Arizona and Kansas and a severed gas line at the Virginia home of a Democratic lawmaker’s brother, MSNBC reported.
"DROP DEAD": White Powder Package Sent to Rep. Weiner's Office Preliminary field tests show white powder is harmless By JONATHAN DIENST - NBCNewYork.com Authorities are investigating a package with white powder and an angry letter that referenced the health care legislation that was sent to Congressman Weiner's Kew Gardens office today. The letter said the Congressman should "drop dead" and complained about the historic health care legislation passed by Congress this week. Preliminary field tests showed the white powder was harmless. Such testing is routine to determine whether the substance is in any way hazardous. It is being sent to a lab for further detailed testing as a precaution -- also common practice. Most often, officials say, these letters are hoaxes.
Threats against lawmakers spread after health vote By LAURIE KELLMAN and JIM ABRAMS WASHINGTON (AP) - A fax bearing the image of a noose. Profane voice mails. Bricks thrown, a gas line cut. White powder sent to an office. Democrats and a few Republicans revealed mounting numbers and unsettling details of threats against them Thursday in the emotional aftermath of the passage of the health care overhaul. Lawmakers uniformly condemned the harassment, but that's where the agreement ended. Democrats said Republicans were slow to condemn the vigilantism, while Republicans said Democrats were playing politics with the threats.
Senate Approves Health Care Reconciliation Bill By ARTHUR D. POSTAL - Property-Casualty.com NU Online News Service WASHINGTON-The Senate has approved a final reconciliation bill that completes that chamber's action on pending health care reform measures. It was approved 56-43 on a party line vote today. Democrats had predicted that they would get 52 votes on the measure. The bill is H.R. 5872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010. House final approval was expected to follow shortly. All but one Republican Senator voted "no," Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., did not vote. Democratic Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both of Arkansas, voted against it, as did Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. In a statement after the vote, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which drafted what he called a "substantial portion" of the bill that President Obama signed Tuesday, hailed the Senate action.
Judge Andrew Napolitano Speaks Out Against 'Obamacare' Law on The Alex Jones Show 1/5
Judge Andrew Napolitano Speaks Out Against 'Obamacare' Law on The Alex Jones Show 2/5
Judge Andrew Napolitano Speaks Out Against 'Obamacare' Law on The Alex Jones Show 3/5
Judge Andrew Napolitano Speaks Out Against 'Obamacare' Law on The Alex Jones Show 4/5
Judge Andrew Napolitano Speaks Out Against 'Obamacare' Law on The Alex Jones Show 5/5
Cuban leader applauds US health-care reform bill By PAUL HAVEN AP via WashingtonPost.com HAVANA -- It perhaps was not the endorsement President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress were looking for. Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Thursday declared passage of American health care reform "a miracle" and a major victory for Obama's presidency, but couldn't help chide the United States for taking so long to enact what communist Cuba achieved decades ago. "We consider health reform to have been an important battle and a success of his (Obama's) government," Castro wrote in an essay published in state media, adding that it would strengthen the president's hand against lobbyists and "mercenaries."
MoneyMorning.com wants to hear what you think about health care legislation.
We Want to Hear From You: What Do You Think About the New Healthcare Law? MoneyMorning.com After months of controversy, political bickering and maneuvering, and intense media speculation and scrutiny, this week became a historically significant moment in the annals of U.S. healthcare when U.S. President Barack Obama signed the new healthcare bill into law. Thus begins a new chapter in the healthcare saga, when the country will feel the effects of this sweeping, costly and controversial policy overhaul. . . . . e-mail your healthcare-related questions and comments to: Mailbag@MoneyMapPress.com
Deere: Health-Care Law to Raise Expenses Associated Press - WSJ.com Deere & Co. said Thursday that the new health-care law will raise its fiscal 2010 expenses by approximately $150 million. The farm-equipment maker said most of the after-tax expenses will likely be incurred in the second quarter and that its 2010 earnings forecast of about $1.3 billion didn't account for the expense increase because it was given prior to the law's signing. Deere, based in Moline, Ill., is the second company this week to indicate that the new law will increase its costs. On Wednesday, heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. said the new law would create a $100 million drag on its first-quarter earnings.
Conservative David Frum loses think-tank job after criticizing GOP By Howard Kurtz - Washington Post Three days after calling health-care reform a debacle for Republicans, David Frum was forced out of his job at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday. The ouster also came one day after a harsh Wall Street Journal editorial ripped the former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, saying he "now makes his living as the media's go-to basher of fellow Republicans" and accusing him of "peddling bad revisionist history."
Nano car bursts into flames, raising safety fears By Erika Kinetz, AP via USAToday.com MUMBAI, India — Satish Sawant was proudly driving his first car home from the showroom: A brand-new silver Tata Nano, draped with a celebratory garland of marigolds. Then there was smoke. And then there was fire. Minutes after the software engineer's wife and five-year-old son clambered out of the back seat, smoke from the engine, located in the Nano's rear, erupted into flames that engulfed the tiny car. His ordeal showed just the latest problem with the low-cost Nano — raising fresh questions about safety and quality as top Indian carmaker Tata Motors sets its sights on global expansion and aims to ramp up production of the Nano with a new factory next month.
Houston Police To Begin Training Officers To Staff Checkpoints Sarge, an Anonymous Police Officer - Infowars.com The Houston Police Department is poised to do what no other civilian police department in the United States has yet to publicly do. On the desk of the Chief of Police is the authorization to begin training officers to staff checkpoints at key infrastructure points throughout the city. Although the talk about creating such a group has been discussed among supervisors of the Special Response Group for years, only in the last few months have those talks become reality. This idea received support of the former Chief of Police Harold Hurtt, but wasn’t signed before he retired on December 30, 2009 due to it being under review by departmental lawyers. Now under the just-named Chief of Police Charles McClelland, it stands ready to be signed and implemented almost immediately.
Dogs suffer cancer after ID chipping By Chelsea Schilling - WorldNetDaily.com 'I saw it growing every day, and I could see it taking his life' Do implanted microchips cause cancer in dogs and cats? That's the question owners are asking after highly aggressive tumors developed around the microchip implants of two dogs, killing one and leaving the other terminally ill. The owners – and pathology and autopsy reports – suggest a link between the chips and formation of fast-growing cancers.
U.S. Fails to Persuade Israel on Housing Plan By HELENE COOPER and ISABEL KERSHNER - NYTimes.com WASHINGTON — With Israeli officials saying that construction on a contentious Jewish housing project in East Jerusalem could begin at any time, President Obama seemed to have failed on Wednesday to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give a written commitment to rein in any further building and to move ahead on peace talks with the Palestinians. Mr. Netanyahu left the United States early on Thursday. But before departing for Jerusalem, he said that he thought some progress had been made in healing the rift with Washington, The Associated Press reported. “I think we have found the golden path between Israel’s traditional policies and our desire to move forward toward peace,” he said, according to The A.P.
Bin Laden Threatens US over Alleged 9/11 Plotter By Staff, Associated Press - CNSNews.com Cairo (AP) - Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden threatened in a new audio recording released Thursday to kill any captured Americans if the U.S. executes the self-professed mastermind of the Sept.11 attacks or any other al-Qaida suspects. The U.S. is still considering whether to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his fellow plotters on military tribunal for their role in the Sept. 11 attacks. The Obama administration is also looking into recommendations for civilian trials, and is expected to announce a decision soon. In a brief 74-second audio tape aired on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden said if the U.S. decides to execute any al-Qaida suspects in its custody - and explicitly mentioned Mohammed - his terror network would kill American captives.
Kitty Werthmann Interview
Kitty Werthmann Part 2
Kitty Werthmann Part 3
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don't Let Freedom Slip Away Fort Worth Christianity & Culture ExaminerRene Girard By: Kitty Werthmann What I am about to tell you is something you've probably never heard or will ever read in history books. I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide - 98% of the vote.. I've never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force. . .
Freedoms can disappear in a hurry if we aren't careful Kitty Werthmann For the Argus Leader published: 3/11/2003 Kitty Werthmann, 77, of Pierre, is president of the South Dakota Eagle Forum. She lobbies the state Legislature on family issues. She has lived in the United States since 1950 and has been a U.S. citizen since 1962. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. I lived in Austria under Adolf Hitler's regime for seven years. Dictatorship did not happen overnight. It was a gradual process starting with national identification cards, which we had to carry with us at all times. We could not board a bus or train without our ID card. Gun registration followed, with a lot of talk about gun safety and hunting accidents. Since the government already knew who owned firearms, confiscation followed under threat of capital punishment.
Tom Woods vs Neil Siegel on States' Rights - NPR Debate 3/23/10
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t Let Freedom Slip Away Fort Worth Christianity & Culture ExaminerRene Girard By: Kitty Werthmann What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or will ever read in history books. I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide - 98% of the vote.. I’ve never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force. . .
Freedoms can disappear in a hurry if we aren't careful Kitty Werthmann For the Argus Leader published: 3/11/2003 Kitty Werthmann, 77, of Pierre, is president of the South Dakota Eagle Forum. She lobbies the state Legislature on family issues. She has lived in the United States since 1950 and has been a U.S. citizen since 1962. hose of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. I lived in Austria under Adolf Hitler's regime for seven years. Dictatorship did not happen overnight. It was a gradual process starting with national identification cards, which we had to carry with us at all times. We could not board a bus or train without our ID card. Gun registration followed, with a lot of talk about gun safety and hunting accidents. Since the government already knew who owned firearms, confiscation followed under threat of capital punishment.
Now, Can We Have Health-Care Reform? By HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR. - WSJ.com ObamaCare doubles down on a failing system. A certain kind of person—we get emails from them all the time—understands exactly nothing about the health-care debate, but thinks they know who the villain is: the insurance industry. Barack Obama is not one of them. In the desperate hours he played to public ignorance. But from the beginning, the industry was his ally because he set out to solve its biggest problem—which is not the same as America's biggest problem. We'll let Angela Braly, CEO of insurer WellPoint, take the story from here. She was recently hauled before Congress to justify her company's proposed 39% rate hike in California. She explained the source was two-fold: rising medical costs and healthier customers dropping their coverage, forcing the sick to pick up the tab.
Obamacare: Ending the Elderly American Life League exposes the euthanasia agenda of the sponsors of HR 3200. Henry Waxman and co-sponsors John Dingell, George Miller, Peter Stark, and Frank Pallone all voted against a federal ban on use of drugs for physician assisted suicide. Not only that, Barack Obama equates physician-assisted suicide with "end of life issues" and the elderly.
ObamaCare Day One Companies are already warning about higher health-care costs. Democrats dragged themselves over the health-care finish line in part by repeating that voters would like the plan once it passed. Let's see what they think when they learn their insurance costs will jump right away. Even before President Obama signed the bill on Tuesday, Caterpillar said it would cost the company at least $100 million more in the first year alone. Medical device maker Medtronic warned that new taxes on its products could force it to lay off a thousand workers. Now Verizon joins the roll of businesses staring at adverse consequences.
The Federal Reserve as a Confidence Game: What They Were Saying in 2007 Mises Daily: by Mark Thornton . . . . I will describe central banking as a confidence game. The Federal Reserve plays a confidence game with us. A confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flimflam, hustle, scam, scheme, or swindle) is defined as an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills. Confidence men exploit human characteristics such as greed, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, and naïveté. The common factor is that the mark relies on the good faith of the con artist. Here I will concentrate on the Fed's basic confidence game of trying to gain and maintain our confidence in its system and getting us to not take proper precautions against the negative effects of its policies.
Health Care Bill -- bad medicine & unconstitutional
Truth Has Fallen and Taken Liberty With It By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial interest. Today Americans are ruled by propaganda. Americans have little regard for truth, little access to it, and little ability to recognize it. Truth is an unwelcome entity. It is disturbing. It is off limits. Those who speak it run the risk of being branded “anti-American,” “anti-semite” or “conspiracy theorist.”
No Obamacare for Obama By THE WASHINGTON TIMES Democrats exempt themselves from socialist medicine President Obama declared that the new health care law "is going to be affecting every American family." Except his own, of course. The new health care law exempts the president from having to participate in it. Leadership and committee staffers in the House and Senate who wrote the bill are exempted as well. A weasel-worded definition of "staff" includes only the members' personal staff in the new system; the committee staff that drafted the legislation opted themselves out. Because they were more familiar with the contents of the law than anyone in the country, it says a lot that they carved out their own special loophole. Anyway, the law is intended to affect "ordinary Americans," according to Vice President Joe Biden (who - being a heartbeat away from the presidency - also is not covered), not Washington insiders.
Gross Says Health-Care Reform to Raise Liabilities By Susanne Walker March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest mutual fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said health-care reform will add to, rather than subtract from, U.S. deficits and unfunded liabilities. “Long-term bondholders beware,” Gross wrote in a monthly investment outlook posted on Newport Beach, California-based Pimco’s Web site today. “No investment vigilante worth their salt or outrageous annual bonus would dare argue that current legislation is a deficit reducer. It will add $562 billion to the deficit over the next decade.”
Ronald Reagan speaks out on Socialized Medicine
Healthcare Intervention: The Bigger Picture Mises Daily: by Doug French The prospect and reality of Obamacare have woken up many people to the need to stop the socialization of medical care in America. It will produce here what it has produced everywhere: stagnation, overutilization, rationing, and the sacrifice of individual well-being in the name of collective justice. This is the result not only of every experiment in socialized medicine but of every experiment in socialism generally. The reasons were spelled out by Mises in 1922. He explained that, without property and market prices, economic rationality disappears. The result is unworkable, chaotic, and impoverishing.
Your Medical Records Aren't Secure By DEBORAH C. PEEL - WSJ.com The president says electronic systems will reduce costs and improve quality, but they could undermine good care if people are afraid to confide in their doctors. I learned about the lack of health privacy when I hung out my shingle as a psychiatrist. Patients asked if I could keep their records private if they paid for care themselves. They had lost jobs or reputations because what they said in the doctor's office didn't always stay in the doctor's office. That was 35 years ago, in the age of paper. In today's digital world the problem has only grown worse. A patient's sensitive information should not be shared without his consent. But this is not the case now, as the country moves toward a system of electronic medical records.
U.N. health organization praises U.S. health reforms Matthew Bigg (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. World Health Organization on Wednesday praised U.S. healthcare reforms signed by President Barack Obama this week as a breakthrough, stepping into a sharp domestic political debate. "The people in this country and their leaders are courageous. That (healthcare reform) is an unprecedented achievement," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said. She was speaking to reporters after a lecture in which she argued that unrestricted market forces were limited as a means of redressing imbalances in global health care. The reforms of the $2.5 trillion healthcare sector passed by Congress after months of heated debate will extend health insurance to 32 million Americans who currently have none.
Health bill sparks death threats to lawmakers By Edward Luce - FT More than 10 Democratic lawmakers have received threats, some of them to their lives, since they voted to enact the healthcare bill on Sunday, Steny Hoyer, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, said on Wednesday. Pointing to the high level of Republican rhetoric against the healthcare reform, which has included references to fighting “a war for the survival of America” over a bill that Barack Obama, president, signed into law on Tuesday, Mr Hoyer implied such talk had fuelled the increase in threats.
Obama's constitutional malpractice Health care plan would make the Founders sick By THE WASHINGTON TIMES Americans have grown used to Congress claiming the right to regulate and control everything they do. But by what right can Congress force Americans to purchase health insurance? This question is at the root of lawsuits filed by 14 states challenging Obamacare's requirement that those without health insurance must obtain it or face fines of $2,085 per household or 2.5 percent of income - whichever is greater.
Dingell: It will take some time for ObamaCare to "control the people"
Obamacare and the Death of Detroit, the First U.S. City To Face Extinction By: Gary North - MarketOracle.co.uk To understand what is going to happen to America's health care delivery system, we must first understand what has happened to Detroit. Detroit is dying. Yes, I know that there are lots of books on "The Death of. . . ." That word sells books. But Detroit really is dying. It is the first metropolis in the United States to be facing extinction. We have never seen anything like this in American history. It is happening under our noses, but the media refuse to discuss it. To do so would be politically incorrect. Two factors tell us that Detroit is dying. The first is the departure of 900,000 people – over half the city's population – since 1950. It peaked at 1.8 million in 1950. It is down to about 900,000 today.
Healthy tax increases, not only on wealthy By David M. Dickson Half-trillion dollars over 10 years to pay for bill When it comes to the taxes associated with the new health care bill, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s assessment stands: It's a big — very big — deal. The historic overhaul of the nation's health care system that President Obama signed Tuesday, when combined with the fixes making their way through Congress, will raise taxes over the next 10 years by more than a half-trillion dollars.
U.S. Healthcare Reform Bill, Help! I’ve Been Taxed and I Can’t Get Up By: Jeff Clark - MarketOracle.co.uk Like many of you, the passage of the healthcare bill wasn’t met with the popping of champagne in my house. I found myself chanting “Uncle Sam, Uncle Sham” as the day wore on. Higher taxes and other major changes are headed our way. And yet, I think there’s something in the bill that’s even more dastardly. If you’re a supporter of the bill, you’d point to its benefits: Poor adults will get Medicaid. Low-income families will get federal subsidies to buy insurance. Small businesses may get tax credits. Kids will be able to stay on the parents’ policy until they turn 26. Seniors get additional prescription drug coverage. People with pre-existing medical conditions can’t be denied or dropped.
What Money Is: The Few Control The Many
Steny Hoyer: Members are at risk By JAKE SHERMAN - Politico.com House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is warning that some of his Democratic colleagues are being threatened with violence when they go back to their districts — and he wants Republicans to stand up and condemn the threats. The Maryland Democrat said more than 10 House Democrats have reported incidents of threats or other forms of harassment about their support of the highly divisive health insurance overhaul vote. Hoyer emphasized that he didn’t have a specific number of threats and that was just an estimate.
McConnell eyes majority, then repeal of bill By MIKE ALLEN - Politico.com Refusing to concede permanent defeat on health reform, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell wants to “repeal the whole bill” and replace it with insurance reforms and other measures that could get bipartisan agreement. “They got health care,” McConnell told POLITICO with a mischievous glint in his eye. “We’ll see whether that’s a gift worth receiving.” McConnell said that if Republicans were to win back the Senate majority in November, “at the top of our list would be to repeal and replace this health care bill.”
Key Part of Law To Be Clarified By LAURA MECKLER and JANET ADAMY - WSJ.com Officials to Instruct Insurers on Requirement to Cover Sick Kids; GOP Proposes Flurry of Changes to Health Package WASHINGTON—The Obama administration said Wednesday it would issue regulations to make clear that insurers must cover sick children, fixing what appears to be a glitch in the new health law. President Barack Obama has repeatedly touted the requirement as one of the law's most important benefits, and one that will take effect this year. But officials suggested Wednesday that the provision was not precisely written and that the Department of Health and Human Services would issue regulations to make its intent clear. "We will seek to ensure that ... nobody feels that there is any ambiguity," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.
Health care bill would save billions on student loans By Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON — Banks and other private lenders are about to lose a $70 billion-a-year student loan business, part of a massive overhaul of college assistance programs that received an unexpected boost from President Barack Obama's health care success. The bill would see $61 billion in savings over 10 years from the switch from private loans to direct government lending. It would pay for Pell Grants and provide more than $4 billion to community colleges and historically black colleges. It also would direct about $19 billion to reducing the deficit and offsetting expenses in the health care legislation. In addition, beginning in 2014, college graduates would be allowed to devote no more than 10% of their monthly income to repay their student loans. The current cap is 15%.
Cyber-attack on U.S. firms, Google traced to Chinese Company networks may be compromised By Bill Gertz The cyber-attack on Google and other U.S. companies was part of a suspected Chinese government operation launched last year that used human intelligence techniques and high-technology to steal corporate secrets, according to U.S. government and private-sector cybersecurity specialists. More worrying, however, is the likelihood that the cyber-attacks that led Google this week to end its cooperation with Beijing-controlled censorship and move its search engine service to Hong Kong included planting undetectable software on American company networks that could allow further clandestine access or even total control of computers in the future.
U.S. Dollar Trend and China News Impact on Gold By: Przemyslaw Radomski - MarketOracle.co.uk In the March 12-th commentary we've discussed the influence that China might have on the precious metals market and since the feedback was very positive, we decided to provide you with a follow-up. April 15th is the date to watch. That’s when the U.S. Treasury Department is mandated by law to issue a report identifying nations that “manipulate the rate of exchange between their currency and the United States dollar for purposes of …gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade.” Does China come to mind? Already the decibel level in Washington is rising and President Barack Obama is faced with growing congressional pressure to get tough with China over its currency practices, something he had promised to do during his presidential campaign. The impact of China’s currency manipulation on the U.S. economy cannot be overstated, said 130 lawmakers in a letter to U.S. Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Inflation Will Be Huge in the Years to Come By: Julie Crawshaw - MoneyNews.com Economist and fund manager John Hussman says inflation will be huge. "It should not escape investors that the rapid expansion of deficits during the 1970s and into the early 1980s was accompanied by a hostile inflation climate, while the fiscal discipline of the 1990s produced a very pleasant period of low inflation pressures," Hussman writes in a note to investors. Hussman’s near-term concern continues to be the risk of fresh credit strains, the likely outcome of which he feels will be a flight-to-safety toward default-free Treasury securities and a tendency toward dollar strength and commodity weakness.
Lawmakers urge action on China currency By David M. Dickson Retaliatory measures sought for 'manipulator' nation With U.S. unemployment stubbornly hovering near double-digit levels and November elections fast approaching, lawmakers from both parties are pressuring the Obama administration to label China a "currency manipulator" when the Treasury Department releases its next semiannual report on April 15. "China has a persistent economic strategy, a policy, key to which is the pegging of its currency to the dollar at an undervalued rate," said Rep. Sander M. Levin, the newly installed chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, at a hearing Wednesday to "consider possible solutions."
Faber: Dismal Stocks, Bonds Create New Gold Standard By: Forrest Jones -- Uncertainties surrounding asset classes such as stocks and bonds have created a new gold standard, says Marc Faber, editor of “The Gloom, Boom and Doom Report.” Between 2001 and 2008, gold outperformed stocks and bonds, but beginning in 2009, stocks soared. That, Faber says, sent some investors to gold for safety because normally, retail investors cannot move in and out of different assets like institutional investors.“I think we already have now a gold standard … created by the market place,” Faber tells CNBC. “We have the [exchange traded funds] that have proliferated and we have more and more physical buying of gold.”
Bond Market Collapse and Stock Market Crash This Year to Send Gold Price Soaring MarketOracle.co.uk . . . . The price of gold right now is nowhere near its high in this particular cycle. In other words, gold is still dirt cheap compared to where it will be by the end of this year, next year, and in the years to come. The Fed is caught between a rock and a hard place and will do what governments always do when they put themselves in these positions. They will try to inflate their way out of the mess they created. The problem thus far is that their inflationary tactics are not working the way they would like as deflationary pressures continue to exert their influence on markets. So expect even bigger and further massive injections of money into the system as the Fed tries to maneuver their way out. History clearly shows that governments caught in such a scenario will soon reach the inflection point where the fiat currency implodes and the credibility of the issuing government collapses. This is not just the case with the United States, but Japan, England, and Euro land as well.
Public vacancy By Derek Scissors - MarketWatch.com Misconceptions on China's role in financing the U.S. deficit BEIJING (Caixin Online) -- The most pressing issue in Sino-American relations right now is that the relationship is misunderstood by both sides. Moreover, the misunderstanding may be sharpening. On the Chinese side, there seems an increasing belief that China is now more important to the U.S. than the U.S. is to China. This is dangerously untrue. On the American side, there is increasing tendency to point fingers at China to avoid our own failures. This will only make matters worse. The misconceptions are many, but perhaps the most important involve the colossal U.S. budget deficit and China's role in financing it, the peg of the yuan to the dollar, and the simplistic notion of mutual Sino-American interdependence. The U.S. and China are interdependent, but China needs the U.S. far more.
Geithner: China letting Fed set yuan's path By Jennifer Liberto - CNNMoney.com WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- In what may be the bluntest assessment by a high-ranking White House official of China's exchange rate policy, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Wednesday that China's undervalued currency makes the nation dependent on U.S. monetary policy. "I think China will be better; they're stronger as an independent country if they're not running an exchange rate policy that, essentially, has the Federal Reserve of the United States setting monetary policy in China," Geithner told CNN's John King in an interview taped for "John King, USA."
Congressman Paul Questions Geithner What part of Austrian economic theory don't you agree with?
Shades of ‘Wall Street’ in Insider Trading Arrests While the sequel to “Wall Street” will finally hit theaters in a few months, it appears other elements of the movie — like the catchy “Blue Horseshoe Loves Anacott Steel” phrase used to abet insider trading — haven’t gone away. Authorities on Wednesday arrested two men, one a UBS investment banker, in connection with an insider trading scheme that purportedly earned about $870,000 in profits. (Read the criminal and civil complaints after the jump.)
JP Morgan Paid $1.9 Billion For Washington Mutual And Now It Wants A $1.4 Billion Tax Refund John Carney - BusinessInsider.com -- JPMorgan Chase is negotiating with the FDIC for a tax refund related to its acquisition of Washington Mutual that could amount to $1.4 billion, The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning. A little noticed change in tax law was incorporated into the extension of jobless benefits last year. Under the new rules companies can use losses to apply for tax refunds against earnings from the past 5 years--up from just 2 years before the change.
Tax-Break Battle Flares By SCOTT THURM And DAN FITZPATRICK J.P. Morgan in Talks for $1.4 Billion; Stimulus Gives $12 Billion to 250 Firms J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is nearing a deal that would allow it to benefit from a tax refund of as much as $1.4 billion, becoming the latest company to tap a little-noticed plank in an economic stimulus bill. That law let companies apply losses from 2008 or 2009 against taxes paid in the previous five years, instead of the previous two years. Failed Seattle thrift Washington Mutual Inc. is eligible for about $2.6 billion in tax refunds, thanks to big losses in 2008. Now J.P. Morgan, which took over WaMu's banking operations in September 2008, is in discussions with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and bondholders about the refund.
Frantic EU Seeks Solution to Greek Debt Crisis The sliding euro and a downgrade of Portugal's debt put renewed pressure on European leaders Wednesday to come up with a bailout plan for Greece and stem the government debt crisis undermining their shared currency. But agreement remained elusive as a Thursday summit approached. Markets increasingly expect any bailout for Greece to involve the International Monetary Fund — and EU governments are discussing whether they would permit that and add financial help from eurozone nations.
Greece to Default ‘At Some Point,’ UBS’s Donovan Says By Ken Prewitt and JoAnne Norton March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Greece will default on its bonds “at some point” as the euro region fails to deal with its first major economic crisis, said Paul Donovan, deputy head of global economics at UBS Investment Bank. “I think it’s in an impossible situation,” said Donovan, who is based in London, in an interview with Bloomberg Radio today. “Europe has failed to clear its first serious hurdle. If Europe can’t solve a small problem like this, how on earth is it going to solve the larger problem, which is the euro doesn’t work. It’s a bad idea.”
Is the IMF to Greece what China is to the U.S.? by Axel Merk - FinancialSense.com If Greece eventually gets funding from the International Monetary Fund (“IMF”), it may not be so different from the U.S. getting its funding from China. There are two main fears in the eurzone against IMF involvement: a perception that Europe can’t solve its problems internally; and the potential influence of the IMF on European policies.
Beware What May Lie Off Balance Sheet at Bank of America by Reggie Middleton - ZeroHedge.com A recent ZeroHedge article (Bank Of America Can Not Deny It Used Repo 105, Response From PricewaterhouseCoopers Pending; The BofA QSPE's ) probes the possibility of BofA engaging in Repo 105-like activities in regards to their QSPEs (off balance sheet vehicles). ZH does seem to uncover a lot of dirt these days. After reading the article, I think it is worth blog fans time to delve deeper into the off balance sheet world of BofA. Here are some older blog posts that ask the hard questions and raises some additional ones.
Hoenig Says Big Banks Must Either Add $210 Billion In New Capital Or Reduce Total Assets By $3 Trillion; Bank Capital Raises Imminent by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com -- In a speech before the US Chamber of Commerce, Kansas Fed's outspoken President Thomas Hoenig said that not only does he endorse the Volcker Rule and urges the U.S. to ban proprietary trading at banks, but, more critically, said that if larger bank holding companies were held under the same capital supervision requirements as smaller regional banks, the big banks would either have to raise a whopping $210 billion in new capital, or reduce their assets by a whopping $3 trillion! Read the last statement and tell us how this is even remotely inflationary. Note, this is not to increase capital prudence, but merely to ensure equal footing with everyone else in the industry. And one wonders why everyone knows that the entire US financial system, now essentially comprised of 5 infinitely big banks, is completely insolvent. The take home - the manipulated market action over the past month is purely to afford the big banks to raise more equity in the form of follow on offerings.
Congressman Paul Questions Bernanke on Monetary Policy
What if It Was All Just a Big Bubble? One of the things that many people go through their entire lives without ever realizing is that conditions haven’t always been the way they remember them to be. Due to the length of a typical lifetime and the number of those years that individuals are productive, it’s reasonable to think that someone in their mid-60s could retire today and look back at the last 40 years only to conclude that what they just experienced was normal. But, what if the last 40 years were anything but normal? What if, in the world of finance and economics, it was all just a big bubble?
Bull Market or Just Bull? by John Brown - FinancialSense.com Last week, the Dow closed at 10,741, up some 64 percent since its 2009 lows, [03/19/10, Yahoo! Finance] when most markets had priced in the likelihood of financial Armageddon. As the markets have rebounded from the brink of disaster, many Wall Street cheerleaders have proclaimed the dawning of a major new bull market. If we measure market cycles biannually, and if bull markets need not eclipse peaks achieved in previous cycles, then this forecast is spot on. Of course, most investors are not saving for next week, but for homes, college tuitions, and retirements. For these longer term investors, the euphoria of the current rally may soon turn to despair when the market faces the unsavory fundamentals of a second financial crisis.
State Regulator Takes Over Ambac's Troubled Contracts By APARAJITA SAHA-BUBNA - WSJ.com Ambac Assurance Corp., the bond-insurance unit of Ambac Financial Group Inc., is handing over to its state regulator control of troubled contracts on securities made up of souring mortgage loans, totaling about $35 billion that could potentially bleed the insurer dry and endanger its commitments to municipal bondholders. As a result, the company's regulator, the Wisconsin Office of the Insurance Commissioner, will suspend payments totaling about $120 million for March to holders of these contracts. These policy holders include banks, pension funds, hedge funds and other insurance companies. As long as the regulator is overseeing these contracts, monthly payments beyond March are also suspended.
Fannie and Freddie Resist Loans for Energy Efficiency By NICK TIMIRAOS - WSJ.com The government's mortgage-finance agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are resisting a White House-backed effort to make it easier for homeowners to get loans to make their houses more energy efficient. The problem: deciding who gets paid first if the borrower defaults. Under the program, homeowners would borrow money from their local government to pay for energy improvements—from high-efficiency furnaces that cost a few thousand dollars, to solar-panel systems that can cost more than $30,000. They would then repay the loan over 15 to 20 years through a special assessment added to their property-tax bills. Local governments would get the funding by selling municipal bonds to investors.
As Pressure Mounts, Bank of America Plans Principal Reductions for Underwater Homeowners Mandelman Maters -- This morning, Reuters has reported that Bank of America has announced a program that will offer what the bank is calling an “earned principal forgiveness” of up to 30 percent for homeowners owing more than 120 percent of the value of their homes. Bank of America says the plan will be available to homeowners nationwide beginning in May of this year. It is certainly the first program of its kind to be announced by such a large financial institution in the sense that it takes a “systematic approach to reducing mortgage principal in an effort to tackle the thorny issue of preventing foreclosures when home values drop well below the amount owed”.
Recovery for the Rich Getting Worse More Slowly By DON MONKERUD Feel upbeat about the economy? You should be. The economy is getting worse more slowly. That's the learned conclusion of two economic experts who debated paths to recovery at the 2010 Panetta Institute Lecture Series in Monterey in March 2010. Harvey Pitt, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, and Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, find troubling signs in the economy, including high unemployment, risky long-term debt, frozen credit markets, overvalued bank assets, and a failed regulatory system.
Even average Americans have harsh words for Obama By Jennifer Harper Certain robust public perceptions about President Obama have surfaced among average citizens rather than so-called "wingnuts" and "lunatic fringe." A Harris Poll released Wednesday found that 40 percent of Americans say Mr. Obama is a socialist, a third think he's a Muslim, a quarter think he was not even born in the U.S., is not eligible to be president and is a "domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitution speaks of."
California Unemployment Could Average 11.8% for 2010 By BETSY SCHIFFMAN - DailyFinance.com California can't seem to catch a break. Amid the beginnings of a broad national economic recovery, unemployment in the cash-strapped state may average 11.8% for the year, according to projections published by the UCLA Anderson Forecast. While 11.8% is an improvement over the current 12.5% unemployment rate in the state, it's hardly cause for celebration. Economists at the UCLA Anderson Forecast don't think California's unemployment rate will drop below the double digits until at least 2012. By contrast, they predict the national unemployment rate will come in around 9.6% at the end of 2010 and could drop to 9.1% by the end of 2011.
Joblessness casts uneven shadow over election By Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch Weak challengers, anger at incumbents may matter as much as unemployment WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- After suffering through the worst economy in a generation and watching millions of jobs disappear in the recession, a few more people are likely to join the ranks of the unemployed: congressional Democrats. If the economy improves, so will the fortunes of members of President Barack Obama's party. But with the country grappling with a jobless rate of nearly 10% and growth only slowly returning, Democrats are finding themselves in a potentially brutal spot as campaign season draws nearer.
Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program on Pace to Increase Real Estate Sales -- RISMEDIA, March 25, 2010—Joe Moshe, Broker/Owner, Charles Rutenberg Realty, says the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program will help stabilize the residential real estate market by allowing the short sale process to move forward more easily. This, in turn, will benefit real estate agents as they perform more short sale closings and homeowners who are attempting to stave off foreclosure. On April 5, 2010, HAFA, a part of the Home Affordability Modification Program (HAMP) which provides financial incentives to servicers and borrowers to lean toward short sales rather than foreclosures, will go into effect. The law will expire at the end of 2012.
Geithner: U.S. Should Keep Hand in Housing Finance MoneyNews.com Mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need to retain some level of government support but the U.S. housing finance system should not be fully nationalized, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says. Geithner told lawmakers the central role the housing sector plays in the U.S. economy and its vulnerability to financial shocks justified a degree of government backing. His comments on Tuesday followed a call by Republican lawmakers to phase out the two Government Sponsored Enterprises and replace them with a housing finance market where private capital is the primary source of funding.
Bove: Housing Will Fall 15 Percent as Subsidies End By: Ellen Chang - MoneyNews.com The housing market will drop another 10 percent to 15 percent once the federal subsidies end, said Dick Bove, a Rochdale Securities analyst. During the past 12 months, the housing market has been boosted in part by the Federal Reserve purchasing mortgage-backed securities, which in turn has allowed mortgage rates low to remain low. The Fed has said it will stop purchasing the mortgage-backed securities at the end of March. Bove said the short term outlook is difficult to predict since it is unclear what mortgage rates would be without the government subsidies, Yahoo Finance Tech Ticker reported. He said the market currently is “unrealistic.”
Plunge in New Home Sales Shows Housing Market Headed for Double Dip MoneyNews.com -- Sales of new homes fell unexpectedly to their lowest point on record in February, in part because stormy winter weather kept buyers away. The results pointed to the housing industry's struggle to rebound from the worst slump in decades. Sales fell 2.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 308,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The news follows a report Tuesday that sales of existing homes fell for a third straight month in February, to the lowest level since July.
Congress slams China and Microsoft, praises Google By David Goldman - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two days after Google stopped censoring search results in China, a congressional panel praised the company's actions while excoriating the Beijing government for its record on Internet censorship and human rights. At a hearing held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on Wednesday, lawmakers called on China to allow a free flow of ideas on the Internet and sharply criticized Microsoft for continuing to be complicit with China's censorship laws.
Go Daddy to stop registering Chinese Web sites Phoenix Business Journal - by Patrick O'Grady The Go Daddy Group will no longer accept registrations bearing Chinese domains because of new requirements from the country’s government. Christine Jones, the Scottsdale company’s executive vice president and general counsel, said in testimony before the U.S. Congressional Executive Commission on China that the company has stopped accepting new registrations for .CN domain names. The move came after the China Internet Network Information Centre, known as CNNIC, began requesting increased information on new registrants and on existing owners of domain names, Jones said during the testimony.
China tells EU: LEIGH PHILLIPS - EUObserver.com 'Put pressure on US over climate, not developing countries' EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - China's chief diplomat on climate action, Su Wei, has said that the European Union must "seize the time" and increase its climate ambition to a 30 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions. "The EU should raise its target to 30 percent. It's achievable," Mr Su told reporters in Brussels on Monday (22 March) after he and a delegation of Chinese climate officials led by Xie Zhenhua, the vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, met with EU climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard.
US and Israel remain at odds after talks By Daniel Dombey in Washington and Tobias Buck in Jerusalem The US and Israel remained at odds on Wednesday after a meeting between Barack Obama, president, and Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister, failed to reconcile the two sides over future settlement policy and the prospects for peace. Officials from both countries said efforts to bridge the gap were continuing, with George Mitchell, Mr Obama’s special envoy, meeting Mr Netanyahu in Washington on Wednesday ahead of a trip to the Middle East in a few weeks. Diplomats added that Mr Netanyahu had so far not fully met Mr Obama’s demands.
Milton Friedman - The Social Security Myth - from today's show
Milton Friedman - Socialized Medicine Nobel Laureate Economist Milton Friedman explores the unsettling dynamics set into motion when government imposes itself into the health care system. (1978)
Whistle-Blower: Banks Give Homeowners the Runaround By DAVID MUIR - ABCNews.com 800-Numbers Lead to Runaround as Banks Refuse to Modify Mortgages A vice president for one of the nation's biggest banks claims customers looking for help in lowering their mortgage payments are often told to call an 800 number -- where he says representatives then give homeowners the runaround. The bank executive spoke to ABC News on the condition that ABC News not show his face or name him, because he feared coming forward would cost him his job.
TARP watchdog slams Obama foreclosure program By Tami Luhby NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President Obama's foreclosure prevention program will likely fall far short of its goals and may even do more harm than good, a government watchdog said Tuesday. The administration's $75 billion loan modification program may help as few as 1.5 to 2 million people, about half the number Obama said it would when he unveiled the program in February 2009, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program wrote in a report.
Geithner promises mortgage fix By Colin Barr (Fortune) -- A long-awaited renovation of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could start to take shape this year, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told Congress Tuesday. The Obama administration hopes to propose legislation to fix the nation's housing finance system within months, Geithner told the House Financial Services Committee. The government currently finances almost all home mortgages, thanks to its 2008 takeover of Fannie and Freddie.
Economic Zombies Shuffle Toward Bankruptcy By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com 03/23/10 Paris, France – Zombies Take Over US Health Care! “Obama assures his place in history,” says the editorial in today’s Financial Times. Poor fellow. He’ll be remembered as the guy who let the zombies loose on the US health care industry. It wasn’t a very good industry even before passage of the reform bill. Not because of the doctors and nurses; they’re as competent as other professions. But they’re forced to work under appalling conditions – with lawyers, lobbyists and regulators on their backs! This new reform measure just increases the weight. Now, there’ll be more parasites than ever. Health care is about to turn into a zombie industry…run by brain-dead bureaucrats and kept alive by infusions of blood from the taxpayer.
Gallup: Mid-March Underemployment Reaches 20% By Rocky Vega - DailyReckoning.com 03/23/10 Stockholm, Sweden – Gallup, the polling and research firm, determines underemployment by including both unemployed Americans and those working part-time but who would prefer to be doing full-time work. As the graph below indicates, Gallup research now shows underemployment still trending higher… now reaching 20 percent. According to Gallup.com: “Gallup’s data suggest that while the U.S. unemployment rate has declined over the past month, the employment gains may be largely taking the form of new part-time jobs… “The danger associated with focusing on unemployment is … [when] new [part-time] jobs [are] announced by the government in early April, there is likely to be an enthusiastic, possibly even celebratory, response. Government officials are liable to tout the continued benefits of last year’s stimulus and the future benefits of the new jobs bill. Many Wall Streeters will likely argue that the surge in jobs is simply another confirmation of the strength of the overall economic recovery.
Google's decision signals change in Western businesses' approach to China By John Pomfret - Washington Post -- BEIJING -- The showdown between Google and the world's most populous country marks a turning point in one of the great alliances of the late 20th century -- the bond between Western capitalists and Beijing's authoritarian system. After Google's audacious decision to confront China over the issue of censorship, officials here insisted Tuesday that the Internet giant's case was an isolated one and would not affect China's opening to the West or its market-oriented reforms.
Why the U.S.-China Currency Brawl Puts Global Recovery at Risk By VISHESH KUMAR - DailyFinance.com The bitter debate about health care reform may have taken center stage in the U.S., but it's hardly the only set of fireworks warranting investors' attention. A potentially more vicious international currency showdown is also materializing as some high-profile American lawmakers and economists attempt to force China to raise the value of the yuan. Their proposed weapon: threats of trade sanctions. As a mid-April deadline approaches for the U.S. Treasury Department to consider whether to label China as a currency manipulator, some investors are watching the face-off with horror. Those investors rightly say that the last the thing the fledgling global recovery needs is a trade war between the world's largest economies.
China/Google Feud: What Now?
China censors searches on Google's Hong Kong-based search engine By John Pomfret, Ellen Nakashima and Cecilia Kang - Washington Post -- BEIJING -- China began blocking results for sensitive searches on Google's Hong Kong-based Web site Tuesday, after the Internet search giant said it would redirect users from the mainland to the Hong Kong site in an effort to avoid Chinese censorship. Searches on Google.com.hk for subjects such as the banned spiritual sect Falun Gong or Tiananmen 64 -- shorthand for the June 4, 1989, crackdown on student-led protests in Beijing -- produced a blank screen or an error message on a computer in Beijing, the Chinese capital. Early in the morning, results were generated but the links were blocked. Other signs were mounting that China was intent on punishing the Internet giant for its bold but risky decision to publicly confront China's policy of limiting the free flow of information.
Google Faces Fallout as China Reacts to Site Shift By MICHAEL WINES and JONATHAN ANSFIELD - NYTimes.com BEIJING — As Google began redirecting tens of millions of Chinese users on Tuesday to its uncensored Web site in Hong Kong, the company’s remaining mainland operations came under pressure from its Chinese partners and from the government itself. For weeks, Google had been holding out hope that the Chinese government would allow it to keep its pledge to end censorship while retaining its share of China’s fast-growing Internet search market.
Redirection of users ‘just a little trick’ By Kathrin Hille in Beijing - FT Google’s decision to keep its companies, staff and website in mainland China while placing controversial content just out of reach of Beijing’s censors in Hong Kong was an attempt at a clever finesse. It aimed to achieve its goals of both staying in and leaving the world’s biggest market. But observers caution that the US internet company is perhaps being a bit too smart; the Chinese government’s initial heavy-handed reaction to the announcement suggests Beijing is unlikely to brook much opposition.
U.S. Debt Crisis, Battle for the Budget By: Casey Research - MarketOracle.co.uk Recently the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published its scoring of President Obama's budget for the next 10 years. It shows a budget deficit of $9.8 trillion. That is just shy of $4 trillion worse than the CBO’s baseline budget, a budget that includes only the laws as currently enacted, with no estimates of any new programs lawmakers may add that worsen future projections. That our budget is out of control is no surprise, but the charts I present here should provide some perspective of just how dangerous this set of budget estimates could turn out to be. The first chart below shows the amount of red ink in each year for the two CBO estimates.
Hold gold because the next crisis is brewing by LARRY EDELSON - uncommonwisdomdaily.com Despite gold’s choppy trading range … Despite the fact that it’s entering a period of short-term weakness and may even fall to just below $1,000 an ounce … Everyone — and I mean everyone — should consider owning at least my top three gold mining shares. Why? Here are just a few reasons …
A. Because the financial crisis is far from over. . .
B. Because our own Federal Reserve is seemingly dead set on a weaker U.S. dollar . . .
C. Because the U.S. government is flat broke. . .
D. Because China is beginning to do what everyone from Main Street … to Wall Street … to Pennsylvania Avenue fears most: . . .
E. Because there’s a great crisis in confidence brewing around the globe. . .
Gold outshines S&P on global currency movement Commodity Online It is a common belief that gold is expensive, since it has shot up from USD 400 per ounce in 2001 to USD 1,100 today, which accounts to an increase of nearly 3 times, while the S&P 500 index has risen from a recent low of 683 in 2009 to 1,160 today. Ever since the current gold trend has begun in 2001, gold has appreciated much more strongly and consistently than S&P. The S&P was 6 times the price of gold, and today it is just about the same price, which implies that gold has become 6 times more valuable.
Bullish on Bullion Western investment demand for gold will stay well-supported regardless of the economic outlook, says Rozanna Wozniak, investment research manager at World Gold Council. She tells Michael Yoshikami of YCMNET Advisors, CNBC's Martin Soong & Karen Tso why.
"Don't Sell Gold" Says SocGen Strategist as "Long Emergency" in Government Debt Begins By: Adrian Ash - - GoldSeek.com -- THE PRICE OF GOLD in Dollars slipped back from an overnight rally Tuesday morning in London, edging again below $1100 an ounce as world stock markets ticked higher along with government bonds. US crude oil contracts fell towards $81 per barrel, even as the Dollar eased lower through $1.50 per Pound and $1.35 per Euro. The gold price for UK and Euro investors held 0.5% above Monday's lows at £732 and €814 an ounce respectively. "The case for gold is clear enough, but when should we look to sell?" asks Dylan Grice in his strategy view, Popular Delusions, from French bank Société Générale's London office today.
Greece Exposes Future and Gold Opportunity By: Neil Charnock - MarketOracle.co.uk We are looking at a high probability of a rally in the gold price in the coming weeks which will spur gold stocks into upward motion yet again. This is suggested due to fundamental and technical reasons. Inflation (of the money supply), increasing demand and coming uncertainty as the sovereign debt crisis gradually unfolds are three of the key fundamental drivers going forward. The pace of the increase in the money supply is increasing and causing distortions that are essential to understand.
A Hard Look at Gold, Silver Premiums By: Tarek Saab - MarketOracle.co.uk Lost in the daily commentary about gold and silver prices is the actual cost of taking possession of these precious metals. Unless you trade in paper GLD or SLV, or you store your bullion in overseas vaults with companies like Goldmoney, the actual cost to purchase gold and silver can diverge from the COMEX spot price by as much as 36% (as I will show below). We have analyzed the premiums for these two monetary metals over the past year and a half, and we hope to offer some perspective on "real" market prices.
US dollar index limits gold price surge By Jim Wyckoff April gold futures closed up $4.20 at $1,103.70 Tuesday. Prices closed nearer the session high on short covering following recent selling pressure. The Euro currency moved up from its session low as trading progressed Tuesday, which also encouraged some fresh buying interest in gold. Still, the firmer U.S. dollar index on Tuesday did limit the upside in gold.
Silver Thursday Plus 30 David Morgan - SilverBearCafe.com Unless you are a real silver bug or a much studied gold bug, the concept of Silver Thursday will have little meaning for you. Silver Thursday took place on March 27, 1980, and this-coming Saturday marks the thirtieth anniversary of that event. Generally, the take on Silver Thursday is explained by Wikipedia as follows: "The Hunt brothers had invested heavily in futures contracts through the brokerage firm Bache Halsey Stuart Shields, now Prudential-Bache Securities. When the price of silver dropped below their minimum margin requirement, they were issued a margin call for $100 million. The Hunts were unable to meet the margin call, and facing a potential $1.7 billion loss, the ensuing panic was felt in the financial markets in general, as well as commodities and futures. Many Government officials feared that if the Hunts were unable to meet their debts, some large Wall Street brokerage firms and banks might collapse.
Measuring the Money Supply By Steve Saville - GreenFaucet.com The year-over-year growth rates of popular monetary aggregates M2 and MZM are presently around 2%, which is near their lows of the past 15 years. Furthermore, M3, another popular monetary aggregate, has just experienced the fastest decline in its growth rate in at least 40 years and is now down by about 5% on a year-over-year basis. Note that the Fed no longer reports M3, but unofficial M3 calculations and charts are still available on the internet (here, for example). So, judging by M2, M3 and MZM the US is now in, or bordering on, monetary deflation. However, TMS (True Money Supply) has risen by more than 13% over the past 12 months.
Global derivatives disclosure to rise By Aline van Duyn - FT Watchdogs to get more CDS trade information A transatlantic row that flared up in the wake of the Greek debt crisis over the lack of disclosure to regulators of credit market activity has pushed the new body in charge of collecting global trading data to provide more information to financial watchdogs. Regulators from around the globe including the Securities and Exchange Commission will now be able to obtain breakdowns of trading activity in credit default swaps, including the identity of the investors.
Concerns Over Fiscal Sustainability Threaten Economic Recovery, Suggest More Market Turbulence ResearchRecap.com -- Rising concerns about fiscal sustainability even in AAA-rated countries such as the US and the UK threaten the global economic recovery and suggest market turbulence ahead. Those concerns are highlighted in a complimentary download of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Global Economic Outlook. Report Overview The underlying strength of the global recovery remains uncertain. GDP figures published so far for the fourth quarter of 2009 have shown that the global recovery remains on track, despite continued concerns about its underlying strength. In Asia, the first region to emerge from the downturn, sequential growth has softened, following the stunning turnaround earlier in the year. In the US, growth continued to accelerate, but in the euro zone growth was disappointing, although a renewed improvement is likely in the first half of 2010. The recovery so far is still driven by temporary factors. The global recovery, which started in Asian emerging markets but has since spread to most major regions, is now well under way. Companies and consumers have realised that worst-case scenarios are unlikely to materialise and are adjusting their consumption, investment and hiring behaviour to suit a more benign outlook.
How Much Capital Does it Take to Lift a Dollar? By Bill Baker - DailyReckoning.com 03/22/10 Baltimore, Maryland – On March 18, 2010 the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) wrote CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler a letter calling to his attention evidence that suggests an anti-gold cartel consisting of the U.S. Treasury, the Fed, and the bullion banks has been suppressing the gold price, and that this action is coordinated to further the “strong dollar” policy established by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. If indeed this is the case, since all interventions end badly, a valuable question to answer is whether there are signs that the intervention has gotten long in the tooth. The most obvious would be that the capital required to rescue the ailing buck would be significantly higher than it was prior to the meltdown of the credit markets in 2008. Indeed, Peter Schiff speculated the dollar rally would end badly just three days before the GATA letter was published.
Fed’s Yellen Says Too Soon to Raise Interest Rates By Vivien Lou Chen March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen said it’s too soon to raise interest rates, and she discounted concerns record budget deficits might fuel inflation. “I don’t believe this is yet the time to be tightening monetary policy,” Yellen said in the text of a speech today in Los Angeles. “But as recovery takes firm root and economic output moves toward its potential, a time will come when it is appropriate to boost short-term interest rates.”
MF Global Brings Corzine Back to Wall Street NYTimes.com Jon S. Corzine, the former governor of New Jersey, is back in finance. Mr. Corzine, who is also a former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, has become the chairman and chief executive, of MF Global Holdings, a broker in futures, options and derivatives. He will also become a partner at J.C. Flowers & Company, the private equity firm specializing in financial companies. MF Global said Tuesday afternoon that Mr. Corzine would take over from Bernard W. Dan, who resigned from MF Global as chief executive for “personal reasons.” Mr. Dan will remain with MF Global through May 16 help with Mr. Corzine’s transition.
Pay czar takes aim at all TARP takers By David Ellis - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, who has clamped down on executive compensation at the nation's biggest bailout firms, now has a new target: any firm that accepted a government lifeline. Unveiling a bold new initiative Tuesday, Feinberg said he would examine compensation paid to top executives at 419 companies made between October 2008 until February 2009, a period when the nation's financial system was teetering on the brink.
New York Fed Warehousing Junk Loans On Its Books Ryan Grim - HuffingtonPost.com As Lehman Brothers careened toward bankruptcy in 2008, the New York Federal Reserve Bank came to its rescue, sopping up junk loans that the investment bank couldn't sell in the market, according to a report from court-appointed examiner Anton R. Valukas. The New York Fed, under the direction of now-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, knowingly allowed itself to be used as a "warehouse" for junk loans, the report says, even though Fed guidelines say it can only accept investment grade bonds.
Geithner: Government Still Has a Role to Play in Housing By SARA HANSARD - DailyFinance.com While Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pledged to reform the way Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) operate in the U.S. housing market at a packed hearing on Capitol Hill today, he also said that the two government sponsored enterprises have operated more prudently than much of the private housing finance market. "The GSEs played a generally quite responsible role in... establishing standardized mortgage products, and generally they held to better underwriting standards than was true of the private market," Geithner said at a hearing held today by the House Financial Services Committee on how to reform the housing finance market.
First Corporate Campaign Ads Appear After Supreme Court's Citizens United Decision The Huffington Post | Michael Falcone -- A Texas company recently took out a political ad in several local newspapers, making it one of the first corporations to do so in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling that lifted restrictions on corporate political spending. The Texas Tribune reports that the company, KDR Development, paid for an ad against state Rep. Chuck Hopson, formerly a Democratic member of the state legislature who switched parties and ran in the Republican primary for re-election.
A First Step on Fannie and Freddie By SEWELL CHAN - NYTimes.com WASHINGTON — Amid pressure from Congress, the Obama administration is taking a tentative first step in developing a plan to reshape Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the huge mortgage-finance companies that the government took over in 2008. WASHINGTON — Amid pressure from Congress, the Obama administration is taking a tentative first step in developing a plan to reshape Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the huge mortgage-finance companies that the government took over in 2008.
Changes Ahead for Fannie and Freddie
Microcosm of Housing Crisis on an Arizona Street By LOUISE STORY - NYTimes.com CAVE CREEK, Ariz. — The uncertain line between hope and despair divides this exurb of Phoenix, where the trim stucco houses used to sell so briskly. It winds around the swimming pools and the pebbled yards of East Montgomery Road like a slow-burning fuse. On one side are people like the Setbackens, Gary and Cissie, who moved here from Washington State and, with prudence, have managed to pay their mortgage bill month after month. On the other side are those like Kelley Carter, who never dreamed that home prices would fall so hard, and got in over their heads.
Existing-home sales fall for third straight month By Renae Merle - Washington Post Existing-home sales fell for the third consecutive month in February, fueling concerns that the tax credit for home buyers that helped revive the market last year won't provide a comparable boost during this spring's buying season. An $8,000 tax credit for qualified first-time home buyers helped give the nation's sagging housing market a lift in 2009. But sales levels have fallen 23 percent since November, when the tax credit was initially scheduled to expire. Congress extended and expanded the tax credit to more buyers, but now some economists worry that, even if there's a pickup in sales over the next few months, it might prove to be temporary.
Existing Home Sales Drop, Supply Climbs By Shobhana Chandra March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Sales of existing U.S. homes fell in February for a third month, and the number of properties on the market climbed by the most in almost two years, casting a pall over the prospects for a recovery. Purchases dropped 0.6 percent to a 5.02 million annual rate, the lowest level in eight months, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. There were 3.59 million houses for sale, a 312,000 increase from January that marked the biggest gain since April 2008.
More Sellers Put Homes on Market, but There Are Fewer Buyers By DAVID STREITFELD - NYTimes.com -- The volume of home sales is slumping even as the number of properties on the market is rising, which is putting new pressure on prices, according to economic data released Tuesday. The triple whammy of bad news stoked fears that the brief recovery in housing was finished and another dip had begun. If that proves to be the case, it could slow the broader economic recovery. “The housing market may remain a noose around the neck of the U.S. economy for some time yet,” Paul Dales of Capital Economics told clients.
Federal government cancels plans for office building in Aurora By Margaret Jackson - The Denver Post -- The federal government has canceled plans to build a 350,000-square-foot office building at Gateway Park in Aurora. Known as Project Keystone, the high-security building was supposed to be occupied by Aerospace Data Facility Colorado, now housed at Buckley Air Force Base. The facility, operated by the U.S. Air Force, provides data to defense and intelligence agencies. "Headquarters decided that the money could be put to better use for other intelligence priorities," said Rick Oborn, a public-affairs officer with the National Reconnaissance Office, the executive agent for the project.
14 states sue to block health care law By the CNN Wire Staff CNN) -- Officials from 14 states have gone to court to block the historic overhaul of the U.S. health care system that President Obama signed into law Tuesday, arguing the law's requirement that individuals buy health insurance violates the Constitution. Thirteen of those officials filed suit in a federal court in Pensacola, Florida, minutes after Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The complaint calls the act an "unprecedented encroachment on the sovereignty of the states" and asks a judge to block its enforcement.
Socialized Medicine, The Road to Wealth Destruction By: Mac Slavo - MarketOracle.co.uk When we discuss wealth, we must keep in mind that we’re not discussing investments exclusively. Wealth takes many different forms, and the ability to generate wealth in the first place is what gives us the ability to make long-term investments. The recently passed health care legislation places an almost instantaneous tax on Americans, even though they will see no benefit from this new tax for at least four years when the law is to be implemented nationwide.
IRS to Monitor Your Health Insurance
From Monday's news page . . . worth repeating
The Wrong Prescription: Democrats’ Health Overhaul Dangerously Expands IRS Authority Report from the Republican Ways and Means Committee . . . Democrats will have vastly expanded the responsibilities of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and fundamentally altered the relationship between the IRS and taxpayers. Specifically, this report examines the Individual Mandate Tax (IMT) proposed in the Democrats’ health care legislation. Under this provision, Democrats make the IRS the chief enforcer for a new government-run health insurance system. One of the most troubling aspects of this new IRS authority is the newly granted power to collect additional taxes from Americans whose health insurance coverage is deemed to be insufficient to meet the definition of minimum coverage, as defined by federal bureaucrats, required to be purchased.
ObamaCare: Soon to be the Worst Bill Passed in U.S. History (Part 1) By: Mike Stathis - MarketOracle.co.uk -- With Obama’s healthcare bill ready to sign, democrats are celebrating. Meanwhile, (supposedly) enraged republicans insist payback will come in November. This is part of the typical back-and-forth theatrics staged to galvanize voter support for each party. Please do not allow yourself to be fooled by these games. As the facts show, both parties are essentially the same when it comes to issues that matter most to working-class Americans; free trade and healthcare, as first detailed in America’s Financial Apocalypse.
Doctors brace for a 21% reduciton in Medicare rates in 8 days by Ralph Weber mediBlog.com The health bill which just passed the house calls for a 21% reduction in Medicare reimbursement rates effective almost immediately, and a further 2% reduction every year until total reimbursements are down 41%. This may produce the $500 billion in savings projected by the CBO, but seniors will likely have a hard time finding a doctor able to accept medicare.
States Sue Over Overhaul That Will Bust State Budgets By Pat Wechsler March 23 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama faces a fight over the health-care overhaul from states that sued today because the legislation’s expansion of Medicaid imposes a fiscal strain on their cash-strapped budgets. Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania are among 14 states that filed suit after the president signed the bill over the constitutionality of the burden imposed by the legislation. The health-care overhaul will make as many as 15 million more Americans eligible for Medicaid nationwide starting in 2014 and will cost the states billions to administer.
Ron Paul: Bill Makes Health-Care System Worse
National Health Caress by Butler Shaffer - LewRockwell.com The lies the government and media tell are amplifications of the lies we tell ourselves. To stop being conned, stop conning yourself. ~ James Wolcott An otherwise mature and well-educated man I know still believes that professional wrestling is on the up-and-up; that the grapplers who toss one another around in the ring are engaged in fights as genuine as those that take place in gang-ridden neighborhoods. For this man, and so many others like him, such spectacles are more than just enjoyable entertainment: they are the real thing.
Obama to sign abortion order behind closed doors By Joseph Curl - WashingtonTimes.com A day after a lavish bill signing White House ceremony on health care reform, President Obama will sign an executive order barring the law from allowing federally funded abortion, but he'll do so behind closed doors and with no media allowed. The executive order, which the White House aaid Tuesday will "reaffirms the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Acts consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion," was crucial to securing the votes of at least 10 pro-life Democrats.
Healthcare Intervention: The Bigger Picture Mises Daily: by Doug French The prospect and reality of Obamacare have woken up many people to the need to stop the socialization of medical care in America. It will produce here what it has produced everywhere: stagnation, overutilization, rationing, and the sacrifice of individual well-being in the name of collective justice. This is the result not only of every experiment in socialized medicine but of every experiment in socialism generally. The reasons were spelled out by Mises in 1922. He explained that, without property and market prices, economic rationality disappears. The result is unworkable, chaotic, and impoverishing.
That Didn't Take Long.... by Karl Denninger - market-ticker.org From the forum: "So I just got a call from my health insurance provider. My family rates are going up $200/month ... $2400/year per employee effective April 1st. Didn't take long after signing to get this s**t going. . . So much for the "my plan will save Americans" $2500/year in Healthcare premiums. . . F***ing liar in chief. " . . . Yes, this law will induce people to hire, it will improve health access, and it will be positive for the consumer, economy, stock market and spending.
Small Business Worries About Health-Care Costs
Health care dictatorship: A crime against America by Mike Adam - NaturalNews.com It's amazing that the day before the health care "reform" bill is passed in America, the FDA announces that one of the most popular statin drugs sold in America causes so much kidney damage that it might kill you. And then the day after this health care bill passes, the FDA announces that a popular rotovirus vaccine made by Merck is being halted because it is contaminated with a mysterious DNA sequence from a pig virus called porcine circovirus type 1 or PCV-1. The reason this is important is because cholesterol drugs and vaccines represent what conventional American medicine is all about: Drugs and injections. It's not about health and prevention; it's about drugs and injections (and surgery too, of course). And the legislation that was just passed is focused entirely on how to expand the failed system of drugs and injections so that it causes harm to everyone rather than just those who voluntarily choose to be suckered into it. This is the medical equivalent of a wartime draft that forces soldiers into battle against their will.
Healthy without health insurance in America
Health-Care Cost Lies Make Us Sing the Blues: March 23 (Bloomberg) -- “So lie to me, lie to me, I’d rather have it that way.” Every historic moment has its soundtrack, and passing U.S. health-care legislation is no exception. The song for this bill is “Lie to Me,” recorded by blues singer Brook Benton in 1962. Benton’s song is a plea to the woman who cheated on him to lie to him about it and instead say everything’s fine. The tune came to mind while watching some voters applaud Democratic leaders as they promise that the new law will reduce budget deficits by $1 trillion. “Just lie, lie, lie.”
U.S. Drug Move Said to Deprive Elderly By DUFF WILSON - NYTimes.com A Senate panel will hear complaints on Wednesday from nursing home operators, doctors, nurses and pharmacists that a Drug Enforcement Administration narcotics crackdown has left seriously ill patients crying for pain relief. The D.E.A. says it is merely enforcing the law that requires pharmacies to wait for prescriptions that are signed by physicians before dispensing potent painkillers like Vicodin, Percocet and morphine. But the nursing home groups say the new enforcement rules upend many years of practice in which the government informally allowed nurses to speed the process by taking doctors’ orders orally, or from medical charts, and passing them along to pharmacies, similar to the procedures used in hospitals.
Medicare vs. Government Insurance
US-Israeli spat plants seeds of crisis By Victor Kotsev Last month, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy published an analysis of three simulations conducted recently by experts at Harvard University, Tel Aviv University and the Brookings Institution. The simulations explored different scenarios for how the Iranian crisis would develop, and an outcome they had in common was rising tensions between the United States and Israel and a failure of the sanctions policy to halt Iran's nuclear progress. "Game play suggests," the analysis points out, "that an eventual US-Israeli crisis is likely." Even without Iran, tensions between the two allies have been running high during the past year. As far as the Iranian question is concerned, the row of the past couple of weeks seems to more than confirm the predictions. Moreover, it is likely to be just the beginning of, or a dress rehearsal for, a larger crisis in relations.
U.S. Bolsters Chemical Restrictions for Water By CHARLES DUHIGG - NYTimes.com The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Monday that it would overhaul drinking water regulations so that officials could police dozens of contaminants simultaneously and tighten rules on the chemicals used by industries. The new policies, which are still being drawn up, will probably force some local water systems to use more effective cleaning technologies, but may raise water rates.
France ditches carbon tax as social protests mount By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk France is facing its own 'spring of discontent' as strikes shut schools, courts, railways and metro services, and trade unions vowed mass protests across the country. President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday scrapped the country's proposed carbon tax and reshuffled his cabinet in populist tilt after suffering a crushing electoral defeat over the weekend, when his Gaulliste UMP party lost every region other than in its bastion of Alsace and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. The vote saw a resurrection of both the Socialist Party and the far-Right National Front, showing how the delayed effects of rising unemployment can change the political landscape long after recession has passed. The jobless rate has risen to 10.1pc, up from 8.7pc a year ago. A quarter of those aged under 25 are out of work.
29 sickened by led poisoning CHENZHOU, Hunan - The number of patients sickened by lead poisoning rose to 29 Sunday in Chenzhou City of central China's Hunan Province, health officials said. The Chenzhou Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine received 10 more children Sunday, bringing the number of patients tested to have excessive levels of lead in their blood to 29, 28 of whom were below the age of 14, said a statement from the public health bureau of Chenzhou. Another two people demanded to be treated in the hospital but tests showed no excessive lead in their blood. Most of the patients were in stable condition, said Wang Feixiong, a doctor with the hospital. There could be more reports of sickened children, said Liu Jianrong, deputy head of the hospital. The cases emerged about 10 months after 254 children were found with excessive levels of lead in their blood in Chenzhou in July last year.
China, Russia sign major agreements worth $1.6bn China Daily Key powers agree to cooperate on economy, technology and energy Beijing - China and Russia signed 15 deals cumulatively worth $1.6 billion in the Russian city of Vladivostok over the weekend, with more coming up on Monday. The documents were signed during Vice-President Xi Jinping's tour of the country. Xi arrived in Russia Saturday at the invitation of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He is expected to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Putin in Moscow on Monday.
Imploding America by Jack D. Douglas - LewRockwell.com he wild-eyed, in-and-out "Health Care" burger BO and his henchmen and women cooked up at yesterday's spending and tax orgy on the Hill front-loads the freebies for the least productive parts of society and back-loads the trillions in new taxes, regulations, radical changes, and costly cuts for the more productive Americans. The vastly contorted garbage ingredients of this messy burger are such vast pies in the skies that no honest and intelligent person who has watched governments at work in the U.S. for a half-century or more believes a word of it until it happens. The non-partisan, judicious mock-up of the mess and the impossibility of containing the costs by the Concord Coalition is a good summary of where it is today. As the Coalition knows, no one knows where this burger mess will be tomorrow because it still has vast hurdles to jump and will have to make all kinds of new "miracle compromises" and payoffs to get to wherever they wind up.
IMF warns of acute debt challenges for West By James Quinn - Telegraph.co.uk The International Monetary Fund has warned that advanced economies such as the UK and US are facing an 'acute' challenge in reducing debt loads following the financial crisis which could in turn hamper economic growth. The International Monetary Fund has warned that advanced economies such as the UK and US are facing an 'acute' challenge in reducing debt loads following the financial crisis, a problem which could in turn hamper economic growth. John Lipsky, the IMF's first deputy managing director, said that high levels of government debt and fiscal deficits have already led to increased risks for a number of countries.
Greece accuses Germany of 'squalid game' in debt crisis By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk Greece has further complicated its chances of an EU rescue package this week, accusing Germany of exploiting the debt crisis to enrich its banks and drive down the euro for global export advantage. "By speculating on Greek bonds and allowing credit institutions to participate in this squalid game, some people are making money," said deputy premier Theodoros Pangalos. "As long as southern Europe is under fire and the euro is falling , they (the Germans) can win massive exports in the rest of the world," he said. It is the second time in a month that Mr Pangalos has lashed out at Germany. In February he said Berlin had no right to lecture Greece because the Nazis had stolen his country’s gold reserves and caused the death of 300,000 people during the Axis occupation.
Greek Stalemate Deepens as Trichet Rejects Loan ‘Subsidy’ Call By Andrew Davis and James G. Neuger -- March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Europe’s stalemate over possible aid for debt-encumbered Greece deepened as European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet spoke out against offering low- interest loans for which the Greek government has pressed. Trichet’s demand for stringent terms and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s push for sanctions against nations that breach deficit limits heightened the chance that Greece will leave a March 25-26 summit empty-handed. That could force Prime Minister George Papandreou to decide whether he’s ready to fulfill his threat and turn instead to the International Monetary Fund.
Marc Faber - on Greece, Fed policies in USA and moral hazard. Bailouts are a form of regulating markets; gold and dollar / euro and monetization process.
700% Higher Gold by Warren Bevan - FinancialSense.com Gold has much further to run in the years to come and silver even more-so. There is no other possible outcome as world fiat currencies continue to be devalued. It is that simple. Read on to find out why 700% is the minimum move higher. The CFTC meeting on position limits is finally coming up this Thursday March 25, where invited guests will get the chance to make a five minute presentation before receiving questions from the panel.
Is ObamaCare Good for Gold? By Josh Lipton - Minyanville.com The pending health-care overhaul might be out of favor with many Americans, but it could prove very popular for fans of the yellow metal. The Wall Street Journal is out with a poll today, which shows opinion solidifying around the health-care legislation, with 48% calling it a “bad idea” and 36% viewing it as a “good idea.”
THE UNKNOWN U.S. GOLD COIN & HOW THE DOLLAR IS KILLING THE NATION Peter Souleles B. Com. LLB. WHAT PROPS UP THE DOLLAR - They say that what doesn't kill you makes you strong. Well it now appears that what makes you strong can also kill you. If you are wondering how that can be, then stop and think about what is REALLY propping up the dollar. Is it the fact that it constitutes most of the world's foreign reserves? No. Is it because it is backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government? No. The dollar is being propped up by two major factors. Firstly, it is the military supremacy of the USA which thus far has stopped a successful invasion of the nation whilst simultaneously setting up theatres of war and military bases in every corner of the globe. The second factor is the continued support of the dollar by China.
Why gold is the easiest commodity to trade By Howard S Katz - CommodityOnline.com This is directed toward those readers who have heeded the siren song of the establishment and have put their assets into the stock market. I say to you: NO STOCKS, NO STOCKS, NO STOCKS, not at this time. The basic reason is that we are in the second upswing of the commodity pendulum. First, what is the commodity pendulum? And second, why should this affect your decision to put your assets into stocks?
Gold not willing to close below $1,100 FXstreet.com (Barcelona) – Gold price attempted to move south today bottoming at 1,191.50 area in European session. However, US investors were unconvinced to extends gold losses and detected today's low as an inflection line to instead drift price back up beyond 1,100 again. The precious metal currently holds steadily around 1,102.00 zone.
Gold recovers on bargain hunting SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold prices recovered in Asian trade Tuesday, after fell to a month-low figure as the euro extended losses versus the dollar. Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $ 1104.02 an ounce at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while US gold futures for April delivery was at 1104.8 an ounce at the same time. Analysts said bargain hunting lifted the precious yellow metal while a steadier euro helped ease worries about tighter monetary policy.
Inflation and the Asian Consumer Boom By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com 03/22/10 Paris, France – The Dow fell on Friday. It was down 37 points. Another day older. Another day not wiser. We don’t know any more than we did the day before. Oil fell $1. Gold dropped $19. Hmmm… Inflation? Deflation? Analysts and pundits are trying to look into the future. What’s coming? Higher prices…or lower ones? Forget looking into the future. It’s hard enough to tell what is going on right now. Our prediction, years ago, was that we would see BOTH inflation and deflation. But even we didn’t foresee such a mix of inflation and deflation AT THE SAME TIME.
Should Obama Confront China? Mackie Jimbo - TheAtlantic.com President Obama's troubles with China are rapidly accumulating. Right now, there's the pressing matter of Iran: Obama needs China to endorse sanctions, which China seems loath to do. China's intransigence on revaluing its currency and agreeing to climate change initiatives are also plaguing the administration and fueling anti-China sentiments in Congress. The foreign policy cognoscenti in Washington are calling for action. So, with tension between the two countries rising, is it time for Obama to get tough on China?
U.S., China May Have Bilateral Forex Talks, Zhou Says By Ye Xie March 22 (Bloomberg) -- People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said his government and the U.S. may engage in bilateral discussions about currency values, adding that too much political “noise” isn’t “helpful.” U.S. policy makers are under pressure as they try to reduce unemployment by boosting exports, Zhou told reporters at the Inter-American Development Bank’s annual meeting today in Cancun, Mexico.
China’s Wen Urges Ford, Rio Chiefs to Help Avoid Currency War By Bloomberg News -- March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao appealed to chief executive officers gathered in Beijing to help the world avoid a trade and currency war as lawmakers in the U.S. call for stronger measures to compel China to revalue the yuan. “I would like to make another appeal to all responsible countries and all the world’s entrepreneurs with a conscience,” Wen told CEOs including Ford Motor Co.’s Alan Mulally and Rio Tinto Plc’s Thomas Albanese yesterday. “They must not fight a trade war or a currency war because this will not help us in meeting the current difficulties.”
Yuan’s Gradual Gain to Have Little G-10 Effect, JPMorgan Says By Anchalee Worrachate -- March 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Chinese yuan’s appreciation is likely to be incremental and have a limited effect on the world’s principal developed-market currencies, including the U.S. dollar and the euro, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. China will return to “gradual appreciation” by mid-year rather than announce a one-time revaluation, and allow a 5 percent cumulative move by the end of 2010 as the global economy strengthens, said John Normand, head currency strategist at JPMorgan in London. The strength of the yuan, also known as the renminbi, will be more keenly felt in Asian nations such as South Korea and Malaysia, since their exports are more focused on China, he said.
U.S. Stocks Halt Global Drop, Dollar Falls; Commodities Recover By Michael P. Regan and Rita Nazareth -- March 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rose and the dollar erased gains, helping commodities reverse losses, as a rally in drug and technology shares overshadowed concern higher interest rates and swelling public debt will stifle the global recovery. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 0.5 percent to 1,165.81 at 4:32 p.m. in New York, as health-care shares climbed after the U.S. House passed legislation to allow uninsured Americans to get medical coverage and chipmakers gained on an analyst upgrade. The MSCI World Index of global stocks rose 0.2 percent. The Dollar Index slipped 0.1 percent, and the S&P/GSCI Index of commodities advanced 0.2 percent.
Bernanke Running Amuck by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. - MoneyAndMarkets.com Fed Chairman Bernanke is running amuck, and for the first time since the birth of the U.S. dollar, our government is egregiously abusing its power to print money. Specifically, from September 10, 2008 to March 10 of this year, he has increased the nation’s monetary base from $850 billion to $2.1 trillion — an irresponsible, irrational and insane increase of 2.5 times in just 18 months. It is, by far, the greatest monetary expansion in U.S. history. And you must not underestimate its sweeping historical significance.
Judge Napolitano Interview March 9, 2010 Campaign for Liberty's Kevin Brett interviews Judge Andrew Napolitano at CPAC 2010.
Senate panel backs financial reform bill Kevin Drawbaugh and Rachelle Younglai (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Monday, approved landmark financial regulatory reform legislation, pushing the fight over the issue to the full Senate in April. The committee voted 13-10 along party lines to pass a 1,336-page bill, which will need more than a simple majority to move ahead on the Senate floor -- arithmetic that was key to Republicans' acquiescence to a quick committee decision. The bill would set up a council of regulators to oversee financial risk, create a process for liquidating distressed financial firms, crack down on derivatives markets, and take other steps meant to avert another financial crisis.
States Cracking Down on Mortgage “Net Branches” Implode-O-Meter If you’re “net branching” with a company that plays in the grey area with some of HUD’s regulations, now may be the time to make a change. Net branching peaked during the boom, and for the most part crashed with the meltdown, but it has survived. While the term “net branch” is on its way out, branches will always be around. Branches are valuable to mortgage lenders because branch managers use their own money to secure office space, pay for marketing, processing, employees, computers, and phones etc. With the help of the lenders’ resources and support, branch managers operate as a banker/broker, in charge of everything doing business in multiple states without costly surety bonds or a broker license, collecting 75-90% of yield spread premiums and origination fees. It can be a profitable venture for both parties.
Community bank opens despite odds By RICHARD M. BARRON - News-Record.com GREENSBORO — In a world where banks are folding like $100 bills, a group of Greensboro bankers has found a creative way to slip around the economy’s obstacles and open a new community bank. The founders of The Gate City’s Community Bank needed to raise $12 million to open the bank, but the bad economy slowed them down. At the $9 million mark, when fundraising slowed, the bank’s local startup team decided to take a different approach. Gate City found another startup bank, Albemarle Bank & Trust in Greenville, that was facing similar challenges. Together, they found a strong, small savings bank, West Town Savings Bank in Cicero, Ill., that needed money. Gate City and Albemarle pooled some of the capital they raised and bought stock in West Town. They are now independent divisions of that bank.
Reshaping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to lay out the Obama administration's broad vision for restructuring mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Tuesday in congressional testimony. Geithner has said that any specific legislative proposals will not come until 2011 at the earliest. His testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday is expected to be the first step in a long journey to make changes to the existing housing finance system. The government seized Fannie and Freddie at the height of the financial crisis, in what at the time was said to be a temporary measure to ensure credit remained available for homebuyers.
Fannie, Freddie messy government tie tough to cut Lynn Adler and Richard Leong (Reuters) - With the housing sector still on the ropes, the Obama administration on Tuesday will begin to sketch out plans for the market's two biggest financing pillars, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. After hitting its worse slump since the Great Depression, the housing market is being very slowly resuscitated by the government with massive dollops of cash and the help of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government has relied on the companies, which combined guarantee nearly half of all outstanding mortgages, to mop up bad loans in a bid to help struggling homeowners. Along the way, the government was forced to take control of the two firms, at a cost to taxpayers that has reached $125 billion so far.
Pressure grows to overhaul Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac By Jim Puzzanghera - LATimes.com Lawmakers plan to push the Obama administration to come up with an exit strategy for the troubled housing finance agencies, which have been propped up by bailout money. Reporting from Washington -- It is the forgotten bailout: $125.9 billion spent by taxpayers so far to rescue housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- nearly twice what's been pumped into American International Group Inc. -- and with no end in sight. But in a hearing Tuesday, lawmakers will start pressing the Obama administration for an exit strategy as the government faces an unlimited commitment for the next three years to the housing finance agencies, which are almost single-handedly keeping the fragile real estate market afloat.
Lenny Dykstra suing chase over bad mortgages thetruthaboutmortgage.com Former Philadelphia Phillie (and Met) Lenny Dykstra, also known simply as “Nails,” has sued JPMorgan Chase for $100 million over mortgages he obtained during the housing boom. Dykstra claims he was “fraudulently induced into borrowing more money than he could afford,” leading to his eventual bankruptcy. The lawsuit involves $20.5 million in mortgage loans, $12 million of which came from former lending giant WaMu, now owned by Chase, and another $8.5 million in the form of a second mortgage.
Lennar Looks to Distressed Debt as Slump Persists By John Gittelsohn March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Lennar Corp., the third-largest U.S. homebuilder, is investing in failed bank loans and distressed real estate assets to boost revenue as demand for new houses shows few signs of revival. The Miami-based company’s purchase last month of a share of $3.05 billion of delinquent loans seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from failed lenders takes the builder into territory so far dominated by private equity firms such as Thomas J. Barrack’s Colony Capital LLC and Barry Sternlicht’sStarwood Capital Group LLC.
Three Reasons Housing Market Will Head Lower By Andrew Mickey - GoldSeek.com It’s one of the most pressing questions facing investors today. Is the housing market about to recover? With the housing market at the center of the credit crunch, any recovery in the housing market could quickly turn the Wall Street recovery into a Main Street recovery. Consumers would start shopping again. Employment would rebound. And stocks would likely make the next move higher. But we’re coming out of a genuine bubble decades in the making. And decades of overinvestment creating oversupply are rarely worked off in a couple of years.
Pimco Bets on Asian Bonds as U.S., Europe Risk ‘Policy Mistake’ By Shelley Smith -- March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Investors should buy Asia-Pacific bonds rather than Europe and U.S. debt because of faster growth in the region and less risk of government policy that would damp the economic recovery, according to Pacific Investment Management Co. “Politics are going to play a very important role in how an investor looks at asset classes over at least the next 12 months,” Brian Baker, chief executive officer of Pimco Asia Ltd., said in an interview in Hong Kong. “As policy makers withdraw from their fiscal stimulus, and as regulations are put in place in the financial system in the developed world, we run the risk of a policy mistake” that may weigh on markets, he said.
FDA warns about pig virus in GSK rotavirus vaccine Rotarix Triangle Business Journal The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is advising doctors to temporarily avoid using GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccine for rotavirus after the drug maker found traces of a pig virus in the vaccine. GSK (NYSE: GSK) said that the virus, called PCV-1, does not multiply in humans and is not known to cause illness in people. The company discovered trace amounts of the virus in the vaccine Rotarix while working on the development of a new virus-discovery method.
Gerald Celente on Dori Monson Show 18 Mar 2010
5 next steps for health care By David Ewing Dunca (Fortune) -- Those of us alive last night will one day retell the story of how mere mortals in Congress and the White House defeated a combined army of Harpies, Gorgons and Minotaurs that for decades have thwarted all efforts to reform the American health-care system. So maybe most of America last night was riveted not by Parliamentary antics in Congress, but by college basketball. Nonetheless the House of Representatives did the deed when they passed the Senate's health reform bill at 10:44 pm. A package of changes to the bill still needs to be approved by the Senate, but the basic health-care bill will become law when President Obama signs it.
What health care reform means for your business By Neil deMause - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The sweeping health-care bill passed by the House of Representatives Sunday, and now headed for President Obama's desk, promises a sea change in the way that small business owners purchase and provide health insurance for themselves and their employees. But many of the provisions won't kick in until 2014 -- and the final rules could still be changed by amendments that will now be considered by the Senate.
Republicans mobilize healthcare opposition By Janet Hook and James Oliphant - LATimes.com Conservatives plan procedural maneuvers to drag out the debate before the final bill is cleared in the Senate. A dozen states pledge to fight the bill in court. Following their decisive healthcare defeat in the House, Republicans on Monday prepared a three-pronged effort to wage a continuing fight against the bill -- beginning with a drive this week to stall follow-up legislation in the Senate. And even before the healthcare bill has become law, Republicans are backing an effort by a dozen state attorneys general to challenge the bill's constitutionally in court, and they are making it a 2010 campaign priority to call for the law's repeal.
Health-Care Overhaul Fight Moves to States, Agencies By Alex Nussbaum March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Health legislation passed yesterday by the U.S. House changes some rules immediately on insurance coverage while leaving much of the fight over how to remake the medical system to federal regulators, states and courts. Insurers led by UnitedHealth Group Inc. and WellPoint Inc. must cover children with pre-existing health problems within the first year of the legislation and let parents keep children on their insurance plans through age 26. The insurers will also be banned from revoking coverage because of severe illness and from limiting lifetime or annual benefits.
10 states line up to sue over health bill, Florida AG says (CNN) -- Ten states plan to file a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new health care reform bill, Florida's attorney general announced Monday. Bill McCollum, the Republican attorney general under fellow Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, told a news conference that the lawsuit would be filed once President Obama signs the health care bill into law. He said he'll be joined by his counterparts in Alabama, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington. All of the attorneys general in the 10 states mentioned by McCollum are Republican, but McCollum said the lawsuit would be about the law and not politics.
16,500 New IRS Agents by Ron Paul - LewRockwell.com Healthcare Reform Passes Following months of heated public debate and aggressive closed-door negotiations, Congress finally cast a historic vote on healthcare late Sunday evening. It was truly a sad weekend on the House floor as we witnessed further dismantling of the Constitution, disregard of the will of the people, explosive expansion of the reach of government, unprecedented corporate favoritism, and the impending end of quality healthcare as we know it. Those in favor of this bill touted their good intentions of ensuring quality healthcare for all Americans, as if those of us against the bill are against good medical care. They cite fanciful statistics of deficit reduction, while simultaneously planning to expand the already struggling medical welfare programs we currently have.
Health reform leaves Americans split, confused Michelle Nichols (Reuters) - The overhaul of the healthcare system is being hailed in political circles as the biggest health policy change in four decades, but President Barack Obama's landmark reform has left some Americans divided and confused. "I don't know about it," Kathy Ivcich, 53-year-old Chicago real estate agent, while showing clients a home in Chicago. "That's why I have to watch the news tonight to get the low-down, because I have no idea whether, or how, it will affect me, as an independent contractor," she said.
Florida says several states to file healthcare lawsuit by Michael Connor MIAMI, March 22 (Reuters) - Florida's attorney general will file a lawsuit with nine other state attorneys general opposing the healthcare legislation passed by Congress, a spokeswoman said on Monday. "The health care reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last night clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and infringes on each state's sovereignty," Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican, said in a prepared statement announcing a news conference.
Virginia to sue U.S. over healthcare reform NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) - Virginia's attorney general said he plans to sue the federal government over the healthcare reform legislation, saying Congress lacks authority to force people to buy health insurance. Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, a Republican, said on Monday that Congress lacks authority under its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce to force people to buy insurance. He said the bill also conflicts with a state law that says Virginians cannot be required to buy insurance.
What Now? By John LeBoutillier - CapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com Is the passage of the so-called Health Care Reform really a huge political victory for President Obama and the liberal Democrats? Or is it actually the beginning of their political obituary? Here is what will answer these questions…
ACORN disbanding because of money woes, scandal By MICHAEL TARM CHICAGO (AP) -- The once mighty community activist group ACORN announced Monday it is folding amid falling revenues - six months after video footage emerged showing some of its workers giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute. "It's really declining revenue in the face of a series of attacks from partisan operatives and right-wing activists that have taken away our ability to raise the resources we need," ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan said. Several of its largest affiliates, including ACORN New York and ACORN California, broke away this year and changed their names in a bid to ditch the tarnished image of their parent organization and restore revenue that ran dry in the wake of the video scandal.
In Chinese court, Rio Tinto mining executive admits taking bribes By David Pierson - LATimes.com Stern Hu of the British-Australian mining firm faces up to 20 years in prison. The case comes as the business environment for non-Chinese firms is perceived to be increasingly difficult. Reporting from Beijing -- In a case that has become a flash point for the foreign business climate in China, an Australian mining executive admitted Monday to taking bribes while working as a chief iron-ore negotiator in China. Australian Stern Hu and three Chinese employees of the British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Group have been held since July, accused of stealing commercial secrets and accepting millions of dollars in bribes.
Broken China By Paul Smalera - CNNMoney.com The burgeoning superpower keeps sabotaging its relationships with the outside world. Google has long been embarrassed by having to restrict its search results in China and promised to stop the practice as soon as it could. The company agreed to self-censor in 2006 as a devil’s bargain to gain access to the Chinese market. But after last year’s successful and major hacking of its Chinese operations (possibly at the direction of Chinese leaders) CEO Eric Schmidt seems to have had enough. “Something will happen soon,” he said about the company’s China presence, just last week.
Google raises stakes in China censorship row Tania Branigan in Beijing - guardian.co.uk, Search giant moves operation to Hong Kong to avoid Beijing's rules after two-month standoff over internet freedom Google shut down its search service in the Chinese mainland last night after a two-month standoff with Beijing over online freedom and an alleged intrusion by hackers. But Chinese authorities attacked the internet giant as "totally wrong" for its decision to shift its Chinese-language offering to Hong Kong. The move allowed the firm to stop self-censoring the service, although the government's filtering system would still prevent mainland users from seeing the results of many sensitive searches.
Google China
Google Stops Censorship, Making Block by China Likely By Brian Womack March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., following through on a pledge to stop censoring search results in China, began serving mainland Chinese users via its unfiltered Hong Kong site, a move that could prompt the government to block the service. The company began redirecting traffic from its Google.cn site to Hong Kong, a part of the country that isn’t subject to censorship laws. The move, which escalates a two- month dispute with the government over censorship, was “totally wrong,” the official Xinhua news agency said.
China angry as Google stops censoring search results By Nick Allen in Los Angeles and Peter Foster in Beijing - Telegraph.co.uk Google has stopped censoring its search results in China in defiance of the country's authorities, sparking a furious response from Beijing. The internet giant said yesterday it was closing its China-based search engine and redirecting visitors to an uncensored site based in Hong Kong. The move follows a long stand-off with Chinese regulators over censorship and hacking and sets up a showdown which could see Google turn its back on the world's biggest internet market. Google's announcement came amid heightened diplomatic tensions between China and the United States over a range of issues from internet freedom to the yuan exchange rate, economic sanctions on Iran and US weapons sales to Taiwan.
Iceland Prepares for Second, More Devastating Volcanic Eruption by Roger Boyes - LewRockwell.com -- Iceland is preparing for an even more powerful and potentially destructive volcano after a small eruption at the weekend shot red-hot molten lava high into the sky. About 500 people were safely evacuated from the land close to the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which is around 120 kilometres (75 miles) southeast of the capital, Reykjavik. The country's two airports were closed for most of the day and transatlantic flights re-routed to avoid the risk of ash blocking visibility and destroying engines.
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Regulators shut 7 banks in 5 states; 37 in 2010 USAToday.com WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators have shut down seven banks in five states, bringing to 37 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday took over the banks: First Lowndes Bank, in Fort Deposit, Ala.; Appalachian Community Bank in Ellijay, Ga.; Bank of Hiawassee, in Hiawassee, Ga.; and State Bank of Aurora, in Aurora, Minn. Earlier, the agency said it had shuttered Advanta Bank, based in Draper, Utah; American National Bank of Parma, Ohio; and Century Security Bank of Duluth, Ga. The bank failures this year follow the 140 that succumbed in 2009 to mounting loan defaults and the recession.
House Passes Health Care Bill, Sweeping Legislation on Its Way to Become Law By HUMA KHAN, JONATHAN KARL and Z. BYRON WOLF - ABCNews.com Anti-Abortion Democrats' Decision to Vote 'Yes' Put Bill Over the Top The House of Representatives passed the sweeping health care bill with a narrow margin, securing a significant victory for President Obama, who lobbied hard this week for the controversial legislation. The vote was certain after the House Democratic leadership finalized a deal this afternoon with anti-abortion Democrats to vote for the health care bill in exchange for an executive order from Obama affirming no federal funding for abortion.
The Wrong Prescription: Democrats’ Health Overhaul Dangerously Expands IRS Authority Report from the Republican Ways and Means Committee If H.R. 3590, the Senate Democrats’ health care bill, is enacted, which could happen as early as this week, Democrats will have vastly expanded the responsibilities of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and fundamentally altered the relationship between the IRS and taxpayers. Specifically, this report examines the Individual Mandate Tax (IMT) proposed in the Democrats’ health care legislation. Under this provision, Democrats make the IRS the chief enforcer for a new government-run health insurance system. One of the most troubling aspects of this new IRS authority is the newly granted power to collect additional taxes from Americans whose health insurance coverage is deemed to be insufficient to meet the definition of minimum coverage, as defined by federal bureaucrats, required to be purchased.
Inside the Pelosi Sausage Factory By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL - WSJ.com Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak sold his anti-abortion soul for a toothless executive order. Last week Republican Rep. Mike Pence posted on his Facebook site that famous Schoolhouse Rock video titled "How a Bill Becomes a Law." It's clearly time for a remake. Never before has the average American been treated to such a live-action view of the sordid politics necessary to push a deeply flawed bill to completion. It was dirty deals, open threats, broken promises and disregard for democracy that pulled ObamaCare to this point, and yesterday the same machinations pushed it across the finish line.
The Fat Lady Hasn't Sung By JOHN FUND - WSJ.com Twelve Democrats who voted for ObamaCare in November voted against the "Slaughter Solution." House Democratic leaders are trying to create an aura of inevitability about their ability to pass health care. Yesterday, they trotted out two members, Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee and Betsy Markey of Colorado, who said they are switching their votes to favor the bill after voting "no" on the first version last November. They join Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who announced he would switch from "no" to "yes." But largely lost in the coverage is the fact that Democrats also have to worry about more than 40 members who voted in favor of health care four months ago but now are publicly undecided. The Hill newspaper, which according to my Congressional sources keeps the most accurate tally, says 214 members are currently committed or leaning against the bill, and 169 members are committed or leaning in favor. While Speaker Pelosi is certain to win over the majority of the undecided, she needs 216 votes to win, which means she must nearly run the table on the 40 or so wavering former "yes" votes.
Gold bull market to accelerate thanks to bonds By Jordan Roy-Byrne A few weeks ago I wrote about the true cause of hyperinflation, which is a major break or failure in the bond market. It has nothing to do with demand, bank lending or the velocity of money as many have suggested. It is a confidence issue. It is not a rise in inflationary expectations but a loss of confidence in a country being able to repay its debts. As confidence is lost, interest rates rise. Monetization occurs when the cost of servicing the debt consumes too much of the overall budget, so that the government can’t provide basic services or loses its ability to function on a day-to-day basis. The important point to note is that deflationary forces lead to hyperinflation. Once again, it is not demand, bank lending or increased velocity. Those things do not trigger severe inflation; they merely can be a symptom after the trigger. And by the way, increased velocity is basically another form of increased demand. Fundamentally, they are no different. Is anyone paying attention to the first domino in the sovereign debt crisis?
Gold steady after drop; eyes greenback and Greece By Nick Trevethan SINGAPORE, March 22 (Reuters) - Gold was steady on Monday as dollar strength that drove bullion 1.7 percent lower in the previous session, its biggest loss since early February, weighed on the market. The dollar was steady versus the euro on Monday, having jumped on Friday on speculation that debt-laden Greece may have to turn to the International Monetary Fund for help, rather than its euro-zone neighbours, sending commodities sharply lower.
I.M.F. Warns Wealthy Nations on Debt By SEWELL CHAN and KEITH BRADSHER - NYTimes.com BEIJING — The global economic crisis has left “deep scars” in the fiscal balances of the world’s advanced economies, which should begin to rein in spending next year as the recovery continues, the No.2 official at the International Monetary Fund said Sunday in Beijing. In a speech at the China Development Forum in Beijing, the I.M.F. official, John Lipsky, who is the deputy managing director, offered a grim prognosis for the world’s wealthiest countries, which are at a level of indebtedness not seen since the aftermath of World War II. For the United States, “a higher public savings rate will be required to ensure long-term fiscal sustainability,” Mr. Lipsky said.
All G7 countries, except Canada and Germany, will have debt-to-GDP ratios close to or exceeding 100 percent by 2014 CT News - ConspiringTimes.com - Lipsky Says Debt Challenges Face Advanced Economies -- Advanced economies face “acute” challenges in tackling high public debt, and unwinding existing stimulus measures will not come close to bringing deficits back to prudent levels, said John Lipsky, first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. March 21 (Bloomberg) – All G7 countries, except Canada and Germany, will have debt-to-GDP ratios close to or exceeding 100 percent by 2014, Lipsky said in a speech today at the China Development Forum in Beijing. Already this year, the average ratio in advanced economies is expected to reach the levels seen in 1950, after World War II, he said. The government debt ratio in some emerging market nations had also reached a “worrisome level.”
Lipsky Says ‘Acute’ Debt Challenges Face Advanced Economies By Joyce Koh March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Advanced economies face “acute” challenges in tackling high public debt, and unwinding existing stimulus measures will not come close to bringing deficits back to prudent levels, said John Lipsky, first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. All G7 countries, except Canada and Germany, will have debt-to-GDP ratios close to or exceeding 100 percent by 2014, Lipsky said in a speech yesterday at the China Development Forum in Beijing. Already this year, the average ratio in advanced economies is expected to reach the levels seen in 1950, after World War II, he said. The government debt ratio in some emerging-market nations has also reached a “worrisome level,” he said.
Jim Rogers Says 2012 Recession Will be Worse Central Banks printing money are driving stocks higher, but has not bought any shares since November 2008. Does not pay any attention to the Fed because they do not know what's going on. Expects U.S. Economy to have a worse recession than 2008-09 which will be worse because of the huge debt burden.
Another Recession Is Coming-Jim Rogers-CNBC-3-17-2010
Divisions Between the US and Europe Widen Over Greek Financial Bailout By: Global Research - MarketOracle.com -- Stefan Steinberg writes: The Greek government is preparing to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial help in the next few weeks to avert a default on its national debt. The move to engage the IMF follows the failure of European finance ministers meeting in Brussels earlier this week to agree on any concrete plan to provide financial backing for Greece. The principal obstacle at the Brussels meeting was the hard line taken by Germany. On Thursday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told the European Parliament that the interest rate Greece is forced to offer investors for servicing its debt is unsustainable, and that his government had complained to the IMF. Papandreou said the inflated borrowing costs would more than offset his government’s savings from the sweeping austerity measures it has introduced.
Markets spooked as Greek rescue plan crumbles By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk Europe’s rescue plan for Greece appears to be crumbling after the country threatened to call in the International Monetary Fund unless Brussels comes up with real money on acceptable terms within a week. The inability of the eurozone to put together a viable package after a month of talks has dismayed markets, which thought the terms of a deal had already been agreed. Yields on 10-year Greek bonds spiked 17 basis points yesterday to 6.26pc. The euro fell two cents against the dollar to below $1.36. "The facade of unity among eurozone members hardly held for more than a day," said Beat Siegenthaler from UBS. Greek Premier George Papandreou told the European Parliament that his country was running out of patience. It is in effect already subject to the full rigours of an IMF-style austerity plan but without enjoying any of the benefits. He said the savings from cost-cutting measures were vanishing into the pockets of bond-holders through higher interest rates.
Can central banks save Greece with gold reserves? By Adrian Ash Gold held flat for US investors in London on Friday, heading for a 2% weekly gain as the Dollar rose against everything but the commodity-currencies on the forex market. European stock markets edged 1% higher from last Friday's finish, while Euro and Sterling bonds both ticked lower as their currencies fell sharply. Gold priced in Pounds neared its second-highest weekly close at £743 an ounce, just shy of the £750 finish hit a fortnight ago. The Gold Price in Euros rose within 1% of March 5th's all-time peak at €838 an ounce.
Once Again Risk Aversion is Taking Center Stage by James Hyerczyk - FinancialSense.com Once again risk aversion is taking center stage as traders are buying the Dollar and shedding higher risk currencies. The main concern driving the Dollar higher overnight is Greece’s ability to obtain financial aid. Traders are pricing in the strong possibility that Greece will not receive aid from the European Union and be forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund for help.
Debt Saturation in the US Dollar Economy JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN The debt must be liquidated and income in the form of real wages must increase to bring this relationship back into balance. This is going to be a dangerous path for the US monetary authority to tread, because a misstep will lead to an inflationary spiral that will surprise most economists as did the stagflation of the 1970's, which up until that point was considered to be almost impossible according to the prevailing theory of that day.
Has Germany just killed the dream of a European superstate? By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk So after weeks of Euro-bluff it looks ever more like an IMF rescue for Greece after all, and hence for any other eurozone nation driven to ruin by the wrong monetary policy. German and Dutch leaders have concluded in the nick of time that they cannot defy the will of their sovereign parliaments by propping up a country that lied about its deficits, or risk court defeats by breaching the no-bail-out clause in Article 125 of the EU Treaties. Chancellor Angela Merkel has halted at the Rubicon. So has Dutch premier Jan Peter Balkenende, as well he might in charge of a broken government facing elections in a country where far-right leader Geert Wilders is the second political force, and where the Tweede Kamer has categorically blocked loans for Greece.
Greek leader warns Berlin that EU at risk if no aid Breitbart.com Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou implicitly criticised Germany on Saturday for opposing efforts to help his country out of its fiscal crisis, warning they risked destabilising the EU. "We have struggled for years to build a strong Europe, economically stable and with social solidarity," Papandreou said at a meeting of the national council of his socialist PASOK party. But "many forces forget the political importance of the euro, and are withdrawing the substance of the political vision of the European project, which is a joint effort to develop our economy in a calm and stable climate," he added.
Merkel gives Greece EU stability pledge Breitbart.com German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Greece's Prime Minister Georges Papandreou Sunday that the European Union would do "everything necessary" to preserve eurozone stability, her office said. Merkel told Papandreou in a phone conversation that the "EU was determined to undertake everything necessary to preserve the stability of the eurozone," a statement said. Merkel also "confirmed her support for Greek reforms", while Papandreou "underlined that Greece did not need financial aid," the statement added.
China Accuses U.S. of Politicizing Yuan as Trade Surplus Sinks By Bloomberg News March 22 (Bloomberg) -- China warned the U.S. against imposing sanctions over the value of the yuan, arguing that the exchange rate issue has been politicized and that a rise in protectionism threatens the global economic recovery. Pressure on China to strengthen the yuan does “no good to anyone,” China’s Commerce Minister Chen Deming said at the China Development Forum in Beijing yesterday. China’s trade balance likely slipped into the red in March, although the yuan was stable, showing that exchange rate changes have a “limited” impact on trade, Chen said.
China's corrupt Communists in the frame for graft By Peter Foster in Beijing - NYTimes.com A Chinese artist has risked the wrath of the Communist Party by preparing to mount exhibition that highlights its burgeoning number of corrupt officials. The daring new art work highlights the scale of graft in the world's largest emerging economy, which wages a constant war on corruption. The work, entitled "Hall of Fame", contains the portraits of 680 officials who have been successfully been prosecuted for embezzling, stealing or collecting bribes. The installation by the Beijing-based contemporary artist, Zhang Bingjian, aims to confront viewers with portraits of the jailed officials all painted in the crimson red of China largest denomination 100 yuan banknote.
Academic Paper in China Sets Off Alarms in U.S. By JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID BARBOZA - NYTimes.com It came as a surprise this month to Wang Jianwei, a graduate engineering student in Liaoning, China, that he had been described as a potential cyberwarrior before the United States Congress. Larry M. Wortzel, a military strategist and China specialist, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 10 that it should be concerned because “Chinese researchers at the Institute of Systems Engineering of Dalian University of Technology published a paper on how to attack a small U.S. power grid sub-network in a way that would cause a cascading failure of the entire U.S.”
Jim Rogers on Chinese Currency and Trade War: My Thoughts By: Dian L Chu - MarketOracle.com In a Business News Network interview on Mar. 18, Jim Rogers, famous investor and creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI) speaks about the recent currency and trade confrontation between the US and China: Rogers thinks the U.S. should try to explain to the Chinese that it is to their benefits to allow some flexibility in their currency. For instance, yuan's appreciation will in turn lower the cost of China’s imports and its supply chain. He acknowledges that the Chinese understand that their currency policy will need to change eventually in order to become a major player on the world stage. Although the yuan has appreciated some in the past few years, but it is just not up to the expectation of the U.S. Rogers estimates Chinese renminbi (yuan) could replace the dollar as the next reserve currency of the world in the next 10 to 20 years.
U.S. China Dispute Over Currency Manipulation and Bubbles Discusses China / U.S. currency manipulation dispute, says China will eventually have to float its currency if it wants to become a serious global economic and financial player. Only expect a short-term rally in the Dollar, favor's Canadian Dollar for the long-run. Expects China economy to do well even if China housing bubble bursts
China Warns Against U.S. Trade Sanctions By TERENCE POON - WSJ.com BEIJING--China's commerce minister on Sunday cautioned the U.S. against citing the Chinese currency as a reason for imposing trade sanctions, saying Beijing "won't turn a blind eye" to such moves, as both nations intensify their verbal sparring on the yuan exchange rate. With China recovering swiftly from the financial crisis even as Europe and the U.S. try to deal with stubbornly high rates of joblessness, Beijing's decision to keep the yuan largely unchanged against the U.S. dollar since July 2008 has increasingly drawn flak. Critics say an undervalued yuan is giving Chinese exporters a competitive edge against exporters elsewhere.
Bernanke Says Large Bank Bailouts ‘Unconscionable,’ Must End By Steve Matthews and Phil Mattingly -- March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said government bailouts of big financial companies are “unconscionable” and must be ended as part of a regulatory overhaul following the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. “It is unconscionable that the fate of the world economy should be so closely tied to the fortunes of a relatively small number of giant financial firms,” Bernanke said yesterday in a speech in Orlando, Florida. “If we achieve nothing else in the wake of the crisis, we must ensure that we never again face such a situation.”
Fed must reveal bank loan info from financial crisis, court rules By Larry Neumeister And Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press NEW YORK — The Federal Reserve must reveal documents identifying financial companies that received Fed loans to survive the financial crisis, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. A panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said in two separate opinions that such information isn't automatically exempt from requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
Conservatives Promise Bank Levy By ALISTAIR MACDONALD And DAVID ENRICH - WSJ.com Banks moved back onto center stage in U.K. politics over the weekend, as the opposition Conservative Party said it would introduce a U.S.-style bank levy if it wins this spring's general election. The levy would repay taxpayers for bailing out banks during the credit crunch, Conservative leader David Cameron said in a speech Saturday. In a rare pairing, bank representatives joined with the Labour government to criticize the Tory proposal as vague, populist and potentially dangerous, claiming it could make British banks uncompetitive.
Bernanke: Fed should oversee all banks By Julianne Pepitone NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As Congress considers limiting the Federal Reserve's regulatory authority to just the country's largest bank holding companies, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke reiterated on Saturday that the central bank should retain power over banks of all sizes. "Because of the remarkable diversity of the U.S. financial system, a supervisory agency that focused only on the largest banking institutions, without knowledge of community banks, would get a limited and potentially distorted picture of what was happening in our banking system as a whole," Bernanke said in a speech to the Independent Community Bankers of America.
Fed Ends Bank Exemption Aimed at Boosting Mortgage Liquidity By Craig Torres March 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Board removed an exemption it had given to six banks at the start of the crisis in 2007 aimed at boosting liquidity in financing markets for securities backed by mortgage- and asset-backed securities. The so-called 23-A exemptions, named after a section of the Federal Reserve Act that limits such trades to protect bank depositors, were granted days after the Fed cut the discount rate by half a percentage point on Aug. 17, 2007. Their removal, announced yesterday in Washington, is part of a broad wind-down of emergency liquidity backstops by the Fed as markets normalize.
Watch the Bond Market, not Bank Lending or Velocity by Jordan Roy-Byrne - FinancialSense.com A few weeks ago we wrote about the true cause of hyperinflation, which is a major break or failure in the bond market. It has nothing to do with demand, bank lending or the velocity of money as many have suggested. It is a confidence issue. It is not a rise in inflationary expectations but a loss of confidence in a country being able to repay its debts. As confidence is lost, interest rates rise. Monetization occurs when the cost of servicing the debt consumes too much of the overall budget, so that the government can’t provide basic services or loses its ability to function on a day-to-day basis.
Public Pension Deficits Are Worse Than You Think By ANDREW G. BIGGS - WSJ.com How can fund managers assume an 8% rate of return? Pension plans for state government employees today report they are underfunded by $450 billion, according to a recent report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. But this vastly underestimates the true shortfall, because public pension accounting wrongly assumes that plans can earn high investment returns without risk. My research indicates that overall underfunding tops $3 trillion. The problem is fundamental: According to accounting rules adopted by the states, a public sector pension plan may call itself "fully funded" even if there is a better-than-even chance it will be unable to meet its obligations. When that happens, the taxpayer is on the hook. Yet public pension plans ignore market risk even as they shift into risky foreign investments, hedge funds and private equity.
Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winner who threatens the world By Jeremy Warner - NYTimes.com Paul Krugman, an American economist, wants to start a trade war with China. It would be worse than the 1930s, says Jeremy Warner. When the self-proclaimed "conscience of liberal America" and a one-time free trader to boot starts arguing for protectionism, you know that things have come to a pretty pass. But that's what's happened over the past week. Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, has taken to advocating a 25 per cent "surcharge" – he refuses to use the more descriptive term of "import tariff" – on goods from China as a way of bringing the Chinese leadership to heel over currency reform. So potentially dangerous and out of character is this idea that when I first read it, I assumed he was being ironic. But sometimes the cleverest of people can also be the most stupid, and he's now said it so often that you have to believe he's serious.
Alan Greenspan - just admit you screwed up already!!
State-Owned Banks: The Future of Banking? By ALICE GOMSTYN - ABC News Business Unit State Officials Look to North Dakota Bank Model to Create Jobs; Critics Fear Marxism, Fannie Mae-Style Meltdown When the recession challenged Pam Wanner's bakery, she found comfort in what might seem a surprising place: her bank, the Bank of North Dakota, the only state-owned bank in the country. BND teamed up with a private, local bank in 2007 to provide Wanner's Twisted Bakery with a $100,000 loan that the bakery used to invest in equipment to create gluten-free products. Though the recession slowed Wanner's business plans, she's optimistic that her gluten-free herb breads and pastries will help Twisted's bottom line bounce back. If not for BND, she said, she probably never would have gotten such a loan at all.
Prudential will come to regret lack of clarity By Damian Reece - NYTimes.com Prudential shareholders will be forgiven for wondering what, exactly, is going on at the insurer. The company has fallen flat on its face over Tidjane Thiam’s appointment as a non-executive of French bank Soc Gen. There are conflicting versions but obviously Soc Gen was clearly of the view Thiam had accepted its invitation and announced it on Wednesday. It was met with dismay among Pru shareholders who were expecting Thiam to be utterly focused on the company’s delicate manoeuvre to buy AIA for $35.5bn. It turns out the appointment had not been signed off by the Pru board. The right hand did not know what the left was doing. This is unforgivable during such an important process as a takeover, which requires careful and precise choreography.
Hey, Big Spender: You Need a Surtax By ROBERT H. FRANK - NYTimes.com LAST year’s stimulus spending is running out, yet unemployment stays stubbornly near 10 percent. And as state and local governments keep cutting their budgets, the economy desperately needs an additional spending boost. Concerned about growing federal deficits, however, many in Congress appear reluctant to act. Their worries are misguided. Yes, deficits are bad, but protracted unemployment is far worse. Still, it seems unlikely that additional stimulus legislation can attract the supermajority now required to clear the Senate. And even without such legislation, huge budget deficits loom for years. In the long run, these deficits will impoverish our grandchildren, just as the deficit hawks assert.
Thousands face multiple foreclosures LATimes.com Though signs of recovery in the housing market are emerging, thousands of people in Southern California are in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure--someone of them even face losing two or three homes, Alana Semuels reports today. The problem is especially visible in areas that attracted speculative buyers during the boom. In Maricopa County in Arizona, which includes Phoenix, at least 283 individuals have received a foreclosure notice on two or more properties since 2006, according to data provided by RealtyTrac Inc.
Some homeowners face repeated foreclosures
Supply of Foreclosed Homes on the Rise Again By JAMES R. HAGERTY - WSJ.com The supply of foreclosed homes that banks need to sell is rising again, signaling further downward pressure on home prices in some parts of the U.S. Mortgage analysts at Barclays Capital in New York estimated that banks and mortgage investors held a total of 645,800 foreclosed homes in January, up 4.6% from 617,286 a month earlier. According to Barclays, the supply peaked at around 845,000 in November 2008 and then declined through 2009.
Authentic Wealth Enhancement Essentials by DeepCaster LLC "Inflate, Deflate, Confiscate" -- U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft (RIP) on the Mega-Banks favorite technique. “The shadow banking system is still alive and growing. According to a new paper (PDF) by the Levy Economics Institute of U Miss, the derivative exposure of Goldman Sachs was 33,823% of its assets in 2009 (as compared to 25,284% in 2008). They are still leveraged to the hilt and the US government (i.e. the U.S. taxpayer) is the backstop.” "The U.S. Federal Reserve's framework is a corrupt one in that its regional banks are managed by board members who are officers from the very private institutions they are designed to govern, says Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz.
Consuming Our Capital by Butler Shaffer - LewRockwell.com It must be admitted that there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have been unstable ones. ~ Alfred North Whitehead A sure-fire sign of a business enterprise in decline is when it begins using its invested capital to pay operating expenses. Such signs of ill-health are not confined to the world of commerce and industry, but can exhibit themselves in the life of any system. We are witnessing the practice in the collapse of Western Civilization, as we scurry to meet short-term demands by sacrificing the foundations upon which our culture has long been grounded.
Sultans of Swap - ACT II - The Sting! by Gordon T Long - FinancialSense.com There are 7 stages to executing a successful sting operation. Whether this is the modus operandi behind the Sultans of Swap operating in the $605 Trillion OTC Derivatives market or just simple coincidence, I will leave it to you shrewd reader to determine. The seven stages do however offer us an instructive theater guide to better understanding these murky instruments called Interest Rate Swaps.
Retire in Poverty by Ron Holland - LewRockwell.com The 10 Step Final Countdown to Retirement Plan Nationalization As the United States travels down the long road from the first limited government republic model of our Patriot Founding Fathers to a Washington style form of fascist national socialism, both health insurance and our private retirement system will eventually be nationalized and much of our retirement wealth confiscated all in the name of protecting us. But in a democracy, unlike total fascist and communist systems, great pillage and wealth attacks by government does not happen over night like Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany against Jewish wealth and property. The same can be said for Stalin's starvation of the Ukraine and forced collectivization and confiscation of all private property and farms. By necessity in a democracy, it is a slow, incremental step-by-step process and this provides the means for American investors to protect and defend their retirement assets.
Gerald Celente: Great 2010 Crash is looming
Jihad as American as apple pie, says US-born cleric CT News - ConspiringTimes.com WASHINGTON (AFP) – Violent jihad, or Islamic holy war, is “becoming as American as apple pie,” US-born fugitive cleric Anwar Al-Awlaqi said in an unauthenticated message released Friday. “Western jihad is here to stay,” warned Awlaqi as he commented on a blonde American who dubbed herself “JihadJane” and has pleaded not guilty to trying to recruit Islamist militants to murder a Swedish cartoonist. “Jihad is becoming as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea,” the US-Yemeni cleric said in an English-language message posted on militant forums and released by the US-based SITE monitoring agency.
Business school grads flocking to Asia for jobs By Michelle Conlin - BusinessWeek.com Exodus of talent from U.S. may be part of structural shift in corporate world James Tsai is the sort of MBA corporate recruiters covet. He went to a good prep school, earned a degree with honors from Middlebury College, and made vice-president in Bank of America's international wealth management group at the age of 26. Today, Tsai is about to graduate, straight A's in hand, from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, a top-rated program in America. And he's hustling to land his first post-MBA job — in China. Executive Class strivers like Tsai used to have just one post-grad career destination, the U.S. Not anymore. "I am doing everything I think I can to get over there," he says. Every era has its version of the MBA dream. In the 1980s, it was about conquering Wall Street and choppering off to the Hamptons. The late 1990s saw a stampede to Silicon Valley. In the mid-aughts, the gilded, clubby preserve of private equity beckoned.
Phoenix lands near bottom of metro job list Phoenix Business Journal Private-sector employment declined in January in all of America’s 100 biggest labor markets, including Phoenix, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Private-sector jobs now stand at 1.44 million, down from 1.53 million a year ago and 1.49 million in January 2005. Ten years ago, the number was 1.34 million. The loss of 90,300 jobs from January 2009 to January 2010 puts Phoenix in the No. 95 slot, while the percentage drop of 5.91 percent puts the metro area at No. 92.
Denver area lost 49,400 jobs in a year Denver Business Journal The Denver metro area lost 49,400 private-sector jobs -- 4.78 percent of the total -- in the 12 months ending in January, according to an analysis of new federal jobs data. The analysis is by G. Scott Thomas, projects editor of the Denver Business Journal's sister paper, Business First of Buffalo, N.Y. The Denver-Aurora-Broomfield area had 1,033,800 workers in the private sector in January 2009, and 12 months later it had 984,400, Thomas' analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates. Denver's total private-sector job loss over the 12-month span ranked 16th highest among the nation's top 100 metro areas, Thomas reported. Its precentage of job loss ranked 27th highest of the 100 metros.
More Ugly Housing Data by Adam Brochert - FinancialSense.com Every month, tout TV and mainstream financial sites like Yahoo! Finance and Marketwatch re-print propaganda pieces from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and other vested interests related to real estate. The headlines are ALWAYS spun to look positive, as comfort is more important than truth. The NAR has been calling the bottom in housing every month since before the top was in! Statistics are twisted and tricks like comparing the current month to the prior month instead of the same month in the prior year are used routinely to baffle, confuse, satiate and/or soothe those who still turn to mainstream media sources for truthful data. The numbers in housing are becoming surreal.
Home values in Phoenix metro could fall again because of 'shadow inventory' by Catherine Reagor - The Arizona Republic --Phoenix area home prices could experience another drop in value because of tens of thousands of properties that could flood the market in 2010. This shadow inventory, located across metropolitan Phoenix, is threatening the recovery of the real estate market and overall Arizona economy. It includes an unknown number of pending foreclosures, bank-owned homes bought at foreclosure auctions by investors who might try for a quick sale, thousands of homes foreclosed on by banks that have not yet put them up for resale and homes that will go into foreclosure after their owners abandon them and walk away from their mortgages.
House Passes Landmark Legislation Overhauling U.S. Health Care By Laura Litvan, James Rowley and Kristin Jensen -- March 21 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House passed the most sweeping U.S. health-care legislation in four decades, rewriting the rules governing medical industries and ensuring that tens of millions of uninsured Americans will get medical coverage. The 219-212 vote marks the biggest victory yet for President Barack Obama, who will soon sign the bill into law. Only Democrats voted for the legislation, underscoring a partisan divide that promises to make health care the defining issue in November’s congressional elections.
In Nebraska, issues of immigration and abortion collide By DeeDee Correll - LATimes.com A bill is withdrawn that would have provided prenatal care for illegal immigrants. It had support from the state's powerful antiabortion contingent, but immigration has stirred growing anger here. Reporting from Denver - Nebraska long has regarded itself as a staunchly antiabortion state. But for months, the state has wrestled with an issue that pits its signature conviction against another belief -- that illegal immigrants should not receive tax-supported services. So two viewpoints collided with this question: Should Nebraska pay for prenatal care for the unborn children of illegal immigrants?
The Lunatic Left Is Getting Desperate by Thomas J. DiLorenzo - LewRockwell.com The Huffington Post recently (March 18) sunk to a new low by publishing an attack on “Ron Paul and the Tea Parties: States’ Rights and the 17th Amendment” by one Leonard Zeskind, a “former” Stalinist rabble-rouser. According to the Wilcox Collection on Contemporary Political Movements at the University of Kansas’ Spencer Research Library, Zeskind began his communistic career of agitprop in the ’70s as a “front man” for the “Sojourner Truth Organization” whose stated objective was “to motivate the working classes to make a revolution.” The Organization quoted its role model, Josef Stalin, who insisted on the need for “iron discipline” in agitating for a communist revolution in America.
U.S. Census Tracks Mail, Raising Fears Among Some by Jean Spencer - LewRockwell.com Census Bureau officials are counting on an advanced postal tracking system to speed up responses and save the government millions of dollars in follow-up letters and visits by census takers. But some privacy advocates and lawmakers are troubled by the tracking system, which they say oversteps privacy bounds. The 2010 Census forms arrive this week at 120 million addresses across the country. Each piece of Census mail comes with a unique barcode that lets the U.S. Postal Service and the bureau track individual letters as they travel to and from the bureau. Each time a letter zips through sorting equipment – typically five times between the initial mailing and delivery – it generates data that are fed into a computer system that lets the bureau monitor its progress.
November, 2010: More Rearranging of Deck Chairs by Scott Lazarowitz - LewRockwell.com You’ve probably heard the expression, "Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," which refers to making futile changes to a failing situation. This November’s elections will be such a case of rearranging the deck chairs on Titanic America, because the real problem that needs to be addressed is systemic, and serious systemic changes need to be made. There will be those who will say, "No, no, don’t say that, we have a chance to win back both the House and the Senate this November!" But these are times that call for a dose of reality. Unfortunately, many people involved with the Tea Party movement seem to have the misguided notion that the Founders’ structure of the federal government is adequate, but that the people in Washington just need to be replaced. However, the Founders’ forming a federal government with centralized power and authority and a compulsory territorial monopoly has been shown to be an immense error. Inherent in such a structure is the violation of property and individuals’ rights to life and liberty, hence America’s steady moral decay over the last century. And inherent in federalism is the violation of state independence and sovereignty.
Hatch Says It’s ’Nuts’ to Think House Vote Ends Health Issue By Nicholas Johnston March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are “nuts” to think tomorrow’s vote on health-care legislation will resolve the issue. If the measure passes, Senate Republicans have enough votes on at least two points of order to alter the measure and send it back to the House for a second round of votes, Hatch said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “If those people think they’re only going to vote on this once, they’re nuts,” Hatch said as House Democratic leaders rounded up support before the scheduled vote on President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.
The Health Plan's Devilish Principles by Murray N. Rothbard - LewRockwell.com Murray wrote against Hillarycare in 1994; his article is also relevant to Obamacare in 2010. The standard media cliché about the Clinton health plan is that God, or the Devil, depending on your point of view, "is in the details." There is surprising agreement among both the supporters and all too many of the critics of the Clinton health "reform." The supporters say that the general principles of the plan are wonderful, but that there are a few problems in the details: e.g., how much will it cost, how exactly will it be financed, will small business get a sufficient subsidy to offset its higher costs, and on into the night.
Wal-Mart to slash grocery prices (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc will cut food prices and mount a new ad campaign over the next six weeks, a threat to other U.S. grocers that sent an industry shares index down more than 2 percent on Friday. A Morgan Stanley analyst first reported the world's largest retailer's plan, calling it a major setback for other U.S. grocers, and the company confirmed the promotions in an email. "While this helps address Walmart's traffic woes, we view this as a major setback for the grocery stocks, which have been rallying on hopes of a return to more rational pricing," Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Wiltamuth wrote in a note on Friday.
US-NATO “Strategic Concept”: Global Warfare CT News - ConspiringTimes.com Missile Shield And Nuclear Weapons The civilian chief of the world’s only, and history’s first self-proclaimed global, military bloc is having a busy month. Via: Global Research – North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen delivered an address in Washington, DC on February 23 on the military alliance’s new 21st century Strategic Concept along with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her predecessor twice-removed Madeleine Albright and National Security Adviser James Jones, the last-named a former Marine Corps general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander.
Fury as Google puts the SAS's secret base on Street View in 'very serious security breach' By DAILY MAIL REPORTER -- Military chiefs and MPs blasted internet giant Google today after its Street View service included detailed pictures of the headquarters of the SAS. Internet users can peer around the entrance to Credenhill, Herefordshire, which has never before appeared on maps for security reasons. The base is even marked as 'British SAS' on the website and offers users a detailed 180 degree view of the perimeter boundary. MPs and military top brass have demanded Google removes the pictures, claiming it makes the SAS a target for terrorist attacks.
Spy in the sky that sees round corners CT News - ConspiringTimes.com WHY jump in a cab to “follow that car” when an airborne drone could do the job for you? The US Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is developing a radar system which sees around corners and down into “urban canyons”. DARPA hopes to be able to track vehicles across an entire city using just a few uncrewed aircraft. NEW SCIENTIST - Traditional radar relies on direct line of sight, so it’s tricky to track a vehicle that keeps nipping behind buildings. But DARPA believes that by using buildings as mirrors, it will be possible to identify a target vehicle from radar reflections. The experimental system is called Multipath Exploitation Radar
Trading Day : March 18, 2010: China in a Mess Chinese economic bubble is built with DEBT and is likely to burst. Guess they figured if we could do it and prosper, then they could as well. Stay tuned, . . . we'll see how well they fair with nobody buying their debt.
Chinese Official’s Threat Sets Off a Media Furor By SHARON LaFRANIERE and JONATHAN ANSFIELD - NYTimes.com BEIJING — In another era, the brusque response of Li Hongzhong, the governor of Hubei Province, to a reporter’s question about a scandal on his home turf might have been the end of it. Infuriated that the reporter would even ask about the case — in which a waitress at a karaoke bar killed a government official in self-defense — he threatened to go to her boss, seized her audio recorder and marched off, according to reports of the encounter.
Google in China: we're closing tomorrow By Rupert Neate - NYTimes.com Google will tomorrow set out plans to close down its Chinese search engine after refusing to comply with China’s strict censorship laws. The company is expected to announce the closure of google.cn by as early as April 10 after the Chinese government refused to acquiesce to demands that it stop self-censorship of the site. It is understood that Google will continue to operate other services in the country and will maintain its research and development operations. The technology giant surprised the multi-billion pound digital industry in January when it told China that it would pull out of the country unless it was allowed to present uncensored search results.
China Technology Rules Hurt U.S. Companies as Google Exit Looms March 22 (Bloomberg) -- China’s new rules to encourage home-grown technology are causing U.S. companies to lose sales, according to an American Chamber of Commerce survey released today in Beijing. Twenty-eight percent of 203 members responding to the survey said they are losing business because of the policy. Among technology companies, 37 percent of 49 respondents said their businesses were being hurt now, with 57 percent predicting they would be set back by the new regulations.
China vs the US - The Battle For Oil
On the Edge with Max Keiser - 19 March 2010 - (1/3)
On the Edge with Max Keiser - 19 March 2010 - (2/3)
On the Edge with Max Keiser - 19 March 2010 - (3/3)
Yuan Poised to Become Reserve Currency, Goldman’s O’Neill Says -- By Keith Jenkins -- March 19 (Bloomberg) -- China’s yuan is destined to become a global reserve currency rivaling the dollar and the euro, as the nation’s economic power increases the currency’s allure, said Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The Chinese government will “eventually” allow the yuan, or renminbi, to trade freely on foreign-exchange markets, dropping the system under which it controls its value, O’Neill wrote in an essay that formed part of a report published today for Chatham House, a London-based foreign affairs research organization.
Betting on Economic Recovery By Joel Bowman - DailyReckoning.com Flirting With Disaster 03/18/10 Taipai, Taiwan – Markets were dallying last we checked, up a bit, but not enough to sway an opinion. The majors in the US are up on average 5% for the past month, aided, as far as we can tell, by slapdash political rhetoric, myopic investor optimism and cherry-picked data analysis. That said, a 5% gain is a good month by just about anybody’s measure. So why are we so dour? The short answer is, “we’re not…we’re just cautious.” In his terrific book, Fooled By Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, Nassim Nicholas Taleb explores, among other things, something he calls the “zoology” of bullish and bearish sentiment. In one particular example, Taleb describes the scene in a New York office when he is asked to give his forecast on the trajectory of the market over the coming week.
The “Sucker Rally” Will Come to an End By Rocky Vega - DailyReckoning.com 03/18/10 Stockholm, Sweden – It’s refreshing to come across the sucker’s rally concept again. It has been a long time now. It’s slipped so far from all the headlines of late it seemed like we were the only people who still recalled that it’s what we’re seeing taking place. The talented person with the sucker’s rally insight? No less than Rick Rule, founder and chairman of Global Resource Investments and regular Agora Financial Investment Symposium speaker, who recently shared his current thoughts on the economy.
Marc Faber: We Have a New Gold Standard By: Antonia Oprita - CNBC.com The markets have created their own gold standard because of uncertainties regarding other asset classes, Marc Faber, author of "The Gloom, Boom and Doom Report," told CNBC Thursday. "I think we already have now a gold standard … created by the market place," Faber told "Squawk Box Europe." "We have the (exchange traded funds) that have proliferated and we have more and more physical buying of gold," he said.
Comex Gold Boosted By Greek Uncertainty By Allen Sykora of Dow Jones Newswires Gold futures shrugged off a muscular dollar Thursday and rose anyway as investors showed a preference to hold the metal rather than the major currencies as uncertainty continues to swirl around Greece's debt situation. Lightly traded but nearby March gold rose $3.40, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,127.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Most-active April climbed $3.30, or 0.29%, to $1,127.50. On the surface, gold's move might not appear major. Yet several observers said the modest gain reflected strength since the U.S. dollar index was more than half of a point higher as the Comex gold pit closed. The metal historically has an inverse relationship to the dollar, benefiting as a hedge against dollar weakness, but conversely running into selling when the dollar rises.
Gold May Gain on Alternative to Dollar, Low Rates, Survey Shows by Nicholas Larkin -- March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Gold may gain on speculation demand will increase as investors seek an alternative to the dollar and low interest rates, a survey showed. Ten of 17 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, or 59 percent, said bullion would rise next week. Five forecast lower prices and two were neutral. Gold for delivery in April was up 2.3 percent for this week at $1,126.60 an ounce at 12:46 p.m. in New York yesterday.
Central Bank Gold Holdings Expand at Fastest Pace Since 1964 By Nicholas Larkin -- March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Central banks added the most gold to their reserves since 1964 last year amid the longest rally in bullion prices in at least nine decades, data compiled by the World Gold Council show. Combined holdings rose 425.4 metric tons to 30,116.9 tons, an increase worth $13.3 billion at last year’s average price, according to the data. India, Russia and China said last year they added to reserves. The expansion was the first since 1988, the data from the London-based council show.
The Bizarre Art of Central Banking Ron Paul teaches Ben Bernanke a lesson on Austrian free-market economics, but the Chairman is not listening. Instead, he tries to defend his actions by asserting that "central banking is an art" that requires guesswork.
Dollar Bulls Beware Peter Schiff By late 2009, as the U.S. dollar flirted with multi-year lows against most foreign currencies, big investment players crowded into trades that shorted the greenback. Commentators noted that the anti-dollar momentum had taken on a life of its own and that the trade had become too crowded. It is true that markets have a nasty tendency to move against the crowd. When a lot of traders agree on a particular trade, it's more likely that in the short-run the opposite trade will be a winner. The 2008 "flight to safety" rally of the U.S. dollar was a once in a lifetime event that presented huge opportunities for aggressive currency traders. By December 2008, after rallying 25% over the previous five months, the dollar topped out. However, there were many speculators who had come somewhat late to the party, as well as many others who had ridden the dollar up and were thus sitting on huge unrealized gains.
Treasuries Head for Weekly Gain as Greek Crisis Boosts Demand By Theresa Barraclough March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Treasuries headed for a weekly gain as speculation that Greece will fail to secure financial aid from the European Union increased demand for government debt. Benchmark 10-year notes snapped two weeks of losses after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou set a one-week deadline for the EU to compile an aid package before it goes to the International Monetary Fund. The difference between 2- and 10- year yields was near the lowest since January after a U.S. government report yesterday showed consumer prices stopped rising last month.
Failing Banks Should Go Through Bankruptcy, Key Senators Say By SARA HANSARD - DailyFinance.com -- Two key members of the Senate Banking committee who are negotiating how the government should deal with failing financial firms, indicated today that, in their opinions, large institutions should go through a judicial bankruptcy process, rather than being shut down by the government without court review. "If you're going to take down a major company, there ought to be a little bit of a due process," Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said at a forum on financial reform at the National Press Club this morning. "Bankruptcy ought to be the primary process," Warner agreed. "Resolution should only be used as a last resort, and should be so painful that no rational man would ever want to prefer resolution."
Greenspan Says Banks May Need to Raise Reserve Capital by 40% -- By Steve Matthews -- March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said regulators may need to compel banks to raise capital levels by as much as 40 percent, saying that’s a more effective way to ensure stability than new regulatory rules targeting risk. “The most pressing reform that needs fixing in the aftermath of the crisis, in my judgment, is the level of regulatory risk-adjusted capital,” Greenspan said in a paper prepared for a Brookings Institution conference today. “Adequate capital eliminates the need for an unachievable specificity in regulatory fine-tuning.”
Bernanke Criticizes Dodd Plan to Curb Fed Supervision By Craig Torres and Joshua Zumbrun March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke criticized a proposal in the Senate to limit the central bank’s supervision to the largest financial firms, saying it would undercut its ability to spot financial risks. “The insights provided by our role in supervising a range of banks, including community banks, significantly increases our effectiveness in making monetary policy and fostering financial stability,” Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee yesterday.
Is Fed About To Hike Discount Rate, Again? By: Lee Brodie - CNBC.com The market melt-up appeared to be losing steam on Thursday due to chatter the Fed may hike the discount rate again, after the bell. What's the word on the Street? If you believe in history repeating itself, you may want to take pause, says Guy Adami. The last time the Fed raised the discount rate was February 18th, a Thursday, after the close. And the next day was options expiration, which is what we’re looking at today. I think there’s a reasonable chance they do it. I’d get flat. Looking at the broad market, I can’t help but wonder if the market wants to reverse and go down and this becomes the catalyst.
Fed May Boost Discount Rate Before Next Meeting, Economists Say -- By Joshua Zumbrun and Craig Torres -- March 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve may increase the discount rate, charged on direct loans to banks, before the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on April 28, economists said. “It’s going to happen at some point,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. “Whether it’s today, whether it’s next week or next month is hard to say.”
Health Bill Would Add 3.8% Tax on Investment Income By Ryan J. Donmoyer and James Rowley March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic congressional leaders would raise to 3.8 percent the Obama administration’s proposed new Medicare tax on investment income to generate an estimated $210 billion to help fund a health-care overhaul plan. The rate is higher than the 2.9 percent President Barack Obama proposed in February. The new tax would apply to income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, capital gains and rents for individuals who earn more than $200,000 annually and joint filers reporting more than $250,000, according to the legislation.
Two Really Bad Deals By: Larry Kudlow - CNBC Anchor I don’t know if Obamacare is going to pass the House or not. As of this morning, the Intrade pay-to-play betting parlor is giving a 75 percent probability that it will go through. So Intrade seems to think so. But here’s what I do know: Obamacare’s worst tax hike is the imposition of a new 3.9 percent Medicare payroll tax on capital gains and other investments. What will this do? It will depress the economy, depress wages, and depress jobs. Washington doesn’t understand that you can’t create jobs without new healthy businesses. Can there be anything dumber? Look, raising the capital-gains tax to 24 percent from 15 percent, which includes repealing the Bush tax cut, is a 60 percent tax increase. So, instead of keeping 85 cents on the extra dollar invested, you only get to keep 76 cents. That’s a 10 percent drop in the after-tax incentive for capital formation. Incentives matter.
Skyrocketing Health Care Costs Hamper U.S. Competitiveness By CHARLES HUGH SMITH - DailyFinance.com -- It's no secret that the U.S. outspends other countries on health care. Health insurance alone, including premiums and employee contributions, averaged $12,680 per family in 2008, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a respected health-care nonprofit. Overall, the U.S. spent 17.6% of its gross domestic product P) on health care in 2009, more than double the percentages spent by Japan, Britain, Spain, Italy or Australia. But health-care costs are far more than just a health issue; they're also an economic problem. The skyrocketing bill for health care, including both public and private expenses, is reducing America's competitiveness as a global producer of goods and services.
Health reform: Where the money will come from By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Democrats pushing for health care reform are closer to the finish line than ever, but it's not over yet. And the question of cost will remain a central issue in coming days. On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office weighed in with a key -- if still very preliminary -- cost estimate. The latest bill is a mix of provisions from a bill the Senate passed last December and proposals made by President Obama recently. Like the Senate version, the so-called reconciliation bill would provide government subsidies to low- and middle-income families buying health insurance on their own, expand eligibility rules for Medicaid and provide coverage for a majority of uninsured Americans. It would also establish a number of insurance reforms.
The Pain in Spain: An Economy in Crisis
Roach Rebuffs Krugman Call to Pressure China on Yuan By Christopher Anstey and Susan Li March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley Asia Chairman Stephen Roach said a “baseball bat” should be taken to economist Paul Krugman over his call for the U.S. to pressure China into allowing the yuan to appreciate. “We should take out the baseball bat on Paul Krugman -- I mean I think that the advice is completely wrong,” Roach said in an Bloomberg Television interview in Beijing when asked about Krugman’s call, characterized as akin to taking a baseball bat to China. “We’re lashing out at China rather than tending to our own business,” which is raising U.S. savings, Roach said.
Wal-Mart Considers Selling Yuan Bonds in Hong Kong By Shelley Smith and Frank Longid March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, is considering selling yuan bonds in Hong Kong as China opens its markets, according to Asia Chief Executive Officer Scott Price. The company is “considering options” that may include yuan-denominated debt, Price said in an interview at Wal-Mart’s Asia offices in Hong Kong yesterday. Such a move would underscore the company’s commitment to support local communities and China’s financial system, he said. “Wal-Mart is in Asia and in China for the long term,” Price said. The company wants “the Chinese people to know that we see a responsibility to help build their economy,” he said.
Rio Tinto Case Mixes Politics, Law in China’s ‘Scary’ Courts By Debra Mao March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Foreign companies that do business in China will be tracking the criminal trial next week of Rio Tinto Group iron-ore chief Stern Hu and three colleagues to see if politics plays as big a role in any conviction as the evidence, lawyers said. The detentions of Hu, Liu Caikui, Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong for allegedly stealing state secrets -- later downgraded to taking bribes and infringing company secrets -- sharpened the focus on a judicial system largely avoided by foreign parties because of its lack of transparency, the lawyers said.
‘Fujian Tigers’ become sneaker powerhouses By Matthew Forney - FT A small and little-known city in eastern China’s Fujian province makes three claims to fame: it boasts the country’s earliest seafaring vessels, a large Islamic temple – and an odd cluster of sneaker companies. At least 10 firms in Quanzhou city make athletic shoes, and four have listed on overseas stock markets. Known collectively as the “Fujian Tigers”, these brands started out stitching together shoes for the likes of Nike and Adidas, then found success under their own names by selling into lower-tier cities.
Keiser Report #26: Markets! Finance! Scandal!
IRAN: Europeans call for action against Islamic Republic for jamming of international satellites by Alexandra Sandels - LATimes.com -- British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French and German counterparts think it's high time for Europe to step up measures against Iran for its alleged jamming of foreign channels such as BBC Persian and Deutsche Welle, which are broadcast by satellite into the Islamic Republic. "Iran has been regularly jamming the broadcasting by satellite of a number of foreign televisions and radio stations . . . since December 2009, a repetition of its practice in the run-up to the disputed elections earlier that year," Miliband, along with counterparts Bernard Kouchner of France and Guido Westerwelle of Germany wrote in a recent letter to the EU's foreign policy chief, Baroness Catherine Ashton.
Germany Backtracks on Europe Rescue for Greece By MATTHEW SALTMARSH and NELSON D. SCHWARTZ - NYTimes.com -- After weeks of backing a European rescue for the financially troubled Greece, Germany shifted course on Thursday, signaling that help should come from the International Monetary Fund rather than Greece’s neighbors. Turning to the I.M.F. would represent a new and potentially humiliating twist in Greece’s financial drama, which was set off by doubts about Athens’s ability to borrow 53 billion euros this year to finance a yawning budget deficit and refinance waves of debt coming due.
El-Erian Says IMF to Aid Greece After ‘Chicken’ Game By Cordell Eddings and Thomas R. Keene March 18 (Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund will come to the rescue of debt-strapped Greece after a “game of chicken,” according to Mohamed El-Erian, co-chief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co. “The IMF will come in, but it’s going to be a bumpy process,” said El-Erian, who is also chief executive officer of Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., in an interview on Bloomberg Radio. “There is no immediate solution. Don’t underestimate the game of chicken between Greece, the EU and the IMF.”
Greek worries return to unsettle investors By Jamie Chisholm - FT Euro falls and equities pull back from recent highs “Just when I think I’m out...they pull me back in.” Traders may be excused for having a Michael Corleone moment on Thursday after worries about Greek debt returned to stall the risk rally. The FTSE All-World equity index fell back 0.4 per cent from eight-week highs and the euro came under heavy pressure. The costs of insuring eurozone so-called peripheral economies against default were pushed sharply higher, and the Athens stock market fell 3.4 per cent.
Wall Street Banks Using Geithner and the NY Fed to Stifle FDIC Reforms JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN -- The President's Working Group on Financial Markets, aka the 'plunge protection team,' is apparently acting to block financial reforms being proposed by Sheila Bair's FDIC, according to the attached piece from Chris Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics, an authoritative source on US Banking. The President's Working Group on Financial Markets consists of:
Time Geither, The Secretary of the Treasury, as Chairman of the Working Group;
Ben Bernanke, The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,
Mary Shapiro, The Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; and
Gary Gensler, The Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
This is reminiscent of the actions of Larry Summers, Robert Rubin, and Alan Greenspan to block attempts by Brooksley Born, then head of the CFTC, to head off the derivatives crisis back the 1990's, the very crisis which brought the US to the brink of disaster last year.
Fed May Raise Discount Rate Before Next Meeting, Economists Say By Joshua Zumbrun and Craig Torres -- March 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve may raise the discount rate, charged on direct loans to banks, before the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on April 28, economists said. “It’s going to happen at some point,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. “Whether it’s today, whether it’s next week or next month is hard to say.”
Greenspan Concedes That the Fed Failed to Gauge the Bubble By SEWELL CHAN - NYTimes.com WASHINGTON — Is Alan Greenspan, famous for his libertarian leanings and hands-off approach to Wall Street, having some second thoughts? After more than six decades as a skeptic of big government, the former Federal Reserve chairman, now 84, is gingerly suggesting that perhaps regulators should help rein in giant financial institutions by requiring them to hold more capital. Mr. Greenspan, once celebrated as the “maestro” of economic policy, has seen his reputation dim after failing to avert the credit bubble that nearly brought down the financial system.
Greenspan hits back at housing bubble claims By Edward Luce and Tom Braithwaite Alan Greenspan on Friday will offer his most sophisticated defence so far of his role as chairman of the Federal Reserve in the build up to the 2008 financial meltdown, hitting back at claims that the Fed’s low short-term interest rates were the cause of the US housing bubble. Mr Greenspan’s characteristically abstract assessment – in a 48-page paper he will present on Friday for the Brookings Institution – is likely to fuel debate over how to prevent another asset price bubble at a time when US financial regulatory reform is nearing its endgame on Capitol Hill.
Money Out Of Thin Air: TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com Now Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Wants To Eliminate Reserve Requirements Completely? Up until now, the United States has operated under a "fractional reserve" banking system. Banks have always been required to keep a small fraction of the money deposited with them for a reserve, but were allowed to loan out the rest. But now it turns out that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke wants to completely eliminate minimum reserve requirements, which he says "impose costs and distortions on the banking system". At least that is what a footnote to his testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services on February 10th says. So is Bernanke actually proposing that banks should be allowed to have no reserves at all? That simply does not make any sense. But it is right there in black and white on the Federal Reserve's own website.... The Federal Reserve believes it is possible that, ultimately, its operating framework will allow the elimination of minimum reserve requirements, which impose costs and distortions on the banking system.
Gerald Celente on Happy Hour 16 Mar 2010
Governments Turn to ‘Stealth’ Taxes to Fill Gaps By MATTHEW SALTMARSH - NYTimes.com France, promising to improve the environment, is planning to introduce a carbon tax. In Finland, where the government says it wants to improve diets, taxes are back on candy and soft drinks. Similarly, Denmark has added tobacco and some fatty foods to the list of taxed products. Britain is taking a different tack, considering a so-called horse tax. All these taxes may be presented as serving virtuous ends, but they also have something else in common: they help plug budget holes deepened by the recession, bailouts and billions in stimulus spending.
The American Economy: TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com The Wealthy Make The Mistakes But The Hard Working Middle Class Pays The Price This is how the U.S. economy works much of the time - the wealthy make most of the big economic mistakes but the hard working middle class ends up paying for them. This time around is no exception. The financial crisis of the past several years was caused by Wall Street, but they got bailed out and relatively few of them lost their jobs. However, even though middle class and working class Americans were not the ones who made the mess, they are paying for it dearly. This is especially true when it comes to unemployment. While it is true that jobs are being lost on every level of American society, the reality is that unemployment is hitting Americans on the lowest end of the income scale the hardest.
Health Insurers Toughen Stance in Disputes Over Hospital Rates By AVERY JOHNSON And SUZANNE SATALINE - WSJ.com Health insurers are fighting demands by hospitals for sharply higher reimbursement rates by threatening to drop the hospitals from their health-plan networks, and blaming them for higher insurance premiums. "We've never seen the kind of increases we're seeing right now" from hospitals, says Aetna Inc. President Mark Bertolini. Five years ago, a typical rate increase was about 5%, but this year Aetna granted 50 "must have" rate increases of more than 20%, Mr. Bertolini says.
Government bank auditors got big bonuses By Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON — Banks weren't the only ones giving big bonuses in the boom years before the worst financial crisis in generations. The government also was handing out millions of dollars to bank regulators, rewarding "superior" work even as an avalanche of risky mortgages helped create the meltdown. The payments, detailed in payroll data released to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, are the latest evidence of the government's false sense of security during the go-go days of the financial boom. Just as bank executives got bonuses despite taking on dangerous amounts of risk, regulators got taxpayer-funded bonuses despite missing or ignoring signs that the system was on the verge of a meltdown.
Hard times send hotel industry into 'survival mode' By Gary Stoller, USA TODAY Neil Cornelssen says he misses the free cookies in the evening at one hotel and the daily newspaper outside his door at others. He's also noticing that bath towels in a growing number of hotel rooms are shabby and need to be replaced. Cornelssen, a sales manager in Marlton, N.J., is one of many frequent travelers who say they see the tangible effect that the recession has had on the nation's hotel industry. Among them: run-down rooms with fewer bathroom amenities, closed club lounges, fewer concierge staffers, slow room service, reduced hours at restaurants and bars, and infrequent airport shuttles.
Gas prices highest since 2008; jump almost 20 cents in past month By Mark Williams, Associated Press U.S. motorists are paying the highest prices for gas since October 2008. Retail gasoline prices rose on Thursday on an expected increase in demand and as more expensive spring and summer blends of gasoline make their way to the pumps. The nationwide average hit $2.799 per gallon, a penny higher than Wednesday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.
Idaho's plan to downgrade the dollar By Andrew Leonard - Salon.com A bill to allow citizens to pay their taxes with silver medallions gains support. Goldbugs are watching closely With only one state representative dissenting, the Idaho House State Affairs committee voted on Monday to endorse HB 633, a bill that would allow Idaho citizens to pay their state taxes with an official state silver medallion. The news comes just a month after a South Carolina legislator introduced a bill seeking to ban Federal currency altogether, and replace the upstart greenback with gold or silver coins. A half-dozen other states have considered similar legislation, reports the Tenth Amendment Center. But there's a key difference between the Idaho plan and the bills proposed in other states, most of which fall somewhere on a spectrum ranging from Tea Party rage to Ron Paul goldbug-ism. (The South Carolina bill, for example, claims that "the State is experiencing an economic crisis of severe magnitude caused in large part by the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin as legal tender in this State.")
What Happens When You Work As Hard As You Can And It Is Not Enough? TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com -- Once upon a time, most of us who live in America were taught that no matter what happens, if you are willing to work hard enough and long enough you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps and be able to live the American Dream. But today that is not reality for millions of Americans. Instead, millions of Americans find themselves working night and day and still not being able to make it. Millions of others have poured their hearts and souls into their jobs and now find themselves out of work and out of luck by no fault of their own. So what do you do when you work as hard as you possibly can and it is just not enough?
Coming Soon: By Joseph Pisani - CNBC.com Take Photo Of Check, Deposit It in Bank Picture this: Soon, consumers will be depositing paper checks straight into their bank account by taking a couple of photos with a smartphone. The technology is already available at USAA, an insurance company and bank that primarily serves military personnel and their families. Larger banks such as Chase and Citi intend to add the technology—known as remote-deposit capture—later this year. Banks have already offered smartphone applications that let customers check balances, transfer funds and make payments. This new addition would take mobile banking a step further.
Janitor Jock Proud to Mop Floors He Once Ruled by Scott Soshnick March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Syracuse University boasts an impressive collection of distinguished alumni. Politicians, authors, journalists and, yes, athletes. For instance, former quarterback Don McPherson, running back Floyd Little and basketball star Dave Bing -- now mayor of Detroit -- are among those who’ve received the George Arents Pioneer Medal, the university’s highest alumni honor, which is awarded based on excellence in one’s field or endeavor. Marty Headd wasn’t honored. He should be. A Syracuse native who played basketball for the Orangemen -- now just Orange -- Headd earned Big East All Conference honors his junior and senior seasons. This, however, is about more than just shooting a basketball. It’s about pushing a broom, too. And never complaining. Not once.
China's one-child policy little enforced and set to end By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Over three decades after China officially introduced its one-child policy, the population-control program no longer applies to most Chinese and looks set to be permanently abolished. While government statistics aren't publicly available, a widely cited figure from state-media reports shows less than 36% of the country's population was subject to the one-child policy, as of 2007. But even this low number may overstate compliance with the once-strict rule than no Chinese couple could have more than one child. Current exceptions abound -- including allowing second children for many rural families, almost all ethnic minorities, families where both parents are themselves only children, and many other cases.
Tiger Deaths Raise Alarms about Chinese Zoos By XIYUN YANG - NYTimes.com BEIJING — A zoo where 11 rare Siberian tigers recently starved to death is fast becoming a symbol of the mistreatment of animals in China, with allegations of misspent subsidies, bribes, and the deaths of at least dozens of animals. The local authorities stepped in over the weekend, taking control of the 10-year-old zoo, in Shenyang in northeastern China, and dispatching experts to try to save the remaining 20 or so tigers, three of which are in critical condition. Among the charges under investigation are employee reports that the zoo used the bones of dead tigers to illegally manufacture a liquor believed to have therapeutic qualities. One employee said he had made vats of the liquor and served it to visiting government officials.
Hillary Clinton, Russians clash publicly over Iran reactor By Megan K. Stack - LATimes.com With Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at her side, the secretary of State reproaches Moscow for building and fueling the plant without assurances on weaponry. Lavrov stands his ground. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had barely arrived in Moscow for nuclear arms and Mideast talks when tensions over Iran flared up publicly Thursday. Meeting reporters alongside her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Clinton reproached Moscow for building and fueling a nuclear power plant in Iran. Tehran is not entitled to generate nuclear energy for civilian purposes, Clinton said pointedly, until it puts to rest suspicion that it is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
Putin vexes US over Iran nuclear power By Daniel Dombey in Washington and Isabel Gorst in Moscow - FT Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, promised on Thursday that Moscow would help Iran complete a civil nuclear power station by this summer, drawing criticism from Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state. His remarks highlighted the continuing differences between the two powers over how to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Mrs Clinton was visiting Moscow on a trip partly designed to increase the pressure on Tehran by showing America’s unity with Russia.
Iran Dispute Becomes Focus of Clinton’s Russia Trip By MARK LANDLER - NYTimes.com MOSCOW — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russia’s foreign minister clashed publicly Thursday over an announcement that Russia would complete a nuclear power plant in Iran this summer. Mrs. Clinton said the announcement, made during her visit, sends the wrong signal at a time when the West is trying to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, countered that construction on the plant would go ahead.
Purported al-Awlaki message calls for jihad against U.S. By Paula Newton, CNN London, England (CNN) -- American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is calling for jihad against America, claiming "America is evil" in a new audio message obtained by CNN. "With the American invasion of Iraq and continued U.S. aggression against Muslims, I could not reconcile between living in the U.S. and being a Muslim, and I eventually came to the conclusion that jihad against America is binding upon myself just as it is binding on every other Muslim," he says in the recording that runs more than 12 minutes. Al-Awlaki is believed to be hiding out in hills of southern Yemen with the protection of his very powerful family tribe.
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Thurs 03.17.2010
Medicare Fraud Costs Taxpayers More Than $60 Billion Each Year By CYNTHIA McFADDEN and ALMIN KARAMEHMEDOVIC - ABCNews/Nightline -- In Easy to Execute Scams, Criminals Rip-Off Taxpayers, Make Millions and Run A four month "Nightline" investigation into Medicare fraud makes one thing perfectly clear: this is a crime that pays and pays and pays. The federal government admits that a staggering $60 billion is stolen from tax payers through Medicare scams every year. Some experts believe the number is more than twice that. Fraudulent pharmacies, clinics and medical supply companies seem to pop up like mushrooms in South Florida, the area widely considered to be ground zero in the fight against a crime that requires little training and involves few risks.
He Who Has the Gold Makes the Rules By: Adrian Ash - marketoracle.co.uk The decline of the West, measured in tonnes... AS THE AGE-OLD Golden Rule puts it, "He who has the gold makes the rules" – an historical fact proven most recently by the United States' dominance of global monetary politics since WWII. And given gold's critical role in world history, three telling facts are buried amongst the latest central-bank gold data compiled by the World Gold Council...
3/16/10 Marc Faber: Suggests Gold Accumulation
Jim Rogers Sizes Up Two Global Bubbles By: Antonia Oprita - CNBC.com The euro is unlikely to still exist as a currency over the longer term, the pound will fall substantially in the next few years and US Treasurys and some real estate in China are the world's two current bubbles, legendary investor Jim Rogers told CNBC.com Wednesday. "The euro will probably break up in the next 15 to 20 years," Rogers said in an interview. "Don't get me wrong, I own the euro." "We've had currency unions in history, they didn't survive, this one won't survive either," he explained.
Why George Soros feels that Euro will collapse By Jon Nadler - CommodityOnline.com In a familiar replay of the past fourteen months’ worth of meetings, the Fed concluded on Tuesday that doing nothing as regards the fed funds rate at least, was still the most reasonable course of action. The US central bank thereby acknowledged that the U.S. economic turnaround is still not sufficiently vigorous to spark inflationary processes. Since the Fed saw little justification for hiking the cost of borrowing at this time, it simply reiterated its well-worn “extended period” mantra and thus gave audiences reason to watch the same movie once again. You know; the one where carry traders borrow those ultra-cheap dollars and pump up the prices of everything you saw rising yesterday afternoon, as if the economic recovery was going on right here, right now, at full bore.
Price Fixing! Ron Paul vs. Ben Bernanke at 3/17/10 Financial Services Hearing
Yellen Is Spellin’ Future Inflation By: Larry Kudlow - CNBC Anchor The new Obama Fed is going to be very dovish when it comes to fighting future inflation and defending the value of the dollar. The president has nominated Janet Yellen to be vice chair of the Federal Reserve. Ms. Yellen is a distinguished economist who unfortunately subscribes to the Phillips-curve model that trades off unemployment and inflation. She is considered one of the most "dovish" members of the central bank's policymakers, meaning she is seen to lean toward policies that will boost growth and promote employment rather than those aimed at keeping inflation at bay.
Continued 'soft money' and shining commodities By Martin Hutchinson - CommodityOnline.com For a U.S. president, nominating Fed governors is a little like nominating Supreme Court justices: Since they serve a 14-year term, you have the chance to shape the U.S. Federal Reserve for a decade after your administration ends. What's more - even though Fed governors are subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate - you're far less likely to have trouble getting them through than you do with the Supremes. That's why U.S. President Barack Obama's current chance to nominate three out of the seven Fed governors is legitimate front-page news - and isn't merely the "inside monetary baseball" trivia that occupies much of the daily business section. Probably two of those three governors still will be serving in 2020, long after President Obama has published his memoirs.
"The Dollar Is Going to Suffer": by Aaron Task - TechTicker.com Axel Merk Makes the Bull Case for the Euro Conventional wisdom is that Greece's recent debt offering and pledges of support by EU finance ministers are just a short-term fix, and that the crisis in the euro zone is far from over. "The Greek tragedy is going to continue [and] there will be some ups and some down," says Axel Merk, founder and president of Merk Investments and author of Sustainable Wealth. But Merk breaks with the conventional view about what the Greek saga - and concerns about Europe's other so-called PIIGS - means for the single currency.
China leans toward yuan float By Zhang Huanyu, Huo Kan & Yu Hairong, Caixin Online Professors and policymakers alike agree on need for new forex reform BEIJING (Caixin Online) -- The Chinese government's yuan exchange-rate policy is at another critical juncture. Several quasi-government and independent research organizations have held closed-door discussions since the beginning of the year to discuss exchange-rate mechanisms, and they've submitted policy suggestions to the central bank and government policy makers. What's next? All signs indicate that China is about to resume exchange-rate reforms, a process suspended in July 2008 at the start of the international financial crisis. During a press conference March 6, People's Bank of China Deputy Gov. Su Ning said the central bank would decide when to exit its "special exchange-rate mechanisms" and set a schedule according to economic situations.
Tao Says China-U.S. Closer to Trade War Than Recent Past March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Dong Tao, a Hong Kong-based economist at Credit Suisse AG, talks with Bloomberg's Haslinda Amin about U.S. calls for a stronger Chinese yuan and the outlook for trade between the two countries. Five senators including Charles Schumer of New York and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina introduced legislation March 16 to make it easier for the U.S. to declare currency misalignments and take corrective action. Tao also discusses the outlook for China's economy.
Senate Push May Force Obama to Increase Yuan Pressure By Mark Drajem March 17 (Bloomberg) -- The latest push by U.S. lawmakers to target China’s currency policy may force President Barack Obama to step up pressure for an increase in the yuan’s valuation, senators and analysts said. Five senators including Charles Schumer of New York and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina introduced legislation yesterday to make it easier for the U.S. to declare currency misalignments and take corrective action. Even if the bill stalls, it may have “ripple effects” that lead the Treasury Department to declare China a currency manipulator, William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, said.
China Says 'Cannot Be Any Clearer' on Yuan Rhetoric By: Reuters China said on Wednesday it "could not be any clearer" in its repeated commitment to a stable exchange rate after the U.S. Congress threatened to levy duties on some Chinese exports if it fails to revalue its currency. The temperature in the long-running dispute over China's exchange rate regime is rising quickly, with a bipartisan bill introduced on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate that aims to get Beijing to let the yuan rise. Focusing on the yuan will not help to solve problems in the Sino-U.S. bilateral trade relationship, a Chinese commerce ministry official told Reuters.
Ryan Says China `Not Playing Fair' by Devaluing Yuan
Regulators Say MGM Mirage Knew Its Macau Partner Had Ties to Crime By ALEXANDRA BERZON and A.D. PRUITT - WSJ.com --- ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.—New Jersey's casino enforcement agency said MGM Mirage knowingly signed on an unfit partner as it tried to gain a foothold in Macau after Chinese officials denied it a license in the fast-growing gambling mecca. "From the beginning of its efforts to enter Macau, MGM pursued partnerships with persons that it knew were associated with those aspects of gaming in Macau most heavily penetrated by organized crime," New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement wrote in a previously confidential report to the state's Casino Control Commission.
JPMorgan, UBS and Deutsche Bank Charged with Derivatives Fraud JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN -- More like international crime families sending out enticing emails trying to lure and trick the unsuspecting than serious financial institutions. This is banking? Notice that these were operating out of their London units, similar to the AIG derivative scandal that helped to worsen the US financial crisis. The FSA is apparently working hard now to enforce its rules and bring these banks to heel. Contrast that with the SEC in the States which seems reluctant to do anything regarding enforcement, and even when a judge puts them to the task, are able to administer only the mildest of financial chastisement to be passed on to the shareholders.
Angela Merkel defies IMF and France as anger rises over German export surplus By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk --- German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defied France and the IMF, refusing to modify Germany’s strategy of export reliance or boost growth to help alleviate the deep crisis sweeping Southern Europe. "Where we are strong, we will not give up our strengths just because our exports are perhaps preferred to those of other countries," she told the German Bundestag. Mrs Merkel swept aside criticisms that Germany and other surplus countries are partly to blame for the widening North-South rift that has led to Euroland’s worst crisis since the launch of monetary union.
Greece threatens to call in IMF as Europe dithers By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk Greece has upped the ante in an escalating game of brinkmanship, threatening to turn to the International Monetary Fund for support unless EU leaders come up with an acceptable rescue package at their next summit on March 25. Premier George Papandreou told reporters in Brussels that he had not ruled out recourse to the IMF, a move that would be viewed as treachery by top EU officials. “Nothing is excluded,” he said when asked about IMF involvement. “If we realise that we will be borrowing at extremely high rates, there are other options. But we would certainly prefer a European solution.”
China asks US groups to back it on currency By Geoff Dyer in Beijing and James Politi in Washington China called on US multinationals on Tuesday to lobby the Obama administration against taking protectionist measures over the Chinese currency, just as attitudes towards China appear to be hardening in the US Congress. Yao Jian, a spokesman at the Chinese commerce ministry, said that some companies had already been lobbying against recent restrictions on Chinese imports to the US and he hoped this would increase.
Ron Paul: Prevent Bubbles, Stop Inflation? End the Fed!
Jobs Bill Passes in Senate With 11 Votes From Republicans By CARL HULSE - NYTimes.com WASHINGTON - The Senate approved and sent to President Obama on Wednesday what Congressional Democrats hope will be the first in a series of bills spurring employment by providing tax breaks and other hiring incentives to businesses. The measure, approved on a bipartisan vote of 68 to 29, would give employers an exemption from payroll taxes through the end of 2010 on workers they hire who have been unemployed for at least 60 days. It also extends the federal highway construction program and takes other steps to boost public building projects.
Fed didn't know about Lehman accounting 'gimmicks' By Ronald D. Orol & Alistair Barr, MarketWatch Bernanke says SEC was told after brokerage firm failed stress tests SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the central bank didn't know about Lehman Brothers' use of controversial transactions that moved roughly $50 billion of assets off its balance sheet less than a year before it collapsed. During congressional testimony, House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Spencer Bachus asked if the Fed was aware of Lehman's "accounting gimmicks."
Bernanke Warns Against Narrowing Fed Focus By SUDEEP REDDY - WSJ.com Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Wednesday that a Senate proposal to end the Fed's oversight of smaller banks would unwisely narrow the central bank's focus to the nation's largest financial institutions. A proposal by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) would make the Fed the supervisor of the roughly 35 bank holding companies with assets greater than $50 billion. "It makes us essentially the 'too-big-to-fail' regulator," Mr. Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee. "We don't want that responsibility. We want to have a connection to Main Street as well as Wall Street."
Bernanke: Fed should monitor all banks By Jennifer Liberto WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made his strongest case yet to Congress on Wednesday for the Federal Reserve keeping its regulatory oversight powers over banks large and small. Bernanke told the House Financial Services panel he's "quite concerned" about proposals to limit the Federal Reserve's regulatory power to watching out for only the biggest banks. He called the proposal a "bad idea."
3/15/10 Peter Schiff on CNBC: Fed is Blowing Air Back in the Bubble
Loan Demand at Stand Still. Are You Nervous About the Year Ahead? by Adam Quinones - MortgageNewsDaily.com --- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 12, 2010. The survey covers over 50 percent of all US residential mortgage loan applications taken by mortgage bankers, commercial banks, and thrifts. The data gives economists a look into consumer demand for mortgage loans. A rising trend of mortgage applications indicates an increase in home buying interest, a positive for the housing industry and economy as a whole. Furthermore, in a low mortgage rate environment, such a trend implies consumers are seeking out lower monthly payments which can result in increased disposable income and therefore more money to spend on discretionary items or to pay down other debt.
Elizabeth Warren's war (Fortune) -- Elizabeth Warren, who came to Washington in 2008 with the task of keeping tabs on the financial bailout, today faces the unthinkable: business as usual for the Wall Street firms whose dealings plunged the country into the most severe recession in almost 80 years. The Harvard law professor and plainspoken voice of financial reform and consumer protection was asking politicians to level the playing field between Main Street and the banking industry even before Lehman Brothers fell. When Harry Reid appointed her head of the Congressional Oversight Panel two years ago, it furthered her reach in D.C. and gave her more opportunity to whip up support for a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
"Our Problems Are Our Own Making": U.S. Can't Blame Woes on China, Merk Says by Heesun Wee - TechTicker.com Tensions between China and the U.S. have heated up recently. At his annual press conference Sunday, China's Premier Wen Jiabao firmly said the Chinese currency, the yuan, is not undervalued. Wen also said U.S. efforts to boost exports by weakening the dollar amounts to "a kind of trade protectionism," as WSJ reported. Senator Chuck Schumer and NYT columnist Paul Krugman joined the fray on the American side, reviving charges of currency manipulation against China.
Will Obama's "Soft Money" Fed Lead to Hard Times for the U.S. Economy? BY MARTIN HUTCHINSON, Money Morning --- For a U.S. president, nominating Fed governors is a little like nominating Supreme Court justices: Since they serve a 14-year term, you have the chance to shape the U.S. Federal Reserve for a decade after your administration ends. What's more - even though Fed governors are subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate - you're far less likely to have trouble getting them through than you do with the Supremes.
If You Liked Fannie and Freddie... By PETER J. WALLISON ... You'll love Chris Dodd's latest reform proposal. It would make many more companies too big to fail and lead to far greater financial consolidation. Think ObamaCare for the financial system. That's one way to understand Sen. Chris Dodd's bill to reform financial regulation. If passed in its current form, the bill would give the government control over the financial system in roughly the same way, and to the same extent, that ObamaCare would take over the nation's health care. There isn't a public option, exactly, but the private firms involved would be so heavily regulated that they would be effectively controlled by the government.
Phoenix Meets the Wrong End of the Boom Cycle By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF - NYTimes.com PHOENIX - Perhaps it was just a matter of time, but three years after this city's housing market collapsed in spectacular fashion, commercial real estate has followed it off the cliff. The average price paid for office space in the Phoenix metro area tumbled more than 50 percent last year, from $205 a square foot in 2008 to $102 a square foot in 2009, according to data compiled by Kammrath & Associates, a local real estate analysis firm. Retail and industrial space underwent similar declines. "Prices are falling like a stone," said Bob Kammrath, who has studied the commercial market in Phoenix since 1981. "I see them going lower."
KB Home ex-CEO tried to keep stock option scheme secret, an executive testifies By Stuart Pfeifer - LATimes.com A former human resources director says he and former chief Bruce Karatz, who prosecutors say made more than $6 million from his options, tried to keep investigators from discovering the backdating. Former KB Home chief Bruce Karatz engineered a massive stock option scheme that made him millions of dollars and then fought to keep it secret from investigators, a longtime company executive testified Wednesday. Gary Ray, who served as KB's human resources director from 1996 to 2006, told a federal jury in Los Angeles that he and Karatz backdated stock options to make them more valuable to themselves and employees and then concealed it from company shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Rivals' Pilots Join Picketing at United By ANN KEETON - WSJ.com CHICAGO—United Airlines' pilots were joined on a picket line Wednesday by counterparts from five other carriers in a show of growing solidarity within their ranks world-wide. The United pilots were protesting an unusual outsourcing deal with Ireland's Aer Lingus Group PLC that starts this month. The head of United's pilots' association also revealed that it had sent a representative to Germany to provide support during a recent work stoppage by alliance partner Deutsche Lufthansa AG.
Jerry Brown urges unions to 'attack' LATimes.com -- Faced with the daunting prospect of being significantly outspent by his Republican opponent, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown spoke to a labor group Tuesday and urged them to go on the offensive. "We're going to attack whenever we can, but I'd rather have you attack," Brown said at a gathering of the California delegation of the Laborers' International Union of North America in Sacramento. "I'd rather be the nice guy in this race. We'll leave [the attacks] to ... the Democratic Party and others." Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for GOP candidate Meg Whitman, said Brown's pitch was unseemly and perhaps even illegal.
More owners opt to walk and leave mortgages behind by Catherine Reagor - The Arizona Republic More Phoenix-area homeowners are walking away from their mortgage payments, and many more are likely considering it. These are not people losing homes due to severe financial problems. "Walking away" now also describes people who can make their payments but don't want to because they owe much more than their home is worth. Metro Phoenix's 50 percent drop in home values has left tens of thousands of homeowners here underwater, owing more than the market value of their house. Many people who bought houses during the market peak are paying mortgages double their home's current worth. Most can't sell now and will have to wait years before values rise enough for them to sell without taking a loss.
More homeowners are opting for 'strategic defaults' By Alana Semuels LATimes.com Underwater on their mortgages and angry at banks, more borrowers are choosing to hand over the keys, even if they can afford the payments. Wynn Bloch has always dutifully paid her bills and socked away money for retirement. But in December she defaulted on the mortgage on her Palm Desert home, even though she could afford the payments. Bloch paid $385,000 for the two-bedroom in 2006, when prices were still surging. Comparable homes are now selling in the low-$200,000s. At 66, the retired psychologist doubted she'd see her investment rebound in her lifetime. Plus, she said she was duped into an expensive loan. The way she sees it, big banks that helped fuel the mess all got bailouts while small fry like her are left holding the bag. No more.
8 Things To Consider Before Walking Away From Your Mortgage By Brett Arends , The Wall Street Journal --- Last week I received an email from a desperate couple in Illinois. Here's the edited version of their note: "My wife and I have been struggling, morally, with what to do. We have two interest-only, adjustable-rate mortgages with two different lenders coming due in May of 2011. I currently can handle paying all my bills–but just barely, with nothing left over for replenishing of the emergency fund, or even my kids' college savings. In one year, when those adjustable rate mortgages adjust, it's a different story. The home is now worth about 70% of the loan values. We do not want to stay in the home and have been trying to be proactive about doing something before the rates adjust. My lenders both said that if I do a short sale they would definitely make me sign a promissory note (for the deficiency).
Living in Poverty: 40 Million Americans, Including Children and Working Poor By SAM GUSTIN - dailyfinance.com If the word "poverty" conjures up starving children in Africa, prepare to be shocked: nearly 40 million Americans, or 13.2% of the population in the richest country on the planet, lived at or below the official poverty level in 2008, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's an increase of 2.5 million over 2007. What's more, that figure includes 14.1 million people under the age of 18, or 19% of all children, up from 13.3 million and 18% in 2007. In other words, nearly one in five American kids live in poverty.
Tax breaks for hiring the unemployed By Catherine Clifford, NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A scaled-down, $17.6 billion jobs bill approved by Congress on Wednesday features a handful of benefits for business owners, but falls short of the sweeping hiring incentives President Obama and some lawmakers on Capitol Hill initially pushed for. . . . . . . . The view from the trenches Entrepreneur Ronald Carroll says both measures will be a boon for his growing business. Get a Grip America, based in Chicago, organizes athletic and social gatherings for urban professionals. Carroll, who currently has eight part-time employees, plans to expand into San Diego and New York in the coming year. He likes the idea of using the tax credit to hire workers who may have been out of the job market for a while, but have some work experience. "We pay really well, and it is amazing the people we hire right out of college -- they are totally undependable. They act like there is no recession going on," he says. "If you can get someone who has a lot of other experience, I would have no problem teaching them."
More Government Won't Help by Ron Paul - LewRockwell.com Before the US House of Representatives, September 23, 2009 Government has been mismanaging medical care for more than 45 years; for every problem it has created it has responded by exponentially expanding the role of government. Points to consider:
No one has a right to medical care. If one assumes such a right, it endorses the notion that some individuals have a right to someone else’s life and property. This totally contradicts the principles of liberty.
If medical care is provided by government, this can only be achieved by an authoritarian government unconcerned about the rights of the individual.
Economic fallacies accepted for more than 100 years in the United States have deceived policy makers into believing that quality medical care can only be achieved by government force, taxation, regulations, and bowing to a system of special interests that creates a system of corporatism. . . . more, online
The Health-Care Wars Are Only Beginning By FRED BARNES - WSJ.com The president's health plan won't solve a problem. It will be the start of bitter fights over funding and policy that will consume the nation for decades to come. On Dec. 7, 1941, an announcement was made during the football game between the hometown Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles. All the generals and admirals at Griffith Stadium were instructed to report to their duty stations. Little did they know their lives would be changed forever and America would be at war, or on war footing, for the next half-century. Pearl Harbor had been attacked. America will be in a constant health-care war if ObamaCare is enacted. Passage wouldn't end the health-care debate. Rather, it would perpetuate ObamaCare as the dominant issue for decades to come, reshape politics, create an annual funding crisis in Congress, and generate a spate of angry lawsuits. Yet few in Washington seem aware of what lies ahead.
Health Bill Faces Delay as Democrats Tinker With Cost By James Rowley and Nicole Gaouette March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional Democrats, racing to finish work on an overhaul of the U.S. health system, are facing delays as they strive to meet deficit-cutting targets. The Democrats, who had expected a final cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office as early as last week, must show that a bill amending legislation the Senate passed in December will reduce the federal budget deficit by $2 billion over the first five years and not add to the shortfall afterward.
Pelosi Needs Catastrophe to Get Health-Care Fix by Caroline Baum What happens if the Democrats fail to twist enough arms and cajole enough members of the House of Representatives to vote “yes” on the Senate health-care bill? They can always pass it without a vote, using an arcane rule that would allow the House to approve a package of fixes and amendments in lieu of the health-care bill itself. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi likes the tactic “because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill,” she told the Washington Post in a statement sure to haunt her for the rest of her legislative career.
Obama says he will be vindicated by history USAToday.com President Obama says he is "absolutely positive" he has made the right decisions on health care, financial reform and the stimulus bill. "I knew these things might not be popular," he tells Fox News Channel's Bret Baier, but he says he believes that in time he will be "vindicated in having made those tough decisions." In an interview airing at 6 p.m. ET, Obama tells Fox that he's "confident" health care legislation will pass "because it's the right thing to do." He said he hopes the vote comes this week, possibly giving House members some wiggle room on the deadline, and he said he realizes that judgment day will come in November.
Obama Defends His Health-Care Plan as ‘Right Thing to Do’ By Kate Andersen Brower March 17 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he’s confident his health-care plan will pass Congress because it’s “the right thing to do” for the country and that he isn’t concerned about criticism of Democratic legislative tactics. In an interview with the Fox News Channel as the House moves toward a crucial vote, Obama defended his plan, saying it embodies Republican ideas as well as Democratic proposals to revamp the U.S. health-care system.
Kucinich Says He’ll Switch Health-Bill Vote to ‘Yes’ By Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Representative Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, said he will switch sides to support legislation overhauling the U.S. health-care system, giving a boost to President Barack Obama’s top priority. Obama personally lobbied Kucinich during a trip to his Cleveland-area district two days ago. The visit “underscored the urgency of this moment,” Kucinich told reporters today.
Health Insurance Premiums Would Rise Under Obama Plan, AP 'Fact Check' Says By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press --- Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print. Premiums are likely to keep going up even if the health care bill passes, experts say. If cost controls work as advertised, annual increases would level off with time. But don't look for a rollback. Instead, the main reason premiums would be more affordable is that new government tax credits would help cover the cost for millions of people. Listening to Obama pitch his plan, you might not realize that's how it works.
Max Keiser on Manipulation in the Obamacare Prediction Market
HR 646: U.S. Preparing for Civil Unrest? By Allen L Roland In their quest for the truth over 60,000 infuriated Greek citizens take to the streets in central Athens because the cash strapped government faces a financial reckoning. The Obama administration has prepared itself for eventually the same demands for the truth with HR 645 which is, in essence, militarized FEMA internment camps: Allen L Roland Recently, street clashes broke out on March11th between rioting youths and police in central Athens as tens of thousands demonstrated during a nationwide strike against the cash-strapped government. Hundreds of masked and hooded youths punched and kicked motorcycle police, knocking several off their bikes, as police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades.
Texan accused of disabling 100 cars over Internet By Jeff Carlton, Associated Press DALLAS — A man fired from a Texas auto dealership used an Internet service to remotely disable ignitions and set off car horns of more than 100 vehicles sold at his old workplace, police said Wednesday. Austin police arrested Omar Ramos-Lopez, 20, on Wednesday, charging him with felony breach of computer security. Ramos-Lopez used a former colleague's password to deactivate starters and set off car horns, police said. Several car owners said they had to call tow trucks and were left stranded at work or home. "He caused these customers, now victims, to miss work," Austin police spokeswoman Veneza Aguinaga said. "They didn't get paid. They had to get tow trucks. They didn't know what was going on with their vehicles."
Rocky Mountain Instrument charged with illegal defense exports Denver Business Journal Rocky Mountain Instrument Inc., a high-tech optics company, was charged Wednesday as a company with illegally exporting defense-related items to China, Russia and other nations without a license, the office of U.S. Attorney for Colorado David Gaouette announced. RMI’s Lafayette headquarters was the site of an Oct. 11, 2007, raid by investigators from the military’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service, who carted away computers and files as part of an investigation that RMI lawyers said last year was related to U.S. technology export controls. The company’s attorneys appeared in U.S. District Court in Denver Wednesday and were advised of the charge.
Has the US gun lobby shot itself in the foot by unintentionally undermining states' rights? Gerald Warner - Telegraph.co.uk --- The US Supreme Court is due to deliver its verdict in June on the case it has just heard (McDonald v City of Chicago) seeking to overturn the ban on handguns in Chicago, Barack Obama's political base. This follows upon the court's 2008 decision striking down a similar ban in Washington. You cannot find a lawyer, politician, pro- or anti-gun activist in the length and breadth of the Union who does not accept the high likelihood that the Chicago ban will be reversed. Since hostility to the right to bear arms, guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the American constitution, was a characteristic of Obama's campaign, it seems ironic that his administration should see a liberalisation of firearms laws. So, why are the fanatics of the liberal/left not up in arms (metaphorically speaking), marching, protesting and generally frothing at the mouth over this reversal of their aspirations? Why, in fact, are some liberals even supportive of the gun lobby's case?
Americans' Mistrust of Govt. Is Rational and Warranted, But Also Dangerous by Aaron Task - TickTicker.com "The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative," Winston Churchill once said. The problem is "we're in the process of exhausting all the alternatives pretty quickly," says William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. A recent CBS/NY Times poll showed only 19% of respondents say they trust the government "to do what is right all or most of the time," while 78% believed the government is run by special interests, not for the benefit of the people.
American Military: Trust in the Last Vestige of US Dominance by Bill Bonner - LewRockwell.com This must be some kind of golden age for government. In the US, the feds have seized major stakes in banking, autos, insurance and mortgage finance industries. The Chinese are paying for their enterprises. They already own footholds in some of the most important companies in the US. Yesterday, they announced another big move. CNOOC, China’s state-owned energy company, is buying half of Argentina’s second largest oil producer, Bridas. The Chinese have described the deal as giving them a “beachhead” for entry into Latin America. The world’s richest people (two of the top five are Indians)…its biggest markets…it largest financial reserves…its most profitable companies – all are moving away from the US. And now the Chinese are proposing to help the US upgrade its transportation system. Word from Beijing is that Chinese contractors are pitching high-speed rail lines to California, Florida and Illinois.
Greece rocked by riots as up to 60,000 people take to streets to protest against government By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE -- Street clashes broke out between rioting youths and police in central Athens today as tens of thousands demonstrated during a nationwide strike against the cash-strapped government. Hundreds of masked and hooded youths punched and kicked motorcycle police, knocking several off their bikes, as police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades. The violence spread after the end of the march to a nearby square, where police faced off with stone-throwing anarchists and suffocating clouds of tear gas sent patrons scurrying from open-air cafes.
How About an Arab 'Settlement' Freeze? By RUTH R. WISSE - WSJ.com Why are 21 countries with 800 times more land so obsessed with Israel? When she is surrounded by a swirl of conversation she cannot understand, my two-year-old granddaughter turns to me expectantly: "What they talking about, Bubbe?" Right now, I would have to confess to her that the hubbub over 1,600 new housing units in Jerusalem defies rational explanation. Of the children of Abraham, the descendants of Ishmael currently occupy at least 800 times more land than descendants of Isaac. The 21 states of the Arab League routinely announce plans of building expansion. Saudi Arabia estimates that 555,000 housing units were built over the past several years. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced during a meeting in Baghdad last year that "Some 10,000 units will be built in each province [of Iraq] with 100 square meters per unit" to accommodate citizens whose housing needs have not been met for a long time. Egypt has established 10 new cities since 1996. They are Tenth of Ramadan, Sixth of October, Al Sadat, Al Shurouq, Al Obour, New Damietta, New Beni Sueif, New Assiut, New Luxor, and New Cairo.
Dangers of Israeli rift Telegraph.co.uk Telegraph View: The US cannot afford to ignore the fact that Israel remains an important ally in the Middle East. It is difficult to see how the Obama administration's decision to postpone indefinitely Senator George Mitchell's planned visit to Israel squares with its commitment to negotiate a two-state peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. The Jerusalem no-show by Sen Mitchell, who is Washington's special envoy to the region, marks an alarming escalation in the rift between Israel and the US - which began last week when the Israeli government announced the construction of 1,600 apartments in East Jerusalem, just as the American Vice President, Joe Biden, arrived in the capital.
Hillary Clinton to call Benjamin Netanyahu in bid to ease tensions Telegraph.co.uk --- Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, is planning to telephone Benjamin Netanyahu, the Isreali prime minister, in an effort to ease a bitter diplomatic feud. US officials said the call would be made in the next 24 hours, as the Obama administration awaits Mr Netanyahu's response to its complaints over Israeli settlement policy, which has provoked the deepest US-Israel row in years. But in a possible sign that it wants to stop the row widening, the administration also said the dispute was a disagreement between friends which would not shatter the "unbreakable bond" between the allies.
Clinton to Push Nuclear Pact, Mideast Peace in Moscow By Lucian Kim and Indira Lakshmanan March 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will seek to speed up the signing of a new nuclear arms- control treaty and discuss the Middle East peace process when she arrives in Moscow today. President Dmitry Medvedev will meet Clinton tomorrow to discuss a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that expired in December. She will also attend a meeting of the Middle East Quartet group of the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia after Israel sparked controversy with plans to build new housing in east Jerusalem.
GE Tells Obama ‘Sell Hard’ in Indonesia With China in Pursuit By Daniel Ten Kate and Stuart Biggs ---- March 18 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt wants Barack Obama to “sell hard” in Indonesia as he extols U.S. expertise in industries such as clean energy. He’ll have to work fast -- Premier Wen Jiabao will make China’s sales pitch in Jakarta next month. President Obama’s trip to his childhood home, already delayed once and currently scheduled for March 23-25, is key to a pledge to boost U.S. exports and “lead the global economy” in providing alternatives to fossil fuels. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, which Immelt included last week among nations that may provide the growth “surprise” of the next decade, has the world’s largest geothermal reserves. Winning orders for plants that harness the earth’s heat to produce electricity is a test of the U.S.’s ability to compete with China for exports in a region where its investments lag the European Union and Japan.
North Korea Executes Official for Currency Reform, Yonhap Says By Kyung Bok Cho --- March 18 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea executed the former head of finance of its Workers’ Party after last year’s currency revaluation triggered unrest in the communist nation, Yonhap News reported, citing people it didn’t identify.
North Korea increases its missile numbers by 25 per cent Telegraph.co.uk North Korea has increased its missile arsenal by 25 per cent in the past two years to about 1,000, the South's defence chief said. Kim Tae-young, South Korea's Defence Minister, said that North Korea's stockpiling was expanding the threat the state poses to the region Pyongyang's arsenal includes intermediate-range missiles that can hit targets at up to 3,000km (1,860 miles) away, Yonhap news agency quoted Kim Tae-young as telling a forum of business leaders. The missiles could hit all of Japan and put US military bases in Guam at risk. South Korea's last estimate of the North's missile stockpile was 800 done in 2008, Yonhap said. Its Defence White Paper in 2008 said the North had deployed the intermediate range missile.
Webster Tarpley Discusses China & the "Art of War" on The Alex Jones Show 1/4
Webster Tarpley Discusses China & the "Art of War" on The Alex Jones Show 2/4
Webster Tarpley Discusses China & the "Art of War" on The Alex Jones Show 3/4
Webster Tarpley Discusses China & the "Art of War" on The Alex Jones Show 4/4
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Multi-Decade Communist Deception and Disinformation Strategy (1 of 3) Video dated 1995. All warfare is based on deception. When near, make it appear that you are far away; when far away, that you are near. Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance. - SUN TZU, The Art of War
[From The Perestroika Deception, 1995] THE ESSENCE OF 'PERESTROIKA':AN APPLICATION OF 1920S' LENINISM The new method penetrates the facade, tears the verbal mask off 'perestroika' and reveals its true meaning- which Gorbachev and 'glasnost' have failed to do. . . . . . . . .
To sum up, the essence of 'perestroika' is the creative application of Lenin's thinking and the experience gained through the NEP to the final battle with the capitalist world. It is a step backwards to take two steps forward. 'Perestroika' is a Leninist strategy involving the calculated renunciation of ideological orthodoxy in order to win over the masses and to achieve strategic objectives in Europe, the United States and the Third World.
The experience of the NEP teaches us that contemporary Soviet pragmatism and opportunism are not lasting, because they are tactical. Gorbachev is a committed Leninist who is carrying out the strategy of Communist renewal as a means towards the ultimate conquest of the Western democracies.
Multi-Decade Communist Deception and Disinformation Strategy (2 of 3)
Multi-Decade Communist Deception and Disinformation Strategy (3 of 3)
Meredith Whitney on the housing double-dip Skip to about the four-minute mark to hear Meredith Whitney talk about the next leg down for home prices as a result of the foreclosure pipeline emptying into the market.
It should come as no surprise that Whitney thinks banks are not prepared for home prices to go lower and that, after the Federal Reserve's scheduled exit from the mortgage backed securities market in just two weeks, there will be a "material" correction there. There's more in this CNBC story including something about disappointment awaiting those who think we're returning to the old normal - the new normal is apparently not so good.
Albert Edwards Predicts Deflation Followed By Double-Digit Inflation As "Governments Opt To Default, And Monetization Is Policy Lever of First Resort" by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com -- As if we needed any more confirmation that deflationary pressures continue to prevail and to swamp the broader economy, here is SocGen's Albert Edwards with his most recent (and humorous: we had no clue that the "UK?s ONS statistical office has just decided to throw canned fizzy drinks out of the UK?s CPI basket and replace them with small bottles of mineral water") menu prescriptions for the near- to mid-term future. First an appetizer, here is a look at US consumer leverage trends. Yes, good point: what leverage?
Bernanke Will Tell Congress Bank Oversight Aids Monetary Policy By Joshua Zumbrun and Craig Torres -- March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank is best qualified to oversee the largest financial institutions and should retain its oversight of smaller banks as well. The Fed’s “wide range of expertise” makes it “uniquely suited to supervise large, complex financial organizations and to address both safety and soundness risks and risks to the stability of the financial system as a whole,” Bernanke said in testimony prepared for delivery today to the House Financial Services Committee and obtained by Bloomberg News.
Cities, States Tell Big Banks They'll Go Elsewhere By RUTH SIMON Fed up with the tight supply of credit, state and local governments across the U.S. are starting to punish big banks. State lawmakers in Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New Mexico have introduced legislation that would funnel more money into small financial institutions, which generally have avoided the brunt of criticism over the industry's reluctance to lend. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to deposit as much as $25 million in city tax proceeds in credit unions. And Lake Oswego, Ore., a suburb of Portland with about 36,000 residents, is moving $1.2 million from a state investment pool into six community-based banks that support local businesses, community organizations and civic groups.
Roubini Worried by 'Runaway Fiscal Deficits' By: Antonia Oprita - CNBC.com Stock market volatility is likely to increase as investors are faced with the dilemma of government and central banks' exits from stimulus strategies, economist Nouriel Roubini told CNBC Tuesday. Exit policies pose a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" dilemma, as withdrawing stimulus too soon could push economies back into recession, while leaving it too long would push already high fiscal deficits even higher, Roubini, who predicted the 2007 financial crisis, explained.
Wall Street's Fear Gauge The VIX is trading at the bottom of its two-year range, a possible signal that fear is leaving the market. Paul Britton, of the Capstone Holdings Group, and Nouriel Roubini, of Roubini Global Economics, share their insight.
China's Mercantilism: Selling Them the Rope JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them." Vladimir Illyich Lenin -- Here is Paul Krugman with a reasonably good explanation of what happens when countries 'manage' their currencies lower. It provides a boost to exports and an impediment to imports. It is not much different than restraints of trade like tariffs and subsidies. This is not higher math. A few simple price/demand equations with currency exchange factors using high school algebra would suffice to show the power of currency manipulation and a devaluation of 40% as a form of 'competitive advantage.'
Iran's link to China includes nukes, missiles By Reuben F. Johnson SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES -- KIEV | Recent developments in Iran confirm that China is providing Tehran with critical defense technologies and weapons systems, including some that violate stated Chinese policies aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation. The disclosure of Chinese military aid comes as the Obama administration is trying to persuade Beijing to join other members of the U.N. Security Council, European Union member states and major non-aligned states such as Brazil to adopt a new set of tough sanctions to punish Iran for its nuclear-arms program.
Business Sours on China By ANDREW BROWNE And JASON DEAN - WSJ.com Foreign Executives Say Beijing Creates Fresh Barriers; Broadsides, Patent Rules -- BEIJING—China's relationship with foreign companies is starting to sour, as tougher government policies and intensifying domestic competition combine to make one of the world's most important markets less friendly to multinationals. Interviews with executives, lawyers, and consultants with long experience in China point to developments they say are making it much harder for many foreign companies to succeed. They say the changes suggest Beijing is reassessing China's long-standing emphasis on opening its economy to foreign business—epitomized by the changes it made to join the World Trade Organization in 2001—and tilting toward promoting dominant state companies.
'Wall Street' sequel is an omen of U.S. collapse By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch Commentary: Is Oliver Stone's new film a market-timing signal for the Crash of 2010? ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Yes, Oliver Stone is suddenly America's hottest market timer, as well as the voice of the inner "American Soul," warning investors of a collapse. Remember the Crash of 1987? One-day 23% drop. Happened just before his 1987 "Wall Street" film hit the theaters. He says he can't predict the future. Don't believe him: Even if he's unaware of his "source," it's stirring again, rising from deep in what Carl Jung would call the "collective unconscious" of the "American Soul," warning us again of a collapse, using Stone as a stock trader's "alert."
U.S. states: Running with the PIIGS By Daryl G. Jones NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The term PIIGS has been coined to refer collectively to Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. Aside from being a cute acronym, the term describes the actions of these countries very aptly as they have acted "piggish" in issuing debt to support overzealous government budgets. While the American media has at times made light of these countries and their PIIGS moniker, the same mistakes are at play in creating domestic pigs. If PIIGS refers to nations that have overspent and are now overleveraging to pay for their deficits, the United States is feeding from the same trough.
Has Wall Street dodged the bullet? Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd unveils details of a bill aimed at overhauling financial regulation. The News Hub discusses the impact on Wall Street. Plus, WSJ's Darren Everson joins the News Hub to discuss this year's brackets for the NCAA tournament and potential upsets in the making.
Gold extends gains above $1126 in Asia SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold prices extended gains in Asian trade Wednesday after US Fed kept interest rates unchanged that boosted the metal's investment appeal. Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $1126.62 an ounce at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while April delivery was seen trading at $1126.85 an ounce at the same time.
Gold holds sharp price gains after US Federal Reserve keeps interest rates steady Matt Whittaker - TheAustralian.com.au -- GOLD remained sharply higher today after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, following a higher settlement in which participants were positioning themselves bullishly ahead of the announcement. Before the Fed d0ecision, most-actively traded April gold had gained $US17.10, or 1.5 per cent, to settle at $US1122.50 an ounce, while thinly traded nearby March gold rose $US17.10, or 1.5 per cent, to $US1122.20 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold gains the most in two weeks as $US drops TheAge.com.au Gold prices climbed the most in two weeks in New York as the dollar declined, boosting the appeal of the metal as an alternative asset. The greenback fell as much as 0.7 per cent against a basket of six major currencies, and energy prices led commodities higher. After the close of gold trading in New York, the Federal Reserve kept its benchmark US interest rate between zero and 0.25 percent. Last year, bullion rallied 24 per cent as record- low borrowing costs sent the dollar down 4.2 per cent.
Gold extends gains on dollar, near 1-week high NineMSN.com.au SINGAPORE, March 17 (Reuters) - Gold rose further on Wednesday, after having gained more than 1 percent the previous day as a U.S. Federal Reserve decision to hold interest rates unchanged burnished the metal's investment appeal. * Spot gold was at $1,126.50 an ounce by 0024 GMT, up $1.80 from New York's notional close on Tuesday, when it hit an intraday high of $1,128.45, its strongest since March 8.
Platinum-Gold Ratio Climbs to Highest Since Lehman Bankruptcy By Glenys Sim March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Platinum’s ratio to gold climbed to the highest level since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy in September 2008 as investment demand increased. An ounce of platinum bought 1.4642 ounces of gold late yesterday, the most in 18 months. The ratio averaged 1.24 last year and soared to 2.38 in May 2008, the highest level since 2001, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Gold rises on European debt worries, Fed eyed Business Report - busrep.co.za Gold inched higher on Tuesday as concerns about European sovereign debt persisted, and trading was range-bound ahead of an interest rate verdict in the United States. "Obviously the expectation is still for (US) rates to remain pretty much at zero, but we're looking for further clues on how the Fed plans to exit from its quantitative easing position," said James Moore, analyst at The BullionDesk.com.
Gold is Money By: Nick Barisheff Unlike the world’s currencies, gold retains its value In a speech I recently gave at The Empire Club of Toronto , I referred to gold as the "anti-currency." Gold is not and never has been a currency. Gold is something entirely different and far more valuable. It is money. "If you're holding paper currency, you have to have some kind of trust that the country that issued it is not just going to print its way out of its problems. That's a real concern right now. Gold, on the other hand, has real intrinsic value, unlike a paper currency which can be debased by its government." – Sacha Tihanyi, currency strategist, Scotia Capital
Gold steadies in Asia on China worries SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold prices remain steady in Asian trade Tuesday mainly on worries about a possible monetary tightening in China. Spot gold was seen trading at $1105.52 an ounce at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while April delivery was at $1,109.8 at the same time.
Oil and gold up ahead of US Fed meeting By Chris Flood - FT Crude oil rose while gold was firmer, bolstered by renewed dollar weakness ahead of the latest meeting of the US Federal Reserve on Tuesday. In energy markets, Nymex April West Texas Intermediate rose 50 cents to $8.300 a barrel while ICE April Brent gained 61 cents to $78.50 a barrel.
Dollar Drops as Fed Keeps Rates Near Zero for Extended Time By Inyoung Hwang and Ben Levisohn March 16 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell against most major currencies as Federal Reserve officials retained their pledge to keep the main interest rate near zero for an “extended period,” encouraging demand for riskier assets. The euro strengthened versus the dollar and yen after European finance ministers worked out a strategy for emergency loans to Greece and Standard & Poor’s affirmed the nation’s credit ratings. The greenback slid to the weakest level in almost two years against Canada’s currency and fell to a two- month low versus South Africa’s rand as crude oil and gold advanced and equities gained.
* * * * Dollar, Paul Krugman
A Constitutional Dollar by Michael Rozeff Are you aware that a Federal Reserve dollar bill is not a constitutional dollar? Perhaps you are, but if so, do you know what a constitutional dollar literally is? Is it gold? Is it silver? Is it both? What is actually meant by a metal standard? Can the United States or any country be on two standards at the same time? Can two metals circulate as coin if there is but one standard? Or does one metal have to drive the other out of circulation? How and why does Gresham’s law work when a country uses metal coin for money? In what ways are certain statements of Gresham’s law misleading?
Dollar Falls as Fed Outlook Boosts Asian Stocks, Commodities By Candice Zachariahs and Ron Harui March 17 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell against most of its major counterparts before a report forecast to show wholesale prices declined for the first time in five months, backing the Federal Reserve’s pledge to keep interest rates near zero. The Canadian currency touched its strongest in almost two years versus the greenback as prices for oil, the nation’s largest export, climbed a second day. The yen weakened against the euro as Asian stocks gained and the Bank of Japan doubled the size of its bank-loan program, boosting demand for riskier investments.
China, Japan Reduced Holdings of U.S. Treasury Debt in January By Vincent Del Giudice --- March 16 (Bloomberg) -- China and Japan, the two biggest foreign holders of Treasuries, reduced their positions of U.S. government debt in January as a measure of demand for American financial assets fell to a six-month low. China remained the biggest owner abroad of Treasuries, even as its holdings dropped by a net $5.8 billion to $889 billion, according to Treasury Department data released yesterday in Washington. Japan cut its holdings in January by $300 million to $765.4 billion, the report showed.
U.S. Presses China to Address Value of Its Currency By SEWELL CHAN - NYTimes.com WASHINGTON — Members of Congress from both parties sought on Tuesday to put more pressure on China to allow an increase in the value of its currency, saying Beijing’s policy of holding the value down to give China an edge in export markets was holding back job creation in the United States. In response to longstanding frustration over the Treasury Department’s refusal under successive administrations to cite China formally for manipulating its currency, five senators introduced a bill that would all but compel the administration to act. A manipulation finding could prompt retaliatory efforts by the United States.
Another Firm Rebuff by China of Currency Criticism By REUTERS BEIJING — China has shunned mounting U.S. demands for a stronger renminbi, saying again Tuesday that its currency was not the cause of its big trade surplus and vowing to keep the currency stable to shore up exports. Beijing and Washington appear to be locked in a dialogue of the deaf before the issue of a U.S. Treasury Department report due April 15 to determine whether China is manipulating its exchange rate for trade advantage.
Chinese Dissident Lawyer Convicted of Subversion By IAN JOHNSON - WSJ.com Fought for human rights; against government land seizures BEIJING—China's foreign minister said Tuesday that one of the country's highest-profile dissident lawyers has been convicted of subversion, although it is unclear whether the announcement was new information on the activist's fate or a reiteration of a past conviction. The whereabouts of Gao Zhisheng, who had carved out an international reputation for taking on controversial legal cases, such as government land seizures, has been the subject of intense speculation since he disappeared last year. Previously, a foreign ministry official had said Mr. Gao is "where he should be," later amending his statement to say he didn't know where Mr. Gao was. At a news conference Tuesday with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in response to a reporter's question: "Gao Zhisheng has been sentenced for committing the crime of subverting state power," according to the Associated Press.
Record Number of Chinese Unhappy About Inflation MoneyNews.com More than one in two Chinese regard the current level of inflation as "unacceptable," according to a central bank survey published on Tuesday. A total of 51 percent of those questioned, a record high since the start of the poll in 1999, said they were dissatisfied with the current rate of inflation. The quarterly survey, carried in the official China Securities Journal newspaper, also showed that people expected inflation to continue rising next quarter after accounting for seasonal fluctuations.
World Bank Urges China to Cool Its Economy By J.R. WU And ANDREW BATSON - WSJ.com BEIJING--The World Bank on Wednesday urged China's government to take more measures to cool its economy and head off inflation, as the bank expects the country's economic growth to accelerate to 9.5% this year. In its latest China Quarterly Update, the World Bank raised its forecast for China's economic growth this year from the 8.7% increase the bank projected in November and suggested Beijing use rate hikes and a stronger yuan to avoid inflation and the formation of asset bubbles in the domestic property market.
China in ‘Greatest Bubble in History,’ Rickards Says By Bei Hu March 17 (Bloomberg) -- China is in the midst of “the greatest bubble in history,” said James Rickards, former general counsel of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management LP. The Chinese central bank’s balance sheet resembles that of a hedge fund buying dollars and short-selling the yuan, said Rickards, now the senior managing director for market intelligence at McLean, Virginia-based consulting firm Omnis Inc. “As I see it, it is the greatest bubble in history with the most massive misallocation of wealth,” Rickards said at the Asset Allocation Summit Asia 2010 organized by Terrapinn Pte in Hong Kong yesterday. China “is a bubble waiting to burst.”
The next big bailout is on the way. Prepare to get reamed! Mike Whitney - Smirking Chimp Housing is on the rocks and prices are headed lower. That’s not the consensus view, but it’s a reasonably safe assumption. Master illusionist Ben Bernanke managed to engineer a modest 7-month uptick in sales, but the fairydust will wear off later this month when the Fed stops purchasing mortgage-backed securities and long-term interest rates begin to creep higher. The objective of Bernanke’s $1.25 trillion program, which is called quantitative easing, was to transfer the banks “unsellable” MBS onto the Fed’s balance sheet. Having achieved that goal, Bernanke will now have to unload those same toxic assets onto Freddie and Fannie. (as soon as the public is no longer paying attention)
Stiglitz Says Fed Stimulus Withdrawal May Hurt U.S. Housing By Toru Fujioka --- March 17 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve’s decision to let its mortgage-debt purchase programs end this month risks driving up home-loan rates and worsening the housing crisis, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz said. “The withdrawal of the support risks increasing the interest rate, increasing the number of foreclosures and exacerbating the strain, the stress, that American families are already facing,” Stiglitz said in an interview in Tokyo. He said officials “misjudged things,” and predicted foreclosures and bank failures this year will exceed the 2009 and 2008 totals.
The Great Correction: By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com Awaiting Bailouts that Will Never Come 03/16/10 Mumbai, India – We’re going to rename our theory. This is more than a depression; it’s more than a financial and economic phenomenon. It includes a shift of power…a return to normal after 4 centuries of aberration…and the failure of a whole line of Nobel Prizing-winning economic claptrap, including the Efficient Market Hypothesis and Modern Portfolio Theory. Let’s call this phase “The Great Correction”…and wait for events to prove we’re right. In the meantime…we await clarification… When will this bounce end? What will happen when it does?
Lehman Hid Money With Help of Global Rules NYTimes.com Lehman Brothers’ now notorious Repo 105 scheme depended on forum shopping. The investment bank wasn’t able to persuade its lawyers in the United States that the relevant repurchase agreements constituted real sales. So it routed them through its British subsidiary. That meant they came under the British legal system, and the law firm Linklaters was able to opine that the transactions counted as sales. United States accounting standards apparently did the rest, allowing Lehman to shuffle $50 billion of assets off its balance sheet. Regulators in different jurisdictions need to cooperate to close all such gaps that they can.
Europe and America Wrestle over Tighter Financial Regulation By Beat Balzli, Wolfgang Reuter, Michael Sauga and Hans-Jürgen Schlamp -Speigel.de --- In the wake of the financial crisis, governments in Europe and the US sought to rein in the global banking sector. One year later, little has been accomplished -- and success in the near future seems doubtful. Competing oversight visions could increase trans-Atlantic tensions. German Chancellor Angela Merkel isn't one for using aggressive language. Normally at least. But when it comes to the international financial industry these days -- particularly the dealings of investment banks, hedge funds and currency speculators -- she doesn't shy away from a bit of bellicosity. Words like "excesses" and "abyss" have become standard fare in her comments on the economy.
Timmy-Gate: Did Geithner Help Hide Lehman Fraud? By L. Randall Wray, a Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Just when you thought that nothing could stink more than Timothy Geithner’s handling of the AIG bailout, a new report details how Geithner’s New York Fed allowed Lehman Brothers to use an accounting gimmick to hide debt. The report, which runs to 2200 pages, was released by Anton Valukas, the court-appointed examiner. It actually makes the AIG bailout look tame by comparison. It is now crystal clear why Geithner’s Treasury as well as Bernanke’s Fed refuse to allow any light to shine on the massive cover-up underway. Recall that the New York Fed arranged for AIG to pay one hundred cents on the dollar on bad debts to its counterparties—benefiting Goldman Sachs and a handful of other favored Wall Street firms. The purported reason is that Geithner so feared any negative repercussions resulting from debt write-downs that he wanted Uncle Sam to make sure that Wall Street banks could not lose on bad bets. Now we find that Geithner’s NYFed supported Lehman’s efforts to conceal the extent of its problems.
Inside Man By Joshua Green - TheAtlantic.com Congress members accuse Timothy Geithner of coddling Wall Street. Wall Street accuses him of abetting socialism. Yet when the history books are written, Geithner will be recognized as Barack Obama’s key lieutenant in the struggle to right the economy and fix the finance system. Economically, Geithner’s plan has worked better and more cheaply than anyone could have imagined a year ago. Politically, it threatens to undermine Obama’s presidency. Is Geithner a courageous public servant doing the right thing? Or have his years as a player in global finance made him loath to change an industry that needs fundamental reform?
Repo 105 is LEHMANGATE: by Dave - The Golden Truth Systematic Fraud and Geithner Knew About It You'll see that Geithner was unequivocally involved with knowledge about Repo 105, LEHMANGATE. But the real question is, at what point in time did Obama know? And if Obama did not know, then he's unworthy to be President because it means he lacks the political strength, depth and experience demanded by the job (what did he run before being elected?). I believe we are watching another "Watergate" unfold. The difference between then and now is that we may not have political leaders in Congress who are willing to do what's required to make the full truth known.
Studies Delay Financial Overhaul By EDWARD WYATT - NYTimes.com When in doubt, conduct a study. That, in short, is the regimen prescribed by both the House and the Senate bills proposing a regulatory overhaul of the banking and financial industries. Rather than immediately putting in place regulatory fixes for some of the problems that contributed to the financial crisis, the two bills each call for dozens of studies that will effectively delay for up to two years the possibility of addressing those problems through new laws or industry regulations.
Fed Leaves Benchmark Interest Rate Unchanged By SEWELL CHAN - NYTimes.com WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Tuesday and affirmed its plan to halt its buying of mortgage-backed securities — a huge intervention that has been supporting the housing market — at the end of the month. In sticking with its deadline for ending those purchases, which will total $1.25 trillion and have helped hold mortgage rates to near-record lows, the Fed appeared to be expressing a degree of confidence about the durability of the economic recovery.
Not Just Sovereign Debt, US Junk Bonds are Also Catastrophic By Rocky Vega - DailyReckoning.com 03/16/10 Stockholm, Sweden – The easy credit era leading up to 2007 was largely financed by corporate bonds issued to come due in five to seven years. This means that in addition to issuing record US debt in 2012 to 2014, there will also be a concurrent financial reckoning day for private debt refinancing. According to The New York Times: “The United States government alone will need to borrow nearly $2 trillion in 2012, to bridge the projected budget deficit for that year and to refinance existing debt. “Indeed, worries about the growth of national, or sovereign, debt prompted Moody’s Investors Service to warn on Monday that the United States and other Western nations were moving “substantially” closer to losing their top-notch Aaa credit ratings.
Bernanke to Defend Fed Role By MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN - WSJ.com Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will argue at a hearing Wednesday in favor of retaining the central bank's oversight of smaller banks. Mr. Bernanke, in prepared remarks for the House Financial Services Committee, is set to take on a piece of the Senate regulatory overhaul bill that would strip the Fed of that authority. He will say that the Fed's oversight of state-chartered and community banks helps the Fed set monetary policy and lend to commercial banks. "The insights provided by our role in supervising a range of banks, including community banks, significantly increases our effectiveness in making monetary policy and fostering financial stability," Mr. Bernanke says.
Deck the Halls With Boughs of Economic Folly Dan Dorfman - HuffingtonPost.com When push comes to shove, pistols with blanks are useless. The same can be said about the ballooning ranks of economic dreamers -- those self-professed financial experts who keep pounding the table and tell us that we're out of the woods. One of their arguments -- which cannot be dismissed -- is the rebounding stock market, a frequent harbinger of a peppier economy. Currently, though, the dreamers could be setting us up for a nightmare. One member of the club is New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who recently hopped aboard the bandwagon of economic dreamers (some describe them as economic buffoons), which includes such notables as Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and Timothy Geithner.
Home Federal Bank fined by regulators South Florida Business Journal The Office of Thrift Supervision made Home Federal Bank of Hollywood pay a $3,850 fine for violating federal flood insurance laws. In an order agreed to with the bank on Monday, the OTS said Home Federal did not ensure that certain properties covered by its loans that were in flood hazard zones had the appropriate level of floor insurance. It also did not notify borrowers that they needed flood insurance in a reasonable amount of time. Home Federal Bank Chairman and President Guy Lazzeri said one of the issues was with an office condo on the sixth floor of a Miami Beach building that was $2,000 short of its flood insurance coverage. “The rules are pretty strict,” Lazzeri said.
PROMISES, PROMISES: Is gov't more open with Obama? By SHARON THEIMER WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal agencies haven't lived up to President Barack Obama's promise of a more open government, increasing their use of legal exemptions to keep records secret during his first year in office. An Associated Press review of Freedom of Information Act reports filed by 17 major agencies found that the use of nearly every one of the law's nine exemptions to withhold information from the public rose in fiscal year 2009, which ended last October.
"Time for the Truth" Eliot Spitzer and William K. Black In December, we argued the urgent need to make public A.I.G.'s emails and "key internal accounting documents and financial models." A.I.G.'s schemes were at the center of the economic meltdown. Three months later, a year-long report by court-appointed bank examiner Anton Valukas makes it abundantly clear why such investigations are critical to the recovery of our financial system. Every time someone takes a serious look, a new scandal emerges. The damning 2,200-page report, released last Friday, examines the reasons behind Lehman's failure in September 2008. It reveals on and off balance-sheet accounting practices the firm's managers used to deceive the public about Lehman's true financial condition. Our investigations have shown for years that accounting is the "weapon of choice" for financial deception.
Charles Biderman Bloomberg TV January 19, 2010 (from Tuesday's show) Charles Biderman, founder and CEO of TrimTabs Investment Research, discusses the possible role of US government cash in the current stock market rally with Bloomberg's Lori Rothman.
Charles Biderman CNBC March 12, 2006 Peter Schiff - RIGHT; Charles Biderman - WRONG! Charles Biderman of TrimTabs Investment Research appears on CNBC to discuss income, debt, and balance of payments with Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital and CNBC's Steve Liesman.
Will The Volcker Rule Survive In Dodd's Bill? Citigroup Is Betting That It Won't Huffington Post | Ryan McCarth --- Devotees of former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker may less than thrilled by the bill unveiled by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) Citigroup, for its part, doesn't seem to believe the rule is coming anytime soon. The bank is actually hiring employees at a trading unit that could be affected by the rule, Bloomberg reports. Announced earlier this year by the Obama administration, the so-called Volcker Rule was devised to prohibit banks from owning, operating or sponsoring hedge funds or private equity operations. The aim of the Volcker Rule is to prevent the nation's largest banks from using taxpayer-provided financing -- from the Fed's discount window, for one -- to fund trades for their own accounts.
Dodd injects momentum into reform By Tom Braithwaite - FT Chris Dodd, Democratic chairman of the Senate banking committee, on Monday proposed a tougher-than-expected curb on proprietary trading in a financial regulation bill that injected new momentum into reform efforts. Key Republicans warmed to the bill, saying it was close to a product they could support, but much of the financial industry and some consumer advocates continue to oppose it. The bill instructs regulators to study and then enforce the "Volcker rule" in spite of Mr Dodd's earlier frustration at the White House for pushing a ban on deposit-taking banks from trading for their own account, which has been advocated by Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman.
Traders cautious ahead of Fed decision By Jamie Chisholm - FT Monetary, fiscal and regulatory factors were in focus on Tuesday as investors ponder what catalyst can push major equity indices to fresh cycle highs. The FTSE All-Word index rose 0.8 per cent, with traders positive but still cautious ahead of interest rate decisions by the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan in the next 24 hours. Sentiment was boosted by news that rating agency Standard & Poor's had ended its review for a downgrade of Greek debt, a move that if enacted would have made it even more difficult for Athens to raise the funds required to tackle its huge fiscal deficit.
Smoke, Mirrors, SDRs and Gold: By: Rob Kirby - GoldSeek.com Why Central Banks Cannot Tell the Truth In the following article the term Special Drawing Right [SDR] is used frequently. A brief explanation of an SDR is provided below together with its current value [which floats] in U.S. Dollars. According to the IMF: The currency value of the SDR is determined by summing the values in U.S. dollars, based on market exchange rates, of a basket of major currencies (the U.S. dollar, Euro, Japanese yen, and pound sterling). The SDR currency value is calculated daily and the valuation basket is reviewed and adjusted every five years.
China pushes back at currency criticism By Geoff Dyer in Beijing - FT China pushed back on Tuesday against mounting US criticism of its currency policy, saying that the country's trade surplus was not the result of its exchange rate and warning the US not to "politicise" the issue. "The trade imbalance is not something that the exchange rate can resolve and politicising exchange-rate issues is counterproductive to global efforts in tackling the financial crisis," said Yao Jian, spokesman for the Chinese commerce ministry at a briefing.
New Baghdad and the Collapse of Capitalism By Doug Hornig - GoldSeek.com Forty years ago, it was a small town on the Persian Gulf, merely one of seven sheikdoms joined in federation in 1971 to create the United Arab Emirates. Basically, there was nothing there but sand. Yes, oil had been discovered under that sand, and the city/state was enjoying its first economic boomlet. From about 60,000 in 1968, population tripled by 1975, doubled in the next ten years, and nearly doubled again by 1995. Problem is, especially compared with many of its Gulf neighbors, it didn’t have all that much oil to begin with, and its reserves were falling fast. What it did have was Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the most influential member of the family that had ruled for more than a century and a half. And the sheikh had a vision.
Blockbuster: Bankruptcy is a possibility Dallas Business Journal Movie rental chain Blockbuster Inc. said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it may have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if unable to generate enough cash flow to meet or restructure its debt commitments. In the filing, the Dallas-based movie rental chain attributed its weakened operations and cash flow to increasing competition. The company indicated that its cash flow situation has “threatened the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” For the year ending Jan. 3, 2010, Blockbuster reported a net loss from operations and a stockholders’ deficit. The company added in the March 16 filing that if its operating results continue to drop, it may lack the cash flow needed to meet its liquidity needs.
AARP Launches Massive Job Fair Project For Older Unemployed Arthur Delaney - HuffingtonPost.com To help the more than two million unemployed Americans who are older than 55, the AARP is sponsoring 48 job fairs in 19 states with high unemployment rates for older workers. The events, the first of which is on Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, will offer career counseling and booths from businesses with job openings. Two weeks ago, the AARP's Public Policy Institute reported that unemployment for Americans 55 and older surged 331 percent over the past decade.
Wave of Layoffs to Hit Cash Strapped States, Cities By: Dan Weil - MoneyNews.com The budget woes of state and local governments will force them to slash workers and hike taxes, experts say. State and local government payrolls react more slowly to recessions than the private sector, because government budgets are set a year in advance. So public sector layoffs are just starting to arise. "This is a completely unprecedented crisis," said Ethan Pollack of the Economic Policy Institute. "The budget cuts are going to get more and more severe," Pollack told CNBC. The fiscal stimulus plan saved some jobs, but that’s ending.
Geithner Warns Unemployment Will Stay High in 2010 By BRUCE KENNEDY - DailyFinance.com U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other top economic officials in the Obama administration say that, while they expect some improvement this spring, 2010 will probably remain a rough year for Americans looking for work. In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Geithner read a joint statement -- which he prepared with Christina Romer, chairwoman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, and Peter Orszag, director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget -- warning that the nation's unemployment rate "is likely to remain elevated for an extended period. The forecast projects that in the fourth quarter of 2011, the unemployment rate will be 8.9%, and that by the fourth quarter of 2012, it will be 7.9%."
Wells Fargo cuts 415 jobs in Sacramento San Francisco Business Times Wells Fargo said Tuesday that it will eliminate 415 positions as it combines two Sacramento call centers. The call centers involved are at 2125 Butano Dr. and at 3640 Northgate Blvd. in Sacramento, according to the Sacramento Business Journal. A call center at 2125 Butano Dr. in Sacramento, which Wells Fargo owns, will be the surviving call center. Wells will continue to maintain some operations at the Northgate site. The San Francisco bank employs almost 4,000 people in the Sacramento area.
Housing construction drops 5.9 pct in February By MARTIN CRUTSINGER WASHINGTON (AP) - Housing construction fell in February as winter blizzards held down activity in the Northeast and South. The decline highlighted the challenges facing builders as they struggle to emerge from the worst housing slump in decades. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that construction of new homes and apartments fell 5.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 575,000 units, slightly higher than the 570,000 that economists were expecting. January activity was revised up to a pace of 622,000 units, the strongest showing in 14 months.
Defaults Soar as Foreclosures Slide in Sunny California: ForeclosureRadar by JON PRIOR - HousingWire.com --- Notice of defaults, the start of the foreclosure process, in California increased 19.7% in February, while the amount of foreclosed homes for sale remained near record levels, according to ForeclosureRadar. At the same time, the number of foreclosures slipped nearly 12%. “The disconnect between delinquencies, and foreclosure sales continues to widen,” says Sean O’Toole, Founder and CEO of ForeclosureRadar.com. “While efforts to slow foreclosures are clearly working, it remains unclear that anything has yet addressed the core problem of excess household mortgage debt.”
Mom, Apple Pie and Mortgages By ROBERT J. SHILLER - NYTimes FOR decades, the federal government has subsidized housing — particularly owner-occupied housing. This has been especially true during the continuing financial crisis, with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration propping up the housing market by issuing guarantees for investors on most new mortgages. But what is the long-term justification for putting taxpayers on the line to subsidize homeownership? Is this nothing more than a sacred cow in American society — a political necessity because so many voters own homes and are mindful of their resale value?
"Deem and Pass" Is Not "Without a Vote" Bill Scher - HuffingtonPost.com Several traditional media outlets are regurgitating the conservative spin that if the House uses the parliamentary procedure known as a "self-executing rule" or "deem and pass," it will be passing the Senate health care vote "without a vote." Yet that is a false assertion. MSNBC's First Read succinctly explains the process, in case any other professional journalists care to do their jobs. ...the health-care bill would be voted on INDIRECTLY, tucked into what's known as "the rule." The rule essentially outlines the rules for an upcoming vote -- in this case, it would be the vote on the package of reconciliation fixes.
Facebook Feds Go Undercover Document Shows Federal Agents Dipping Quietly (AP) WASHINGTON (AP) - The Feds are on Facebook. And MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, too. U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting. Think you know who's behind that "friend" request? Think again. Your new "friend" just might be the FBI.
Socialism American style By Ada M. Fisher - WashingtonTimes.com Love him or not, I have to give it to President Obama, who has artfully shifted the health care debate to insurability from access and affordability — which his legislation on health care also is not about. Risk assessment and coverage are a major concern in providing insurance coverage to everyone or in mitigating against financial losses in most situations. With health care eliminating increased costs based on risk, controlling access and costs is much trickier than is appreciated by John Q. Public — or legislators. If people continue to engage in slovenly behavior such as smoking, failing to exercise, eating excessively and other acts within their control, why should policyholders — that is, taxpayers — pay extra for their risks?
Pelosi Says Democrats to Have Votes for Health Bill By Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen March 16 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, still shoring up support for legislation to overhaul the U.S. health- care system, vowed that Democrats will be ready to pass the bill when the time comes. “When we bring the bill to the floor, we will have the votes,” Pelosi told reporters yesterday. Leaders plan for the House to vote later this week, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters today. Representative John Larson of Connecticut, chairman of the House Democratic caucus, agreed that the leadership will get enough votes, although he said, there’s “tremendous anticipation and certainly anxiety” among lawmakers.
Obamacare Will Trigger Huge Tax Increases By: Julie Crawshaw - MoneyNews.com An analysis of the Obama healthcare bill reportedly shows there will be huge tax increases if Congress passes this legislation. For starters, people who incur high medical costs won’t be able to deduct as many of them; the legislation increases the adjusted gross income threshold for claiming an itemized deduction from 7.5 percent to 10 percent, Boston.com recently reported. High-income taxpayers will incur hospital insurance tax. The Medicare tax on wages earned by individuals making in excess of $200,000 and married couples making over $250,000 will go up by 0.50 percent beginning Jan. 1, 2013.
Joe Arpaio 'Considers' Run for Governor myfoxphoenix.com He says, "If it's not now, it's never" PHOENIX - Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he's "considering" running for the state's highest office -- and he says he could win. It's the fourth time Sheriff Arpaio has flirted with the idea of running for governor of Arizona. But he says this time is different. Arpaio says this is the last year he'll consider running for Arizona's top spot. Since 1998, Arpaio has only considered a run, but he's never officially thrown in his hat. This time, Arpaio says, it's different because he's 77 years old.
Katrina's Toxic Trailers Are No Bargain By Eugene Robinson - TruthDig.com The Obama administration is making a big health care mistake. I'm not talking about the final push for comprehensive reform legislation, which is righteous and necessary. I mean the sale of more than 100,000 contaminated trailers and mobile homes-a move that could make people sick. The trailers are a legacy of the Bush administration's botched response to Hurricane Katrina. They were purchased by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as temporary housing for displaced Gulf Coast residents, but some people who moved into them reported burning eyes, irritated throats, headaches and nosebleeds.
F.C.C. Calls New Broadband Plan Vital By MATT RICHTEL and BRIAN STELTER - NYTimes.com Federal regulators on Tuesday made public the details of their ambitious policy to encourage the spread of high-speed Internet access. But their 376-page proposal, the National Broadband Plan, was met with a chorus of questions, even from the staunchest advocates of its goals. Telecommunications companies praised the intent but worried that new regulations might impede rather than encourage their progress in expanding Internet access. Iindustry analysts said the plan was both too ambitious and not detailed enough, and consumer advocates doubted it alone would lead to more affordable broadband service at adequate speeds.
How Privacy Vanishes Online, a Bit at a Time By STEVE LOHR - NYTimes.com If a stranger came up to you on the street, would you give him your name, Social Security number and e-mail address? Probably not. Yet people often dole out all kinds of personal information on the Internet that allows such identifying data to be deduced. Services like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr are oceans of personal minutiae — birthday greetings sent and received, school and work gossip, photos of family vacations, and movies watched.
Google says it's still censoring China Web site By Chris Oliver, MarketWatch HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- China's state-run press reported Tuesday that Google Inc. is still censoring its search results on its Google.cn Web site. The China Daily said that Google's Chinese unit was complying with government regulation to filter search results, despite official concerns it might stop doing so. The report quoted Google China spokeswoman Marsha Wang as saying: "We are still doing that [providing censored search results], and have not received any orders to shut down the business."
China appears to be preparing for Google departure By John Pomfret - washingtonpost.com BEIJING -- The Chinese government on Tuesday appeared to set the foundation for Internet giant Google to pull out of the country, with one spokesman contending that the company's potential departure would be an "individual business act" and another warning Google to obey Chinese law whether it leaves China or not. The comments -- by the spokesmen for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce -- followed strong indications that Google, which has been locked in a dispute with the Chinese government over censorship, was preparing to leave China.
iPhones app guides medics through heart attack treatment An application for Apple iphones which guides medics through life-saving treatment for heart attack victims has been launched. The iResus application aims to reduce the risk of human error by prompting clinicians through a checklist of things to do when resuscitating critically ill patients in or near cardiac arrest. The prompts depend on the age and condition of the patient and a more basic version is also available for first aiders. It is one of iPhone's most popular medical applications with almost 2,500 people - mainly UK doctors - downloading it in the first week, and more than 1,200 downloads per week since then.
U.S. puts brakes on "virtual" border fence Tim Gaynor - Reuters The U.S. government is pulling $50 million in funding from a problematic "virtual fence" meant to secure stretches of the Mexico border and is freezing additional funding for the project pending review, authorities said on Tuesday. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said an allocation of $50 million in funds made under the Recovery Act would be taken away from the ill-starred SBInet program, which seeks to mesh video cameras, radar, sensors and other technologies into a high-tech system to detect smugglers.
Is The US Preparing For "The Total Destruction Of Iran?" by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com Is war just around the corner? While in theory it would make perfect sense to distract Americans from the long road to US insolvency, and other more pressing issues such as the endless criminality all around us, in practice we have so far heard merely rumors. The Herald of Scotland, however, may have credible proof that a US-led attack on Iran approaches and could be just days away. The newspaper has procured proof of an arms shipment to Diego Garcia, which consists of "of 195 smart, guided, Blu-110 bombs and 192 massive 2000lb Blu-117 bombs...put in place for an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities." Additional insight comes from Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London: “They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran.
US military targets Israeli 'intransigence' By Jim Lobe - Asia Times WASHINGTON - The crisis touched off by last week's announcement of Israel's plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jews in Arab East Jerusalem during a high-profile visit by United States Vice President Joseph Biden appears to be escalating rapidly. Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to Washington and a historian who has written widely on ties between the two nations, called the growing contretemps "the worst [bilateral] crisis in 35 years" in a teleconference with other US-based Israeli diplomats on Saturday night, according to a number of published accounts.
The Globalist Push To Crush The Rich Nations In Preparation For Global Carbon Tax And New World Order Mark Matheny --- In 1990, Maurice Strong (Secretary General of the United Nations at the time) gave an interview to WEST magazine, where he described how he envisioned the Earth being saved: “Each year the World Economic Forum convenes in Davos, Switzerland. Hundreds of CEO’s, prime ministers, finance ministers, and leading academics gather each February to attend meetings and set the economic agendas for the year ahead.
Maurice Strong And The Collapse Of Industrialized Civilizations Posted by Duane Lester - AllAmericanBlogger.com --- In 1990, a small, round faced Canadian described a scenario to a reporter. He envisioned a small group of world leaders concluding that the rich countries were the “principle risk to the Earth.” This group then created a plan to get the rich countries to “sign an agreement reducing their impact on the environment.” When the rich countries refused, the group decided “the only hope for the planet” was for the industrialized civilizations to collapse. He pondered, “Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” Two years later, he helped lay the foundation for the Kyoto Protocol at the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro. His name is Maurice Strong, and he would love to see America collapse.
Lessons from history - nobody listened in 2005, but they are now that it's too late:
CNBC SquawkBox - Peter Schiff Interview 04-26-2005 Part 1
CNBC SquawkBox - Peter Schiff Interview 04-26-2005 Part 2 Peter even explains China . . . what's happening NOW in 2010!
US Making Preparations for a Pre-Emptive Strike on Iran (or Some Other Eastern Destination) JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN Although one would doubt that the US would 'go it alone,' one has to question whether or not they would act in support of a pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iranian nuclear facilities. Although this news piece assumes Iran is the target, other easterly destinations come to mind in the vicinity of Afghanistan.
Final destination Iran? Exclusive: Rob Edwards - HeraldScotland.com "They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran " -Dan Plesch, director, Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, University of London Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran. The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US government signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures.
Support the Troops: End the War in Afghanistan!
Lehman Brothers Scandal Rocks the Fed Mike Whitney - SilverBearCafe.com Geithner and Bernanke's Possibly Criminal Roles... After a year-long investigation, court-appointed bank examiner Anton Valukas has produced a deadly 2,200 page report which details the activities that led to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. The report is a keg of dynamite. The question now is whether anyone in government has the nerve to light the fuse. Valukas provides powerful evidence that Lehman executives were involved in "balance sheet manipulation” by implementing an arcane accounting procedure called "Repo 105” which masked the bank's true financial condition from investors and regulators.
Lehman Whistle-Blower's Fate: Fired By MICHAEL CORKERY - WSJ.com Mr. Lee Raised Red Flags About 'Repo 105' Accounting Device; Let Go for Downsizing, Said Firm Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ousted a whistle-blower just weeks after he raised red flags about the securities firm's accounting in 2008. Matthew Lee, a 14-year Lehman veteran, was let go in late June 2008 amid steep losses at the firm as it tried to maneuver through the global financial crisis. Earlier that month, he had raised concerns with Lehman's auditor, Ernst & Young, that the securities firm was temporarily moving $50 billion in assets off its balance sheet.
Accounting for Lehman, or Enron Pt 2 Dan Roberts - guardian.co.uk Lucy Prebble has brilliantly dramatised Enron's accounting scams, but it seems Lehman Brothers perfected the dark art No one who has seen Lucy Prebble's play about the collapse of Enron can forget the velociraptors. These menacing, red-eyed dinosaurs are used to represent the company's unique contribution to the financial hall of shame: accounting monsters created to gobble up debt and hide it from shareholders with a brazenness they could never imagine. But the so-called "special purpose entities" (named Raptors 1 to 4 by Enron finance director Andrew Fastow) were perhaps not so unusual, after all. When the time comes to stage our most recent financial drama, theatre directors might want to take a closer look at the beasts that Lehman Brothers kept chained in the shadows.
Sovereign Debt: Emerging Markets Advantage Frank Holmes - SeekingAlpha.com It’s not a good time to be a developed economy. Sovereign debt is at or near the crisis point in Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal. It’s also a big issue and getting bigger in the United States, Britain, Japan and a number of other countries. Mohamed El-Erian, CEO at bond giant Pimco, was right when he wrote in Thursday’s Financial Times that sovereign debt represents “a significant regime shift in advanced economies with consequential and long-lasting effects.”
The $2 Trillion Hole By JONATHAN R. LAING - Barrons.com Promised pensions benefits for public-sector employees represent a massive overhang that threatens the financial future of many cities and states. LIKE A CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE, populist rage burns over bloated executive compensation and unrepentant avarice on Wall Street. Deserving as these targets may or may not be, most Americans have ignored at their own peril a far bigger pocket of privilege -- the lush pensions that the 23 million active and retired state and local public employees, from cops and garbage collectors to city managers and teachers, have wangled from taxpayers.
China's yuan value hits U.S. economy, two experts say By David M. Dickson - WashingtonTimes.com China's undervalued currency is costing the U.S. economy more than $200 billion per year in lost growth and is reducing American employment by as much as 1 million jobs, two leading international trade economists claim. Beijing uses currency manipulation to maintain the value of its currency, the yuan, at an artificially low value, which makes its exports much cheaper and its imports more expensive, charged Nobel laureate Paul Krugman and C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Democrats Increase Pressure on Obama Over Yuan’s Peg By Mark Drajem March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic lawmakers, prodding President Barack Obama to take a tougher line on China’s currency, are drawing up legislation and convening hearings on the yuan’s effects on U.S. companies. Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Charles Schumer of New York and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan will propose legislation setting criteria to find a country has a misaligned currency, and the consequences, according to a draft of the proposal. The House Ways and Means Committee plans a March 24 hearing on the yuan, held at about 6.83 per dollar since July 2008.
It Could be Time for China to Back Down By Rocky Vega - DailyReckoning.com 03/15/10 Stockholm, Sweden – Throughout the media, mainstream and otherwise, and especially since the financial crisis, are discussions of China’s growing importance… be it in new billionaires or in strengthening political allies. However, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard takes a different tack. When it comes to the current issue of Chinese yuan appreciation in particular, he questions whether China’s aggressive ire may have risen a little too far too fast. From The Telegraph: “China’s premier Wen Jiabao is defiant.
Economy Kept On Life Support While Global Governance Is Organized Giordano Bruno - Neithercorp Press -- Winter is slowly melting away here in the U.S., and Spring will soon be upon us. Wall Street is currently flush with delight at the year long run of the stock market (driven by fiat bailouts), which at first glance appears to be doing quite well, though international incidences such as those in Dubai and Greece have revealed how shaky the market actually is in the face of any unhealthy news. In the meantime, the dollar, recently on the edge of detrimental value loss, has made a semi-miraculous recovery in the span of a few months, especially as the Euro suffers. Official employment numbers, despite the continuous loss of jobs monthly, have somehow fallen and are for the moment stabilized. Is it time for America to dust off the old credit cards and return to the wild and rollicking carefree spending days of pre-2007? Perhaps not…
House may try to pass Senate health-care bill without voting on it By Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane - Washington Post -- After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it. Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers "deem" the health-care bill to be passed.
$1,000 gold now more floor than ceiling Ross Louthean - MineWeb.net The price that was once an invisible ceiling, is now more likely to be the level at which a fall in the gold price bottoms out The once magical US$1,000 an ounce price for gold - once considered unachievable - will be increasingly regarded more as the future "bottom out" floor price in the immediate years ahead, according to a senior economist with the major Australian bank Westpac. Senior economist Huw McKay told the Paydirt Australian Gold Conference in Perth today that the gold price had stepped up year on year by about US$100 an ounce above predictions, for at least the past five years.
Gold May Advance as Greece Rescue Doubts Increase Haven Demand By Glenys Sim -- March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Gold, trading little changed in Asia, may gain for a second day as investors seek a haven amid doubts European finance ministers will approve a financial rescue package for Greece. Immediate-delivery bullion rose as much as 0.2 percent to $1,110.81 an ounce, extending yesterday’s 0.6 percent advance. It traded little changed at $1,109.80 at 10:30 a.m. in Singapore. The precious metal climbed the most in almost two weeks yesterday after the 16-nation euro slumped as optimism waned that the European Union will organize financial assistance for Greece. The euro was last at $1.3680 from $1.3677 yesterday.
Monster Gold Profits Due Next Month...Honest! By Brad Zigler -SeekingAlpha.com Well, we've arrived at the ides of March, a day particularly unlucky for Julius Caesar, but I'm banking on this day as the start of the 30-day countdown to monster gains in the gold mining sector. Why? Because Colin McCabe, the supposed editor of the Elite Stock Report, told me—and, no doubt, thousands of other folk—that a fortune could be made by Tax Day if shares of Guinness Exploration, Inc. (OTCBB: GNXP) were bought. Guinness is a Canadian development outfit that's buying interests in Yukon and Alaskan gold fields.
Gold Cautious Ahead of Fed Interest Rate Decision By: Adrian Ash - MarketOracle.com THE PRICE OF GOLD gave back an early 0.6% rise vs. the Dollar as New York opened for business on Monday, slipping together with world stock markets and commodity prices ahead of tomorrow's Federal Reserve interest-rate decision. The Euro and Sterling both fell on the currency market, helping the gold price for European and UK buyers to rise.
Gold Supported by Geopolitical and Sovereign Risk as S&P and Moodys Warn US By: GoldCore - MarketOracle.com . . . . World equity markets are under pressure after mixed US economic reports and Chinese monetary policy tightening concerns. Asian stocks were mostly down, as are European shares so far this morning. Increasing geopolitical tensions between the US and China is likely making markets somewhat jittery (see below). Sovereign debt issues and currency risk remain prevalent and look set to keep gold buoyant for the foreseeable future. Indeed, gold is increasingly being seen as a safe haven currency as seen in the recent record (nominal) highs in euro and sterling due to the challenges facing the UK and European economies.
Crashing Towards a New World Social Order 2012 By: Global Research via MarketOracle.com Richard K. Moore writes: Historical background – the establishment of capitalist supremacy When the Industrial Revolution began in Britain, in the late 1700s, there was lots of money to be made by investing in factories and mills, by opening up new markets, and by gaining control of sources of raw materials. The folks who had the most money to invest, however, were not so much in Britain but more in Holland. Holland was the leading Western power in the 1600s, and its bankers were the leading capitalists. In pursuit of profit, Dutch capital flowed to the British stock market, and thus the Dutch funded the rise of Britain, who subsequently eclipsed Holland both economically and geopolitically.
More Fed minutes document gold market manipulation By: Adrian Douglas - GoldSeek.com The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets eight times per year to discuss and set interest rate policy. The minutes of these meetings are not released for five years. This ensures that few people will ever read them. Furthermore, the minutes are heavily redacted and edited. In his 2008 book "Deception and Abuse at the Fed," Robert Auerbach documents how Fed officials perjured themselves when they lied to Congress about the existence of verbatim transcripts of FOMC meetings.
On China's Golden Plans Przemyslaw Radomski - SeelingAlpha.com When politicians talk it is always a good idea to try and read between the lines. This Tuesday China's chief foreign exchange regulator, Yi Gang, told reporters that China is not interested in increasing its gold reserves. Really? Mr. Yi’s speech was accompanied by a downswing in the gold price - they moved lower by mere $3 within an hour of his speech but since then the market seems to have absorbed the news and moved on. On Wednesday speculation grew that accelerating inflation will force China to raise interest rates.
Gold May Gain on Debt Rating, China Credit Tightening Concern By Nicholas Larkin and Glenys Sim March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Gold, little changed in New York today, may gain as debt rating concerns and the prospect of credit tightening in China prompt some investors to seek a haven in precious metals. The U.S. and the U.K. have moved “substantially” closer to losing their AAA credit ratings as the cost of servicing their debt rose, said Moody’s Investors Service. Economists from Morgan Stanley said they expect “multiple” increases in China’s bank-reserve ratio requirements, with the next one “imminent.”
China Buys its Own Gold By Dan Denning - DailyReckoning.com.au Well Friday was a snoozer in New York. Markets didn't make new highs. But they didn't crash either. The S&P 500 remains near a 17-month high. And by most accounts, everything is fine in Greece, everything is fine in China, and the whole world is convalescing nicely from the last two years of crisis. Or not.
Rich Chinese Communists Channel U.S. Tea Party in Tax Debate By Bloomberg News -- March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Zong Qinghou, China’s richest man, says a property tax will hurt homeowners. Wang Jianlin, the 16th wealthiest, agrees. Lu Guanqiu, No. 19, says China isn’t ready for such a levy. Their financial clout, a combined $12.4 billion according to Forbes magazine’s latest ranking, packs a political punch. They are members of the Communist Party and delegates to China’s parliament or its political advisory committee. Their concerns about the tax, which the government might adopt in the five-year plan beginning 2011, are shared by many Chinese investors and homeowners.
Redemption by Warren Bevan - FinancialSense.com We are finally starting to see some retaliation against those “too big to fail” institutions who are basically criminals who have robbed the middle class of their wealth and livelihood over time. Let’s hope it keeps up. . . . . The Fibonacci levels are still showing quite goods areas where resistance is to be found. Once we mount some steam again I expect gold to clear the 50% retracement level at $1,135 more easily and for good on this next leg higher.
When Fiction Meets Reality by Captain Hook - FinancialSense.com There is no end to speculation concerning the stock market at present, with everything from credible crash calls to major gold stock rallies lying directly ahead. So the question begs, as fortunes are at stake, which view is correct – which view is fiction and which is reality? In my view, and although more upside might indeed exist for stocks prior to a reckoning (due to the lagged effects of money supply growth), the fiction that has become our reality, which is our fiat currency economy, is now hitting the wall in terms of constraints, which will be the stock market’s undoing.
Economists to Miss the Next Financial Crisis By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com 03/15/10 Mumbai, India – Beware the Ides of March…and the rest of the year too! This is the day Caesar was assassinated. What’s it to us? Well, it just reminds us that things go wrong. Even when you’re on top of the world. There are always countercurrents…undercurrents, beneath the surface, where you don’t see them… plots… conspiracies… and just bad luck. On the surface, the US economy is recovering. Well, not even. It is stabilizing. The Dow has been creeping up. It rose 12 points on Friday. Gold fell $6. Oil held at $81.
Strong Yuan in China's Interest by Axel Merk - FinancialSense.com The U.S. has pressured China for some time to allow its currency, the yuan, to appreciate. China, in our assessment, will not allow the yuan to appreciate at the request of U.S. policy makers, but rather when China deems it to be in its own national interest. Indeed, we believe this time has come. Domestic demand Much is said about encouraging domestic demand in China to achieve a less export dependent economy. The U.S. and China, however, have a different understanding of what stimulating domestic demand means; we propose a third strategy:
China trims holdings of Treasury securities By MARTIN CRUTSINGER - AP WASHINGTON (AP) - China retained its spot as the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt in January even as it trimmed its holdings for a third straight month. The string of declines underscored worries that the U.S. government could face much higher interest rates to finance soaring budget deficits. The Treasury Department said Monday that China's holdings dipped by $5.8 billion to $889 billion in January compared with December. Japan, the second-largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, also trimmed its holdings but by a much smaller $300 million, to $765.4 billion.
Chinese Inflation May Be Just What Doctor Ordered Jim Trippon - Seekingalpha.com Chinese Economy Inflation…Is It All Bad? You could almost hear the sound of the sky falling as journalists around the world hit their keyboards pronouncing judgment on the latest inflation figures from China. Consumer prices rose by 2.7 percent in February, the most in 16 months. That exceeded the expectations of professional prognosticators by about 0.2 percent.
Is a Trade War Brewing? James Picerno - SeekingAlpha.com Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday firmly rejected calls for a stronger yuan, which is widely credited for boosting the country's exports and maintaining its enormous trade surplus. “The Chinese currency is not undervalued,” he said on Sunday in Beijing. "We oppose all countries engaging in mutual finger-pointing or taking strong measures to force other nations to appreciate their currencies." The Chinese have been asserting for some time that revaluing the currency was a non-starter. Earlier this month, China's central bank chief said as much, as we discussed here. Wen's comments yesterday only strengthen his country's resolve.
Moody's fears 'social cohesion' as AAA states retrench By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk The world's five biggest AAA-rated states are all at risk of soaring debt costs and will have to implement austerity plans that threaten "social cohnesion", according to a report on sovereign debt by Moody's. The US rating agency said the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain are walking a tightrope as they try to bring public finances under control without nipping recovery in the bud. It warned of "substantial execution risk" in withdrawal of stimulus. "Growth alone will not resolve an increasingly complicated debt equation. Preserving debt affordability at levels consistent with AAA ratings will invariably require fiscal adjustments of a magnitude that, in some cases, will test social cohesion," said Pierre Cailleteau, the chief author.
Moody's warns nations to cut spending or risk AAA ratings By Howard Schneider - Washington Post The United States and other top world economies need to make potentially painful government spending cuts or risk losing the high-grade credit ratings that have kept borrowing affordable, the Moody's rating agency said Monday. Outlining the dilemma faced by policymakers in the United States, Great Britain, Germany and France, Moody's said that debt levels in the four large credit-worthy economies had reached the point at which they are at risk of being downgraded -- a step that would drive up interest rates, increase borrowing costs and mark a turn in perceptions about the world economy.
Taxes increase in Greece as EU meets on debt crisis By ASSOCIATED PRESS ATHENS -- A wave of new tax increases hit Greece on Monday, raising the cost of consumer goods despite recession and high unemployment, as European Union finance ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss the country's debt crisis. The center-left government has increased the main sales tax from 19 percent to 21 percent, as part of a 16 billion euro ($22 billion) austerity package intended to cut the budget deficit by almost a third this year.
Europe Creates an Apparatus to Provide Loans to Greece By STEPHEN CASTLE - NYTimes.com BRUSSELS — Finance ministers from the 16 countries using the euro as their currency said Monday they were ready to help rescue Greece. After five hours of talks, Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, who leads the group of euro-zone finance ministers, gave details of a mechanism that could be used to help the Greek government stave off bankruptcy. “The mechanism will not include loan guarantees,” Mr. Juncker told reporters on Monday. Instead, he said there would be “coordinated European action, which will make bilateral aid available for Greece.” He added that all euro-zone nations would take part in any rescue program.
Bankers Found Ways to Hide Debt By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com "Masked youths...attacked the head of Greece's largest trade union, who was addressing the crowd, and hurled stones at the police. GSEE union boss Yiannis Panagopoulos traded blows with the rioters before being whisked away, bloodied and with torn clothes." The Daily Mail account put the blame for these disturbances on Germany's finance minister, who warned the Greeks that "the German government does not intend to give a cent." At least Bild, a popular German newspaper, was trying to be helpful. It suggested that Greece sell Corfu...and that Greeks get up earlier and work harder.
Ex-NY bank president first accused of TARP fraud by Grant McCool (Reuters) The former president of New York's privately held Park Avenue Bank was arrested on Monday on fraud charges, the first person accused of attempting to steal U.S. government bailout funds in the financial crisis. The charges came just three days after regulators seized the bank, which had $520 million in assets. A 10-count criminal complaint said Charles Antonucci devised "an elaborate round-trip loan transaction" that he told others was his own $6.5 million investment in Park Avenue Bank, misleading bank regulators. Antonucci made false statements in the bank's application for $11.2 million from TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the complaint.
Junk Bond Avalanche Looms for Credit Markets By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ - NYTimes.com When the Mayans envisioned the world coming to an end in 2012 — at least in the Hollywood telling — they didn’t count junk bonds among the perils that would lead to worldwide disaster. Maybe they should have, because 2012 also is the beginning of a three-year period in which more than $700 billion in risky, high-yield corporate debt begins to come due, an extraordinary surge that some analysts fear could overload the debt markets.
Auditor Could Face Liability in Lehman Case By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED - NYTimes.com Lehman Brothers may have collapsed a year and a half ago, but fallout from its demise has created a potential legal liability for its former accounting firm, Ernst & Young. A 2,200-page report by a court-appointed examiner, Anton R. Valukas, on Lehman’s collapse has plenty of criticism for various players involved with the investment bank. But some of his harshest words are reserved for Ernst & Young and the accounting maneuvers it permitted.
Next bubble: Commercial real estate BY MAUREEN MILFORD • THE NEWS JOURNAL Developers, owners of buildings in Wilmington trying to stay ahead of any crisis Signs of economic stress are spreading across America's commercial real estate market, and experts say they may foretell the approach of a second credit crisis that could rival the residential mortgage debacle. Delaware is not immune. Buildings that have long been pillars of Wilmington's downtown office market -- the Brandywine Building, the Nemours Building and Citizens Bank Center -- all have been cited for indications of poor economic health in recent months.
Economic Analysis CNBC.com Mon. Mar. 15 2010
Sheila Does a Deal by Bruce Krastin - ZeroHedge.com The FDIC announced a $1.8 billion deal after the close on Friday. I thought it was interesting from a number of perspectives. As usual, I find fault with it. The summary terms of the transaction can be found here. The following is what I thought important: This is a run of the mill MBS with bells and whistles. The big whistle is the guaranty. The FDIC has puts its chomp on the whole thing. That means that this has the full faith and credit of the US government behind it.
Dodd Unveils a Massive Financial System Overhaul By SARA HANSARD - DailyFinance.com Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) took a major step forward with his attempt to reform the U.S. financial services industry today. He unveiled a 1,336-page bill that would change how the industry is regulated more dramatically than any time since the Great Depression. Dodd's "Restoring American Financial Stability Act," which he released at a press conference today on Capitol Hill, would establish a new independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, prevent institutions from becoming "too big to fail" and give shareholders nonbinding votes on executive compensation, among other things.
Ron Paul on the Financial Reform Bill
The Federal Reserve as Piggy Bank By David Wessel - WSJ.com The Federal Reserve funds itself, making money on the buying and selling and holding of U.S. government and mortgage-backed securities, among other things. After paying its expenses, any profits go to the U.S. Treasury. It prizes this independence from the congressional appropriations process. It seems the Senate Banking Committee has discovered the advantages of what one might call off-balance-sheet financing. In the latest version of the financial-regulatory bill unveiled by Chairman Chris Dodd on Monday, the committee shifts the budgets of all financial consumer-protection activities from half a dozen federal agencies to the Fed –- and then makes explicit that the Fed would have little say over what the new consumer bureau, to be headed by a presidential appointee, would do.
Federal Reserve Could Emerge With Enhanced Power By SUDEEP REDDY - WSJ.com The Federal Reserve, battered by the public and politicians for months, emerged a winner in the latest Senate draft of legislation to remake the nation's financial regulatory system. The bill that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) unveiled Monday would maintain the Fed as supervisor of the nation's biggest financial institutions and give it a leading role in monitoring the financial system. That is a departure from Mr. Dodd's initial proposal, which would have created a new agency to oversee banks, over the objections of the Fed and the Obama administration. The new bill also would make the Fed the home of a beefed-up regulator to protect consumers, though it would exert little control over it.
Geithner still optimistic on financial reform by Glenn Somerville (Reuters) A day after U.S. Senate bipartisan talks on financial reform collapsed, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sought to revive hope that Congress can still complete a bill to overhaul financial rules. It is in the U.S. domestic interest to make the financial system more stable and to show others that the United States can set an example for action in the wake of the financial crisis, he told a U.S. Export-Import Bank conference. "It is very important to our economic interests that we play a leadership role in shaping the basic reform structure around the world," Geithner said.
Americans Not Totally Clueless About Government Spending Tim Cavanaugh - Reason.com Zogby has a Family Feud-type poll in which respondents are asked to give a factual estimate of known statistics. How well can people guess the spending percentages in the federal budget? Better than you might have expected. Although there were traditional overestimates such as the foreign aid budget, majorities of the 2,068 people polled were in or near the ballpark on defense and Medicare/Medicaid, and a large minority was close enough for government work on Social Security:
Unemployment (cont.) By Howard S. Katz - GoldSeek.com Some questions were raised by my article on unemployment of last week and so I want to continue the same subject. Unemployment has become the central issue of our day and perfectly illustrates the genius of Ayn Rand in putting the spotlight on altruism as the central concept which is destroying our society. Today (but not when Rand wrote) the conservatives have adopted the left-wing’s ideas on economics. They are screaming that Obama has failed because, after little over a year in office the unemployment rate is 10%.
Walgreens: No new Medicaid prescriptions after April 16 Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) Walgreens said it won’t fill any new Medicaid prescriptions for new patients after April 16 at any of its 121 pharmacies in Washington state. The Deerfield, Ill. pharmacy company is blaming “continued reduction in reimbursement under the state’s (Medicaid) program.”
Building A Future Without The New World Order By Giordano Bruno - Neithercorp Press I have heard it said in the past that attempting to articulate the concept of freedom for a man who was born a slave is much the same as attempting to explain the concept of language to a man who was born deaf. Without a psychological point of reference, the task is arduous, or nearly impossible. And yet, it happens all the time. Some people are born deaf and blind, yet within them lay dormant the ability to understand concepts such as speech and form.
The Comeback: Defining the American Middle Class in Recession By JUDY ISIKOW - ABC News How Do You Define a Group That's the Backbone of America? The American middle class, long the backbone of this country and the envy of the rest of the world, is dispirited. It is feeling financially threatened and may be in danger of losing its sense of upward mobility, the mojo that underpins the U.S. economy and America's famously optimistic attitude. A new ABC News poll shows that while nearly 50 percent of Americans see themselves as middle class, four in 10 say they're struggling to hold on. The numbers give a sense of Americans feeling stalled. Only 6 percent of those in the middle class see themselves moving up beyond their current status, according to the poll results.
Home Builders' Confidence Index Dips Again in March By JOSEPH LAZZARO - DailyFinance.com The housing market is taking a detour from bad back to worse, based on the opinions of the U.S. home builders: The National Association of Home Builders announced Monday that its Housing Market Index fell to 15 in March from 17 in February. The NAHB Housing Market Index measures builders' perceptions of current single-family home sales, sales expectations for the next six months, and the traffic of prospective buyers. Index levels over 50 indicate that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.
Shadow Housing Inventory Still Looming Tim Iacono - SeekingAlpha.com Renae Merle at The Washington Post throws cold water on the idea that the "nascent" economic recovery (is anyone still calling it that?) will continue much longer in this story about a subject that seems to slip further and further from the top of everyone's list of concerns - the growing backlog of foreclosures or soon-to-be foreclosures. . . . . About 5 million to 7 million properties are potentially eligible for foreclosure but have not yet been repossessed and put up for sale.
Loans Going Bad Faster Than the Fixes By: Diana Olick - CNBC Real Estate Reporter The good news is the pace of loan deterioration is slowing. The bad news is we are still seeing record high delinquencies, and new delinquencies are outpacing loss mitigation efforts. Lender Processing Services put out its Mortgage Monitor report today, and the numbers are really staggering.
Loans delinquent/in foreclosure process: 7.5 million
REO/Post-sale foreclosure: 1 million
Loans that were current 1/1/09 and 60+ days delinquent 1/1/10: 2.5 million
That last one is interesting, because it shows how much faster loans are going bad than are being modified.
Mortgage delinquencies at historic highs Posted by Lisa Gibbs - CNNMoney.com The state of the housing market has long reached a point where it's good news to hear, "It's not getting worse." Unfortunately, according to a firm that tracks borrowers behind on their mortgages, you can conclude at best, "It's getting worse, but less quickly." Rising sales, largely spurred by first-time buyer credits, have given people hope that the beleaguered housing market has finally hit bottom and is even showing signs of life. It's been impossible, however, for me to get excited about this, considering that the number of people falling behind on their loan payments is growing, not shrinking. Unemployment continues to produce new delinquencies, and it's been many quarters now since we were talking only about subprime mortgages. No, delinquencies are hitting regular old fixed-rate mortgages to borrowers with good credit, too.
Winds of Change for Boeing, Airbus By PETER SANDERS And DANIEL MICHAELS - WSJ.com Competition From Upstart Manufacturers Forces Big Airliners to Consider Overhaul of Popular Models When it shops for a new fleet of single-aisle airliners later this year, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines won't just be choosing between Boeing Co. and Airbus. It will also look at planes from Canada's Bombardier Inc. and Brazil's Embraer. For years, Airbus and Boeing have split the market for big passenger jets. But a series of shifts in the sector could start to erode that dominance, leading to big changes in the commercial aircraft industry.
Google may leave China soon By Aaron Smith and David Goldman NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Google appears to be getting closer to shutting down its strictly monitored search engine in China, according to news reports. The reports, which cited people close to the situation, indicate that Google advertisers in China are being advised to switch over to rival Baidu Inc., out of fears that Google could abandon the country. Following a targeted cyber attack on Gmail accounts emanating from China in December, Google announced on Jan. 12 that it intended to give all of its users open access to the Internet.
China's BYD Plans to Increase Automobile Production By JOANNE CHIU - WSJ.com HONG KONG—Chinese battery and car maker BYD Co. said Monday it plans to boost capital spending 59% in 2010 to expand its automobile production amid robust domestic demand. China replaced the U.S. as the world's biggest auto market last year, when sales in China rose 46% to 13.6 million cars as the government introduced measures to encourage auto purchases amid the global financial crisis. Shenzhen-based BYD benefited from those measures, which helped the company more than double its sales to 450,000 cars in 2009. The car maker reiterated Monday its target of selling 800,000 autos this year.
US broadcasters set for fight over FCC plan By Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Kenneth Li - FT The broadcast industry marked a line in the sand on Monday in anticipation of a looming battle with the Federal Communications Commission over a plan by the US media regulator that calls for broadcasters to give up some of their airwaves voluntarily. The FCC’s national broadband plan, which was officially released on Monday and will be presented to Congress on Tuesday, would allow broadcasters “voluntarily” to give up the airwaves in exchange for compensation. The airwaves could then be bought by wireless companies, who need the additional spectrum.
ACORN affiliates rebrand after video scandal AP - via MSNBC.com Breakaway branches tout new start, but critic calls change ‘troubling’ CHICAGO - Affiliates of the once mighty liberal activist group ACORN are remaking themselves in a desperate bid to ditch the tarnished name of their parent organization and restore federal grants and other revenue streams that ran dry in the wake of a video scandal. The letters A, C, O, R and N are coming off office doors from New York to California. Business cards are being reprinted. New signs with new names are popping up in front of offices.
US citizens shot dead by Mexican drug gangs By Adam Thomson in Mexico City - FT Three people with links to the US consulate in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez were gunned down at the weekend by “drug cartel hit teams”, according to a US official. A consulate employee and her husband, both US citizens, were murdered while driving in the violent border city, which neighbours El Paso, Texas. Their baby daughter, who was sitting in the back seat, survived the attack.
US demands decisive action as three consulate workers slain in Mexican drug violence Jo Tuckman in Mexico City - The Guardian -- President Obama 'outraged' as drug violence claims three workers with connections to US consulate There was growing pressure on the Mexican government today to prove that it has not completely lost control of the drug wars raging around the country, after three people associated with the US consulate in the border city of Ciudad Juárez were murdered. A White House statement said Barack Obama was "outraged" by the murders, which took place in two separate incidents on Saturday afternoon.
Chinese language 'damaged by invasion of English words' By Malcolm Moore, in Shanghai - Telegraph.co.uk The "invasion" of English words into the Chinese language must be stopped or it will no longer be a pure language, according to the country's most senior translator. Huang Youyi, chairman of the International Federation of Translators, claims that words such as okay, bye-bye, nice, modern and guitar are slipping in to every day Chinese, and causing problems. Mr Youyi said: "If we do not pay attention and we do not take measures to stop Chinese mingling with English, Chinese will no longer be a pure language in a couple of years. "The terms DVD, MP3 and CEO are so abundant in Chinese and they are very popular. But these imported terms can cause confusion."
Israeli envoy sees "historic crisis" with U.S.: report (Reuters) Israel and the United States are in a "crisis of historic proportions" over a settlement dispute that has brought relations to a 35-year low, Israel's ambassador to Washington was quoted on Monday as saying. The comments attributed to envoy Michael Oren clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to play down tensions with U.S. President Barack Obama's administration over a West Bank settlement project threatening to derail the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian talks. "Israel's ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975 ... a crisis of historic proportions," the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted Oren as telling other Israeli diplomats in a telephone briefing over the weekend.
David Miliband to press China to support Iran sanctions by Damien McElroy - Telegraph.co.uk David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, will press the case of tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme during a trip to China. Beijing holds the stance that further engagement with the Iranians should take priority over imposition of new sanctions. However, a senior British diplomat said yesterday that China would not stand alone against the American and European drive to impose new penalties on Iran for its pursuit of a nuclear programme. The assessment puts Russia at the centre of the negotiations over additional sanctions. If Russia was opposed, China would also line up against the proposed measures.
Acapulco hit by running battles between drug cartels Nick Allen in Los Angeles - Telegraph.co.uk The Mexican tourist resort of Acapulco has been hit by running battles between drugs cartels leaving 13 dead. The dead included five police officers who were attacked on a night-time patrol. Bodies of eight other men were also found around the popular holiday destination. They were riddled with bullets and four of them had been beheaded. The killings, which police said were drug related, happened just as tourists began arriving for the Spring holiday season. Mexico's government is involved in an ongoing war against drug cartels and the latest killings raised fears over violence spreading to tourist destinations.
Barack Obama must pull US troops out of Afghanistan, says Indonesian cousin By Barney Henderson in Jakarta - Telegraph.co.uk -- Barack Obama must pull American troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq if he wants to fulfill his dream of reconciling the Muslim world and the West, according to his Indonesian cousin. Haryo Soetendro, 55, grew up with Mr Obama – whom he knew as "Barry" – when the future American president lived in Indonesia for four years from the late 1960s. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Soetendro said that his illustrious cousin must start delivering on his promise to build bridges with the Islamic world as the President prepares to leave for a visit to his childhood home next weekend.
US diplomatic rift with Israel widens after settler plan By Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem - Telegraph.co.uk The United States thwarted an Israeli attempt to play down a diplomatic rift between the two countries on Sunday by renewing its condemnation of plans to build new settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem. After days of uncharacteristically caustic criticism from Washington, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, suggested that claims of a crisis between the Jewish state and its superpower patron were overblown. “I suggest not to get carried away and to calm down,” Mr Netanyahu told his cabinet. “We look at this morning’s newspapers and read all kinds of comments and analysis,” he said. “First of all, I suggest that we don’t get carried away. We know how to deal with these situations.”
Israel claims Jerusalem settlement plan would not harm Palestinians Matthew Weaver, Daniel Nasaw and agencies - guardian.co.uk -- Netanyahu makes comments after ambassador to Washington says ties with US in 'crisis of historic proportions' The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, stepped up the row over Jewish settlement plans in East Jerusalem today, saying they would not hurt the city's Palestinian residents. Speaking to Israel's parliament, Netanyahu said the construction of homes for Jews in the city's eastern sector "in no way" hurts Palestinians. His comments came after an admission by the Israeli ambassador to Washington that Israel's relations with the US are at their worst for 35 years.
Israel Feeling Rising Anger From the U.S. By MARK LANDLER and ETHAN BRONNER - NYTimes.com -- WASHINGTON — An ill-timed municipal housing announcement in Jerusalem has mutated into one of the most serious conflicts between the United States and Israel in two decades, leaving a politically embarrassed Israeli government scrambling to respond to a tough list of demands by the Obama administration. The Obama administration has put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a difficult political spot at home by insisting that the Israeli government halt a plan to build housing units in East Jerusalem. The administration also wants Mr. Netanyahu to commit to substantive negotiations with the Palestinians, after more than a year in which the peace process has been moribund.
State Department Retaliates for Israel's Defiance on Housing Plan By SIMON MCGREGOR-WOOD and KIRIT RADIA - ABC News -- Prime Minister Netanyahu Refuses To Back Down Over Settlement Plans The standoff between Israel and the Obama White House over plans to expand Jewish housing in East Jerusalem escalated today with Israel insisting the construction will go ahead as scheduled and the State Department indicating that a trip by special envoy George Mitchell will be delayed. Mitchell was scheduled to leave for the Mideast tonight with the assignment of salvaging peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians. The trip has been delayed until tomorrow at the earliest. Those talks are threatened by the announcement last week that Israel planned to build another 1,600 units of housing for Jews in East Jerusalem.
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Regulators shut 3 more banks for a total of 30 failures this year By Stephen Bernard, Associated Press -- NEW YORK — Regulators on Friday shut down banks in New York, Florida and Louisiana, raising to 30 the number of failures this year of federally insured banks. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Park Avenue Bank in New York, Old Southern Bank in Orlando and Statewide Bank in Covington, La. Park Avenue Bank had $520.1 million in assets and $494.5 million in deposits as of Dec. 31. The FDIC said the bank's deposits will be assumed by Valley National Bank, based in Wayne, N.J. Valley National agreed to pay a small premium to assume all of the deposits. It also agreed to purchase essentially all of Park Avenue Bank's assets.
China may unlock its Dollar reserves to buy Gold By Steve Sjuggerud - CommodityOnline.com "A few factors limit our ability to increase [our] Gold Investment," said China's chief foreign exchange manager, Yi Gang, in a speech this week. Western investors have long speculated China will start Buying Gold and selling its hoard of US Dollars at some point. (China's hoard could be literally trillions of US Dollars.) It would be the first step in a "Doomsday" scenario for the greenback. Just imagine – China trades in its Dollar reserves for Gold Bullion. The value of the Dollar crashes...and US interest rates soar, as China is no longer willing to buy US government Treasury bonds. Some investors have said China has a perfect way to do it, available right now. The International Monetary Fund (the IMF) has a near-200-tonne hoard of gold that it wants to unload.
Is China's Politburo spoiling for a showdown with America? By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk The long-simmering clash between the world's two great powers is coming to a head, with dangerous implications for the international system. China has succumbed to hubris. It has mistaken the soft diplomacy of Barack Obama for weakness, mistaken the US credit crisis for decline, and mistaken its own mercantilist bubble for ascendancy. There are echoes of Anglo-German spats before the First World War, when Wilhelmine Berlin so badly misjudged the strategic balance of power and over-played its hand. Within a month the US Treasury must rule whether China is a "currency manipulator", triggering sanctions under US law. This has been finessed before, but we are in a new world now with America's U6 unemployment at 16.8pc.
China Uses Rules on Global Trade to Its Advantage By KEITH BRADSHER - NYTimes.com HONG KONG — With China’s exports soaring, even as other major economies struggle to recover from the recession, evidence is mounting that Beijing is skillfully using inconsistencies in international trade rules to spur its own economy at the expense of others, including the United States. Seeking to maintain its export dominance, China is engaged in a two-pronged effort: fighting protectionism among its trade partners and holding down the value of its currency.
China arrests more than 1,000 people for endangering state security By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai - Telegraph.co.uk About 1,050 people were charged with threatening China's state security in 2009, according to new figures from a Hong Kong-based human rights group. The Dui Hua Foundation said the number of arrests had retreated from the "historic levels" reached in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, but remained high. "More arrests and indictments for endangering state security have been carried out in China over the past two years than in the entire five-year period from 2003 to 2007," said Dui Hua.
Seeds of War, Part II By Joel Bowman - DailyReckoning.com Taipei, Taiwan – Only the dead have seen the end of war. ~ Plato Although history is not totally devoid of examples to the contrary, it is a rare case indeed when a free and prosperous nation sees fit to take up arms against its neighbors. We must be especially cautious, therefore, during a time when freedom is under constant attack and the fragile prosperity of once powerful nations hinges on the finite faith of the many in the moribund currency of the few.
Gold, Silver, Economy + More By: Bob Chapman - GoldSeek.com The dramatic and costly undertow of deflation continues unabated, as government via fiscal policy and the Federal Reserve, by creating money and credit out of thin air, proceed to overpower this deflation with massive inflation. Unbeknownst to most the Fed and the Treasury have been maintaining this program for the past several years, accompanied by most major countries, all of which have taken the path of least resistance rather than address the underlying problems.
Gold is an "Armageddon Hedge" Gold is an "Armageddon hedge", says Kirby Daley, senior strategist at the Newedge Group. He tells CNBC's Karen Tso, Sri Jegarajah & Martin Soong why he recommends holding physical gold over ETFs.
Competition for the IMF’s Gold? by Jeff Clark - LewRockwell.com On February 24, Reuters reported that the Reserve Bank of India was "set to be a buyer" of the 191.3 tonnes (6.74 million ounces) of gold the IMF is selling. Although the bank wouldn’t comment directly on the possibility, they did say, "We are closely looking at the gold market... gold is a safe bet." The article then quoted an unidentified official from the China Gold Association as saying, "It is not feasible for China to buy the IMF bullion, as any purchase or even intent to do so would trigger market speculation and volatility."
'Gold is almost the best thing to use for money' Doug Casey, a highly respected author, publisher and professional investor, in this interview by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator, finds gold as valued in terms of money as something that has five characteristics: it’s durable and divisible, consistent and convenient, and has value in itself. Abstracts from the interview.
Will Chinese Inflation Hike Oil And Gold Prices Back Up? By: Peter Cooper - GoldSeek.com The Middle East could be enjoying another oil price boom much sooner than expected as Chinese inflation gathers pace after one of the biggest experiments in loose monetary policy in history. Once an exporter of deflation to the rest-of-the-world, a nasty side-effect of the record stimulus plan in China last year is a surge in inflation that jumped to 2.7 per cent last month. Officials claim this is ‘mild and controllable’. Veteran observers sense an inflation genie let out of the bag.
What Are China’s Plans for Gold and the US Dollar? By Patrick A. Heller - CoinUpdate.com Something is developing in China which will have a major impact on the value of the US dollar and the price of gold. The difficulty is in trying to figure out what is going to happen. It is extremely rare for China to reveal its policies directly. Typically, such announcements are gleaned from the statements made by minor officials, former officials, or researchers. In such statements, it is typical for the person to say an issue is under study. When you hear the Chinese referring to doing a study, it typically means that the decision has been made and, frequently, the government is already acting on its decision.
Buy Gold, Silver and Copper by Jim Rogers - LewRockwell.com Noted commodities investor and author of bestselling books like Hot Commodities and A Bull in China, Jim Rogers says investors should continue to buy gold, silver and copper as governments across the world are dishing out heaps of printed currencies with declining values. Rogers’ comments came in the wake of the deep debt crisis that the Greek government has been caught in and the joint ongoing efforts from European Union countries to salvage the sinking Greek economy.
Where We’ve Been…And Maybe Where We’re Going By: David N. Vaughn - GoldSeek.com Presently there are about 5 billion ounces of gold floating around out there some where. More and more investors are adding gold to their portfolios as insurance. Gold has become the 3rd largest asset held by world central bankers. And many families are adding gold to their personal portfolios as they come to discover that all is not right in Alice in Financial Land. Charts, charts, charts. Ever notice how so many writers use charts, charts, charts? And more charts. I’ve often wondered if this is just an easier way to make an article longer without actually saying more. Charts, charts, charts, charts. I want to hear verbal dialogue. But then. That’s just me. Most charts don’t mean anything anyway. Because the next month the charts will be going in the opposite direction. I’m doing the same! Filling the air with charts.
The Big Dead-Cat Bounce . . . . Where we are now: We have $12.5 trillion in gross debt, growing at $2 trillion per year, on a GDP of $14.3 trillion. Next year, it will be $12.5T + $2T = $14.5 trillion on a projected $14.5T of GDP. Or 100%. A level we cannot survive for long. That means it’s likely, in the not-too-distant-future, that the government will be confronted with a very stark choice between defaulting on the debt or trying to inflate its way out. The former would kill off economic growth and likely launch a worldwide depression of epic proportions. Disastrous as that would be, if the alternative is chosen and Washington’s printing presses beget hyperinflation, that would probably be worse. In a serious deflation, those who have saved for a rainy day can make it through okay. In hyperinflation, which unconstrained further spending could easily bring on, everyone loses.
What about the Counterfeit Gold-Plated Tungsten Bar Stories? By Patrick A. Heller - CoinUpdate.com -- In my March 2 column, I told about the news story where an employee at the world’s largest private refinery had discovered a gold-plated 500 gram gold bar received from an unidentified bank. My column included an internet link where readers could themselves view the German television station report. As is common for my columns, this particular one was picked up by several other websites. This particular column inspired a relatively harsh response from Robert Bradshaw. In an essay he wrote that was posted yesterday at http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article17820.html, he took me to task for repeating the story that China’s central bank last year had received at least four counterfeit gold-plated 400 ounce tungsten bars. He seemed concerned that I was perpetuating a myth about a massive number of counterfeit gold-plated 400 ounce tungsten bars that were supposedly manufactured during the 1990's at the behest of the US government. Allegedly, about half of them were shipped to Fort Knox.
Gold Falls on Speculation China May Raise Rates, Damp Demand By Pham-Duy Nguyen March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Gold in New York fell to the biggest weekly loss in seven weeks on speculation that China will raise interest rates to control inflation, reducing demand for raw materials including precious metals. Consumer prices in China rose 2.7 percent in February, the most in 16 months, the government said yesterday. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities slumped today, led by energy contracts, and has dropped every day this week. Accelerating growth in China last year and low interest rates helped send gold to a record $1,227.50 an ounce on Dec. 3.
Marc Faber-Dollar end value zero Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, reveals his views on the inflation/deflation, of the US dollar. Marc says, cash and treasury bond will lose and the winners will be foreign currency and commodities. Equities have some power to hedge inflation.
Dollar Bulls Beware by Peter Schiff By late 2009, as the U.S. dollar flirted with multi-year lows against most foreign currencies, big investment players crowded into trades that shorted the greenback. Commentators noted that the anti-dollar momentum had taken on a life of its own and that the trade had become too crowded. It is true that markets have a nasty tendency to move against the crowd. When a lot of traders agree on a particular trade, it's more likely that in the short-run the opposite trade will be a winner.
Why Inflation Won’t Help to Reduce US Debt By Rocky Vega - DailyReckoning.com Stockholm, Sweden – The OMB’s 2011 budget showed that the US debt-to-GDP ratio will continue to rise over next 10 years until 2020, where the projection ends and when US debt will equal 77.2 percent of GDP. Inflation is one strategy that could be used in an attempt to lessen that debt burden. By putting more dollars into circulation, and lessening the value of each, the feds could try to pay down the same nominal debt that would then be smaller in real, inflation-adjusted terms. Unsurprisingly, it is not a practice that pans out well in reality…
China blames U.S. for tensions By John Pomfret - Washington Post Newly powerful China defies Western nations with remarks, policies BEIJING -- China's government has embraced an increasingly anti-Western tone in recent months and is adopting policies across a wide spectrum that reflect a heightened fear of foreign influence. The shift has accelerated as China has emerged stronger from the global financial meltdown, with a world-beating economic expansion rate and a growing nationalist movement. China has long felt bullied by the West, and its stronger stance is challenging the long-held assumption shared among Western and Chinese businessmen, academics and government officials that a more powerful and prosperous China would be more positively inclined toward Western values and systems.
China Revaluing the Yuan China's Rising Confidence Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is playing hardball now, notes Kirby Daley, senior strategist at the Newedge Group, after Wen said countries pressurizing China to appreciate the yuan is a also form of "protectionism". He tells CNBC's Martin Soong & Maura Fogarty more.
China Talks Tough to U.S. By ANDREW BATSON, IAN JOHNSON And ANDREW BROWNE - WSJ.com Premier Blames American 'Trade Protectionism' for Tensions Over Currency BEIJING—Premier Wen Jiabao aimed sharp words at Washington on Sunday, ceding little ground on China's currency policy and suggesting that U.S. efforts to boost its exports by weakening the dollar amounted to "a kind of trade protectionism." In his once-yearly news conference, Mr. Wen blamed the recent deterioration in what he called China's most important foreign relationship on U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan and President Barack Obama's meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Chinese facing debt time bomb By Jonathan Russell - Telegraph.co.uk Chinese banks face a $350bn (£230bn) debt time bomb that could mirror the financial crisis suffered by US and European banks, according to banking experts. A report by Citigroup and Victor Shih of Northwestern University warns that the Chinese government may be forced to bail out banks that made loans for government-backed projects under the huge stimulus programme put together at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. A bailout would not only be financially damaging for China, but also a blow to its reputation as a growing economic power. Much has been made by Asian economists over the past two years of their approach to financial regulation, which has not created the problems witnessed in the West - until now.
Wen Rebuffing Yuan Calls Risks Retaliation From U.S. Congress March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao rebuffed calls for the yuan to appreciate, risking a further downturn in relations with the U.S. where lawmakers and economists say his stance is hampering a global recovery. “I don’t think the renminbi is undervalued,” Wen said yesterday at a press conference in Beijing marking the end of China’s annual parliamentary meetings, using another term for the yuan. “We oppose countries pointing fingers at each other and even forcing a country to appreciate its currency.”
Chinese leader decries calls to boost currency By Jaime Florcruz, CNN China is bracing for another tough year despite economic growth, but opposes foreign pressure to appreciate the value of its currency, Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday. "This is going to be the most complicated year for the economy," Wen said. "We still face a lot of uncertainties." Wen, who spoke at a news conference after a parliament meeting, said China will keep its currency, the yuan, "basically stable," signaling that it's not heeding calls to boost the value of its currency.
Chinese premier slams U.S. 'protectionism,' says yuan is not too low By David Pierson - - Wen Jiabao criticizes the U.S. at an annual news conference, denies having kept China's currency artificially low to increase exports. He challenges American leaders to improve relations with Beijing. In an annual news conference Sunday that took direct aim at the United States, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao defended his country's currency policy and said it was up to Washington to mend Sino-American relations. Rejecting charges that China kept the yuan artificially low to boost its exports, Wen said the Chinese currency was not undervalued and that the government's policy of controlling the exchange rate had boosted imports and helped spur economic recovery across the globe.
China ready to end dollar peg By Garry White - Telegraph.co.uk The head of China’s central bank has given the strongest signal yet that the country will move away from pegging its currency to the dollar, but he said any changes would be gradual. At the annual session of the legislative National People’s Congress in Beijing, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said that the days of the “special yuan” policy were numbered. He described the dollar peg as a “temporary” response to the global financial crisis, but gave no timescale for any change in policy. The currency has been pegged at about 6.83 yuan per dollar since July 2008.
Chinese granny buried alive by property developers By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai - Telegraph.co.uk A 70-year-old Chinese grandmother in the central province of Hubei was beaten and buried alive by property developers eager to get their hands on her land. Wang Cuyun was attempting to prevent a demolition team from knocking down her house when she was allegedly beaten by a worker with a wooden stick and then pushed into a ditch that had been dug around the property. A bulldozer then covered Mrs Wang with earth, burying her alive. By the time her relatives dug her up, she was dead. The incident occurred last Wednesday in Maodian village in Huangpi district. . . . It is not possible to refuse an eviction in China, since the government technically owns all the land.
U.S., U.K. Move Closer to Losing AAA Debt Rating, Moody’s Says By Matthew Brown -- March 15 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and the U.K. have moved “substantially” closer to losing their AAA credit ratings as the cost of servicing their debt rose, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The governments of the two economies must balance bringing down their debt burdens without damaging growth by removing fiscal stimulus too quickly, Pierre Cailleteau, managing director of sovereign risk at Moody’s in London, said in a telephone interview.
Fed Getting Ready to Remove Security Blanket for Markets By: Albert Bozzo - MSNBC.com Spring may be in the air, but the long winter is hardly over for the U.S. economy. So expect the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting committee to keep its hot-house approach in place for at least for one more meeting. Though there’s virtually no chance the FOMC will change interest rates or key monetary policy language at its March 16 meeting, change of another sort is imminent.
Banks Face Mark-to-Market Challenge By DAVID REILLY - WSJ.com The war over mark-to-market accounting is about to get hot, again. In coming weeks, the Financial Accounting Standards Board is likely to propose that banks expand their use of market values for financial assets such as loans, according to people familiar with the matter. That departs from current practices in which banks hold loans at their original cost and create a reserve based on their own view of potential losses. The result, if the proposal flies, would be big changes to bank balance sheets, the shape of income statements and some of the metrics investors use to evaluate financial institutions.
Gerald Celente Financial cons run Wall Street
Lehman Report: The Business Decisions That Brought Lehman Down By ABIGAIL FIELD - DailyFinance.com According to bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas, the seeds of Lehman's Sept. 15, 2008, bankruptcy were sown in 2006, aggressively fertilized throughout 2007 and 2008's first two quarters, and harvested in the summer of 2008. Valukas concludes that although Lehman used its so-called Repo 105 to cook its books, what ultimately brought the firm down was bad business judgment. Lehman had traditionally pursued a relatively low-risk brokerage model, in which it originated or purchased assets primarily to sell them to the markets, rather than investing its own capital and adding the assets to its balance sheet as part of a higher-risk banking model. Valukas reports that after Lehman watched its competitors make strong profits by using their balance sheets for proprietary investments, in 2006 Lehman decided to aggressively adopt the same strategy.
The Patsy Revolt of 2010 By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com Mumbai, India – “Masked youths…attacked the head of Greece’s largest trade union, who was addressing the crowd, and hurled stones at the police. GSEE union boss Yiannis Panagopoulos traded blows with the rioters before being whisked away, bloodied and with torn clothes.” The Daily Mail account put the blame for these disturbances on Germany’s finance minister, who warned the Greeks that “the German government does not intend to give a cent.” At least Bild, a popular German newspaper, was trying to be helpful. It suggested that Greece sell Corfu…and that Greeks get up earlier and work harder.
Congress may regulate financial planning by George Mannes - CNNMoney.com For consumers seeking decent financial advice, Congress is making a step in the right direction. Whether it will reach that goal is another story. As part of the financial-industry legislation making its way through Congress, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) last week proposed a measure that would establish an oversight board for financial-planning professionals. The hope is that people who call themselves financial planners will have to meet minimum standards in the areas of competency and ethics.
Yellen leads picks for Fed seat Alister Bull and Mark Felsenthal - Reuters.com San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen, a monetary policy dove, tops President Barack Obama's list to be No. 2 at U.S. central bank, the White House said on Friday. Sarah Raskin, commissioner of financial regulation for the state of Maryland, and Peter Diamond, an economics professor at MIT, are under strong consideration to fill other vacancies at the Fed, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. Yellen is widely respected within the Fed system and academia, although her reputation a "dove," giving weight to growth and employment, has caused some concern in financial markets. News of her potential nomination weighed on the dollar.
Is the Fed blowing asset bubbles? By Chris Isidor - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Is the Federal Reserve forever blowing bubbles? With interest rates hovering at historic lows, some economists and investors fear the Fed's easy-money policy could create another asset bubble. But others don't see a need to hit the panic button just yet. Critics want the central bank to start hiking rates and withdrawing some of the trillions of dollars pumped into the system over the last few years to help spur U.S. economic activity. Neither move is likely to happen at Tuesday's meeting of central bank policymakers.
Six imperatives for financial regulation: Summers (Reuters) - The United States should rethink domestic and global financial regulation, Lawrence Summers, director of the White House's National Economic Council, said on Friday, outlining six "imperatives." "There is every reason to believe that pure market solutions are not viable," Summers told a Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research conference. The speech comes against the backdrop of a debate over how much regulation and in what form would best cut risks of another Wall Street crisis or massive failure of the financial system.
Max Keiser speaks on the crisis. Is it over? Pt 1
Max Keiser speaks on the crisis. Is it over? Pt 2
Wachovia in Talks Over Alleged Drug-Money Laundering By CARRICK MOLLENKAMP And EVAN PEREZ - WSJ.com Wachovia Bank, a part of Wells Fargo & Co., is in talks with the Justice Department to settle U.S. government allegations that a failure in bank controls enabled Mexican exchange houses to launder drug money, according to people familiar with the situation. A settlement could come within weeks, the people said. It isn't clear whether monetary payment will be part of the settlement.
AIG Keeps $21 Million in Bonuses By APARAJITA SAHA-BUBNA And SERENA NG - WSJ.com Stage Is Set for Showdown With Employees of Loss-Making Unit; Another $46 Million Is Paid Out American International Group Inc. plans to hold back $21 million in bonus payments Monday to former employees, according to a person familiar with the matter, a move that could set the stage for more battles over employment agreements that have enmeshed the giant insurer in controversy for a year. The hold-back comes as AIG will also on Monday pay out $46 million to current and former employees of its financial products unit, the division responsible for the soured trades that precipitated the massive government rescue of the company in 2008, the person said.
US Federal Reserve Dealing in Magic and Secrets International Forecaster The dramatic and costly undertow of deflation continues unabated, as government via fiscal policy and the Federal Reserve, by creating money and credit out of thin air, proceed to overpower this deflation with massive inflation. Unbeknownst to most the Fed and the Treasury have been maintaining this program for the past several years, accompanied by most major countries, all of which have taken the path of least resistance rather than address the underlying problems.
Rating agency warns on US public finances By Chris Giles and David Oakley - FT Moody’s Investor Service, the credit rating agency, will fire a warning shot at the US on Monday, saying that unless the country gets public finances into better shape than the Obama administration projects there would be “downward pressure” on its triple A credit rating. Examining the administration’s outlook for the federal budget deficit, the agency said: “If such a trajectory were to materialise, there would at some point be downward pressure on the triple A rating of the federal government.”
Fed gets new oversight powers under Dodd bill Kevin Drawbaugh and Rachelle Younglai (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve would win sweeping new powers over nonbank financial firms and keep much of its authority over banks, under revised legislation to be unveiled on Monday by the chief architect of financial reform in the Senate. In a remarkable recovery by the U.S. central bank after a steep drop in its political popularity, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd was poised to release a bill that leans heavily on the Fed, sources said on Sunday. Not only would a new government watchdog for financial consumers be housed within the Fed, but it would also retain much of its present authority over large bank holding companies and gain new authority over selected nonbank financial firms.
Ron Paul Says Giving Fed More Power `Makes No Sense'
Goldman: Here's 3 Reasons The Consumer Rebound Is Going To Sputter Out Joe Weisenthal - BusinessInsider.com --- Goldman Sachs' Jan Hatzius lays out three reasons the recovery will sputter out. Specifically they expect consumer spending growth to fall from a current rate of around 3.25% to 1-2%:
The recent strength in consumer income is inconsistent with real household income. Any improvement in the labor market will be offset by the end of the stimulus.
The savings rate still hasn't risen to historical averages, so that represents a coming drag.
Consumer confidence data doesn't match the current brisk rate of spending. Instead it suggests spending growth of merely 1-2%.
Salvation Army is a residential real estate powerhouse By Stuart Pfeifer - LATimes The charity, known for its image of sacrifice, owns houses in the U.S. with a total value of about $4 billion as of 2008. The homes are provided to officers rent-free in lieu of higher pay, it says. By day, Henry Graciani oversees a 54-bed treatment center for alcoholics and drug addicts who come to him broke and hopeless. After work, he makes a quick drive to the $1.3-million Santa Monica home he shares with his wife and three children.
Years after homeowners default, collectors may still come after them By Jim Wasserman - The Sacramento Bee --- Homeowners defaulting on mortgages today may be surprised to learn years from now that they still owe thousands of dollars – and a collection agency is coming after them to get it. That's because lenders have been quietly selling second mortgages and home equity lines left unpaid after foreclosures and short sales. The buyers: collection agencies, which in California have up to four years to make a claim.
Is this the lull before the storm for US mortgages? By Gillian Tett - FT What exactly is happening in the bowels of the American mortgage market? That is a question that investors around the world have often asked in the past three years, with a mixture of bafflement and alarm. Now they need to pose it again. For this spring, something of a paradox is hanging over the mortgage-backed securities world. At the end of this month, the US Federal Reserve is due to freeze its programme to purchase Fannie and Freddie agency MBS that it implemented in the wake of the financial crisis. Logic might suggest that could potentially deliver a jolt to the market.
New wave of foreclosures threatens market By Renae Merle - Washington Post.com - MSNBC.com Up to 7 million homes are potentially eligible but haven’t been repossessed WASHINGTON - The housing market is facing swelling ranks of homeowners who are seriously delinquent but have yet to lose their homes, and this is threatening a new wave of foreclosures that could hit just as the real estate market has begun to stabilize. About 5 million to 7 million properties are potentially eligible for foreclosure but have not yet been repossessed and put up for sale. Some economists project it could take nearly three years before all these homes have been put on the market and purchased by new owners.
Death of Mortgage Refinance Pt. 2: By Ed Ferrara EPIC Drop in Home Refis Took Place Already Mar. 13, 2010 (FreeRateUpdate.com) – Did an epic decline in mortgage refinance applications fly under the radar? What I’m going to tell you in this article suggests just that. I included some hard facts, little talked about information on refi apps, and a chart that will be tough to dispute. First off, if you’re under the impression the refi market is strong now, based on refi apps, you may want to re-think your position. The Mortgage Bankers’ Association Weekly Application statistics are the leading indicator for refinance activity, yet when comparing two eras, the boom and post boom in particular, statistics are very misleading and here’s why.
Homeowners take ‘cash for keys’ to escape debt By Al Yoon - Reuters via MSNBC Borrower loses house, but gets fresh start without black mark on credit --- NEW YORK - Jon Daurio, chief executive officer of mortgage investor Kondaur Capital Corp., recently offered a $4,000 check to Barry Culver for the deed to his Bryan, Ohio, house. With the exchange, and a pay-off to a second-lien holder, Culver was freed of $120,000 in crushing mortgage debt on the house, said Daurio, who had bought the right to cut the deal when he purchased the mortgage months earlier. The house, after repairs, is now on the market for $47,500.
Government mortgage plan aids 16% of borrowers By Alan Zibel, AP WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's mortgage relief plan has helped only about 16% of borrowers who signed up since its launch last year, while hundreds of thousands of homeowners remain in limbo. The Treasury Department says that as of last month, about 170,000 homeowners had completed the application process and had their loan payments reduced permanently. That compares with nearly 1.1 million homeowners who have enrolled since the plan started.
Salvaged GM dealers in limbo By Catherine Clifford NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The 661 axed auto dealers General Motors is offering to reinstate aren't ready to pop the champagne just yet. They're still waiting to find out about the terms they'll have to meet to regain their franchises. "Initially, we were excited," said Howard Braunstein, CEO of M&M Auto Group in Liberty, N.Y. "However, I am concerned that GM's offer for reinstatement will mandate requirements that will be difficult or impossible for many dealers to meet, especially in the 60-day timeframe we were given."
Runaway Prius Story: Fact, Fraud or Media-Induced Delusion? By DOUGLAS MCINTY - DailyFinance.com Some consumer psychology experts have raised an interesting point about the recent spate of uncontrolled acceleration issues reported in Toyota (TM) vehicles: When people constantly hear about such problems in the news media, anything unusual can make them think their cars are malfunctioning. It's a type of mass delusion brought on by fear and overactive imaginations. "When people expect problems, they're more likely to find them," said Lars Perner, professor of clinical marketing at the University of Southern California, in an Associated Press article. "The brakes were discolored and showed wear, but the pattern of friction suggested the driver had intermittently applied moderate pressure on the brakes," The Wall Street Journal reports, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the investigation. The newspaper says that the final report on the investigation is likely to cast doubt on the Sikes' account.
UTC Chief Financial Officer: Connecticut Too Expensive To Do Work By ERIC GERSHON - Hartford Courant.com Connecticut's biggest private employer is determined to do more of its work outside its home state and other "high-cost" locations, top executives said Friday at an investors' conference in New York. "Anyplace outside of Connecticut is low-cost," United Technologies Corp.'s chief financial officer, Gregory Hayes, told Wall Street investment analysts — paraphrasing previous remarks by another UTC executive, Jeff Pino, president of Sikorsky Aircraft. "Even if work has to stay in the U.S., there are opportunities to reduce cost by moving out of those high-cost locations," Hayes said.
Health care: Going from broken to broke By Shawn Tully NEW YORK (Fortune) -- A few nights ago in the historic Renaissance Grand Hotel in St. Louis, Mo., President Obama reassured a crowd of Senator Claire McCaskill supporters that health-care reform wouldn't just be good for their health, it would be good for the health of the country: "I said at the beginning of this thing we would not do anything that adds to our deficit," he said to the clapping audience. "This plan does not do anything to add to this deficit. And that's how we should be operating." What he didn't discuss was what kind of accounting he was using to generate such applause lines. And the answer to that sheds new light on whether the nearly $900 billion measure really delivers the savings -- or, as many fear, does exactly the opposite.
Hoyer Says U.S. House Will Pass Senate Health Bill This Month By Catherine Dodge March 13 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer predicted his chamber will approve the Senate health-care overhaul this month along with a package of changes, and said public support is gaining for the legislation. “That’s our objective, and I think we will,” Hoyer said of the passage prospects in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. Lawmakers are trying to finish work on the legislation before going on an Easter break March 26.
U.S. Taxpayers Stuck With Smelly No-Bid Deal Commentary by Celestine Bohlen March 15 (Bloomberg) -- In Europe governments are crying foul, or more specifically protectionism, now that Boeing Co. has emerged as the sole contender for the Pentagon’s disputed $35 billion contract for a new generation of flying gas stations. This outcome isn’t passing the smell test in Paris, London, Brussels or Berlin. Two years ago, European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., with its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., won the same aerial refueling tanker contract, only to see it thrown out on technicalities and the bid request rewritten to favor Boeing’s smaller, older, cheaper aircraft.
U.S. to roll out major broadband policy John Poirier and Sinead Carew (Reuters) - U.S. regulators will announce a major Internet policy this week to revolutionize how Americans communicate and play, proposing a dramatic increase in broadband speeds that could let people download a high-definition film in minutes instead of hours.
The Plus-Size Furniture Market Expands as Americans Widen By BRUCE WATSON - DailyFinance.com --- Over the past few decades, as Americans have steadily grown bigger, their chairs have largely failed to keep pace. Facing a growing plus-size market, many furniture companies are now courting consumers for whom traditional chairs may be too narrow and delicate. Unfortunately, they're also finding that the big-and-tall furniture segment is fraught with unique difficulties of its own. There's no doubt that obese consumers are a promising market segment. In 1985, only eight states had obese populations of more than 10%. In 2008, 49 states had obese population over 19% of the total, and six states had obese populations of more than 30%. In fact, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, over 68% of Americans are overweight, and nearly 34% officially qualify as obese. Health initiatives aside, Americans are continuing to get larger.
China, Not UN, Controls Supply for CO2 Offsets, Stanford Says By Jim Efstathiou Jr. and Mathew Carr --- March 15 (Bloomberg) -- China’s power to set prices for electricity from windfarms is dictating the supply of tradable emission credits in the UN carbon market, the world’s second biggest, according to a report from Stanford University. The regulatory board for the United Nations carbon market is forced to rely on data from China to judge when windfarms qualify for emissions credits, said Richard Morse, a Stanford University research associate and co-author of the report. The board, established to channel funds to greenhouse-gas projects in developing nations, rejected 16 Chinese windfarms since November, including proposals backed by Paris-based EDF SA, Netherlands-based Essent NV and New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
China oil firm takes $3.1B stake in SAmerican firm HONG KONG, China (AP) -- Leading offshore producer China National Offshore Oil Corp. said Sunday it has agreed to pay $3.1 billion to form a joint-venture with a major Argentine energy firm, helping to expand China's access to natural resources in South America. The investment will give CNOOC a 50 percent stake in Bridas Corp., which is currently controlled by Bridas Energy Holdings Ltd., the Chinese firm said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The joint-venture company will be jointly managed by CNOOC and Bridas Energy. Bridas Corp. currently has oil and gas exploration and production operations in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.
Kim Jong-il keeps $4b 'emergency fund' in European banks By Oliver Arlow in Tokyo - Telegraph.co.uk -- Kim Jong-il, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, has a $4 billion (£2.6 billion) “emergency fund” hidden in secret accounts in European banks that he will use to continue his lavish way of life if he is forced to flee the country. South Korean intelligence officials told The Daily Telegraph that much of the money was held in Swiss banks until authorities there began to tighten regulations on money laundering. Mr Kim’s operatives then withdrew the money - in cash, in order not to leave a paper trail - and transferred it to banks in Luxembourg. The money is the profits from impoverished North Korea selling its nuclear and missile technology, dealing in narcotics, insurance fraud, the use of forced labour in its vast gulag system, and the counterfeiting of foreign currency.
Israel's Netanyahu seeks to ease tension after Biden's Mideast trip By Edmund Sanders - LATimes --- The premier expresses regret over the announcement of a Jewish housing project. The U.S. says the move hurt efforts to restart peace talks with Palestinians and embarrassed the vice president. Reporting from Jerusalem Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried Sunday to move beyond a diplomatic rift with the U.S. even as Obama administration officials reiterated their displeasure with a controversial housing project in East Jerusalem. In his first public comments about last week's tense visit by Vice President Joe Biden, Netanyahu expressed regret for Israel's surprise announcement of 1,600 new housing units to be built on land occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East War.
Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday, March 14 Radio show one hour later, beginning Monday (Arizona time remains the same)
Regulators Shut LibertyPointe Bank In NYC Regulators Shut Down LibertyPointe Bank In New York City; Makes 27 US Bank Failures This Year WASHINGTON (AP) - Regulators on Thursday shut down LibertyPointe Bank in New York City, boosting to 27 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over LibertyPointe, with three branches, $209.7 million in assets and $209.5 million in deposits. The bank catered largely to the Orthodox Jewish community in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Feds seek bids for up to seven local banks, including Amcore By: Steve Daniels - ChicagoBusiness.com (Crain's) — Federal banking regulators are seeking bidders for as many as seven troubled local banks, including Rockford-based Amcore Bank. Bids for Amcore are due April 15 to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Crain’s has learned. Amcore, which has been buried under mounting real estate-oriented loan losses, at yearend had $4.1 billion in assets and 66 branches in northern Illinois and Wisconsin, including 24 in Chicago’s suburbs. If Amcore, which has been trying to raise capital to stave off seizure by the FDIC, can come up with the needed funds before the end of next month, it still could avoid the fate that befell the only other large, publicly traded local bank to fail since the financial crisis erupted in 2008 — Chicago-based Corus Bank, which had $7 billion in assets.
NY Fed Under Geithner Implicated in Lehman Accounting Fraud Quite a few observers, including this blogger, have been stunned and frustrated at the refusal to investigate what was almost certain accounting fraud at Lehman. Despite the bankruptcy administrator’s effort to blame the gaping hole in Lehman’s balance sheet on its disorderly collapse, the idea that the firm, which was by its own accounts solvent, would suddenly spring a roughly $130+ billion hole in its $660 balance sheet, is simply implausible on its face. Indeed, it was such common knowledge in the Lehman flailing about period that Lehman’s accounts were sus that Hank Paulson’s recent book mentions repeatedly that Lehman’s valuations were phony as if it were no big deal.
Why the U.S. can't inflate its way out of debt By Jeanne Sahadi - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's dawning on people that getting a handle on burgeoning U.S. debt will be a long and hard process. So if lawmakers can't agree on a credible plan, some have suggested that the country could just "inflate its way" out of its fiscal ditch. The idea: Pursue policies that boost prices and wages and erode the value of the currency. The United States would owe the same amount of actual dollars to its creditors -- but the debt becomes easier to pay off because the dollar becomes less valuable.
America’s Real Estate Burden Ensures Inflation By: Dr. Jeffrey Lewis - GoldSeek.com The Obama administration and the US Congress have together made inflation the real monetary policy of the United States. While pundits and talking heads focus on the bailouts and loan packages, they're missing the bigger picture. It isn't what the US government outright purchased (stock, debt, and real estate paper), but it's what the US government is guaranteeing that will make all the difference.
The Bullish Case for Gold by Peter Gorenstein - TechTicker.com Marc Faber: Don't Expect Another Crash ... Bernanke Won't Allow it The bulls are firmly in control on Wall Street. Heading into Friday's session, the S&P 500 is at a 17-month high. Undaunted, the bears point to light volume as a sign of weakness and a correction to come. "I would rather be lightening up on positions in the next couple of weeks than heavily buying in here," says Marc Faber, editor of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report. Accompanied by Michael "Mish" Shedlock, the man behind the economics blog, MISH'S Global Economic Trend Analysis, Faber tells Tech Ticker there's very few opportunities to make money in the market right now.
Bet Against the Majority. Buy Gold. By: Richard Daughty I was laid out on the couch, which I remember distinctly because my wife was yelling, “If you’re going lay down on the couch instead of doing something around the house to help me out, at least take your damned shoes off!” and I was using the remote to idly flip through the channels on TV, hoping to catch something in the vein of happy mindlessness, maybe something in the Gilligan’s Island-Bewitched genre, so that I did not have to keep track of a complicated plot and/or a bewildering cast of multi-faceted characters. I needed this kind of mental break to take my mind off of, for one thing, the sheer horror of today’s economic situation and how we are So Freaking Doomed (SFD).
China wants to lord over gold and forex markets By David Lew Gold is making news in China these days. China’s aggressive attempt to build up gold reserves has been the talk of the bullion world in the last few months. Especially, ever since India bought 200 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year, there has been speculation that the Chinese central bank would be the next to purchase the remaining IMF gold. Now that the IMF has announced the sale of 191 tonnes of gold, there has been lots of rumours and speculation running thick around the world that China is all set to buy gold from IMF. China, in fact, is moving very cleverly. The country’s strategy is not just in buying more gold and mopping up the yellow metal reserves. China also wants to ensure that the country defeats the US dollar dominance and the Chinese currency—Yuan—emerges as the next reserve currency of the world.
The Gold Standard Mises Daily: by Ludwig von Mises Men have chosen the precious metals gold and silver for the money service on account of their mineralogical, physical, and chemical features. The use of money in a market economy is a praxeologically necessary fact. That gold — and not something else — is used as money is merely a historical fact and as such cannot be conceived by catallactics. In monetary history too, as in all other branches of history, one must resort to historical understanding. If one takes pleasure in calling the gold standard a "barbarous relic,"[1] one cannot object to the application of the same term to every historically determined institution. Then the fact that the British speak English — and not Danish, German, or French — is a barbarous relic too, and every Briton who opposes the substitution of Esperanto for English is no less dogmatic and orthodox than those who do not wax rapturous about the plans for a managed currency.
A Revisit to the Fake Gold Plated Tungsten Story By: Robert Bradshaw - MarketOracle.com The gold-plated, tungsten-filled bars story hasn’t gone away. Not only has it continued to pop up in various gold and hard-money, investment-advisory letters; but even the populous press publishers, like the American Free Press and Rense.com, have found it expedient to publish material on it as well.
Gold and The Paper Bubble by Adam Brochert - FinancialSense.com Talk of a Gold bubble over the past 6-9 months grows louder and louder. It is comical and a sign of desperation among those losing their grip on the levers of power and influence. I have never seen a bubble so heavily recognized and announced by the very institutional participants who are pouring all their money into it! Will Gold become a bubble? I think it may, which is why I own it. The break out over $1000/ounce last fall has certainly cleared the deck and made it a possibility. But what is happening in Gold and what is going to happen in the near term future is a predictable consequence of fiscal and monetary policy. At this stage in time, Gold is simply a rational, undervalued and conservative investment. Cash is king during an economic depression. The problem is that our transactional currency is not real money, it is an illusion and the real bubble of the current cycle.
Silver in the Next Decade David Morgan - SilverBearCafe.com "Silver is the best technology stock you can own." - David Morgan As some of you know, I have finished a new seminar recently that I have only presented one time. This presentation focused on what is expected in the silver market for the next decade. Frankly, when beginning this study I was not really certain what conclusions could be determined about the future of the silver market. The main thinking was that the investment demand for silver would drive the price far higher than present and this is in fact the case as we go through this report. But it was also determined that silver's unique properties will be in higher and higher industrial demand over the next decade as well.
Feldstein: Worry About the Dollar, Not the Euro: Keep an Eye on Sterling JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN Here is Marty Feldstein's view of the economic fundamentals in the euro and dollar portion of the forex markets. Fundamentals mean little in the short term for trading purposes, at least in my own judgement. However, it does look as though the euro/dollar cross is a bit overdone. If that is correct, then it is likely that this correction in the precious metals should be almost done as well. But we will have to see what happens. The markets are shallow and edgy, almost wobbly. In a liquidation everything gets sold on the short term. Selling and buying on the margins makes price, no matter what size the market. Such it is with most auction markets disconnected from rational valuation.
Doug Casey on How to Survive the Financial Apocalypse By: Casey Research - MarketOracle.com L: Doug, last time we spoke, you said quite a bit about debt, in the context of your expectation that the euro is on its way out. At the end of that conversation, you mentioned, of course, that the problem is not limited to Greece, nor the eurozone. America as a country has become a world-class debtor, and many Americans seem to think a maxed-out credit card is a reason to get a higher credit limit, not to economize. It's like a global epidemic. Let's talk about debt. Doug: Sure. This is a story that's going to end very badly for a lot of people. I've said this before, in many different ways, but I think it's worth saying again, because most people just don't grok it...
Is Money a Store of Value? by John Butler & Jon Boylan - FinancialSense.com Perhaps it is a sign of the times we live in that we feel the need to ask ourselves this question. The answer might appear simple, in that textbook definitions normally list the following three properties of money:
A medium of exchange
A unit of account
A store of value
Well that settles it then. Or does it? Let’s consider our definitions carefully.
Why the U.S. can't inflate its way out of debt By Jeanne Sahadi - CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's dawning on people that getting a handle on burgeoning U.S. debt will be a long and hard process. So if lawmakers can't agree on a credible plan, some have suggested that the country could just "inflate its way" out of its fiscal ditch. The idea: Pursue policies that boost prices and wages and erode the value of the currency. The United States would owe the same amount of actual dollars to its creditors -- but the debt becomes easier to pay off because the dollar becomes less valuable.
CHINA HAS SECOND-MOST BILLIONAIRES, BEHIND U.S. Truthdig.com Well, that didn’t take long. China now has more billionaires (89 if you include Hong Kong) than any other country except for the U.S., which, to be fair, has been working overtime to transfer wealth upward. Unlike the U.S., the Chinese government has promised to distribute its bounty to “make our society fairer and more harmonious.”
Forget the Fed, All Eyes Now on China's Central Bank by Aaron Task - TechTicker.com China's consumer price inflation rose a faster-than-expected 2.7% in February, the sharpest increase since October 2008. Coming on the heels of Tuesday's strong import/export data and amid a surge in real estate speculation, China's central bank may take more action to quell growth in the world's most populous nation. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has raised bank reserve requirements in recent months, but may now feel compelled to hike its lending rate, something it hasn't done since 2007. In addition to the data above, the PBOC must be concerned that the nation's banks made 1.39 trillion yuan in new loans in January, or 18.5% of the government's full-year target, according to Xinhau.
Europe's banks brace for UK debt crisis By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk UniCredit has alerted investors in a client note that Britain is at serious risk of a bond market and sterling debacle and faces even more intractable budget woes than Greece. The Italian-German group, Europe's second largest bank, said Britain's tax structure will make it hard to raise fresh revenue quickly enough to restore confidence in UK public finances. "I am becoming convinced that Great Britain is the next country that is going to be pummelled by investors," said Kornelius Purps, Unicredit's fixed income director and a leading analyst in Germany. Mr Purps said the UK had been cushioned at first by low debt levels but the pace of deterioration has been so extreme that the country can no longer count on market tolerance.
Geithner Warns Europe on Fund Legislation By TOBY LEWIS And JAMES MAWSON - WSJ U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned the European Commission that its proposals for more restrictive regulation of alternative fund managers could affect cross-border investment, demonstrating how the controversial European Union directive could have transatlantic ramifications. According to Paul Myners, the U.K. financial services minister, Mr. Geithner had raised the issue of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers directive in a letter to Michel Barnier, who was confirmed as European commissioner for the internal market last month. Lord Myners mentioned the letter at a breakfast briefing, which was organised by the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.
Feldstein Says Euro’s Fall Due to ‘Panic’ Over Greece By Steve Matthews and Sara Eisen March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard University Professor Martin Feldstein said the euro’s 4.6 percent decline against the dollar this year has been “panic selling” stemming from the financial crisis in Greece. “The euro is weakening despite their better trade balance,” Feldstein, an economist, said in a Bloomberg Television interview broadcast today. “This is a kind of an irrational or panic selling where people are just saying, ‘I don’t know what is going on, I am just going to step to the sidelines and not leave money in euros.’”
Distress Signals on Crisis Watch by Jim Willie - FinancialSense.com To be sure, almost without debate, all the financial world has turned to crisis mode. One can safely describe the norm to be crisis proliferation. This theme will clearly continue for the full year in progress. The signs are everywhere. The evidence is compelling. The criticism of remedy is replete with denials. The USGovt officials grow more desperate with each passing week. The Dubai and Greek debt woes seemed to have opened Pandora's Box. Review a scattering of distress signals, sit back and tell yourself that all is under control. It is only if you live in a Fantasy Land. Since September 2008, the fantasy has blossomed in full bloom. The list of distress signals is certain to grow, not reduce. Never in my lifetime have so many loud signals simultaneously been flashing. Forgive me if a few dozen other distress signals were overlooked or omitted.
Keiser Report 24: Markets! Finance! Scandal!
Calling All Rebels Chris Hedges - SilverBearCafe.com There are no constraints left to halt America's slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Electoral politics are a sham. The media have been debased and defanged by corporate owners. The working class has been impoverished and is now being plunged into profound despair. The legal system has been corrupted to serve corporate interests. Popular institutions, from labor unions to political parties, have been destroyed or emasculated by corporate power. And any form of protest, no matter how tepid, is blocked by an internal security apparatus that is starting to rival that of the East German secret police. The mounting anger and hatred, coursing through the bloodstream of the body politic, make violence and counter-violence inevitable. Brace yourself. The American empire is over. And the descent is going to be horrifying.
Yellen Said to Be Obama’s Pick for Fed Vice Chairman By Hans Nichols and Scott Lanman March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen is President Barack Obama’s pick for vice chairman of the central bank in Washington, two people with knowledge of the selection process said. The nomination is pending completion of vetting by the Obama administration, one person said. The vice chairman gets a four-year term, subject to Senate approval, and a separate term on the Fed Board of Governors. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the selection hasn’t yet been announced.
Pimco’s El-Erian Says Public Finance Shock May Deepen By Garfield Reynolds March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Mohamed A. El-Erian, whose company runs the world’s biggest mutual fund, said deteriorating public finances may affect the global economy more than is currently realized. “The importance of the shock to public finances in advanced economies is not yet sufficiently appreciated and understood,” El-Erian, co-chief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co., wrote in an article on the Financial Times Web site. The potential damage from increased government borrowings is “at present being viewed primarily -- and excessively -- through the narrow prism of Greece.”
Examiner: Lehman Torpedoed Lehman By MIKE SPECTOR, PETER LATTMAN, and JEFFREY MCCRACKEN - WSJ -- A scathing report by a U.S. bankruptcy-court examiner investigating the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. blames senior executives and auditor Ernst & Young for serious lapses that led to the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In the works for more than a year, and at a cost of more than $30 million, the report by court-appointed examiner Anton Valukas paints the most complete picture yet of the free-wheeling culture inside the 158 year-old firm, whose chief executive Richard S. Fuld Jr. prided himself on his ability to manage market risk.
Lehman Insolvent Weeks Before Bankruptcy: Examiner By: Reuters via CNBC.com Lehman Brothers used accounting gimmicks and had been insolvent for weeks before it filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, but there was not extensive wrongdoing, a court-appointed examiner has found. In a 2,200-page report made public on Thursday, examiner Anton Valukas, chairman of law firm Jenner & Block, reported the results of his more than year-long investigation into the firm's collapse, which deepened the global financial crisis.
Morgan Keegan to Offer Farmer Mac Programs to Commercial Banking Clients WASHINGTON, March 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac; NYSE: AGM and AGM.A) and Morgan Keegan & Company, a regional investment firm in Memphis, Tennessee, today announced that they have entered into an agreement under which Morgan Keegan will begin marketing Farmer Mac programs designed specifically for Morgan Keegan's commercial banking clients that hold agricultural mortgage loans in their portfolios. The primary program to be offered through Morgan Keegan's Fixed Income Capital Markets division will be Farmer Mac's Long-Term Standby Purchase Commitment (LTSPC), which allows banks to improve their capital position by shifting the credit risk on pools of agricultural real estate loans from the bank to Farmer Mac. Loans placed in the LTSPC program are expected to receive favorable capital treatment, thereby freeing up the bank's capital for other purposes.
It’s “Extend and Pretend” All Over Again for US Banks’ Commercial Real Estate Loans Guest Post by James A. Kaplan - ResearchRecap.com -- Getting older has its comforts. One of them is that you get to experience a number of historic events and can gain perspective on consequences that result from those events. It’s been well over a decade since the Japanese economy imploded. That implosion was based on a speculative frenzy that drove values to the extreme, where it was discovered the effects of gravity could not be overcome.
Dodd and Democrats Move Ahead on Financial Reform Without the GOP By BRUCE KENNEDY - DailyFinance.com -- Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, says he'll go it alone next week -- and offer a finance reform bill without any Republican support. The announcement comes after a breakdown in talks between Dodd and his GOP counterparts, negotiations that were meant to pave the way toward a bipartisan agreement. In a statement issued on the Senate Banking Committee's website, Dodd noted that, in recent months, committee members "have worked together to try and produce a consensus package. Together we have made significant progress and resolved many of the items, but a few outstanding issues remain."
Dodd Pushes Financial Reform Without GOP Support By DAMIAN PALETTA - WSJ WASHINGTON-Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) will introduce his sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulations Monday without any Republican support, a spokeswoman said, potentially imperiling the White House's effort to redraw financial regulations. Mr. Dodd is still hopeful his negotiations with a Republican on his panel, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, can be worked out and that they will be able to bring a bipartisan bill to the Senate floor, the spokeswoman said.
FedEx warns on US recovery By Jeremy Lemer in New York - FT The nascent US recovery could falter because businesses are still reluctant to invest in new equipment and technology, the head of global delivery and logistics company FedEx has warned. “Business investment went up somewhat in the fourth quarter but is far below what it ought to be in a cyclical recovery like this,” Fred Smith, chairman and chief executive of FedEx, told the Financial Times. He added that companies were being held back by continuing “uncertainty” over the outlook.
Webster Tarpley: 'Virtual flag terrorism' is next threat Cyber wars and cyber security are no longer fictional plots from science fiction movies. They are very real and very serious concerns for the American people, being tracked by politicians and the government in Washington. Webster Tarpley gives his opinion on the seriousness of the cyber threat.
Biggest question for the next two months by Christopher Laird - FinancialSense.com The biggest question for the next several months for markets is what? Now that the S and P rallied over 60 pct since last March 2009, and pretty much all other markets except housing and real estate have also rallied (anything connected to financial markets that received the half of the several $trillion of US and other central bank emergency money infusions beginning big around March 2009) it begs the question when there will be a correction. Or a crash. There is a hint in the above paragraph. Namely the US alone engineered about $1 to $2 trillion of quantitative easing. That means that the US bought all US mortgages by buying mortgage bonds for example. The US was the buyer of last resort - for everything. Including foreign markets, without making a laundry list of them.
US households deleverage at record rate By Alan Rappeport in New York - FT Americans deleveraged their balance sheets aggressively in 2009, reducing household debt for the first year on record as they coped with the aftermath of the recession, Federal Reserve figures showed on Thursday. US household debt contracted by 1.75 per cent in 2009, according to the closely watched “flow of funds” data. It was the first annual decline since the Fed began tracking household borrowing in 1946 and marks a sharp shift from the euphoric borrowing that led up to the recession.
Time for sunshine, Fannie and Freddie Examiner Editorial Next Tuesday is James Madison's birthday and National Freedom of Information Act Day, the high point of Sunshine Week celebrations of the public's right to know. Madison enshrined that right with the First Amendment's guarantee of an independent press. President Obama could use the occasion to strike a major blow for transparency with one simple directive: He could tell the Federal Housing Finance Agency to drop its nonsensical claim that it doesn't have to make public Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac documents, especially those concerning federal campaign contributions made on behalf of the two agencies in the years leading to the economic meltdown of 2008.
US foreclosures take their toll on homeowners By James Politi in Washington and Suzanne Kapner in New York - FT -- It does not take long for Dan Claggett, head of the foreclosure project at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, to come up with an example of the toll the US housing crisis is still taking on many Americans. “It’s devastating,” says Mr Claggett. “We helped an 85-year-old woman who couldn’t get a loan modification. She lost the home that she lived in for 35 years”. His organisation, a non-profit group based in St Louis, takes calls from people seeking legal help on impending foreclosures. Business has increased by 30 per cent over the past year – evidence that even as the US economy recovers from the recession, the housing sector is still struggling to find its footing. “We’re not lacking clients, I can tell you that,” Mr Claggett says.
Prius incident shines spotlight on driver, his finances By Sharon Silke Carty, USA TODAY DETROIT — Jim Sikes is finding out the downside of instant celebrity in the Internet age after his highly publicized trip in a runaway Toyota Prius: You have no secrets. As National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota inspectors continue to take apart his vehicle — which he says took him on a 23-minute, out-of-control race down a freeway — an auto blog posted details of his financial situation and set off speculation about his tale. Sikes filed for bankruptcy in 2008, and the Prius is his sole remaining car. He tells USA TODAY that, while he hopes to get a replacement car out of this ordeal, he isn't planning to sue Toyota or otherwise profit. "You had to be there. People can second-guess all they want, but you can't live a life until you've lived it."
Detroit Sells $250 Million Without Recent Disclosure Filings By Darrell Preston March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Detroit, the largest U.S. city whose debt is rated below investment grade, sold $250 million of debt today without having filed annual financial reports on time for five years. The city, which warned investors in its preliminary official statement of the possibility of filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, provided a June 30, 2008, financial statement, its most recent, to investors. A fiscal 2009 report is expected to be complete by May 31, said city spokesman Dan Lijana, in an e-mail.
GMAC Bailout Could Cost Taxpayers $6.3 Billion MoneyNews.com The Treasury Department sank billions into auto finance giant GMAC Inc. without an exit strategy or proof the company was viable — a decision that could cost taxpayers $6.3 billion, a new watchdog report says. The government said the $17.2 billion bailout was a necessary step to save troubled automakers General Motors and Chrysler. GMAC provides critical financing to auto dealers, who borrow to finance their fleets until the cars can be sold to consumers.
RealtyTrac: Arizona second in foreclosures Phoenix Business Journal Arizona ranked second in foreclosures for January behind only Nevada, which has held the top spot for 37 months running, according to a RealtyTrac report released Thursday. One in every 129 Arizona housing units was hit by foreclosure proceedings during the month, a 4 percent increase over January 2009. That rate translates to 21,048 homes. Nationally, the number of foreclosure filings — which include default notices, notices of public auctions and bank repossessions — fell 10 percent in January from December, but was up by 15 percent over January 2009.
Alabama foreclosures rise in February Birmingham Business Journal After a nearly 30 percent drop in January, foreclosures were back on the rise in Alabama last month. RealtyTrac, a national tracker of foreclosures, said 2,291 properties were reported to be in some form of foreclosure in the state in February, or one foreclosure for every 942 households. That’s a more than 27 percent increase over January and a more than 221 percent increase over the same month a year ago, said a news release. Nationally, foreclosures decreased by more than 2 percent over the previous month, but increased more than 6 percent over February 2009, the smallest year-over-year increase since 2006.
Florida foreclosure rates take double-digit dip South Florida Business Journal Foreclosure rates in the Sunshine State fell 15 percent in January from the previous month, but were up 15.45 percent from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac. The Irvine, Calif.-based online marketplace for foreclosures found that one in every 187 housing units in Florida received a foreclosure notice in January. Only Nevada, Arizona and California had more. Utah rounded up the top five. California, Florida and Arizona, which posted the three highest state totals, accounted for more than 44 percent of the nation's foreclosures.
Hawaii ranks 11th for foreclosure filings Pacific Business News (Honolulu) Hawaii moved up to its highest ranking yet for foreclosure rates on a national report, despite seeing the number of foreclosure filings fall 15 percent in January from the month before. Hawaii was ranked 11th on RealtyTrac’s January foreclosure report, with a total of 1,302 foreclosure filings, or one for every 394 housing units. That was a 15 percent decline from December, but a four-fold increase, or 286 percent, over January 2009, the Irvine, Calif.-based company said. Nationally, the number of foreclosure filings — which include default notices, notices of public auctions and bank repossessions — fell 10 percent in January from December’s figures, and was up by 15 percent over January 2009.
United States of Foreclosure By: Danny Schechter - MarketOracle.com Foreclosures Are Rising And Not Just Homeowbers Are Affected; A Haitian Story: Loses Family Home In Earthquake, NY Home in “Bankquake” -- The financial crisis started as a housing bubble with the financial industry convinced that home values never fall. How wrong they were even a they leveraged and securitized their investments to create a global crisis. Now, brace yourself because not only isn’t over until its over but in some respects its just begun. There will be more foreclosures this year than last and as a result more suffering for American families
Short Sale Program Slammed by Appraisers TheTruthAboutMortgage.com Just days after details of the Treasury’s streamlined short sale program were revealed, several leading appraiser groups have criticized the proposal. The issue involves how short sale properties would be valued under the program, relying on broker price opinions (BPOs) carried out by real estate agents rather than standard appraisals completed by licensed appraisers. Essentially, a BPO is more associated with what a home would sell for, while an appraisal uses a more thorough valuation approach. Banks and mortgage lenders would use the BPOs to determine the value of a home and the corresponding minimum offer to accept.
U.S. Real Estate Confusion or Lies? By: Mike Stathis - MarketOracle.com Do you ever become confused over daily economic data? If not, then you probably aren’t paying close attention. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you don’t pay real close attention and spend a good deal of time analyzing what’s really going on, you’re probably better off not paying any attention to the data at all because it is designed to confuse you; to manipulate the truth. Most often, government officials, Wall Street and industry hacks intentionally lie to you as a way to build confidence. After all, most of these “analysts, chief economists and investment strategists” you hear about are really in the business of sales and marketing, NOT research.
Gloom at Small Firms Clouds Outlook for Strong Recovery By CONOR DOUGHERTY and KRIS MAHER - WSJ A yawning gap has opened in the early stages of the economic recovery between big companies and small businesses, with the former enjoying access to credit and growing global markets and the latter hurting badly on both fronts. This dichotomy will likely slow the recovery, since smaller firms are typically quick to hire and invest in an upturn. The dour attitude of small business stands in contrast to indications of a broader recovery. The U.S. economy grew at a 5.9% annual rate in the fourth quarter as it shook off the recession. But a revival in optimism by smaller companies has been absent.
Bogus U.S. Jobs Data Trips Up Colorado By: Rick Ackerman - GoldSeek.com The brazenly bogus unemployment data disseminated to the news media each month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics appears to have tripped up Colorado. Although the state had reported a loss of 89.375 non-farm jobs in 2009, the actual number appears to have been much larger -- 106,300, according to the latest revision. Colorado attributes the discrepancy to the Bureau’s rosy estimates of the number of businesses that start and fail each year. Until the new numbers came out earlier this week, Colorado’s official line was that it had somehow been spared the worst of Great Recession’s effects on the labor market. Unofficially, however, the picture was never so bright. “I was surprised when they reported the numbers the first time,” Zoltan Mak, a freight-train conductor on furlough since October, told the Denver Post. “I see everybody around me scraping by and having a really hard time. I don’t think we’re any better off than any other state.”
Unemployment claims show long-term problem By Hibah Yousuf CNNMoney.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing continuing claims for unemployment insurance spiked last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, as sluggish hiring continues to drag on the labor market's recovery. The number of people filing continuing claims jumped to 4,558,000 in the week ended Feb. 27, the most recent data available. That was up 37,000 from the preceding week's upwardly revised 4,521,000 claims. Economists were expecting continuing claims to remain unchanged at 4,500,000.
GOP hopes town halls take health care off table By: Byron York - Washington Examiner "If health care doesn't get done by Easter," says Republican Rep. John Shadegg, "then we need to make Easter look like last August." It's been more than seven months since Congress' August recess turned into a monthlong town meeting for Americans to voice their strong disapproval of Obamacare. Ever since then, with the health care bill still unpassed, Democratic leaders have been wary of letting members head home for too long. But beginning March 26, lawmakers will return to their districts and states for an Easter break that will last more than two weeks. Unlike the Christmas/New Year recess, when voters were occupied with the holidays and their own lives, there is renewed intensity over health care, as the president and Democrats make a "final push" to pass their bill. With Republicans planning to hold lots of town halls, that means it's possible Easter could become August all over again.
Health-Care Bill Path Complicated by Parliamentarian By Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen Ruling Says Obama Must Sign Health Bill Before Reconciliation March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Republicans said the Senate parliamentarian threw up a hurdle to congressional Democrats’ plans to pass changes to U.S. health-care legislation through a process called reconciliation. Republicans said guidance they received from the parliamentarian means that President Barack Obama has to sign a Senate health bill into law before the House and Senate can approve changes to it. Some House Democrats, who object to provisions in the Senate measure, wanted Obama to hold off signing the legislation until reconciliation passed.
Health-care reform's 'back-door' tax By Jia Lynn Yang WASHINGTON (Fortune) -- The big talk on Capitol Hill may be about health-care reform, but as part of this massive undertaking, the Democrats are quietly reshaping the tax system too. Tucked inside President Obama's latest health-care proposal is a major change to the Medicare tax. Since its conception, the Medicare tax has always been tied to payrolls. Every paycheck, employers and employees each chip in 1.45%, regardless of how much someone makes. Under Obama's proposal -- which should be very close to what Congress winds up enacting -- a Medicare tax would now be applied to investment income too: Individuals who earn more than $200,000 and couples over $250,000 would pay an additional 2.9% surtax on unearned income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents.
Federal appeals court upholds 'under God' references in Pledge of Allegiance, US currency By: TERENCE CHEA AP via Washington Examiner -- SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court upheld the use of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency, rejecting arguments Thursday that the phrases violate the separation of church and state. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected two legal challenges by Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow, who said the references to God are unconstitutional and infringe on his religious beliefs.
Will Boeing's CEO Repay America by Hiring in China? By PETER COHAN - DailyFinance.com Things have been getting better for Boeing (BA) in recent weeks, and that's casting a pleasant light on its CEO, Jim McNerney, the subject of my 2009 book, You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. The latest good news is that President Barack Obama chose McNerney to lead the President's Export Council, an advisory committee on international trade, The New York Times reported Thursday. And just this week, after years of drama, Boeing competitor Airbus dropped out of a competition for a $35 billion Pentagon contract, to build airborne refueling tankers for the Air Force.
Vladmir Putin forging ahead with vision of Eurasian empire Tony Halpin, Moscow - The TimesOnline.com The Soviet Union is gradually being rebuilt as Vladimir Putin eyes a return to the Kremlin. The man who declared the collapse of the Communist state to be the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” appears determined to forge a new empire. The latest evidence emerged in a suggestion by Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister in Mr Putin’s Government, that Russia may abolish the rouble and create a common currency with Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Joe Biden attempts to salvage Middle East peace talks Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem - guardian.co.uk US vice-president appeals to Israel after Palestinians walk out over decision to build new homes in Jewish settlement The US vice-president, Joe Biden, today attempted to salvage the Middle East peace talks after the Palestinians announced they were pulling out of a new round of indirect negotiations before they had begun. The Palestinian move was in protest against Israel's decision to build hundreds of new homes in a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. The withdrawal from negotiations, announced in Cairo by Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, represents a major setback to months of diplomacy by the US administration prior to Biden's visit to the region.
Biden to Leave Mideast Amid Unease By ETHAN BRONNER - NYTimes.com TEL AVIV — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. came to Israel early this week to promote new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and tighten the bonds between Israel and the United States. He left Thursday amid increased uncertainty over the nature and timing of those talks and with a sense of unease hanging over the American-Israeli relationship. The cause of both was the unexpected announcement during his visit that Israel would build 1,600 housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope to build the capital of their future state. That produced angry condemnation from Mr. Biden as well as signals of distress from the Palestinian leadership, which asked for American help to stop the project.
This could explain why the country is broke . . .
The following video is an inside look at how Air Force One works. Watch it and you will realize why our country is beyond broke. The Captain now works in Scottsdale AZ as a pilot for Discount Tire.
Air Force One - Part 1
Air Force One - Part 2
Air Force One - Part 3
Air Force One - Part 4
Air Force One - Part 5 Final
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G. Edward Griffin: CIA Takeover of The Mafia and its Ties to Harvard on The Alex Jones Show 1/4
G. Edward Griffin: CIA Takeover of The Mafia and its Ties to Harvard on The Alex Jones Show 2/4
G. Edward Griffin: CIA Takeover of The Mafia and its Ties to Harvard on The Alex Jones Show 3/4
G. Edward Griffin: CIA Takeover of The Mafia and its Ties to Harvard on The Alex Jones Show 4/4
Your PAPERS Pleeez! Immigration Reform Effort Re-Emerges With New Senate Bill By Trish Turner - FOXNews.com Three years after efforts by Congress to reform the immigration system went down in flames, the issue is slowly re-emerging onto the national stage as two senators from the opposite sides of the political aisle work on crafting another bill. Three years after efforts by Congress to reform the immigration system went down in flames, the issue is slowly re-emerging on the national stage, as two senators from the opposite sides of the political aisle work on crafting another bill. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. are set to appear Thursday at the White House for a meeting with President Obama in which they are expected to seek his guidance on charting a path forward.
* * * * * Important * * * * * Katherine Albrecht interview with Campaign for Liberty Part 1 Katherine Albrecht, RFID expert , Genesis Communications Network Radio Host, and Author of the Book Spychips sat down with Steve Vasquez on April 20th to discuss Real Id and the Enhanced Drivers license. What does it all mean? Legislation for total control and tracking. China already has a billion RFID chips in use for tracking its citizens.
Katherine Albrecht interview with Campaign for Liberty Part 2 Here is Part two of the Interview. Katherine discusses Enhanced Drivers license and the security aspect. Also Homeland Securities role in shelving Real Id for a back door approach to a national Id card.
National ID card The Spectrum & Daily News Abill under discussion in the U.S. Senate could force Americans to take sides on two issues that are extremely important to millions of people: illegal immigration versus privacy. The controversial legislation appears to be a solution to the problem of illegal immigration. It would require the issuance of identification cards for all workers in the United States. Besides the name and photograph, these cards would contain biometric information, such as fingerprints, so they would be extremely difficult to manipulate. The goal is to tie the worker to his or her card. If the information doesn't check out, then the person isn't eligible to work legally in the country.
Alex details New Bio ID Card Bill in WSJ "Required" for All Americans
ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan By LAURA MECKLER - WSJ Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain. Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.
Worker ID Card Spurs Controversy - WSJ
Obama looking to give new life to immigration reform By Peter Nicholas - LATimes In an effort to advance a bill through Congress before midterm elections, the president meets with two senators who have spent months trying to craft legislation. Reporting from Washington — Despite steep odds, the White House has discussed prospects for reviving a major overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, a commitment that President Obama has postponed once already. Obama took up the issue privately with his staff Monday in a bid to advance a bill through Congress before lawmakers become too distracted by approaching midterm elections.
RFID - CNN, Lou Dobbs - 2008 RFID - 150,000 workers required biometric ID
You probably got one too! Apparently, it's Next-Week-Is-Census-Day Day! Once the initial "you have got to be kidding me" response subsided, I called up the folks at the Census Bureau and they were kind enough to send me their canned response to the "are you freaking kidding me?" calls and emails they have been getting all day. Excerpted below: Thank you for your email. We here at the Census Bureau certainly understand your concern, and I want to assure you we care a great deal about being good stewards of the taxpayer's money.... Based on historical response rates, we expect roughly two thirds of households will mail back their form. The rest we will have to send an enumerator to collect the data required by the Constitution. You can imagine that follow-up is an expensive proposition. In fact, every one percent increase in the number of households who mail back the form saves the taxpayers about $85 million in expensive door-to-door follow up. That's why we advertise and promote, to increase the mail back response rate and help save on expensive labor to follow up.
Gold recovers near $1111 in Asia SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold prices recovered in Asian trade Thursday after an overnight dip, the biggest decline in five weeks. The precious yellow metal gained for the first time in four days after the metal’s drop by the most in five weeks spurred purchases.
Gold recovers mildly on fresh buying, silver also up MUMBAI: Gold prices recovered moderately by Rs 60 per ten grams to Rs 16,735 at the bullion market here today on emergence of local buying interest driven by firm European advices. Silver rose sharply due to fresh demand from stockists as well as good industrial support.
Competition for the IMF’s Gold? The Casey Files - by Jeff Clark - FinancialSense.com On February 24, Reuters reported that the Reserve Bank of India was “set to be a buyer” of the 191.3 tonnes (6.74 million ounces) of gold the IMF is selling. Although the bank wouldn’t comment directly on the possibility, they did say, “We are closely looking at the gold market... gold is a safe bet.” The article then quoted an unidentified official from the China Gold Association as saying, "It is not feasible for China to buy the IMF bullion, as any purchase or even intent to do so would trigger market speculation and volatility.” But the next day, Finmarket news agency in Russia reported that China “confirmed its intention” to buy the IMF gold. "Chinese officials have confirmed previous announcements from IMF experts and said that the purchasing of 191 tons of gold would not exert negative influence on the world market.”
A Constitutional Dollar Mises Daily: by Michael Rozeff Are you aware that a Federal Reserve dollar bill is not a constitutional dollar? Perhaps you are, but if so, do you know what a constitutional dollar literally is? Is it gold? Is it silver? Is it both? What is actually meant by a metal standard? Can the United States or any country be on two standards at the same time? Can two metals circulate as coin if there is but one standard? Or does one metal have to drive the other out of circulation? How and why does Gresham's law work when a country uses metal coin for money? In what ways are certain statements of Gresham's law misleading?
Hyperinflation Special Report (Update 2010) John Williams - Shadowstats.com Defining the Components of a Hyperinflationary Great DepressionPDF Deflation, Inflation and Hyperinflation. Inflation broadly is defined in terms of a rise in general prices due to an increase in the amount of money in circulation. The inflation/deflation issues defined and discussed here are as applied to goods and services, not to the pricing of financial assets. In terms of hyperinflation, there have been a variety of definitions used over time. The circumstance envisioned ahead is not one of double- or triple- digit annual inflation, but more along the lines of seven- to 10-digit inflation seen in other circumstances during the last century. Under such circumstances, the currency in question becomes worthless, as seen in Germany (Weimar Republic) in the early 1920s, in Hungary after World War II, in the dismembered Yugoslavia of the early 1990s and most recently, in Zimbabwe where the pace of hyperinflation may have been the most extreme ever seen.
Collateral Damage in the War on Depression by Adrian Ash - FinancialSense.com SLASHING the Bank of England's base interest rate to an historic low of 0.5% was supposed to "rebalance" the economy...tipping it away from galloping consumption towards an export-led recovery. But all that the Pound's slump since rates began sinking in March 2008 has done so far, however, is gift a 50% gain to UK gold owners.
Whatever Happened to Free Trade? Michael C. Moynihan - Reason.com With the tedious details of healthcare "reform" and tickle-fighting fantasists sucking up all of the media oxygen, it takes someone like James Pethokoukis, the most informative Greek-American since Dimetrios Synodinos, to remind us that President Obama is neglecting (or purposefully ignoring) a hugely important issue: free trade. Not that Obama has a problem with trade. In his State of the Union speech to Congress last January, he stated an ambitious goal of doubling U.S exports by 2015. It is trade policy that he seems uncomfortable with. That bold declaration in the speech was a direct result of lobbying from Obama’s economic advisers. But the wonks aren’t driving U.S trade policy in the Obama administration. The political team is. Its priority is passing healthcare reform. To pass healthcare reform, Obama needs his core union support. And a push for new trade agreements would alienate Big Labor.
Beijing seeks a shift in geopolitics By Willy Lam - AsiaTimes China's ongoing tussles with the United States over issues including Taiwan, Tibet and trade are in a sense nothing new. For more than two decades, Sino-US relations have periodically gone through rough patches over these and related causes of disagreement. What is new is China's much-enhanced global clout in the wake of the world financial crisis, which is coupled with a marked decline in America's hard and soft power. More importantly, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership is gunning for a paradigm shift in geopolitics, namely, new rules of the game whereby the fast-rising quasi-superpower will be playing a more forceful role. In particular, Beijing has served notice that it won't be shy about playing hardball to safeguard what it claims to be "core national interests".
China to assess gold, forex strategy BEIJING (Commodity Online) : China’s parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC) is likely to adopt a blueprint regarding country’s gold and forex positions. China's 2010 economic blueprint, which was officially unveiled at the plenary's opening, likely to set the country's target growth rate at the proverbial 8 percent. China has been quietly increasing its gold reserves in an apparent effort to hedge the weakening value of the dollar and stabilize the value of its massive foreign exchange reserves. One of the key issues that Chinese leaders will have to tackle is whether to let the yuan rise to help restructure the domestic economy and rebalance the global economy.
Last 10 years a ‘lost decade' for most investors By SCOTT BURNS Universal Press Syndicate - Houston Chronicle Many now call the last 10 years a “lost decade.” The immediate reference is to 10 years of going nowhere, or worse, in the stock market. Fortunately, the stock market isn't a good barometer of wealth for most people. That reality led me to wonder: Is it possible the decade wasn't so bad? Maybe the pain was just being felt by the truly wealthy? Is it possible the rest of us are just muddling along? The Case-Shiller home price index, after all, rose at an annual rate of 4.74 percent for the decade. That's well ahead of the 2.6 percent inflation rate for the period, in spite of the fall in home prices since the bubble broke. An appreciation of nearly 60 percent for the decade is no stick in the eye. It's got to count for something, right?
Investors can soon make bets on movie box office By Nathaniel Popper reporting from New York and Ben Fritz reporting from Los Angeles - LATimes Two new futures exchanges will let studios spread the financial risk of creating films.Welcome to Hollywood's newest version of risky business: movie derivatives. Two trading firms, one of them an established Wall Street player and the other a Midwest upstart, are each about to premiere a sophisticated new financial tool: a box-office futures exchange that would allow Hollywood studios and others to hedge against the box-office performance of movies, similar to the way farmers swap corn or wheat futures to protect themselves from crop failures. The Cantor Exchange, formed by New York firm Cantor Fitzgerald and set to launch in April, last week demonstrated its system to 90 Hollywood executives in a packed Century City hotel conference room. Amid a spirited trading-floor atmosphere, the participants shouted out guesses and made bets on how much "Alice in Wonderland" might rake in at the box office
Rosenberg: S&P 500 Overvalued by 26 Percent By: Dan Weil - MoneyNews.com Star economist David Rosenberg is sticking to his guns that the economy and the stock market are in trouble. He wrote in a letter to clients of his firm Gluskin Sheff + Associates that some of them say he’s too bearish, and other believe he’s changing his views when he mentions positive news. “I am not changing my macro or market view, but merely providing some color on why it is that the equity market refuses to go down even in the face of what has been a slate of disappointing economic news over the course of the past month,” Rosenberg wrote, according to the Financial Times.
Monthly U.S. Debt Hits a New Record By JOSEPH LAZZARO - DailyFinance.com Mixed news for the U.S. economy Wednesday, as the nation's monthly budget deficit hit a record $220.9. billion in February, the U.S. Treasury Department announced. Although a record amount, it was lower than expected by analysts. Equally significant, revenue in February rose 23% to $107.5 billion -- the first year-over-year revenue increase since April 2008. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected the U.S. government to post a $223.0 billion deficit in February, following a revised $42.6 billion deficit in January and a $91.4 billion deficit in December. The federal government ran a $193.9 billion deficit a year ago, in February 2009. It also posted a record $1.42 trillion deficit in fiscal 2009, following a $454.8 billion deficit in fiscal 2008. The $1.42 trillion 2009 deficit was nearly three times the 2008 deficit due mainly to the bank bailout and $787 billion fiscal stimulus package.
Pimco's Gross: Fed Rate Hike Is Six Months Away By: Dan Weil - MoneyNews.com The economy is too weak for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates for at least six months, says Pimco chief investment officer Bill Gross. The central bank’s recent increase of its discount rate represents a nod toward Fed board members who are concerned about inflation rather than a wholesale change in Fed policy, he said. "The timing was a little unusual and surprising,” Gross recently told CNBC. “I think it was really a move to appease the three or four (inflation) hawks on the Fed," Gross said. "They've had their moment, and now we'll continue to see this type of fed funds level going forward."
The Case Against the Fed from a US Senator JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN If you read through this letter from US Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who is also the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Economic Policy, you will get a grasp of how badly the Fed has mishandled its responsibilities over the past ten years at least. I thought the Senator was far too kind and reserved in his criticism. Yes, the Fed did focus on inflation. Unfortunately the definition of inflation which they used was inappropriate, since it did not include the obvious asset bubbles which were created by the Fed's own monetary policies.
Goldman Earned $55.7 Million From Build America Fees By Michael McDonald March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, has made $55.7 million from the sale of $36.4 billion of Build America Bonds, about a third of the fees it earned from its municipal business, it said in response to queries from Iowa Senator Charles Grassley. The effort to underwrite the federally subsidized municipal bonds is “highly competitive” with “over 10 major firms” vying for the business, Goldman Chairman Lloyd Blankfein wrote in a letter dated March 1 to the top Republican on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Grassley said in a letter to Blankfein last month that he is “concerned that American taxpayers are subsidizing larger underwriting fees for Wall Street investment banks.”
Bove: Cuomo Is Father of the Subprime Crisis By: Dan Weil - MoneyNews.com Superstar bank analyst Dick Bove lambastes New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, calling him the "father of the subprime crisis." The Rochdale Securities financial strategist said Cuomo helped push Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to finance mortgage loans to low income people who couldn’t afford them when he was secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1997 to 2001. "One of the key reasons why (Fannie and Freddie) are bankrupt today, and why the government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in supporting them, is because of the edicts pushed through by Mr. Cuomo," Bove told CNBC.
France vows retaliation against US in air tanker dispute By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk France has vowed to retaliate against the United States for allegedly shutting Europe's aviation giant EADS out of a $50bn (£33.4bn) defence contract, warning of potential damage to the Atlantic alliance. "This is a serious affair," said France's Europe minister Pierre Lellouche. "I can assure you that there will be consequences." "You cannot expect Europeans to contribute to global defence if you deny their industries the right to work on both sides of the Atlantic," he said, adding that French president Nicolas Sarkozy would take action "at the appropriate time". The escalating spat comes after EADS withdrew this week from a joint bid with Northrop Grumman to supply the Pentagon with A330 air refuelling tankers, alleging that the procurement terms had been rigged to favour Boeing.
EU silent on Chinese currency move ANDREW WILLIS - EU Observer EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union has yet to react to comments made by China over the weekend that it is considering an end to the renminbi's unofficial peg with the dollar, in place since mid-2008. European Central Bank officials declined to comment on the issue on Wednesday (10 March), a similar stance to that taken by the bank's president Jean-Claude Trichet earlier this week. Mr Trichet said the Chinese currency issue was not discussed during a meeting of central bankers from industrialised and major emerging countries at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel on Monday.
Welcome to the United States of Iceland By Paul Smalera - Fortune NEW YORK (Fortune) -- It's time to start paying attention to the financial sinkhole that Iceland is trying to climb out of -- the view from inside of it is eerily similar to our own. An Icelandic savings bank, Icesave, had attracted billions in deposits from hundreds of thousands of British and Dutch citizens, due to the phenomenally high interest rates it offered. Icesave collapsed in 2008, for much the same reason Lehman Brothers, WaMu, and hundreds of local savings banks did: its bankers used their cash to make complicated, bad, leveraged investments, mostly on real estate.
Greece getting its house in order - Papandreou Reuters via The Guardian WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said on Wednesday his country was working to get its fiscal house in order and wanted markets to recognize that. Speaking at the end of his first visit to the United Sates as Greece's new leader, Papandreou said his government was not trying to "scapegoat" its problems by blaming them on market speculators. Papandreou said European leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Euro Group Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker backed Greece's push to rein in unregulated markets, such as credit default swaps, blamed for exacerbating Greece's problems by betting on its debt.
Greece Warns of Worse Economic Downturn The Greek economy is set to shrink by more than expected this year, the government said on Wednesday, as it braced for nationwide strikes protesting its plans for bringing the country's budget deficit under control. Greece, grappling with a ballooning deficit and a 300 billion euro ($407 billion) debt pile, told the European Union that 2010 gross domestic product (GDP) would "most likely" shrink by more than the 0.3 percent currently forecast.
Forbes rich list topped by Mexican mobile phone titan Carlos Slim Andrew Clark in New York - guardian.co.uk -- Developing nations storm Forbes rich list as America Movil's Carlos Slim beats Microsoft's Bill Gates to top spot The old order is under threat at the world's billionaires club. Traditionally dominated by Americans and Europeans, the top ranks of the world's richest people have been infiltrated by scores of ultra-rich entrepreneurs from the developing world – capped by the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim. Today, Slim, the titan of mobile phones in Mexico, criticised as a ruthless monopolist, was crowned as the richest person in the world by Forbes magazine, which calculated his net worth at $53.5bn (£35.7bn). Bolstered by a surge in the share price of his America Movil empire, Slim's wealth edged ahead of the $53bn fortune amassed by the Microsoft boss Bill Gates, making the portly cigar-smoking 70-year-old the first non-American to hold the top spot since 1994.
Judge Napolitano : Lies the Government Told You!
Memo to Barney Frank from a Retired Chief Fannie Mae Lobbyist By John M. - HousingDoom.com Doom friend (and occasional antagonist) Bill is always worth a look, especially when he speaks to the GSEs and politics. This is right in his wheelhouse. What is Barney Frank (D-Mass) thinking? by Bill Maloni I’m sure I’m not the first person to wonder what, beyond his legendary intelligence and quick wittedness, causes the cerebral and sometime volatile Chairman of the House Banking Committee to stake out the policy positions he takes. Recently, as the world now knows, Frank called for “abolishing” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He soon will initiate congressional hearings to produce that desired legislative result. The fact that the Obama Administration hasn’t reached the same fever pitched conclusion as Barney likely means that this atomization will not occur in an already volatile political year. Since moving forward in this regard—with no idea what to employ as a mortgage finance system replacement–is fraught with huge political and systemic mortgage business risk for the Democrats and the mortgage industry.
Politics, shaky economy create no rush to restructure Fannie and Freddie By Zachary A. Goldfarb - Washington Post -- The federal government has spent the past half year seeking to roll back its emergency efforts at propping up the financial markets -- with the notable exception of its involvement in mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As the government has pledged more and more money to cover the companies' losses, it has assured the public that planning was underway for overhauling the firms so the bailouts would end. As recently as December, the Obama administration said it expected to release a preliminary report on how to remake Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac around Feb. 1.
Economists Trim Forecasts for 2011 U.S. Growth MoneyNews.com U.S. economists raised their forecast for economic growth in 2010 in March, the third straight monthly rise, while trimming their growth forecast for 2011, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Economists surveyed earlier this month in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter said the economy is expected to grow by 3.0 percent in 2011, which is 0.1 percentage point lower than estimates made a month ago. But economists raised their 2010 growth forecast for the third consecutive month to 3.1 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from February. Still, the economists predicted the recovery would be mild given the depth of the recession.
Govt. workers feel no economic pain By David M. Dickson - WashingtonTimes.com The recession and the ongoing jobless recovery devastated much of the private-sector work force last year, sending unemployment soaring, but government workers emerged essentially unscathed, according to data released Wednesday by the Labor Department. Meanwhile, the compensation for state and local government employees continued to easily outdistance the wages and benefits for workers in private business, a separate Labor Department report showed. Private-industry employers spent an average of $27.42 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December, while total compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $39.60 per hour.
Census Jobs Tough to Fill By ANA CAMPOY - WSJ U.S. Struggles to Hire Thousands of Bilingual Workers Needed for Accurate Count DALLAS — The U.S. Census Bureau is scouring Texas for an oddly elusive worker: the Spanish-speaking American who qualifies for the job. Texas is home to more Hispanics than any other state except California, and the pool of job seekers should be brimming due to the highest unemployment rate in years. Yet the agency can't seem to come up with enough workers. "It's hard to hire so many people," said Efren Salinas, a Census spokesman based in the heavily Hispanic southern part of the state.
Senate Passes $138 Billion Bill Extending Jobless Aid By Brian Faler March 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate approved a $138 billion measure that would extend unemployment benefits and provide additional aid to states in lawmakers’ second major effort this year to boost the economy. The chamber voted 62-36 for the legislation, which would also extend dozens of expiring tax cuts, ease corporate-pension requirements and head off cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors.
Costly Cash: In Texas Towns Try Zoning Out Payday Lenders By PALLAVI GOGOI - DailyFinance.com Brownsville, Texas, a city in the state's southernmost part, is taking on payday lenders. In December, it placed a six-month moratorium barring these lenders -- which specialize in short-term loans backed by collateral and with interest rates equivalent to 300% to 400% or more annually -- from opening any new "money stores" in town. "Our most vulnerable citizens are easy prey for these legal loan sharks, and we want to protect our citizens by regulating them," says Mayor Pat Ahumada. Located on the Mexican border, Brownsville has a population of 140,0000.
another unexpected foreclosure nightmare in the burbs. . . Foreclosure lawsuit fiasco upends Estates man’s retirement By MATT CLARK - NaplesNews.com NAPLES — It was retirement incarnate. Then, the foreclosure lawsuit came. Warren Nyerges, 45, left his law enforcement career and moved to Golden Gate Estates late last year with his wife. He was spending his days preparing his backyard for grass, painting the interior of his home and joking about the snow he abandoned in Cleveland. “I’ve had nothing but a ball. To come down here, it’s a life dream,” Nyerges said. To top it all off, the couple’s single-story, 2,700-square-foot home was paid off. Nyerges said he even offered $5,000 more than Bank of America was asking, quickly sealing the deal with title insurance. But on Feb. 18, a man came to the couple’s home with a lawsuit. Bank of America had begun foreclosing on the property, and Nyerges’ dream was temporarily put on hold.
No fridge is better than no house Jennifer Abel - guardian.co.uk That a woman was made homeless for not having enough electricity reveals America's modern-day sumptuary laws If you see a woman drowning the decent thing to do is toss her a life buoy, or at least leave her the hell alone; sitting on her head to push her deeper under water is wholly unacceptable behaviour. Unless you live in America and work for some local-level housing authority, in which case it's part of your job. Being poor sucks in any country but especially in the US, which is so proud of being the Richest Nation on Earth that it makes sure everyone lives up to that whether they can afford to or not. Consider the case of Avondale, Arizona resident Christine Stevens, who has been in deep water (financially speaking) since losing her bank job in January 2009. She decided to discontinue her electricity service and make do with solar panels – Arizona has no shortage of sunshine, after all – and using an ice box in lieu of a refrigerator. But such frugality defies Avondale city codes, which require a refrigerator, heating and cooling system, and electricity enough for all. So Stevens' house was condemned, and Stevens kicked out.
Unemployment tops 20% in eight California counties By Alana Semuels - LATimes The state's jobless rate of 12.5% in January was its worst on record and fifth-highest in the nation. For many California areas, unemployment rates moved persistently higher in January, indicating that the national economic recovery hasn't yet translated into jobs for the Golden State. New county-by-county figures released by the state Wednesday showed that in eight counties, more than 1 in 5 people were out of work. Moreover, revised numbers for last year show that fewer people were employed than was previously believed.
RealtyTrac: Florida foreclosure activity up in February South Florida Business Journal Although the foreclosure rate nationwide slipped 2 percent in February from the previous month, Florida continues to be dogged by an increasing number of foreclosures, according to the latest numbers from RealtyTrac. In fact, foreclosure activity in the Sunshine State rose by nearly 15 percent in February, over the previous month, and was up more than 16 percent from the prior-year period, according to the Irvine, Calif.-based online real estate company. Florida also continued to post the nation’s second-highest total number of foreclosures, with 54,032 properties receiving a foreclosure filing in February.
Detroit: the last days Julien Temple - guardian.co.uk Detroit is a city in terminal decline. When film director Julien Temple arrived in town, he was shocked by what he found – but he also uncovered reasons for hope When the filmmaker Roger Graef approached me last year to make a film about the rise and fall of Detroit I had very few preconceptions about the place. Like everyone else, I knew it as the Motor City, one of the great epicentres of 20th-century music, and home of the American automobile. Only when I arrived in the city itself did the full-frontal cultural car crash that is 21st-century Detroit became blindingly apparent. Leaving behind the gift shops of the "Big Three" car manufacturers, the Motown merchandise and the bizarre ejaculating fountains of the now-notorious international airport, things become stranger and stranger. The drive along eerily empty ghost freeways into the ruins of inner-city Detroit is an Alice-like journey into a severely dystopian future. Passing the giant rubber tyre that dwarfs the nonexistent traffic in ironic testament to the busted hubris of Motown's auto-makers, the city's ripped backside begins to glide past outside the windows.
Nancy Pelosi on Health Care: Peter Suderman - Reason.com "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Like a Tupperware container full of smelly mystery meat, Nancy Pelosi says that the only way we can find out exactly what's in the health care bill is to try it: You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting.
Pelosi: we have to pass the health care bill so that you can find out what is in it
Rush Limbaugh, Costa Rica bound? Richard Adams - Guardian.co.uk In praise of Costa Rica's healthcare system – although Rush Limbaugh appears to be unaware of its existence My colleagues at Cif America have an entertaining poll running at the moment on Rush Limbaugh's vow to move to Costa Rica if healthcare reform gets passed by Congress. So far more than 2,000 voters are hoping that Rush will up and leave – although of course that number may include opponents of healthcare reform who side with Rush.
District 666 Presents: An Interview with Katherine Albrecht about RFID by Aaron Russo
The Mark Of The Beast 666 - PROOF !!!
Men now finding time to get back into shape BY CINDY KRISCHER GOODMAN - MIAMIHERALD.COM With the economy in recession, many men now have the time and the inclination to get back into shape. When the financial markets were soaring, Paul Tanner would leave his office at Lehman Brothers after a long day and head to Capital Grille on Brickell Avenue to entertain a client over juicy prime rib and a martini or two. Then came the recession. As business slowed, Tanner looked in the mirror and saw an overweight man whose wealth had declined and whose gut had enlarged. ``I had a check-in financially and emotionally,'' Tanner says. Like many other men, Tanner has traded martinis and cigars for dumbbells and running shoes. Now at UBS, he has lost more than 50 pounds since October 2008 and recently participated in a local triathlon. Tanner says he has recruited at least a half dozen other men to recommit to exercise, too.
WellPoint CFO Says California Previews Obama Premiums By Alex Nussbaum March 10 (Bloomberg) -- WellPoint Inc.’s plan to raise rates for some California customers by 39 percent, a rallying point for Democrats seeking a health-care overhaul, is a preview of the prices Americans will face if the proposal succeeds, the insurer’s chief financial officer said. The health-care bill pushed by President Barack Obama will force healthy people out of the market while doing nothing to control medical costs, just the conditions that led Indianapolis- based WellPoint to raise rates in California, CFO Wayne DeVeydt said today at an investor conference.
Can States Say "No Thanks" to ObamaCare's Health Insurance Mandate? Peter Suderman - Reason.com -- Nancy Pelosi may be convinced that we have to pass health care reform in order to find out what's in it, but if it passes, there's at least one provision we can already count on: an individual mandate to buy health insurance. Polling shows that this requirement is one of the bill's least popular features, so it's not exactly surprising to find that states are taking action to allow individuals to bypass such requirements. More than 30 states are considering such laws, and a ban on mandatory insurance has already passed in the Virginia Senate.
Kucinich: ‘Heads They Win, Tails We Lose’ Rep. Dennis Kucinich tells us why he isn’t buckling under pressure to vote for the president’s health care reform bill (“Every plan that’s put forth by our government ends up benefiting the health insurance industry”).
Hurricane Season Poses ‘Above-Normal’ Threat, AccuWeather Says By Charlotte Porter -- March 10 (Bloomberg) -- The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will be more active than last year’s and poses an “above- normal” threat to the U.S. Gulf and East coasts, AccuWeather Inc. forecasters said today. AccuWeather foresees 16 to 18 named storms forming in the Atlantic Ocean, with five becoming hurricanes and two or three of them going ashore in the U.S. as major systems. In all, 15 storms probably will be in the western Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico, and seven may make landfall in the U.S., said Joe Bastardi, chief long-range and hurricane forecaster. “This year has the chance to be an extreme season,” Bastardi said in a statement. “Certainly much more like 2008 than 2009 as far as the overall threat to the United States East and Gulf coasts.”
Climate Wars! By Alan Caruba on - CHCH Wars come and go, cities are destroyed and rebuilt, monuments are erected, and life goes on. This is the traditional view of war, but right now the world is engaged in the latest battle of a “climate war” that has been going on since the 1970s when the Club of Rome concluded in a report titled, “The real enemy then, is humanity itself”, that the world’s population had to be reduced. Whereas wars in the modern era have killed millions and communism as practiced in the former Soviet Union and the early decades of Red China under Chairman Mao killed millions more on a scale with which war could not compete, the advocates of population reduction rival the worst despots to have ever walked among us.
Representative Kennedy on War Powers Is it fair to call this a meltdown? The war in Afghanistan—and the media’s lack of interest in it—is certainly a subject worth losing one’s temper over. Rep. Patrick Kennedy had trouble using his indoor voice during Wednesday’s debate in the House.
Biden Urges Support for Mideast Talks Before Tel Aviv Speech By Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger -- March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Joe Biden will speak in Tel Aviv on U.S.-Israeli relations, one day after telling Israelis and Palestinians they will be held accountable for actions jeopardizing peace efforts. “It is incumbent on both parties to build an atmosphere of support for negotiations and not to complicate them,” Biden said yesterday in the West Bank city of Ramallah after meeting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Joe Biden offers Israel full US support Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem - guardian.co.uk In talks with Binyamin Netanyahu, US vice-president stresses need to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons The US vice-president, Joe Biden, promised the Israeli government today that it had the strong support of Washington and said the US was committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. "There is no space between the US and Israel when it comes to Israel's security," Biden said, after meeting the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem. Their talks appeared to focus on Iran and its nuclear ambitions, rather than on the new round of low-key, indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that was agreed yesterday.
Iran and Israel play cat and mouse By Mel Frykberg - AsiaTimes RAMALLAH - Iran and Israel appear to be spoiling for a fight, going by recent belligerent statements emanating from several regional capitals. Military movement on the ground is also lending credence to the idea that the mutual loathing and major ideological differences between the two countries could lead to vortex of violence capable of sucking the entire region into a new war. "Diplomacy and sanctions are not going to work with Iran. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is a messianic ideologue. He is a follower of the extremist Shi'ite cleric Mesach Yazdi, who even the late Ayatollah [Ruhollah] Khomeini rejected as too extreme," says senior policy advisor Dan Diker from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Palestinians snub peace talks because of Israeli homes expansion Rory McCarthy - guardian.co.uk -- Mahmoud Abbas 'not ready to negotiate' after Israel announces 1,600 new homes for East Jerusalem The Palestinians pulled out of a new round of indirect peace talks last night, even before they had begun, as a protest at Israel's decision to announce approval for hundreds of new homes in a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. The decision to pull out, announced in Cairo by Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, represents a major setback to months of diplomacy by the US administration and comes after the US vice-president, Joe Biden, delivered an unusually strong rebuke to Israel. Amr Moussa said he had been told by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, that even this low-key process of so-called "proximity talks" could not start unless Israel stopped expanding its settlements.
US Census GPS Tagging Part 1/4 with Katherine Albrecht
Wednesday 05-06-09 Host: George Noory Guest: Katherine Albrecht
US Census Concerns In the last hour, consumer privacy advocate Katherine Albrecht shared an update on the current US census plan which incorporates tagging homes with GPS readings. Data collection is being done by some 140,000 workers for the 2010 census, and she expressed concern that some of the information they are gathering could be misused by the government.
US Census GPS Tagging Part 2/4 with Katherine Albrecht
US Census GPS Tagging Part 3/4 with Katherine Albrecht
US Census GPS Tagging Part 4/4 with Katherine Albrecht
Stimulus or Sedative? By Thomas Sowell - GOP USA Abraham Lincoln once asked an audience how many legs a dog has, if you called the tail a leg? When the audience said "five," Lincoln corrected them, saying that the answer was four. "The fact that you call a tail a leg does not make it a leg." That same principle applies today. The fact that politicians call something a "stimulus" does not make it a stimulus. The fact that they call something a "jobs bill" does not mean there will be more jobs. What have been the actual consequences of all the hundreds of billions of dollars that the government has spent? The idea behind the spending is that it will cause investors to invest, lenders to lend and employers to employ.
The Albatross of Sovereign Debt Bob Chapman - TheInternationalForecaster.com Sovereign Debt hinders nation states, Interrogations for the Fed to answer, debt burdened California, Fed integrity in question, Gold still a good investment play, unemployment benefits for now, volatile swings in housing demand, Sovereign debt hangs like an albatross around the necks of too many countries. There are 17 medium-size to large countries that are close to, or are bankrupt. Many are being kept solvent by using two sets of books and by marking to model. As you know we expect these bankruptcies to take place by the end of 2011. That will be accomplished at meetings such as we saw in the 1970s at the Smithsonian, the Plaza Accord of 1985 and the Louvre Accord of 1987. There will be a realignment of currencies.
Jim Rogers Discusses Greece's Fiscal Woes, Euro
Beijing vows not to use U.S. debt for political gain By David M. Dickson - WashingtonTimes Rejects general's idea of 'dumping' bonds A top Chinese official said Tuesday that Beijing will not use its vast holdings of U.S. government debt for political gain, just a few days after a forecast projected that the U.S. national debt is on course to triple to $20 trillion over the next decade. China holds the world's largest cache of foreign exchange reserves, which soared more than $450 billion last year to reach $2.4 trillion at year's end. Concerns about Beijing's plans for its holdings have peaked in recent weeks after Chinese military officials suggested using that debt to pressure the United States in other policy areas. But a top Chinese state financial officer Tuesday rejected that approach.
Greece's crisis could presage America's By: TOM RAUM - AP via Washington Examiner Greece is a financial basket case, begging for international help. Is America heading down that same road? Many of the same risky financial practices that now imperil the Greeks were at the center of the all-too-recent U.S. meltdown. As with Greece, America's national debt has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past decade, to the point where it threatens to swamp overall economic output. And in the U.S., as in Greece, a large portion of that debt is owed to foreign investors.
US Economy is Some 11 Million Jobs Short of Full Employment By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com.au If you don't read the newspapers you run the risk of missing something. Of course, if you do read them, you run the risk of catching something. Not much in the financial news worthy of comment this morning... The Dow gained $13. Gold lost $13. Nothing much to say about it... So we will comment on something beneath comment...something so low we have to dig down to find it...something so unworthy we hardly imagine we are mentioning it...something in the newspapers... We're talking, of course, about politics... The love-fest with politics is heating up. The drugs have been passed around. Now, the clothes are coming off...
N. Korea Says It Is Ready to 'Blow Up' U.S. AP - FOXNews SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's army said Monday it is ready to "blow up" South Korea and the U.S., hours after the allies kicked off annual military drills that Pyongyang has slammed as a rehearsal for attack. South Korea and the U.S. — which normally dismiss such threats as rhetoric — began 11 days of drills across South Korea on Monday morning to rehearse how the U.S. would deploy in time of emergency on the Korean peninsula.
Buy Gold While Supplies Last, Says Fund Manager by Peter Gorenstein - TechTicker.com Lost in the headlines over the dollar's resurgence in 2010 is the fact gold is still rising in most worldwide currencies. It is also still faring well in dollar terms. Gold is trading at around $1,120 per ounce, up about $60 in the last month. Frank Holmes, CEO and CIO of U.S. Global Investors, a long time gold bull sees no reason for this trend to end. He tells Aaron in the accompanying clip, "there are many compelling factors both from a supply side and then from the demand side that looks like gold will trade higher."
Seven reasons to invest in gold By Bradley George and Daniel Sacks - Telegraph.co.uk Investec outline seven reasons why it believes that the price of gold will continue to rise. There are both headwinds and tailwinds influencing the gold price, but the positives combined with the degree of investment demand from wealthier investors – should outweigh the negatives. We believe this is likely to force a peak that is nearer $1,300 per ounce over the next six months, with $1,000 per ounce becoming the new long-term floor. In our view, the following factors are currently influencing the gold price in the medium to long-term.
Gold is in a Real Bull Market By Bill Bonner - Dailyreckoning.com.au The news yesterday pushed against us like a gentle wind. Pending house sales were bad. Consumer spending was good. Unemployment was bad. Manufacturing was good. The Dow rose 47 points. It has moved without much conviction for several weeks. It can't seem to make up its mind. We thought it had headed down decisively a few weeks ago...and then, it stabilized...and wandered about... Gold has more sense of destiny about it. It's been in a bull market for the last 10 years...and shows no sign of wanting to do anything else. It lost $11 yesterday, but still trades at $1,132...not that far from its all-time high.
Why gold is a commodity and a currency By Stewart Thomson - CommodityOnline.com Is gold trading as a commodity, a currency, or both? I believe the answer is: Mainly as a currency, but the fact that aprox 70% of mined gold usually goes into jewellery cannot be ignored. Another fact is that gold seasonals dictate a possible intermediate top in late December. This time it topped in early December. The gold price has been “ruled” by the massive head and shoulders pattern on the weekly chart (Gold Weekly Chart), so the usual late sept/early oct hard sell off not occurring is most likely a function of the action of two factors: a. The hedge fund momentum buying, trying to milk the technical chart pattern. b. The action of Barrick acting in the comex open market buying futures contracts to cover off their hedge position.
As Confidence Returns, Gold Will Rise MineWeb.net The Gold Report: John, in Investors Digest of Canada you recently said you're expecting gold to gain another 30% this year. John Embry: I would say at least 30%. I said that I thought it would be the best year to date. We've had nine years consecutive higher year-end prices and the best year in that span for a year's return was 31%. I think this will be the year that we exceed it in this, the 10th year of the bull market.
Warning Of A Gold Super Spike Janet Tavakoli - SilverBearCafe.com "Congress Must Act Immediately To Abolish Credit Default Swaps On The United States" Congress should act immediately to abolish credit default swaps on the United States, because these derivatives will foment distortions in global currencies and gold. Failure to act now will only mean the U.S. will be forced to act after these "financial weapons of mass destruction" levy heavy casualties. These obligations now settle in euros, but the end game is to settle them in gold. This is so ripe for speculative manipulation that you might as well cover the U.S. map with a bull's-eye.
China says gold is 'unlikely' to be primary investment The Telegraph.co.uk China has disappointed gold investors today after arguing that the yellow metal is 'unlikely' to be a primary investment as it diversifies its $2.4 trillion of foreign-exchange reserves. Gold, which has risen in price for 10 straight years, is 'unlikely' to be a primary investment, Yi Gang, the head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said at a press briefing in Beijing today, Bloomberg reported. The price has "had handsome gains in recent years,” Yi said. But, “if we look at the past 30 years, it had big ups and downs.” China has lifted its holding of gold by 454 tons to 1,054 since 2003, leaving it with the world's fifth-biggest holding. After India, China is the biggest consumer of gold and, according to Mr Yi, increasing its reserves of gold will "push up prices" and "hurt Chinese gold consumers."
Using Gold to Fend of the FDIC and Its “Problem Banks” By: Richard Daughty - GoldSeek.com People think that Addison Wiggin is just another talented, intelligent, pretty face who secretly thrills to hear people say things like, “You’re a lot better looking than The Mogambo! And younger and smarter, too!” but he is much, much more than that. His story starts off that “The FDIC is even more broke than it was three months ago” to which most people rudely say, “Welcome to the club! Waddya think, we got some kind of picnic at the beach going on out here in the real world while you pretty-face hotshots talk about who is smarter and about some idiot named Mogambo who must be an idiot because otherwise he would not have such a stupid name!”
Bernanke’s Dilemma: Hyperinflation and the US Dollar By Ron Hera - GoldSeek.com Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, faces a Sisyphean task because US banks are experiencing debt deflation and, because lending is now at much lower levels, monetary deflation is encumbering the domestic US economy as existing debts continue to be serviced. Government deficit spending can only offset lower consumer spending to a degree, and the mushrooming debt of the US government raises the question of whether the US can repay or roll over its debt obligations, given that tax receipts are likely to fall. Despite deflationary pressure, the value of the US dollar is in a downtrend pointing to higher prices for imported goods and energy. Devaluing the US dollar will reduce the value of debts in real terms, thus it can make debt levels sustainable, but higher prices will exacerbate debt defaults, worsening the condition of US banks. Mr. Bernanke’s dilemma is how to salvage the balance sheets of US banks without sparking high inflation or unleashing hyperinflation.
Stronger Dollar Is Good For Economy ... Except Where It's Bad By JOSEPH LAZZARO - DailyFinance.com President Harry Truman understood the upside/downside dimension to economic polices, having heard his administration's economists explain, "On the one hand, if you increase social spending, you'll address these social problems. On the other hand, it may increase inflation." That led to Truman's famous lament, "What I wouldn't do for a one-armed economist."
Further, the upside/downside nature of economic policy also applies to the dollar: There's a better than 50/50 chance the dollar will strengthen in the year ahead, after a long period in the currency market's desert. Heck, even commodity guru Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings and not a historical dollar bull, is buying the dollar these days. At midday on Tuesday, $1.3582 bought one euro, a gain of about 10% for the dollar since December 2009. Still, investors shouldn't view a stronger dollar is an unqualified positive or a slam-dunk economic plus for the U.S. -- not by a long shot.
Jamming The Accelerator Martin Hutchinson - SilverBearCafe.com With the retirement of Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn, President Obama now has the right to appoint three Fed governors. Together with the reappointed Bernanke and Daniel Tarullo, whom he appointed last year, that will create a Fed Board of Governors on which five of the seven members are extreme soft-money advocates, and make it almost impossible, even in a crisis situation, for the 12-member Federal Open Market Committee to pull together a majority for anything but the most modest increase in interest rates. Essentially, the throttle will have been jammed open until at least January 2013. It's worth examining the implications of this for the U.S. and global economies.
China pledges prudence in adding gold to reserves ZHOU XIN AND SIMON RABINOVITCH - businessday.co.za CHINA would be prudent in adding gold to its official reserves, wary that any move to buy the metal would only drive its price higher, its top foreign exchange manager said yesterday. Yi Gang, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said that while gold was “not a bad asset”, it would never become a big part of China’s overall investment portfolio. “The international gold market is very limited. If I purchase gold on a massive scale, it will definitely push up global gold prices,” Yi said at a news conference on the sidelines of China’s annual parliament.
Another Real-Time Economic Indicator Is Rolling Over And Showing Contraction The Pragmatic Capitalist - businessinsider.com -- The new indicators just keep popping up all over the place. In a great interview with James Montier at Simoleon Sense we discover Montier’s favorite indicator, the ADS Business Conditions Index: “1. Tell us how you look at cycles. Are there any indicators or measurements you rely on? James Montier: Personally I’ve never really found it that tricky to know where we are in a cycle. There are a lot of indicators that gauge exactly that sort of thing from the ISM to the ECRI measures. The Philly Fed have a good (by which I mean timely) index called the ADS measure which tracks where we are in real time.”
Fast Money, unemployment, big government
Gibbs Fires Back At Chief Justice Roberts Over Obama Criticism Sam Stein - HuffingtonPost.com -- The White House fired back at Justice John Roberts Tuesday night, after the Supreme Court Chief told a crowd that he found it "very troubling" that President Barack Obama would criticize the court during his State of the Union address. In a statement sent to reporters, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the only troubling thing was the 5-4 ruling by the court, which said that corporations could spend unlimited amounts of money advocating on behalf of candidates in elections. Roberts leads the court.
CBO Debt Projections: Make Room for “Crowding Out” By Addison Wiggin - The DailyReckoning.com 03/08/10 Baltimore, Maryland – The latest deficit projection from the Congressional Budget Office was conveniently revealed just prior to the close of business on Friday. “Why so?” You ask suspiciously. “Because,” we respond in a hushed tone. The CBO’s latest numbers reveal that President Obama’s proposed fiscal 2011 budget would add $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years. The White House projection is only slightly less staggering – $8.5 trillion. Further, the CBO projects the national debt will be 90% of GDP by the end of this decade – higher than the 83.4% recorded at the end of fiscal 2009 last fall. We’re 100% certain this comment will elicit the customary response: “Look at Japan, its debt is 170% of GDP…and it’s been running massive deficits for years!”
Fitch warns Britain and questions Greek rescue as sovereign risks grow By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk Fitch Ratings has delivered a serious blow to the credibility of the Government's budget plans, warning that Britain risks a loss of investor confidence and erosion of its AAA rating unless it maps out clear austerity measures. Brian Coulton, the agency's head of sovereign ratings, said the UK has seen "the most rapid rise in the ratio of public debt to GDP of any AAA-rated country" and is courting fate with its leisurely plan to halve the deficit by the middle of the decade. "It is frankly too slow, a pedestrian pace. Why the UK thinks it has more time than other countries , we're not sure. This needs to be reoriented," he told the Fitch forum on sovereign hotspots.
Fears of a Greek bank run By Dody Tsianta (Fortune) -- In the middle of the 2001 debt crisis, Argentines stormed their nation's banks to get their money out. To stop the stampede, the government imposed controls that allowed them to take out only $250 at a time and limited withdrawals for overseas trips to $1,000. Greece, in the middle of its own financial crisis, is teetering on the brink of a default. Many of its wealthier citizens are also uneasy about what lies ahead for their cash. According to estimates from private bankers in Greece and Cyprus, as much as 10 billion euros have left the country for Greek-owned bank subsidiaries in Switzerland and Cyprus in the last couple of months.
Obama: Greece, facing bad days, has US as ally By DESMOND BUTLER - AP via DailyFinance.com WASHINGTON -President Barack Obama stood with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Tuesday and pledged that the United States would work with its ally, even as Greece's enormous debts sparked frenzied trading. Papandreou said he outlined European proposals in his White House meeting and Obama reacted positively to European ideas about cracking down on currency speculation. He also said the issue would be discussed at the next meeting of the Group of 20 summit of leading and emerging economies in June. Earlier Tuesday, European officials urged the U.S. to curb certain financial instruments.
Get up earlier, Germans tell Greeks guardian.co.uk First Greece was told to sell islands to pay off its debts, now the German tabloid Bild has reminded George Papandreou of the two countries' differences After yesterday's call by two German politicians that Greece sell off islands, historic buildings and artworks before receiving aid, the German tabloid Bild has written an open letter to the Greek prime minister George Papandreou: Dear prime minister, If you're reading this, you've entered a country different from yours. You're in Germany. Here, people work until they are 67 and there is no 14th-month salary for civil servants. Here, nobody needs to pay a €1,000 bribe to get a hospital bed in time.
Greece seeks U.S. help regulating speculators By Anthony Faiola and Steven Mufson - Washington Post Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will seek President Obama's support at the White House on Tuesday for a European campaign to crack down on global financial speculation that critics say has exacerbated Europe's worst debt crisis in decades. The U.S.-born Papandreou, who assumed Greece's highest office in October, is pushing a plan in Europe that would impose new limits and stricter monitoring on complex and largely unregulated financial bets. Officials in Europe have blamed investors for manipulating the price of Greek bonds, fueling higher borrowing rates across Europe and accelerating the euro's fall against the dollar and other currencies.
Europe bars Wall Street banks from government bond sales Elena Moya - guardian.co.uk European countries are blocking Wall Street banks from lucrative deals to sell government debt worth hundreds of billions of euros in retaliation for their role in the credit crunch. For the first time in five years, no big US investment bank appears among the top nine sovereign bond bookrunners in Europe, according to Dealogic data compiled for the Guardian. Only Morgan Stanley ranks at number 10. Goldman Sachs doesn't make the table. Goldman made it to number five last year and in 2006, and number eight in 2007, the data shows. JP Morgan was in the top ten last year and in 2007 and 2006 but doesn't appear this year.
Senate financial bill appears likely to keep Fed as regulator of big banks By Brady Dennis - Washington Post -- Key members of the Senate banking committee are coalescing around legislation that would strip the Federal Reserve of much of its regulatory authority but would leave the central bank with oversight of the nation's largest banks, according to aides familiar with the ongoing negotiations. Under the plan, the Fed would continue to supervise only 23 bank-holding companies with assets exceeding $100 billion. Supervision of the nearly 5,000 banks below that threshold would fall largely to a proposed new regulator to be created by merging the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, aides said.
One World Government and a One World Currency: Is This a “Sign” of the END Times? Steven and Debra Wallace - The End Times Hoax Have Christians unwittingly embraced and promoted the concept of a one world government and one world currency based on what they perceive as being the fulfillment of end time prophecy? When does a belief, in and of itself, lend itself to self-fulfillment separate and apart from a perceived future reality? Have tyrants sought to take advantage of those holding to such end time beliefs in order to advance, prematurely and selfishly, their own agendas possibly millions, billions, or trillions of years ahead of this much anticipated event?
China May Raise Rates ‘Within Weeks’ as Prices Climb March 10 (Bloomberg) -- China’s inflation accelerated in February, according to a survey of economists, and exports climbed in the month, increasing the likelihood of the central bank raising interest rates from a five-year low. Consumer prices rose 2.5 percent from a year before, the most in 16 months, according to the median of 29 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey before tomorrow’s report. While the gain was likely exaggerated by seasonal factors, economists project the momentum to continue, sending the rate to as high as 4.4 percent during the year, a separate survey showed last week.
Policies that need Fed attention By Sol Palha - CommodityOnline.com The US senate boldly and blatantly refused to give 57 million elderly individuals $250 more. The story below highlights this point. A measure to give some 57 million elderly people, veterans and persons with disabilities a $250 check was rejected by the Senate on Wednesday, a setback for the powerful seniors' lobby. Social Security payments for the elderly and disabled will stay flat this year for the first time since 1975 because they are tied to consumer prices, which decreased amid the worst economic recession in 70 years.
Treasury Getting More Comfortable With Principal Write-Downs -- Sort Of Shahien Nasiripour - HuffingtonPost.com -- Is the Treasury Department finally going to help homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth get out from underwater? Maybe, maybe not. At a background briefing Monday afternoon, a senior Treasury Department official indicated that the department is headed in the direction of writing down mortgage principal more often -- the one thing underwater borrowers need the most. Market observers and consumer advocates have long been calling for such a shift
Making Sure Wrong Home Isn't Seized By Sara Lepro -NationalMortgageNews.com Reports of lenders repossessing the wrong home are further tarnishing the banking industry's image, already bruised by bailouts and bonuses. The mix-ups have been perpetuated by the sheer number of foreclosures being processed today as well as the various layers of communication involved. Addresses and other information passed from one department to another, or from a contractor to a subcontractor, can get garbled along the way. "It's what you call a new weakness," said Joe Bada, chief executive of Five Brothers Mortgage Co. Services and Securing Inc., a Warren, Mich., company that inspects and manages foreclosed properties for lenders. "There's just so much happening at the same time. The means of communicating haven't been refined. Information is not moving fast enough from one department to the other."
Lenders starting to run after 'walkaway' homeowners Charles Feldman - walletpop.com It's a variation of "you can run, but you can't hide," in the case of underwater homeowners (those whose homes are now worth less than the remaining mortgage). In increasing numbers, according to reports, people are simply walking away from their homes. Now banks and other lending institutions are starting to run after them. According to the Detroit Free Press, more and more lenders are either hiring collection agencies or "getting deficiency judgments -- court orders that allow banks to collect on mortgage balances."
What’s the FDIC Supposed To Do With This Stuff? HousingDoom.com Banks have been going under at a rate not seen in years, leaving the FDIC short of funds and long on assets. They are trying to alleviate the problem by auctioning off these assets, but that's leaving surviving banks unhappy: [Thanks L!] March 8 (Bloomberg) — A Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plan to auction more than $1 billion in assets seized from failed banks next month, including a loan to build a W Hotel in Atlanta, may trigger writedowns that weaken lenders nationwide. Almost half of the loans were originated by Silverton Bank N.A., whose collapse last May was the biggest in Georgia history. Community banks that joined Silverton in providing $80 million for the 237-room hotel and condominium complex, as well as backing for 39 other projects, could be forced to write down their stakes to reflect sale prices.
Obama's whopper on health care Washington Examiner Editorial President Obama has said it repeatedly during his yearlong campaign to win approval of his proposal to put Washington bureaucrats in charge of America's health care system: Obamacare will reduce the federal deficit by lowering government spending on health care programs. After the health care summit two weeks ago, the claim was prominently posted on the official White House Web site: "It puts ourbudget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years -- and about $1 trillion over the second decade -- by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse."
Obama Criticizes Insurers in Bid to Sell Health Plan By Kristin Jensen and Alex Nussbaum March 9 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama and his top health official are stepping up attacks on the nation’s insurers in an effort to sway public opinion and persuade lawmakers to back U.S. health-care legislation. Obama told an audience outside Philadelphia yesterday that insurers have calculated that higher premiums can more than make up for the loss of customers who can’t afford coverage. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius highlighted her call to insurers to post information justifying their rates.
Senate Clears Key Hurdle to Aiding Unemployed By NAFTALI BENDAVID - WSJ The Senate on Tuesday cleared a hurdle to extending unemployment benefits and health-care subsidies for the jobless until year's end, the latest modest bipartisan success on jobs and the economy. The vote was 66-34, with eight Republicans, including newly-elected Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, joining the Democrats. One Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted against the measure.
Unlocking the Jobs Dilemma By: John Browne - MarketOracle.co.uk Productive, private-sector jobs - the lifeblood of a sound economy - are under assault by politicians in the United States and Western Europe, who have unwittingly taken a number of steps that make future job losses a foregone conclusion. In the 1980s, as a Member of the UK Parliament and elected Chairman of the Conservative Small Business Committee, I led discussions on the issue of job creation. At that point, the British labor market was dealing with technological advances that threatened traditional industries and an influx of highly competitive Eastern European workers who drifted westward in the waning days of the Cold War.
"Real" Unemployment Could Surge to 25%, Portfolio Manager Says by Heesun We - TechTicker.com With Wednesday's ADP report and Thursday's jobless claims data laying the groundwork for Friday's unemployment report, there's an intense focus on jobs from Wall Street to Washington D.C. and beyond. But there's really only one jobs figure that matters, says John Lekas, senior portfolio manager for the $320 million Leader Short-Term Bond Fund: The U-6 or "real" unemployment number. U6 is more important than the headline unemployment rate because it includes both the unemployed and "underemployed" workers faced with reduced hours who "still can't pay their bills," Lekas tells Aaron in the accompanying clip. "I think that's a more representative number."
Unions to Kick Off Major Anti-Bank, Pro-Jobs Campaign Monday By Peter Barnes - FOXBusiness -- As labor unions wind down their fight for health care reform, they will announce details Monday of their next major campaign: an attack on the nation’s biggest banks for their role in the financial crisis and a push for a new transaction tax to raise $100 billion a year for a national jobs program. The “Call to Action on Jobs” will last six to nine months and will run to at least Congressional mid-term elections, a union official said, and will target six firms: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sued by Big Pension Fund Over Pay By Darryl R. Isherwood - FOXBusiness The pension fund for the electrical workers union has filed a suit against Goldman Sachs Group Inc claiming the bank is overpaying its executives. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 fund seeks to recover money on behalf of itself and other shareholders. The suit filed in Delaware seeks to stop Goldman from paying executives roughly 47% of its 2009 net revenue, calling it “corporate waste.”
New chairman of House panel says job creation to be top priority By Lori Montgomery - Washington Post -- As he takes the reins of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Sander M. Levin is vowing to raise the profile of a once-powerful panel that, in recent years, has been overshadowed by the ethical troubles of its previous chairman, Rep. Charles B. Rangel. In one of his first interviews as the new chairman, Levin (D-Mich.) said that job creation will be his top priority in the run-up to this fall's congressional elections. But he said he also plans to wade aggressively into the debate over national tax policy and return his committee to its customary position at the center of the coming battle over tax reform.
Senate takes up unemployment insurance By Andrew Taylor - AP via WashingtonTimes.com Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year. The measure also prevents doctors from absorbing a crippling cut in Medicare payments, extends health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and gives cash-starved states help with Medicaid, the federal-state program providing health care to the poor and disabled. The unemployment insurance alone -- to provide weekly unemployment checks averaging above $300 to people whose core 26-week benefit package has run out -- will cost $66 billion through December. In some states people are eligible to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks.
Chevron Job Cuts: Chevron To Slash 2,000 Jobs This Year SANDY SHORE - HuffingtonPost.com Chevron Corp. said Tuesday it will cut 2,000 jobs this year and sell some overseas operations as it revamps its struggling refinery, marketing and transportation operations. The job cuts represent almost 12 percent of its 17,000 workers in the so-called downstream part of its business and just over 3 percent of its overall work force. Executives of the second-largest U.S. oil producer are still deciding where and when they will eliminate the jobs as they try to complete the restructuring by the third quarter, company spokesman Lloyd Avram said. Additional cuts are expected next year.
Few Californians benefiting from rescission settlements By Lisa Girion Report finds that fewer than 300 of 6,000 former policy-holders who were dropped after they became ill are participating in health insurers' agreements to settle such cases. Only a small fraction of eligible Californians have benefited from agreements that Anthem Blue Cross and other insurers made to settle accusations that they systematically and illegally dropped sick policyholders to avoid paying for their care, a report due out Wednesday finds. In settlements with the state Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Insurance, California's largest health insurance companies agreed to offer new coverage to nearly 6,000 people they dropped after they were diagnosed with cancer and other serious conditions.
Consumer Debt and the Supply-Demand Dynamic By The Mogambo Guru - The DailyReckoning.com 3/08/10 Tampa, Florida – I was recently reminded of the old argument about Say’s Law, and that reminded me that it was Keynes who twisted Say’s theories around to create the ridiculous argument that supply created its own demand, which I say is a load of crap, which pretty much sums up a lot of what Keynes did, probably because he was an egotistical idiot-savant who erroneously thought that he could put economics and human behavior in terms of absolutes that you could turn into equations, a particular, arrogant stupidity that has, nonetheless, fascinated generations of economists since then, all of whom childishly delight in equations and computers, whether it means anything or not, which it doesn’t, which I can actually prove – prove! – with an entire storage area full (the “supply”) of ashtrays made out of dried dog crap, which nobody wanted to buy (the “demand”), proving that supply does NOT create its own demand. Instead, it is actually true that demand created its own supply, like the “supply” of new “neighbors” at the storage place are demanding (“demand”) that I get that stinking, festering fecal mess out of there or they are going to sue me or something, to which I said “Great! I’ll pay you off with some of these ashtrays, which will make wonderful gifts for your friends and family!”
Gasoline prices climb in state, nation By Ronald D. White - LA Times The increase of about 5 cents from a week ago, normal for March, is attributed to higher oil prices, the switch to summer gas and a slight uptick in demand. Oil climbed slightly higher in commodities trading Monday as the Energy Department reported that retail gasoline prices increased by about a nickel nationally and in California from a week ago. The average retail price of regular gasoline rose 4.9 cents nationally to $2.751 a gallon Monday. California saw a similar 4.7-cent gain to $3.046 a gallon, according to the Energy Department's weekly survey of filling stations.
Bifurcation of American Society Continues at Pace; By: Trader Mark - MarketOracle.co.uk Nearly Half Have Less than $10K for Retirement A Quarter Less than $1K, but Millionaires Rebound Smartly I won't get into all the dogmatic arguments that surround the massive income disparity in the US, we've discussed them in many other pieces. (frankly I think wealth disparity - rewarding generations for nothing more than having the right genes - is a much larger problem the income disparity) We must however understand "it is what it is" and Wall Street has entire thesis (plural?) built around it
Boeing gets big tailwind from subsidized bank By: Timothy P. Carney - Washington Examiner A government agency that finances U.S. exports directed 90 of its loan guarantees last year to subsidize one company: Boeing. Before President Obama unfurls his export-promotion plan at the Export-Import Bank's annual conference this Thursday, he should review the agency's recent annual report, which documents an unparalleled case of corporate welfare -- a government program dedicated almost entirely to serving one well-connected company.
Boeing wins $69M Air Force drone contract St. Louis Business Journal A St. Louis-based unit of Boeing won a contract worth about $69.7 million by the U.S. Air Force for the initial engineering, manufacturing and development of QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Targets, drone planes that will act as targets for newly developed weapons. The remainder of the QF-16 contract, expected to be awarded in coming years, calls for up to 126 of the drones to be delivered beginning in 2014, according to Boeing. The QF-16 will replace the QF-4 fleet. Boeing will convert retired F-16 aircraft into QF-16s, drones that will be able to fly manned or unmanned. The drones, to be used as aerial targets, will be equipped to evaluate how U.S. fighters and weapons operate against possible adversaries.
Is Bakken Shale the New American Gold Rush? By Chris Mayer - The DailyReckoning.com 03/09/10 Gaithersburg, Maryland – You know the labor market is tight when the local McDonald’s starts handing out $300 signing bonuses. Workers are coming in from all over, making it tough to find housing. They might sleep in their trucks or pitch tents, but it can get 50 degrees below zero, which makes such a move dangerous. There is also a chronic shortage of hotel rooms. I browsed the Web to see if I could find a room. I checked the Super 8 motel – no rooms available. I checked a few others – no rooms there, either. I used Priceline to search, and there were no rooms available. What’s going on here?
Despite fears, big powers resist trade wars By David M. Dickson - WashingtonTimes.com Protectionists ease pressure on G-20 It's the trade war that wasn't. Fears that the deep global recession would fuel protectionist measures have not been borne out, a major survey found. Commissioned by the Group of 20 leading industrial powers, the study found that the United States and its major trading partners have cut back sharply on trade-killing restrictions since September, despite strong political pressures at home.
Building A Future Without The New World Order Giordano Bruno - SilverBearCafe.com I have heard it said in the past that attempting to articulate the concept of freedom for a man who was born a slave is much the same as attempting to explain the concept of language to a man who was born deaf. Without a psychological point of reference, the task is arduous, or nearly impossible. And yet, it happens all the time. Some people are born deaf and blind, yet within them lay dormant the ability to understand concepts such as speech and form. Just as methods of expression and sense perception are inherent, so too are the desire and the comprehension of free will; the aptitude for choice, along with the intuitive conscience to help effectively direct such choice. Regardless of how oppressive our surroundings may be, this ability to choose can never be taken away.
Cisco Says New Router to "Forever Change the Internet": The Question Is 'When?' by Peter Gorenstein - TechTicker.com -- Cisco made headlines today announcing a next generation router that will revolutionize the internet by increasing downloads to unheard of speeds. The Cisco press release makes the following claims about the CRS-3 router: It enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.
Lawmakers insist shower run-ins like the one Massa alleges are far from norm By Philip Rucker - Washington Post -- It's no secret that members of Congress broker deals on the treadmill or in the weight room of the House and Senate gyms. But former congressman Eric Massa's accusation that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once berated him in the gym's shower over his vote against President Obama's budget left Washington watchers wondering how much business politicians conduct while naked. The answer, lawmakers revealed Tuesday, is not much. The private gyms are sanctuaries where lawmakers can huff, puff and disrobe knowing that only fellow members will see them.
Obama meets with key senators in bid to advance climate legislation By: MATTHEW DALY - AP Washington Examiner -- President Barack Obama made a renewed push for a long-stalled climate and energy bill Tuesday, urging lawmakers at a White House meeting to pass a comprehensive bill this year. Fourteen senators from both parties — including several who remain undecided on the climate bill — met for more than an hour with Obama, four Cabinet members and White House energy adviser Carol Browner. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama wants a comprehensive bill that includes a cap on emissions of pollution blamed for global warming.
Biden Condemns Israel Housing Plan as Impediment to Peace Talks By Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger -- March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Joe Biden condemned an Israeli plan to build new houses in East Jerusalem, saying it threatened to undermine a U.S. effort to restart the Israeli- Palestinian peace process that had brought him to the region. In a statement issued hours after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem yesterday, Biden said the announcement of the plan “is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had” in Israel.
Is There a Mideast Solution? By William Pfaff DOHA, Qatar—Internationally speaking, there are only two subjects to talk about in the Middle East. These are Israel, the Palestinians and the Americans; and Iran and Israel. The two subjects dominated the annual meeting here of the Institute for Mediterranean Political Studies, a group of senior or retired European, American and Middle Eastern officials and observers, otherwise known as the Club of Monaco. The prospect of an Israeli attack upon Iran was of general concern, assumed as being certain to bring Iranian retaliation against oil transit to the West and against American forces in Iraq and the Gulf principalities, as well as against Israel itself, leading to ruinous escalation and grievous permanent consequences—most of all for the United States.
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Tues 03.09.2010
Ron Paul on the Census 2010
Washington Must Ban U.S. Credit Derivatives as Traders Demand Gold By: Janet Tavakoli - MarketOracle.co.uk -- Congress should act immediately to abolish credit default swaps on the United States, because these derivatives will foment distortions in global currencies and gold. Failure to act now will only mean the U.S. will be forced to act after these "financial weapons of mass destruction" levy heavy casualties. These obligations now settle in euros, but the end game is to settle them in gold. This is so ripe for speculative manipulation that you might as well cover the U.S. map with a bull's-eye.
Are Traders Demanding US Credit Default Swaps Payable in Gold? JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN If another author had said this I might not pay it so much attention. Lately some have been given over to a tabloid approach to overstatement and sensational headlines to attract attention. This is a strong temptation as the blogosphere expands, similar to the development and evolution of newspapers as a popular medium in Victorian London for example. But as you know, I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Janet Tavakoli and her knowledge in this area. If she is seeing a new demand for Credit Default Swaps on the US payable in gold I would credit it since this is her area of expertise and industry connections, but would ask for some particulars, which I have done. This would match up with some things I have heard from other sources, and desire to continue to put the puzzle pieces together without traveling false trails. For now it remains all opaque, speculation, and rumor.
Can the Fed policy help boost gold price? By Dan Norcini The big mover in gold today was news that the Fed will increase the number of counterparties that they can do these so-called, “reverse repos” with. That was interpreted by some traders as a hint that tightening is on its way. That led to chatter that some would opt towards holding Treasuries and other interest rate products. Maybe that explains why bonds moved higher today with all those folks rushing in to buy them and sell gold. Whoops, bonds fell today. So much for plan A.
Unemployment By: Howard Katz - MarketOracle.co.uk Well, the train is pulling out of the station. Gold has said goodbye to the $1,000 level and is off for northern climes. It is not your last chance to get on board, but it is your last chance to get on board at these low, low prices. The hard analysis of the past few months has been identifying the intermediate bottom, but now that that is in it is time to step back and once again focus on the big picture. Friday’s Wall Street Journal has an excellent article on unemployment and the “minimum wage” law, and this is a very good time to discuss this most important subject.
‘Gold likely to rise at least by 30% this year’ The Gold Report caught up with John Embry, Chief Investment Strategist, Sprott Asset Management, to get his thoughts on gold and some mining stocks he favors. Embry, an industry expert in precious metals, has researched the gold sector for over 30 years. Read about why he thinks gold could gain another 30% this year as a greater proportion of the public realizes the degree of difficulty that sovereign debt is in. He believes as confidence in gold returns people will seek an outlet in gold stocks, especially small-cap gold producers and junior explorers with solid projects.
Gold may cross $1,200 in March NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Will gold prices hit $1,200 per ounce this month? If you go by the opinion of bullion market analysts, the yellow metal may cross $1,200 mark this month as the bull run in bullion has already started. In January, the yellow metal had crossed $1,160 per ounce. And analysts now say that this will go beyond $1,200 this month. Reason for this is the fluctuation in gold prices. Dollar fluctuated between gains and losses against a six-currency index last week. Gold gained 1.5 per cent last week in New York market. Gold has entered a rally, as its price has steadily risen from $1,043.75 on February 5.
Gold ticks higher on euro; palladium near 2-year high By Lewa Pardomuan SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold ticked higher on Monday after a firmer euro spurred bargain hunting from investors seeking a safe haven from volatile currencies, while palladium held near its strongest level in nearly two years. A steady increase in ETF holdings showed a growing interest in bullion but the physical market was muted in Asia, with dealers reporting persistent sales of scrap from Indonesia. Gold priced in euro was within sight of Friday's record.
China holds 1054 tons of gold reserves BEIJING (Commodity Online) : World’s largest gold producer, China’s gold reserve amounts to 1,054 tons, ranking fifth in the world, according to China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). However SAFE chief Yi Gang said the country would face serious constraints if it wanted to increase its gold holdings because the acquisitions would push up the price of the precious metal.
XGD Confirms New Gold Rally By: Neil Charnock - MarketOracle.co.uk I have fantastic news to report this week. The XGD has formed a powerful buy signal indicating that the way forward is up again for the Australian gold sector. I have shown this signal in the daily XGD chart below with some resistance levels overhead which we are currently cutting through with apparent ease. Chances are that this will continue and that the awaited second leg of the gold rally that began in September 2009 at around US$954 is now back on track. Firstly let us take a look at gold.
Gold remains volatile as dollar eases SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold prices remained volatile in Asian trade Monday as the dollar eased while improvement in the global economy reduces demand for haven investments. Spot gold was seen trading at $1134.14 an ounce at 12.00 noon Singapore time while Gold for April delivery rose $2.10 to settle at $1,135.20 an ounce at the same time. Analysts said the precious yellow metal ticked higher Monday on a firmer euro after ending about $20 higher last week as a sovereign debt crisis in Greece ignited safe haven buying, which also sent euro-priced bullion to record.
John Embry Says Gold Will Rise As Confidence Returns MarketOracle.co.uk The Gold Report caught up with John Embry, Chief Investment Strategist, Sprott Asset Management, to get his thoughts on gold and some mining stocks he favors. Embry, an industry expert in precious metals, has researched the gold sector for over 30 years. Read about why he thinks gold could gain another 30% this year as a greater proportion of the public realizes the degree of difficulty that sovereign debt is in. He believes as confidence in gold returns people will seek an outlet in gold stocks, especially small-cap gold producers and junior explorers with solid projects.
China, India drive platinum group metals boom By Jon Nadler Gold prices started Monday’s trading session on a relatively steady note, with gold making a small, $1.30 advance on the tickers, and opening at $1135.70 per troy ounce. The weekend was rather bereft of major Greek-related news, save for the absence of any overt German or EU commitments to Prime Minister Papandreou. French President Sarkozy, on the other hand, pledged that the euro region stands ready to rescue Greece if the need arises. What he knows that his official friends in Berlin, Frankfurt, or Brussels, are reluctant to make public, remains an open question at this time.
Time for Silver to Shine? The Sovereign Society - SilverBearCafe.com Universally regarded as a "poor man’s gold," silver is at the cusp of a major secular rally that will outpace gold prices as the next leg of the bull market takes hold in 2010-2011. Adjusted for inflation since 1980, silver prices should be trading at roughly $128 an ounce. But massive manipulation from four major short-sellers, including J.P. Morgan (JPM), has placed enormous pressure on silver over the last several months even as investment demand soars - mainly from booming coin sales and ETFs, or exchange-traded funds.
Beijing studies severing peg to US dollar By Geoff Dyer in Beijing - FT China’s central bank chief laid the groundwork for an appreciation of the renminbi at the weekend when he described the current dollar peg as temporary, striking a more emollient tone after months of tough opposition in Beijing to a shift in exchange rate policy. Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, gave the strongest hint yet from a senior official that China would abandon the unofficial dollar peg, in place since mid-2008. He said it was a “special” policy to weather the financial crisis.
Yuan Faces Appreciation Pressure on Rates, SAFE Says By Bloomberg News March 9 (Bloomberg) -- China’s yuan is facing increasing pressure to appreciate because of a widening interest-rate differential, the country’s top currency regulator said in a statement. Speculative capital is flowing into China disguised as foreign direct investment and trade accounts through “underground money shops,” Yi Gang, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said at a briefing in Beijing today.
Goldman Sucks
The Global Debt Crisis By: Marius Gustavson - Mises Daily With all the attention being focused on whether or not there will be a sustainable recovery in 2010, the potential for a wave of sovereign-debt crises following the wake of the global recession has just recently started to appear on people's radar screens. Yet, such a wave should not be surprising. As historical research conducted by University of Maryland economist Carmen Reinhart and Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff shows, financial crises are usually followed by government-debt crises. This starts as private debt is shifted onto the balance sheet of the government, through bailouts and purchases of toxic debt. The government-debt problem is then made worse as the economic downturn leads to an increase in expenditures in the form of unemployment benefits and stimulus spending, coupled with a decrease in tax revenues.
The Cross of Debt Vox Day - SilverBearCafe.com Ordinary people, farmers and fishermen, taxpayers, doctors, nurses, teachers are being asked to shoulder through their taxes a burden that was created by irresponsible greedy bankers. – Iceland President Olafur Grimsson In October 2008, polls showed that the majority of the American people, 56 percent, were opposed to the $700 billion TARP bill that funded the bank bailouts at the cost of $2,334 to each and every 300 million of them. Despite some initial resistance shown by the Republicans in the House of Representatives, the bankers succeeded in overriding the will of the American people, thanks to their elected officials who purport to represent them. So much for democracy in America.
Marc Faber: Buy Some Gold Every Month 'Forever' LewRockwell.com According to Marc Faber, the editor and publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, everybody should buy some gold every month “forever” or look to EMs stocks rather than U.S. share. “Gold is not the liability of someone else…its quantity cannot increase at the same rate as you can print money, which will eventually…weaken the US dollar,” Faber told CNBC on Thursday in a live interview.
Trade Deficits and Fiat Currencies By: Robert Murphy - Mises Daily There is a connection between fiat currencies and trade deficits, and many cynics have argued that the US dollar's status as global reserve currency allowed Americans to consume more than they produced for decades. However, this "deficit without tears" argument is sometimes overstated. To gain a deeper understanding of both monetary theory and international trade, it's useful to probe the issue more carefully.
CBO Debt Projections: Make Room for “Crowding Out” By Addison Wiggin - The DailyReckoining.com 03/08/10 Baltimore, Maryland – The latest deficit projection from the Congressional Budget Office was conveniently revealed just prior to the close of business on Friday. “Why so?” You ask suspiciously. “Because,” we respond in a hushed tone. The CBO’s latest numbers reveal that President Obama’s proposed fiscal 2011 budget would add $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years. The White House projection is only slightly less staggering – $8.5 trillion. Further, the CBO projects the national debt will be 90% of GDP by the end of this decade – higher than the 83.4% recorded at the end of fiscal 2009 last fall. We’re 100% certain this comment will elicit the customary response: “Look at Japan, its debt is 170% of GDP…and it’s been running massive deficits for years!”
Big bank oversight to stay with Fed By Tom Braithwaite in Washington - FT Banks with more than $100bn of assets will be overseen by the US Federal Reserve under a regulatory reform plan that represents a partial victory for the central bank after months of attacks in Congress. Chris Dodd, the Senate banking committee chairman, had proposed hiving off all bank supervision to a single regulator but is set to propose this week that the 23 largest institutions stay under the Fed’s oversight, according to people familiar with the plans.
Why Banks Can't Lend: U.S. Financial System "Not as Good as Wall Street Says" by Heesun Wee - TechTicker.com -- Forget the unemployment rate, durable goods orders or the Baltic Freight Index. Veteran market watcher Richard Suttmeier says the FDIC quarterly banking profile is "the single most important leading indicator for the U.S. economy." Released about 55 days after the end of each quarter, the FDIC report offers a bird's eye view of lending activity in America, especially among smaller Main Street lenders and small businesses. "It's a balance sheet of our economy," says Suttmeier, chief market strategist at Niagara International Capital and ValueEngine.com.
Can Treasury Nudge Lenders Into More Short Sales? Don't Bank On It By PETER COHAN - DailyFinance.com The U.S. Treasury is trying to break up the logjam that's holding back the housing market. The problem is that many homes are worth less than the principal balance on their mortgages. The government hopes to encourage all parties involved to accept short sales in some of these cases, allowing homeowners to get out from under the debt without declaring bankruptcy, and banks to get some percentage of their investments back without going through costly and cumbersome foreclosures.
Program Will Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss By DAVID STREITFELD - NYTimes.com In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave. This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.
U.S. Taxpayers on the Hook for $5T of Fannie, Freddie Debt … No Matter What Barney Frank Says by Aaron Task - TechTicker.com House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank caused a bit of an uproar Friday when he suggested the U.S. government does not guarantee the debts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Rep. Frank later recanted and backed a Treasury Department statement reassuring investors that, yes, Fannie and Freddie Mae debt is guaranteed by the U.S. government. "Going forward," he said in a statement, we "will make sure that there are no implicit guarantees, hints, suggestions, or winks and nods...we will be explicit about what is and is not an obligation of the federal government."
Merkel warns of hurdles in EMF plan By Quentin Peel in Berlin, Ben Hall in Paris and Tony Barber in Brussels - FT -- Radical plans for a European version of the International Monetary Fund to bail out crisis-hit countries would need a new treaty and the agreement of all European Union member states, Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, has warned. Throwing her weight behind the proposals from Wolfgang Schäuble, her finance minister, Ms Merkel admitted the European Union had lacked the tools to deal with the Greek debt crisis: “The sanctions we have were not good enough.”
Why Europe needs its own IMF By Giancarlo Corsetti and Harold James - FT Like every good tragedy, the current Greek crisis has its origins in events and decisions long past. In particular, two historical flaws in the European approach to monetary and fiscal management have emerged as threats to European stability. They are not fatal; but they need to be fixed. The first is the absence of a mechanism to address financial crises that could threaten, via contagion, the whole European market. It is worth recalling that this problem was well understood by the founding fathers of the common currency. The agreements of 1978 that produced the European Monetary System as a comprehensive fixed exchange rate regime also provided for the establishment of a European Monetary Fund within two years. An EMF would play an analogous role to that of the International Monetary Fund in the defunct international fixed exchange rate regime that had been created at Bretton Woods. In particular, it would allow countries that were hit by a sudden or unanticipated crisis to draw on its resources, and, like the IMF, would have allowed formal policy conditions to be imposed on countries. The EMF was never realised – but is once again under discussion.
European Monetary Fund: You Heard it Here First By Chuck Butler - The DailyReckoning.com . . . . OK… Call me clairvoyant… Nah… I’m not that! I’m just a guy that sees things and thinks of ways to make them work better… In this case I’m talking about the announcement over the weekend of the European Monetary Fund… That’s right! I did talk about the Eurozone creating this European Monetary Fund, a week ago, long before anyone even whispered it! Why did I think this? Because I knew that the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union were not going to go for any assistance to Greece by the IMF… So… I figured that it would be best for them to form their own IMF… And lo and behold, look what they announced this past weekend! “The European Monetary Fund, patterned after the International Monetary Fund, is a key part of an initiative backed by Germany and France to strengthen cooperation and surveillance of public finances across the Eurozone, government officials said. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble revealed details of the plan during the weekend.”
Tax move by Brazil risks US trade war By James Politi in Washington and Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo - FT -- Brazil moved on Monday to raise tariffs on a wide range of American goods, potentially igniting a trade war with the US over cotton subsidies after eight years of litigation at the World Trade Organisation. The decision takes effect next month, starting a 30-day period during which US and Brazilian officials will attempt to negotiate a solution to the dispute.
States’ Payrolls Lag as U.S. Austerity Sets In By Anthony Feld and Courtney Schlisserman March 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. state and local governments are likely to keep cutting jobs even as the broader labor market shows signs of emerging from the worst slump since World War II, economists said. The CHART OF THE DAY shows combined employment by state and local governments fell for eight straight months through February. The streak of losses was the longest since two years of declines ending in 1983. State and local governments, which account for about 13 percent of gross domestic product, have so far cut a total of 192,000 jobs since August 2008, when employment peaked at 19.8 million.
State Tax Revenues Plummet By $87 Billion, Biggest Year Over Year Decline In History; Record State Tax Hikes In Progress by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com -- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released a report "State Tax Changes in Response to the Recession" in which the center notes that "national recession has had such a devastating effect on state finances that states took in $87 billion less in tax revenue from October 2008 through September 2009 than they collected in the previous 12 months. This 11 percent decline, the steepest on record, resulted from the impact on tax collections of lost jobs, reduced wages, and lowered economic activity." And here we are, missing the forest for the Greek tree, and discussing evil CDS speculators' role in Greece barely able to make a €5 billion bond auction, when we should be all over the evil Municipal CDS speculators wreaking havoc in our own back yard.
Failed Banks May Get Pension-Fund Backing as FDIC Seeks Cash By Dakin Campbell -- March 8 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is trying to encourage public retirement funds that control more than $2 trillion to buy all or part of failed lenders, taking a more direct role in propping up the banking system, said people briefed on the matter. Direct investments may allow funds such as those in Oregon, New Jersey and California to cut fees for private-equity managers, and the agency to get better prices for distressed assets, the people said. They declined to be identified because talks with regulators are confidential.
Why Is Obama's Chief of Staff Already Distancing Himself From the President? by Henry Blodget - TechTicker.com -- Washington D.C. loves to talk, and one of the favorite topics last week was about how White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel had advised President Obama to put off health-care reform until the country was less obsessed about the economy...and that the President had not taken this advice. In the inner circles, the talk was not so much about whether Emmanuel had been right about health care and President Obama wrong, but who had leaked this difference of opinion to the press.
Bernanke Wrongly Calls 'Bizarre' Allegations Cited by Ron Paul by Charles Scaliger - LewRockwell.com -- On February 24, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), at a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee, asked Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke whether he was aware of allegations that the Federal Reserve had been complicit in the Watergate cover-up and in the illegal funneling of billions of dollars in loans to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein: "It has been reported in the past that during the 1980s that the Fed actually facilitated a $5.5-billion loan to Saddam Hussein. And he then bought weapons from our military-industrial complex. And also that is when he invested in a nuclear reactor....
Fed Audit Bitterly Opposed By Treasury Ryan Grim - HuffingtonPost.com The Treasury Department is vigorously opposed to a House-passed measure that would open the Federal Reserve to an audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a senior Treasury official said Monday. Instead, the official said, the Treasury prefers a substitute offered by Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), and would like to see it enacted as part of the Senate bill. The Watt measure, however, while claiming to increase transparency, actually puts new restrictions on the GAO's ability to perform an audit.
Fed’s Reach May Be Curbed Under Plan By SEWELL CHAN - NY Times.com Several high-ranking members of the Senate Banking Committee have reached a tentative consensus on a plan that would strip the Federal Reserve of regulatory powers over all but the very largest banks, those with more than $100 billion in assets, people briefed on the negotiations said on Monday night. The plan would remove Fed oversight from all but 23 of the 4,974 bank holding companies, which have a collective $16.7 trillion in assets, and from 874 state-chartered member banks that are members of the Fed system and that have a total of $1.7 trillion in assets.
A dangerous omen looms for bonds Posted by George Mannes - CNNMoney.com One of the key questions faced by investors today, a year after the markets were at their worst, is how safe it is to go back in the water. Given that bonds have turned out to be a better bet than stocks over the past 20 years — and given the steep decline and perhaps shaky rebound in the equity markets — is it time to reassess the primacy of stocks in our portfolios? Will we be better off with the security and steadiness of bonds? A great answer to that question came last week from Charles Schwab chief investment strategist Liz Ann Sonders. Presenting her outlook on the economy and the markets to a group in New York City, Sonders spotlighted what appears to be a powerful contrarian indicator — that is, measure of how the investing herd is zigging in the market, giving a wise and brave investor a roadmap of where to zag.
The Fastest Growing Export of the Western Banking Industry is Fraud by SmartKnowledgeU - ZeroHedge.com -- Despite the fact that nearly all of the macroeconomic trends I have predicted since 2006 on my blog, the Underground Investor, have come true, the percent of people that disagree with my predictions for 2010 and 2011 still outnumber those that agree by a factor of ten to one. There is a rational explanation why the public-at-large still grants a great deal of validity to the opinions of people I like to call the “men who cry wolf” – Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geitner, Gordon Brown, Alan Greenspan, et al.
The fall of a Wall Street highflier By Patricia Sellers (Fortune Magazine) When Erin Callan talked, people listened. Such was the case at least on the March 2008 weekend after Bear Stearns collapsed. Global markets were reeling. Many feared that Lehman Brothers would be the next to fail. And Callan, a tax-lawyer-turned-investment-banker who had rocketed to CFO of Lehman at age 41, was about to be tested. Throughout the weekend and then on Monday from 5 a.m. on, Lehman's brass, including Callan, hunkered down in the firm's Manhattan headquarters, making phone calls in the hopes of calming investors and trading partners. Despite their efforts, Lehman shares tumbled 19% that day.
Consumer Debt and the Supply-Demand Dynamic By The Mogambo Guru -The DailyReckoning.com 03/08/10 Tampa, Florida – I was recently reminded of the old argument about Say’s Law, and that reminded me that it was Keynes who twisted Say’s theories around to create the ridiculous argument that supply created its own demand, which I say is a load of crap, which pretty much sums up a lot of what Keynes did, probably because he was an egotistical idiot-savant who erroneously thought that he could put economics and human behavior in terms of absolutes that you could turn into equations, a particular, arrogant stupidity that has, nonetheless, fascinated generations of economists since then, all of whom childishly delight in equations and computers, whether it means anything or not, which it doesn’t, which I can actually prove – prove! – with an entire storage area full (the “supply”) of ashtrays made out of dried dog crap, which nobody wanted to buy (the “demand”), proving that supply does NOT create its own demand.
What if We Had a Federal Database Tracking Domestic Political Activity? Matt Welch - Reason.com Now this–this is a good lede: Imagine if the George W. Bush administration, in its waning days, had introduced something called the Patriot II Act. To prevent terrorists and foreign agents from influencing American governments and political parties, the act would require political campaigns and other groups to report the names, addresses, and employers of their supporters to the federal government, which would enter the information into a database. The act would also give businesses access to this database, enabling them to make hiring decisions, credit determinations, and other choices based on political activity. Can anyone doubt that Patriot II would be widely considered a gross violation of civil liberties? Fortunately, the government never passed such a bill. Unfortunately, it didn't need to: this is already the law, and it has been for over 30 years. That's from the former chairman of the Federal Elections Commission, Bradley Smith, writing "in defense of political anonymity" over at City Journal. It's an interesting piece no matter where you stand on the issue of disclosing campaign contributions, and not just because it quotes from Senior Editor Brian Doherty's definitive history of libertarianism, Radicals for Capitalism.
AIG sells Alico unit to MetLife for $15.5 billion By IEVA M. AUGSTUMS CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - American International Group Inc. said Monday that it will sell its American Life Insurance Co. division for $15.5 billion to MetLife Inc. The government-approved deal, AIG's second big asset sale in two weeks, will give the insurer more cash to repay the billions of bailout dollars it still owes the government. The purchase expands MetLife's presence in Japan and high-growth markets in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. American Life Insurance, known as Alico, operates in more than 50 countries. MetLife currently offers services in 17 countries.
Detroit looks at downsizing to save city By David Runk AP via WashingtonPost.com Wants to turn vacant lots into farmland Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile. Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.
Seniors pinched by rising costs for home care By STEPHANIE REITZ AP via MSNBC.com Many may be pushed into costly nursing homes if states slash programs WATERBURY, Conn. - Rising property taxes, failing eyesight and even a tumble that cracked her tailbone haven't forced 89-year-old Angeline DiBeneditto from the home she's had for more than six decades. Now, though, changes in a Connecticut program that helps her and others live independently could push her toward a nursing home after all if she can't scrounge at least $180 more from her monthly budget.
Vineyard Defaults Surge as Bargain Wines Hurt Napa By Dan Levy March 8 (Bloomberg) -- In California’s Napa Valley, producer of the most expensive U.S. wines, 2010 may be a vintage year for foreclosures as the industry is squeezed by falling land values and a consumer shift to cheaper brands. As many as 10 wineries and vineyards in Napa will change hands in distressed sales or foreclosures this year and next, up from none in 2008, according to Silicon Valley Bank. In a bank survey of vintners, 7 percent called their finances “very weak” or “on life support.”
Obama hits road, pitches health plan By Kara Rowland - WashingtonTimes.com Seeking to close the deal on his health care overhaul bill, President Obama is getting out of Washington, leaving the city he loves to bash to portray himself as an outsider going up against big insurance companies and their lobbyists in the capital. Just about every time Mr. Obama has faced a deadline or crunch on his top policy priority, he has exchanged a White House podium for a campaign-style event somewhere beyond the Beltway in a bid to break through the political wrangling and reconnect with voters.
Gas price headed back to $3 a gallon this spring By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY The national average price for a gallon of gasoline is up 9 cents in a month and will likely crack $3 in coming weeks, given a typical spring rally before the summer driving season, oil and gas analysts say. Motorists may not see prices go much higher — or even stay that high throughout the entire summer — given the weak economy and the ability of refiners to kick up production, analysts add. "Three dollars a gallon is probably a pretty rich price for the U.S. in 2010," says Tom Kloza, analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.
Venezuela linked to terror groups By Martin Arostegui - WashingtonTimes.com Accused by Spain of aiding Basques, Colombians Accusations by Spanish authorities that Venezuela aided an alliance between Basque and Colombian terror groups that plotted joint attacks in Colombia and Spain have revived a debate over Venezuela's possible role as a state sponsor of terrorism. A Feb. 24 indictment issued by Judge Eloy Velasco of Spain's anti-terrorism court specifically cites "Venezuelan governmental cooperation" with 12 members of the Basque separatist group ETA and guerrillas of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
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Regulators close banks in four states (Reuters) - U.S. bank regulators closed four banks in as many states on Friday, bringing the number of failures so far this year to 26 as deteriorating loans continued taking a toll on financial institutions. The largest of the four was Sun American Bank of Boca Raton, Florida, which had approximately $535.7 million in total assets and $443.5 million in total deposits, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) said. Regulators also closed Centennial Bank of Odgen, Utah, Waterfield Bank of Germantown, Maryland, and Bank of Illinois of Normal, Illinois. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair has said she expects bank failures to remain high through 2010, even as the economy improves, because the bank industry is continuing to recognize loan losses and clean up their balance sheets
Greece and the United Kingdom are suffering a dire funding problem that is headed for US shores. By Bill Fleckenstein - MSN Money -- Regrettably, these days it seems that ferreting out the right investment decisions is sort of all macro, all the time. The top-down economic overview is far more important, I think, than the bottom-up fundamental view of any company or stock. Important pieces to that macro jigsaw puzzle are Greece and the United Kingdom, as the U.S. is headed for a variation of the funding crisis, though how severe ours will be remains to be seen. Without a money-printing press -- because it uses the euro, not a currency of its own -- Greece is forced to consider austerity measures to deal with its debt woes. The U.K., on the other hand, is not as bad off as Greece, and it does have a press.
At the U.N., Preparing for the Next World Disaster By BRUCE KENNEDY - DailyFinance.com In the two months since a massive earthquake shattered Haiti, the U.N.'s World Food Program is still responding to the event and so far has fed over four-million people there. The WFP has dealt with catastrophes for decades, bringing food and other assistance to communities devastated by natural and man-made disaster. But Haiti, reports the WFP, is different. Of the 200 people the WFP already had stationed in Haiti at the time of the earthquake, one was killed outright and most others were left homeless.
The Swaps That Swallowed Your Town By GRETCHEN MORGENSON - NYTimes AS more details surface about how derivatives helped Greece and perhaps other countries mask their debt loads, let’s not forget that the wonders of these complex products aren’t on display only overseas. Across our very own country, municipalities, school districts, sewer systems and other tax-exempt debt issuers are ensnared in the derivatives mess.
Enron's Jeffrey Skilling Says We Shouldn't Expect Honest Execs By TRACY COENEN - DailyFinance.com -- Last week, the poster boy for executives committing fraud, Jeffrey Skilling, had his appeal of his criminal conviction heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. Skilling was convicted in 2006 on 19 counts of conspiracy, fraud, false statements and insider trading related to his work as the CEO of failed energy concern Enron. But even at sentencing, Skilling claimed he was innocent of all charges and Enron collapsed because of outside forces. (That still gives me a chuckle each time I read it.)
Defaulted Loans May Haunt Seniors By ELLEN E. SCHULTZ - WSJ A little-noticed law could soon result in smaller Social Security checks for hundreds of thousands of the elderly and disabled who owe the U.S. money from defaulted loans and other debts more than a decade old. Social Security benefits are off-limits to creditors, such as credit-card companies and banks. But the U.S. can collect debts to federal agencies by "offsetting," or withholding Social Security and disability payments. The Treasury currently withholds benefits of 3.1 million Social Security recipients to recover defaulted student-, farm- and small-business loans, unpaid income taxes, amounts veterans owe for health care, and other debts to the government.
Interview by G. Edward Griffin, in 1985 (YouTube video posted October 05, 2008) . . . . "Economy, Foreign Relations & Defense systems - it only takes 2-5 year to destabilize a country and the time bomb is ticking. . . "
Bezmenov on Demoralization Former KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov explains how a Big Brother tyranny can be put into place in Washington, how most Americans don't even realize that they are under attack.
Bezmenov continues on demoralization in America
Bezmenov on Marxists
Gold Rises on Demand for Currency Alternative; Palladium Jumps By Pham-Duy Nguyen -- March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Gold futures rose, capping a weekly gain, on investment demand for the metal as an alternative to holding currency. Palladium jumped to a 20-month high. The dollar fluctuated between gains and losses against a six-currency index. The euro rebounded after falling as much as 0.4 percent against the greenback as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou began meetings with European Union leaders about the nation’s fiscal plight. Gold priced in euros reached a record.
Why is the Gold price rising now? by Julian D.W. Phillip - FinancialSense.com The piece we wrote on gold de-coupling from the $:€ exchange rate proved absolutely correct. The action of the last week has shown that as gold rose strongly in the € in the pound and is moving up in the $ alongside most currencies. More than that, market commentators are now mentioning this too. But this action involves far more than these two main currencies. To make the point, we ask you, “Which is better, a glass cracked in the higher part of the glass or cracked in the lower part of the glass. Now replace the glasses with the $ and the €. Both are now under question.
Gold is the standard! . . . . from a macroeconomic scheme on a global basis, first and foremost, is that gold is the standard by which all currency and all things of value are measured ultimately. Gold is the only thing on earth that has for 5,000 years maintained some kind of value whereby it can be traded in exchange for materials and for services, labor and real estate. And so, there's really not been one currency in the form of paper or coin that hasn't actually been made of gold or represented a deposit of gold that has lasted more than 100 years as a global standard.
Bullish on Bullion by Tom Sullivan - LewRockwell.com Gold appreciated by 10% or more against the world's major currencies in the past decade. More bad news for the buck and pound? THE DOLLAR IS NOT AS GOOD AS GOLD. Neither are 22 other currencies. A recent study by GoldMoney.com, which enables online cross-border transactions using gold as a currency, found that from 2000 through 2009, gold rose an average 10.1% a year versus the Swiss franc (which turned in the best of the bad showings by the currencies studied) to 14.9% against the U.S. dollar (a middling performer) to 20.0% for the Sri Lankan rupee (the worst in show).
Gold price caught between huge deficits and debts By Jon Nadler - Commodity Online Gold’s overnight range tightened a bit further, as risk aversion ahead of the US payroll data kept speculators largely sidelined. While the short squeeze in the euro appears to have run out of most of its steam, the dollar remained firm near 80.50 on the trade-weighted index as its traders were also reluctant to dismiss Thursday’s impressive turnaround and cash in on their gains before learning what the jobs picture might look like this morning.
What’s More Important: Price Per Ounce or Ounces Owned? by Jeff Clark - FinancialSense.com In a recent conversation with a fellow gold analyst, he was emphatic that the price one pays for physical gold should be ignored. “What’s far more important,” he insisted, “is how many ounces I own in relation to the total value of my assets.” Building a core position in gold bullion is a smart goal, to be sure, and a strategy Casey Research has been advising for years. However, ignoring the price you pay for gold could be seen as foolhardy; sure, it’s insurance, but isn’t price part of the consideration when you shop for insurance? So, who’s right?
Precious Metals Will Be This Decades Best Investment Too By: Warren Bevan - GoldSeek.com The UK’s big newspaper, which has generally been gold friendly this past decade, says new research shows gold to have been the decade’s best performing asset. Didn’t take too much research to figure that one out. That fact has been bandied about for a while now by most gold analysts. It’s still nice to see gold’s value, and performance being recognized. Hopefully it will attract more investors to the sector. I can tell you that retail investors are NOT investing in gold yet. It just baffles me how little interest there is in precious metals at the moment. And gold is about to break out to another all-time high again to boot. I’ve long though the retail investor influx would begin, this latest time at $1,000 gold being broken. But is hasn’t happened yet.
Marc Faber asks Greek to buy gold LONDON (Commodity Online): The debt crisis plaguing Greece has turned out to be another opportunity for global investment advisors to bat for gold, the hottest commodity traded in the world. And when it comes to gold, what the Swiss investing advisor and analyst Marc Faber says on the economic crisis that has hit Greece is making waves these days. Faber says Greek crisis is just the beginning and the entire Europe will be caught in debt problems. And the commodity that can save people is gold.
Penny Mining Shares, U.S. Dollar and Gold by Dudley Baker - FainancialSense.com Penny mining shares are poised for incredible gains in the next 12 – 18 months. But before we discuss the details we believe it is necessary to lay a foundation with a brief discussion of the U.S. Dollar and gold. Seems the world is fixated on the U.S. Dollar and many see it going substantially higher. In our opinion, the charts do not support that conclusion and we see the dollar having topped out and now heading lower.
Relationship over? Dollar, stocks break up By STEPHEN BERNARD - WashingtonPost.com NEW YORK -- The relationship between the dollar and stocks that helped define last year's stock market rally is over. Last summer and fall, stocks generally rose on days when the dollar fell, and vice versa. The dollar had been pushed lower by record-low interest rates and other measures from the Federal Reserve to boost the economy. The weak dollar was a boon for the stock market as investors were eager to get money out of low-yielding U.S. dollars and put them to work just about anywhere else, such as stocks.
New $100 bill: Ben Franklin getting a facelift WASHINGTON (AP) — Aiming to stay a step ahead of counterfeiters, the government is planning a new design for the $100 bill that will be unveiled next month, the Treasury Department said Friday. Wraps will come off the facelift for Benjamin Franklin at an April 21 ceremony in the ornate Cash Room at the department, the site of Ulysses Grant's first inaugural ball in 1869. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will do the honors.
Greece buys time as bluffing game begins again By William L. Watts, MarketWatch If nothing else, the Greek government appears to have bought itself some time as it attempts to convince credit markets it can meet its debt obligations and get its budget back under control in the face of strikes and protests, economists said Friday. After Thursday's well-received sale of a 5 billion euro, 10-year bond issue, which followed the announcement of a further round of painful and unpopular austerity measures, Greece -- and its European partners -- appear focused on convincing investors of two points. First, Athens has righted the ship and won't need outside help. Second, in the unlikely event it does need help, Europe will be there.
The Inflationist View of History Mises Daily: by Ludwig von Mises A very popular doctrine maintains that progressive lowering of the monetary unit's purchasing power played a decisive role in historical evolution. It is asserted that mankind would not have reached its present state of well-being if the supply of money had not increased to a greater extent than the demand for money. The resulting fall in purchasing power, it is said, was a necessary condition of economic progress. The intensification of the division of labor and the continuous growth of capital accumulation, which have centupled the productivity of labor, could ensue only in a world of progressive price rises. Inflation creates prosperity and wealth; deflation distress and economic decay.
China’s Bank Chief Says Currency Is Unlikely to Rise By MICHAEL WINES - NY Times BEIJING — China’s central bank governor indicated Saturday that the government was unlikely to detach the value of China’s currency from that of the dollar anytime soon, echoing Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s statement on Friday that exchange rates would remain “basically stable” for now. Many Western economists and leaders, including President Obama, have called for China to let its currency, the renminbi, appreciate against the dollar, arguing that an artificially cheap renminbi increases Chinese exports at the expense of the rest of the world’s economies.
China central bank chief: Yuan policy to change, but not yet By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch Chinese central bank Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said China will in due course move away from its current currency-exchange policy, indicating Beijing doesn't plan to keep the yuan's de-facto peg to the U.S. dollar indefinitely, according to reports. The central banker described China's foreign-exchange policy as a special response designed to weather the aftermath of the global financial crisis. But Chinese officials also suggested that the yuan's appreciation may not begin anytime soon, particularly with China's trade surplus rapidly shrinking, as its imports rise while its exports remain sluggish.
China sitting on biggest of all economic bubbles? By Sol Sanders - WashingtonTimes.com When Prime Minister Wen Jiabao trotted out his litany of promised reforms to the annual rubber-stamp parliament this month, they reconfirmed growing suspicions of the Chinese economy's fragility. Now more veteran observers are joining that little band (including this writer) that has predicted an implosion of the jerry-built system. Granted that some of us have been saying it for several years. But, like most human and economic events, neither the timing nor the precipitating event of such a crash is usually predictable (as was the case for the U.S. credit markets implosion).
Arrest Warrant Issued To JP Morgan-Chase CEO Jamie Dimon Adam Murphy, CBS Atlanta Consumer Investigator Atlanta City Solicitor Raines Carter told CBS Atlanta News that the city has issued an arrest warrant for the person they believe is responsible for an illegal tire dump located at 1462 Memorial Drive. “We have filed a citation against this entity and it is our intention to prosecute this entity in court for that violation,” said Carter. The city solicitor said a bank executive in New York is the person responsible for cleaning up the hundreds of tires that are piled up on the property. The arrest citation names James Dimon as the responsible person. He’s the CEO of JPMorgan Chase Bank.
Ron Paul Wants Transparency At The Fed
Battle Inside Fed Rages Over Bank Regulation By JON HILSENRATH - WSJ The worst of the banking crisis may be long over, but the political contest over the Federal Reserve is entering a crucial phase in which its personality and role will almost certainly be redefined. The Fed has tried to fend off very public efforts in Congress to strip it of responsibility for regulating America's banks, but a less-visible battle has been playing out inside the central bank. The Fed has undertaken a wrenching reorganization of its army of 3,000 bank supervisors, which has centralized more power in Washington and sometimes pitted officials at the 12 regional Fed banks against those in the capital.
Fed's Evans sees monetary tightening "a ways away" (Reuters) - With the economy's recovery likely to be slow and hampered by tight credit and a cautious consumer, the Federal Reserve is still far from needing to tighten its extraordinarily loose monetary policy, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said Thursday. "If inflation actually started to rise, we'd be very concerned, and we would be altering the trajectory and calibration of our policy," he said. But so far inflation is relatively stable, he said. "We'll be looking for the economy - is it beginning to recover in a truly vibrant fashion, or is it simply gaining momentum and it's going to take some time," he said.
Repurchased Loans Putting Banks in Hole By APARAJITA SAHA-BUBNA - WSJ Lenders such as Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. will brave stiff headwinds this year as they face demands to buy back defectively underwritten mortgages. Annual reports filed by major mortgage lenders show big surges in the volume of loans being repurchased in 2009. Wells Fargo said it bought back mortgages with balances of $1.3 billion, triple the 2008 total of $426 million. Losses on bought-back loans doubled to $514 million from $251 million in 2008, according to the San Francisco company.
Banks may eat billions in bad loans Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal Lenders including Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. may be forced to buy back $21 billion in faulty loans from two government-backed mortgage agencies, Bloomberg reported. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which purchase an estimated 70 percent of new mortgages issued by banks, may require the banks to buy back the loans if they determine the lenders didn’t follow prudent standards in writing or selling the mortgages. The agencies, which have suffered $200 billion in losses since 2007, have been cracking down on boom-era loans issues that may have been issued based on falsely stated incomes or inflated appraisals.
Volcker Says Too Soon to Cut U.S. Monetary, Fiscal Stimulus By Rainer Buergin and Philipp Encz March 7 (Bloomberg) -- White House adviser Paul Volcker said it’s too soon for U.S. policy makers to withdraw the stimulus measures and interest-rate cuts used to fight the worst slump since the Great Depression. “This is not the time to take aggressive tightening action, either fiscally or monetary-wise,” said Volcker in an interview in Berlin yesterday, pointing to “high” unemployment. “So I think we have to, as best as we can, maintain the expectation that it will be taken care of in a timely way.”
Volcker Says Euro to Survive as Greek Budget Crisis Manageable By Rainer Buergin and Philipp Encz -- March 7 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said European officials are lucky that the euro region’s first major crisis was sparked by one of its smaller members and he’s confident the currency will survive. “I’m still a believer in the euro,” Volcker said in an interview in Berlin yesterday. The lack of a unified government to back up the European Central Bank is a “structural crack” and “maybe fortunately it’s tested with a country as small as Greece, which doesn’t present an insuperable financing problem.”
Sarkozy Says EU Must Back Greece or Put Monetary Union at Risk By John Fraher and Lorenzo Totaro -- March 7 (Bloomberg) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the European Union must support Greece or risk destroying the euro as Prime Minister George Papandreou heads for Paris to lobby support for the debt-laden country. “If we created the euro, we cannot let a country fall that is in the eurozone,” said Sarkozy yesterday before a meeting with Papandreou in Paris today. “Otherwise there was no point in creating the euro. We must support Greece because they are making an effort.”
Angry Icelanders Set to Reject Icesave Debt Deal Icelanders are set to reject the terms for repaying Anglo-Dutch debts in a referendum on Saturday, forcing new negotiations with creditors and delaying financial aid the country needs to fix its shattered economy. Despite the negative consequences of rejecting the deal, Icelanders are furious about what they see as overly harsh terms from Britain and the Netherlands and they are now certain they can get a much better deal.
Congress waffles on Wall Street crackdown Posted by George Mannes - CNNMoney.com Will Congress back down on stricter rules for Wall Street? Will Congress blow a once-in-a-generation chance to help Americans get better financial advice? It looks increasingly likely. One of the biggest problems people have when they receive financial advice is that they don't always know where a financial professional's motivation and self-interest really lie. When you show up at a new-car dealership, it's pretty obvious what a salesman wants: If it's a Ford lot, he wants to sell you a Ford. But you know that going in, so you can filter what he says with proper skepticism.
CBO Says Obama Bank Fee Plan Would Affect Customers, Investors By Ryan Donmoyer and Catherine Dodge -- March 5 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s proposal to impose a $90 billion fee on financial firms that benefited from the government’s bail-out funding program would have a “small” effect on the companies and would be shouldered by customers, investors and employees, the Congressional Budget Office said. “The cost of the proposed fee would ultimately be borne to varying degrees by an institution’s customers, employees, and investors, but the precise incidence among those groups is uncertain,” CBO said in a letter yesterday to Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican. Customers would face higher borrowing rates and other charges, employees might receive less pay, and investors will face lower stock prices, the CBO said.
Monthly deficit hits record $223B in Feb. By Stephen Dinan - WashingtonTimes.com The federal government recorded its biggest monthly deficit ever in February, topping $200 billion for the first time in history and marking a record 17th straight month the government has ended in the hole. But there was some good news -- receipts were up $16 billion over February 2009, the first monthly year-over-year increase since April 2008, which could be a sign that revenue coming into the government is on the rebound after the recession.
National debt to be higher than White House forecast, CBO says By Lori Montgomery - Washington Post -- President Obama's proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday. Proposed tax cuts for the middle class account for nearly a third of that shortfall. The 10-year outlook released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is somewhat gloomier than White House projections, which found that Obama's budget request would produce deficits that would add about $8.5 trillion to the national debt by 2020.
FICO Wants Banks to Tell You Your Credit Score By LITA EPSTEIN -DailyFinance.com Would you trust your bank more if you knew your own credit score? The Fair Isaac Corporation, creator of the FICO score, thinks you would, and it's pushing banks to share that information with their customers, according to a report in the Financial Times. The theory is that by sharing FICO information with customers, banks can regain some of the consumer trust they lost during the financial crisis, when the predatory practices used by lenders came to the attention of the general public. Shon Dellinger, who runs the FICO division that sells credit scores, estimates that just 5% of consumers have unencumbered access to their FICO score; he thinks that number could increase to 75% if the top 10 financial institutions made scores available.
Fannie, Freddie Ask Banks to Eat Soured Mortgages By Bradley Keoun March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may force lenders including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. to buy back $21 billion of home loans this year as part of a crackdown on faulty mortgages. That’s the estimate of Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Chris Kotowski, who says U.S. banks could suffer losses of $7 billion this year when those loans are returned and get marked down to their true value. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both controlled by the U.S. government, stuck the four biggest U.S. banks with losses of about $5 billion on buybacks in 2009, according to company filings made in the past two weeks.
Why this housing bubble was different by Jon Lansner - Orange County Register We can compare the boom and bust cycle in housing in the late 1990s and 2000s to that in the 1980s. The increases and decreases were much sharper this time than the 1980s. This time around, I think it was more clear that there was a bubble. Where I disagree with some people is that it wasn’t the coastal areas like Orange County that made it clear — at least, after the fact — that there was a bubble. In the 1980s, the big price gains were in areas like the coasts where it’s hard to add new supply (there was an earlier oil boom and bust in some energy industry areas like Houston. Those “oil patch” markets are elastically supplied and I would guess the bust in prices was predictable).
House Passes Jobs Bill Despite Doubts MoneyNews.com Despite doubts among many lawmakers that it will create many jobs, the House on Thursday passed legislation giving companies that hire the jobless a temporary payroll tax break. The measure passed 217-201 on a mostly party-line vote. The bill also extends federal highway programs through the end of the year.
Nostalgia for New Deal Job Plan By LOUISE RADNOFSKY The specter of a long period of high unemployment is reviving interest in an old idea: The Works Progress Administration, which put millions to work during the Great Depression. The United States Conference of Mayors is citing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs as its members push for more infrastructure money to go directly to local governments. They are pointing to the legacy of programs like the WPA to bolster their case that such direct public-sector job efforts can work when mayors run them.
That Other Government Takeover What else may go into 'reconciliation.' Everyone knows Democrats are planning to use the budget reconciliation process to get ObamaCare through the Senate. Less well known is that Democrats are plotting add-ons to that bill to get other liberal priorities enacted—programs that could never attract 60 votes. One of these controversial measures rewrites the Higher Education Act to ban private companies from offering federally guaranteed student loans as of this July. Congress has already passed laws in recent years discouraging private lenders from making loans without a federal guarantee. But most college financial-aid departments still want private companies to originate and service the guaranteed loans. That's because the alternative—a public option run by the Department of Education—has been distinguished by its Soviet-style customer service.
3 Dems unsure about changing health votes By Douglass K. Daniel AP via WashingtonTimes.com A top House Democrat said Sunday he believes Congress will pass a health care bill, but three fellow Democrats who opposed overhaul legislation last fall aren't committing themselves to backing President Obama's late push. The House and the Senate approved different versions of the legislation by narrow margins. Merging the bills became more complicated when Senate Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority in January after the election of Sen. Scott Brown, Massachusetts Republican. House members are reluctant to approve the Senate plan on the promise that senators will tinker with provisions House members find objectionable.
Democrats Voice Health-Bill Doubts By JOHN D. MCKINNON and JARED FAVOLE - WSJ WASHINGTON — Some House Democrats wavering over whether to back a health-care overhaul questioned whether it would effectively curb the country's health costs, highlighting a difficult issue that the White House and congressional leaders must address in the final negotiations on the measure. The issue is one of several that have been raised by Democrats over the bill, which President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders are pushing to pass by the end of March. Conservative Democrats have raised questions over the bill's language on abortion and tax increases, while liberals are unhappy with its failure to include a government plan that would compete with private insurers.
The Core Rate of Unemployment is Horse Crap by Paul Mladjenovic - FinanacialSense.com Today the federal government released its unemployment report for February 2010. The official unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%. Some economists welcomed this as a sign of a stabilizing economy. Perhaps someone should tell these economists that the official unemployment rate is misleading. It is a sign of horse crap. Why? The official unemployment rate LEAVES OUT those folks that are discouraged and have ceased looking for work. It also leaves out those that are “under-employed”; those that no longer have full-time jobs but have settled for part-time work. In other words, the official unemployment rate… leaves out…A LOT OF UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE!
Jobs, consumer credit, Fannie & Freddie
California's January jobless rate rose to 12.5% Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal California’s unemployment rate rose to 12.5 percent in January despite an increase in jobs, according to data released Friday by the state’s Employment Development Department compiled from two surveys. The state’s jobless rate was a 12.3 percent in December and 9.7 percent a year ago in January 2009. The U.S. unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in January. California’s unemployment rate is derived from a federal survey of 5,500 California households.
Jobs: Short-term hope, long-term despair By David Goldman - CNNMoney.com Friday's jobs report showed some glimmers of a recovery but if you're among the 8.8 million Americans still unemployed after nearly four months, you may have been left scratching your head. You're not alone. "Whether you say the jobs market is improving or getting worse, there are people who will say you're crazy," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute. "That's because there are two Americas, and they're both right."
Second Life's virtual money can become real-life cash By Michael S. Rosenwald - Washington Post Dana Moore sells rain. He sells a lot of it, for about a buck per reusable storm. "I don't know why people love buying rainstorms," he said, watching his product drizzle last week, "but they do seem to like them a lot." The attraction isn't rain, per se, but Moore's rain, which can deluge swaths of land on command. The rain falls not in Bowie, where he lives with his wife of 37 years, but in the virtual world of Second Life, the Web portal where he also markets snow, clocks, University of Maryland basketball T-shirts, Duke basketball T-shirts (grudgingly), two-story Tudor-style homes, pinup posters from the 1930s and the sounds of barking dogs.
GM to bring back 600 dealerships Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal General Motors said Friday afternoon that it will send letters of intent to more than 600 dealers, saying they can continue to sell GM vehicles. GM, in a statement on its Web site, didn’t name the dealerships, but said it had reviewed claims for reinstatement from 1,100 dealerships, and made its choices from there. “We are eager to restore relationships with our dealers and get back to doing what we do best – selling cars and taking care of customers,” said Mark Ruess, president of GM North America, in the statement.
President To Defend NASA Aim By ANDY PASZTOR The White House is launching a political counterattack to fend off escalating congressional criticism of its proposals to outsource U.S. manned space missions to private industry. Facing bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill and lacking prominent champions of such unprecedented space ventures among most large aerospace contractors, the administration hopes to regain momentum on the issue with a personal appeal from President Barack Obama.
U.S. reportedly gives billions to firms doing business with Iran WashingtonPost.com The U.S. government, while pushing for tougher sanctions against Tehran, has given $107 billion in the past 10 years to U.S. and foreign companies doing business in Iran, much of it in the energy sector, the New York Times reported in its Sunday editions. Despite the threat of punishment for companies that seek U.S. federal contracts while dealing with Iran, the Times said successive administrations have struggled to exert authority over foreign companies and overseas units of U.S. firms. Of the 74 companies the newspaper said it had identified as doing business with both the U.S. government and Iran, 49 still work with Iran and have no announced plans to leave.
Iran begins cruise-missile production By Nasser Karimi AP via WashingtonTimes.com TEHRAN -- Iran announced Sunday it has started a new production line of highly accurate short-range cruise missiles, which would add a new element to the country's already imposing arsenal. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, Iran's defense minister, told Iranian state TV that the cruise missile, called Nasr 1, would be capable of destroying targets up to 3,000 tons in size. The minister said the missile can be fired from ground-based launchers as well as ships but eventually would be modified to be fired from helicopters and submarines.
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We've done a little homework on the issue of unemployment and jobs created or saved through government Recovery Act programs [grants, contracts, and loans issued].
Go HERE to find out where the money is going where you live [click the FUNDING tab].
Don't believe everything you read or hear in the media or on the Internet about unemployment, recovery funding, jobs created/saved. Examine the facts with regard to recovery in the US yourself. Don't be uninformed about government spending, job creation, unemployment. . . or governmental incompetence.
Whose fault is it anyway? The government gives the money away, but it is the recipients of that money who are in a position to create or save the jobs. Big banks are not the only ones getting all the money. . .
A fine example of bureaucratic spending [grant - free money]: City of Scottsdale, AZ: Amt: $ 4,718,470 TOTAL JOBS CREATED / SAVED: 0.8 Award Name: Recovery Act: Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grant Program. Award Description: Municipal Buildings Energy Audit: The citywide municipal energy audit program will provide baseline data to allow the city to target specific energy efficiency projects. Testing will include a blower door test, which measures the extent of leaks in the building envelope; infrared cameras, which reveal hard to detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation; and duct leakage tests. The audit also includes an evaluation of past utility bills and projected energy savings. A final evaluation report provides a summary of problem areas and recommended energy improvements with expected savings. The Arizona Energy Office will help facilitate energy audit protocol on municipal buildings. Community Energy Audit Rebate Program: The energy audit rebate program will be made available for residential and small commercial buildings less than 5,000 square feet. Testing will include a blower door test, which measures the extent of leaks in the building envelope; infrared camera, with reveal hard to detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation; duct leakage tests. Funds will be made available to the homeowner or small business owners for an energy audit of their home or business completed by certified energy auditors trained through the Southwest Building Science Training Center and Arizona Home Performance with Energy Star program. the energy audit criteria will follow the protocol established by the Arizona Energy Office. The final audit report will include and evaluation of past utility bill, project energy saving projects and estimate payback periods for the suggested modifications.
Reclamation Facilities Blower Replacements: The purpose of the project is to replace existing blower at the Water Campus Water Reclamation Facility and existing blowers at the Gainey Ranch Water Reclamation Facility with the more efficient blower technology.
Here's another example in Scottsdale, AZ: Fountain Hills Unified School District 98 - Amt: $294,734 TOTAL JOBS CREATED / SAVED: 0 Award Description: To support and restore funding for elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education and, as applicable, early childhood education programs and services.
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UNEMPLOYMENT: Data Map by entire country, by state, by zip code http://www.recovery.gov [official gov web site stats] This interactive map is a wealth of information, showing detailed stats on Government Contracts, Grants and Loans (not started, in progress, completed) by state or zip. It gives the recipient and amount and how many jobs have been created by the recipient of the funds.
Looks like a lot of American business have been recipients of government funds but are they hiring? That is the REAL QUESTION. Check the business recipients in your area and call them to find out why they are not adding any new jobs with the government money they either have already received or will receive.
Q: How are recipients calculating the number of jobs created and saved?
A: Recipients calculate the number of jobs created or saved by taking the total number of Recovery Act funded hours worked in a quarter, and dividing it by the number of hours of a full-time schedule in a quarter as defined by the Recipient.
If a full-time schedule is 40 hours a week, multiply 40 hours x 52 weeks = 2,080 Total Hours per year
Divide 2,080 Total Hours by 4 to equal 520 quarterly hours.
Example: If two full-time employees each worked 520 hours (1,040 hours) for the quarter and another half-time employee worked 260 hours, the Total Hours for the three employees is 1300 (520 + 520 + 260 = 1300) . Divide 1300 by 520 to equal 2.5 jobs created or saved.
WANT A JOB? FIND A JOB:
Find Recovery Jobs: The Recovery Act requires Recovery.gov to provide information "to the extent practical" about job opportunities. To meet that requirement, Recovery.gov has developed a jobs search function linked to website addresses of recipients of Recovery awards. The websites do not contain an exhaustive list of Recovery job opportunities, and some sites include non-Recovery job information. Recovery.gov will link more recipient website addresses to the search function after recipients report each quarter.
https://www.fbo.gov/ Contracts that have already been awarded and those that are up for bid may help you find a job or business opportunities. Search more than 27,800 active federal opportunities.
A Storm is Brewing By: John Townsend When the tech bubble burst in 2000, Greenspan tried to “fix” the problem by cutting rates and printing money. Fix the problem he did … well sort of! What Greenspan did was create two new bubbles in the credit and real estate markets to replace the tech bubble that had burst. Millions of jobs were created in these two industries. Much needed jobs to replace the ones lost as the tech boom came to an end. I think we will all admit it was one heck of a party, but like all good parties there’s a price to pay. The Hangover! The truth is the economic boom of the mid 2000’s was built on a lie. Instead of a foundation of productivity the last bull market was founded on an ocean of liquidity. That ocean of liquidity fostered risky investments and massive speculation. It was only a matter of time before the house of cards came crashing down. And crash it did. The world suffered through the second worst bear market in history almost taking down the global financial system in the process.
The United Socialist States of America By Jeffrey T. Kuhner - WashingtonTimes.com The president intends to overthrow American capitalism. President Obama is close to completing his socialist revolution. Since coming to power last year, he has sought relentlessly to transform America. From his days as a student radical, Mr. Obama has been obsessed with smashing the traditional free-market system. Like most leftists, he thinks capitalism is the enemy. "He was a Marxist-socialist in college," said John C. Drew, who knew Mr. Obama as a university student, in an interview. "He kept talking about the need to overthrow capitalism in favor of a working-class revolution."
Our own Greek tragedy By Mark Steyn - WashingtonTimes.com Obamanomics hastens the day of reckoning While President Obama was making his latest pitch for a brand new, even more unsustainable entitlement at the health care "summit," thousands of Greeks took to the streets to riot. An enterprising cable network might have shown the two scenes on a continuous split screen - because they're part of the same story. It's just that Greece is a little further along in the plot: They're at the point where the canoe is about to plunge over the falls. America is further upstream and can still pull for shore, but has decided instead that what it needs to do is catch up with the Greek canoe. Chapter One (the introduction of unsustainable entitlements) leads eventually to Chapter 20 (total societal collapse): The Greeks are at Chapter 17 or 18.
Will the US Devalue the Dollar? Darryl Schoon - SilverBearCafe.com The ability to wage war on credit gave the West an insurmountable advantage over the East. The West’s credit, however, has now turned to debt and the West has lost its advantage. But the return to parity will not be easy. The three hundred year economic expansion fueled by debt-based capital markets is coming to an end and with it, the hegemony of the West over the East. During that period, debt-based paper money propelled first England then the US to world dominion because of the ability to wage war on credit and to print money ad infinitum.
Ron Paul's New Cryptic Warning (2010)
Borrow and Spend Economics to Pay for Borrowing and Spending By: Richard Daughty - GoldSeek.com . . . . I had just read that the Federal Reserve is being as dangerously incompetent as ever by continuing to massively increase the money supply (which is so horrible because it causes inflation in prices) so that they can buy up (monetize) at least a part of the massive, monstrous, mega-moolah Treasury debt issuance that will be necessary to fund the unbelievable sum of, as I understand it, $1.9 trillion in government deficit-spending in the upcoming One Freaking Year (OFY) as a result of the massive spending of the terrible, awful, worse-than-I-had-feared, demon-from-hell Obama administration, plus trillions more for the needs of the private sector, and a trillion or so in Congressional “supplemental appropriations” throughout the year as Congress periodically, almost ritually in a Satanic kind of way, “discovers” that their original estimate of their borrowing needs was inadequate, and – surprise! – that these slimy, lying bastards need LOTS and lots more money!
Michael Moore: There's Going to Be a Second Crash Cenk Uygur - HuffingtonPost.com We interviewed Michael Moore on The Young Turks today and he was not shy about sharing his opinions. Anyone surprised? He had very strong words for the Democratic Party, the state of our political system and Glenn Beck. What he thinks of Democrats and Republicans: You know, I tell you, these Democrats are disgusting. Wimps and wusses and weasels. You know, get some spine. This is why I have to admire the Republicans. They at least stand for something. They at least have the courage of their convictions. They get elected to office, they come into town, and they go "Get outta my way, there's a new sheriff in town. This is the way we're doing things. Get outta here." And then they do it. You know. I mean what they do is crazy. But dammit, they are good at it. We should take a page out of their book.
China Govt: Buy Gold and Silver By Dr Jeffrey Lewis No longer favoring the US dollar, the Chinese government increased its holdings of gold from 600 tonnes in 2003 to 1,054 tonnes in 2009. This month, rumors began circulating that the Chinese government may indeed purchase from the IMF 191.3 tonnes of gold. While the government has denied this rumor, China Investment Corp. has purchased positions in gold miners such as Canada’s Kinross Gold, Gold Fields of South Africa, and AngloGold Ashanti. To further fuel gold investment, the government began pushing its citizens to buy gold in September of 2009. In addition, China just introduced its own silver bars as an investment, and China Central Television is running campaigns to push the citizenry into gold and silver investments. This could mean a new swell of demand and higher prices.
Yuan Options Most Expensive as China Pledges No Rise By Ye Xie March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Options traders are more bullish on the yuan than any other currency as they bet that growing exports and accelerating inflation will overcome China’s vows to maintain a 20-month dollar peg. The premium charged for the right to buy yuan in three months over contracts to sell has more than tripled this year to the most among 44 currency options tracked by Bloomberg. The 2 percentage point difference is the most since China last ended a fixed-exchange rate in July 2005, so-called risk-reversal rates show. Expectations for price swings also have tripled in the fastest implied volatility rise among the currencies.
China's investments in U.S. up sharply By Don Lee - LA Times The strategy seeks higher earnings by acquiring assets while prices are depressed. Reporting from Washington - Made in China now has a fast-growing sibling: Bought by China. Beijing is using its accumulation of billions of American dollars to step up its investments around the globe. In the last year, Chinese acquisitions in the U.S. have ranged from a relatively obscure theater in Branson, Mo., to stakes in such famous brands as Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson. China's huge stockpile of dollars stems in part from Americans' enormous purchases of relatively inexpensive Chinese manufactured goods and the significantly smaller volume of U.S. exports to the Asian country.
China Dumping US Debt Could be Great for America By Rocky Vega - DailyReckoning.com Providing the world’s reserve currency has its privileges. Not the least of which is the continued willingness of foreigners to soak up the massive amounts of debt issued by the US despite the nation’s continued debasement of the dollar. Yet, what if the foreign nations stopped buying? We’ve certainly heard of the calamity that should result from China cutting the US off, but perhaps we shouldn’t be so certain that’s the case. Let’s suppose for a minute that it’s not. Mike Cosgrove investigates an eye-opening upside of a US without a market for its debt.
Harsh words from Chinese military raise threat concerns By Bill Gertz - WashingtonTimes.com Recent statements by Chinese military officials are raising concerns among U.S. analysts that the communist government in Beijing is shifting its oft-stated "peaceful rise" policy toward an aggressive, anti-U.S. posture. The most recent sign appeared with the publication of a government-approved book by Senior Col. Liu Mingfu that urges China to "sprint" toward becoming the world's most powerful state. "Although this book is one of many by a senior colonel, it certainly challenges the thesis of many U.S. China-watchers that the People's Liberation Army's rapid military growth is not designed to challenge the United States as a global power or the U.S. military," said Larry M. Wortzel, a China affairs specialist who until recently was co-chairman of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
The Dominos of Default John Browne - FinancialSense.com The bad news for Greece is that despite some help from abroad, and some attempts at internal reform, investors are still leery of the troubled state. The good news, if you can call it that, is that they will soon have company in the penalty box. Now that investors have come face-to-face with the reality of sovereign default in the developed world, greater scrutiny will befall those countries with fiscal conditions similar to Greece. The United Kingdom is a cause of great concern, with a debt ratio rapidly approaching Greek levels. The economic challenges facing Britain are aggravated by a Labour government that is pushing the country further toward socialism. As a result, in from mid-2008 to today the pound sterling has lost some 25 percent of its value even against the US dollar. Debt and socialism are a toxic mix for investors.
Recession, Depression, or Systematic Breakdown by James Quinn - FinancialSense.com As crooked politicians, Federal Reserve hacks, and cheerleading media pundits inform you the recession is over, you probably have a sneaking suspicion they are lying. The National Bureau of Economic Research is the arbiter of business cycle recessions. They define a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production.” A depression is characterized by its length, and by abnormal increases in unemployment, a decline in the availability of credit, shrinking output and investment, numerous bankruptcies, reduced amounts of trade and commerce, as well as highly volatile relative currency value fluctuations, mostly devaluations. Price deflation, financial crisis, and bank failures are also common elements of a depression. Let’s assess where the U.S. economy stands at the moment:
Elizabeth Warren for President (COP's February 2010 Report)
'Bubble mania' to drive up gold prices to $5,000/oz By Lara Crigger - CommodityOnline.com Podcast listeners might remember a few months ago when I bet our research editor a steak dinner that gold would top $1,250/oz before it would sink back below $1,000/oz. For awhile there, things weren't looking too good for me or my appetite, as gold plunged off its December highs like a diver in free fall; the metal scraped as low as $1,052/oz early last month. But as gold closed above $1,117/oz on Friday, I'm happy to say that I might just get my dead cow after all. Of course, renewed strength in gold means a revival of The Big Question from last fall: Is gold in a bubble? This time, however, it seems the answer on everyone's lips is: "Who cares?"
Gold Tracks Euro Higher Ahead of US Payroll Data By: Reuters Gold tracked the euro higher on Friday before the release of U.S. payrolls data, which could raise concerns about the pace of the economic recovery, hurt the dollar but lift bullion's allure as an alternative investment. Volumes were thin in Asia ahead of the data, which may show U.S. payrolls shedding 50,000 jobs in February after losing 20,000 in January, although analysts also said the forecasts would have been influenced by bad weather.
Russia Continues to Build Its Gold Reserves Ahead of the SDR Discussions JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN As you know, Russia, India, China and some of the BRIC-like countries will continue to push hard for a gold and silver content in the new formulation of the SDR this year. The US and UK are vehemently opposed. Europe is still wallowing in confusion and is virtually leaderless, as the most recent financial crisis in Greece shows. This may not be all bad, because it highlights the weaknesses in their union, and gives them the incentive to take it to the next step. One cannot have a common currency with uncommon fiscal policies and laws. While there is some room for discretion, it is sorely tried in changing economic conditions and social attitudes. America went through a bloody Civil War for this reason.
Dr. Doom on Gold, Euro & More Everybody should accumulate some gold over time, Marc Faber, editor and publisher of the 'Gloom, Boom and Doom Report,' told CNBC
Gold benefits in recovery and relapse The gold rally that began last fall and drove gold through the $1,200 resistance level in late November doesn't seem to be panning out the way the rallies of 2005 and 2007 did. In this exclusive Gold Report interview, Gold Newsletter editor and publisher Brien Lundin admits he's a bit worried about this run's breakout. He hasn't lost hope, he says, but "we really need to clear $1,250 over the next six to eight weeks to validate the continuance of this as another one of these major gold rallies" that would carry gold up to the $1,350 to $1,500 range that he had anticipated. However that turns out, he expects gold to remain strong and gold stocks, particularly juniors, to outperform the market in general. Brien is stoked on silver, too, and in fact in relative terms expects it to rise further and faster than gold.
No Golden Fleese and No Silver Bullets Peter Souleles B. Com. LLB - SilverBearCafe.com "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Walt Kelly The U.S. is no doubt still a very powerful nation. At the same time however it is facing a challenging set of economic headwinds which threaten to lead to a chaotic unwinding of the financial system not only within the nation but also worldwide. There are many angles from which to examine this erosion. In this brief essay it is my intention to briefly focus on the demise of the U.S.'s financial position by comparing the gold and silver holdings of the USA between 1940 and 2010. The comparisons are startling as they are devastating.
Is the Dollar Really Safer Than the Euro? by Michael Pento - FinancialSense.com he European currency has depreciated dramatically against the US dollar in the past few months, falling from over $1.50 on December 1st to $1.35 today. The move has caused many investors to question the viability of the European Union and its currency, while also serving to reinforce the notion of the USD’s position as the world’s reserve currency. To be clear, there has never been any question in my mind that the euro is just another flawed fiat currency. It could never serve as a real place holder for investor’s wealth or become a viable alternative to owning precious metals. However, it deserves to maintain its status as an excellent diversification- currency for those who hold excess dollars. But we currently find the question being asked more today than ever before if the USD can act as a safe haven from the troubles over in Euro land? The answer to that question can be found in the data and the data clearly shows that it cannot.
Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-Winning Economist, Says Federal Reserve System 'Corrupt' Shahien Nasiripour - HuffingtonPost.com One of the world's leading economists said Wednesday that the very structure of the Federal Reserve system is so fraught with conflicts that it's "corrupt." Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, a former chief economist at the World Bank, said that if a country had applied for World Bank aid during his tenure, with a financial regulatory system similar to the Federal Reserve's -- in which regional Feds are partly governed by the very banks they're supposed to police -- it would have raised alarms.
Economic Downturn hits Lenders and Borrowers Alike Bob Chapman - SilverBearCafe.com We are not going to go into the lurid details regarding residential and commercial real estate, but we are going to give you some highlights. We began telling subscribers to sell real estate in June of 2005, long before anyone else. We picked the top just as we did in September 1988 at the top. Residential real estate won't hit bottom until 2013 and who knows how long it will bump along the bottom. At the end of the year we have a whole new generation of sub prime and ALT-A mortgages coming due for reset. In addition there are the pick and pay loans that are in trouble, and 52% of problems lie, if you can believe it, in prime loans. Residential real estate countrywide is off 32% with a number of areas off 50% or more. In the next two years that national figure will show losses of 45% to 50%, and the former 30 hot city markets will be off 50% to 70%.
Fed Presidents Say Rates Need to Be Low Early in U.S. Recovery By Steve Matthews -- March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Two regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents, speaking before today’s release of a February report on U.S. jobs, said they believe the central bank should keep rates low until the recovery picks up. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans told reporters in Chicago yesterday he needs to see signs of “highly sustainable” growth before supporting steps toward tighter monetary policy. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said after a speech in St. Cloud, Minnesota that, with the economy at an early stage of renewal, policy makers want to remain “very accommodative.”
Goldman Sachs concedes it could be damaged by public outrage over pay Andrew Clark - guardian.co.uk -- Wall Street bank includes 'negative publicity' in a list of risks to its prosperity and says responding to criticism can be 'time consuming and expensive' Goldman Sachs has officially conceded that widespread public outrage at its employees' multimillion-pound pay packages is a "risk factor" to its ability to do business as it struggles with its status as a poster boy for criticism over excess in the financial services industry. For the first time this year, the Wall Street bank's annual report includes "negative publicity" in a list of risks to its prosperity, alongside economic conditions, market volatility, competition and regulatory uncertainty.
Big Brother’s Money Laundering Fraud Expands… Bob Bauman - SovereignSociety.com These Draconian laws have been on the books in the United States and other countries for the last two decades, supposedly originally aimed at drug kingpins and their illicit cash. Later, the AML laws were claimed by politicians to be needed to stop terrorist cash. In fact, these laws have been mainly used as prosecutorial bargaining chips, since they impose heavy fines and prison sentences. Add ML charges to any threatened indictment and a putative defendant is likely plea to a lesser charge…
The Failure of Anti-Money Laundering Laws Bob Bauman, Legal Counsel for The Sovereign Society This Center for Freedom and Prosperity video examines anti-money laundering laws and finds that they are expensive and intrusive. These costs might be acceptable if the result was less crime, but this mini-documentary reveals that anti-money laundering policies are ineffective. As a former Reagan Administration official remarked, they undermine the fight against crime by misallocating law enforcement resources. http://www.freedomandprosperity.org
Sultans of Swap Fearing the Gearing! by Gordon T Long - FinancialSense.com Ever imagine getting your tie caught in a mechanical set of gears (sorry ladies - but I will spare you). The results are nasty! Now you know what the Sultans of Swap in the $695 Trillion global OTC derivatives market feel like. Every day the slow moving gears of the world economies relentlessly grind, making it harder and harder for the Sultans to wiggle loose or breath. Financial Gearing is what we non-accountants often refer to as simply ‘Leverage’. Whichever your preference, it has the Sultans of Swap tightly caught in a manner that has greatly restricted their options and is now slowly squeezing the liquidity life out of them.
Wen Warns of Bank Risks, Pledges Property Crackdown By Bloomberg News March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Premier Wen Jiabao warned of “latent risk” in China’s banks and pledged to crack down on property speculation as the government faces the consequences of flooding the economy with money to drive growth. “The domestic economy still faces some prominent problems,” Wen, 67, said in a speech in Beijing to the National People’s Congress, similar to the U.S. State of the Union address. He also cited excess capacity in manufacturing and weak support for rural-income growth.
Why China should let the yuan rise By Chris Isidore, senior writer NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Chinese have rarely given into foreign pressure to revalue their currency higher. But that doesn't mean they won't let the yuan rise later this year. The Chinese have kept the yuan pegged to the dollar for almost three years. The currency is now about 20% to 40% below where it would be if it traded as freely as most other currencies, according to most estimates. This keeps Chinese exports cheap, and has been blamed for the widening trade gap between China and the United States, as well as the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States. President Obama and members of Congress have called for the Chinese to allow a rise in the yuan's value.
Not till they’ve nothing left to lose? Rolfe Winkler - Reuters Those calling for financial reform aren’t being upfront about its costs. This was again evident at the Roosevelt Institute’s otherwise very good conference at Time Warner Center yesterday. First the good. The purpose of the gathering was to galvanize support for deeper reforms than lawmakers have proposed. Roosevelt’s Chief Economist Rob Johnson and his murderer’s row of thinkers — including Simon Johnson, Elizabeth Warren, Frank Partnoy, Rick Carnell, Josh Rosner and others — presented a very good white paper outlining how best to clean up the financial system. Other attendees were George Soros, Brooksley Born, Jim Chanos, Joe Stiglitz. Even Eliot Spitzer showed up. When it comes to reform, they all argued, nibbling around the edges ain’t gonna cut it.
White House Offers Bill to Restrict Big Banks’ Actions By SEWELL CHAN - NYTimes WASHINGTON — The Obama administration put forward legislation on Wednesday to rein in the size and scope of the nation’s largest banks. But the proposal faces strong resistance in Congress, where lawmakers have shown little appetite for adding to the prolonged debate on overhauling financial regulations. The legislation would ban banks that take federally insured deposits from investing in hedge funds or private equity funds and from making trades that are for the benefit of the banks, not their customers, a practice known as proprietary trading.
Ron Paul's Problem With The Fed CBSNews.com Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas.) spoke with Bob Schieffer on Wednesday's "Washington Unplugged", elaborating on his question to Ben Bernanke at last week's Monetary Fund Hearing that the Federal Reserve has funneled money to the Watergate burglars and Saddam Hussein.
Trichet Halts Greece’s Courting of IMF, Stirs European Tensions By James G. Neuger and Simon Kennedy March 5 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet pressed Greece to halt its flirtation with International Monetary Fund aid and work with European allies to tame its record budget deficit. As protesters besieged the Greek Finance Ministry to denounce 4.8 billion euros ($6.5 billion) of tax increases and spending cuts, the Athens government said the absence of European support might force it into the hands of the IMF.
I.M.F. Help for Greece Is a Risky Prospect By SEWELL CHAN and LIZ ALDERMAN - NYTimes Greece skirted disaster this week by persuading investors and politicians that it is finally on track to fix its finances. But even before the dust settles, the government is setting the stage for a potential conflict with Germany, France and other European governments that may raise doubts about the sustainability of the euro project. In the last two days, Greece’s finance minister has threatened to turn to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout if Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and other European politicians resist pledging aid to help Greece cope with its newfound frugality. Asking the fund for help could create a new round of financial and political turmoil by sending the message that Europe cannot resolve its own problems, analysts said.
German MPs suggest cash-strapped Greece should sell islands Greece should sell some of its uninhabited islands to raise cash to avoid bankruptcy, two German parliamentarians from Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right coalition suggested on Thursday. "The Greek state must sell stakes in companies and also assets such as, for example, unpopulated islands," Frank Schäffler, a member of parliament for the pro-business Free Democrats, told the Bild daily. Marco Wanderwitz, an MP for Merkel's own conservative Christian Democrats, said Athens should provide collateral for any money it receives from the European Union to help it out of its debt crisis.
For Greece, Bond Sale Is a Step Back From Disaster By LANDON THOMAS Jr. and DAVID JOLLY - NYTimes LONDON — After pledging to mend its profligate ways, Greece took a crucial step on Thursday toward raising the billions needed to pay its bills and contain the crisis threatening the euro. Even as members of a large labor union occupied the offices of the Finance Ministry in Athens early on Thursday to protest proposed budget cuts, the Greek government won a vote of confidence for its plans in the credit markets. With many investors expecting Greece’s richer neighbors to come to the nation’s aid, Athens easily sold 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) of 10-year bonds.
Iceland – the Lemmings Rule! by Scott B. MacDonald - FinancialSense.com Iceland's debt problems do not seem to want to go away. If anything the mix of crashed banks, a brutal economic collapse and the demands of foreigners has left the Icelandic population of a little over 300,000 grumpy, ill-tempered and ready to reject a government bill to repay $5 billion to British and Dutch citizens who had put their savings in the now defunct Icesave. Those British and Dutch citizens want their money back; the proposed government bill puts the individual Icelandic price tag at $15,000 each (though most of this would be covered by the sale of bank assets). A referendum is scheduled for Saturday and the most recent poll shows that 74% of intended voters plan to vote down the measure. Hurrah for Iceland! That vote will certainly give the Dutch and British a poke in the eye. At least that it may initially feel like.
Citigroup’s Auction-Rate Bonds Freeze $1 Billion in Hawaii Cash By Christopher Palmeri -- March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Two years after the auction-rate bond market froze, Hawaii has lost about $250 million in market value on $1 billion in student-loan securities sold by a single Citigroup Inc. broker as a cash substitute that the state has had difficulty unloading. Hawaii purchased half of the securities for its short-term treasury account from Honolulu broker Pete Thompson, 60, in the eight months before the market collapsed, according to Scott Kami, an administrator at the state finance department.
US taxpayers hit as TARP takes a new turn By Dan Wilchins and David Lawder - CNNMoney NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A small Midwestern bank has negotiated with the U.S. Treasury for taxpayers to essentially buy the bank's shares at an above-market-value price, in an unusual transaction reflecting how the government's bank investments are entering a new phase. Midwest Banc Holdings Inc agreed to swap $84.8 million of preferred shares it sold to the U.S. government in 2008 for securities that will convert into about $15.5 million of common shares -- roughly an 80 percent loss to taxpayers. To some analysts, the transaction is an outrageous giveaway to an ailing bank, and its investors. "There's a lot of funny stuff going on here," said James Ellman, president at hedge fund Seacliff Capital in San Francisco.
Citi's Pandit faces bailout questions By David Ellis NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit thanked U.S. taxpayers for delivering billions of dollars of aid during of the depths of the credit crisis, but offered few details on why the government needed to step in more than once to rescue the embattled firm. Testifying before a congressional watchdog group Thursday, Pandit tried to explain away the government's decision to give the New York City-based bank a second aid package of $20 billion in November 2008, blaming short sellers as well as general malaise in financial markets.
Citi CEO: Bank has transformed since financial crisis WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing sharp questions from bailout overseers, Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit said Thursday the bank is "fundamentally different" than the tangled behemoth that took more than $45 billion in government aid during the recent financial crisis. "I am pleased to say we are in a far different and much healthier position," Pandit said in testimony before the Congressional Oversight Panel. The independent watchdog group oversees the $700 billion financial bailout. Pandit said Citi's experience during the crisis showed the need for a clearer process to deal with large, failing financial firms — a key priority of the Obama administration.
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