Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Friday 03.30.2012
Clock Ticks on U.S.'s Fiscal Time Bomb
By DAVID WESSEL - WSJ.com
Pundits and pollsters speculate hourly on the outcome of the next Republican presidential primary. Business executives and investors increasingly focus on whether Congress and the president will defuse the fiscal time bomb they have built—or whether they will be so paralyzed that the bomb will go off at year-end.
Without congressional action before Dec. 31, here's what happens:
A payroll-tax holiday ends, which means a tax increase for workers of as much as 2% of wages.
Income-tax rates revert to pre-George W. Bush levels, rising not only for the rich but for nearly all taxpayers.
Across-the-board cuts in domestic and, particularly, defense spending are triggered.
Goldman maintains its 12 month
gold price forecast of $1,940/oz
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Goldman Sachs is maintaining its outlook for gold prices, forecasting the yellow metal at $1,785 an ounce in three months, $1,840 in six months and $1,940 in 12 months, citing subdued U.S. economic growth and further quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve later this year.
"We acknowledge, however, that continued strong U.S. economic data poses growing risk to our forecast for rising gold prices," they added.
BRICs attack QE and urge Western leaders to be 'responsible' The world's leading emerging economies have urged Western governments to pursue "responsible" economic policies, as they renewed their attack on the quantitative easing policies adopted by the US and Britain.
By Richard Blackden - Telegraph.co.uk
"It is critical for advanced economies to adopt responsible macro-economic and financial policies, avoid creating excessive liquidity and undertake structural reforms to lift growth," Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa said in a joint statement.
The leaders of the countries met at a one-day summit in the Indian capital New Delhi, and also turned their fire on the pace of reform at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The US has yet to approve changes to voting rights at the IMF that were tabled in 2010 and would give a greater voice to those countries with growing economic muscle in the world.
Why a Brics-built bank to rival the IMF is doomed to fail Brazil, China and India have little in common apart from opposition to Western control of global financial institutions.
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
Traditionally, the job of head of the World Bank always goes to an American, while that of the International Monetary Fund is invariably filled by a European, usually a French national. For much of the post-war period, this was a reasonable trade-off, reflecting the prevailing balance of geopolitical and economic power in the Western world.
Asia and the Soviet Union didn't count, as these were largely closed economies of limited or marginal significance for world trade. It was only right and proper that governance of the global monetary system should be directed by its two dominant economic blocs.
Keiser Report: Backstage Wall Street (E268)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss multi-camera fraud live from Parliament, push button autocracy from the global central banks and losing granny's 5000 peanut butter money on Wall Street. In the second half of the show Max talks to Josh Brown about his new book, Backstage Wall Street.
Spain Strike Challenges Austerity
By DAVID ROMÁN and JONATHAN HOUSE - WSJ.com
MADRID—A nationwide general strike in Spain on Thursday forced the closure of factories across the country, though activity levels remained largely normal in big cities despite minor incidents of violence
The strike, called by the two largest unions in the country, is the first clear challenge to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's austerity and reform drive. It has drawn support from the Socialist Party, which was in power until December and is the largest opposition in parliament, as well as the much smaller United Left bloc.
Spain to slash spending as economy slumps back into recession Spain's fragile economy has fallen back into recession and the country faces a year of grinding economic decline as premier Mariano Rajoy slashes spending yet further to meet EU demands.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
The Bank of Spain said the "contractionary dynamic" in the economy continued into early 2012 for the second quarter in a row, with an "intensifying" pace of job losses. It expects GDP to fall by 1.5pc this year.
Mr Rajoy said at a meeting in Seoul that he would press ahead later this week with a "very austere budget", ordering 15pc cuts in spending across the ministries.
The conservative leader promised a "fair and just" distribution of pain. Public sector salaries will be frozen rather than cut and there will be no rise in VAT.
Spanish workers hold general strike over labour reforms
BBC.co.uk
Spanish unions are holding a general strike over labour reforms which the government hopes will cut unemployment.
Road, rail and air transport were all affected, with domestic and European flights cut to a fraction of their normal levels.
Unions claimed strong support at car factories and other industrial sites but Mariano Rajoy's conservative government played down the impact.
It plans to unveil measures on Friday to save tens of billions of euros.
The strike is the government's first big challenge since taking office.
For Portugal, Moment of Truth Nears
By CHARLES FORELLE in London
and PATRICIA KOWSMANN in Lisbon - WSJ.com
Politicians in Lisbon and policy makers in Brussels insist that Portugal isn't like Greece. This spring, the country will have to prove it.
The European Central Bank's injection of money into the Continent's banking system has, for now, pulled Italy and Spain away from the edge of the sovereign-debt crisis. But that medicine hasn't soothed Portugal. Though its government-bond yields have improved this week, they remain at elevated levels that suggest distress.
Germany launches strategy to counter ECB largesse Germany is preparing a raft of measures to safeguard its financial system and prevent excess stimulus from the European Central Bank leaking into an inflationary credit boom.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in Frankfurt - Telegraph.co.uk
The plans have major implications for monetary union, dashing hopes in Southern Europe that Germany might accept a few years of mini-boom at home to help lift the whole system off the reefs.
Andreas Dombret, a key board member of the Bundesbank, said the body would be given powers to check "excessive credit growth" and impose "maximum leverage ratios" to nip economic overheating in the bud.
China to Contribute to Europe Rescue Efforts
By MUKESH JAGOTA - WSJ.com
NEW DELHI -- China is keen to contribute to a fund to bail out the euro zone, its trade minister said Wednesday, underscoring the Asian powerhouse's growing interest in playing a bigger role in the global economy as its financial strength grows.
"China will make due contributions" to rescue the European economy, Chen Deming said at a conference of trade ministers from the BRICS group of emerging nations--Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Europe requires a bailout package of $1 trillion, for which the international community needs to pitch in with $500 billion.
A TARP Auction Loss for Treasury
By ANDREW ACKERMAN And JEFFREY SPARSHOTT - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON—The Treasury Department on Thursday said it lost about $50 million in the public offering of its preferred stock in six smaller banks this week, though the department garnered a modest profit when counting dividends and interest paid on the investments over the past three years.
In the first auction of preferred stock purchased through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bailout vehicle launched during the financial crisis, the Treasury recouped about $362 million of the $410.8 million it invested in the six smaller banks, the Treasury said, a loss of about $50 million.
Bashing Buffett…Once Again With Feeling
By Eric Fry - DailyReckoning.com
03/29/12 Laguna Beach, California – "Right now bonds should come with a warning label," opines Warren Buffett in this year's letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. That seems like a reasonable idea, but why stop there? Why not slap a warning label on each one of Buffett's public pronouncements as well?
The warning would go something like this: This pronouncement may or may not express my honest opinions, but it will almost certainly advance a hidden political agenda that enables me to gain access to preferential treatment from elected officials and various agencies of the federal government.
Expanding the debt bubble to a tipping point –
US government debt growing 4 times faster than GDP.
Retail investors largely out of stock market.
by MyBudget360
The global market is being held together with the veneer of massive debt duct tape. The solution for much of the European debt crisis was to simply add more debt to the current situation. Solve a debt problem with more debt in other words. All this does is delay the inevitable. The hope is that somehow GDP in these countries will grow fast enough to pay off existing debts but theamount of debt is so enormous that it is mathematically impossible without inflating currencies away. Even the US is mired in enormous levels of debt and the pace of debt expanding is by far outpacing GDP growth. This is a major concern especially given the slower pace of GDP growth. Massively increasing debt beyond a serviceable level is always an issue especially when the core problem is solvency. Just look at what happened with US households and the recent debt bubble. Just because you have access to debt does not mean you should expand at an unrelenting pace. I wanted to pull some data showing the constraints of massive debt growth.
Definitive on Derivatives Blowup - Ponzi's Fail in Contraction
de·fin·i·tive [dih-fin-i-tiv] adjective 1. most reliable or complete, as of a text, author, criticism, study, or the like; schemes can go on for a long time under the mask of expansion; these frauds blow up during a contraction of new money being input into them. Such may be the story of credit derivatives as we see a working contraction in the notional value of these instruments as reported by the comptroller of the currency. In simple terms the number of these instruments has gone down to a mere 240 Trillion!.. The premise for this ponzi is the concept of netting whereby risks off offset on paper under the false justification that positions can become risk neutral. In this ponzi scheme the efficacy of the netting process has magically risen from 50% or so to an astounding 92.2%.. This means that the reported risk of 240 Trillion is only 8% of the notional amount. In less insane times the notional risk was reduced to a mere 50% through the netting process. Even with 8% risk not covered by netting the liabilities of JPM and others are far greater than their assets under management. The problem being that JPM's assets are secured by its liabilities and the liabilities of banks tend to be YOUR Savings. With changes to Safe Harbor rules the government is not only facilitating fraud with these netting assumptions but they are also putting your savings at risk by giving the coverage of derivatives priority should there be a dispute. This very issue is being worked out presently with MF Global.
Stocks Hit a Wall—And May Need the Fed After All
By: Jeff Cox - CNBC.com Senior Writer
Stocks have a hit wall since the dour economic warning from Ben Bernanke earlier this week, and the Fed chairman may be one who has to get the market to the other side.
A rally that took the major averages up more than 25 percent since October has fizzled over the past two weeks in part because of an unfettered rise in gasoline prices as well as general concerns that the economic recovery may have seen its biggest advances.
Geithner Wants to Throw
Still More Taxpayer Dollars
Down the Fannie & Freddie Toilet
By Mike Shedlock - GlobalEconomicAnalysis.Blogspot.com
Not satisfied with wasting close to $200 billion of taxpayer dollars bailing out holders of Fannie and Freddie Bonds (notably PIMCO and China), Geithner is back at it with another proposal sure to cost US taxpayers plenty if adopted.
The proposal this time is for taxpayers to pick up 63% of the cost of mortgage principal reductions. Geithner made the offer to Edward J. DeMarco, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's overseer.
Mises on the Basics of Money
Mises Daily: by Daniel James Sanchez
Is money not absurd? Daily we give up perfectly useful goods and services for the sake of little green pieces of paper.
But it is not just the fiat paper money we are familiar with that can seem strange in this regard. Even commodity money can seem weird when you think about it.
Why would people give up goods and services for little disks of silver and gold that they never actually use? Such disks are passed around via innumerable exchanges, perhaps never ultimately providing any ornamental or industrial services. What a bizarre custom!
A Cashless Society May Be Closer
Than Most People Would Ever Dare To Imagine
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Most people think of a cashless society as something that is way off in the distant future. Unfortunately, that is simply not the case. The truth is that a cashless society is much closer than most people would ever dare to imagine. To a large degree, the transition to a cashless society is being done voluntarily. Today, only 7 percent of all transactions in the United States are done with cash, and most of those transactions involve very small amounts of money. Just think about it for a moment. Where do you still use cash these days? If you buy a burger or if you purchase something at a flea market you will still use cash, but for any mid-size or large transaction the vast majority of people out there will use another form of payment. Our financial system is dramatically changing, and cash is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. We live in a digital world, and national governments and big banks are both encouraging the move away from paper currency and coins. But what would a cashless society mean for our future? Are there any dangers to such a system?
FEDS REFUSE TO RELEASE
OBAMA DRAFT DOCS TO SHERIFF JOE Arizona lawman's team believes registration fraudulent
by JEROME R. CORSI - WND.com
The Selective Service System has declined Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's request to see the original copy of Barack Obama's Selective Service registration form.
Arpaio's Cold Case Posse investigating Obama's eligibility announced at a March 1 press conference that it believes there is probable cause that the registration is fraudulent.
LORD MONCKTON: SHERIFF JOE,
POSSE 'RIGHT TO BE WORRIED'
WND.com
Former Thatcher adviser examined birth certificate evidence in Phoenix
After a visit to Phoenix to get a first-hand look at evidence collected by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his investigative team, former Margaret Thatcher policy adviser Lord Christopher Monckton says he is convinced that the document presented by the White House as Barack Obama's birth certificate is fraudulent.
Monckton, known internationally for his climate-change skepticism, told WND he didn't pay much attention to the controversy surrounding Obama's birth certificate until he watched Arpaio and his team present their preliminary findings at a March 1 news conference. The sheriff's Cold Case Posse has concluded there is probable cause that Obama's birth document and his Selective Service registration are forgeries.
Behind-the-Scenes Attempt to Kill
Arizona's Obama Eligibility Bill
Patrick Henningsen - Infowars.com
PHOENIX – Arizona's state legislature is currently pushing through a "Candidate Certification Bill" which will directly address the issue of President Obama's eligibility to hold elected federal office, and ultimately determine his place on the state election ballot come November.
But there exists an effort underway behinds the scenes, which threatens to stall – and eventually kill the legislation.
The bill will require any candidate to sign an affidavit confirming their eligibility documentation, and would impose a penalty for perjury if they were later found to be ineligible.
Sheriff Arpaio: Obama's Records Are Missing
The Obama records which have not been released include; Passport records, Obama kindergarten records, Punahou School records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, University of Chicago scholarly articles, Illinois State Bar Association records, Illinois State Senate records/schedules(said to be lost), Medical records, Obama/Dunham marriage license, Obama/Dunham divorce documents, Soetoro/Dunham marriage license, Adoption records and of course the long-form Certificate of Live Birth.
Congress Passes JOBS Act for Small Business
BY MICHAEL COHN, ACCOUNTING TODAY
Congress approved legislation Tuesday intended to spur investment in small businesses and help them access the capital markets, despite criticisms that it would weaken audit safeguards and investor protections.
The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act received strong bipartisan support and backing from the Obama administration as a way to improve job creation at small businesses. The measure passed the House for the second time on Tuesday, this time by a vote of 380-41. After the House passed the legislation earlier this month, the Senate took it up and approved an amendment intended to add some protections for investors in so-called "crowdfunding" ventures. The Senate then passed the JOBS Act last week by a vote of 73-26 and sent it back to the House (see Senate Passes JOBS Act for Small Business). The bill will now go to President Obama for his signature.
The ObamaCare Reckoning Overturning the whole law would be an act of judicial restraint.
Opinion - WSJ.com
After the third and final day of Supreme Court scrutiny of the Affordable Care Act, the bravado of the legal establishment has turned to uncertainty and in some cases outright panic. Everyone who said the decision was an easy fait accompli has been proven wrong by a Court that has treated the constitutional questions that ObamaCare poses with the seriousness they deserve.
This reckoning has also been a marvelous public education. The oral arguments have detailed the multiple ways in which the individual mandate upsets the careful equilibrium of the American political system. The Obama Administration's arguments in favor of the mandate to buy health insurance or pay a penalty stand exposed as a demand for unlimited federal power.
Wall Steet Thinks It Knows the Future of Obamacare—Why?
By Matthew O'Brien - TheAtlantic.com
Nobody except Justice Anthony Kennedy knows what will happen to Obamacare. But Wall Street, whose predictive powers are dubious, thinks it does. The proof is in the healthcare stocks.
The below chart shows Aetna's stock price the past week. Check out the vertical action today. That's a single day increase of over 6.5 percent.
It's not just Aetna. UnitedHealth Group, Humana, and Wellpoint are all up between 2 and 5 percent on the day too. What's going on?
ObamaCare and the 2012 Election Whatever the Supreme Court says, how the president handles health policy will deeply affect his chances in November.
By KARL ROVE
This week's historic Supreme Court hearings on President Obama's health-care overhaul will have huge political ramifications.
The heart of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the requirement that every American purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. Justice Anthony Kennedy—widely considered the "swing vote" on cases that divide the Supreme Court evenly along ideological lines—raised concerns on Tuesday that this individual mandate "changes the relationship of the federal government to the individual in the very fundamental way." This might mean the president's signature domestic achievement will be declared unconstitutional. If so, he would face a critical decision.
Obamacare, Common Sense, and the Law
By Clive Crook - TheAtlantic.com
Like everybody else I was surprised that the administration's counsel was so poorly prepared to answer questions he must have known he would be asked. Even so I can sympathize with the fellow because his job was never going to be easy. The best reason to rule Obamacare constitutional--the one that makes the answer seem obvious--is a matter of common sense. But that's a case counsel isn't allowed to make.
Things are looking up for state budgets
By Julie Carr Smyth, AP - Boston.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio—During the darkest days of the Great Recession, Ohio didn't have enough in its rainy day fund to buy even a candy bar. It held a balance of exactly 89 cents.
Today, the emergency fund has swelled to $247 million. A nearly $8 billion state budget gap has been closed. Unemployment has fallen from a high of 10.6 percent to 7.6 percent. And all three credit rating agencies judge Ohio to be stable.
House passes Ryan budget with Medicare overhaul
The Business Journals by Kent Hoover, Washington Bureau Chief
The House may not be able to pass a highway bill, but at least it passed a budget. That's more than the Senate can say.
The House passed the budget plan crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., this afternoon on a largely party-line 228-191 vote. The vote came after the House rejected a Democratic alternative, as well as a plan by Republican conservatives that would have slashed spending even more than Ryan's budget would.
Congress Introduces Bill
to Provide Tax Relief for Mortgage Foreclosure Victims
BY MICHAEL COHN, ACCOUNTING TODAY
A trio of congressional Democrats have introduced a bill that would provide tax relief to homeowners who were wrongly foreclosed upon and receive money from the recent nationwide mortgage foreclosure settlement.
State attorneys general across the country successfully sued five of the major banks that had been accused of using so-called "robosigning" and other dubious methods to expedite illegal foreclosures. The $25 billion settlement, which was announced last month, represents the largest financial recovery obtained by the states' attorneys general since the 1998 Master Tobacco Settlement, was reached with Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial. It will allow hundreds of thousands of distressed homeowners to stay in their homes through enhanced loan modifications and principal reduction, and it will also provide payments to victims of unfair foreclosure practices.
Best Buy to Close 50 Stores, Cut Costs
By JOAN E. SOLSMAN And MIA LAMAR - WSJ.com
Best Buy Co. outlined a plan to cut $800 million in costs, close 50 stores and eliminate 400 jobs, as online retailers continue to undermine its business model.
The cost-cutting program, which includes $250 million in reductions this fiscal year, will close 50 big-box stores and lower cost of goods sold. The company plans to use information technology to make corporate and support structure more efficient and will cut about 400 positions in those areas.
Best Buy currently has about 1,100 big-box stores.
Netflix Risks Tangle With Cable
By JOHN JANNARONE - WSJ.com
The key to Netflix's future is steady subscriber growth. Could it get some extra juice by hooking up with cable companies?
Recent reports indicated that the DVD and video-streaming company was in discussions with cable operators about offering its content alongside other pay-television channels. While it doesn't appear those talks have any traction, at least yet, it is worth asking why Netflix would even consider such deals.
North Sea Gas Leak Could Cost Billions
By SARAH KENT, GERALDINE AMIEL and BENOIT FAUCON - WSJ.com
LONDON—A major gas leak at the Elgin field in the North Sea could cost its owners billions of dollars in the worst-case scenario, analysts said this week.
The gas leak, which started Sunday, forced Total SA TOT -1.62% —the field's operator and largest shareholder—to shut down operations at the platform. The French oil-and-gas producer hasn't said whether it has determined how to stop the gas leak or to extinguish a flare, which is still burning on the platform.
FBI Taught Agents They Could 'Bend or Suspend the Law'
By Spencer Ackerman - Wired.com
The FBI taught its agents that they could sometimes "bend or suspend the law" in their hunt for terrorists and criminals. Other FBI instructional material, discovered during a months-long review of FBI counterterrorism training, warned agents against shaking hands with "Asians" and said Arabs were prone to "Jekyll & Hyde temper tantrums."
These are just some of the disturbing results of the FBI's six-month review into how the Bureau trained its counterterrorism agents. That review, now complete, did not result in a single disciplinary action for any instructor. Nor did it mandate the retraining of any FBI agent exposed to what the Bureau concedes was inappropriate material. Nor did it look at any intelligence reports that might have been influenced by the training. All that has a powerful senator saying that the review represents a "failure to adequately address" the problem.
The FBI has released the memo in question. Read it here.
Big Brother is Watching You – Even Closer
By Bob Bauman - Sovereign-Investor.com
Watch what you say and do. At this very moment, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is building America's largest-ever spy center – and it will be watching you (if they aren't already).
The NSA, the cryptologic intelligence agency of U.S. Department of Defense, is the unit that secretly saddled us with the Constitution-busting ECHELON spy program.
I have recently learned some startling information about what the Bush/Obama Homeland Security Gestapo has in store for us suspect Americans.
Contractors with top-secret clearances are now building the "Utah Data Center" – an ultra-secret project in the desert that is the latest piece of a multifaceted government plan to destroy every last bit of privacy we still have.
The NSA Is Building the Country's
Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
By James Bamford - Wired.com
The spring air in the small, sand-dusted town has a soft haze to it, and clumps of green-gray sagebrush rustle in the breeze. Bluffdale sits in a bowl-shaped valley in the shadow of Utah's Wasatch Range to the east and the Oquirrh Mountains to the west. It's the heart of Mormon country, where religious pioneers first arrived more than 160 years ago. They came to escape the rest of the world, to understand the mysterious words sent down from their god as revealed on buried golden plates, and to practice what has become known as "the principle," marriage to multiple wives.
Japan Admits Nuclear Plant Still Poses Dangers
By HIROKO TABUCHI - NYTimes.com
TOKYO — The damage to the core of at least one of the meltdown-stricken reactors at Fukushima could be far worse than previously thought, raising fresh concerns over the plant's stability and gravely complicating the post-disaster cleanup, a recent internal investigation has shown.
The results of the inquiry, released this week by the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, also cast doubt over the Japanese government's declaration three months ago that the ravaged site is now under control.
'No Country Which Threatens Israel
Can Be Permitted To Have Nuclear Weapons'
By James Fallows - TheAtlantic.com
A reader in Israel strongly disagrees with my argument that there is a "contradiction" in the current Israeli government view of Iran. On the one hand, the Iranian regime is (said to be) irrational and undeterrable -- and therefore might launch a suicidal nuclear attack on Israel. On the other hand, the Iranian regime is (thought to be) cautious and survival-minded, and therefore would not respond to a preemptive Israeli strike with broad retaliation against US or Israeli people and assets. When these views are combined, they mean that an Israeli attack on Iran can seem to be (a) necessary and (b) workable.
The reader writes (emphasis added):
As an Israeli, let me just make it clear to you. At the moment, it may be possible to strike Iran, and that it is possible that the Iranian response to the strike is rational (ie minimal, based on previous experience with Iraq and Syria) or not -- it really doesn't matter. The issue is that the future action of the Iranians cannot be predicted, and add that to the possibility of a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, and the safety of Israel is certainly unclear. Add to that the possibility of a future Iran proliferating nuclear weapons to terrorist groups and the situation becomes even worse. Thus, in the future, it will be impossible to strike Iran (due to nuclear deterrence) and the possibility exists that the Iranian government in the future may not be rational.
Azerbaijan denies giving Israel air base access
AFP - Google News
BAKU — Azerbaijan on Thursday denied allegations made by a US magazine that it had granted Israel access to its air bases which could assist in potential strikes against its neighbour Iran.
Citing anonymous senior US diplomats and military intelligence officers, the article published in Foreign Policy magazine on Wednesday suggested that cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel was "heightening the risks of an Israeli strike on Iran".
The article suggested that access to Azerbaijani airfields near the Iranian border could give Israeli fighter planes logistical advantages in carrying out sorties against nuclear facilities in Iran, which the Jewish state suspects of developing atomic weapons.
U.S. moving minesweepers to waters near Iran
By Barbara Starr - CNN.com
Four Navy minesweepers will be on their way to the Persian Gulf within weeks as part of an effort to boost American military capability in the region amid rising tensions with Iran, a Navy official says.
The minesweepers will be loaded onto cargo ships leaving the United States in late April, according to the Navy official.
The deployments were publicly confirmed by Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, earlier this month in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Goldman Sachs: Buy Gold!
By Steven Russolillo - WSJ.com
Hey gold bugs, Goldman Sachs reiterates this morning that investors should buy the precious medal.
Goldman Sachs remains bullish on gold, citing low interest rates and subdued economic growth as catalysts for gold prices to rise this year.
Goldman economists expect another round of quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve will weigh on the U.S. dollar and push gold higher. From Goldman:
Gold prices remain too low relative to the current level of real rates. Under our gold framework, US real interest rates are the primary driver of US$-denominated gold prices. However, after being remarkably strong in the first half of 2011, this relationship broke down last fall, with gold prices falling sharply in the face of declining US real rates, as tracked by 10-year TIPS yields. While gold prices have returned to trading with a strong inverse correlation to US real rates since late December, at sub-$1,700/toz they remain below the level implied by the current 10-year TIPS yields.
The next leg of gold's bull run Commentary: Buy the big central banks
By Matthew Lynn
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Has the great bull run in gold run its course?
On the surface it looks as if it might have. After running up close to $2,000 an ounce during the market panic of last autumn, it has slipped below $1,700. And it shows little sign of reclaiming its highs.
But here's one reason why it could have a lot further to go.
The big, developed world central banks will start buying again. And if they do, it would put real rocket fuel into the price of the precious metal.
The Gold Groundhog Grind
BY JIM WILLIE - FinancialSense.com
A very important objective change has taken place in the gold market. Its price is not moving above the resistance established in the 1600 to 1900 wide berth range. Its price is not moving below support in the same wide permitted range. When the gold price has approached the 1800 level recently, all manner of naked soldiers emerge with imaginery swords to whack the price down, to bring it under heel. The ruse has a high cost in the real world though, as the gold cartel has been forced to shed an enormous supply of gold as punishment for each naked short episode. The opponents to fraudulent controlled manipulated markets have emerged in force to respond. They fight from the East. They fight for a fair and equitable market. They are poking holes in the floor of the syndicate helm where legs fall through. Demand for the gold core has become acute with pitched battles. The financial presss reports none of it. In desperation, the cartel has conducted regular and routine raids of the Exchange Traded Funds, using shorted shares as the ticket at the rear dock window to cart off gold bars. What a corrupted bill of lading. Meanwhile, the major gold suppliers from mine output appear to be on the defensive or actually on the ropes. The deficit in silver only punctuates the precious metals shortage, as investment demand ramps up.
Could U.S. Dollar take Big Hit by Summer?
By Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com
There are plenty of reasons why the U.S. dollar is under downward pressure. There have been massive bailouts of the global banking system by the Federal Reserve, exploding deficits and a movement globally to move away from doing business in dollars. Now, there is a new threat, and it is being pushed by U.S. foreign policy with Iran. Iran's financial institutions are being shut out of the international banking system known as SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). The U.S. State Department is threatening other nations that trade with Iran with the same punishment. Ten countries, including the powerhouse economies of India and China, are in the crosshairs of SWIFT if they don't dramatically cut Iranian oil imports by summer.
Hyperinflation Isn't a Threat
BY LANCE ROBERTS - FinancialSense.com
A couple of days ago Cullen Roche at Pragmatic Capitalist, a daily must read site, posted a very interesting piece on hyperinflation stating:
"The latest reading from the Billion Prices Project clearly confirms the latest CPI readings from the government. This index appears to debunk many of the known conspiracy theories about the government's inflation data. The latest reading of just over 2% confirms much of what Ben Bernanke has been saying over the last year – that inflation would prove transitory."
Cullen is very correct. Hyper-inflation is not a threat. Hyper-inflation comes from a complete loss of faith in a currency from the threat of losing a war (Weimer Republic), an economic collapse or some other catastrophic event. The U.S., even with all of our economic ills and woes, is still the safest place, in terms of liquidity, depth and strength, to store excess reserves. The near historic low yield on government treasuries tell the story here. However, inflationary worries continue to grab daily headlines as gasoline approaches $4 per gallon.
Bernanke: Fed actions prevented a depression Lectures at GW a lesson in history
By Patrice Hill - The Washington Times
For Americans who have forgotten, or who never knew, how much worse things could get - shantytowns, gnawing hunger and a desperate 1 in 4 people out of work - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is providing a reminder.
In a series of four lectures he is delivering at George Washington University this month, the one-time Princeton professor and renowned specialist on the Great Depression is expounding on the horrors of the Depression and how the austerity policies of the central bank at the time made things worse.
Are Millionaires Pulling Out of Stocks?
By Robert Frank - WSJ.com
Financially speaking, it's a good time to be a millionaire.
Stock markets are up. The population of millionaires in America grew by 200,000 last year. And millionaire optimism has surged at its fastest rate in years.
Still, a new study from Phoenix Marketing International shows that many millionaires are pulling money out of their financial investments. The study shows that the percentage of millionaire investors who plan to pull money out over the next 3 months stands is at 12%, a multi-year high. For most of last year, only 7% of millionaire investors were planning decreases in their investments.
Bill Gross:
Investor returns to shrink in 'repressive environment'
By Tiffany Hsu - LATimes
The days of easy double-digit gains in stocks and other securities are coming to an end, says PIMCO's Bill Gross, the best-known bond manager in the world – but bonds are still "critical components of an investment portfolio."
Consider the classic 1963 Steve McQueen film "The Great Escape," in which American POWs are trapped in a German prison camp during World War II. There, "the living conditions were OK … but certainly not what they were used to on the other side of the lines," according to Gross.
And that, to him, represents the situation investors are in now: "locked up in a financially repressive environment that reduces future returns for all financial assets."
Bill Gross:
"The Game As We All Have Known It Appears To Be Over"
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
First it was Bob Janjuah throwing in the towel in the face of central planning, now we get the same sense from Bill Gross who in his latest letter once again laments the forced transfer of risk from the private to the public sector: "The game as we all have known it appears to be over... moving for the moment from private to public balance sheets, but even there facing investor and political limits. Actually global financial markets are only selectively delevering. What delevering there is, is most visible with household balance sheets in the U.S. and Euroland peripheral sovereigns like Greece." Gross' long-term view is well-known - inflation is coming: "The total amount of debt however is daunting and continued credit expansion will produce accelerating global inflation and slower growth in PIMCO's most likely outcome." The primary reason for Pimco's pessimism, which is nothing new, is that in a world of deleveraging there will be no packets of leverage within the primary traditional source of cheap credit-money growth: financial firms. So what is a fund manager to do? Why find their own Steve McQueen'ian Great Escape from Financial Repression of course. " it is your duty to try to escape today's repression.
Bill Gross Predicts QE3 and Operation Mortgage Twist
Mike Shedlock - GlobalEconomicAnalysis.blogspot.com
PIMCO founder and co-CIO Bill Gross spoke with Bloomberg Television's Margaret Brennan today, telling Bloomberg TV that the Fed will likely shift focus to mortgage securities to keep borrowing rates low when Operation Twist ends in June.
On Gross's view that we may see a sign from Bernanke in April that QE3 will be rolled out:
"I think [Chairman Bernanke] is very satisfied…I think the Fed is outcomes-oriented. They want an outcome in terms of a higher stock market, in terms of housing starts and lower unemployment. What [Bernanke] said on Monday, in terms of the employment, he suggested that up until now, we've done very well in terms of reducing unemployment but it'll be tougher going forward if only because of structural impediments that he outlined. Going forward, he's looking at jobs, at unemployment and the housing markets. You know, future QEs will the outcome-oriented type of strategy which seeks to provide jobs and provide higher housing prices and housing starts to continue on."
Demand for U.S. Debt Is Not Limitless
[Google title for free article pass] In 2011, the Fed purchased a stunning 61%
of Treasury issuance. That can't last.
By LAWRENCE GOODMAN - WSJ.com - $$
The conventional wisdom that nearly infinite demand exists for U.S. Treasury debt is flawed and especially dangerous at a time of record U.S. sovereign debt issuance.
The recently released Federal Reserve Flow of Funds report for all of 2011 reveals that Federal Reserve purchases of Treasury debt mask reduced demand for U.S. sovereign obligations. Last year the Fed purchased a stunning 61% of the total net Treasury issuance, up from negligible amounts prior to the 2008 financial crisis. This not only creates the false appearance of limitless demand for U.S. debt but also blunts any sense of urgency to reduce supersized budget deficits.
Saudi Arabia will act to lower soaring oil prices
By Ali Naimi - FT.com
High international oil prices are bad news. Bad for Europe, bad for the US, bad for emerging economies and bad for the world's poorest nations. A period of prolonged high prices is bad for all oil producing nations, including Saudi Arabia, and they are bad news for the energy industry more widely.
It is clear that sustained high prices are starting to take their toll on European economic growth targets. They are contributing to trade balance deficits and feeding inflationary pressures. It is an unsatisfactory situation and one Saudi Arabia is keen to help address. In an interconnected world, European economic growth is in our national interest. No one benefits from a stagnating European economy and we want to do what we can to help encourage growth.
Not Even Saudi Arabia Can Save Us From High Oil Prices
BY JASON SIMPKINS, Managing Editor, Money Morning
With oil prices soaring ever higher, Saudi Arabia stepped in last week and vowed to increase its production by 25% if necessary.
But while that assurance managed to siphon a few dollars off of oil futures, the reality is there's nothing Saudi Arabia - or anyone else, for that matter - can do about rising oil prices.
In fact, crude is still on track to reach $150 a barrel by mid-summer.
As Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi pointed out last week, current oil supplies already exceed global demand by 1 million-2 million barrels per day.
Geithner urges no more debt-ceiling drama Geithner says Congress
will likely have to raise debt ceiling late this year
By Jeffrey Sparshott
WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Wednesday told lawmakers they would probably have to raise the debt ceiling late this year, and warned against another high-stakes showdown that could damage confidence in the U.S.
"We cannot put the country through what we put the country through last July and August, with the threat of default for the first time in our nation's history hanging over the United States for a long period of time," Geithner said at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing. "That did more damage to consumer confidence almost than was caused by the [financial] crisis in the United States."
The Three E's And The BRICS An Expansion of Variables Leads to More Confusion
How The Relationship Between Europe And The BRIC Block Is Moving Money Back Into The U.S.
BY JOE DUARTE - FinancialSense.com
The last two weeks in the stock market have been a path to nowhere as measured by the major indexes. Yet, if you look around, it's plain to see that the three E's: the Economy, the Election, and Europe are still weighing heavily on the markets. Now, a new worry has surfaced, the potential decline of the BRIC block, as Brazil, China, India and Russia are showing signs of slowing growth. The upshot is that the U.S. is likely to benefit in a big way.
Europe's Bazooka Will Fire Blanks…
Good Luck Killing the Crisis With That
Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research - ZeroHedge.com
Europe continues to take a page out of Hank Paulson's "Crisis Combat" booklet, by unveiling one monetary "bazooka" after another. Obviously, EU leaders didn't notice that Paulson's "bazooka" completely failed to stop the 2008 Crash.
Even more strangely, they keep pulling out bazooka after bazooka, first unveiling the EFSF which was supposed to raise €1 trillion but failed to raise even €10 billion without having to intervene in its own bond auctions.
Then came the ESM, which was supposed to be another mega-bailout fund, which as before, is having trouble raising funds. After all, if one bailout fund is a dud, why would launching another fix anything?
MF Global Treasurer Declines to Answer Questions From Panel
By Phil Mattingly and Silla Brush - Bloomberg.com
Edith O'Brien, the MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF) assistant treasurer who has become a key figure in the disappearance of as much as $1.6 billion in customer funds, declined to answer questions from U.S. lawmakers.
O'Brien, who appeared today under subpoena before a House Financial Services subcommittee, invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination during a hearing on the New York firm's Oct. 31 bankruptcy, the eighth largest in U.S. history.
Gross: Fed to Shift Operation Twist to Mortgages
By Margaret Brennan and Liz Capo McCormick
Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Bill Gross said the Federal Reserve will likely shift focus to mortgage securities to keep borrowing rates low when its so- called Operation Twist program ends in June.
It will be a "twist on another twist going forward," Gross, who runs the world's biggest bond fund, said in an "InBusiness with Margaret Brennan" interview on Bloomberg Television.
The Fed purchased $2.3 trillion of debt in two rounds of s- called quantitative easing that have become known as QE1 and QE2 as part of its efforts to support the world's biggest economy. The Fed is replacing $400 billion of short-term debt in its portfolio with longer-term Treasuries to limit borrowing costs and counter risks of a recession.
Recovery? Housing says it's a Hoax
By Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com
Watching the financial channels yesterday, I could not tell you how many times the word "recovery" was used. Sure, the stock market is up, but that is compliments of the Federal Reserve. Since the 2008 financial meltdown, we've had a money printing extravaganza. There was QE1, QE2, Operation Twist, dollar swaps with Europe and 0% interest rates (on a key rate) through 2014. Of course the stock market is up, it loves free money. Wall Street may have recovered, but Main Street is still in the dumper. (Actually, Wall Street has just broken even since the 57% plunge it took up to March of 2009.) Professional commodities trader Dan Norcini said, this week, on his blog, ". . . the FED IS TERRIFIED OF RISING INTEREST RATES." Norcini explains, ". . . the US federal debt is at banana republic levels and any, I repeat, any rise in interest rates, will suck more of the incoming federal revenue into servicing the cost of this debt (paying the interest on it), leaving less for the spendthrift class to buy votes with. Bernanke and company cannot afford to have a stock market that stops moving higher because if and when it did, the entire facade of an economy on the mend would come crashing down with it."
Home prices fall to 2002 levels
By Les Christie @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The housing market started the new year with a thud. Home prices dropped for the fifth consecutive month in January, reaching their lowest point since the end of 2002.
The average home sold in that month lost 0.8% of its value, compared with a month earlier, and prices were down 3.8% from 12 months earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major markets.
Home prices have fallen a whopping 34.4% from the peak set in July 2006.
Geithner says closer to Fannie, Freddie reform Analysts see no progress until after election
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday that the White House and Congress were inching closer to a plan to wind down government seized giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
"It is very important we work to find a bipartisan consensus with Congress on how to wind them down, bring private capital back into this market, and ultimately replace the GSEs with something that is going to work better for the country in the future," Geithner said in testimony to the House Appropriations subcommittee on financial services.
"The War between the States established . . . this principle, that the federal government is, through its courts, the final judge of its own powers." ~ Woodrow Wilson, Constitutional Government in the United States, p. 178
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Jeffersonians warned that if the day ever arrived when the central government became the final judge of its own powers, Americans would then live under a tyranny. The government, they believed, would inevitably proclaim that there are in fact no limits to its powers. That day came in 1865 when citizen control over the federal government ended along with the rights of nullification and secession. Not surprisingly, a warmongering, imperialistic megalomaniac like Woodrow Wilson would then celebrate this fact several decades later, as the above quotation attests.
20 Signs That We Are Witnessing
The Complete Collapse Of Common Sense In America
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
What do you do when an entire nation begins to lose the capacity to think rationally? Many Americans spend a great deal of time criticizing the government, and there is certainly a lot to complain about, but it is not just the government that is the problem. All over America, people appear to be going insane. It is almost as if we have been cursed with stupidity. Sadly, this applies from the very top of our society all the way down to the very bottom. A lot of us find ourselves asking the following question much more frequently these days: "How could they be so stupid?" Unfortunately, we are witnessing a complete collapse of common sense all over America. Many people seem to believe that if we could just get Obama out of office or if we could just reform our economic system that our problems as a nation would be solved, but that is simply not true. Our problems run much deeper than that. The societal decay that is plaguing our country is very deep and it is everywhere. We are a nation that is full of people that do not care about others and that just want to do what is right in their own eyes. We hold ourselves out to the rest of the world as "the greatest nation on earth" and an example that everyone else should follow, and yet our own house is rotting all around us. The words "crazy", "insane" and "deluded" are not nearly strong enough to describe our frame of mind as a country. America has become a sad, delusional old man that can't even think straight anymore. The evidence of our mental illness is everywhere.
Welcome to third world America The Receding Tide
by Fred Reed - LewRockwell.com
Several things characterize countries of the Third Word, whatever precisely "Third World" means.
The first is corruption. America is rotten with it, but American corruption is distinct from corruption in, say, Guatemala or Thailand, being less visible and better organized.
Several major differences exist between the usual corruption in the Third World and that in America. In most of the Third World, corruption exists from top to bottom. Everyone and everything is for sale. Bribery amounts to an economic system, like capitalism or socialism. By contrast, in the United States, graft flourishes mostly at the level of government and commerce. You don't (I think) slip an admissions official at Harvard twenty grand to accept your shiftless and dull-witted slug of a misbegotten offspring. Nor do you pay a local judge to drop dope charges against your teenager. And in the Guatemalas and Egypts of the planet, corruption tends to be personal. The briber and the bribed act as individuals.
Why Can't Ron Paul Get More Traction?
By KA - Truthdig.com
He doesn't lack enthusiastic supporters, nor is his campaign short on cash, and he's galvanized scores of younger voters. So why isn't Ron Paul able to clinch the Republican presidential nomination—or even come within spitting distance—this time around? Those are questions The New York Times attempted to answer, with some input from Paul himself, on Wednesday.—KA
The New York Times:
It never happened. His strategists are searching for answers, and one may be that many who turned up for his rallies were less eager to take part in Republican primaries or argue Mr. Paul's case at Republican caucuses.
Why the April Jobs Report Could be a Disaster
by Tim Iacono - IaconoResearch.com
In a speech by Fed Chief Ben Bernanke the other day – the one that turned any lingering "risk off" thoughts in financial markets decidedly back to "risk on" (at least for the day) as another round of central bank money printing suddenly seemed possible again – the subject of a surprisingly good labor market being out-of-step with other economic indicators was raised when Bernanke commented:
… we cannot yet be sure that the recent pace of improvement in the labor market will be sustained. Notably, an examination of recent deviations from Okun's law suggests that the recent decline in the unemployment rate may reflect a reversal of the unusually large layoffs that occurred during late 2008 and over 2009.
1 Big Chart: There Is No Social Security Crisis
By Matthew O'Brien - TheAtlantic.com
Here's a question for the under-30 crowd: Do you think Social Security will still be around when you retire?Half of you don't. Here's why you should.
The below chart, courtesy of Peter Diamond and Peter Orszag, compares what we spend on Social Security and Medicare today (blue) as a percent of GDP versus what the CBO projects we will spend on them in 2050 (red). It's a tale of two very different entitlements.
Last day of high court hearing on Obamacare Justices consider scuttling health-care law
Supreme Court takes up issues of mandate, Medicaid expansion
By Russ Britt, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Supreme Court justices finished debate Wednesday afternoon on whether to scuttle the Affordable Care Act entirely or keep parts of the legislation, should they decide that requiring individuals to buy insurance is unconstitutional.
The high court then moved on to the question of whether one part of the law requiring states to expand Medicaid programs with some federal backing should be overturned.
Transcripts from the court's proceedings showed that when it came to scuttling the entire 2010 landmark law that is President Barack Obama's signature achievement, the court's liberal and conservative blocs appeared to continue arguing along ideological lines. When the subject turned to overturning the state Medicaid requirement, it seemed very little support came from justices for that proposition but conservative justices spoke up as the hearing wore on.
SCALIA LIKENS READING OBAMACARE
TO CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT
BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia humorously invoked the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishments, when discussing the Obamacare legislation during oral argument today at the Supreme Court.
JUSTICE SCALIA: Mr. Kneedler, what happened to the Eighth Amendment? You really want us to go through these 2,700 pages?
Obamacare and the Supreme Court expectations game
Posted by Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake - WashingtonPost.com
Expectations are a funny thing.
Heading into Tuesday's oral arguments on President Obama's health care law at the Supreme Court, supporters of the measure were brimming with confidence about the likelihood it would be found constitutional.
Twelve hours later, that confidence was shattered amid a less-than-stellar performance by the solicitor general (the government's head lawyer) and a series of questions from the justices — including swing vote Anthony Kennedy — that seemed to suggest they were not favorably disposed to the law.
The 3 ways the Court could rule against Obamacare's mandate
Posted by Ezra Klein - WashingtonPost.com
By nearly all estimates, yesterday's oral arguments were not good for Obamacare supporters. Solicitor Donald Verrilli, who represented the Obama administration, stumbled in his opening defense of the health reform law's individual mandate. Paul Clement, representing the law's opponents, proved a strong opponent. Justices aggressively questioned Verrilli, showing some signs of skepticism over Congress' authority to require Americans to buy insurance.
That all could lend even more gravity to the issue that the Supreme Court takes up today: If it does toss the individual mandate, what else would have to come down with it? In legal jargon, it's an issue of "severability:" How much of the law could, or couldn't survive, if the Court rules the mandated purchase of insurance to be unconstitutional. Here are the three outcomes that will be presented to the Court this morning, and what they would mean for the health reform law:
HATCH: Obamacare carries too high a price in liberty Forcing purchase of health insurance
not grounded in Constitution
By Sen. Orrin G. Hatch-The Washington Times
In October 2009, a reporter asked then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "Where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?" She responded, "Are you serious?" Few questions could be more serious, and this week, the Supreme Court is spending three days exploring this and several other questions about the legitimacy of Obamacare, the president's signature achievement and the largest expansion of government in generations.
Health Care Mandate Threatens Progressive Legacy
By Bill Blum - Truthdig.com
Day Two of the historic arguments before the United States Supreme Court on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, is a wrap, and it's hard to see the ultimate outcome being anything less than a total train wreck for the administration and a long-awaited godsend for the American right.
Topping the agenda on the second of three days of arguments was the constitutionality of the legislation's centerpiece—the so-called individual mandate that requires virtually all Americans not covered by Medicare, Medicaid or their employer to purchase at least minimal health insurance. Supporters of the mandate say it is vital to offset the cost to insurers of some of the act's protections by forcing people who might otherwise not pay for or need health insurance to buy into the system.
Psalm 14:1 -
The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."...
Why Do So Many Believers
Think Atheists Are Worse Than Rapists? Looking for answers at the Reason Rally in Washington, D.C.
By Ronald Bailey - Reason.com
"We're here! We're godless! Get used to it!," chanted the crowd of 20,000 or so atheists at this past weekend's Rally for Reason in Washington, D.C. As the chant suggests, the protesters styled their event on the National Mall (which was not affiliated with Reason magazine in any way) as a "coming out" party for atheists. One participant even carried a sign ripped off from the heyday of gay rights demonstrations: "Hi Mom. I'm an Atheist!"
Atheists Darken D.C.
By L. Brent Bozell - PatriotPost.us
What if the atheists declared they were about to throw "the largest atheist event in world history" on a Saturday in Washington and few people showed up? Reason Rally organizer David Silverman estimated that "99 percent of all atheists are closeted." The closet must still be full, because they sure weren't in Washington.
The Washington Post story on Sunday guessed there were "several thousand" people in the intermittent rain. But Paul Fidalgo of the Center for Inquiry told the Post, "We have the numbers to be taken seriously. ... We're not just a tiny fringe group."
Liminal Christians: Christianity Without the Church?
By Chuck Colson - PatriotPost.us
Want all the blessings of Christianity without having to hassle with a church? Well, it isn't possible. I'll explain why not.
In his 1985 book, Habits of the Heart, Robert Bellah and Richard Madsen introduced the world to "Sheila Larson." Sheila described her belief system this way: "I believe in God. I'm not a religious fanatic. I can't remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It's Sheilaism. Just my own little voice ... It's just trying to love yourself and be gentle with yourself ..."
Bellah and Madsen called "Sheilaism" a "perfectly natural expression of current American religious life."
Denver Targets Homeless
With Proposal To 'Ban Unauthorized Camping,' Critics Say
The Huffington Post | By Bonnie Kavoussi
A major American city wants to make it illegal to sleep on the streets.
Denver's City Council is considering an ordinance to "ban unauthorized camping" throughout the city, the Denver Postreports. The bill would make it illegal for hundreds of homeless people to sleep outside in tents or sleeping bags in the city.
The decision would come at a time when Denver has cut homeless aid, even as the number of homeless in Denver and around the country grows. Indeed, homelessness continued to rise in cities across the country in 2011, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Nike sues Reebok over Tebow apparel
By Chris Isidore @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Nike is suing rival Reebok for selling New York Jets uniforms and other Jets apparel with the name of its new quarterback Tim Tebow on them.
Nike (NKE, Fortune 500) says it is the only company authorized and licensed to use Tim Tebow's name on clothing. Reebok, a unit of German sporting equipment and apparel-maker adidas (ADDDF), did not respond to requests for comment.
Tebow was traded from the Denver Broncos to the Jets on March 21, creating a media frenzy and a huge spike in demand for Tebow-related Jets apparel in the New York market.
Tiger Woods will never win back America He had one of the most spectacular PR crashes
By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — America, it is said, loves a comeback. We are, after all, a famously forgiving nation.
Still, does this apply to Tiger Woods, whose role in a sex scandal triggered the most spectacular public fall from grace that I've ever witnessed in the sports world?
No, it does not. America will never quite forgive Woods. Even if Woods wins the upcoming Masters, America won't fall in love with him all over again. He will never again be Mr. Madison Avenue, either.
Today, Woods presents himself as an aloof, unlikable scandal-plagued golfer. He seldom smiles in public and doesn't seem in any way empathetic. He is only hurting himself by seeming so unappealing.
Why Does The Department Of Homeland Security
Need 450 MILLION Hollow Point Bullets?
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Somebody out there has decided that the Department of Homeland Security needs a whole lot of ammunition. Recently it was announced that ATK was awarded a contract to provide up to 450 MILLION hollow point bullets to the Department of Homeland Security over the next five years. Is it just me, or does that sound incredibly excessive? What in the world is the DHS going to do with 450 million rounds? What possible event would ever require that much ammunition? If the United States was ever invaded, it would be the job of the U.S. military to defend the country, so that can't be it. So what are all of those bullets for? Who does the Department of Homeland Security plan to be shooting at? According to the U.S. Census, there are only about 311 million people living in the entire country. So why does the Department of Homeland Security need 450 million rounds of ammunition? Either this is an incredible waste or there is something that the Department of Homeland Security is not telling us.
U.S. Outgunned in Hacker War
By DEVLIN BARRETT - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON—The Federal Bureau of Investigation's top cyber cop offered a grim appraisal of the nation's efforts to keep computer hackers from plundering corporate data networks: "We're not winning," he said.
Shawn Henry, who is preparing to leave the FBI after more than two decades with the bureau, said in an interview that the current public and private approach to fending off hackers is "unsustainable.'' Computer criminals are simply too talented and defensive measures too weak to stop them, he said.
North Korea's Cyberwarfare Strength Grows, General Says
By Tony Capaccio and Roxana Tiron - Bloomberg.com
North Korea's military has been increasing its ability to launch cyber attacks against American and South Korean forces, the top U.S. commander in the region said.
"North Korea employs sophisticated computer hackers trained to launch cyber infiltration and cyber attacks," Army General James Thurman, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said in testimony prepared for a congressional hearing today in Washington. "Such attacks are ideal for North Korea" because they can be done anonymously, and they "have been increasingly employed against a variety of targets including military, governmental, educational and commercial institutions."
BRICS blazes a new trail Global rebalancing requires greater role for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in international governance
By He Wenping (China Daily)
Amid the ongoing global economic and financial uncertainties, BRICS members will be discussing closer cooperation and coordination at their fourth summit, which opens in NewDelhi, India, on Wednesday.
President Hu Jintao is meeting with the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa toexchange views on the global economy and other major international issues of commonconcern. The establishing of a joint development bank, which was raised by their finance ministers on the sidelines of the February G20 summit, is also likely to be discussed.
Russia and Iran to punish the West with rubles and rials
Pravda.ru
Against the background of frightening statements that sound from the Western and Israeli politicians about the imminent attack on Iran, an active war in the economic area has been ongoing. In early January of 2012 news agencies spread the message that Tehran and Moscow abandoned transactions in dollars and euros in favor of rubles and Rials.
Note that this decision was made after the sudden drop of the Iranian Rial value in January (by more than one-third) in relation to the US dollar. According to Tehran officials, this was due to the machinations of the West and anti-Iranian hysteria.
Ben-Flation Caused By Fed's Failed Policy
By John Crudele, New York Post
The economy is broken.
Who says? Ben Bernanke does.
You don't have to do much interpreting of the Federal Reserve chairman's speech yesterday to draw that conclusion. The guy, to his credit, was mostly honest (and probably more than a little bit frustrated) when he spoke before the National Association for Business Economics Annual Conference.
Wall Street, of course, hears what it wants to hear.
Until Bernanke comes right out and screams "everything is all better" the financial community will interpret every one of his messages the same way: business conditions aren't very good yet so the Federal Reserve will have to print more money.
Critical Mass: The Mispricing of Derivatives Risk
And How the Financial World Ends
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
Jim Sinclair does a good job of explaining the difference between the notional and real value of derivatives, and how that real value comes to bear on the financial system in the event of a default. You can read this here for a review of the basic concept if you do not understand it.
Within my own view of money, uncollateralized financial instruments like derivatives are credits, or potential money. When an event triggers them so that they become real, with a significant presence on the balance sheet and the income statement, then they become money.
The Great Escape: Delivering In a Delevering World
By Bill Gross, PIMCO
About six months ago, I only half in jest told Mohamed that my tombstone would read, "Bill Gross, RIP, He didn't own 'Treasuries'." Now, of course, the days are getting longer and as they say in golf, it is better to be above – as opposed to below – the grass. And it is better as well, to be delivering alpha as opposed to delevering in the bond market or global economy. The best way to visualize successful delivering is to recognize that investors are locked up in a financially repressive environment that reduces future returns for all financial assets. Breaking out of that "jail" is what I call the Great Escape, and what I hope to explain in the next few pages.
It's Official - The Fed Is Now Buying
European Government Bonds
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
As if the 'risk-less' dollar-swaps the Fed has extended to any and every major central bank were not enough, William Dudley just unashamedly admitted that the Fed now holds 'a very small amount of European Sovereign Debt'. Explaining this position, as Bloomberg notes:
• *DUDLEY: FED HOLDS OVERSEAS SOVEREIGN DEBT TO MANAGE RESERVES
• *DUDLEY: HIGH BAR FOR ADDITIONAL PURCHASES OF EUROPE DEBT
Dudley, testifying to a House panel, noted that he doesn't see more efforts by the Fed to buffer the US from Europe's tempests and believes European banks are deleveraging in an orderly manner. So not only is the US taxpayer bailing out Europe via the IMF (as we noted here a week ago using Greece as an intermediary) and the Fed is providing limitless USD swap lines but now we join the ECB in monetizing European government bonds - something we warned might happen back in December 2010. As for being a small amount - wasn't MF Global's holding relatively small too? And aren't we getting a little full from all this buying?
Prelude to a Credit, Market & Economic Crisis? Interesting juncture
by Doug Noland - ATimes.com
Macro credit, bubble and speculative market dynamics analysis has reached another "interesting juncture". There are a few premises that will be tested over the coming weeks and months - and quite contrasting possible scenarios to contemplate.
Let's begin with the premise that global central bank market interventions are in the end destabilizing. The European Central Bank's (ECB) $1.3 trillion three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) liquidity facility was a game changer.
Not Worried About Debt? Really?
By: Allen Wastler, Managing Editor - CNBC.com
Did you check out our Investor Spring Cleaning special report? The one focusing on debt? There's an amazing development in there.
It's our poll asking people about their biggest debt worry. Is it the mortgage? Credit cards? Student loans? You know what got the biggest answer?
"Not worried"...by roughly 40 percent. And we're not talking a small sample here. Over 12,000 people took the poll.
Perception of US monetary policy key to gold rally: HSBC
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Gold and other markets rallied on Monday following Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments regarding the U.S. labor market. The length and strength of the gold rally could be subject to investor's view of monetary policy, said HSBC in a research note.
While Bernanke gave no indication of further monetary easing or another round of quantitative easing, monetary stimulus would continue, but not necessarily enhanced, HSBC added.
Stop Blaming the Gold Standard The real problems behind financial crises and depressions have nothing to do with the gold standard, but rather from mismanagement of spending and debt, and governments that are too big.
By Paul Mladjenovic, Minyanville.com
It drives me crazy when I read stuff by "economists" that is just plain wrong. Some of them are allegedly "MBAs" and "PhDs" but I think that their common sense is actually "DOA." Unfortunately, millions in the public arena see their interviews and blogs and they seem to automatically swallow their commentaries… hook, line, and sinker. Let's address some of the nonsense that these pundits are expressing.
Some conventional and well-known economists have expressed the idea that a gold standard is a bad idea and that the gold standard was a major (and possibly the major) catalyst for the Great Depression. One well-known fellow surmises that an equivalent of the gold standard is the reason why today's European financial crisis is going on. In due course, I am sure that they will blame the gold standard for global warming and probably the heartbreak of psoriasis.
Ben Bernanke's Shocking Gold Standard Ignorance
By Louis Woodhill, RealClearMarkets.com
....America's monetary problems could be solved by implementing the right kind of gold standard. However, doing this would render the Fed Chairman no more important than the head of The National Institute of Standards and Technology. No one would know his name, and the world financial markets would not hang on his every word. This fact is the wellspring of the statements made by Bernanke about "the gold standard" during his lecture at George Washington University on March 20.
Abandoning Gold Helped Dollar Gain Preeminence (Part 2)
By Johnson & Kwak, Bloomberg.com
The birth of the U.S. was paid for by both a debauched paper currency and large debts that it soon defaulted on. When Alexander Hamilton became Treasury secretary in 1789, his job was not just restoring the country's credit by restructuring the debt and imposing new taxes; he also had to clean up the mess that was money in the early U.S.
Hamilton proposed to base the monetary system on both gold and silver. Gold had advantages, including greater stability, he argued, but it would be disruptive to withdraw the large amounts of silver that were already in use. He proposed "ten dollar and one dollar gold pieces, one dollar and ten cent silver pieces, and one cent and one-half cent copper pieces," and the Mint Act of 1792 largely followed his recommendations. As gold and silver were both widely recognized bases for money at the time, this was relatively uncontroversial.
Spain to slash spending
as economy slumps back into recession Spain's fragile economy has fallen back into recession and the country faces a year of grinding economic decline as premier Mariano Rajoy slashes spending yet further to meet EU demands.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
The Bank of Spain said the "contractionary dynamic" in the economy continued into early 2012 for the second quarter in a row, with an "intensifying" pace of job losses. It expects GDP to fall by 1.5pc this year.
Mr Rajoy said at a meeting in Seoul that he would press ahead later this week with a "very austere budget", ordering 15pc cuts in spending across the ministries.
The conservative leader promised a "fair and just" distribution of pain. Public sector salaries will be frozen rather than cut and there will be no rise in VAT.
Bernanke Claims That The Fed Has Averted
A Second Great Depression
By Bailing Out The Too Big To Fail Banks
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke claims that the Federal Reserve averted a second Great Depression by bailing out the big Wall Street banks during the last financial crisis, and he says that if a similar financial crisis comes along that the correct "policy response" will be to do the exact same thing again. This was the theme of the lecture that Bernanke delivered to students at George Washington University on Tuesday. In previous lectures Bernanke has defended the existence of the Fed and detailed the history of Fed activities, but on Tuesday he addressed things that have happened since he has been at the helm of the Fed. And according to Bernanke, he has been doing a great job. Bernanke told the students that the "threat of a second Great Depression was very real" and that the Federal Reserve did exactly what needed to be done to fix the financial system. Unfortunately, the truth is that all Bernanke did was kick the can a bit farther down the road. You can't fix a debt problem with more debt, and the debt bubble we are living in today is far larger than it was in 2008. Will Bernanke still be trying to portray himself as a hero when this house of cards finally falls apart?
Bernanke Interview on ABC at 6:30 PM
by CalculatedRisk - from Transcript CHAIRMAN BERNANKE: Well, we are in a recovery. The economy's been growing-- for almost three years. And we've had some good news lately. We've-- seen the unemployment rate come down. We've seen more jobs be created. And-- consumer and household-- and business sentiment have all improved, so that's all positive, but-- DIANE SAWYER: Strong? CHAIRMAN BERNANKE: --we do have a long way to go. I-- I would say that we-- you know, it's-- it's far too early to declare victory. We have-- still 8.3% unemployment, that's-- that's too high. We've got a lot of people been un-- out of work for more than six months.
... DIANE SAWYER: Another quantitative easing on the table, always possible?
CHAIRMAN BERNANKE: Well, we don't take any options off the table. We don't know what's gonna happen in the future and we have to be prepared to respond to however the economy evolves. But again we have 17 people around the table. We look at the economy-- comprehensively and-- and review it-- at every meeting and we try to assess, you know, how much progress we're making and what else we can do that will help us achieve both the growth we want, the reduction in unemployment we want, but also maintain the price stability, the low inflation which is the other part of our mandate.
2012 Home Prices Off to a Rocky Start
According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
By S&P Indices - sacbee.com
NEW YORK, March 27, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Data through January 2012, released today by S&P Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller[1] Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed annual declines of 3.9% and 3.8% for the 10- and 20-City Composites, respectively. Both composites saw price declines of 0.8% in the month of January. Sixteen of 19 MSAs also sawhome prices decrease over the month; only Miami, Phoenix and Washington DC home prices went up versus December 2011. (Due to delays in data reporting, the January 2012 index values for Charlotte are not included in this month's release). Eight MSAs and both Composites posted new index lows in January. The 10- and 20-City Composites recorded marginal improvements in annual returns over December 2011 when they each posted -4.1%. In addition to the Composites, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, Tampa andWashington DC saw their annual rates improve compared to December; while nine of the MSAs saw their annual returns worsen compared to what was reported for December 2011. Denver, Detroit and Phoenix were the only cities to post positive annual growth rates of +0.2%, +1.7% and +1.3%, respectively. Atlanta again posted the lowest annual (and only double-digit negative) return at -14.8%.
Home Prices Stay Flat as Housing Market Still Struggling
By: Reuters - CNBC.com
U.S. single-family home prices were unchanged in January, suggesting the battered housing market continues to crawl along the bottom, a closely watched survey said on Tuesday.
The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas was flat in January on a seasonally adjusted basis. A Reuters poll of economists forecast a decline of 0.2 percent after December's 0.5 percent drop.
Housing Data Show an Uncertain Recovery Here in the US
By Chris Gaffney - DailyReckoning.com
03/26/12 St. Louis, Missouri – Good day. What a weekend here in St. Louis. I spent a majority of it outside, and we even ate dinner last night out on our deck, something that is not normal during the month of March. I enjoyed the scent of my wife's lilac bushes as I was sitting outside last night, reading up on the currency markets. The research pointed to poor housing data Friday morning as the reason for the drop in the US dollar on Friday.
Purchases of new homes in the US fell unexpectedly in February, dropping 1.6% after a revised 5.4% drop in January. This data confirmed the housing recovery in the US is not as solid as some had thought. Friday's numbers ended a week in which we saw drops in housing starts, existing home sales and new-home sales for the month of February.
Real House Prices and Price-to-Rent Ratio
decline to late '90s Levels
by CalculatedRisk
Another Update: Case-Shiller, CoreLogic and others report nominal house prices. It is also useful to look at house prices in real terms (adjusted for inflation) and as a price-to-rent ratio.
Below are three graphs showing nominal prices (as reported), real prices and a price-to-rent ratio. Real prices, and the price-to-rent ratio, are back to late 1998 and early 2000 levels depending on the index.
Almost 2 out of 10 men in their prime are not working
By Allison Linn - MSNBC.MSN.com
The recent improvements in the job market have given us reason to hope the economy is finally on the mend.
But after five years of struggles, here's a sobering reminder of how far we still have to go: Nearly two in 10 American men in the prime of their life still are not working.
Nearly 83 percent of men ages 25 to 54 – traditionally the core of the nation's workforce – were working in February, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That sounds like a lot, and the employment to population ratio for prime-age men has been improving steadily in recent months. But it's still significantly lower than five years ago, when about 88 percent of prime-age men were working.
Did the EPA Just Kill Big Coal? The Environmental Protection Agency's new greenhouse gas rules could hasten the decline of America's top source of electricity.
By Jordan Weissmann - TheAtlantic.com
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a set of landmark greenhouse gas regulations that will surely have every coal country politician, from the hills to Appalachia to the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, sputtering mad. The rule will require new power plants to emit about 43 percent less carbon dioxide than today's coal-fired generators. Natural gas plants already meet this requirement. But if a utility wants to burn coal for electricity, it will need to install carbon capture technology -- and that's really expensive.
"This standard effectively bans new coal plants," one petulant lobbyist told The Washington Post.
And indeed, it could. But while that might be devastating for mining companies, it won't mean a whole lot to consumers. Coal use, you see, is already in decline. Blame America's natural gas boom.
Welcome to the United States of Orwell, Part 2:
Law-Abiding Taxpayers Are Treated as Criminals
While the Real Criminals Go Free
By Charles Hugh Smith - OfTwoMinds.com
Law-abiding taxpayers are treated like criminals while the criminal class of financiers and State apparatchiks are free to loot and pillage muppets and taxpayers alike.
I recently received quite an education about how law-abiding taxpayers are treated by the state of California via dozens upon dozens of emails detailing how the Golden State ransacked the bank accounts of law-abiding taxpayers in other stateswithout notification or due process, as if the citizens being looted were crafty bankers who'd stolen church funds to live tax-free in an offshore tax haven.
The 12 Questions That Could Kill the Individual Mandate A review of the justices' creative, and potentially crucial, questions from today's hearing
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
Today was the most important day in the history of the individual mandate. And it might be the day the individual mandate died, based on the conservative justices' creative and painstaking assault on the law. "This was a train wreck for the Obama administration," Jeffrey Toobin told CNN. "This law looks like it's going to be struck down."
Koch Brothers, Worth $50 Billion,
Sue Widow Over $16.00 of Nonprofit's Stock
by PAM MARTENS AND RUSS MARTENS
With the Koch brothers, it's all about control. They reign over the largest private oil company in the U.S. with estimated revenues of $100 billion. They wield power over a sprawling network of nonprofit front groups with unbridled influence over everything from the Tea Party to economics professors at publicly funded universities. Forbes lists their personal wealth as $25 billion each. They own mansions in the toniest towns in America. And last week, in a decidedly Scrooge-esque maneuver, they filed a lawsuit against a widow who lost her husband to a stroke a mere four months ago over stock she inherited in the Cato Institute worth a measly $16.00.
Supreme Court Could Be Lining Up Against Obamacare
247wallst.com
In a second day of argument, the US Supreme Court today seemed to indicate that the majority of justices are coming down against the individual mandate in the health care reform act known as Obamacare. Particular attention was being paid to Justice Anthony Kennedy, long considered to be the swing vote between the four conservative and four liberal justices.
Kennedy's noted at one point that the individual mandate, which requires Americans to purchase health insurance, "changes the relationship of the government to the individual in the very fundamental way."
Obamacare Will Bankrupt US: Rep. Paul Ryan
By: Michelle Fox - CNBC.com
Obama's federal health care law, which is now front of the U.S. Supreme Court, will bankrupt the U.S. and destroy the country's health care system,Rep. Paul Ryan, (R) Wis., told CNBC Tuesday.
"It vastly underestimates how many employers will actually drop their employer health insurance and dump people into the government exchange," Ryan said.
In fact, he said private sector actuaries have told him that within a couple of years, about two-thirds of employers will "wash their hands" of offering health insurance to employees.
Supreme Court turns to key constitutional issue
in health-care law
By Robert Barnes and N.C. Aizenman - WashingtonPost.com
The Supreme Court's conservative justices appeared deeply skeptical that the Constitution gives Congress the power to compel Americans to either purchase health insurance or pay a penalty, as the court completed two hours of debate Tuesday on the key component of the nation's health-care overhaul law.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, traditionally the justice most likely to side with the court's liberals, suggested that the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act invoked a power "beyond what our cases allow" the Congress to wield in regulating interstate commerce.
Toobin:
Obama healthcare reform law 'in grave, grave trouble'
By Daniel Strauss - TheHill.com
A top legal analyst predicted Tuesday that the Obama administration's healthcare reform legislation seemed likely to be struck down by the Supreme Court.
Jeffrey Toobin, a lawyer and legal analyst, who writes about legal topics for The New Yorker said the law looked to be in "trouble." He called it a "trainwreck for the Obama administration."
"This law looks like it's going to be struck down. I'm telling you, all of the predictions, including mine, that the justices would not have a problem with this law were wrong," Toobin said Tuesday on CNN. "I think this law is in grave, grave trouble."
How Will the Court Decide? Arguments on Obamacare
By Chuck Colson - PatriotPost.us
How will the Supreme Court decide the Obamacare case? And what will factor into their decision?
It has been a long time since I've seen crowds this big protesting outside the Supreme Court. They're all there: Tea Partiers and Obamacare supporters marching, praying, chanting, carrying signs. The marching band was an interesting touch!
The occasion of course is the three days of oral arguments in the case that may decide the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- or at least critical pieces of it.
Obamacare: Will the Court Vindicate Itself?
By David Limbaugh - PatriotPost.us
If there has ever been a case that could vindicate the Supreme Court as a guardian of liberty or incriminate it as freedom's thief, it is the court's present consideration of the Affordable Care Act.
At the founding of the republic, the Anti-Federalist opponents of the Constitution warned that to grant the power to declare laws unconstitutional to an unelected and life-tenured Supreme Court could subvert the democratic republic and threaten our liberties.
Richard Clarke: China has hacked every major US company Cybersecurity advisor Richard Clarke is warning the U.S. that its major companies are being regularly infiltrated by Chinese hackers employed by the Chinese government to steal R&D.
By Emil Protalinski - ZDNet.com
Richard Clarke, a former cybersecurity and cyberterrorism advisor for the White House, was a U.S. government employee for 30 years: between 1973 and 2003. He worked during the times of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and even George W. Bush. He may not be working under current U.S. president Barack Obama, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have something to warning about. He says state-sanctioned Chinese hackers are stealing R&D from U.S. companies, threatening the long-term competitiveness of America. We've heard this before, but the way Clarke puts it makes the situation look even more dire.
Why the Wars Will Not End How the New American Empire Really Works
by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - CounterPunch.org
Great empires, such as the Roman and British, were extractive. The empires succeeded, because the value of the resources and wealth extracted from conquered lands exceeded the value of conquest and governance. The reason Rome did not extend its empire east into Germany was not the military prowess of Germanic tribes but Rome's calculation that the cost of conquest exceeded the value of extractable resources.
The Roman empire failed, because Romans exhausted manpower and resources in civil wars fighting amongst themselves for power. The British empire failed, because the British exhausted themselves fighting Germany in two world wars.
Morocco: Anti-Israel Rally Kicks Off 'Global March to Jerusalem'
BY JEREMIAH JACQUES - TheTrumpet.com
Tens of thousands of Muslims held a massive anti-Israel protest in Rabat, Morocco, on Sunday, burning Israeli flags and demanding the "liberation" of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque. The rally forced an Israeli diplomat to flee the city, and kicked off the "Global March to Jerusalem," which is scheduled to culminate this Friday.
The Islamic group organizing the event reported that 100,000 Muslims participated in the rally. Arab media said the protest was spawned by anger at the participation of Israeli diplomat David Saranga in a Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (euromed) meeting at Morocco's parliament. Morocco's ruling party boycotted the meeting because of Saranga's involvement, and many legislators and citizens voiced disapproval of his participation. At the rally, activists waved Palestinian flags, set Israeli flags on fire, and chanted for the freedom of the al-Aqsa Mosque from Israeli occupation.
Pentagon backs expanding Israel's Iron Dome
(Xinhua) ChinaDaily.com
WASHINGTON - US Defense Department on Tuesday said it supports expanding Israel's anti-rocket defense system Iron Dome, and is to ask Congress for money to install more suchsystems.
In a statement, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said supporting the security of Israel isa "top priority" of President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and thePentagon intends to "request an appropriate level of funding from Congress" to supportacquisition of additional Iron Dome systems "based on Israeli requirements and productioncapacity".
Syria accepts Annan peace plan, but clashes continue
By msnbc.com staff and news services
Syria accepted a cease-fire drawn up by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan on Tuesday, but the diplomatic breakthrough was swiftly overshadowed by intense clashes between government soldiers and rebels that sent bullets flying into Lebanon.
Opposition members accuse President Bashar Assad of agreeing to the plan to stall for time as his troops make a renewed push to kill off bastions of dissent. And the conflict just keeps getting deadlier: The U.N. said the death toll has grown to more than 9,000, a sobering assessment of a devastating year-old crackdown on the uprising that shows no sign of ending.
Gold and China:
Where the Bulls and Bears Square Off
By Frank Holmes - GoldSeek.com
To paraphrase the great Steve Martin, today's investors are very passionate people and passionate people tend to overreact at times. An overreaction is exactly what's happened in gold and global markets in recent weeks. While market bulls have been sniffing out data points to support their case, market bears have continued to take a glass-half-empty approach.
Gold and China are two areas that have been caught in the bear trap this week, but we believe the gold and China bulls still have room to run.
Tim Price And Don Coxe: "We Have Entered The Most Favourable Era
For Gold Prices In Our Lifetime"
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
...."In our view, we have entered the most favourable era for gold prices in our lifetime, and the share prices of the great mining companies will eventually outperform bullion prices."
Gold remains one of the most widely misunderstood assets in the investible world. Indeed, it may be better to refer to it as a means of saving that does not expose the saver to counterparty or credit risk or to the depredations of the monetary authorities.
Presenting The US Economy's Coming Fiscal Cliff
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
The size and scale of 'current law' expectations for spending in 2012 and 2013 are dramatic to say the least. As Morgan Stanley notes, these are huge economic and political challenges to any deficit reduction - which we discussed last week (courtesy of James Montier) is critical if we are to maintain corporate profit margins. Presenting, with little pomp and circumstance, the US economic fiscal cliff...
Bernanke – Additional Accommodation Is Entirely Possible
BY ASHA BANGALORE - FinancialSense.com
Chairman Bernanke presented an extensive assessment of the labor market this morning. Bernanke repeated his depiction of the labor market as "far from normal," which was his opinion at the February 29, 2012 semi-annual testimony to the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives. He listed positive developments in the labor market – the noticeable increase in payrolls in the three months ended February (+245,000, 3-month moving average), moderation in layoffs in the public sector, longer workweek, the drop in theunemployment rate from 9.0% in September 2011 to 8.3% in February 2012, and the declining trend of new jobless claims. On the negative side, he mentioned it is unclear if the recent gains in payrolls "will be sustained," and listed another set of indicators to watch – jobless rate, long-term unemployment, and the rate of net hiring. Bernanke spoke about, a much discussed issue, whether the current level of unemployment represents cyclical unemployment or structural unemployment. He concluded that both types of unemployment co-exist, but only "a modest portion" of unemployment is due to "persistent structural factors."
Bernanke Decrees: Gold Rips, VIX Slips, And Volume Dips
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Gold managed a 1.8% surge today (back above $1690 and its 200- and 100-DMAs and its largest jump in 2 months) from Friday's close thanks to the combination of the ECB on Friday and Merkel and Bernanke today assuring the world that anything more than a 2% dip in stocks will not be tolerated. While Silver outperformed Gold from Friday's close, based on its 2-3x beta of the last year this was a notable 'underperformance' as Gold outpaced everything (beta adjusted). Perhaps importantly, the S&P 500 when priced in gold met and rejected resistance at a key level today - even with its nominal 30pt rally off of Friday's S&P lows. Volumes were abysmal with stocks well below YTD average and the S&P futures 20% below average and among the lowest few days' volumes of the year.
Bernanke says U.S. needs faster growth
By Pedro da Costa and Jason Lange
(Reuters) - The U.S. economy needs to grow more quickly to bring the unemployment rate down further, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday, defending the central bank's policy of very low interest rates.
While he offered no indication the Fed is keen to embark on a third round of bond purchases, Bernanke also made clear the central bank is in no rush to reverse course after responding aggressively to a deep recession.
The jobless rate has dropped to 8.3 percent from 9.1 percent last summer, a move Bernanke said was "somewhat out of sync" with the rather modest pace of economic growth.
Will Bernanke Become 'Hurricane Ben'?
by Gary North - LewRockwell.com
This report will deal with quantitative easing (QE). To prepare you for this report, I ask you to watch a short video. It is under 3 minutes. This video is the best thing I have seen on quantitative easing. I wish Bernanke would be this forthright, but I suppose this will never happen.
I will assume from this point on that you have seen the video. If you deal with colleagues who have been confused about what QE really means, forward it to them.
Bernanke getting angry at the bond market Recent increase in bond yields unnerves Bernanke
By MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — There are lots of ways to interpret the Federal Reserve's continual talking down of the U.S. economy, but the comments from Ben Bernanke on Monday have a clear target: the bond market.
The well-worn axiom "don't fight the Fed" is well worn for a reason: it's a smart move. Stock-market investors who went long after the Fed cut interest rates to nearly zero in December 2008, or bought after the central bank's various bond-buying initiatives, have been well-rewarded.
Ben has commanded: "Thou shalt take risk." He also has commanded from Mount Jackson Hole, and other venues: "Bond rates shall stay low."
Fiscal Policy Pays for Itself, Stimulus was the Right Call Unusual Times Call for Unusual Measures -
Stimulus Should be Used Again Now
by Larry Summers and Brad DeLong,
Brookings Institution - Brookings.edu
With monetary policy out of ammunition, policymakers should aggressively turn to fiscal policy, which may do so much good for the economy that it virtually pays for itself, according to a new paper released today at the Spring 2012 Conference on the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) authored by Lawrence Summers of Harvard and J. Bradford DeLong of U.C. Berkeley.
In "Fiscal Policy in a Depressed Economy," Summers, who served as one of President Obama's top economic advisers and was Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, and DeLong argue that we are living in unusual economic times, which call for unusual measures. They say that "while the conventional wisdom rejecting discretionary fiscal policy is appropriate in normal times, discretionary fiscal policy where there is room to pursue it has a major role to play in the context of severe downturns that take place in the aftermath of financial crises." Abstract - PDF...
Chinese Business Media Cautions Japanese Bond Bubble Is Ready To Burst,
Anticipates 40% Yen Devaluation
Submitted by Tyler Durden -ZeroHedge.com
It is a fact that when it comes to the oddly resilient Japanese hyperlevered economic model, the bodies of those screaming for the end of the JGB bubble litter the sides of central planning's tungsten brick road. Yet in the aftermath of last month's stunning surge in the country's trade deficit, this, and much more may soon be finally ending. Because as Caixin's Andy Xie writes "The day of reckoning for the yen is not distant. Japanese companies are struggling with profitability. It only gets worse from here. When a major company goes bankrupt, this may change the prevailing psychology. A weak yen consensus will emerge then." As for the bubble pop, it will be a sudden pop, not the 30 year deflationary whimper Mrs. Watanabe has gotten so used to: "Yen devaluation is likely to unfold quickly. A financial bubble doesn't burst slowly. When it occurs, it just pops.
GREEK GOVERNMENT ROBBED PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
TO COMPLETE BOND SWAP "But Lucas my dear, if you run out of poor people,
you can always steal from the sick"
Hat4UK.wordpress.com REVEALED: HOW VENIZELOS REGIME SECRETLY REMOVED 70% OF MAJOR HOSPITAL, UTILITY & UNIVERSITY BANK ACCOUNT FUNDS TO PAY BONDHOLDERS Bank of Greece complicit in broadscale embezzlement revealed by respectable Greek health site
The illegally denied default of Greece entered a dramatic new phase this afternoon with the revelation by mainstream Greek public health website Health News that, shortly before midnight on March 8th – the eve of Greece's psi completion on Friday March 9th – on average 70% of public utility funds in various large, interest-bearing accounts at the Bank of Greece were raided. These included most of the State's regional hospital budgets, various universities and (it is alleged) at least one utility company.
The U.K. Is Not O.K.
BY GRANT WILLIAMS - FinancialSense.com
Britain's 'austerity drive' really has been nothing of the sort when you look at the numbers (which we shall do in a moment), but somehow, in a brilliant piece of marketing, the coalition government have managed to talk tough whilst simultaneously bringing the UK's Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR) to a little over 60% ABOVE where it was when they took office in May 2010.
In his most recent piece of surgical brilliance, Greg Weldon (www.weldononline.com) laid out the numbers in simple fashion, revealing just how bad things have become in the Sceptered Isle:
A Fistful of Euros
By: Dr. Ron Paul, U.S. Congressman - GoldSeek.com
This week, my congressional committee will hold a hearing to examine how the Federal Reserve bails out European banks, propping up spendthrift European governments in the process. Unfortunately this bailout comes at the expense of American citizens, in the form of higher prices and diminished savings down the road.
A good analysis of the Fed's "swap" scheme first appeared in the Wall Street Journal back in December, in an article by Gerald O'Driscoll entitled, "The Federal Reserve's Covert Bailout of Europe." Essentially, beginning late last year the Fed provided U.S. dollars to the European Central Bank in exchange for Euros-- sometimes as much as $100 billion at a time. The ECB then funneled those dollars to European banks to provide liquidity and prevent crises from bank insolvencies. Since the currency swap was not technically a loan, the Fed did not have to embarrass itself by openly showing foreign bank debt on its balance sheet. The ECB meanwhile did not have to print new Euros and expose the true fragility of big European banks.
More Bad News for the Dollar
Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com
Buying gasoline these days has turned into a horror show. I filled up my car and handed the attendant a $50 bill to turn the pump on. I had a little more than a quarter of a tank. So, I thought that would do the trick and peg the needle past full with change to spare. I was wrong. I stood in shock as the pump rolled right past $40 and up to $50. The car (which is a Buick Lacrosse) was still not quite full. I thought, $50 is not enough to fill up a standard size car with already more than a quarter of a tank? You could say fuel has gotten expensive, but in reality, the dollar is losing its buying power. Money printing and monster deficits in America are the big problems for the buck. The more dollars we produce, the less each one is worth. The rest of the world has been noticing and moving away from the dollar.
The Fed Is Losing The "Race To Debase"
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
As we pointed out about a month ago, in "While You Were Sleeping, Central Banks Flooded The World In Liquidity" as the world was focused on headlines whether or not the Fed would step up as it always does when the market is sliding, and unleash the monetary floodgates, it was not Ben Bernanke, buteveyrone else that hit CTRL+P and took the place of the Fed, of note the primary central banking peers among the Final Four - the ECB, the BOE and the BOJ. And why not: after all the hope was that since electronic money is electronic money, and can be moved from point A to point B at the push of a button, it would be used primarily to reflate stocks around the world, but mostly where the path has least resistance - the US. What was not accounted for was that money would also be used to inflate commodities such as oil - a key factor when delaying further US-based easing in an election year.
15 Fundamental Problems with Fiat Currencies
BY RON HERA - FinancialSense.com Value Subjectivism and Monetary Instability
Subjectivism is the philosophy that reality is what we perceive to be real and that no underlying, true reality exists independent of human perception. In other words, the nature of reality for an individual person is dependent on that individual's own consciousness. It follows that each person experiences their own reality that is not shared with others. What is true and what seems moral to one person may not be true or moral for another person, i.e., truth and morality are relative. In contrast, objectivism is the philosophy that reality exists independent of human consciousness; that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception; and that objective knowledge of reality can be obtained through perception, evidence and logic, e.g., through scientific methods.
Is the US Dollar Headed for a Major Fall?
By: Julian D. W. Phillips - GoldSeek.com
One of the facts of life over the last 40 years has been that the U.S. dollar is the world's sole global reserve currency. This is despite the fundamental factors underlying the U.S. balance of payments, which has been awful over that entire time. Nevertheless, the dollar ruled the global monetary system through these four decades and appears to be doing so still. But is that coming to an end? Next week there is a meeting of the BRIC nation over the use by the U.S. of the SWIFT system to block Iran from selling its oil. The BRIC nations are buyers of that oil. Their views on Iran's nuclear policies do not go as far as refusing to buy their oil. The SWIFT system is the system used to make international payments and covers most acceptable currencies.
This use of the international monetary system as a war machinehas surprised and angered these nations who are meeting next week to discuss this and, no doubt, to work out ways to prevent the U.S. from exercising such power. If they succeed, they will have formulated a way to bypass the U.S. dollar as the dominant currency with which to pay for oil. Once this hold has been broken, we may see a steady move away from the U.S. dollar as the sole global reserve currency.
Can Bernanke Break the Dollar Rally?
By Toby Connor, GoldScents - GoldSeek.com
In response to a bursting real estate and credit bubble in 2007 Bernanke's solution was to crank up the printing press and flood the world with dollar bills. Unfortunately it didn't solve our problems, it only made them worse. The real estate and credit bubbles stayed busted, but that liquidity had to land somewhere. In 2008 it went straight into the energy and agricultural markets spiking the price of crude, gasoline and food. This in turn collapsed a fragile global economy that was already reeling from the real estate implosion. The end result was the exact opposite of what Benjamin intended. Instead of halting the real estate collapse he just magnified the severity of the recession.
Bernanke Just Admitted the Fed Failed...
Not That More QE Is Coming
Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research - ZeroHedge.com
So Bernanke provided the "QE is coming" crowd with hope again this morning, using the usual ambiguous language that stock bulls convert into a definitive declaration of more QE.
Here's what Bernanke said:
"If this hypothesis is wrong and structural factors are in fact explaining much of the increase in long-term unemployment, then the scope for countercyclical policies to address this problem will be more limited. Even if that proves to be the case, however, we should not conclude that nothing can be done."
Fed should not pump more money
into economy in 2012: survey
(Reuters) - U.S. business economists said the Federal Reserve's easy money policies have been effective but they do not think the central bank should pump more money into the economy, a survey showed on Monday.
Just over 60 percent of economic professionals polled by the National Association for Business Economics felt the Fed's two rounds of quantitative easing had been a "success," the survey said.
However, 81 percent of economists surveyed said the Fed should not pursue another round of quantitative easing or bond-buying this year.
Treasury Said to Want Ally Sale With IPO Seen Unlikely
By Jeffrey McCracken and Dakin Campbell - Bloomberg.com
The U.S. Treasury Department, which put $17.2 billion into a bailout of Ally Financial Inc., would prefer a breakup and sale of the lender because an initial public offering may not succeed, according to people familiar with the matter.
Treasury officials are telling Ally executives, directors and financial advisers that an IPO is unlikely soon because of the company's high cost of capital relative to other banks, the potential bankruptcy of a mortgage unit, and its recent performance in Federal Reserve stress tests, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
Mounting Foreclosures Draw Panel's Attention Westchester Residential Opportunities, a housing counseling group, gathers experts for a discussion.
By Tom Bartley - Chappaqua.patch.com
"Robo-signing," a sketchy device intended to speed home-mortgage foreclosures, could also prove a pitfall for banks in court cases, a Washington-based housing advocate told his Mount Kisco audience Thursday.
The advocate, Robert Strupp, is a lawyer who called such wholesale production of potentially false documents "a total deviation" from legal norms. Strupp suggested the tainted forms could leave a fundamental question unanswered if a bank sued a defaulting homeowner.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Resistance
To Principal Reduction Costs Taxpayers
By Peter S. Goodman - Huffingtonpost.com
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- After two years of bewildering futility, John and Linda DeCaro thought they had finally found a way to hang on to their home.
They could no longer afford their mortgage payments and had slipped into delinquency. They could not refinance to take advantage of low-interest rates because they were among the nearly 11 million American homeowners who are "underwater," meaning that they owed the bank more than their house was worth. Bank of America had already initiated foreclosure proceedings.
Services Displace Factories
in Driving U.S. Expansion: Economy
By Carlos Torres - Bloomberg.com
Service producers are taking over from manufacturing as the driver of the almost three-year-old U.S. expansion.
The end of the recession in June 2009 triggered the biggest surge in production in a decade, propelled by rising demand from overseas and the need to replenish inventories and upgrade equipment. That is now giving way to increasing sales at places like restaurants, transportation companies and temporary-help agencies, leading to gains in employment that have bolstered the world's largest economy.
The anti–Walmart
By David Rohde - Reuters.com
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Cashiers are barred from interacting with customers until they have completed 40 hours of training. Hundreds of staffers are sent on trips around the U.S. and world to become experts in their products. The company has no mandatory retirement age and has never laid off workers. All profits are reinvested in the company or shared with employees.
A doomed Internet startup? Occupy Wall Street fantasy? Bankrupt retailer recently purchased by Walmart?
No, a $6.2 billion-a-year, 79-store-supermarket chain with cult-like loyalty among its customers.Wegmans, which operates its 79 stores in New York, Pennsylvania and four other East Coast states, shows that a business can generously train its workforce and profit handsomely.
Something To Think About Inflation, Stagnant Wages, Higher Taxes, No Jobs The end of the middle class and other things to think about.
by Richard Russell, 321Gold - LewRockwell.com
Here I am, a the tender age of 87. How did I ever get here? And one of my problems is that I don't know many people my age to talk to (except my sister and my first wife). Going – My old pal Harry Schultz has quit the business. And one of my favorites, the brilliant Fred Hickey of theHigh Tech Strategist, has dropped out of the business from sheer exhaustion (I don't blame him), which leaves me, Granville and Dines as the remaining godfathers of the investment advisory biz. Thumbs up guys, and keep at it.
City May Sell Historic Landmarks
Blatimore.CBSLocal.com
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — More than a dozen historic landmarks in Baltimore may be up for sale soon.
But as Gigi Barnett reports, the city first wants to know how much they will bring in first.
The city says its historic buildings are a liability, an eyesore and a drain on its pockets.
Baltimore's Shot Tower was the tallest building in the nation back in 1828 and became a national historic landmark in the early 1970s. The city says it wants to know how much the Shot Tower is worth to a private developer.
Bernanke Says Accommodative Policy
Needed to Cut Joblessness
By Steve Matthews and Jeff Kearns - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said while he's encouraged by the unemployment rate's decline to 8.3 percent, continued accommodative monetary policy will be needed to make further progress.
The drop in unemployment may reflect "a reversal of the unusually large layoffs that occurred" in 2008 and 2009, and this process may now be over, Bernanke said in a speech today in Arlington, Virginia. Reducing the jobless rate further will probably require a quicker expansion of business production and consumer demand, which "can be supported by continued accommodative policies," he said.
Apple Seeks Help With 'Next Generation' Data Centers
By Caleb Garling - Wired.com
Apple is actively advertising for help with the design and construction of its "next generation" data centers as it begins work on a new computing facility in Prineville, Oregon and expands its iCloud data center in Maiden, North Carolina.
"As Apple's new products and services expand and grow, so too does the need for more servers and server space to house them, Data Centers," reads a new Apple job listing.
"The candidate selected for this position will become an important part of the Apple team responsible for the design and construction implementation of the next generation of data centers. They will be expected to participating in meetings as the project develops from the conceptual phase into design development, and then up and through issued for construction."
FTC urges transparency law for Internet data brokers
By Cecilia Kang - WashingtonPost.com
The Federal Trade Commission on Monday urged Congress to enact Internet privacy laws that would force data brokers to reveal what information they buy and sell about consumers.
In a wide-ranging report that also supports self-regulatory efforts by businesses, the FTC stopped short of supporting laws that would mandate anti-tracking buttons on Web sites — a proposal that Internet advertisers have lobbied hard to keep out of legislation.
FTC Tells Net:
Agree to Stop Invading Privacy (Or We'll Say 'Stop' Again)
By Ryan Singel - Wired.com
The FTC put the online advertising and user tracking industry on notice Monday that it's time to clean up its act and start treating users' data with respect, laying out broad guidelines for companies to follow. But the agency stopped short of calling for federal regulation of online data collectors, amid protests from online companies that regulation would kill a vibrant industry.
The report adds more weight to the Commerce Department's own recent report and the White House's call for an online bill of rights. The FTC's report (.pdf) outlines broad principles that the FTC wants browser makers, ISPs, online ad companies, search engines and social networks — as well as offline data collecting entities — to pledge to obey.
Gray Nation:
The Very Real Economic Dangers of an Aging America Two economists envision a scary -- and scarily realistic -- future where the working population expands slower and slower, and jobless recoveries are the only recoveries we know
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
In the future, U.S. growth will be slower. Recessions will be deeper. Recoveries will be weaker. And there's exactly one thing to blame.
Demographics.
That's the stark conclusion from James Stock and Mark Watson in this fascinating, and occasionally depressing, new paper. In fact, they say, the future is now. For the last few years, we've weathered the beginning of what demographers have called the grey tsunami. "Most of the slow recovery [in today's job market] is attributable to a long-term slowdown in trend employment growth," Stock and Watson write.
Antibiotics, the Next Generation!
By Patrick Cox - DailyReckoning.com
03/21/12 Marco Island, Florida – Scientists are very interested in bacteria for a number of reasons. Among the most recent is that they can be used to manufacture various important chemicals, including fuels.
We tend not to think about it, but the single-cell microorganisms categorized as bacteria are the dominant life form on Earth. In some mathematical sense, this is their planet and we just use it.
Obamacare on Trial: Day One
BY ADAM J. WHITE - WeeklyStandard.com
The solicitor general had an interesting morning. He argued before the Supreme Court's nine justices that Obamacare's individual mandate isn't a "tax"—even though he'll argue tomorrow that the mandateis a "tax." And then the government's top litigator invoked the possibility of incompetent government litigators as a reason to reject an argument raised by the plaintiffs
Welcome to the Supreme Court's review of Obamacare. One day down, two more to go.
3 Reasons to End Obamacare Before it Begins!
Nick Gillespie & Meredith Bragg - Reason.com
As the legality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - a.k.a. Obamacare - goes before the highest court in the land, here are three reasons to chuck the whole program even before it gets underway.
1. It Represents the End of Limited Government... [snip]
2. Its Price Tag is Already Ballooning... [snip]
3. Obamacare Won't Make Us Healthier... [snip]
3 Reasons to End Obamacare Before it Begins!
As the legality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - a.k.a. Obamacare - goes before the highest court in the land, here are three reasons to chuck the whole program even before it gets underway.
Anti-Obama urologist Jack Cassell interview
Victor Schaffner questions the Mount Dora doctor who posted the infamous sign, "If you voted for Obama ... seek urologic care elsewhere." Originally aired February 11, 2011
Supreme court unlikely to delay healthcare ruling
By Joan Biskupic and James Vicini
(Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday appeared prepared to decide the fate of President Barack Obama's sweeping healthcare law soon, rather than delaying for years a ruling on the mandate that Americans buy insurance or pay a penalty.
In the first of three days of historic arguments, the justices voiced doubt that a U.S. tax law requiring that people pay first and litigate later should postpone a ruling on the legal challenge to the president's signature domestic legislative achievement.
Recovery In Action:
Nearly $300 Billion Student Debt In Default
By Tim Cavanaugh - Reason.com
You may want to hold off on that home purchase/new business start/auto purchase/flat-screen TV/evening out/vente cup of coffee.
You keep hearing that economic recovery is gathering strength. (Which in practice translates into record numbers of people on food stamps,fewer people working for a living, and a drop in both new and existing home sales.) But here's a big D-Minus that could bring down the whole economy's GPA:
Army overwhelmed by massive lots of waiting vehicles
By Kristina Wong - The Washington Times
Imagine a parking lot as large as 100 football fields and filled with nearly every type, make and model of U.S. military vehicle, covered in dust and dirt and baking under a desert sun in Kuwait.
Your job: Find one specific vehicle, read its serial number and catalog it for transport back to the United States.
That's part of the daunting task facing theResponsible Reset Task Force, which must inspect thousands of vehicles used in the Iraq War and decide which ones are worth sending back to the United States.
Is Barack Obama Advocating and Encouraging Treason?
By Tom Davis PatriotPost.us
"Democratic governors discuss bypassing Congress with Obama" was the headline in The Hill's Blog Briefing Room on March 24, 2012 and reported by Alicia M. Cohn.
The first sentence set the tenor of the discussion, "President Obama met with a group of Democratic governors on Friday and discussed plans to work around Congress toward policy goals."
Jack Markell, the Democratic Governor of Delaware told The Hill that the meeting was "very good" and that "many of the governors were responsive to ideas about bypassing Congress."
Markell remarked that they couldn't wait for Congress and are ,"going to do what we can now."
The 'Secret' American Laws You Have to Pay to See
By Bruce Watson - DailyFinance.com
In America, dealing with the legal system isn't cheap If you find yourself in court, chances are that you'll spend a fortune hiring the best lawyer you can afford. But while good legal counsel costs a bundle, access to the law itself is supposed to be free. In other words, although you may need a professional to help you understand the legal code, you are supposed to be able to find out what the laws are without paying for the privilege.
But that's not the case with all laws. For some, you have to pay a stiff price just to take a peek.
A World Headed for De-Globalization?
BY IRWIN M. STELZER - WeeklyStandard.com
Add Brazil to the unhappy trading nations. It attributes the woes of its manufacturing sector to cheap Chinese imports and dumping by developed countries. "We are not going to just sit by while other countries devalue their currencies to give them a competitive advantage…. We don't want to lose our manufacturing sector," announced Brazil's finance minister Guido Mantega. So taxes on foreign cars have been raised, and state-owned Petrobas will direct about 75 percent of its $225 billion capital programme, the world's largest for any corporation, to local suppliers, a buy-local move also being considered by the EU. More important, Brazil is re-introducing currency controls to prevent the value of its real from rising. These are not "protectionist measures," claims Mr. Mantega, they are "defensive measures" in response to "non-competitive mechanisms."
Obama Promises Russia To Be More "Flexible" After Election
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
In today's open mic farce that has made the president a target of a fresh republican onslaught, we have Obama telling Russian presidential pawn Dmitry Medvedev that "this is his last presidential election", and that he will have "more flexibility after the election." One can only assume that Obama is referring to the aggressive NATO expansion which has angered Russia substantially as noted previously, and even led to Russia putting radar stations on combat alert. It could be this or it could be anything, including US posturing vis-a-vis Syria assuming the stance a huanitariam, if completely impotent, do-gooder globocop, or for that matter any other foreign policy fiasco in which Russia now have the upper hand by default. Naturally, one wonders why Obama would be pandering to Russia (well, aside for the country's premier export position when it comes to nat gas and crude of course) in the first place.
Obama and Medvedev caught in unguarded missile remarks
BBC.co.uk
TV cameras have recorded US President Barack Obama making unguarded comments with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Mr Obama said he would have more "flexibility" on difficult issues such as the US missile defence plans after November's election.
Mr Medvedev said he would relay the message to Vladimir, a reference to newly elected President Vladimir Putin.
The White House later released a statement playing down the importance of the remarks.
FDIC closes small banks in Georgia, Illinois;
makes 15 US bank failures so far this year
AP - WashingtonPost.com
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have closed small banks in Georgia and Illinois, bringing to 15 the number of banks that have failed so far this year.
The pace of bank closures has slowed sharply after ballooning following the financial crisis in 2008. By this time last year, 25 banks had failed.
On Friday the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shuttered Covenant Bank & Trust in Rock Spring, Ga., and Premier Bank, based in Wilmette, Ill. Each bank operated two branches.
Why Corporations Should Get Out of Cash, and Into Gold
By Drew Mason - Forbes.com
While gold bulls may be an endangered species among traders today, five developments have occurred since the start of the year that may pressure gold and silver prices higher. These are: 1) the Federal Reserve’s commitment to maintain negative real interest rates through 2014, 2) the Fed’s admission that it is abandoning its dual mandate and now embraces “more than 2%” inflation, 3) recurring reports that nations previously considered to be U.S. allies are breaking from American-friendly ranks to buy Iranian oil using gold instead of dollars, 4) for the first time in years a public miner, Endeavor Silver, announced it will withhold the majority of its production because it feels gold and silver prices are too low, and 5) gold bullishness is near five year lows as measured by U.S. Mint demand.
What Gold Sees, and Ben Bernanke Does Not
By Jerry Bowyer, Contributor - Forbes.com
Last August I wrote a short series for Forbes.com on valuation techniques for gold, (Some Thoughts For The Gold Bulls, The Case Against Buying Gold, and At $1,850/Ounce, Does Gold Still Glitter?) . At the time I concluded that gold prices at $1,850 an ounce had been far too high; then in a follow-up piece after a large decline in gold prices, I suggested that gold even at $1,700 was still above a proper valuation range. I argued that although it is widely held to be impossible to put a valuation on gold (it has no inherent value, it is completely emotionally driven, etc.), gold in fact has a value and the value can be calculated.
An Annotated Paul Brodsky Responds To Bernanke's Latest Attempt To Discredit Gold
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Last week, Bernanke's first (of four) lecture at George Washington University was entirely dedicated to attempting to discredit gold and all that sound money stands for. The propaganda machine was so transparent that it hardly merited a response: those away from the MSM know the truth (which, simply said, is the "creation" of over $100 trillion in derivatives in just the first six months of 2011to a record $707 trillion - how does one spell stability?), while those who rely on mainstream media for the news would never see an alternative perspective - financial firms are not among the top three sources of advertising dollars for legacy media for nothing. Still, for those who feel like the Chairman's word need to be challenged, the following extensive and annotated reply by QBAMCO's Paul Brodsky makes a mockery of the Fed's full on assault on gold, and any attempts by the subservient media to defend it.
Tungsten-Filled 1 Kilo Gold Bar Found In The UK
by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
The last time a story of Tungsten-filled gold appeared on the scene was just two years ago, and involved a 500 gram bar of gold full of tungsten, at the W.C. Heraeus foundry, the world's largest metal refiner and fabricator. It also became known that said "gold" bar originated from an unnamed bank. It is now time to rekindle the Tungsten Spirits with a report from ABC Bullion of Australia, which provides photographic evidence of a new gold bar that has been drilled out and filled with tungsten rods, this time not in Germany but in an unnamed city in the UK, where it was intercepted by a scrap metals dealer, and was supplied with its original certificate. The reason the bar attracted attention is that it was 2 grams underweight. Upon cropping it was uncovered that about 30-40% of the bar weight was tungsten.
Silver Manipulation Caught in the Act;
HFT Swamps NASDAQ with 75K SLV Sell Orders Per Second
BY CRIS SHERIDAN - FinancialSense.com
Ironically, just days after noted analyst Ted Butler came on the show to explain how silver and other markets are manipulated through the use of high frequency trading, the real-time data feed company, Nanex, showed how the silver ETF (SLV) was forced downwards by a rapid number of machine-generated quotes exceeding a rate of 75,000 per second. Before you start to think that this was merely a bunch of people hitting the sell button all at once, consider this: They were all launched within the space of 25 milliseconds — ten times faster than you and I can blink!
Dollar eases further, with eyes on interest rates
By Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar maintained its slow ebb downward against major rivals, with attention fixed on interest-rate outlooks after a week of range-bound trading for foreign exchange majors.
In early Monday currency action in East Asia, the ICE dollar index DXY +0.08% traded at 79.291, down from 79.344 late Friday in North America.
The dollar index’s decline extended a trend from the previous week, with the greenback losing ground Friday as bond yields moved away from favoring the U.S. See report on Friday’s currency trade.
Brics’ move to unseat US dollar as trade currency
By Thandeka Gqubule and Andile Ntingi - CityPress.co.za
South Africa will this week take some initial steps to unseat the US dollar as the preferred worldwide currency for trade and investment in emerging economies.
Thus, the nation is expected to become party to endorsing the Chinese currency, the renminbi, as the currency of trade in emerging markets.
This means getting a renminbi-denominated bank account, in addition to a dollar account, could be an advantage for African businesses that seek to do business in the emerging markets.
Long-Term Bond Bubble Getting Ready to Burst: Ross
By: Jeff Cox - CNBC.com Senior Writer
Long-term government debt, which has provided some of the best market returns for decades, now poses the greatest threat to portfolios, investor Wilbur H. Ross told CNBC.
Ross added his voice to the warnings regarding Treasurys at the far end of theyield curve, cautioning that the inflationspecter is about to creep up and hammer the value of fixed-income government securities.
Saudi Arabia And China Team Up To Build A Gigantic New Oil Refinery - Is This The Beginning Of The End For The Petrodollar?
By Michael Snyder.com - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
The largest oil exporter in the Middle East has teamed up with the second largest consumer of oil in the world (China) to build a gigantic new oil refinery and the mainstream media in the United States has barely even noticed it. This mammoth new refinery is scheduled to be fully operational in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu by 2014. Over the past several years, China has sought to aggressively expand trade with Saudi Arabia, and China now actually imports more oil from Saudi Arabia than the United States does. In February, China imported1.39 million barrels of oil per day from Saudi Arabia. That was 39 percent higher than last February. So why is this important? Well, back in 1973 the United States and Saudi Arabia agreed that all oil sold by Saudi Arabia would be denominated in U.S. dollars. This petrodollar system was adopted by almost the entire world and it has had great benefits for the U.S. economy. But if China becomes Saudi Arabia's most important trading partner, then why should Saudi Arabia continue to only sell oil in U.S. dollars? And if the petrodollar system collapses, what is that going to mean for the U.S. economy?
A Spike In U.S. Oil Production
Is About To Make It The New Middle East... CITI: The US Energy Industry Is Going To Grow So Fast,
It Will Spark A New 'Industrial Revolution'
By Simone Foxman - BusinessInsider.com
Oil and gas production in the United States and North America is going to skyrocket in the next 8 years due to strides in natural resource extraction, write Citi analysts in a report published yesterday. In fact, they went so far as to call North America "the new Middle East," at least in terms of oil production.
This—as well as a trend towards declining U.S. energy consumption — will completely transform both the domestic economy and the threats the U.S. will face in the future.
As gas went up, U.S. cut down by 3 percent in the past year
By Chris Kahn and Tom Krisher - WashingtonTimes.com
Americans have pumped less gas every week for the past year.
During those 52 weeks, gasoline consumption dropped by 4.2 billion gallons, or 3 percent, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse. The decline is longer than a 51-week slide during the recession.
The main reason: higher gas prices. The national average for a gallon of gas is $3.89, the highest ever for this time of year, and experts say the average could be $4.25 by late April. As a result, Americans are taking fewer trips to restaurants and shopping malls. When they take a vacation, they’re staying closer to home.
The American Recovery
By Mohamed A. El-Erian - Project-Syndicate.org
NEWPORT BEACH – The United States has gone through an arduous period of intervention and rehabilitation since the global financial crisis in 2008 sent it to the economic equivalent of the emergency room. It moved from the intensive-care unit to the recovery room and, just recently, was discharged from the hospital. The question now is whether the US economy is ready not just to walk, but also to run and sprint. The answer will powerfully influence global economic prospects.
Contagion Risk in Europe Is Back and Spain Is Top Worry
By: Antonia Oprita - Deputy News Editor, CNBC.com
Contagion risk in Europe is back on the agenda, not even a month after a debt swap that saw Greece sheltered from a messy default after a second liquidity-boosting operation from the European Central Bank.
Among the euro zone periphery countries, Spain is creeping up again as the big, sick member of the area and a recent rise in Spanish bond yields is a sign that its illness is unlikely to be cured soon, analysts told CNBC.com on Thursday.
U.S. Picks Physician to Head World Bank
By SUDEEP REDDY - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama picked an expert in global health as the U.S. nominee to lead the World Bank, upending a seven-decade tradition of installing officials with experience in finance or diplomacy at the international development institution.
Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim, an American physician who was born in South Korea and raised in Iowa, built his career working on public-health threats such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in developing countries. He would become the first nonwhite president of the World Bank if he is approved, as expected, by the bank's board next month.
Trichet warns of nations’ ‘behavioral contagion’
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Jean-Claude Trichet, the former president of the European Central Bank, said Saturday that he is worried that controversial quantitative easing and other nontraditional steps that global central banks have taken since the financial crisis could be here to stay.
The Fed has purchased $2.3 trillion of securities since it cut interest rates to zero in December 2008 in a bid to bring down long-term interest rates and boost economic growth.
When Central Banks Fail
BY CLIF DROKE - FinancialSense.com
Ben Bernanke's smiling face on the cover of the April issue of The Atlantic is a testimony to how short America's collective memory is. While the Fed chief is feted as the savior of the global economy thanks to his monetary policy genius, it's apparent how quickly many have forgotten how his sluggish response to the brewing credit storm in 2006-2007 brought the U.S. to the edge of the abyss.
Keiser Report: Selective Amnesia
for Brokers & Murderers (E266)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss Irish stoicism and social ostracism, boycotts and ponzis and the banking practices of Chuckie. In the second half of the show Max talks to independent journalist, Lars Schall, about his recently published investigation into insider trading around the 9-11 terrorist attack as well as his pursuit of Germany's elusive gold reserves.
Gretchen Morgenson:
Wall Street Really Does Enjoy a Different Set of Rules
Than the Rest of Us
by Adam - ChrisMartenson.com
Gretchen Morgenson has earned a Pulitzer-winning career from exposing abuse and conflicts of interest on Wall Street. In this interview, she confirms that there is indeed a second set of rules enjoyed by our elite financial institutions, largely unfettered by the constraints that apply to the rest of us.
Consequences for failure and fraud are very different under this second set of rules -- in fact, they're practically rewarded. Accountability, by all prudent measures, has become non-existent. The extraordinary measures the U.S. deployed to deal with the great contraction in 2008 only served to exacerbate these imbalances.
The Fed Is Losing The "Race To Debase"
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
As we pointed out about a month ago, in "While You Were Sleeping, Central Banks Flooded The World In Liquidity" as the world was focused on headlines whether or not the Fed would step up as it always does when the market is sliding, and unleash the monetary floodgates, it was not Ben Bernanke, buteveyrone else that hit CTRL+P and took the place of the Fed, of note the primary central banking peers among the Final Four - the ECB, the BOE and the BOJ. And why not: after all the hope was that since electronic money is electronic money, and can be moved from point A to point B at the push of a button, it would be used primarily to reflate stocks around the world, but mostly where the path has least resistance - the US. What was not accounted for was that money would also be used to inflate commodities such as oil - a key factor when delaying further US-based easing in an election year.
Fed's Lockhart: Economy Appears to Be Gaining Traction
By Jeffrey Sparshott - WSJ.com
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart Friday said the central bank must be careful not to tighten monetary policy prematurely or inadvertently.
"Much of our communication has been oriented to trying very hard not to create misinterpretations of our message," Lockhart told students at Georgetown University.
Fed warned not to keep rates too low for too long
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Two experts on monetary policy warned Saturday that the Federal Reserve should be wary of keeping monetary policy too easy for too long.
With Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke looking on from the audience, Masaaki Shirakawa, the governor of the Bank of Japan, and Jaime Caruana, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, said extremely easy policy is appropriate in response to a crisis but the costs of the policy rise as time goes by.
Why Fair Trade?
By Robert Skidelsky - Project-Syndicate.org
LONDON – Historically, the term "fair trade" has meant many things. The Fair Trade League was founded in Britain in 1881 to restrict imports from foreign countries. In the United States, businesses and labor unions use "fair trade" laws to construct what economist Joseph Stiglitz calls "barbed-wire barriers to imports." These so called "anti-dumping" laws allow a company that suspects a foreign rival of selling a product below cost to request that the government impose special tariffs to protect it from "unfair" competition.
Gasoline
By Rich Galen - PatriotPost.us
Gasoline prices have climbed above $4 per gallon for regular at too many places across the nation. We know this because President Barack Obama has embarked on a four-day blitz to demonstrate his concern for high gasoline prices.
According to the U.S Energy Information Administration the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the country is $3.87 which is up about 30 cents from a year ago.
THE FEDEX INDICATOR
By Steven Hayward - PowerlineBlog.com
The economy is supposedly improving, but even if we took the falling unemployment rate at face value, there are too many signs that something is wrong. There are too many anomalies. I noted a few weeks ago the anomaly of collapsing gasoline and diesel fuel consumption, which started well before the current run-up in pump prices that is causing Obama to contort himself in unnatural ways. Falling fuel consumption ahead of a price spike isn't consistent with a growing economy.
New Home Sales Unexpectedly Slip 1.6% in February
By Reuters - CNBC.com
New U.S. single-family home sales fell in February, but a jump in prices to their highest level in eight months kept hopes alive of a recovery in the housing market.
The Commerce Department said on Friday sales slipped 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted 313,000-unit annual rate. January's sales pace was revised down to 318,000 units from the previously reported 321,000 units.
Sales for November and December were revised up a bit.
How Housing Affordability
Can Falter Even as House Prices Decline
By Charles Hugh Smith - OfTwoMinds.com
That the U.S. housing market is still in a post-bubble slump is no secret, as revealed by this chart courtesy of streettalklive.com: note that despite unprecedented intervention, including the complete socialization of the U.S. mortgage market (99% of all mortgages are guaranteed by the Federal government) and the socialization of subprime market for poor credit risks (3% down and easy credit from FHA), this chart punctures the happy-talk illusions of a rebound in housing.
A Bailout by Another Name
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON - NYTimes.com
The acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and overseer of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Mr. DeMarco is a soft-spoken, career public servant — and under fire. In the thankless job of conservator for the loss-ridden mortgage finance giants, he has a duty to ensure that the companies operate in the best interests of the taxpayers who own them. That means working to keep a lid on the companies' losses, which now total $183 billion.
But in recent weeks, Mr. DeMarco has come under increasing pressure to chuck his obligation to taxpayers and make Fannie and Freddie write down principal on mortgages held by troubled borrowers. He says, with reason, that such a program would run counter to his legal obligation to pursue only those activities that pose the least cost to taxpayers.
Bank of America hopes underwater homeowners
become renters to avoid foreclosure
By Kenneth R. Harney - WashingtonPost.com
If you're seriously underwater and headed to foreclosure, what would you say if the lender suddenly offered you the chance to remain in your home as a tenant for an extended period plus have your mortgage debt wiped away? Would you say yes?
Or would you instead conclude: Hey, why pay rent? It's going to take the bank more than a year to complete the foreclosure and evict us, so why not just stay put and save some money?
One of the country's largest banks is about to find out which choice significant numbers of distressed owners make in response to a new foreclosure-avoidance plan it calls "mortgage-to-lease."
Bernanke: Fed didn't cause housing bubble
By Annalyn Censky @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Federal Reserve isn't to blame for the housing bubble, Ben Bernanke told a lecture hall full of college students Thursday.
But the students wouldn't let the Fed Chairman off the hook.
"The slides on the housing bubble show how clearly one thing led to another," said Daniel Lippman, a senior at George Washington University. "When you were observing the economy in the 2000s, what did you think would happen to rising house prices and the housing bubble?"
Colleges slashing tuition, offering 3-year degrees
By Blake Ellis @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A growing number of colleges are taking extreme measures to attract more students by cutting tuition or speeding up the rate at which they graduate.
While some private colleges are introducing double-digit percentage cuts in tuition or freezing prices altogether, other schools are offering three-year degree programs or four-year graduation guarantees.
In part, these schools are responding to consumers' concerns about the rising cost of college, said Tony Pals, spokesman for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. "These types of initiatives have been used to some degree in the past, but have become increasingly prevalent since the economic downturn -- and we expect to continue to see them spread," he said.
For long-unemployed, hiring bias rears its head
By Stephen Singer - WashingtonTimes.com
HARTFORD, Conn. — Few job seekers who fail to get an interview know the reason, but Michelle Chesney-Offutt said a recruiter told her why she lost the chance to pitch for an information technology position.
The 54-year-old, who had been laid off from her IT job in Illinois, said the recruiter who responded to her online resume two years ago liked her qualifications and was set to schedule an interview. But he backed away, she said, when he learned she had been out of work for 13 months.
Ruling on health care case hard to predict Conservative justices could side either way
By Paige Winfield Cunningham - The Washington Times
A curious thing about this week's Supreme Courthearings on President Obama's health care law is that while nobody doubts how the four Democrat-appointed justices will decide, there is no such certainty on how the Republican appointees will rule in the case, which will go a long way toward defining the scope and limits of government power in the 21st century.
For the past 70 years, liberal-minded justices have taken more uniform views of how far federal power extends while the lines are much more jumbled when it comes to conservative jurisprudence, court watchers say.
The 4 Best Legal Arguments Against ObamaCare Why the president's sweeping health care overhaul should be struck down by the Supreme Court.
By Damon W. Root - Reason.com
When a reporter asked then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) back in October 2009 "where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?", Pelosi's response was to dismiss both the reporter and the question. "Are you serious?" she sneered. Nadeam Elshami, Pelosi's communications director, later amplified his boss's response, tellingCNS News, "You can put this on the record. That is not a serious question."
Don Berwick looks ahead on health care
By Sarah Kliff - WashingtonPost.com
Don Berwick spent 18 months as the administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, making him the point man for the Obama administration's implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He began in the post in July 2010 and resigned last November, in the face of Republican pledges to block his nomination in the Senate. Republican legislators seized on remarks he made praising Britain's National Health Service as an "example" for the United States to follow. Many accused him of supporting the "rationing" of services, a claim Berwick has rejected.
On Friday, the two-year-anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, Berwick announced he would be joining the Center for American Progress as a senior fellow. His position at the liberal think tank will include, among other responsibilities, defending the health-care law and ensuring its successful implementation.
As Supreme Court justices review health-care law,
stakes will be hard to ignore
By Robert Barnes - WashingtonPost.com
The Supreme Court on Monday joins the nation's vitriolic debate over the landmark health-care law and the limits of federal power. And though thousands of pages of legal arguments about the Constitution's history and the court's precedents have landed on justices' desks, the outcome may also hinge on less tangible factors.
Public opinion. The nation's volatile political climate. The court's self-consciousness about its own partisan divide. And the pivotal role it plays in deciding the nation's thorniest social issues.
Obamacare's Contract Problem
By George Will - PatriotPost.us
WASHINGTON -- On Monday the Supreme Court begins three days of oral arguments concerning possible -- actually, probable and various -- constitutional infirmities in Obamacare. The justices have received many amicus briefs, one of which merits special attention because of the elegant scholarship and logic with which it addresses an issue that has not been as central to the debate as it should be.
Health reform at 2:
Why American health care will never be the same
by Sarah Kliff - WashingtonPost.com
In February 2009, Michael Zucker told a group of high-paid surgeons something they did not want to hear: The way they earned a salary was about to change.
Zucker is the chief development officer at Baptist Health System, a five-hospital network in San Antonio. For 37 common surgeries, such as hip replacements and pacemaker implants, it would soon collect "bundled" Medicare payments. Traditionally, hospitals and doctors had collected separate fees for each step of such procedures; now they would get a lump sum for treating everything related to the patient's condition.
The Plan for The United States with Alex Jones
Alex also runs down the latest news, including Ron Paul's "Give Me Liberty" moneybomb, the strange "mini-quakes" in the midwest, and Sarkozy's call to lock up people who dare surf "extremist" websites on the web.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's recall:
Big money fuels small-government fight
By Marc Fisher - WashingtonPost.com
MADISON, Wis. — Every day at the cutting and sewing business he runs with his father, Ross Brown listened to Glenn Beck rail on the radio against Big Government, Big Labor and Big Money. In his years of middays with Beck, Brown had morphed from apolitical adolescence to college student with his own talk show on the campus radio station and on to businessman with 15 employees and not enough money to offer them health insurance.
Then, one day three years ago, at the apex of the debate over President Obama's health-care plan, Brown heard a caller to Beck's show bring the fiery rhetoric to a screeching halt: Enough complaining, she said. What could she actually do to change politics?
10 Reasons Why Nothing You Do On The Internet
Will EVER Be Private Again
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
The Internet is rapidly being transformed into a Big Brother control grid where privacy rights are being systematically strangled to death. The control freaks that run things have become absolutely obsessed with watching, tracking, monitoring and recording virtually everything that you do on the Internet. One thing that you can count on is that nothing you do on the Internet will ever be private again. In fact, if you are obsessed with privacy then the last place you want to be is on the Internet. Most Americans have absolutely no idea how far Internet surveillance has advanced in the past few years. At this point, it would be hard to imagine any place less private than the Internet. Do not ever put anything on the Internet that you would not want the authorities or your employer to hold you accountable for. Basically, the Internet is creating a permanent dossier on each one of us, and we contribute to this process by freely posting gigantic volumes of information about ourselves on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The Internet is the greatest tool for mass communication that the world has perhaps ever seen, and it gives average citizens the ability to communicate with each other like never before, but there is also a downside to using the Internet. Everything that we do on the Internet is being watched, monitored and recorded and there is no longer any such thing as Internet privacy. If you think that you still have any privacy on the Internet, then you are either ignorant of what is going on or you are being delusional.
Major quake rattles Chile but no serious damage
By Alexandra Ulmer
(Reuters) - A major quake hit central Chile on Sunday, rattling buildings in the capital and triggering a coastal evacuation, but there was no serious damage and big mines in the world's No. 1 copper producer were operating normally.
Residents in Santiago fled their homes as the tremor rattled television sets, kitchen cabinets and tables, and a mayor in the town of Parral in south-central Chile told local radio a 74-year-old woman died of a heart attack due to the quake. There were no other immediate reports of serious casualties.
Homeland Security's morale is at code red
By Joe Davidson - WashingtonPost.com
If the homeland's security were dependent on employee morale, we'd be in big trouble.
Fortunately, the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security are committed to the agency's mission, even as the agency fails to inspire them.
You know things are bad for workers when a bipartisan congressional hearing is called to examine a department's drooping spirit. It ranks 31 among 33 large agencies in The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government survey published by the Partnership for Public Service. (The Partnership has a content-sharing relationship with The Washington Post.)
Hippies head for Noah's Ark:
Queue here for rescue aboard alien spaceship Thousands of New Agers descend on mountain
they see as haven from December's apocalypse
By OLIVER PICKUP - INdependent.co.uk
A mountain looming over a French commune with a population of just 200 is being touted as a modern Noah's Ark when doomsday arrives – supposedly less than nine months from now.
A rapidly increasing stream of New Age believers – or esoterics, as locals call them – have descended in their camper van-loads on the usually picturesque and tranquil Pyrenean village of Bugarach. They believe that when apocalypse strikes on 21 December this year, the aliens waiting in their spacecraft inside Pic de Bugarach will save all the humans near by and beam them off to the next age.
Saving the Syrians
By Gareth Evans - Project-Syndicate.org
CANBERRA – Despite the United Nations Security Council's belated endorsement of UN Special Envoy Kofi Annan's peacemaking mission in Syria, confidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will cooperate in any serious or sustained way remains low, and calls for external military intervention continue. As Syria's crisis goes from bad to worse, those urging armed force are invoking both the tragedy of inaction in Rwanda and Bosnia in the 1990's, and the triumph of decisive international action in Libya last year.
This trend bears watching; it's happening here, too In South Korean classrooms,
digital textbook revolution meets some resistance
By Chico Harlan - WashingtonPost.com
SEOUL — Five years ago, South Korea mapped out a plan to transform its education system into the world's most cutting-edge. The country would turn itself into a "knowledge powerhouse," one government report declared, breeding students "equipped for the future." These students would have little use for the bulky textbooks familiar to their parents. Their textbooks would be digital, accessible on any screen of their choosing. Their backpacks would be much lighter.
By setting out to swap traditional textbooks for digital ones, the chief element of its plan for transformation, South Korea tried to anticipate the future — and its vision has largely taken shape with the global surge of tablets, smartphones and e-book readers.
Iran planned to bomb Israeli ship in Suez Canal Egyptian paper Al-Ahram reports that two Egyptian citizens received instructions from Iranian agents to attack an Israeli ship, and offered a third man 50 million Egyptian pounds to carry out the act.
By Avi Issacharoff - Haaretz.com
Iran had planned to bomb an Israeli ship while it crossed the Suez Canal, the prosecution in Egypt's state security court said, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Saturday.
According to the report, two Egyptians were recently arrested and investigated for allegedly planning an attack on an Israeli ship in the Suez Canal.
The investigation of the two found that they had received their instructions from Iranian agents, and that the two asked a third person, by the name of Mohamed Zakri, to carry out the act in exchange for 50 million Egyptian pounds.
Keystone XL pipeline:
Obama to fast-track southern portion of project As criticism from Republicans mounts, Obama announces expedition of 485-mile pipeline from Oklahoma to Gulf Coast
Associated Press - Guardian.co.uk
President Barack Obama has firmly defended his record on oil drilling, ordering the government to fast-track an Oklahoma pipeline while rebuking Congress for playing politics with a larger Canada-to-Gulf Coast pipeline project.
Deep in Republican oil country on Thursday, Obama said lawmakers refused to give his administration enough time review the controversial 1,170-mile Keystone XL pipeline in order to ensure that it wouldn't compromise the health and safety of people living in surrounding areas.
OBAMA’S ENERGY STRATEGY: DELAY, DENY AND DECEIVE
by John Hinderacker - PowerlineBlog.com
Today Barack Obama continued his fraudulent energy tour in Cushing, Oklahoma. The purpose of his visit to petroleum-producing areas is to convince the American people that he is a pro-energy, pro-development president. Today Thomas Pyle, President of the Institute for Energy Research, released this statement in response to Obama’s speech in Cushing:
President Obama wants to deceive the American people into believing that he’s somehow responsible for the southern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline, much like he wants them to think he’s responsible for increased oil and gas production in the United States. Neither claim is true, and the president knows it.
CFTC Gensler addresses budget at Senate hearing
BY PRESS RELEASE - FuturesMag.com
"It is critical that the derivatives markets – both futures and swaps – work for hedgers, the farmers, ranchers, producers and commercial companies in the real economy. Futures and swaps markets allow them to lock in a price and focus on what they do best – servicing customers, producing products and investing in our country’s future. As it’s the hedgers in the real economy – the non-financial side – that provide 94 percent of private sector jobs, it’s all the more important that these markets work for America’s job providers.
The derivatives markets that the CFTC oversees are where hedgers across the country meet financial firms, and others generally called speculators. Over time, the makeup of these markets has shifted dramatically. Financial firms and speculators now make up the vast majority of these markets.
Something Bernanke is Neglecting To Mention
When He Disses A "Gold Standard"
By Aaron Krowne, Founder - ML-Implode.com
Other critics have done a good job of debunkingBernanke’s various weak economic arguments against a gold standard, made in his comments to college students two days ago.
However, I think their efforts are largely in vain, as Bernanke’s remarks are directed towards already-decided opponents of monetary gold to give them a fresh excuse (on authority) not to change their position. And those who "believe" in gold will not be swayed by Bernanke’s puerile remarks. None of this changes anything, as far as rhetoric goes.
Obama's Love-Hate Relationship With Ben Bernanke
By Merrill Matthews, Contributor - Forbes.com
If you’re President Obama, you have to love Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke — and hate him. On the one hand, the Fed’s easy-money policies have helped goose the stock market and the economy, boosting that public feel-goodism that comes with an inflated money supply. On the other hand, devaluing the money gooses commodity prices, like gold and oil, helping to drive up the price of gasoline, which angers voters.
At the nadir of the recent recession, around mid-September of 2008, the media frequently pointed out that as an economics professor, Bernanke was a "student of the Great Depression." Implicit in the observation was that Bernanke would try to avoid making the same mistakes the Fed made then, which prolonged the recession.
Fed officials clash on view of economy
By Ann Saphir
(Reuters) - The gap between the Federal Reserve's dovish core and its hawkish wing was on display on Thursday as a top Fed official said the economy is in better shape even as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke focused on a source of weakness.
While growing "slower than we would like," the U.S. economy is expanding fast enough that it does not need further help from the central bank, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told Fox Business Network.
Bend the Fed
By Bill Sardi - SilverBearCafe.com
It would be nice to talk about the Federal Reserve bank and just stick with topical questions about money supply and interest rate strategy, without launching a personal attack against its chairman, Ben Bernanke, but this is not just a man who heads up a reserve board that makes critical decisions about the American economy, he is the Fed’s sole decision maker and creator of unprecedented financial maneuvers, acting as king of the world’s banking system by virtue of the dominance of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
While there is concern expressed over a one-world currency, the US dollar is very close to fulfilling that idea. That Mr. Bernanke is doing things far beyond what the US Constitution could imagine cannot be denounced outright because we live in a world of interlocking international commerce where a banking crisis in Greece is also a potential crisis in America. But at the same time, reckless central bankers across the globe are taking their institutions beyond prescribed limits (Basel agreements) and then essentially extort the world with demands for bailout money or they will default on their debts, causing chaos in the world’s financial grid.
It's Helicopter Ben That Needs to Go Back to School
By Victor Sperandeo - Forbes.com
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke headed back to school earlier this week to deliver the first of four scheduled lectures at George Washington University. In doing so, Bernanke became the first sitting Fed chairman ever to help teach a college course. But, after reading through his delivered remarks, I believe that it is Mr. Bernanke that needs to go back to school and take a refresher course in economic history.
Here is a portion of what he had to say during his lecture to 30 undergraduate students:
"…in the 1800′s…the U.S. was prone to frequent booms and busts in part because the gold standard left no discretion in the banking system over interest rates or the money supply."
Both manufacturing output and service sector activity contracted in March, showing the worst performances for three and four months respectively. However, in both cases, the rates of decline were only very modest.
The Cracks in the BRICS
By Brahma Chellaney - Project-Syndicate.org
NEW DELHI – As it prepares to hold its latest annual summit in New Delhi on March 28-29, the BRICS grouping – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – remains a concept in search of a common identity and institutionalized cooperation. That is hardly surprising, given that these countries have very different political systems, economies, and national goals, and are located in very different parts of the world. Yet the five emerging economies pride themselves on forming the first important non-Western global initiative.
Martin Armstrong: The Debt Crisis Will Rotate from Europe to Japan to the US−We’re Past the Tipping Point The US is the best house in a bad neighborhood
Interview: James J Puplava CFP with Martin Armstrong
Jim welcomes back Martin Armstrong of ArmstrongEconomics.com. Martin believes "capital knows something is wrong" and we’re past the tipping point of the debt crisis. He sees the crisis rotating from Europe to Japan and finally reaching the US, with devastating results. As to gold, he believes the best thing for gold would be a correction this year and a healthy period of consolidation, setting the stage for a launch higher as the debt crisis worsens.
Are we all Muppets? Focused on clients, and what we can make off them
BY DANIEL P. COLLINS - FuturesMag.com
A week ago Greg Smith, a Goldman Sachs executive director, wrote a remarkable public resignation letter in a New York Times op ed piece. In it he describes a breakdown in culture at the largest investment bank over the years he worked there. He describes a culture that transformed a customer centric business to one where only the bottom line mattered and executives and sales people openly dismissed customers as "Muppets" — basically carrion to be fed off of until another carcass could be found.
Rare bipartisanship as Senate passes jobs, insider-trading bills
By Sean Lengell - The Washington Times
In a rare burst of activity, the Senate broke through its gridlock rut Thursday and passed two bipartisan measures aimed at cutting red tape for small businesses and explicitly banning insider stock trading for members of Congress.
The Democrat-controlled Senate voted 73-26 to pass the House Republicans’ Jobs Act, which is designed to give small businesses better access to capital by easing some Securities and Exchange Commission regulations.
Congress members face new curbs on insider trading
By David Lawder
(Reuters) - The Senate on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to send President Barack Obama legislation imposing new curbs on insider trading by members of Congress, even though the measure was weaker than a version it passed in February.
"After I sign this bill into law, members of Congress will not be able to trade stocks based on nonpublic information they gleaned on Capitol Hill," Obama said in a statement.
Feds consider closing some courtrooms
By JEANNIE NUSS - Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- The federal government is considering closing dozens of courtrooms, many of which are located in small, rural communities, as part of an effort to cut costs.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press show 60 federal court facilities in 29 states could be on the chopping block. Most of the courtrooms are in buildings that house other federal agencies including post offices and many are located in remote areas. Critics say closing them could make it more difficult for people to get to court proceedings.
Keiser Report: Unbanked & Unworthy (E265)
Watch the full Keiser Report 265 on Thursday. In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss the great 'unbanked' masses dumping gold believing in a 'recovering economy' and an end to money printing while banks and insiders buy gold and mortgage backed securities in preparation for more quantitative easing by the Fed. In the second half of the show Max talks to Mark Melin of Uncorrelated Investments about MF Global, JP Morgan and the future of the futures market. They also discuss the Charles Manson's of the futures industry and the branch office of the too big too fail banks formerly known as the SEC.
Fed’s Bullard Says Monetary Policy May Be at a Turning Point
By Steve Matthews and Fion Li - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said monetary policy may be at a turning point and the Fed should be cautious about stepping up accommodation as the U.S. economy rebounds.
With policy currently "on pause, it may be a good time to take stock of whether we may be at a turning point," Bullard said in a speech in Hong Kong today. "As the U.S. economy continues to rebound and repair," further action "may create an overcommitment to ultra-easy monetary policy."
How Quickly Can Price Inflation Explode to the Upside? The answer: Very quickly
GoldSilver.com - SilverBearCafe.com
Amity Shlaes is a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations. Her writings are followed carefully by the top of the top at CFR. And to a significant degree she uses Hayekian business cycle theory in analyzing the economy. She also has the distinct honor of being hated and attacked by the Keynesian Paul Krugman. In other words, take her very seriously.
Yesterday, I wrote on how confused Bernanke was by stating that price inflation was of little concern. Here's Shlaes putting things in historical perspective:
A little is all right. That’s the message Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has been giving out recently when asked about the evidence of inflation in the U.S. recovery.
BofA Allows Some Homeowners to Rent, Avoid Foreclosure
By Dakin Campbell - Bloomberg.com
Bank of America Corp., the second- largest U.S. bank, started a program this week to allow mortgage borrowers facing foreclosure to stay in their homes as renters while transferring title back to the lender.
The pilot program, dubbed "Mortgage to Lease," will begin with fewer than 1,000 borrowers in Arizona, Nevada and New York, the bank said today in a statement. Homeowners will transfer title to the bank and have their mortgage debt forgiven, the lender said. They’ll then be able to lease the home from the bank for as many as three years, at or below market rates.
Job creators brace for Obamacare impact Companies plan to pay
for health care mandate by shedding workers
By Rep. Darrell E. Issa - The Washington Times
This week, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued a report, "Impact of President Obama’s Health Care Law on Jobs," detailing the negative impact that President Obama’s health care law has already had and will continue to have on job creation. The report highlights congressional testimony from many businesses about the health care law’s negative impact on their company and their ability to hire.
The reality is that the president's partisan health care overhaul, passed without any Republican votes, is directly contributing to the nation’s unemployment problem. As regulators busily codify rules, employers are scrambling to figure out how to survive the plethora of mandates and taxes sprinkled throughout the nearly 3,000-page law. And its worst provisions have yet to be enacted.
The Real Meaning of $1 Trillion in Student Loans We're burying our country's future under a mountain of debt.
By Jordan Weissmann - TheAtlantic.com
If the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is right, the total outstanding student loan debt in the United States now stands at above $1 trillion dollars. In economic terms, that changes very little about what we already knew regarding college borrowing. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York had previously pegged the figure at $870 billion by the end of 2011. Either number would be larger than America's collective credit card balance.
But psychologically, it's a sad threshold. A trillion dollars -- it brings home just how enormous the burden is quickly becoming.
American Airlines tells employees
it will seek to end labor contracts
Dallas Business Journal by Lance Murray
American Airlines notified its employees and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on the Thursday that it had so-far failed to reach agreements with its unions during negotiations and would ask the court next week to allow it to reject current collective bargaining agreements.
The notification came in a letter to employees from Jeff Brundage, senior vice president of human resources for the Fort Worth-based airline.
For Government: No Limits
By Cal Thomas - PatriotPost.us
Are there no limits on government's power, no place where it cannot go?
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former (thankfully) Republican, but in name only, has decided to limit food donations to city charities, including homeless shelters, because the government is unable to measure the nutritional value of the food.
Who in city government believes that a homeless person with no access to money other than what he or she might panhandle cares about the nutritional content of food? If they are able to scrounge up a few bucks on the streets, does anyone seriously think they're headed to a grocery store to buy carrots and arugula? Any food, including "unhealthy" fast food would be their preferred choice.
Judge Andrew Napolitano Natural Rights
and The Patriot Act part 1 of 3
Oct 2, 2009 - Judge Andrew Napolitano gives a speech from the heart about freedom and from where our rights come. The Judge explains the hard core truth about the Constitution and why we must fight to regain and retain our freedoms.
40 Behind-The-Scenes Billionaires Funding The 2012 Election
By Clare O'Connor, Forbes Staff
This morning the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Harold Simmons, the Texas investor who — despite his $9 billion fortune and controversial nuclear waste program — has remained largely unknown to the general public.
Simmons came out swinging against Obama, telling the WSJ he plans to give $36 million to various right-leaning super PACs before the election. He’s already given $18 million, both personally and through his chemical company Contran Corp., making him the most generous donor by far this cycle.
ANOTHER ECHO OF THE CARTER YEARS
By John Hinderacker - PowerlineBlog.com
Another respect in which the Age of Obama resembles the Jimmy Carter years has started to emerge. As it has become clear that the economy will not rebound dramatically by Election Day, the media are going to Plan B: telling us that an era of diminished expectations and relative poverty isn’t really so bad, once we get used to it.
If the president is a Republican, $4 a gallon gasoline is a disaster that takes food off the tables of the working poor. Not so if the president is a Democrat. Now, expensive gasoline is just the price we pay for transitioning to a glorious future of green energy. Plus, as CNN assures us, gas isn’t really as expensive as it looks; and it isn’t hurting us as much as we think; and the whole thing is being ginned up by politicians; and we really should just stop complaining about the price of gasoline.
"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual -- or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." --Samuel Adams (1781)
"During Women's History Month," Obama proclaimed, "we ... reaffirm our steadfast commitment to the rights, security and dignity of women. ... We see the arc of the American story in the dynamic women who shaped our present and the groundbreaking girls who will steer our future. ... With the leadership of the White House Council on Women and Girls, my administration is ... making deep and lasting investments in the future of all Americans. I call upon all Americans to observe this month ... with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that honor the history, accomplishments, and contributions of American women."
The Nanoscale Future of Pixels
By Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg - TheAtlantic.com
Cambridge University's Under the Microscope series shares amazing microscopic footage from the university's labs with the public via YouTube. In this video, Dr. Tim Wilkinson of the Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics discusses his work developing better liquid crystal displays with nanotechnology.
What Is Causing The Strange Noises In The Sky
That Are Being Heard All Over The World?
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
During the second half of 2011, a lot of people all over the planet started reporting hearing really strange noises coming from the sky. In some instances the noises produced a loud rumbling such as a train, a thunderstorm or the slamming of a heavy door would make. In other instances, the noises sounded more like "groaning". In yet other instances the noises sounded almost as if a trumpet was playing. Dozens of videos went up on YouTube purporting to document this phenomenon, but the truth is that you can fake almost anything on a YouTube video and many dismissed these strange "strange sounds" as an Internet hoax. However, now entire towns in the northern part of the United States are hearing strange noises in the sky and the mainstream media is reporting on it. In fact, one U.S. town is planning to spend thousands of dollars to hire an engineering firm to investigate where these strange sounds are coming from. At this point a lot of theories about these strange noises are being floated, but so far scientists have not been able to give us a definitive explanation for the source of these strange noises. So exactly what in the world is going on?
Threat of US-China trade war
hangs over dealings of century's superpowers American accusations of currency manipulation are sorest point in relationship still beset by mutual suspicion
By Chris McGreal in Washington, Guardian.co.uk
It has been said that the US-China relationship is the most important of the 21st century.
There are good reasons to believe it. The pair have the world's largest economies even if trade relations are afflicted by accusations of currency manipulation and industrial espionage. Beijing is the US's largest foreign creditor.
There is a growing military rivalry, environmental challenges and co-operation on issues such as North Korea's nuclear weapons. There are also foreign policy differences, including China's veto, with Russia, of UN security council resolutions on Syria and its co-operation with Iran's nuclear programme.
10 Signs That America Is On The Verge
Of A Horrible Municipal Debt Crisis
By Michael Snyder - EndOftheAmericanDream.com
Is America on the verge of a horrible municipal debt crisis? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. From coast to coast there are an increasing number of cities, towns and counties that are rapidly going broke. Financial analyst Meredith Whitney took a lot of heat when her prediction of a municipal bond crash in 2011 did not happen, but she was not fundamentally wrong in her analysis. A horrifying municipal debt crisis is starting to unfold right in front of our eyes. It just did not happen as soon as she thought that it would. When most Americans think of our "debt problem", they think of the federal government. But the truth is that we have hundreds and hundreds of smaller "debt problems" all across the country. In 2012, cities such as Stockton, California and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania have already defaulted and a whole bunch of other cities and towns are headed down the exact same path. Once we see the first major wave of municipal defaults, creditors will become much tighter with their money and that will cause even more municipalities to get into financial trouble. This crisis could start spinning out of control at any time.
Wilbur Ross: Treasury Bond Market is Bubble About to Pop
By Forrest Jones - MoneyNews.com
Yields are rising on 10-Year Treasury bonds, a sign the economy is set to grow and investors will ditch government debt in search of assets that perform better in times of rising growth and inflation rates, says noted investor Wilbur Ross.
Yields rise when bond prices fall.
"I rather be in equities than in 10-year Treasurys. The greatest bubble that's about to burst is the 10-year and longer Treasurys," he told CNBC.
"Because the idea that inflation is gone forever and for all time — and therefore these artificially low rates can last — is silly," Ross said.
Inflation – Before and After the Federal Reserve
By Tim Iacono - IaconoResearch.com
In a lecture yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made the mistake of talking about inflation during his critique of the gold standard, going so far as to say that when the barbarous relic was used as the foundation of our monetary system "over the medium run, it sometimes caused periods of inflation and deflation" (see this item from earlier in the day for links and other specifics).
That struck me as a particularly odd way of addressing a subject that probably shouldn’t have been addressed at all and that prompted the creation of the chart shown below using data from … the Federal Reserve.
Ben Bernanke Tries To Convince America
That The Federal Reserve Is Good
And The Gold Standard Is Bad
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Ben Bernanke has decided that he needs to teach all of us why the Federal Reserve is good for America and about why the gold standard is bad. On Tuesday, Bernanke delivered the first of four planned lectures to a group of students at George Washington University. But that lecture was not just for the benefit of those students. Officials at the Fed have long planned for this lecture series to be an opportunity for Bernanke to "educate" the American people about the Federal Reserve. The classroom was absolutely packed with reporters and just about every major news organization is running a story about this first lecture. So the Federal Reserve is definitely getting the publicity that it was hoping for. You can see the slides from the presentation that Bernanke gave to the students right here. It is pretty obvious that one of the primary goals of this first lecture was to attack those that have been critical of the Fed over the past few years. In doing so, Bernanke "stretched" the truth on more than one occasion.
Actually, There Is A Gold Standard Today,
And It's Causing An Economic Catastrophe
By Joe Weisenthal - BusinessInsider.com
Thanks to Ben Bernanke's lecture today, the gold standard is back as a topic for debate.
While it's easy to talk about the endless crises under the gold standard days of the 1800s, the truth is that we don't have to go back that far at all.
Europe is a close analogue to a gold standard.
Bernanke Sees Threat to U.S. Growth From Higher Fuel Prices
MoneyNews.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress that higher energy prices may weaken the U.S. economy by sapping consumer spending.
"Higher energy prices would probably slow growth, at least in the short run," Bernanke said today in response to questions from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Rising fuel prices "create at least short-term inflation pressures, and moreover, they act as a tax on household purchasing power and reduce consumption spending, and that also is a drag on the economy."
Expecting Growth... And Inflation?
by James Picerno - CapitalSpeculator.com
The recent pop in the 10-year Treasury Note's yield — up about 40 basis points this month to 2.4% -- has inspired cries that the end is near. One Wall Street analyst lamented that the recent pop in this rate was a sign of rising inflation expectations and that this was something to worry about... NOW! He also recognized that the market's repricing of Treasuries for higher yields also reflected a brightening economic outlook. But he couldn't see that the two trends are, in fact, connected these days because the new abnormal continues to rule.
Saudi Arabia can't save us from high oil prices Saudi Arabia promises to fill in the supply gap if the Iranian crisis escalates, but there's only one place that can help stave off high oil prices: Wall Street.
By Cyrus Sanati, contributor - Fortune.CNN.com
FORTUNE -- Saudi Arabia can't save the West from rising oil and gasoline prices -- only Wall Street can.
The Kingdom announced earlier this week that it was increasing crude production in a bid to shake off supply concerns involving a potential shut off of Iranian oil supplies. While Saudi Arabia does have a massive reserve base, it can't fight this latest run-up in prices on its own. It is already running close to its production limit and it's unclear it can bring enough supply online to fill an Iranian void. Furthermore, even if Saudi Arabia could somehow fill a hypothetical supply gap, it is unlikely it would really make much of a difference in a market where speculators on Wall Street continue to hold large bullish positions in crude and gasoline futures.
Oil Prices at $200 a Barrel? Some Think It's Coming
By: Kate Kelly - CNBC.com
Signs that crude futures may hit much higher levels are converging, say oil traders and analysts, some of whom predict that Brent crude could reach $200 a barrel within the next 12 months.
The biggest issue, they say, is that global crude supply remains uncommonly tight — a scenario that’s unlikely to be alleviated any time soon.
Even though Libya’s oil has largely returned online after the political disruptions that took it off the market last year, and Saudi Arabia is generating its highest output in three decades, the available crude is just barely meeting demand. The summer driving season in the U.S., which begins in April, could put further pressure on prices.
European crisis is not over, Bernanke says Progress has been made, but more needs doing: Fed chief
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — While financial stresses in Europe have lessened, more work needs to be done to fully resolve the region’s crisis, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday.
"The position of the United States has generally been that Europe needs to really step up and do a lot more," Bernanke said. He and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Ben Bernanke tells EU to clean up banks Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has exhorted Europe’s leaders to take further action to beef up banks and help southern Europe claw its way back to health, warning that the world financial system is not yet on a sound footing.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
"More needs to be done. Full resolution of the crisis will require a further strengthening of the European banking system," he told Congress, calling for a "significant expansion of financial backstops, or 'firewalls', to guard against contagion in sovereign debt markets."
Strains in global financial markets "continue to pose significant downside risks", he said but stopped short of criticising EU bank stress tests for banks. However, his comments reflect strong doubts in Washington over Europe’s strategy.
Europe faces 'long, hard road' to recovery,
US treasury secretary says Tim Geithner warns against draconian spending cuts and calls on better-off European countries to help their neighbours
Dominic Rushe in New York and agencies - Guardian.co.uk
"Economic growth is likely to be weak for some time. The path of fiscal consolidation should be gradual with a multiyear phase-in of reforms," Geithner said.
"If every time economic growth disappoints, governments are forced to cut spending or raise taxes immediately to make up for the impact of weaker growth on deficits, this would risk a self-reinforcing negative spiral of growth-killing austerity," he said.
Portugal: General Strike -
What happens when a people says Enough! Pay attention, Serbia!
By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey - Pravda.Ru
Portugal will have a general strike on March 22, fruit of the frustration felt by the huge majority, faced with a disastrous, inhumane and shameful economic and social management, following a line which dictates that withdrawing money from the economy will make it grow and will somehow create wealth... a policy conceived and followed by imbeciles.
The Portuguese fought for decades for their rights, winning victories that gave the worker a decent enough status - a timetable that in principle more or less respected the ethic that working hours should represent a third of the day (eight hours), fought for decades to guarantee safety in the workplace and to gain rights against dismissal by reactionary forces who used and abused people when convenient and afterwards dismissed them unceremoniously.
Spain Risks Default Now More Than Ever,
Citigroup's Buiter Says
MoneyNews.com
Spain has never been so close to default and Greece, Ireland and Portugal may need further bailouts, Citigroup Inc. chief economist Willem Buiter said.
"Spain is the key country about which I’m most worried," Buiter, a former Bank of England policy maker, said in a radio interview today on "Bloomberg Surveillance" with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt. "It’s really moved to the wrong side of the spectrum and is now at greater risk of sovereign restructuring than ever before."
Millions of workers lose pension battle with government Unions representing millions of workers have lost their Court of Appeal battle against a Government decision to change the way public sector pension increases are calculated.
By Richard Evans - Telegraph.co.uk
Three appeal judges have unanimously refused to overturn a High Court 2-1 majority ruling last December which backed the Government's approach.
The case relates to Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's decision to use the consumer price index (CPI) instead of the normally faster-rising retail price index (RPI) to measure price increases influencing pension upgrades.
The unions say the CPI route will see the value of pensions cut by up to 20pc over a normal retirement, costing every affected worker thousands of pounds.
"Stimulus was supposed to be quick. In fact, they never intended to spend it and will not completely have effectively spent it until after the president’s re-elect. Always looking at how do you get the maximum hit when the president was up for re-elect." — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, March 19, 2012
This is a pretty serious charge by a senior member of the House of Representatives, made on “Fox and Friends” earlier this week. The president’s opponents usually say the stimulus was a failure and a waste of money, not that money was purposely held back. We immediately thought he must have some damning evidence that his investigators had turned up.
In stress tests, Fed may have inflated grades for TARP banks For two banks that have yet to repay government bailout funds, the Federal Reserve's stress test was easier than for rivals.
By Stephen Gandel, senior editor - Forbes.com
FORTUNE -- The Federal Reserve appears to have class favorites.
Analysts say two banks, Regions Financial (RF) and Zions Bancorp. (ZION), received better grades in last week's stress tests than they deserved. One possible reason: Regions and Zions have yet to repay the bailout money they got from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program - money the government seems increasingly eager to get back. Collectively, the two banks owe $4.9 billion to the government - more than any of the other mostly small 361 banks still in the program - or about a third of the TARP funds still owed by banks. And that, analysts say, may have affected how the Fed graded the two banks.
How to avoid becoming Wall Street’s muppet Make sure your money advisers aren’t double-agents
By Mitch Tuchman
PALO ALTO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — A former executive director of Goldman Sachs caused a stir earlier this month when he spurted that some of the firm’s higher-ups deride clients as “muppets” — Wall Street slang for rubes.
Is anyone really surprised? A recent Yankelovich survey found that four in 10 investors believe investment companies are unfair — joining the ranks of credit card companies, CEOs, the federal government and of course, lawyers.
The HFT Revolution:
6 Reasons Why High Speed Trading
Is Taking Over the Markets
BY CRIS SHERIDAN - FinancialSense.com
Whether it's applying the basic rules of calculus to map the dynamic topology of "financial space" or by simply cutting down human costs, the inexorable rise of HFT towards market-wide dominance is a revolutionary trend that is changing the way we think about investing and how to best deal with such a fast-growing phenomenon.
For a close follower of financial and technological trends, it's been interesting to watch the evolution of high frequency trading (HFT) from a small ripple propagating through the markets to a vast tsunami crashing upon exchanges around the world. Without a doubt, arising deep within the ocean by tectonic shifts in market structure, the accelerating pace of algorithmic trading has caught everyone by surprise.
What Goes Up Must Come Down
By Doug Kass - TheStreet.com
NEW YORK (Real Money Pro -- While the markets continue their resilient and consistent advance, some serious concerns (on the technical, economic, political and geopolitical fronts) are being thrust aside.
Sir Larry Kudlow often says that "profits are the mother's milk of stocks, and for that matter, business and the entire economy" -- and I agree. But, in a series of recent columns, I have suggested that corporate profit margins, the most mean-regressing economic series extant, are likely to contract -- and with it, S&P 500 earnings will likely fall short and disappoint relative to consensus forecasts.
Republican budget throws down election gauntlet Blueprint draws contrast with Obama on taxes, Medicare
By Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — House Republicans unveiled an election-year budget blueprint Tuesday that dramatically overhauls the U.S. tax code and aims for deep spending cuts, seeking to draw a sharp contrast with President Barack Obama.
The budget, introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, provides for just two individual tax brackets — 10% and 25% — cuts spending by about $5 trillion over 10 years relative to President Obama’s budget, and shifts Medicaid to states to save money. It also balances the budget by 2040 and reprises a controversial plan to transform Medicare.
The Predatory State of California, Part 2 Due process and rule of law have been replaced with "legalized" looting and harrassment by government in America.
BY CHARLES HUGH SMITH - FinancialSense.com
Yesterday's entry Welcome to the Predatory State of California--Even If You Don't Live There generated dozens of emails recounting similar stories of "we don't need no stinkin' due process" looting and "fishing expeditions" by California and other state/local governments.
Let's begin with correspondent (and Arizona resident since 2001) R.T.'s experience of his account being looted without prior notice or due process by the state of California to the tune of $1,343. R.T. finally reached an employee of the State Franchise Tax Board and received an explanation.
On unemployment, is Bernanke aggressive enough?
By Zachary A. Goldfarb - WashingtonPost.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has left his mark on economic history not once but twice, using almost every weapon in his arsenal to quell the financial panic of 2008 and then to lift the U.S. economy out of the recession that followed.
But now, in the latest and perhaps final chapter of his public life, that legacy could be recast if he misjudges the nation’s slow-going economic recovery. A debate is raging over whether Bernanke should become more aggressive about reducing joblessness or continue a more restrained approach.
Postal Service: We need more junk mail
By Jennifer Liberto @CNNMoney
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- The U.S. Postal Service wants small businesses to send more direct mail, a.k.a. junk mail, to help the beleaguered agency expand its revenue stream by hundreds of millions of dollars.
In a campaign called "Every Door Direct Mail," the Postal Service is touting a year-old online tool to help small businesses micro-target direct mail. The Web tool allows firms to tap customers by neighborhood or zip code without names or addresses.
America Underwater
OCHousingNews.com
The housing bubble has many lessons to teach us. I have written on the subject for five years now in hopes that people can learn from the successes and failures of those impacted by the housing bubble. Someone recently posted a link in the thoughtful remarks to a website devoted to those who are underwater. It’s a chance for people to share their stories. As you might imagine, this is a giant pity party and a support group for housing bubble losers. Below is a selection of stories as well as some others I have collected over the years.
Personal stories from America Underwater
February Existing Home Sales Fall 0.9 Percent
By Tim Iacono - IaconoResearch.com
The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell to a seasonally adjusted, annual rate of 4.59 million units in February, down from an upwardly revised annual rate of 4.63 million units in January (originally reported as 4.57 million).
While not too much should be made of any housing data at this time of year due to the sharp fall-off in sales during the winter that seasonal adjustments attempt to compensate for (particularly during this winter of record warm weather and odd seasonal adjustments stemming from the late-2008/early-2009 financial crisis), home sales are off to their fastest start since 2007, now up 8.8 percent from a year ago.
The Small Chance the Supreme Court
Will Overturn the Health Care Act If the Court rules against the individual mandate, it will upset a balance of power that has been in place since the New Deal.
By Jack M. Balkin - TheAtlantic.com
When a reporter asked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in October 2009 whether the proposed health care bill was constitutional, she replied, "Are you serious?" Her press spokesman quickly piled on: "That is not a serious question."
At the time she spoke, Pelosi had every right to be incredulous. If the Supreme Court upholds the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act this spring, there will be nothing remarkable about it. That is because the act is based on notions of national power that have been firmly settled since the New Deal. What would be remarkable is a decision striking down the act's individual mandate to purchase health insurance. And what would be truly revolutionary is a decision striking down the act's extension of Medicaid to increase coverage for the poor. That would throw into doubt the way that modern federal government works with states and it would jeopardize many popular social programs.
Feeding The Homeless BANNED
In Major Cities All Over America
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
What would you do if you came across someone on the street that had not had anything to eat for several days? Would you give that person some food? Well, the next time you get that impulse you might want to check if it is still legal to feed the homeless where you live. Sadly, feeding the homeless has been banned in major cities all over America. Other cities that have not banned it outright have put so many requirements on those that want to feed the homeless (acquiring expensive permits, taking food preparation courses, etc.) that feeding the homeless has become "out of reach" for most average people. Some cities are doing these things because they are concerned about the "health risks" of the food being distributed by ordinary "do-gooders". Other cities are passing these laws because they do not want homeless people congregating in city centers where they know that they will be fed. But at a time when poverty and government dependence are soaring to unprecedented levels, is it really a good idea to ban people from helping those that are hurting?
The Federalist Solution
By Jonah Goldberg - PatriotPost.us
.... Federalism -- the process whereby you push most political questions to the lowest democratic level possible -- has been ripe on the right for years now. It even had a champion in Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and Ron Paul still carries that torch.
The main advantage of federalism is more fundamental than the so-called "laboratories of democracy" idea. Federalism is simply the best political system ever conceived of for maximizing human happiness. A one-size-fits-all policy imposed at the national level has the potential to make very large numbers of citizens unhappy, even if it was arrived at democratically. In a pure democracy, I always say, 51 percent of the people can vote to pee in the cornflakes of 49 percent of the people.
Tennessee bill protects teachers
who challenge evolution and climate change State legislature gives legal protection
to teachers who do not believe in the science
and want to debate alternate explanations
By Suzanne Goldenberg - Guardian.co.uk
The state legislature of Tennessee has given legal cover to public school teachers to challenge the science of evolution and climate change, in a move that looks set to deepen a debate about politicisation of the classroom.
The bill passed in the Tennessee Senate this week provides legal protection to teachers who personally do not believe in evolution or the human causes of climate change, and instead want to teach the "scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories".
It’s All About Control
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Ever since the original Patriot Act was passed by Congress in 2001, American civil liberties have steadily shrunk and government control has steadily grown. In a financial crisis, your bank or brokerage can severely restrict the amount of money you can withdraw from your accounts. The government can now assassinate so-called terrorists anywhere in the world, including on U.S. soil. Think Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical Muslim cleric who was assassinated by a U.S. drone strike in September.
It can also indefinitely detain suspected terrorists without charge or due process, all thanks to the National Defense Authorization Act recently signed into law by the President. The government can shut down a website anywhere in the world without due process, just ask Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom from New Zealand. (Yes, that’s his real name.)
Concealed Carry Reciprocity - What's a Federalist to Do?
By Gregory K. Taggart - PatriotPost.us
Passed by the House as H.R. 822 and pending in the Senate as S. 2188 "The National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act", is legislation which would require each state that issues pistol carry licenses to recognize those issued by other states. The debate over this issue has created a strange situation -- committed leftists who believe that Congress can mandate that the several states serve broccoli in school lunches, and who have no problem with federal bureaucrats controlling intrastate toilet design are suddenly "state's rights" purists. They now utter sound bite phrases such as "... you can't make the states recognize gun rights if they don't want to…" Allied with these folks are some real defenders of liberty, who believe that Federal compulsion of the states for any purpose is wrong.
A Safer Society With Guns
By Jeff Jacoby - PatriotPost.us
The Colorado Supreme Court put some noses out of joint when it ruled unanimously this month that the University of Colorado's campus gun ban violated a 2003 state law that entitles residents with permits to carry concealed weapons.
One of those noses belonged to Abraham Nowels, a University of Colorado student who wrote to the Denver Post: "We're in the middle of midterms right now, and I can't think of anything I'd rather be focusing on than which of my fellow over-stressed, binge-drinking peers is carrying a concealed weapon into class with me." The Post agreed, pleading in an editorial for "legislators with enough gumption" to change the state's concealed-carry law and "give colleges the power they need to keep students safe."
Facebook's 'dark side':
study finds link to socially aggressive narcissism Psychology paper finds Facebook and other social media offer platform for obsessions with self-image and shallow friendships
By Damien Pearse - Guardian.co.uk
Researchers have established a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and the degree to which you are a "socially disruptive" narcissist, confirming the conclusions of many social media sceptics.
People who score highly on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire had more friends on Facebook, tagged themselves more often and updated their newsfeeds more regularly.
Job seekers getting asked for Facebook passwords
By Manuel Valdes and Shannon McFarland - WashingtonTimes.com
SEATTLE (AP) — When Justin Bassettinterviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.
Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn’t see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.
Zuckerberg Doesn't Want Facebook to Go Public Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg failed to show up Monday to an analyst meeting intended to make it easier for investors to buy the social network's stock. And he probably won't be around in the future either.
by Michael del Castillo - Portfolio.com
Mark Zuckerberg has once again demonstrated just how much he doesn’t want Facebook to go public. On Monday, the social-networking wunderkind was a no-show at a meeting with analysts and bankers who will play a role in sharing Facebook with the world.
And, according to what one Facebook executive told the Wall Street Journal, we can expect a whole lot more of Zuckerberg not being around and not playing a "hands-on role" in what, it's becoming more apparent, is essentially a forced public offering.
Lawmakers fear Verizon Wireless deal
with cable firms will limit consumers' choices
By Cecilia Kang - WashingtonPost.com
Lawmakers on Wednesday picked apart a controversial deal between Verizon Wireless and the largest cable companies, questioning whether it will impede competition and lead to fewer choices for Internet users.
In a hearing by the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights, lawmakers pressed the firms on a joint marketing plan that critics fear would lead to the demise of FiOS, Verizon Communications’ television and Internet service, which competes with the cable companies.
'Everything Is Automated':
How Web Start-Ups Attack the Offline Economy The founder of a new used-car app explains how a wave of new online companies are using big data to make the economy more efficient and productive
By DWIGHT CROW, Carsabi.com - TheAtlantic.com
It's no secret that most information is now internet accessible, including scientific facts, movie schedules, even the shape of personal networks. The degree to which the offline has online representation may have reached a tipping point, however, and a wave of startups are reacting to take advantage of it.
Foreign Policy Forgotten
By Christopher Hill - Project-Syndicate.org
DENVER – For many foreign audiences, the United States’ primary elections for the 2012 presidential vote – which will, alas, continue to rage into the summer – must be a frightening display of what Americans and their leaders do not know about foreign policy. Debate after debate reveals the fact that none of the candidates seeking to challenge President Barack Obama is particularly interested in the details of any of America’s relationships around the globe, not to mention the crises that dot the international landscape, especially those that do not involve US troops.
* * * * *
Beijing coup rumors
By Bill Gertz - The Washington Times
U.S. intelligence agencies monitoring China’s Internet say that from March 14 to Wednesday bloggers circulated alarming reports of tanks entering Beijing and shots being fired in the city as part of what is said to have been a high-level political battle among party leaders - and even a possible military coup.
The Internet discussions included photos posted online of tanks and other military vehicles moving around Beijing.
The reports followed the ouster last week of senior Politburo member and Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, who was linked to corruption, but who is said to remain close to China’s increasingly nationalistic military.
Russia and China join UN security council
effort
to end Syrian bloodshed All 15 council members unite to throw weight behind Kofi Annan's peace plan in rare show of global unity
Reuters - Guardian.co.uk
The UN security council, including Russia and China, on Wednesday threw its weight behind efforts by Kofi Annan to end the bloody conflict inSyria, providing a rare moment of global unity in the face of the year-long crisis.
In a statement approved by all 15 members, the council threatened Syria with unspecified "further steps" if it failed to comply with Annan's peace plan, which calls for a ceasefire and demands swift access for aid agencies.
Who Is Responsible for The Israeli-Palestinian Impasse?
By Robert Wright - TheAtlantic.com
I'll never forget the advice my mother gave me after I graduated from college and was embarking on a career in journalism: "Eat your vegetables, remember to floss, and never, ever, get in the middle of a fight betweenAndrew Sullivan and Jeffrey Goldberg." She paused and looked at me knowingly and added, "Especially if the fight involves Peter Beinart's controversial book The Crisis of Zionism." My mother was nothing if not prescient.
So I'm not going to get in the middle of the fight. I'm going to stand on the sidelines and try to clear up one point that I think Goldberg fails to understand.
Swift blows to Iran and nuclear talks
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi - Atimes.com
NEW YORK - Swift, the Belgian-based financial clearing house, delivered a major blow to Iran's international trade by announcing on Saturday that it would cut financial services to Iranian banks. For Iran's oil economy, this was shocking in its simplicity: it means that Iran will find it even more difficult to receive money for its major oil transactions.
While it will take a few months to tabulate the net effect of Swift's decision, rationalized by the European sanctions on Iran, it is fairly certain that the timing was critical, coming prior to multilateral nuclear talks between Iran and the so-called "5 +1" nations (ie, the UN Security Council's Permanent Five plus Germany). This and the White House's warning of a shrinking "window of opportunity for diplomacy," are meant to have the sledge-hammer effect of jolting Iran into submission at the negotiation table, although the exact date and venue for talks has yet to be announced.
A Massive Spike In The Price of Silver Is Imminent
Hubert Moolman - SilverSeek.com
Gold and silver are very close to entering the mania phase of this bull market. In order for gold and silver to go into the mania phase, value has to be diverted from somewhere, and that "somewhere" is most likely stocks. Since 2000, there has been a correction in stock values, in real terms; however, nominally, stocks are still significantly high (close to its all-time highs).
I expect that significant value will soon be diverted from the general stock market, to silver and gold, causing prices to rally significantly, until these metals also become overvalued.
Ben Bernanke blasts gold standard
at George Washington class
By JOSH BOAK - Politico.com
Ben Bernanke’s first lesson on economics: Forget about the gold standard.
Opening the first of four lectures to an undergraduate class at George Washington University, the Federal Reserve chairman Tuesday dismissed the idea voiced by many critics that he should stop inflation by re-tethering the currency to the country’s gold reserves.
With college kids, Bernanke gets away with dissing gold
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - GoldSeek.com
Dow Jones Newswires reports below how Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke criticized the gold standard during a lecture today at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. While GATA is not a gold standard advocacy organization, we can only wish that Bernanke would engage this subject where he risked a more informed and critical audience.
This is not just because we'd love the chairman to be asked how he squares the Fed's "transparency" campaign with its refusal to provide public access to the central bank's records involving gold:
Fed Liquidity: Good as Gold
By Scott Silva, Editor, The Gold Speculator - GoldSeek.com
We all have experienced that sinking feeling when in difficult times; we seem to have run out of options. Sometimes our frustration gets the better of us as we lash out at anyone or anything however innocent. But kicking the dog is no solution to our problems.
Chairman Bernanke is acting beyond reason lately. He has realized what others have known for some time--his monetary stimulus has failed to jump start the economy. The Fed is now grabbing at straws, hoping that "increased visibility" into Fed forecasts, and "closer communication" with the public will somehow reverse the ebbing economic tide. The Fed chief seems at ends, ready to point the blaming finger at unsustainable fiscal spending and Congressional gridlock, and phantom "headwinds" as the culprits for the stalled economy.
Dark Clouds for Gold Seem to Have Been Dispersed
By P. Radomski - GoldSeek.com
According to a Bloomberg survey at a precious metals conference this week, gold is poised for a 21 percent gain in 2012, extending its bull market to 12 consecutive years. Bullion may rise to $1,897 an ounce in New York by Dec. 31 from $1,566.80 at the end of 2011.
They have plenty of reasons for optimism, despite the recent drops in price. Demand for gold has strengthened as Europe seeks to contain its debt crisis and China has displayed a growing appetite for gold. Governments have kept interest rates at all-time lows to shore up growth. Central banks have been net buyers for three straight years, the longest stretch since 1973, according to World Gold Council data.
Iran Says "Gold Is Money"
By Louis James, Casey Research - TheBurningPlatform.com
Economic crises signal that the current system isn’t working as expected and needs improvement. When it comes to monetary systems, questioning their fundamentals can lead to doubts about whether the preferred medium of exchange will continue to be preferred for long. The large-scale whirlwind of economic trouble around the globe has pushed some to rethink the role of gold in the economy – and to actually move toward bringing it back.
President Obama's Debt Plan? More Debt.
By Peter Suderman - Reason.com
President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal is primarily a political document — built to highlight the president’s priorities and outline a vision for the country. No one expects it to pass.
But here’s what would happen if it did,according to the Congressional Budget Office: The 2012 deficit would be $1.3 trillion—8.2 percent of gross domestic product and $82 billion higher than the current budget baseline. Next year, the deficit would decline, but still clock in at $977 billion, meaning that federal borrowing would account for more than 6 percent of the country’s total economy. In the following years, deficits would continue to decline, but will still be higher than the budget office baseline by between 1.4 and 1.9 percent of GDP each year.
John Williams: The Devil’s Choice−Inflation or Deflation Beyond Control−Why hyperinflation is inevitable by 2014
James J Puplava CFP with John Williams - FinancialSense.com
Jim welcomes economist John Williams, Executive Editor at Shadow Government Statistics. John discusses how we face a "devil’s choice" between inflation and deflation, and why he believes that hyperinflation is inevitable by 2014.
Why is Obama Lying About US Oil Reserves?
By. E. Calvin Beisner, MasterResource - OilPrice.com
"With only 2% of the world’s oil reserves, we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices,”President Barack Obama said in his weekly address March 10. “Not when we consume 20% of the world’s oil."
The claim is, if not blatantly false, at best grossly misleading. If the President didn’t know this, some advisors should be dismissed. If he did, he needs to accept the blame and formally correct it.
IMF warns of oil risk from Iran
France24.com
AFP - IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned Tuesday that crude oil prices may spike by up to 30 percent if Iranian supplies were disrupted, causing "serious consequences" for the global economy.
The standoff between Iran, the world's second-largest supplier of oil, and the West over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is seen as a flashpoint that could sharply increase world crude prices.
Iran's Oil Fields are in Rough Neighborhoods
By Daniel J. Graeber - OilPrice.com
Tehran this week said that if its "positive diplomacy" wasn't reciprocated by the Kuwaiti government, it would work to develop its section of a shared oil field alone. Tehran, OPEC's No. 3, said oil production from shared oil fields was on the rise. The Islamic republic, facing isolation in the international community, is unlikely to broker any grand oil deal with Kuwait given arch-foe Riyadh's interest in the region, however.
The oil price is the new eurozone crisis No sooner has the pressure on markets from the eurozone crisis begun to ease than investors have found something else to worry about – the oil price.
By Tom Stevenson - Telegraph.co.uk
If, as they say, bull markets "climb a wall of worry" then the seamless shift from fretting about Greece to today’s focus on Iran may be no bad thing. But with the memories still fresh of what the rising price of crude did for the global economy in 2008 and 2011, it is hard to be too relaxed. There are a number of reasons why the oil price has pushed above $120 for a barrel of the costlier Brent variety. Stocks are low and production has been below expectations in a number of countries around the world. Libya has only partially restored production, Syrian output is under embargo, while conflict has pared production in Yemen and South Sudan.
IMF sees $160 oil risk despite Libyan boost Libya's oil exports have rebounded much faster than expected and will exceed pre-Arab Spring levels as soon as April, plugging a crucial gap in world crude supply as the Iranian crisis comes to the boil.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
The Libyan state oil company NOC said it will export almost 1.4m barrels a day (b/d) next month as key oil fields come back on stream.
The announcement came after Saudi Arabia said it had boosted output to a near record level of 9.87m b/d in January and stood ready to cover any shortfall as European sanctions against Iran bite deeper.
How Likely is a Blockade of the Strait of Hormuz?
By Ronald Stoeferle - OilPrice.com
The more and more explicit nuclear rhetoric and the threats of a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz may soon cause the conflict to escalate. We described two years ago what the temporary shutdown of this neuralgic location of global energy trade would entail. The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf in the West with the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean in the East. The strait is about 180km long and, at its narrowest point, only 55km wide. Almost 35% of the oil shipped by sea and 20% of global oil production is transported through this maritime eye of a needle on a daily basis.
Europe faces 'long, hard road' to recovery,
US treasury secretary says Tim Geithner warns against draconian spending cuts and calls on better-off European countries to help their neighbours
By Dominic Rushe in New York and agencies - Guardian.co.uk
Europe is only at the beginning of a "very tough, very long, hard road" to recovery and its future is still a threat to the US economy, Timothy Geithner, the treasury secretary, warned on Tuesday.
In testimony to the House financial services committee on the state of the international financial system, Geithner warned against draconian spending cuts by heavily indebted countries and called on better-off European countries to help their neighbours.
Karl Denninger–EU Debt Crisis and Coming Financial Crash
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Plenty of financial news was made last week which gave us lots of questions for Karl Denninger. It seems almost every week, there is a major story coming out of Wall Street, Washington D.C. or from the other side of the Atlantic. Greg Hunter talks to Karl Denninger of Market-Ticker.com to get some answers. Denninger is no stranger to covering the real financial news the mainstream media (MSM) won’t touch. According to his bio, "Mr. Denninger received the 2008 Reed Irvine Accuracy In Media Award for Grassroots Journalism for his coverage of the 2008 market meltdown. In 2011, Wiley published his book "Leverage," detailing the causes of the 2008 financial collapse along with analysis and policy prescriptions for the future."
Eurozone banks and contagion risk
By Alasdair Macleod - GoldMoney.com
Greece has now defaulted, and other eurozone governments as well as agencies such as the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Investment Bank have retrospectively inserted themselves as senior creditors, a precedent that should be of great concern and which has profound implications for private sector banks.
Europe's fiscal pact in disarray as even Dutch break the rules The Netherlands, one of the eurozone's "hardliners" on financial discipline, has the "same problems as Italy and Spain" and is on track to break Europe's three-week old fiscal pact, its own officials have warned.
By Louise Armitstead - Telegraph.co.uk
The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) said the country's budget deficit could increase to 4.6pc of GDP during this year and next year - a level that far exceeds the 3pc ratio that 25 European Union countries pledged to meet by next year.
In a report that will embarrass the Dutch government but delight Club Med countries, the CPB said: "The Netherlands is confronted with the same problems as Italy and Spain."
Pimco chief Mohamed El-Erian
expects 'second Greece' in Portugal The giant bond fund Pimco said Europe has not yet tamed its debt crisis and will soon face a "second Greece" in Portugal as the country’s economy spirals downwards.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Mohamed El-Erian, Pimco’s chief executive, said Portugal will need a second rescue as the original package of €78bn (£65bn) falls short, setting off a political storm over EU rescue costs.
"Unfortunately, that is how it will be. It will make the financial markets nervous because they are worried about a participation of the private sector," he told Der Spiegel over the weekend.
Senate to vote on STOCK Act
By Paul Kane - WashingtonPost.com
The Senate will move ahead later this week with the House version of a congressional ethics package, including a formal ban against insider trading on Capitol Hill, but jettisoning tough provisions that had won bipartisan approval in the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), in a Tuesday afternoon floor speech, announced that he would not compel a conference committee to hash out the differences between the two chambers’ approaches to the STOCK Act, setting up likely final passage of the legislation by early next week.
China Quietly Relaxes Controls on Foreign Capital
By KEITH BRADSHER - NYTimes.com
HONG KONG — The Chinese government has begun making it much easier for foreign investors to put money into China’s stock market and other financial investments, in a slight relaxing of more than a decade of tight capital controls.
The move, not publicly announced but disclosed by some private money managers, indicates that Chinese officials are eager to counter a rising flight of capital from the country, a worsening slump in real estate prices, a weak stock market and at least a temporary trade deficit caused by a steep bill for oil imports.
The JOBS Act and the Maxine Waters Test Key Senate Democrats do a job on small business startups that even Maxine Waters and Barney Frank support.
By JOHN BERLAU - The American Spectator.org
Call it the Maxine Waters test of political moderation. Late last week, this test was failed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), and Jack Reed (D-R.I.).
They comprise, as Politico writes, "a chorus of Democratic senators… raising objections to a bill designed to help small businesses -- throwing bumps in the road to passage of the legislation that had sailed through the GOP-led House and won President Barack Obama's endorsement." And this bill, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, also won the endorsement of 158 House Democrats who voted "aye" on Mar. 8, including Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)
The JOBS Act Is So Criminogenic
That It Guarantees Full-Time Jobs for Criminologists
William K Black Co-written with Henry N. Pontell
and Gilbert Geis - HuffingtonPost.com
As white-collar criminologists (and a former financial regulator and enforcement head) and experts in ferreting out sophisticated financial frauds, our careers and research focus on financial fraud by the world's most elite private sector criminals and their political cronies. Therefore, we write to thank Congress and the President for preparing to adopt a JOBS Act that will provide us with job security for life. We will be the personal beneficiaries of Congress' decision to adopt the law without the pesky hearings that would allow critics to launch devastating attacks on the proposed bill based on a brutally unfair tactic - the presentation of facts. Unfortunately, in our professional capacities, we must oppose the bill. This bill is an atrocity.
Architects of Economic Ruin They can take our jobs, but they'll never take… our… diet soda.
By JACK RAFUSE - The American Spectator.org
Like a delusional fast food customer who orders a triple bacon cheeseburger and smugly asks for a "diet" soda, Obama administration policies that aim to promote economic health actually threaten economic ruin for the country.
Consider the president's insistence on cutting so-called "subsidies" for the oil and natural gas industry. The president pledges to eliminate Section 199 of the Tax Code -- but for oil companies only. The section 199 manufacturer's deduction has been a central focus in trips to Iowa, Wisconsin, and other states where he touts it as a jobs creating measure. So, is the deduction not creating oil and natural gas industry jobs? Is the president right in wanting to eliminate it for the U.S. oil and natural gas industry? According to new research, the answer is a resounding no.
Welcome to the Predatory State of California -
Even If You Don’t Live There
BY CHARLES HUGH SMITH - FinancialSense.com
Theft has been "legalized" for governments and banks in America.
Every once in a while an event crystallizes the stark reality behind the lacy curtain of propaganda and artifice. Here is one such event.
Correspondent R.T. is a retired accountant who has resided in Arizona since 2001. Prior to 2001, he resided in California.
On March 14, he received a letter from the California Franchise Tax Board (the agency that collects income taxes) claiming that he owed $1,343 for the tax year 2006. This was the first notification he'd ever received of this claim. This was an interesting claim given that R.T.:
The Main Event
By Cal Thomas - Townhall.com
Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear three days of oral arguments in the healthcare lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, otherwise known as "Obamacare."
We now know the law was based on phony predictions about its cost. After promising the price would be under $940 billion over 10 years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has issued a correction of its initial estimate, which appears to have been based on sleight of hand accounting tactics by congressional Democrats and the White House. CBO now projects the measure will cost taxpayers at least $1.76 trillion over a decade.
Health Insurers: We'll Deny Coverage
for Pre-Existing Conditions if Health Mandate Is Repealed
by: Fatima Najiy, ThinkProgress | Report - Truth-Out.org
Health insurers and supporters of the Obama administration’s health-care reform law are currently in the midst of drawing uppossible contingency plans in case the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.
The insurance industry argues that premiums are likely to skyrocket without the individual mandate in place to aid in pushing millions of new enrollees into the marketplace, as healthy people will be less likely to buy insurance, while insurers will still be required to sell policies to all applicants. In fact, a repeal of the individual mandate would increase insurance premiums by 25 percent, according to a study released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
ObamaCare's Flawed Economic Foundations
The insurance mandate has almost nothing to do with remedying costs imposed on the system by those without coverage.
By DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN AND VERNON L. SMITH - WSJ.com
ObamaCare will be argued next week in the Supreme Court. While the justices will consider the intricacies of constitutional law, at their heart the arguments in favor of the legislation have to do with the economics of health care.
Consider the individual mandate to purchase health insurance. The Obama administration defends the mandate on the ground that a person's decision to not buy health insurance affects commerce by materially increasing the costs of others' health insurance. The government adds that health care is unique and therefore can be regulated constitutionally in ways other markets cannot.
Supreme Court faces an unprecedented healthcare frenzy
By Sam Baker - TheHill.com
The frenzy generated by the Supreme Court’s arguments on the healthcare reform law next week is likely to dwarf anything the court has ever seen.
Lawmakers and interest groups plan to stage protests and events outside the court nearly nonstop, creating a circus-like atmosphere for a case that could redefine the limits of federal power.
A throng of lawyers and reporters, meanwhile, are practically beating down the court’s doors to try and secure a seat inside the chamber to witness the historic arguments on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Fracking: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians
This is Part One of a Three-Part Series
by: Walter Brasch, Dissident Voice | News Analysis - Truth-Out.org
A new Pennsylvania lawendangers public health by forbidding health care professionals from sharing information they learn about certain chemicals and procedures used in high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing. The procedure is commonly known as fracking.
Fracking is the controversial method of forcing water, gases, and chemicals at tremendouspressure of up to 15,000 pounds per square inch into a rock formation as much as 10,000 feet below the earth’s surface to open channels and force out natural gas and fossil fuels.
At two-year mark, health law’s legacy is confusion States and employers wait for guidance
By Paige Winfield Cunningham - The Washington Times
Two years after congressional Democrats squeezed out enough votes to pass President Obama’s health care overhaul, confusion still reigns among the states, insurers and average Americans struggling to comply with the hundreds of pages in the law.
Some states say they can’t move forward until the government issues more rules to clarify exactly what kinds of services need to be covered, while other states dispute that, saying enough information is available to plow ahead.
Insurance companies are biting their nails over how the requirements will affect their bottom lines.
Medicare Costs Too Much and They Better Not Cut It
by: Dean Baker, Truthout.com
There is an old story about two men in a retirement home. The first declares, "the food in this place is poison." His friend agrees and adds, "and the portions are so small." This exchange perfectly captures the Republican approach to Medicare.
The Republicans, led by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, have argued that Medicare threatens to bankrupt the country. They have pointed to cost projections showing the program more than doubling relative to the size of the economy over the next three decades. The Republicans say that the country cannot afford this expense and scream about huge debt burdens for our children.
New Scientific Data Forces Government
to Reverse Its Stance on Fluoride in the Water Supply
ANH-USA.org
Why are some states simply ignoring the latest studies, and passing new laws that will hurt your teeth and harm your health? Action Alert!
Water fluoridation was introduced to the United States in the 1940s as a way to use waste product from the manufacture of aluminum, a waste product that was expensive to dispose of and which was harming cattle and farmland. Since then, the federal government has taken the stance that the fluoridation of drinking water, which conveniently disposed of the waste, is vitally important to help prevent tooth decay; the CDC called it one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th century. But the the latest scientific studies have finally made the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) change their tune on how much fluoride is safe.
Holy Cow! How Senators and Movie Stars
Use Livestock to Game the Tax Code Bigwigs are using sheep and cows to gain big tax benefits for themselves at our expense. These loopholes must end.
By Pat Garofalo - Alternet.net
There are plenty of ways in which members of the 1 percent are able to game the tax code to their advantage. But not many involve cows.
Thanks to a half-dozen heifers he keeps on his land, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, is a 1 percenter whose livestock helps him gain a tax benefit. As the Miami Herald reported, Nelson was able tosave tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes due to the presence of a few cows on property that he owns. Nelson has banked millions of dollars selling parcels of the land, the whole time paying taxes that were far below what he should have paid (according to the market value of the land) because of farm tax credits he was able to claim after letting cows graze on his grass.
FORECASTING THE OBAMA COLLAPSE
By Steven Hayward - PowerlineBlog.com
In my podcast with Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis the other day, Joel took me to task for describing Obama as our first affirmative action president, as he should as a representative of the blue side of his and Ben’s red-blue tag team. I parried by saying that I thought it was doubtful that Democrats would have nominated a first-term U.S. Senator with such a thin record if he was white. And just as Obama’s mixed race helped him in 2008, it may still be a factor in why his approval ratings have held up higher than they ought to given the objective conditions of things.
The Budget Wars:
Why Obama and the GOP Are Light-Years Apart If it seems like Republicans and Democrats are on different planets with their approach to budgeting, it's because they really are providing answers to completely different questions.
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
"This isn't just about math, this is a cause," Republican Rep. Paul Ryan told the audience at the American Enterprise Institute this morning, on the release of 2013 budget. And he's absolutely right. Budgets aren't just a mess of paragraphs and numbers. Budgets are statements of values. They tell us what our leaders think is important for the country.
7.6-magnitude temblor shakes Mexico City
By Katherine Corcoran - AP - WashingtonTimes.com
MEXICO CITY — A strong 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Mexico on Tuesday, shaking central and southern parts of the country, sending a pedestrian bridge crashing atop a transit bus and swaying high-rises in Mexico City. At least one building in the capital appeared on the verge of collapse.
More than 60 homes were damaged near the epicenter in Ometepec in southern Guerrero state, though there were no reports of death or serious injury. Fear and panic spread as a less powerful, magnitude-5.1 aftershock was also felt in the capital, where there were also no reports of deaths.
100 million TVs will be Internet-connected by 2016
By Dawn C. Chmielewski - LATimes.com
Soon, the living room TV will become as hyper-connected as the people watching it.
A new report from researcher NPD In-Stat predicts that 100 million homes in North America and Western Europe will own television sets that blend traditional programs with Internet content by 2016. These new hybrid devices, capable of displaying interactive content related to TV shows, are a bid to hold the viewer's attention in a device-cluttered world.
"The TV people figured out nobody's just watching TV anymore," said Gerry Kaufhold, NPD In-Stat's digital entertainment research director. "They're watching TV with a tablet or a smartphone or a laptop in their hands. They've completely lost control."
Nokia patents a tattoo that vibrates when you get a call
By Deborah Netburn - LATimes.com
Nokia is taking steps to make sure you never miss another phone call, text or email alert again: The company has filed a patent for a tattoo that would send "a perceivable impulse" to your skin whenever someone tried to contact you on the phone.
Talk about letting technology get under your skin!
According to the patent filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the phone would communicate with the tattoo through magnetic waves. The phone would emit magnetic waves and the tattoo would act as a receiver. When the waves hit the tattoo, it would set off a tactile response in the user's skin.
Obama's Daughter Vacations in Mexico,
But Let's Not Discuss It.
In Fact, Let's Not Even Ever Have Discussed It
Brian Doherty - Reason.com
Completely divorced from the question of whether a politician's children are fair game for political attack, or even having their existence and life mentioned, this unfolding incident--stories from earlier today about Malia Obama and a gaggle of buddies spring breaking in Mexico (a place normal American kids are advised to avoid) with Secret Service protection disappearing from news sites--seems to indicate the White House can get a wide range of sites to take down stories, even if it is just with gentle persuasion or appeals to some higher standard. And that is highly unnerving.
Bonnie and Clod Clinton in the air again
By Wesley Pruden - The Washington Times
Good ol’ Bubba. He never disappoints. He’s always reaching for something new to feed his ravenous ego, now that age has withered, among other things, his ravenous libido.
He has persuaded the real-estate hustlers, small-town hucksters and dime-store merchants who mismanage things in Little Rock to rename the municipal airport to carry his name — and Miss Hillary‘s, of course — unto the next millennium. Or at least until someone else runs things.
Mein Amerikampf: The Hidden Liberal Doctrine
By Robert H. Meredith - PatriotPost.us
To not be a student of history, is a destiny to repeat it. The United States is not experiencing this second great depression just because of a typical economic cycle of boom and bust. The country has experienced recessions and times of great growth in the past, however this depression happened at the perfect time and in the perfect country for those that dislike our way of life to capture the moment of fundamental change.
History tells us that the dictators of the world, i.e. Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Castro, etc., all knew that to take complete control of the people you must first destroy the economy. The economy, money, gives the people the power to fight, due to optimism in their lives. All of the dictators took away the people's optimism and replaced it with government propaganda and preached the gospel that the government would take care of the needs of the people.
ECO-FASCISTS DON THEIR JACKBOOTS
By Steven Hayward - PowerlineBlog.com
I tend not to traffic too much in the "eco-fascist" theme, preferring to stick more narrowly to the substance of particular aspects of particular issues like climate change or air pollution. But sometimes the jackboot fits, and they should have to wear it.
I have noted at some length in the Claremont Review of Books a while ago the openly anti-democratic and pro-authoritarian views of some eco-alarmists, but that only makes them just like Thomas (China-Is-Awesome) Friedman, who for some reason is a respected figure. I quote, for example, a British analyst who said in a press interview a few years back that “When the chips are down I think democracy is a less important goal than is the protection of the planet from the death of life, the end of life on it.” And also two Australian political scientists who wrote, among other things, “To retain an inhabitable earth we may have to compromise the eternal vicissitudes of democracy for an informed leadership that directs.” I love that euphemism “an informed leadership that directs” bit. And who would do the “informing”? So much for government by consent of the governed. Perhaps the movie version will be called An Inconvenient Democracy.
Can the Secret Service tell you to shut up? New law protecting officials
from hearing criticism is unconstitutional
By Andrew P. Napolitano-The Washington Times
The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from infringing upon the freedom of speech, the freedom of association and the freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Speech is language and other forms of expression; and association and petition connote physical presence in reasonable proximity to those of like mind and to government officials, so as to make your opinions known to them.
Troops stressed to breaking point Report cites sustained combat, redeployments
By Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times
A recent Army health report draws an alarming profile of a fighting force more prone to inexcusable violence amid an “epidemic” of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the mental breakdown attracting speculation as a factor in a massacre of Afghan civilians this month.
Based on an exhaustive study of nearly 500,000 soldiers, reservists and veterans, the report finds that troops are more likely to commit suicide and violent sex offenses, and notes that as many as 236,000 suffered from PTSD since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama to Iranian people in holiday message:
'Americans seek a dialogue'
By Scott Wilson - WashingtonPost.com
President Obama delivered his annual message to the Iranian people on Tuesday, using a far more confrontational tone than usual to say that he will seek ways to break through the "electronic curtain" that Tehran has thrown over the Internet and other forms of communication.
"I want the Iranian people to know that America seeks a dialogue to hear your views and understand your aspirations," Obama said in his message to mark Nowruz, the Persian new year.
As Sweden Goes, So Goes the World:
The Beginning of the End of Cash Sweden could be pointing the way
to a (nearly) cash-free economy.
By Megan Garber - TheAtlantic.com
There are many, many things to dislike about analog money. Cash and coins are unwieldy. They're heavy. They're dirty. They leave no automatic record of the financial transactions that are made with them.
Here in the U.S., despite Square and PayPal and other services that would seem to herald the end of cash, bills and coins still represent 7 percent of our total economy. In Sweden, however -- which ranked first in this year's Global Information Technology Report from the World Economic Forum -- cash is scarcer. And it's becoming, the AP reports, scarcer still. While Sweden was the first European country to introduce bank notes in 1661, it's now come farther than any other country in the attempt to eradicate them. In most Swedish cities, the AP notes, public buses don't accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cell phone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards, and some bank offices -- which make money on electronic transactions -- have stopped handling cash altogether.
The Great American Bubble Machine From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression -- and they're about to do it again
By Matt Taibbi - RollingStone.com
The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.
The U.S. Cruises Toward a 2013 Fiscal Cliff As tax cuts expire and spending falls, the economy will be hit with a 3.5% decline in gross domestic demand.
By ALAN S. BLINDER - WSJ.com
At some point, the spectacle America is now calling a presidential campaign will turn away from comedy and start focusing on things that really matter — such as the "fiscal cliff" our federal government is rapidly approaching.
The what? A cliff is something from which you don't want to fall. But as I'll explain shortly, a number of decisions to kick the budgetary can down the road have conspired to place a remarkably large fiscal contraction on the calendar for January 2013 — unless Congress takes action to avoid it.
Another Hidden Bailout: Helping Wall Street Collect Your Rent
By Matt Taibbi - rollingstone.com
Here's yet another form of hidden bailout the federal government doles out to our big banks, without the public having much of a clue.
This is from the WSJ this morning:
Some of the biggest names on Wall Street are lining up to become landlords to cash-strapped Americans by bidding on pools of foreclosed properties being sold by Fannie Mae...
While the current approach of selling homes one-by-one has its own high costs and is sometimes inefficient, selling properties in bulk to large investors could require Fannie Mae to sell at a big discount, leading to larger initial costs.
In con artistry parlance, they call this the "reload." That's when you hit the same mark twice – typically with a second scam designed to "fix" the damage caused by the first scam. Someone robs your house, then comes by the next day and sells you a fancy alarm system, that's the reload.
Gold ends higher as bargain hunting ensues
By Claudia Assis and Chris Oliver, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures ended higher Monday, shaking off initial weakness as bargain hunters snapped up the metal after sharp weekly losses and other commodities as well as U.S. equities also posted gains.
Gold for April delivery added $11.50, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,667.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Metal markets are bottoming out
By Avi Gilburt - MarketWatch.com
We have had quite a nice and successful run in the metal markets over the last year. For example, you may recall that on Feb. 25, we explained that we expected one last push up in the markets, after which, a correction would ensue. In our trading room on Feb. 28, I suggested that traders exit their short-term metals positions, and some to even short the market.
The next day, the precious metals entered into what some termed a "flash crash" of its own, and proceeded to begin a corrective decline. Our thoughts were that the correction would potentially target the 30-32 region in the futures, and the 158-161 SPDR Gold Trust region.
When Does Fiat Currency Run Out?
Published by Ian R. Campbell - StockResearchPortalBlog.com
A March 16 article reported the "The eurozone’s temporary bailout fund has paid out a 26.6 billion euro (about U.S.$35 billion) sweetener for Greek bondholders involved in the stricken country’s debt swap".
My Comments: I think one has to seriously wonder why such a payment would be made from what in the end has to be Eurozone (and perhaps European and perhaps even non-European) country taxpayers to private sector bondholders. The article says the amount could rise to 30 billion euros. Private sector investors typically ‘pay their money and take their chances’. For me, that such a payment is being made is tantamount to falling backward into what I think is the ‘too big to fail’ sinkhole. It seems to me there must be huge ‘financial sector’ risks perceived by the Euro Governments and Governments generally, or such a payment would not be even considered – let alone made. Hence the title of this commentary: ‘When Does Fiat Currency Run Out?’. I believe the theoretical answer is ‘never’. I believe the practical answer can be found in a statement attributed to Gordon Moore, the inventor of Moore’s Law. While Mr. Moore was referring to growth of something specific, I think the “it” in the following statement can fairly be said to broadly apply.
Note to Krugman:
Greece Proves Keynesian Economics Wrong
By Paul Roderick Gregory, Contributor - Forbes.com
Times columnist Paul Krugman’s continuous railing against austerity reached a crescendo with Greece’s default. In his What Greece Means, Krugman vents his outrage:
"What Greek experience actually shows is that while running deficits in good times can get you in trouble… trying to eliminate deficits once you’re already in trouble is a recipe for depression…Greece is the worst case, with unemployment soaring to 20 percent even as public services, including health care, collapse."
The Greek Tragedy, Act II
By Luigi Zingales - Project-Syndicate.org
CHICAGO – A Greek tragedy is typically composed of three acts. The first sets the scene. It is only with the second that the plot reaches its climax. For current-day Greece, the imposition of "voluntary" losses on the country’s private creditors represents just the end of the beginning. The real tragedy has still to unfold.
On the face of it, the "voluntary" arrangement with creditors might appear to have been a big success. The volume of Greece’s foreign debt has been reduced by more than €100 billion ($130 billion). Greece’s European partners have provided €130 billion in new loans. As a result, Greece has avoided generalized bank failures, and it has been able to continue paying its public employees.
BRICS Bank Could Change the Money Game
Analysis by Kester Kenn Klomegah - IPSNews.net
MOSCOW, Mar 19, 2012 (IPS) - India’s proposal to set up a bank of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will top the agenda at the summit of the group in New Delhi Mar. 28.
India believes a joint bank would be in line with the growing economic power of the five-nation group. The bank could firm up the position of BRICS as a powerful player in global decision-making.
"The BRICS bank does not need much capital for a start," Alexander Appokin, senior expert at the Moscow- based Centre for Macroeconomic Analysis and Forecasting tells IPS. "What is more important is that the BRICS development bank presents a unique opportunity for indirect investment of central bank foreign reserves inside the countries."
Federal Reserve to fine eight more banks
on foreclosure violations
By Jim Puzzanghera and E. Scott Reckard - LATimes.com
Eight large banks face will be fined by regulators for foreclosure abuses, the Federal Reserve official said Monday.
The banks -- EverBank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC North America, OneWest Bank, MetLife, PNC Financial Services Group, US Bancorp and SunTrust Banks -- face sanctions for "unsafe and unsound practices in their loan servicing and foreclosure processing," the Fed said.
Bernanke Seen Not Knowing
Jobless Rate Below Fed Forecasts
By Caroline Salas Gage and Steve Matthews - Bloomberg.com
David Waldrop, 59, says he considers himself retired after searching unsuccessfully for work comparable to the job he lost in July 2007 at the U.S. Department of Energy in Atlanta.
"There was certainly nothing in my area at my level," he said. While the right opening might pull him back to employment, for now he sees his exit from the U.S. labor force as permanent. "I don’t see it happening," he said. "I don’t see anything offering opportunities."
Is Our Economy Too Broken for the Fed to Fix It?
By Noah Millman - TheAtlantic.com
A variety of much more knowledgeable commentators than I have been making the case for some time that the primary cause of our lingering economic difficulties is that the Fed has been too tight with money. Scott Sumner is probably the best exponent of this view, and of the view that a change in the Fed's policy framework is necessary to address this problem effectively for both the short and long term (if the Fed targeted NGDP rather than following some version of the Taylor rule, he argues, the policy responses during both the Great Recession and the Great Inflation of the 1970s would have been more correct), and he's won support from both the left and the right for his views - which makes sense because, from the left's perspective, he's making an argument for higher inflation and for placing a higher priority on reducing unemployment versus protecting the interests of asset-holders, while from the right's perspective he's articulating a policy alternative that could actually address our economic problems without increasing spending or the scope of involvement of the Federal Government in the economy (as a Keynesian fiscal policy would be likely to do).
No More Liquidity Needed for Economy: Fed's Fisher
By Reuters - CNBC.com
The U.S. financial system is well funded and needs no further injections of liquidity, a top U.S. central banker said on Monday.
"We have filled the tanks, there is plenty of liquidity. We need no more," Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher told a round table discussion at a business event in London.
Fisher is an outspoken policy hawk who has been critical of the Federal Reserve's last round of asset purchases
Treasury sells last mortgage bonds; program made $25 billion
By Jim Puzzanghera - LATimes.com
Reporting from Washington — The Treasury Department has sold the last of $225 billion in mortgage-backed securities it began buying during the financial crisis and announced the program designed to keep the housing finance market afloat made a $25 billion profit.
The purchases of bonds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac started in October 2008 and continued through December 2009 as part of a series of unprecedented government interventions into the financial system.
FDIC suing former Silver State Bank executives for negligence
Phoenix Business Journal by Jennifer A. Johnson
Four former bankers from Silver State Bank were grossly negligent and approved Arizona and Nevada land loans in violation of the bank’s lending policies that ultimately caused the bank’s failure, according to a lawsuit filed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in February.
Silver State was based in Henderson, Nev., but had four branches in Arizona.
The FDIC is suing for $86 million tied to losses incurred by Silver State as a result of what the agency described as risky land loans made to developers in Arizona and Nevada.
A rally built on fairy tales As stock bulls hold out for 'happily ever after,' the setup for precious metals and miners could lead them into promising 'just right' trading territory.
By Bill Fleckenstein - Money.MSN.com
We appear to have finally reached the end of the latest chapter of the Greek debt-restructuring saga. The news on March 9 was that Greece had managed to reduce its obligations and extend its term structure via the proposed debt exchange, which obviously reduces short-term pressures and fears of a "messy" default.
That news, however, was sort of a nonevent for European debt and equity markets, while our stock market was boosted by the March 9 jobs number, which, at 227,000 jobs added, was about 17,000 higher than expected. In addition, January's total was revised upward by about 41,000 jobs.
The Market Is Overvalued
By Doug Kass - TheStreet.com
NEW YORK (Real Money) -- In recent weeks, many investors, traders and strategists have abandoned their previously bearish market and economic views (which had dominated their thinking at the beginning of the year). Some of the contributing factors that have led to a rekindling of the market's animal spirits in 2012 include:
• better jobs data;
• stabilization of the European sovereign debt problem (thanks to massive liquidity provided by the LTRO);
• a short-term Greek resolution (and debt exchange); and
• performance-chasing (as investors move from underinvested positions).
The Six States Where Taxes Are Soaring
247WallSt.com
As the economy struggles to recover, state and federal budget deficits continue to be the subject of increased attention. Just last week, the congressional budget office said that President Obama’s budget will produce a $1.3 trillion deficit in 2012 if enacted. It would be the fourth straight year of $1 trillion-plus deficits.
Many states haven’t been faring much better in their attempts to balance the budget. The recent recession resulted in some of the worst declines in state revenue since World War II, according to a recent report on state budgets by the Brookings Institution. In fiscal year 2010, a record 43 states faced budget deficits. In their fight to shrink their deficits, states have cut spending by slashing programs and lowering costs, while increasing revenue mostly by raising taxes.
The Expanding Wealth Of Washington
By Joel Kotkin, Contributor - Forbes.com
Throughout the brutal and agonizingly long recession, only one large metropolitan area escaped largely unscathed:Washington, D.C. The city that wreaked economic disasters under two administrations last yeargrew faster in populationthan any major region in the country, up a remarkable 2.7 percent. The continued steady growth of the Texas cities, which dominated the growth charts over the past decade, pales by comparison.
Jefferson County Creditors Seek to Appeal Bankruptcy Ruling
By Karen Gullo - Bloomberg.com
Creditors of Jefferson County, Alabama, seek to appeal a March 4 ruling by a federal judge who rejected their demands to throw out the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy.
Bank of New York Mellon Corp., trustee for the county’s sewer debt, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), which owns more than $1 billion of the sewer warrants, and other creditors filed a request for court approval to appeal the ruling simultaneously with filing notices of their intent to appeal, according to a filing today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Birmingham, Alabama.
California Cities Scramble to Avert Insolvency
Reuters - CNBC.com
When the city of Stockton, Calif., announced last month it would skip some bond payments and enter talks with its creditors, the municipal debt world shuddered.
If Stockton were to file for bankruptcy protection, it would be the largest U.S. city ever to do so. Other troubled Californian municipalities might be tempted to follow suit. Predictions of mass defaults on municipal bonds might start to look a little more realistic.
But a close look at the municipal finance situation across California suggests mass bankruptcies are unlikely.
$4 Gas? What a Bargain! (And, No, We're Not Kidding)
By RICH SMITH, THE MOTLEY FOOL - DailyFinance.com
According to a recent Gallup poll, most Americans say that if the price of gasoline gets up to somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 to $6 a gallon, they're going to have to make "major" changes in lifestyle. Driving less, certainly.Buying an electric car, maybe. Shopping less -- definitely.
Well, get ready to make a change, America. In some states -- Hawaii, California, Alaska, Illinois, and Washington, D.C. -- prices have already touched the $4 mark. In many other communities, with gas prices hitting an average of $3.81 a gallon nationally, it looks like change is at hand.
How much worse could it get? Quite a bit, actually.
Iran sanctions seen spurring more Saudi oil sales to U.S.
By Matthew Robinson and Jonathan Saul
(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is preparing to extend this year's unexpected jump in oil sales to the United States, adding to speculation about the response of the world's top oil exporter to sanctions against Iranand a rally in prices.
The kingdom's shipments to the United States have quietly risen 25 percent to the highest level since mid-2008, according to preliminary U.S. government data, a sizeable leap that appears at least partly related to the imminent completion of a major expansion at its joint-venture Motiva refinery in Texas.
$5 gas prices would tank consumer: Wilbur Ross Investor considers stakes in Ireland; cool on Spain after strikes
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
New York (MarketWatch) -- Wilbur Ross, the billionaire private-equity investor known for turning around struggling companies, said Monday he is concerned about the impact of rising gasoline prices on the U.S. economy.
"What I am worried about is the following: gas prices have been high and the effect on the consumer has been hidden," due to the mild winter, Ross told MarketWatch in an interview Monday at the New York Stock Exchange, on the sidelines of an event promoting investment in Ireland.
Gasoline price: Signs still point to a rise and to tight supplies
By Ronald D. White - LATimes.com
The average retail price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. continued to rise overnight while the price in California dropped by such a small amount that virtually no one will notice. Three more states joined the $4 a gallon club, bringing the total to six, and U.S. fuel experts continued at a record high pace.
Across the U.S., the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose another 4.1 cents since last week and 0.4 cents overnight to $3.842 a gallon. That's according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. The price looked painfully high a year ago on this date, but it was $3.548 a gallon then.
Natural gas pain is oil's gain as frack crews head to North Dakota
By Selam Gebrekidan
(Reuters) - Collapsing natural gas prices have yielded an unexpected boon for North Dakota's shale oil bonanza, easing a shortage of fracking crews that had tempered the biggest U.S. oil boom in a generation.
Energy companies in the Bakken shale patch have boosted activity recently thanks to an exceptionally mild winter and an influx of oil workers trained in the specialized tasks required to prepare wells for production, principally the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing.
Has the Great Recession Made Us Forever Poorer?
By Matthew O'Brien - TheAtlantic.com
Here's a depressing thought: We might never fully recover from the Great Recession. Growth might never pick up enough to get us back to our pre-Lehman trend. We'll just be worse off, forever.
We're talking about this now because there's recently been a disconnect between jobs and GDP data. Jobs number say the recovery is accelerating. GDP numbers say it's not. (This is somewhat a reversal of the last three years, when jobs were lagging behind GDP.) The most likely answer to this apparent puzzle is that there isn't a puzzle at all. GDP growth will be revised upwards, and the numbers will all make sense. That might already be happening.
Why Most Employees Make Up to 30% Less
Than They Should -- Is It Happening to You?
Nancy Anderson, Contributor - Forbes.com
If you were offered a raise at work simply for being there and requiring no additional tasks, would you accept it? Of course you would. With no downside risk, most people would jump at the chance for additional compensation, but the reality is the raise was there all along. You just didn’t realize it. Many people forfeit a generous raise by not fully taking advantage of the benefits packages provided by their employer. Employers provide an additional 30% or more in benefits above and beyond salaries listed on a W-2. Many people even choose between prospective employers specifically for better benefits packages but after their new hire paperwork is filled out and the core benefits are chosen, maximizing that extra 30% in compensation falls by the wayside. Performing in the new job is top of mind.
Why Falling Wages Are Good News for Jobs (Seriously!) Paychecks aren't keeping up with inflation. That's bad news for families, but good news for the job market.
By Jordan Weissmann - TheAtlantic.com
America's labor market is running a fever.
For the past year, Real wages for U.S. workers have been on a downslide. They're not collapsing, but they are falling. Since February 2011, average hourly wages have shrunk 1.1 percent when adjusted for inflation (in nominal terms -- what workers actually see on their pay stubs -- they've risen). Total weekly pay is down by a slightly smaller margin, 0.4 percent, because employees are working more hours.
This is a painful situation for families. It means that paychecks are lagging behind the cost of living. And because the official measure of inflation does not include energy or food prices, it also means most households are having to work even harder to make ends meet than the real wage data would suggest.
Jobs of the Future: A Skeptic's Response There is a tendency to imagine that work will someday be like today's leisure, heavy on multitasking and social media.
By Alan Jacobs - TheAtlantic.com
A weak or unstable economy creates two kinds of anxiety: the acute and the chronic. People wonder whether they get a decent job today, or keep the one they have; but they also wonder about long-term trends -- especially if they have children. Where will the jobs be a decade from now? What skills will be best-suited to the economic environment of 2025? When people ask these questions today, they tend to focus on digital technologies because they're convinced that one way or another, the economy is turning digital. But is it? I have my doubts. And I wonder whether we're not letting a species of easy futurism blind us to some important issues.
Drug-resistant "white plague" lurks among rich and poor
By Kate Kelland
LONDON (Reuters)- On New Year's Eve 2004, after months of losing weight and suffering fevers, night sweats and shortness of breath, student Anna Watterson was taken into hospital coughing up blood.
It was strange to be diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB)- an ancient disease associated with poverty - especially since Watterson was a well-off trainee lawyer living in the affluent British capital of London. Yet it was also a relief, she says, finally to know what had been making her ill for so long.
At two-year mark, health law’s legacy is confusion States and employers wait for guidance
By Paige Winfield Cunningham-The Washington Times
Two years after congressional Democrats squeezed out enough votes to pass President Obama’s health care overhaul, confusion still reigns among the states, insurers and average Americans struggling to comply with the hundreds of pages in the law.
Some states say they can’t move forward until the government issues more rules to clarify exactly what kinds of services need to be covered, while other states dispute that, saying enough information is available to plow ahead.
More Bankruptcy Concerns For Sprint (S)
By JON C. OGG - 247WallSt.com
In our daily research summary of analyst upgrades and downgrades, we noted how Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) was downgraded at Bernstein and the firm took the rating down to Underperform from Market Perform. While that rating is never good under any circumstances, it is the “B” word that is causing the most fear this morning. The report is not exactly predicting a bankruptcy filing for Sprint. It is saying that the odds are now a very legitimate risk to the shares now.
Does the American Dream Exist Only in Europe? Perhaps. But if you think America’s class system is as rigid as Europe’s, then you don’t know an old-fashioned social hierarchy when you see one.
By Yascha Mounk - Slate.com
American politicians, especially during an election year, often ascribe to Europe all the qualities they most love to hate. They say its governments are dysfunctional, its welfare states are wasteful, its war-weary populations effeminate and, worst of all, its health care systems socialist. But perhaps the most traditional foil to America’s superiority is the Old World’s fixation on class. In places like Europe, the standard story goes, a combination of social snobbery and a stagnant economy limits the prospects of ordinary people. In America, on the other hand, class simply doesn’t exist. Here, anybody can start at the bottom and work their way up to the top.
HILL POLL RESULTS GRIM FOR OBAMA
By John Hinderaker - PowerlineBlog.com
Polls are a dime a dozen and it is a mistake to draw too many conclusions from any one survey, but The Hill published a poll by Pulse Opinion Research this morning that will give Obama staffers heartburn. Pulse surveyed 1,000 likely voters, so the results are entitled to some respect. Complete results are here.
But first, a caveat: the Pulse poll sampled 36% Republicans, 32% Democrats and 32% independents. It would be great if that were the composition of the 2012 electorate–and, given what we have seen in generic Congressional preference surveys, it might be–but it would probably be prudent to adjust all numbers by a few percentage points. They are still grim for Obama:
Russian Anti-Terror Troops Arrive in Syria
By KIRIT RADIA and RYM MOMTAZ - ABCNews.com
A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was "a bomb" certain to have serious repercussions.
Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad's strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government's violent crackdown on the country's uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council's attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war.
Niall Ferguson on China's Great Leap Backward Beijing purges one of its own—
the Cultural Revolution isn’t over.
TheDailyBeast.com
"To understand China you have to think in generations," my Chinese friend explained. "And the key is that after 2012 the Cultural Revolution generation will be in charge."
While antiwar protesters clashed with the National Guard on American campuses and Czechs defied the Red Army in the streets of Prague, China had the Cultural Revolution. In some ways it was the ultimate ’60s teen rebellion. In other ways it was totalitarianism at its worst: a bloody revolution from above unleashed by one of the 20th century’s most ruthless despots.
Retired military officers call for curbing China’s power
By Sean Lengell - The Washington Times
China's burgeoning military poses a significant security threat to Southeast Asia and beyond unless quickly counterbalanced by the U.S. and its allies, said several retired military officers Monday at a Washington symposium.
That threat could hit global waters in as soon as 10 years, Yoji Koda, a retired vice admiral with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, said at The Washington Times Foundation-sponsored event at the Capitol.
After attack, MK calls on Jews to leave FranceYa’akov Katz says Jews’ fate cannot be left in hands of world leaders
By AARON KALMAN - TimesOfIsrael.com
MK Ya’akov Katz called Monday for Jews to leave France in the wake of a deadly attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse.
"There is no Jewish future in France," Katz, of the National Union party, said, adding that the state of Israel is the future of the Jewish people, and that Jews should not trust their fate to "Sarkozy, Obama or other world leaders."
U.S. War Game Sees Perils of Israeli Strike Against Iran
By MARK MAZZETTI and THOM SHANKER - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — A classified war simulation held this month to assess the repercussions of an Israeli attack on Iran forecasts that the strike would lead to a wider regional war, which could draw in the United States and leave hundreds of Americans dead, according to American officials.
The officials said the so-called war game was not designed as a rehearsal for American military action — and they emphasized that the exercise’s results were not the only possible outcome of a real-world conflict.
The Obama Administration:
All Your Privacy And All Your Stuff Belong To Us
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Did you know that the federal government claims that it can take away your constitutional rights any time that it wants to? Over the past several decades, there have been an endless parade of laws and executive orders that have been slowly and methodically carving up our rights under the U.S. Constitution. Most Americans are not even aware of the "creeping totalitarianism" that is happening. Most Americans just trust the "authorities" when they tell us that certain things "must be done" in order to keep us all safe. But even if we gave up all of our privacy, even if we gave up all of our liberties and our freedoms, and even if we gave the government all of our stuff they still would not be able to keep us safe. It is inevitable that evil people are going to do evil things, and if you are counting on the Obama administration to keep you safe then you are being delusional. Obama is not going to save us from anything. But Obama will gladly take away our rights and our freedoms if the American people allow him to. The Obama administration seems to have an endless lust for more power. Sadly, if we do give away our rights it will have some very serious consequences. If we freely give away all of the rights that we have been given under the U.S. Constitution it will be incredibly difficult to ever get them back. Giving up liberty for security never works, and if we want to be worthy of being called Americans then we need to start standing up for the republic that our forefathers worked so hard to build.
OPEC Recycles Dollars Into Debt 50% Faster Than Foreigner
By Cordell Eddings and Austen Sherman - Bloomberg.com
OPEC nations are plowing cash into U.S. Treasuries at a more than 50 percent faster rate than all other foreign investors, an unintended benefit of oil prices above $100 a barrel.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Country members increased their net purchases of government debt by $43.3 billion, or 20 percent, in the 12 months ended Jan. 31, compared with a 13 percent rise for non-OPEC foreign holdings, Treasury Department data showed last week. With prices up $26 a barrel since Sept. 30, producers have an additional $780 million in profits every day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Ugly Politics of Higher Gasoline Prices
By Gary Hunt - OilPrice.com
The impacts of higher oil and gasoline prices are beginning to ripple across the economy. Wells Fargo Economics reported today that higher energy prices increased the producer price index (PPI) by 0.4 percent in February 2012 which was the highest monthly gain in the PPI in five months. Wholesale gasoline prices were up for the second-straight month, increasing 4.3 percent, home heating oil was up 5.3 percent and residential electric power prices increased 0.6 percent.
Gasoline prices rise for 9th straight day
By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gasoline prices in the U.S. rose on Sunday for a ninth straight day, continuing a climb back toward the record highs set in 2008.
The national average price for a gallon of gas rose to $3.838, according to motorist group AAA’s fuel gauge report.
That’s up from about $3.53 a month ago.
Average prices are above or near $4 a gallon in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, New York, and six other states, according to CNN.
Gas prices up 18 percent in past month
Dayton Business Journal by DBJ Staff
Gas prices are up double-digit percentages in Dayton and the rest of Ohio in the past month, as consumers across the country are increasingly facing the likely challenge of having to pay record price at the pump, according to a AAA report.
Gas prices in Dayton top the $3.80 per gallon mark at some fuel stations, and the AAA Fuel Gauge report shows the average price per gallon of regular unleaded gas is $3.77 locally. The Dayton average gas price is up 18 percent from $3.18 per gallon one month ago.
The U.S. Economy: Soul Crushing Total System Failure
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomiccollapseBlog.com
No matter how often the pretty people on television tell us that the U.S. economy is getting better, it isn't going to change the soul crushing agony that millions of American families are going through right now. The stock market may have gotten back to where it was in 2008, but the job market sure hasn't. As I wrote about a few days ago, the percentage of working age Americans that are actually employed has stayed very flat since late 2009, and the average duration of unemployment is hovering near an all-time high. Sadly, this is not just a temporary downturn. The U.S. economy has been slowly declining for several decades and is nearing total system failure. Right now, manypoverty statistics are higher than they have ever been since the Great Depression. Many measurements of government dependence are the highest that we have ever seen in all of U.S. history. The emerging one world economic system (otherwise known as "free trade") has cost the U.S. economy tens of thousands of businesses, millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars of our national wealth. The federal government is going into unprecedented amounts of debt in order to try to maintain our current standard of living, but there is no way that they will be able to sustain this kind of borrowing for too much longer. So enjoy this bubble of false prosperity while you can, because things will soon get significantly worse.
Money Supply booming, seeds of the next Greater Recession
By Michael Pollaro, Contributor - Forbes.com
The next Great Recession is in the making. The money supply trends say so. And it is looking more and more like this nextGreater Recession is going to be one for the ages…
The money supply, as measured by THE CONTRAIAN TAKE‘s broad (and preferred) TMS2 metric (TMS for True "Austrian" Money Supply), posted a 14.6% year-over-year increase in February, making this the 39th consecutive month of double digit year-over-year rates of monetary inflation. All told, TMS2 is up a huge 50% over those 39 months. Even more interesting is what those TMS2 metrics were leading up to the housing boom turn credit bust turn Great Recession – 37 consecutive months for a cumulative increase of 50%.
Iran Central Bank Says Rial Can Be Traded at Market Rates
By Ladane Nasseri - Bloomberg.com
Iran’s central bank allowed trading in its currency at market levels after fixing the exchange rate in January as the threat of sanctions over the country’s nuclear program and economic risks spurred Iranians to buy up dollars.
"Licensed exchange houses are given permission to buy and sell foreign currencies and answer customers’ needs based on the mechanism of the market’s supply and demand," the Iranian central bank said in a statement posted on its website.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde fears oil spike
poses serious threat to global recovery The International Monetary Fund has warned that surging oil costs pose a serious risk to the global economy, threatening to smother expansion before a fresh cycle of growth is safely under way.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
"The world is not yet out of the danger zone," said Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, speaking in Beijing. "The rising price of oil is a new threat that could derail the recovery. I think it is a major threat.
"Optimism must not lull us into a false sense of security. The global economy may be on a path to recovery, but there is not a great deal of room for manoeuvre and no room for policy mistakes." The warning came after Brent crude reached $126 a barrel last week, hitting all-time highs in euros and sterling. The US and Britain have agreed in principle to release supplies from their strategic reserves if necessary, but so far no decision has been taken on this.
Monti to Meet Labor Unions
Amid Warning of Continued Euro Crisis
By Patrick Donahue - Bloomberg.com
Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti will press ahead with efforts to revise labor laws this week, amid fresh warnings that the three-year-old European debt crisis is far from over.
Monti will lead talks with unions and employers in a final round of negotiations beginning tomorrow. Decision makers meanwhile warned against complacency after delivery of the final element of Greece’s 130 billion-euro ($171 billion) bailout package and the completion of the world’s largest sovereign-debt restructuring last week.
Keiser Report: Rip out eyes, tear off head (E263)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss ripping out client eyeballs and losing millions for a free breakfast; maggots of risk and plastic financial apartheid. In the second half of the show Max talks to filmmakers William Gagan and Geoff Shively about their crowd funded journey to Syria and 'fake' activists and, with the introduction of anti-free speech laws in Chicago, the filmmakers discuss the small drone helicopters they have acquired for reporting on the NATO summit.
Too Smart to Fail Notes on an age of folly
By Thomas Frank - MitPressJournals.org
The "sound" banker, alas! is not one who sees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional and orthodox way along with his fellows so that no one can really blame him. - John Maynard Keynes
In the twelve hapless years of the present millennium, we have looked on as three great bubbles of consensus vanity have inflated and burst, each with consequences more dire than the last.
First there was the "New Economy," a mil- lennial fever dream predicated on the twin ideas of a people’s stock market and an eternal silicon prosperity; it collapsed eventually under the weight of its own fatuousness.
Second was the war in Iraq, an endeavor whose launch depended for its success on the turpitude of virtually every class of elite in Washington, particularly the tough-minded men of the media; an enterprise that destroyed the country it aimed to save and that helped to bankrupt our nation as well.
Damning the Demimonde:
Thomas Frank Versus the Oligarchs' Enablers
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
The defense being offered for Goldman Sachs, and Wall Street, is that since they are serial cheaters and everyone knows it, the victims should only blame themselves for thinking otherwise, and doing business with them, and being cheated.
I have heard this one quite a bit lately. When someone from the Street offers this defense it is a bit ironic and almost funny.
If you are a member of fraternity of self-confessed cheaters and liars, your explanations may not be credible and compelling as you think. Unless you are talking to muppets of course. 'Trust me, this time I am NOT lying. But if it goes wrong, I was and you should have known better.'
Goldman Sachs: Making Money by Stealing It
by Stephen Lendman - GlobalResearch.ca
Money power in private hands and democracy can't co-exist. Wall Street crooks transformed America into an unprecedented money making racket.
Goldman symbolizes master of the universe of financial manipulation (Reuters April 16, 2011) It's been involved in nearly all financial scandals since the 19th century.
It makes money the old-fashioned way, through market manipulation, the scamming of investors, bribing political Washington, having its executives in top administration posts, and getting open-ended low or no interest rate bailouts when needed.
The Crazy Things That One Whistleblower Says
Are Happening At JP Morgan Will Blow Your Mind
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Rampant silver manipulation? Rampant gold manipulation? Rampant LIBOR manipulation? Hiding MF Global client assets? These are all happening at JP Morgan according to an open letter reportedly written by an anonymous employee of the firm. The whistleblower also warns of a "cascading credit event being triggered" by derivatives related to Greek government debt. UnlikeGreg Smith at Goldman Sachs, this whistleblower has chosen to remain anonymous for now. According to the letter, the whistleblower is still an employee of JP Morgan and has not resigned. But that does make it much more difficult to confirm what he is saying. With Greg Smith, we know exactly who he is and what he was doing at Goldman. As far as this anonymous whistleblower is concerned, all we have is this letter. So we must take it with a grain of salt. However, the information in this letter does agree with what whistleblowerssuch as Andrew Maguire have said in the past about silver manipulation by JP Morgan. And this letter does mention Greg Smith's resignation from Goldman, so we know that it must have been written in the past few days. Hopefully this letter will cause authorities to take a much closer look at the crazy things that are going on over at JP Morgan and the other big Wall Street banks.
PIMCO chief Mohamed El-Erian
expects 'second Greece' in Portugal The giant bond fund PIMCO said Europe has not yet tamed its debt crisis and will soon face a "second Greece" in Portugal as the country's economy spirals downwards.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Mohamed El-Erian, PIMCO’s chief executive, said Portugal will need a second rescue as the original package of €78bn (£65bn) falls short, setting off a political storm over EU rescue costs.
"Unfortunately, that is how it will be. It will make the financial markets nervous because they are worried about a participation of the private sector," he told Der Spiegel over the weekend.
Far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon
calls for a 'civic insurrection' in France Leader of Leftist Front makes gains in French presidential race but François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy still likely to top polls
by Angelique Chrisafis in Paris - Guardian.co.uk
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the charismatic far-left firebrand whose anti-capitalist stance has seen him rise sharply in the French presidential polls, on Sunday told a vast Paris street rally that France should rise up in a "civic insurrection".
Mélenchon's symbolic open-air rally at the Place de la Bastille, emblem of the French revolution, attracted tens of thousands in an important show of force for France's "Left of the Left", buoyed by the financial crisis and disillusionment with the main political parties.
Wall St braced for hit to soaring markets S&P 500 earnings set for first decline in more than two years
By Ajay Makan in New York - FT.com
US corporations’ quarterly earnings are set to register their first decline in more than two years, in what will be a challenge to the stock market’s stellar start to 2012.
The S&P 500 last week rose above 1,400 – a level not seen since June 2008. It has gained more than 11 per cent this year.
That run has coincided with solid earnings reports for the last quarter of 2011. But rising commodity prices, notably oil, are compressing profit margins for many companies, including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and Carnival Corporation.
Did Obama Resuscitate a Corrupt Banking System?
By Steve Clemons - TheAtlantic.com
The New York Times editors nail it today in a pieceridiculing the settlement between too-big-to-fail banks and states designed to assist anti-foreclosure efforts and underwater home mortgage victims.
Although the Obama administration did get some financial sector reforms through, like Dodd-Frank, the result seems to have been not a rewiring of the system to change the balance of power between economic stakeholders, particularly consumers and workers, but rather a resuscitation of the old system with some fig leafs (like this $26 billion foreclosure settlement) designed to cover up the corruption.
Progressives Accuse AARP of Double-Dealing
Truthdig.com
Following reports that AARP — the influential senior citizens lobby — will convene a closed-door meeting with higher-ups who advocate slashing essential welfare programs, progressive groups are launching campaigns to pressure the organization to stand firm against any cuts in Social Security benefits and Medicare.
Criticism of AARP from such groups is strong. Isaiah Poole with Campaign for America’s Future condemned the organization for taking seriously the proposals of those who want to slash and privatize Social Security:
Untouchable Pensions May Be Tested in California
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH - NYTimes.com
When the city manager of troubled Stockton, Calif., had to tell city council members why it was on track to become the biggest American city yet to go bankrupt, it took hours to get through the list.
There was the free health care for retirees, the unpaid parking tickets, the revenue bonds without enough revenue to pay them. On it went, a grim drumbeat of practically every fiscal malady imaginable, except an obvious one: municipal pensions. Stockton is spending some $30 million a year to pay for them, but it has less than 70 cents set aside for every dollar of benefits its workers expect.
What Occupy Wall Street Gets Wrong Corporatism is not the same thing as the free market.
By Sheldon Richman - Reason.com
When the Occupy Wall Street protestors rail against the 1 percent they typically have the banking establishment in mind. Steve Jobs may have been a 1 percenter (as are many popular sports and entertainment figures) but he was not the object of anger. Rather it is Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase that get the brickbats. There is a sense that Wall Street is up to no good. And in light of the last several years, writes Sheldon Richman, this is an entirely justifiable attitude. Big, well-connected players in banking and finance were at the heart of the housing and financial debacle, in partnership with the government, of course. Free-market advocates should hold no brief for any of them.
Here's the article:
"We are the 99 percent!" That’s the battle cry of Occupy Wall Street. What are we to make of it? It’s a worthwhile question with a complex answer.
Infiltration of Political Movements Is the Norm in America
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers - Truthdig.com
FBI’s COINTELPRO Spread a Wide Net
.... In light of the long history of political infiltration, it would be surprising if the Occupy movement were not infiltrated. Almost every such movement in modern history has been infiltrated by police or others using many of the tactics we are now seeing employed against Occupy.
The most famous surveillance program was the FBI’s COINTELPRO, which according to COINTELPRO documentstargeted the women’s rights, civil rights, anti-war and peace movements, the New Left, socialists, communists and the independence for Puerto Rico movement, among others. Among the groups infiltrated were the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACP, the Congress for Racial Equality, the American Indian movement, Students for a Democratic Society, the National Lawyers Guild, the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground. Leaders including Albert Einstein and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were monitored.
* * * * *
Following report is basically the same agenda as the ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainable Development for American cities now being adopted in the US - Check with your City Hall or local government web site and search using key words, like ICLEI, sustainable development. You may be surprised to learn your town or city has already succumbed to the precepts of Agenda 21 right under your noses...
Proposed UN Environmental Constitution
For The World Would Establish
An Incredibly Repressive System Of Global Governance
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Most people have no idea that the United Nations has been drafting an environmental constitution for the world that is intended to supersede all existing national laws. This document has a working title of "Draft International Covenant on Environment and Development" and you can read the entire thing right here.
Work on this proposed world environmental constitution has been going on since 1995, and the fourth edition was issued to UN member states on September 22nd, 2010. This document is intended to become a permanent binding treaty and it would establish an incredibly repressive system of global governance. This "covenant", as it is being called, claims authority over the entire global environment and everything that affects it. Considering the fact that everything that we do affects the environment in some way, that would mean that this document would become the highest form of law for all human activity. This proposed UN environmental constitution for the world is incredibly detailed. The U.S. Constitution only has 7 articles, but the UN document has 79 articles. If the U.S. eventually ratifies this treaty, any national, state or local laws that conflict with this covenant will be null and void. This is potentially one of the greatest threats to our national sovereignty that we have ever seen and we need to warn the American people about it.
Why You Should Be Concerned About ICLEI?
StopICLEI.com ICLEI = International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
Taking care of our environment, developing energy independence, and planning for the future is a responsible approach to living. However, the green/environmental/sustainable movement consistently demonstrates their lack of concern for the people who live on the planet. Many green-labeled practices actually cause more damage to the environment.
Powerful environmental special interest groups prevent research, development and implementation of new technology. Free market solutions to any problem are far superior to government intrusion. There is exciting research and development being conducted by private businesses, but they cannot compete against multibillion dollar foreign nongovernmental organizations.
The science says man-made global warming does not exist, so why is there so much focus on the issue? Money, power and control. This all occurs at the expense of individual freedom.
America's Real War on Women
By Peggy Noonan - PatriotPost.us
Some men think they can get away with vulgarity because they're on the 'correct' side on social issues; others tire of being bullied by the language police.
There is a war against women. It is something comparatively new in our national life, and we have to start noticing it.
It is not a "Republican war on women." It has nothing to do with White House attempts to paint conservative efforts to protect religious liberty as a war against women's rights to contraceptives. That is a mischievous fiction, and the president's polls this week suggest it isn't working. Good.
80 Percent Of Americans Say
That They Are Not Better Off Than They Were Four Years Ago
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Are you better off today than you were four years ago? If not, then you are just like most other Americans. According to a CBS News/New York Times pollthat was released a few days ago, 80 percent of Americans say that their financial situation is not "better today" than it was four years ago. But if you turn on the television and listen to what the "pundits" are saying, you would be tempted to think that we were in the midst of a robust economic recovery. You would be tempted to think that the U.S. economy is in great shape and that we are heading for a really bright future. But the fact that the stock market is soaring does not mean much to most Americans. In fact, most Americans couldn't care less that the Dow is well above 13,000 and that the NASDAQ is above 3,000. What most Americans care about is having a job and being able to provide for their families. If you haven't paid the mortgage in three months or if you don't have enough money to take your daughter to go see the doctor it really is not going to matter to you how well the boys and girls over on Wall Street are doing. Right now most American families are doing worse than they were doing four years ago, and no amount of media hype is going to change that fact.
A shadow inflation hits shoppers through economic sleight of hand: Inflation and the hidden side of finances.
MyBudget360.com
Anyone that shops realizes that the price of goods has only gone up. Yet by how much is deceiving by economic chicanery. TheFederal Reserve has taken a baseball bat to the US dollar and the purchasing power of what Americans carry in their wallet. Yet many Americans have been duped into thinking inflation has only been occurring at a moderate pace. Those that already know about the insidious side of a crushing dollar arecollege students and those having to pay medical bills. However shoppers at grocery stores are seeing the hidden cost of inflation through innovative ways of repacking items and giving you less while trying to convince you psychologically that you are still getting the same. The cost of high fuel is being passed on through the supply chain channels and a lower dollar simply means you have less purchasing power. How much less is a matter of how carefully you look at the label.
Liberals Are Wrong: Free Market Health Care Is Possible
by Avik Roy - TheAtlantic.com
One of the big divides between liberals and conservatives, of course, is on the value and utility of the free market. Most Americans appreciate that market-based economies, broadly speaking, outperform state-based ones. But most, if not all, progressives make the argument that health care is different: that markets may work for computers and soda pop, but they don't work in health care.
The most famous exponent of the theory that markets can't work in health care comes from Stanford economist Ken Arrow. In 1963, the Ford Foundation approached Arrow--an up-and-coming economist, albeit one without prior health care experience--about applying his theories to the practical problems of health, education, and welfare. With Ford's support, in December of that year, Arrow published a paper in the American Economic Review entitled "Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care."
Costs for ObamaCare Skyrocket
By Arnold Ahlert - patriotPost.us
A devastating new report from the Congressional Budge Office.
A funny thing has happened on the way to the implementation of Obamacare, aka the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA): it's become much less affordable. When the law was passed in 2010, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated it would cost $940 billion over a ten year period. The new estimate? $1.76 trillion.
Wealthy Families Skip Waiting Rooms
With Concierge Medical Plans
By Elizabeth Ody - Bloomberg.com
Doctors on-call day or night. Medical care while traveling outside the U.S. Emergency-room grade equipment, modeled on gear used in the White House, installed in the client’s home.
Well-heeled executives and their families increasingly are paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for high-end medical services that aren’t covered by insurance.
"Wealthy people want to have a little exclusivity and want better service than they can get at their normal health-care facility, and they’re willing to pay for it," said Rick Flynn, principal and head of the Family Office Group with Rothstein Kass, a Roseland, New Jersey-based accounting and consulting firm.
When Americans Made Toys by Hand:
Inside a 1915 Teddy Bear Factory
By Alexis Madrigal - TheAtlantic.com
If there is one thing I enjoy about the web, it's the way that primary historical materials are as close to hand as a Gawker blog post or a Amazon.com. Getting your hands on real, printed photographs from the 1910s takes work, even if you happen to have a university affiliation.
Online, as part of our daily labor here on The Atlantic, I often find myself at the Library of Congress searching through hundreds of thousands of photographs of all kinds of things. At a time when algorithms are supposed to be reducing serendipity to the opposite of a chance encounter, I find the blunt search tools at the LOC constantly spit out wonderfully unexpected things.
Chevy's version...the real commercial Chevy Volt Owner Testimonials | Kory Levoy
He's spent $38 in gas - in two months! See how, and see what Kory thinks of his new Volt, the first GM car he's owned since 1975. 2011 Volt shown. For more information, go to Chevrolet.com/Volt.
Boeing in $300 million C-17 deal with Britain
Dayton Business Journal
The Boeing Co. will provide the United Kingdom with $300 million in equipment, services and maintenance that support its fleet of eight cargo transport aircraft, under an arms sales agreement with the United Kingdom and the U.S. Air Force.
Boeing will provide 20 engines, engine exchange kits, global positioning systems, communications and support equipment, spare and repair parts, personnel training, technical documents, and engineering, technical and logistics support services to support the UK fleet of Globemaster II aircraft.
Nothing much new here; see next article Did Obama sign Executive Order
for Peace time Martial Law or are we over reacting?
Posted by Darla Dawald, National Director - Patriot Action Network
From:The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
March 16, 2012
Executive Order -- National Defense Resources Preparedness EXECUTIVE ORDER NATIONAL DEFENSE RESOURCES PREPAREDNESS
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. App. 2061 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Update: Obama Executive Order Peacetime Martial Law
Posted by Darla Dawald, National Director
on March 18, 2012 - Patriot Action Network
Last night I provided you with the EO from the White House regarding the National Defense Resources Preparedness signed by Barack Obama. The thread is full of every opinion imaginable.
Since that time several have done what I asked... they read the Executive Order and researched it also. I too have pulled up the EO and compared it with the 2 other EOs this current order refers to as revoking and or replacing content. I would like to point out that other than one section of the November 18,1988 version signed into Law BY Ronald Reagan... and the entire 1994 eo I don't see any other changes.
Praetorian Progressives and Their Imperial Dreams
By Dr. Robert R. Owens - PatriotPost.us
Under President Obama we doubled-down in Afghanistan? We sent more of our fellow citizens to a long hard slog in a country whose synonym is Quagmire while announcing the eventual date of their withdrawal at the same time. In an unprecedented action Mr. Obama announced our attack as he heralded our retreat in a calculated political decision that has cost lives, squandered treasure and told the Taliban to wait in the wings for the second act.
Afghan Ambivalence
By Oliver North - PatriotPost.us
WASHINGTON -- Four years ago, when then-Sen. Barack Obama was campaigning for president, he said of Afghanistan: This is "a war that we have to win." He also claimed, "The Afghan people must know that our commitment to their future is enduring because the security of Afghanistan and the United States is shared." But after three years of Obama's being commander in chief, it ought to be clear that he never really believed his own campaign rhetoric. Now, in the aftermath of recent setbacks, his words are further evidence of presidential ambivalence and uncertainty. None of this bodes well for those who hope for a positive outcome in the shadows of the Hindu Kush.
Power Struggles at the Persian Gulf -
is Another Gulf War Imminent?
By Ronald Stoeferle - OilPrice.com
Iran is currently the fifth-largest oil producer in the world, the second-largest producer in the OPEC, and the third-largest oil exporter worldwide. Of the total production of almost 3.5mn barrels/day, 2.285mn barrels/day were exported last year. 0.8mn barrels/day are shipped to the OECD countries in Europe, 0.6mn barrels/day of those to the EU and 200,000 barrels/day to Turkey (50% of the Turkish demand). But Asia is the most important export market at 1.5mn barrels/day, with China alone accounting for 550,000 barrels. Japan, India, and South Korea are also important trading partners.
Hawks Steering Debate on How to Take on Iran
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK LANDLER - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — Even before President Obama declared this month that "I have Israel’s back" in its escalating confrontation with Iran, pro-Israel figures like the evangelical Christian leader Gary L. Bauer and the conservative commentator William Kristol were pushing for more.
In a slickly produced, 30-minute video, the group that the two men lead, the Emergency Committee for Israel, mocked Mr. Obama’s "unshakable commitment to Israel’s security" and attacked his record on Iran as weak. "I'll be brutally honest: I don’t trust the president on Israel," Mr. Bauer, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, said in an interview. "I think his record on Israel is abysmal."
Shutting Off Iran's Finances
By Arnold Ahlert - PatriotPost.us
The EU puts a lockdown on the Mullahs' economic transactions -- but it will only buy time.
On Thursday, the European Union (EU) ordered the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to block Iranian banks currently subjected to EU sanctions from using their service. SWIFT is a financial transaction company used by almost every bank around the world to send payment messages to each other. Since global financial transactions are virtually impossible to implement without SWIFT, the move represents the EU's most determined effort to date to convince Iran that its pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable. SWIFT announced it would comply with the order by Saturday. The decision is no doubt being met with high anxiety from diplomacy advocates. International sanctions have so far been woefully unsuccessful, and options are dwindling. Economic isolation, coupled with upcoming talks with the Iranian regime, have opponents of military intervention scraping the bottom of the diplomatic barrel.
China Buys Fewer Weapons as Local Industry Expands, Sipri Says
By Daniel Ten Kate - Bloomberg.com
China, the world’s top weapons importer for much of the past decade, fell to fourth from second on an annual list from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute as it produces more arms at home.
China received 5 percent of the volume of international transfers of "major conventional weapons" from 2007 to 2011, Sipri said in a report released today. The total was half that of India, which last year overtook China as the world’s largest recipient of arms, and less thanSouth Korea and Pakistan.
Gold and the Dow to Eventually Trade
at One-to-One Ratio;
Best Guess−$6,000 Gold Stay Diversified−There are too many cross-currents
coming from Government
James J Puplava CFP interview with Michael B. O'Higgins - FinancialSense.com
Jim welcomes Michael O'Higgins, author of the best-selling book Beating The Dow, and founder of O'Higgins Asset Management. Michael sees gold eventually reaching a 1-to-1 ratio with the Dow Jones Index. He is currently 40% invested in stocks, mostly in Europe and Russia. He still owns some bonds, prefers platinum over gold and stresses diversification in this very unpredictable market.
The Story Nobody Wants to Hear
BY JAMES J PUPLAVA CFP - FinancialSense.com
While numerous events portend future global and economic turmoil, successful investing warrants a close examination of the dramatic effects central bank intervention and money-printing have on financial assets in the midst of major bear markets.
We’re less than one year away from December 21, 2012, the date that the ancient Mayan calendar allegedly marks as the end of an era and, in some investors' minds, the collapse of society as we know it. Although not quite apocalyptic, Wall Street soothsayers are also less than optimistic about the future state of the market.
"Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute." --Thomas Paine (Rights of Man, 1791)
Under cover of the Republican Presidential Primary debates about how to defeat Barack Hussein Obama'ssocialist agenda and his plan to fund the final chapter of that agenda with enormous tax increases, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN, no relation!) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) have teamed up to promote one of the largest tax increases in U.S. history -- a heavy levy on all Internet sales.
Your tax dollars went to lobbying for higher taxes
By Adam Bitely - NetRightDaily.com
Did you know that the Federal Government was spending taxpayer dollars on organizations that would lobby local governments to tax sugar and soda? Were you also aware that such activity is illegal?
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says she was aware of the lobbying activities but was not aware that is was illegal. A recent report from The Daily Caller showed that $230 million had flowed in obesity prevention grants to 30 states as part of the Communities Putting Prevention to Work Initiative. The program was established as part of the 2009 "stimulus" bill.
ISDA Declares Greek Default Event,
CME Stops Clearing Euro Derivatives,
FOMC, Warning to Iran
Midday News for March 14th discusses the ISDA declaration of a Credit default event in Greece and the subsequent reaction in Gold and Silver pricing. We review the move by the CME to get out of the business of clearing European Derivatives. We also touch on Tuesdays FOMC and the message sent to Iran by Hillary Clinton.
Geithner: Economy mending, oil prices a challenge
By Leah Schnurr
(Reuters) - The U.S. economy is growing again but faces tough challenges that call for action to create jobs and foster expansion, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Thursday.
Geithner, speaking to the Economic Club of New York, singled out rising oil prices as a stumbling block for the economy because they force consumers to pay more for gasoline at the pump.
He said the economy was now more productive than it was before the 2007-2009 financial crisis but cautioned that confidence remains fragile.
Buying a Hairway to Steven with Gold
By: Adrian Ash - Safehaven.com
It's now 6 months since gold hit its current all-time high. How long 'til the next...?
Thanks to hindsight, the bull market in gold which followed Richard Nixon unpegging the US Dollar, and therefore the rest of the world, from its last pretence of a Gold Standard sounds as inevitable today as Jimmy Page's solo in Stairway to Heaven, also a 1971 classic.
But the gold price's rise from $35 per ounce to $850 in less than a decade hardly ran that smooth at the time.
Central Bank Balance Sheets Put Gold at $1900
BY CHRIS PUPLAVA - FinancialSense.com
Given the extremely high correlation between central bank balance sheets and the price of gold, it is possible to determine the implied price relative to current debt levels. In doing so, we calculate gold's "central bank balance sheet value" at around $1900 an ounce.
Gold has had quite the wild ride over the last nine months in which we've seen several triple-digit swings. It had a quick and sharp bear market last September with a 20% decline followed by an 18% snapback rally into November and then a 15.5% decline into the end of the year. Then, gold’s volatility carried over into 2012 as it rallied from December 2011’s low to a high at the end of January for a 17.6% positive swing. Lastly, we witnessed yet again another triple-digit swing when gold declined to the March 14th low of $1634.53/oz for nearly a 10% correction.
A little extra inflation would backfire: Volcker
By Stella Dawson
(Reuters) - The U.S. economy is recovering "pretty well" and trying to juice it up by allowing a little extra inflation would be disastrous, Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman known for successfully reining in double-digit inflation, said on Wednesday.
"I think that is kind of a doomsday scenario," Volcker told an economic summit when asked if the Fed should foster higher inflation to stimulate faster growth.
Higher inflation would backfire by causing interest rates to rise. "You are not going to get any stimulus and you are going to make it much harder to restore price stability," Volcker told the Atlantic magazine conference.
A shadow inflation hits shoppers
through economic sleight of hand:
Inflation and the hidden side of finances.
MyBudget360.com
Anyone that shops realizes that the price of goods has only gone up. Yet by how much is deceiving by economic chicanery. TheFederal Reserve has taken a baseball bat to the US dollar and the purchasing power of what Americans carry in their wallet. Yet many Americans have been duped into thinking inflation has only been occurring at a moderate pace. Those that already know about the insidious side of a crushing dollar arecollege students and those having to pay medical bills. However shoppers at grocery stores are seeing the hidden cost of inflation through innovative ways of repacking items and giving you less while trying to convince you psychologically that you are still getting the same. The cost of high fuel is being passed on through the supply chain channels and a lower dollar simply means you have less purchasing power. How much less is a matter of how carefully you look at the label.
Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail The bank has defrauded everyone from investors and insurers to homeowners and the unemployed. So why does the government keep bailing it out?
By Matt Taibbi - RollingStone.com
At least Bank of America got its name right. The ultimate Too Big to Fail bank really is America, a hypergluttonous ward of the state whose limitless fraud and criminal conspiracies we'll all be paying for until the end of time. Did you hear about the plot to rig global interest rates? The $137 million fine for bilking needy schools and cities? The ingenious plan to suck multiple fees out of the unemployment checks of jobless workers? Take your eyes off them for 10 seconds and guaranteed, they'll be into some shit again: This bank is like the world's worst-behaved teenager, taking your car and running over kittens and fire hydrants on the way to Vegas for the weekend, maxing out your credit cards in the three days you spend at your aunt's funeral. They're out of control, yet they'll never do time or go out of business, because the government remains creepily committed to their survival, like overindulgent parents who refuse to believe their 40-year-old live-at-home son could possibly be responsible for those dead hookers in the backyard.
10 reasons Wall Street will hit bottom, crash Gambling-addicted banks need a Betty Ford Center
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, Wall Street will crash. Has to. They’re gambling addicts. Dodged the bullet in 2008. But learned nothing. Now killing reforms. Teamed up with the Super Rich, CEOs, lobbyists, and crony politicians. It’s only a matter of time.
Yes, they’ll crash, again. No matter how anemic the recovery. No matter how much more debt they pile on taxpayers. No matter who’s president. Crash.
How do I know Wall Street will hit bottom? First off, most American know somebody who’s trapped in addictive behavior. I got a front-row seat years ago as a professional helping a few hundred addicts, alcoholics and gamblers getting help from the Betty Ford Center and others like it.
Keiser Report: Yoghurt Kamikazes (E262)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss yoghurt kamikazes, David Cam-Moron and oozing debt wounds. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Goldcore's Mark O'Byrne about Germany's gold, Ireland's austerity and a trial for Bertie Ahern.
Part One: The Truth About Earnings
and How They Drive Stock Values
and Shareholder Returns -- The Historical Perspective
By: Chuck Carnevale - Safehaven.com
I want to start this article out with the positioning statement, that I am a fundamental investor, and that I believe in conducting a comprehensive fundamental evaluation on any Company (common stock) that I buy, or for that matter, hold or sell. My own personal core investing philosophy is about investing in businesses and not the stock market. Consequently, it is only through a comprehensive analysis of the company's fundamentals that the investment merits of an operating business can be analyzed and evaluated.
Credit Default Swaps Commentary!
Published by Ian R. Campbell - StockresearchPortal.com
As you undoubtedly know, on Friday, March 9, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association declared that the final Greek Sovereign Debt arrangements had resulted in a Greek debt default for purposes of determining whether those counter-parties who had insured that debt through Credit Default Swaps (‘CDS’, a form of Derivative) could be called upon to pay out on that insurance. An article yesterday concluded that as a result of market activity on Monday, March 12 the financial markets are treating the call on the related CDS’s as a non-event, and that this “makes the CDS market seem a lot safer than it was just a few years ago”. The article also reports that the CDS market is less opaque (more transparent) than it has been in the past, that about 90% of existing CDS’s are collateralized, and that many banks that deal in CDS’s now publicly report their positions.
Foreign holdings of US Treasury debt hit record
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER - SRNNews.Townhall.com
Foreign demand for U.S. Treasury debt rose to a record high in January. China, the largest buyer of Treasury debt, increased its holdings for the first time in six months.
Total foreign holdings rose 0.9 percent in January to $5.05 trillion, the sixth consecutive monthly increase, the Treasury Department reported Thursday.
China boosted its holdings 0.7 percent to $1.16 trillion. Japan, the second-largest buyer of Treasury debt, increased its holdings 2 percent to a record $1.08 trillion.
China Adds Treasuries For First Time Since July on Europe Woes
By Daniel Kruger - Bloomberg.com
China, the largest foreign U.S. creditor, increased its holdings of U.S. government securities in January for the first time in six months as European leaders struggled to contain the region’s sovereign-debt crisis.
Holdings rose by 0.7 percent to $1.16 trillion, the first growth in China’s stake since July, Treasury data released yesterday show. The report also showed that net foreign purchases ofTreasuries (HOLDTOT) totaled almost $83 billion in January, compared with net selling of $14.9 billion the month before.
Does Debt Matter?
By Robert Skidelsky - Project-Syndicate.org
LONDON – Europe is now haunted by the specter of debt. All European leaders quail before it. To exorcise the demon, they are putting their economies through the wringer.
It doesn’t seem to be helping. Their economies are still tumbling, and the debt continues to grow. The credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has just downgraded the sovereign-debt ratings of nine eurozone countries, including France. The United Kingdom is likely to follow.
To anyone not blinded by folly, the explanation for this mass downgrade is obvious. If you deliberately aim to shrink your GDP, your debt-to-GDP ratio is bound to grow. The only way to cut your debt (other than by default) is to get your economy to grow.
J.P. Morgan Chase's Ugly Family Secrets Revealed
By Matt Taibbi - RollingStone.com
In a story that should be getting lots of attention, American Banker has released an excellent and disturbing exposé of J.P. Morgan Chase's credit card services division, relying on multiple current and former Chase employees. One of them, Linda Almonte, is a whistleblower whom I've known since last September; I'm working on a recount of her story for my next book.
One of the things we were promised by the lawmakers who passed the Dodd-Frank reform bill a few years back is that this would be a new era for whistleblowers who come forward to tell the world about problems in our financial infrastructure. This story now looms as a test case for that proposition. American Banker reporter Jeff Horwitz did an outstanding job in this story detailing the sweeping irregularities in-house at Chase, but his very thoroughness means the news may have ramifications for Linda, which is why I'm urging people to pay attention to this story in the upcoming weeks.
Executive Director of Goldman Sachs Resigns
Over Parasitic Behavior of Goldman to Its Clients;
Reflections on Chasing Performance
By: Mike Shedlock - Safehaven.com
Greg Smith's op-ed in the New York Times "Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs" is precisely the catalyst that will eventually bring reform to the securities industry.
Denial Coming Up
Unfortunately, neither the Fed nor the SEC has any inclination to do anything about industry-wide fraud and corruption, therefore immediate results are not forthcoming.
Moreover, Goldman Sachs will deny the story every step of the way. Furthermore, it is safe to assume the SEC will turn a blind eye to these charges while preparing for the next headline case against another Martha Stewart on another meaningless charge.
With that backdrop, please consider these snips from Greg Smith, former Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm's United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Gridlock in D.C.
By: Casey Research - Safehaven.com
The first session of this 112th Congress was spent with Democrats and Republicans at loggerheads over the debt ceiling, taxes, spending cuts, the deficit super committee, appropriations bills and finally the extension of unemployment compensation and a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. Standard and Poor's downgrade of the United States' federal debt was due in part to all the haggling over how, and actually whether, to reduce the debt.
No One Is Willing to Pay the Political Price to Cut Spending
If Employers Stop Paying Health Care,
Who Wins? (Maybe, Everyone)
By Avik S. A. Roy - TheAtlantic.com
One of the biggest concerns with the Affordable Care Act has been that the law will drive employers to stop sponsoring health insurance for their workers, instead dumping those workers on to the new law's subsidized insurance exchanges. The Congressional Budget Office, in a provocative new report, believes that such behavior could, in some circumstances, actually reduce the deficit.
DROPPED COVERAGE
A number of credentialed budget wonks, most notably Gene Steuerle (a former Treasury Department official), Jim Capretta (a former health-care specialist at the White House Office of Management and Budget), and Doug Holtz-Eakin (a former director of the CBO), have pointed out that the ACA strongly incentivizes employers to drop coverage for their lower-to-middle-income employees, because those employees get a better deal by seeking out coverage on the law's new exchanges. "Droves of employees--potentially tens of millions--are likely to shift out of employer-provided insurance in the next decade or two," wrote Steuerle in a widely-cited report.
OBAMACARE WILL ONLY COST 100% MORE
THAN YOU WERE TOLD New CBO health law estimate shows
much higher spending past first 10 years
By James Quinn - TheBurningPlatform.com
The Congressional Budget Office has extended its cost estimates for President Obama’s health care law out to 2022, taking in more years of full implementation, and showing that the bill is substantially more expensive — twice as much as the original $900 billion price tag.
In a largely overlooked segment of the CBO’s update to the budget outlook released Tuesday, the independent arm of Congress found that the bill will cost $1.76 trillion between now and 2022.
That only counts the cost of coverage, not implementation costs and other changes.
"The bill spends more than the president promised, it covers fewer people — probably 2 million fewer people — and it taxes more than was expected," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee.
Supreme Court Seen Influenced
by Politics in Health-Care Ruling
By Julie Bykowicz and Greg Stohr - Bloomberg.com
Three-quarters of Americans say the U.S. Supreme Court will be influenced by politics when it rules on the constitutionality of a health-care law signed by President Barack Obama two years ago.
The sentiment crosses party lines and is especially held by independents, 80 percent of whom say the court will not base its ruling solely on legal merits, according to a Bloomberg National Poll. More Republicans than Democrats, by 74 percent to 67 percent, say politics will play a role in the court’s health- care decision.
Washington Elites Queue Up
to See Nine Justices on Hot Seat Supreme Court Arguments on Health Law
Trigger Mad Dash for a Few Dozen Spots
By JANET ADAMY And JESS BRAVIN - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON—The hottest ticket of the season isn't for the White House Easter Egg Roll or Opening Day for the Washington Nationals baseball team.
It's for a spot inside the Supreme Court to watch three days of arguments challenging the 2010 health-care law that begin here a week from Monday.
Given the town, people are working every angle.
Ezekiel Emanuel, a former White House adviser who helped craft the health-care law, hit up conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for a ticket even though the two men disagree on almost everything, he said, except "we like sharing good food."
The Message of Motown Detroit and its public unions head toward bankruptcy.
WSJ.com
The clock's running out on Detroit. City leaders are up against a $200 million deficit driven by exploding labor costs and may not be able to pay the bills come May. The state of Michigan has just swept in with a deux ex machina. Trouble is, city pols don't like the strings attached.
Governor Rick Snyder is offering Detroit a "consent agreement," which includes $100 million of state-backed bonds that would tide the city over until labor agreements can be restructured. The catch: Labor agreements will have to be restructured. The compact between the state and the city would turn over financial decision-making to a nine-member financial advisory board of state and city appointees who would have the authority to amend labor contracts.
Why We Must Rehabilitate the Ownership Society
By Clive Crook - TheAtlantic.com
In a new column for Bloomberg I argue that to solve its pension problem the US needs to revisit the idea of the ownership society--recast as a liberal rather than conservative program, which it should have been all along. Don't replace or reduce Social Security to direct savings into private accounts. Create mandatory private accounts, with public subsidy, as an add-on, and cover the cost to taxpayers by redirecting existing tax preferences for saving.
Warmth Expected Across U.S.
for Next Three Months, U.S. Says
By Brian K. Sullivan - Bloomberg.com
A streak of above-normal temperatures that led to the fourth-warmest U.S. winter on record is expected to continue for the next three months, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
NOAA said the southern states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi will have the highest chance of warm weather from March through May. The forecast was part of a report that said Texas may get drought relief and that the risk of spring river flooding will be the lowest in four years.
PayPal launches new service for small businesses
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal
PayPal Inc. on Thursday released new technology called PayPal Here, a payment option to help small businesses.
The company, a payments service owned by San Jose-based online marketplace eBay Inc., said at a press event in San Francisco that PayPal Here is the "first global mobile payment solution that allows small businesses to accept almost any form of payment." It is being offered initially to select merchants in the United States, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.
With PayPal Here, small businesses can accept payments by swiping cards with an encrypted thumb-sized card reader, or use a phone camera to scan and process cards and checks. In addition, they can invoice directly from a mobile application.
Facebook's 'entire social network model' is a copy, Yahoo says
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal
by Cromwell Schubarth, Multimedia/Research Editor
Yahoo Inc. isn't just jabbing atFacebook Inc. in the massive patent lawsuit it filed in San Jose on Monday.
It wants to be declared the big daddy and undisputed champion of all social networks.
The Sunnyvale online content hub says that nearly everything Facebook makes money on is based on a Yahoo idea.
"For much of the technology upon which Facebook is based, Yahoo got there first. Facebook's entire social network model, which allows users to create profile for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo’s patented social networking technology," the lawsuit contends.
Darpa Director Bolts Pentagon for Google
By Noah Shachtman - Wired.com
Darpa director Regina Dugan will soon be stepping down from her position atop the Pentagon's premiere research shop to take a job with Google. Dugan, whose controversial tenure at the agency lasted just under three years, was "offered and accepted at senior executive position" with the internet giant, according to Darpa spokesman Eric Mazzacone. She felt she couldn’t say no to such an "innovative company," he adds.
Think tanks still look for Koch cash
By ANNA PALMER and ROBIN BRAVENDER - Politico.com
Conservative groups are scrambling to distance themselves from a Koch money controversy, but that doesn’t mean they’ll stop cashing checks from the billionaire brothers who fund many right-leaning operations in Washington.
Charles and David Koch set off a firestorm in the think tank world when they filed a lawsuit in late February as part of an ongoing battle to seize control of the Cato Institute. In response, several libertarian-leaning scholars at Cato, came out swinging, publicly saying they would leave the organization if the Kochs are successful — which drew national media attention to the arcane shareholder fight.
Ed Koch pushes Clinton on 2016 run
By BYRON TAU - Politico.com
Former New York City mayor and Hillary Clinton booster Ed Koch wants to see a Clinton 2016 run, and he made his feelings clear to the Secretary of State at Wednesday's state dinner, according to the New York Times:
Mr. Koch also said he spoke with the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and encouraged her to run for president in 2016.
"I said, ‘Everybody’s running you for president again — count me in!’” he said. “And there were other people there who applauded."
Campaign 2012: Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
Uploaded by cfr on Jan 20, 2012
The next U.S. president will be forced to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in "a different Middle East context," dictated by possible leadership transitions in Israel and the Palestinian territory as a result of upcoming elections and ongoing changes in the region, says CFR's Robert M. Danin. As a result, he says, "the United States is going to have to look to new approaches and develop new tools towards dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Ultimately, the most important question the president will face is whether he will seek to resolve the conflict or just manage it, says Danin arguing, "presidents, who seek to manage it, have an easier time of it, but at the same time will hit more instability along the way."
The Key Swing Voter in the 2012 Election? Call Him Mr. Dow Jones
By BRIAN STOFFEL, THE MOTLEY FOOL - DailyFinance.com
This an election year, which means we are all faced with onslaught of political advertisements, prognostications, and endless poll numbers. Should candidates focus on values or the economy; foreign policy or domestic health care? Wading through all of it can be a difficult task for both candidates and voters.
But what if a look back at history showed that when it really comes down to brass tacks, there's only one thing that determines the outcome of a presidential election?
Independents Will Decide the 2012 Election
Nick Gillespie - Reason.com
A raft of new polls about the presidential race drives home what everyone has always known: This election will turn on independent voters, the ever-growing plurality of Americans who refuse to sign up for Team Red or Team Blue.
According to Gallup and based on 20,000 interviews from 20 polls taken throughout 2011, "a record-high 40 percent of Americans identify as Independents." To put that in perspective, consider that self-identified Democrats roll in at a historic low of 31 percent while just 27 percent of us are willing to admit being Republicans. When the partisan leanings of independents were taken into consideration, Gallup found the nation evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, with each claiming 45 percent of the electorate. How important are independents, especially the 10 percent who don't lean toward Dems or Reps? President Barack Obama’s convincing win over Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in 2008 was due in large part to his pulling 51 percent of self-identified independents to McCain's 43 percent. And Republican gains in the 2010 midterms stemmed largely from the GOP getting 55 percent of independent votes versus the Democrats pulling only 39 percent. Take it to the bank: You win any national election if you win the independent vote.
Racial Quota Fallout
By Thomas Sowell - PatriotPost.us
Many years ago, I learned of an episode in the life of a promising young black man that is relevant to things happening now. He had been educated at a good school, and went on to receive degrees at good colleges and universities. Then he went for a Ph.D. in mathematics at one of the leading departments in that field.
When he encountered difficulties, his professors essentially wrote his doctoral thesis for him. No doubt they felt good about doing something to help a promising young black man, and perhaps took pride in doing so. But what about his pride?
Embraer Ecstasy Over U.S. Contract
Proves Agony Losing It
By Jose Sergio Osse - Bloomberg.com
Embraer SA (EMBR3) Chief Executive Officer Frederico Curado won’t forget the day he learned that the Brazilian planemaker had won a $355 million contract for a U.S. Air Force light-attack aircraft after 14 months of work.
Even more memorable was the day Curado saw in the press that the U.S. had canceled the award.
"We’re trying to stay sober. It was a huge frustration for us, and a shock, frankly," Curado said in a March 12 interview at Embraer’s office in Sao Paulo. "We got there. We won. Then it was taken away from us."
What China Wants in 2012
By Li Zhaoxing - Project-Syndicate.org
BEIJING – With economic globalization and the advent of a multi-polar world, China and other emerging countries are clearly set to play much more important roles not only in 2012, but in the coming decades. As China’s economic power and influence in the world economy have increased following the financial crisis of 2008, the idea has been floated that China and the United States should co-lead the world under some sort of "G-2" arrangement. But such a G-2 framework is not consistent with China’s independent foreign policy, nor with the general trend towards wider dispersion of geopolitical power within the international community. Although China’s senior leadership will change this year, this position will not change.
Brace for China's impending crash
By GWYNNE DYER -JapanTimes.co.jp
LONDON — Building a skyscraper is the ultimate expression of economic confidence, and more than half of the 124 skyscrapers currently under construction in the world are being built in China. But confidence is often based on nothing more than faith, hope and cheap credit, and a frenzy of skyscraper-building is also the most reliable historical indicator of an impending financial crash.
High gas prices threaten recovery
By SEN. DICK LUGAR - Politico.com
The dangers of high oil prices may be only beginning. Global oil markets are hanging on by the slimmest margin, leaving every American motorist — and our economic recovery — vulnerable to hostile governments, terrorist strikes on infrastructure, extreme weather or other shocks.
Oil prices are again above $100 a barrel and likely to increase. Higher prices are a genuine hardship for many Hoosier families and small businesses struggling to make ends meet. Every 10 percent increase in oil prices is expected to knock 0.25 percent off economic growth — meaning it most likely will be all the harder for job creation to catch up with employment needs if prices continue to rise.
Scary Oil
By Nouriel Roubini - Project-Syndicate.org
NEW YORK – Today’s fragile global economy faces many risks: the risk of another flare-up of the eurozone crisis; the risk of a worse-than-expected slowdown in China; and the risk that economic recovery in the United States will fizzle (yet again). But no risk is more serious than that posed by a further spike in oil prices.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude, which was well below $100 in 2011, recently peaked at $125. Gasoline prices in the US are approaching $4 a gallon, a damaging threshold for consumer confidence, and will increase further during the high-demand summer season.
U.S. May Sanction India Over Level of Iran-Oil Imports
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan
and Pratish Narayanan - Bloomberg.com
India has failed to reduce its purchases of Iranian oil, and if it doesn’t do so, President Barack Obama may be forced to impose sanctions on one of Asia’s most important nations, Obama administration officials said yesterday.
A decision to levy penalties under a new U.S. law restricting payments for Iranian oil could come as early as June 28, according to several U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue....
US threatens sanctions against India over Iran oil
By Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN - IndiaTimes.com
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is threatening to impose sanctions on India over its continued economic ties with Iran amid disagreements between Washington and New Delhi over how much and how soon the latter is reducing oil imports from the (in US eyes) pariah nation.
India has "failed" to reduce its purchase of Iranian oil and if it doesn't do so, President Barack Obama may be "forced" to impose sanction, unnamed administration officials were cited as telling Bloomberg wire service. A decision in this regard could come as early as June 28, they added, implicitly offering New Delhi a ten- week window to show a decline in Iranian oil imports.
India's Growing Ties To Iranian Oil
Could Bust U.S. Sanctions
By Christopher Helman, Forbes Staff
The goal of U.S. and European sanctions on Iran is to crush the rogue regime’s economy and reduce its oil exports. European nations have already slashed their purchases of Iranian crude, and other big importers like Japan are gradually following suit ahead of a June deadline.
Yesterday the Obama administration secured promises from Saudi Arabia to ramp up its own oil output to make up for Iranian barrels kept off the market. And this morning came a report that Washington was in discussions with the United Kingdom on a plan to tap strategic reserves.
Return to the Arc of Crisis
By Jaswant Singh - Project-Syndicate.org
NEW DELHI – Thirty-three years ago, then-US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski spoke of an "arc of crisis" coursing through the Middle East and into Central Asia. Today, events in Syria and Pakistan, as well as the recent bombings in Bangkok and New Delhi, which some are linking to Iran, suggest that Brzezinski’s arc is more salient than ever.
Among the many dangers lurking along it today, the most ominous concerns the response of Israel and the United States to the question of when Iran’s nuclear facilities will become impregnable, creating, in Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s phrase, a "zone of immunity." Some think that this point has already been reached, with Iran placing its enriched uranium underground, near the holy city of Qom, beneath many layers of granite – and thus beyond the destructive power of anything short of a nuclear bomb.
U.S. dangles secret data for Russia missile shield approval
By Jim Wolf - Reuters.com
(Reuters) - The Obama administration is leaving open the possibility of giving Moscow certain secret data on U.S. interceptor missiles due to help protect Europe from any Iranian missile strike.
A deal is being sought by Washington that could include classified data exchange because it is in the U.S. interest to enlist Russia and its radar stations in the missile-defense effort, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Tuesday in written replies to Reuters.
Iran and Syria 'lay ambitious plans
for road, rail, air and electricity links' Iran has thrown Syria an economic lifeline by laying ambitious plans for road, rail, air and even electricity links between the two countries, according to official records of high level talks in Damascus.
By David Blair - Telegraph.co.uk
Two documents purporting to be notes of meetings between President Bashar al-Assad's ministers and their Iranian counterparts have been obtained from the email accounts of Syrian officials and passed to the Daily Telegraph.
They provide further evidence of the immense effort Iran's regime is making to shore up Mr Assad, who serves as Tehran's only reliable ally in the Middle East. All the plans outlined in the documents require the cooperation of Iraq, which would have to allow its territory to be used as a corridor between Syria and Iran.
The U.S., Israel, and Iran - It's About Time
By Jared Silverman - PatriotPost.us
Once again, Iran, Israel, and the United States are in the forefront of the news. The common denominator of the coverage this time -- is time.
The cover of The Week Magazine, a news summary publication, declared "Running out of time," with a caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of a bomber on a runway. A New York Times article was captioned "Netanyahu Says U.S. and Israeli 'Clocks' Differ on Iran's Threat."
What's at Stake with Iranian Sanctions?
By Daniel J. Graeber - OilPrice.com
Officials from New Delhi are due back from their recent trade visit to Iran with high hopes of an expanded economic relationship. India, together with Japan and China, buy about half of the oil Iran has for sale on the international market. New Delhi had faced difficultiesin paying for the crude oil it buys from Iran because of expanded economic sanctions imposed by Western governments. Given the initial criticism offered by the Indian Embassy in the United States, it's unlikely any level of Western criticism is going to do much to diminish India's appetite for Iranian crude.
Sanctions choke off Iran oil output
By Guy Chazan in London and George Parker in Washington - FT.com
Iran’s oil production has fallen to a 10-year low and could drop to levels last seen during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s as sanctions over its nuclear programme disrupt an industry already suffering from years of underinvestment.
The country’s crude production fell by 50,000 barrels a day to 3.38m b/d in February, according to the International Energy Agency. The last time it was that low was in late 2002, IEA statistics show.
Celente: Hawks circling over Iran as only ally Syria on ropes
The White House may be claiming it wants a diplomatic solution in Syria, but it seems it may not have faith in its own convictions.The Pentagon has been ordered to review its potential options.
Gerald Celente, publisher of the Trends Journal talks to RT, claiming Washington might be contemplating a military operation, because bringing down the Syrian regime would weaken Iran.
U.S., Britain set to agree emergency oil stocks release
By Richard Mably
LONDON | Thu Mar 15, 2012 3:01pm EDT
(Reuters) - Britain has decided to cooperate with the United States on a release of strategic oil stocks that is expected within months, two British sources said, in a bid to prevent fuel prices choking economic growth in a U.S. election year.
A formal request from the United States to the UK to join forces in a release of oil from government-controlled reserves is expected "shortly" following a meeting on Wednesday in Washington between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron, who discussed the issue, one source said.
Britain would respond positively, the two sources said...
and then story denied....
Obama hits back at energy critics White House denies tapping strategic oil reserve
By Anna Fifield in Washington - FT.com
Barack Obama, US president, has hit back at Republican critics blaming him for rising petrol prices, suggesting that his rivals for the presidency are so misguided on energy they would have been “founding members of the flat earth society” if they were around in time of Christopher Columbus.
Seeking to rebuff criticism that his policies have contributed to rising prices at the pump, Mr Obama mocked the Republican insistence on drilling for more oil and said that only a comprehensive energy plan would reduce petrol prices in the long run...
Banks Oversold, Muni Defaults Still Coming: Whitney
By: Jeff Cox - CNBC.com
It's no big surprise that most U.S. banks made it through the recent stress tests, according to analyst Meredith Whitney, who told CNBC the stocks are still oversold and better buys than their smaller competitors.
With the exception of a few large institutions with balance sheet and earnings problems, the founder of the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group said the banks should be trading around book value.
Volcker: Economy needs bold action, including tax hikes
By Jennifer Liberto @CNNMoney
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Former Fed Chief Paul Volcker urged U.S. political leaders to join forces for bold action to reduce deficits and secure the nation's future.
In a speech Wednesday that Volcker himself said was intended to be "a little provocative," he challenged U.S. leaders to go further in raising taxes and cutting spending than suggestions laid out by bipartisan deficit-cutting commissions and panels.
Silver As Currency
Silver-Prices.net
It’s not only individuals that are seeking safe havens. Increasingly, legislators are showing interest in providing their constituents with safe alternatives to paper money. Over a dozen US states have expressed interest in considering or issuing an alternative currency, and one has already taken a step in that direction with gold and silver coins.
On March 25, 2011, Utah’s Governor Gary Herbert signed House Bill 317, approving gold and silver coins issued by the federal government as legal tender. Recognizing gold and silver as legal tender eliminated certain state tax liabilities such as tax on profits on coins when were viewed mostly as assets.
Is the Greek Debt Problem Really Solved?
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Yesterday, a short but ominous press release was issued at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. It said, "At the request of CME Clearing Europe Limited (CMECEL), pursuant to Section 7 of the Commodity Exchange Act, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an Order on March 13, 2012, vacating the registration of CMECEL as a derivatives clearing organization." (Click here for the CFTC press release.) In plain English, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) no longer wants to be the clearing house for European derivatives. The derivatives market in Europe must have been very lucrative for the company. After all, just the credit default swap (CDS) market is reportedly worth $50 trillion globally. (A CDS is a form of insurance. If there is a default, the debt is paid by the entity that sold the insurance contract.) I ask myself, why would the CME willingly stop being the clearing house for this profitable and large market?
Greece Should Switch to Dollar to Be Saved
By: Antonia Oprita, Deputy News Editor - CNBC.com
Switching to the dollar from the euro would help Greece get out of its crisisand would at the same time be an electoral boost for U.S. President Barack Obama, an analyst with London-based Strategy Economics consultancy group wrote.
For Greece it is very hard to pull out of the euro zone unilaterally but, at the same time, the country "runs a substantial trade deficit, and no longer has any realistic ability to borrow money," Strategy Economics analyst Matthew Lynn wrote in a note.
So, What's Next Step Towards The Eurocalypse?
By Reggie Middleton - SilverBearCafe.com
Okay, as I have been warning since the first quarter of 2010, Greece has defaulted. What I mean by default is that Greece did not honor the payment terms of its debtor agreements. I really don't care what this or that association decides to call it, if you bought Greek bonds you ain't getting the money that Greece promised when they promised they will give it to you. Just to add something official sounding to it, Fitch has declared it so, Fitch Downgrades Greece From C To Restricted Default. Of course, if you are on BoomBustBlog of following me, your probably smarter than to take these guys words for anything even remotely resembling predictive since they declared default status about three hours before Greece actually made it official they would default - plenty of time for interested parties to do something about it, no?
Nine Foreign Ministers
to Discuss New EU Constitution in Berlin
TheTrumpet.com
The European Union needs to debate a new constitution, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said March 9 at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen. Nine EU countries are expected to discuss the idea in Berlin on March 20, Reuters reported, citing an anonymous EU diplomat.
"We have to open a new chapter in European politics," Westerwelle told reporters. "We need more efficient decision structures."
"I think we have to reopen the debate about a European constitution again," he said. "We have a good treaty, but we need a constitution … as there are new centers of power in the world."
China central banker: EU is our biggest uncertainty
BY PHILIP EBELS - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - In a sign of growing confidence on the global stage, China on Monday (12 March) singled out Europe as the "biggest uncertainty" for the future of its economy.
The governor of China's central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, said that a slow world recovery process and the unstable economic and financial situation in Europe will be the big unknowns for China's economy this year.
Speaking on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing, Zhou was quoted by Reuters as saying that "the biggest uncertainty in the international economic situation, as we all know, is the economic recovery process, especially the European economy and financial market development relating to the euro sovereign debt crisis."
How to Ruin Your Economy and Influence People
Bill Bonner - SilverBearCafe.com
We can learn a lot from the Argentines. When it comes to messing up an economy, they’re Numero Uno. They’re Olympians of financial legerdemain and masters of the old false shuffle.
In 2001, the country was deeply in debt. The government was out of money. And the currency was losing value fast. What did the Argentines do?
First, they broke their promise to investors and savers, cutting the peso loose from the dollar. Then, they seized control of banks and bank accounts. People had been saving money in US dollar accounts in order to avoid problems with the peso. But the Argentine feds forcibly converted their accounts to pesos, just as the peso was losing 2/3rds of its value.
Why the Federal Reserve is being cautious The economic picture has improved, but the Fed isn't convinced. Chairman Ben Bernanke doesn't want to be wrong -- again.
By Nin-Hai Tseng, Writer - Forbes.com
FORTUNE – Despite the recent spate of positive economic data, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday signaled it's not totally buying the good news. Policymakers acknowledged that the job market improved more than expected and that households and businesses were spending more. But while officials sounded a tiny bit more upbeat, they held back from getting too cheery.
The Fed's sense of caution is something to watch. It's largely what's keeping short-term interest rates ultra-low until 2014 – a policy that's irked savers and investors who've seen almost no return on their cash. Republicans, in particular, aren't thrilled about it either. They say cheap money could eventually stoke inflation and make the fragile economy worse off.
Dodd-Frank Could Shutter Many Community Banks:
Former FDIC Chair
By: Michelle Fox - CNBC.com
Community banks have a lot to fear from the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, which could put half of them out of business, former FDIC Chairman Bill Isaactold CNBC Wednesday.
"The bigger banks can absorb it, the smaller banks can’t," Isaac, who is now chairman of Fifth Third Bancorp, told Larry Kudlow. "I would not be surprised to see half of the community banks in this country go out of business if we don’t give some relief from Dodd-Frank for them."
A Public Exit From Goldman Sachs Hits at a Wounded Wall Street Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs
By GREG SMITH - NYTimes.com
TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.
To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.
Goldmans has the chance to change,
but will probably blow it - again The resignation letter of Greg Smith, a middle-ranking trader at Goldman Sachs, has caused outrage and fascination. Swallowing his version entirely, just because it’s what we want to hear, might be unwise, however.
By Damian Reece - Telegraph.co.uk
The apparently revelatory letter is unlikely to do Goldmans any reputational damage - that would be impossible given how low its reputation already is. Likewise embarrassment. Goldmans doesn’t do embarrassment, hence the mess it finds itself in.
The fact that a disaffected former employee (always an employer’s most toxic risk and a journalist’s greatest asset) has chosen to emote on the topic of life inside Goldmans at least adds a new element to the Goldmans photofit. That said, the "shock, horror" nature of Smith’s outburst is likely to be motivated as much by lost promotions, bonuses and seeing peers winning the success stakes as any sudden moral revelation.
Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein
'disappointed' by claims of 'toxic' greed Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, has defended the firm after an employee attacked a "toxic" and "destructive" culture at the leading investment bank that is increasingly focused on making money from clients, in an article in the New York Times.
Telegraph.co.uk
Greg Smith, who is resigning today as a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of its US equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa after 12 years, wrote:
"I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money."
NET BRANCHES – RECIPE FOR MORTGAGE FRAUD
By BrianMahany - ML-Explode.com
Mortgage net branches – they are everywhere. If set up properly they help people get into the mortgage business with low start up costs. The benefits include access to a national network, more products and more lending lines. Customers get better rates while independents can enter the business without millions in start up costs.
There is a dark side, however.
HUD and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) have strict rules designed to insure that loans guaranteed by taxpayers are good loans. Taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to shoulder the toxic debt created by unscrupulous mortgage companies. To insure that the mortgage company itself has some "skin in the game," they must insure that their agents are well supervised and not shouldering the costs of the branch.
Readers on mortgage settlement: 'This stinks'
By Les Christie @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The $26 billion foreclosure settlement has many Americans crying foul.
While some claim the deal helps too few homeowners, others say it gives irresponsible borrowers an undeserved bailout.
"This entire deal sucks! Keep taking away the chances for middle class America to get ahead and what good is our American system," wrote a reader with the handle Bushywalrus.
"So what the government is telling me is if I were to go break the law. LIE CHEAT and STEAL change all my morales. I would get away clean and not have to pay a cent," wrote nnmfam.
America Mortgaged at an Adjustable Rate
BY PETER D SCHIFF - FinancialSense.com
The Federal Reserve ran another "stress test" on major financial institutions and has determined that 15 of the 19 tested are safe, even in the most extreme circumstances: an unemployment rate of 13%, a 50% decline in stock prices, and a further 21% decline in housing prices. The problem is that the most important factor that will determine these banks' long-term viability was purposefully overlooked - interest rates.
Housing Regulators Do Not Have A Clue What Is Going On
By: Cadie Thompson, Producer - CNBC.com
Cash in your bets, it's official, government housing regulators are clueless.
Okay, perhaps this isn't exactly news, but today they demonstrated their lack of ability to manage in the mortgage industry when Ed DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (aka the guy who is supposed to oversee under-conservatorship government sponsored entities) railed on aFannie Mae program that his agency approved.
Tax breaks for the unemployed
By Blake Ellis @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- For unemployed Americans who have watched their savings diminish as they look for work, tax season may finally bring some relief.
Out of work job seekers can deduct all sorts of expenses, including the cost of printing and sending hundreds of resumes, hiring headhunters, even what they spend on travel to interviews. There are also tax perks they can qualify for if they decide to throw in the towel on the job search and become self-employed or freelance.
Broken Promises: Pensions All Over America
Are Being Savagely Cut Or Are Vanishing Completely
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
How would you feel if you worked for a state or local government for 20 or 30 years only to have your pension slashed dramatically or taken away entirely? Well, this exact scenario is playing out from coast to coast and in the years ahead millions of elderly Americans are going to be affected by broken promises and vanishing pensions. In the old days, things were much different. You would get hired by a big company or a government institution and you knew that the retirement benefits that they were promising you would be there when you retired in a few decades. Unfortunately, we have now arrived at a time when government institutions and big companies have promised far more than they are able to deliver, and "pension reform" has become one of the hot button issues all over the nation. Many Americans that have been basing their financial futures on their pensions are waking up one day and finding that their pensions are either gone or have been cut back dramatically.
Health care premiums
will surpass median U.S. incomes by 2033: study
By Andrew Jones - TheRawStory.com
The cost of health care will surpass the price of a median income household in the United States by 2033 if current trends continue, according to a study published in the March/April issue of Annals of Family Medicine.
Researchers accumulated data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to compare Americans’ incomes and the premiums they’ve paid from 2000 to 2009. The cost of premiums rose by eight percent over that time period compared to just two percent of incomes.
OBAMACARE COST JUMPS $111 BILLION; NO ONE NOTICES
By John Hinderaker - PowerlineBlog.com
It is tempting to ignore President Obama’s budgets, since no one seriously intends that they be adopted; his FY 2012 budget was voted down in the Senate, 97-0. Yet every now and then, interesting information is buried in the fine print. Table 33-1 of the budget sets forth the proposed spending for federal programs by agency and account. In President Obama’s FY 2012 budget, this is the line item for one aspect of Obamacare–the Refundable Premium Assistance Tax Credit, which subsidizes the purchase of health insurance by individuals on the insurance exchange that the statute would establish. The fiscal years covered by this estimate are 2014 through 2021:
Most Wealthy Americans Think US Is Still in Recession
By: Robert Melstein - CNBC.com
Wealthier Americans aren't very optimistic about the economic recovery, with a surprising 63 percent saying the US is still in a recession, according to a new poll.
Some 55 percent think the economy won’t fully recover until 2013 or later, and 14 percent say the recession won’t end at all.
The results come from the January 2012 survey by Ipsos Mendelsohn Affluent Barometer, which studies the lifestyles, spending patterns and media habits of today’s affluent Americans. Ipsos defines affluent adults as those who have household income of $100,000 or more.
Is Pinterest the Next Napster?
By THERESE POLETTI - WSJ.com
Kirsten Kowalski is among the millions of people who have flocked to Pinterest to create virtual scrapbooks of images they "pin" to the website.
But as a photographer and lawyer, it dawned on her that she and other users were potentially violating copyright laws by posting content obtained freely from the Internet.
Now Ms. Kowalski is part of Pinterest's effort to stave off legal concerns and avoid the controversy that plagued digital-music-sharing website Napster, which a court shut down in 2001 to prevent the trading of copyrighted music on that network.
Complex Societies Need Simple Laws
By John Stossel - PatriotPost.us
"If you have 10,000 regulations," Winston Churchill said, "you destroy all respect for law."
He was right. But Churchill never imagined a government that would add 10,000 year after year. That's what we have in America. We have 160,000 pages of rules from the feds alone. States and localities have probably doubled that. We have so many rules that legal specialists can't keep up. Criminal lawyers call the rules "incomprehensible." They are. They are also "uncountable." Congress has created so many criminal offenses that the American Bar Association says it would be futile to even attempt to estimate the total.
So what do the politicians and bureaucrats of the permanent government do? They pass more rules.
That's not good. It paralyzes life.
UN rights council delves into US voter I.D. laws
By Eric Shawn - FOXNews.com
The controversy over requiring voters to provide photo IDs has reached the world stage.
The United Nations Human Rights Council is investigating the issue of American election laws at its gathering on minority rights in Geneva, Switzerland.. This, despite the fact that some members of the council have only in the past several years allowed women to vote, and one member, Saudi Arabia, still bars women from the voting booth completely.
Officials from the NAACP are presenting their case against U.S. voter ID laws, arguing to the international diplomats that the requirements disenfranchise voters and suppress the minority vote.
Voter-ID Insanity at DOJ Going to the United Nations
By Ken Blackwell - Townhall.com
The Far Left is making an unprecedented two-track move to derail states’ efforts to protect the integrity of the ballot box for this November’s elections. While the Department of Justice (DOJ) is blocking state efforts, liberal activists are taking this issue to the United Nations as a human rights violation.
Attorney General Eric Holder is invoking Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) as giving him the power to block Texas’ voter-ID law, which simply requires that voters show that they are who they say they are before they cast a vote to influence an election outcome. This is the same argument Holder made to block South Carolina’s voter-ID law, a move that has landed him in federal court.
U.N. TO INVESTIGATE VOTER I.D. LAWS
By John Hinderaker - PowerlineBlog.com
This is really the last straw. It is time to get out of the United Nations: "UN rights council delves into US voter I.D. laws."
The United Nations Human Rights Council is investigating the issue of American election laws at its gathering on minority rights in Geneva, Switzerland. This, despite the fact that some members of the council have only in the past several years allowed women to vote, and one member, Saudi Arabia, still bars women from the voting booth completely.
Officials from the NAACP are presenting their case against U.S. voter ID laws, arguing to the international diplomats that the requirements disenfranchise voters and suppress the minority vote.
That isn’t treason, but it is disloyal; disgracefully so.
The Obama Flag:
Who Decided That It Was Okay
To Replace The Stars On The American Flag
With The Face Of Barack Obama?
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Democrat Party headquarters in Lake County, Florida has been flying an American flag with a face of Barack Obama on it. Yes, you read that correctly. The "Obama flag" features a huge picture of the face of Barack Obama in the area where the stars are usually located. To many Americans today, the American flag may be "just a piece of cloth", but when I was young I was taught that one must never desecrate the American flag. The American flag is our highest national symbol. Millions of Americans have fought and died defending freedom and liberty under that banner. To see a photo of Barack Obama plastered on it is an absolute disgrace. Sadly, there are lots of these flags floating around. In fact, you can buy them online for $12.95. Down in Florida, the chairwoman of the Lake County Democratic Party took down the "Obama flag" after a group of veterans protested, but she also said that she is not promising that she will not put it back up and that she is going to consult an attorney about all of this.
Agenda 21 on Steroids
By Debbie Coffey - PPJ Gazette
The Draft International Covenant on Environment and Development is Agenda 21 on steroids. If you take the word "Environment" out of the title (which seems to be thrown in to placate you), and call this the International Covenant on Development, you will more clearly see the intent of this manifesto.
The Covenant is intended to become a binding Global Treaty and the template for international law. International attorneys have been hammering this out for about 16 years. The 4th draft was issued in 2010.
IAF strikes Gaza targets after rockets fired at Beersheba
By YAAKOV KATZ - JPost.com
Israeli aircraft respond to Grad rockets fired at South, striking rocket launching site, smuggling tunnel; IDF might need large ground operation in Strip, OC Southern Command Russo says.
The Israel Air Force struck a rocket launching site in northern Gaza and a smuggling tunnel in the southern Strip overnight Wednesday. Palestinians did not immediately report any injuries in the strikes.
Obama and Cameron pledge
not to delay to Afghanistan withdrawal US lays on lavish reception for British prime minister as Barack Obama shores up support ahead of looming Iran crisis
By Nicholas Watt in Washington - Guardian.co.uk
British and American forces remain on track to pull back from lead combat missions in Afghanistan next year, Barack Obama and David Cameron declared at the White House on Wednesday.
The leaders of the countries with the largest number of troops in Afghanistan said the recent violence would not derail their plans to ensure that all combat troops are withdrawn by the end of 2014.
Obama: Window for diplomacy in Iran shrinking US President says administration will do "everything we can" for diplomatic solution, but urges Tehran to negotiate.
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
AND JPOST CORRESPONDENT - JPost.com
WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama warned Wednesday that the window to resolve the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program diplomatically was shrinking, and that Tehran would face consequences if it didn’t take fresh talks seriously.
"Because the international community has applied so many sanctions, because we have employed so many of the options that are available to us to persuade Iran to take a different course, the window for solving this issue diplomatically is shrinking," Obama said during a Rose Garden press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Iran: Mayor of Tehran
warns against display of Christian symbols on buildings And Muslims coming out of Friday prayers destroyed Enghelab Square for its resemblance to, horror of horrors, a Star of David.
JihadWatch.org
Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Islamic Republic of Iran: "Tehran Mayor warns against display of Christian symbols on buildings," from Mohabat News, March 12 (thanks to Lachlan):
...After authorities complained about the display of Christmas trees and Santa Clauses in the streets of Tehran during the Christmas season, Hossein Kalkhorani, the deputy director of city services of Tehran in an interview conducted by Revolutionary Guard supported Fars news agency, announced that some people display freemasonry and Christian (!) symbols on their buildings and warned that the municipality of Tehran will seize these symbols. He stated, "Building facades in Tehran should be controlled by the municipality and the display of such symbols should not be allowed."
M2 Money Velocity Plunges Most Since 1959
BY DANIELLE PARK - FinancialSense.com
Pimco’s Bill Gross tweeted yesterday that the Fed is contemplating an announcement next month of QE3. He cites no source or evidence other than the assertion that the Fed will be forced to keep buying bonds that no one else wants. The VIX plunged yesterday perhaps on similar rumors. This would likely prove highly incendiary of already inflated oil prices and particularly controversial announced within months of the next US Presidential election. Many, including UK Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, have argued the Fed cannot roll out more QE this year for these very reasons. See: Global liquidity peak spells trouble for late 2012.
Fed keeps rates near zero,
sees jobs and economy improving
By Don Lee - Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington— Federal Reserve officials issued a more favorable assessment of the economy but refrained from taking any new action to add to or pull back from their latest campaign to spur growth.
Emerging from a meeting Tuesday, policymakers at the central bank left short-term interest rates near zero and stuck to their pledge made in January that they would keep rates at rock-bottom levels at least until late 2014.
Federal Open Market Committee March 13 Statement:
Full Text
Bloomberg.com
The following is a reformatted version of the full text of the statement released today by theFederal Reserve in Washington:
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in January suggests that the economy has been expanding moderately. Labor market conditions have improved further, the unemployment rate has declined notably in recent months but remains elevated. Household spending and business fixed investment have continued to advance. The housing sector remains depressed. Inflation has been subdued in recent months, although prices of crude oil and gasoline have increased lately. Longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.
Dow Rises to Highest Level Since 2007
By Rita Nazareth - Bloomberg.com
U.S. stocks advanced, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the highest level since 2007, amid data showing that retail sales increased by the most in five months and asJPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) boosted its dividend.
JPMorgan surged 7 percent after also unveiling a $15 billion buyback. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) rose at least 6.2 percent. Citigroup Inc. (C), which rallied 6.3 percent, slumped 3.3 percent after the close of regular trading as it failed to meet the Federal Reserve’s minimum requirements in a stress test. Apple Inc. (AAPL) climbed 2.9 percent as Jefferies Group Inc. raised its share-price estimate to $699.
Dollar Near 4-Week High
as Fed Raises Economic Assessment
By Monami Yui - Bloomberg.com
The dollar strengthened against all its major counterparts after Federal Reserve policy makers raised their assessment of the U.S. economy and refrained from additional monetary easing.
The yen touched an 11-month low versus the greenback as the two-year yield gap between the U.S. and Japan widened to the most since July after the Bank of Japan (8301) signaled yesterday it will keep using stimulatory tools to tackle deflation. The yen also weakened as Asian stocks extended a global rally, damping demand for the lower-yielding currency.
Oil Trades Near 2-Day High
as Economy Lifts U.S. Demand Outlook
By Ben Sharples - Bloomberg.com
Oil traded near the highest price in two days in New York as investors speculated fuel demand may increase amid signs the U.S. economy is strengthening.
Futures were little changed after advancing 0.4 percent yesterday as Commerce Department data showed U.S. retail sales rose the most in five months in February. The Federal Reserve lifted its assessment of the economy and said most of the nation’s biggest banks passed stress tests. Crude stockpiles gained a fifth week, while inventories declined for gasoline and distillates, a category that includes diesel and heating oil, a report showed after the settlement.
FOMC: Fed Sees Higher Inflation
On Rising Oil Prices, No QE3 For Now
By Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff
In Tuesday’s FOMC statement, ChairmanBen Bernanke and the Federal Reserve acknowledged economic conditions continue to improve, while noting that rising oil prices will feed higher inflation.
Once again, the FOMC tempered its concerns about inflation as a consequence of rising energy prices, arguing the trend will be temporary. Bernanke & Co. didn’t hint QE3 was coming, as expected, but chose to both continue with Operation Twist and keep rates zero-bound at least until late-2014.
Expect A Quiet Fed Meeting,
But $500B QE3 Is Around The Corner
by Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff
While the Fed isn’t expected to announce any new policy action on Tuesday, the FOMC will probably hint at further easing which shouldn't be too far away.
Labor markets remain depressed, despite a couple of months of solid jobs growth, and housing prices continue to tread lower. This should prompt the Bernanke Fed to deliver an "insurance ease" to keep the fragile recovery on track and hedge itself ahead of fiscal headwinds and external shocks, according to Nomura’s fixed income research team.
Is Inflation about General Increases in Prices?
Mises Daily: by Frank Shostak
There is almost complete unanimity among economists and various commentators that inflation is about general increases in the prices of goods and services. From this it is established that anything that contributes to price increases sets in motion inflation. A fall in unemployment or a rise in economic activity is seen as a potential inflationary trigger. Some other triggers, such as rises in commodity prices or workers' wages, are also regarded as potential threats.
If inflation is just a general rise in prices as the popular thinking has it, then why is it regarded as bad news? What kind of damage does it do?
Mainstream economists maintain that inflation causes speculative buying, which generates waste. Inflation, it is maintained, also erodes the real incomes of pensioners and low-income earners and causes a misallocation of resources. Inflation, it is argued, also undermines real economic growth.
Central Banks Beat Up on Private Creditors
By: John Browne - GoldSeek.com
Last week the Greek government, with the heavy handed support of its larger friends in the Eurozone, succeeded in coercing some 85.8 percent of private sector bondholders to "voluntarily" exchange €206 billion-worth of Greek sovereign bonds for newer bonds with longer maturities, lower coupon rates, and a face value of 53.5 percent less than the original paper. The benignly termed "haircut" (more accurately described as a "scalping") is particularly painful for those buyers who were literally strong armed by their own governments into buying Greek bonds in the hopes of achieving regional financial stability.
France’s Upcoming Election
Means Euro Devaluation—and a Pop In Gold
BY GONZALO LIRA - FinancialSense.com
On May 6, France is holding its second round of Presidential elections, where the Socialist François Hollande is fully expected to win.
I’m pretty sure two things will happen immediately following the election: The first is, Carla Bruni will leave Nicolas Sarkozy (because everyone knows that a professional courtesan never stays when the going gets tough for her patron).
The second thing that will happen following the election of Hollande is that the euro will begin to fall—amid persistent, insistent calls by the new French President for Europe to spend its way out of the hole it’s in.
Greek Default the Biggest in History?
No Problem, Says Bernanke!
By RICH SMITH, THE MOTLEY FOOL - DailyFinance.com
On Friday, Greece reached a deal to "restructure" its national debt. As part of the deal, creditors to the nation will see the face value of their debt cut from about $266 billion to $133 billion.
Dollar for dollar, pound for pound, and euro for euro, Friday's deal ranks as the biggest sovereign restructuring in world history. But don't worry. According to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, it's no big deal for the U.S. The man who famously assured us in 2007 that the subprime lending crisis was "likely to be contained," now vows that he'll protect the "U.S. financial system and the economy" from Europe's mess.
Greece Has Ratings Upgraded
by Fitch on Distressed Debt Exchange
By John Fraher - Bloomberg.com
Greece’s credit rating was lifted out of the default category by Fitch Ratings on optimism that a debt swap will reduce the risk that the country eventually reneges on its obligations.
Greece was raised four levels to B- from restricted default and given a stable outlook by Fitch, according to an e-mailed statement today in London. New government bonds have a B-rating, while debt that is not governed by Greek law has a C rating pending settlement on April 11, Fitch said.
A new twist on "Operation Twist"
By: Steve Saville, The Speculative Investor - GoldSeek.com
Just when we think that Bernanke has exhausted his ability to come up with harebrained schemes to distort prices, he proves us wrong. Last week it was reported that the Fed was considering a new way of putting downward pressure on long-term interest rates. Why? Because as everyone knows, the US economy would be doing much better if interest rates weren't so darn high.
The new tactic would be a variation on the old tactic that goes by the name "operation twist". Under the old tactic, which the Fed began to implement during the second half of last year, the Fed sells short-dated debt securities from its stash and uses the proceeds to buy long-dated debt securities. This would tend to contract the yield-spread (flatten the yield curve) by pushing long-term interest rates downward and short-term interest rates upward, except that at the same time the Fed does whatever it needs to do to keep the official short-term interest rate near zero. The idea, then, is that the yield-spread contracts due to falling long-term interest rates.
Citi, Ally, SunTrust And MetLife Flunk Fed's Stress Test
By Steve Schaefer, Forbes Staff
The Federal Reserve released the results of its stress tests Tuesday afternoon, revealing that 15 of the 19 banks that submitted to the exam passed. The four that did not wereCitigroup, Ally Financial,MetLife and SunTrust Banks.
The quartet did not meet the necessary 5% capital ratios, assuming their proposed capital deployment through 2013, in the face of the Fed’s "supervisory stress scenario." That scenario was nothing short of rigorous, projecting peak unemployment of 13%, a 50% drop in equity markets and a further 21% decline in housing prices.
Citi among banks that fail Fed stress test Bank losses estimated at $534 billion during stressed scenario
By Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Ally Financial Inc., Citigroup Inc., MetLife and SunTrust Banks failed to have enough capital under a stress test conducted on 19 big banks, the Federal Reserve said late Tuesday.
The stress test, designed to test whether reserves were necessary to withstand another crisis like the credit crunch of 2008, showed Ally, Citi and SunTrust each had less than a 5% of capital set aside under a measure called Tier 1 capital ratio, according to a Fed release Tuesday.
Stress tests, no surprises but concerns B. of A. on the defensive, Ally weak still
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve issued a clean bill of health to the nation’s 19 biggest banks on Tuesday — but for some, there are concerns about whether they are truly immune to a severe financial downturn.
The test results were made by the Fed two days early after J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.JPM -0.90% prematurely announced Tuesday it would commit $15 billion to buybacks and dividends. J.P. Morgan leads a group of the healthiest U.S. banks with include U.S. Bancorp USB +4.48% and Wells Fargo & Co. WFC -0.27% .
On the whole, the Fed said the banking system was in good shape. There were, however, concerns.
Feds confirm robosigning
at Bank of America, Wells Fargo and others
Puget Sound Business Journal by Adam O'Daniel, Finance Editor
A federal investigation has confirmed what has been widely reported for 18 months: that Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other major mortgage servicers signed foreclosure documents without always verifying the accuracy of the forms.
The results of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development investigation were filed Tuesday afternoon as part of a $25 billion mortgage industry settlement struck earlier this year.
CFTC Fines Goldman Clearing $7 Million
For Account Supervision Failures
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
Apparently Goldman Clearing turned a blind eye to 'questionable' (using false statements to enhance performance, and carrying negative capital balances) activity by a client broker in order to accept the fees.
CFTC Orders Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P., a Registered Futures Commission Merchant, to Pay $7 Million for Supervision Failures in Handling Accounts it Carried
Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing, L.P. (GSEC), a registered futures commission merchant based in New York, N.Y., agreed to pay a $5.5 million civil monetary penalty and $1.5 million in disgorgement to settle CFTC charges that it failed to diligently supervise accounts that it carried from about May 2007 to December 2009. The CFTC order also requires GSEC to cease and desist from violating CFTC regulations requiring diligent supervision. Additionally, the order states that GSEC represented in its settlement offer that it has made changes in light of the events discussed in the order, including implementing enhanced supervision policies, procedures, and training.
What’s Driving the Gold, Silver Prices?
By: Julian D. W. Phillips - GoldSeek.com
.... Over the long term gold cannot be managed or controlled. It’s the last investment standing when push comes to shove and silver is its lesser sidekick. We mentioned the saying in an earlier article that people don’t buy gold to make money but because they have money. That’s why central banks hold gold. They wish they didn’t have to but they know that their currencies are vulnerable to mismanagement and that over time are almost inevitably mismanaged. Gold is bought to get away from people and their games in the knowledge that when those games are played gold stands at much higher levels than before the games started. During the time that these events are played out, the gold and silver prices reflect each step made.
Keiser Report: White Man's Debt Burden (E261)
n this episode, Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert discuss how a video not featuring Justin Bieber went viral and how Max Keiser started a gold stampede. They also talk about "the white man's debt burden" of Uganda's resources and Afghanistan's "crony capitalism". In the second half of the show, Max talks to David Morgan about silver circles, ounces and manipulation.
• A return to the partnership model
• Almost complete deregulation of the financial system
I know, I know, but hear me out.
What should be the goal of financial reform? Its goal should be not to prevent bubbles and busts, which are the normal result of an economy full of "animal spirits" (quiet, the Austrians in the back!), but to prevent the busts from a) necessitating taxpayer bailouts and b) having ripple effects that threaten the very existence of the financial system and wreck the economy, and by the way c) still ensure that credit flows throughout the economy (i.e., don't destroy the village in order to save it).
IRS to Mom and Pop: Drop Dead
By Katherine Mangu-Ward - TheAtlantic.com
Doing your taxes sucks. Paying someone else to do your taxes sucks, too. But you know what sucks most of all? Having the person who does your taxes go out of business (or dramatically raise prices) thanks to an IRS power grab.
Last year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) got into the business of licensing tax preparers. The IRS wasn't granted the authority to do this by Congress, they just decided to go for it. At a time when unemployment is still awfully high, 350,000 people--many of whom are self-employers or own small businesses--will be hit by rules that axe their jobs or make it more difficult and expensive to keep their calculators clacking.
Mortgage execs charged with accounting fraud
By James O'Toole @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges Tuesday against three senior executives from the now-defunct Thornburg Mortgage, accusing them of fraudulently overstating the company's income by over $400 million ahead of its bankruptcy.
Thornburg filed for bankruptcy in May of 2009, felled by heavy losses associated with the subprime mortgage crisis. At the time, it was the seventh-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, with over $36 billion in assets, and had been the second-largest independent mortgage company in the U.S. after Countrywide.
Rage grows over mortgage deal
By Les Christie @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As more details emerge about the massive $26 billion foreclosure settlement between the five biggest mortgage lenders and the states' attorneys general, a growing number of borrowers are realizing that the deal will do little, if anything, to help them out.
Proponents of the settlement deal tout that roughly 1 million homeowners who owe more on their homes than their homes are worth are expected to have their mortgage balances lowered through principal reductions and another 750,000 would be able to refinance into loans with lower interest rates.
These Days, Even God Can't Get a Loan:
Church Foreclosures Skyrocket
By RICH SMITH, THE MOTLEY FOOL - DailyFinance.com
The Bible tells us that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Foreclosing on his pastor probably doesn't make the trick any easier.
There's a new development in the housing crisis: Foreclosures are hitting houses of worship.
According to a report from Reuters, 2011 was a record year for foreclosures on church buildings. Prior to the Great Recession, bank seizures of houses of worship were rarer than atheists in foxholes, with only a handful of foreclosures occurring in the decade prior to 2008.
That all changed when the mortgage crisis hit.
Making 9 Million Jobless "Vanish":
How The Government Manipulates Unemployment Statistics
BY DANIEL AMERMAN CFA - FinancialSense.com
When we look at broad measures of jobs and population, then the beginning of 2012 was one of the worst months in US history, with a total of 2.3 million people losing jobs or leaving the workforce in a single month. Yet, the official unemployment rate showed a decline from 8.5% to 8.3% in January - and was such cheering news that it set off a stock rally.
How can there be such a stark contrast between the cheerful surface and an underlying reality that is getting worse?
Entrepreneurs: Grayer Than You’d Think
by Teresa Novellino - Portfolio.com
Think entrepreneur and you think of young billionaire Mark Zuckerberg or maybe Andrew Mason, who took Groupon public with much fanfare. But according to a new study, the age of these entrepreneurs bucks an overall trend.
In fact, over the past decade, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity belongs to the 55-to-64 age group, according to a Kauffman Foundation study. The age bracket that includes 20- to 34-year-olds actually has the lowest rate of such activity, reports USA Today.
Health reform's cost under scrutiny
By Jeanne Sahadi @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Capitol Hill's official budget cruncher will offer new estimates on Tuesday of one of the most controversial parts of health care reform: the government's cost of covering tens of millions of uninsured Americans.
The Congressional Budget Office's estimates will be part of its annual March revision to its budget baseline -- the marker against which any spending and tax proposals are measured.
Will ObamaCare Discourage Employers From Hiring?
Peter Suderman - Reason.com
Politicians love branding legislation as either job killing or job creating, but the empirical data underlying these claims is usually pretty murky. Just look at the 2009 stimulus package. The bill was pitched explicitly as a way to foster job creation. As part of the law, the federal government set up an unusual tracking and reporting system that, for all its flaws, remains far more robust than the sort of employment-effects analysis that accompanies most legislation. Academics and independent analysts across the political spectrum conducted their own analysis of the law’s job creation. And yet it remains practically impossible to pin down its overall effects on the hiring and employment within any reasonable range.
Will Chief Justice John Roberts Uphold ObamaCare?
Damon W. Root - Reason.com
Two weeks from today, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Writing in The New York Times, Adam Liptak offers an interesting look at the various judicial and political views jockeying for control inside the mind of Chief Justice John Roberts, whose vote on the health care law is most likely up for grabs. As Liptak writes:
The case will require the chief justice to choose between two competing instincts.
On the one hand, he views himself as a steward of the court’s prestige and authority, and he has called for incremental decisions from large majorities rather than broad but sharply divided rulings....
Congress could be made to pay for its budget failures
By Ben Pershing - WashingtonPost.com
"The congressional budget process is broken."
It’s a lament heard from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in recent years, as the House and Senate have been increasingly unable to agree on an annual spending blueprint amid partisan bickering.
But is it broken enough that members will risk going broke to fix it?
That question, among others, will be entertained Wednesday at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on congressional reform proposals. The panel also plans to examine ideas for overhauling the nominations process for federal officials, as well as a perennial suggestion that Congress should shift from an annual budget process to a two-year cycle.
Ignoring sequestration won’t make it vanish
By Walter Pincus - WashingtonPost.com
Let’s think about the unthinkable — sequestration.
On Jan. 2, 2013, it will kick in if Congress can’t reach agreement before then on $1.2 trillion in cuts or added revenue over the next 10 years. Sequestration will be avoided if Congress passes legislation that President Obama will sign that undoes the legal requirement in the 2011 Budget Control Act.
Otherwise, on Jan. 2 the government must begin imposing the first of 10 years of across-the-board reductions in discretionary spending accounts for defense ($500 billion) and non-defense ($700 billion).
Wisconsin voter ID law struck down
as rights activists hail important victory Judge decision comes the day after the justice department blocked a similar law in Texas over fears of voter suppression
By Ryan Devereaux - Guardian.co.uk
A Wisconsin judge has struck down a controversial voter ID law passed by governor Scott Walker, which would have required voters to show photo identification at the polls.
Dane County circuit judge Richard Niess issued the permanent injunction one week after another judge temporarily stopped the law.
After 244 Years,
Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
By JULIE BOSMAN - NYTimes.com
After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print.
Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered reference books that were once sold door-to-door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed as proud fixtures in American homes will be discontinued, company executives said.
In an acknowledgment of the realities of the digital age — and of competition from the Web site Wikipedia — Encyclopaedia Britannica will focus primarily on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools. The last print version is the 32-volume 2010 edition, which weighs 129 pounds and includes new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project.
Apple Said to Be Subpoenaed by U.S. on Google Mobile Search
By Sara Forden and Jeff Bliss - Bloomberg.com
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission subpoenaed Apple Inc. (AAPL) as part of its antitrust probe of Google Inc., seeking information on how the computer maker incorporates the search engine on the iPhone and iPad, two people familiar with the matter said.
The agency’s request for documents includes the agreements that made Google the preferred search engine on Apple’s mobile devices, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly and declined to be identified. Google rivals such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) have criticized these agreements as anticompetitive.
Boeing downplays illegal subsidies EU cries foul over billions granted by U.S. government
By Tim Devaney-The Washington Times
In the latest Boeing-Airbus showdown, the world’s two biggest plane manufacturers each claimed vindication from a World Trade Organizationruling Monday that the U.S. had provided billions in illegal subsidies to Boeing.
The U.S. government and the Chicago-based company noted, however, that the WTO did not buy the most extravagant European claims about the U.S. subsidies and already had come down much heavier on the European Union for its support of Airbus.
Japanese want U.S. military bases gone
By Prensa Latina - Pravda.ru
The U.S. military presence in Japan acquires special relevance recently due to proposals by Washington to reinstall a base on the island of Okinawa and indecision about Tokyo.
According to various data, not even the recent visit to this island by prime minister Yoshihiko Noda has achieved consensus between the two parties, despite a bilateral pact that was in effect, signed in 2006.
But the strongest opposition comes from people's organizations and even local civil servants, who together demand the closure of U.S. military installations.
U.S. vs. China: The trade battles From rare earths to currency valuation to protecting technology, there's no end in sight to the Chinese-U.S. trade disputes.
By Chris Isidore @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- China and the United States are the world's largest economies and, by some measures, each other's most important trading partners. But it's a rocky marriage.
A dispute over rare earth minerals came into the spotlight Tuesday, as President Obama announced that the United States, Japan and Western European countries would file a trade complaint against China.
Obama warns China against 'skirting the rules'
By JULIE PACE - DailyFinance.com
WASHINGTON -President Barack Obama warned China Tuesday that it would not be allowed to gain a competitive advantage in world trade by "skirting the rules."
Making an election-year pitch to American workers, and businesses as well, Obama announced Washington has brought a new trade case against Beijing. The goal is to pressure China, a rising Asian economic power, to end its restrictions on exports of key materials used to manufacture hybrid car batteries, flat screen televisions and other high tech-goods.
Torture in Syria worst seen in 30 years, report says
LA Times staff
The scale of torture in Syria since an antigovernment uprising began a year ago amounts to crimes against humanity and is the worst the country has experienced in 30 years, says an Amnesty International report released Tuesday.
Syrians calling for the fall of President Bashar Assad have been arrested in droves and have faced harsh and sometimes fatal mistreatment similar to the brutal crackdown on dissent exerted by government forces during the late 1970s and early 1980s, says the report, released a day before the one-year anniversary of the uprising.
Taliban threaten to behead troops Obama: Spree a case of 'murder'
By Ashish Kumar Sen - The Washington Times
Taliban militants threatened to behead Americans in Afghanistan, as gunmen opened fire Tuesday on a memorial service for civilians killed by a U.S. soldier and protests erupted over a series of U.S. actions that is spreading outrage throughout the country.
The threats and attack occurred as a NATO-Afghan investigation cleared U.S. troops of malicious intent in the accidental burning of Korans at a U.S. military base, one of several recent incidents that have sparked protests and emboldened the Taliban.
Obama: Afghan mission to proceed despite mass shooting
By Dave Boyer-The Washington Times
President Obama on Tuesday called the alleged shooting deaths of 16 Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier “outrageous” and a case of "murder," but said the incident would not deter the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.
"The United States takes this as seriously as if it was our own citizens and our own children who were murdered," Mr. Obama said at the White House, recounting his phone conversation with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "We’re heartbroken over the loss of innocent life. The killing of innocent civilians is outrageous and is unacceptable. It’s not who we are as a country."
War: Big Government's Best Friend
Bestselling author Tom Woods speaks at the Mises Institute's seminar at Furman University, "War: Big Government's Best Friend."
Israel and Gaza militants agree to ceasefire after clashes Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza after four days of violence killed 25 people
Reuters in Gaza - Guardian.co.uk
Israel and militant factions in the Gaza Strip have agreed to an Egyptian-brokered truce to end four days of cross-border violence in which 25 Palestinians have been killed, a senior Egyptian security official said.
Both sides had "agreed to end the current operations", according to the official, with Israel giving an unusual undertaking to "stop assassinations", and an overall agreement "to begin a comprehensive and mutual calm".
Iranian hand seen in Gaza escalation
By Victor Kotsev - ATimes.com
The Gaza Strip is a world full of violent paradoxes. The latest is the situation in which the Palestinian militant movement Hamas, which nominally controls the strip, found itself over the weekend sitting in the corner with its eyes down and praying for the lives of Israelis; all this when its former Iranian sugar daddy turned into a whip-cracking Dom whose surrogate, Islamic Jihad, battled it out with Israel.
A Resolution to Impeach Is Ready
If Obama Goes to War Without Congress Rep. Walter Jones, the Republican congressman who introduced it last week, hopes it will help keep the U.S. military out of Syria.
by Conor Friedersdorf - TheAtlantic.com
When President Obama involved American forces in Libya without Congressional approval, violating the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution, Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican, sued him. "The president is not a king. He was elected by the people, just like the House and Senate," he said. "I think he is absolutely off-base. I think that is an abuse of power, and that's why we're going to the courts." Despite voting for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Rep. Jones turned anti-war while President Bush was still in office, and having so far failed to stop President Obama from fighting undeclared wars, he is now attempting a new strategy: the threat of impeachment.
Collapse Coming–Not Recovery
By Greg Hunter’s - USAWatchdog.com
The way the latest unemployment numbers were reported by the mainstream media (MSM), you would think the Great Recession was over and the United States was solidly on the road to recovery. The Associated Press reported the numbers by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) with a story that said, "The United States added 227,000 jobs in February, the latest display of the breadth and strength of the economic recovery. The country has put together the most impressive three months of job growth since before the Great Recession. The unemployment rate stayed at 8.3 percent. It was the first time in six months it didn’t fall, and that was because a half-million Americans started looking for work." (Click here for the complete AP story.) I don’t see how the MSM can say this one number is "the latest display of the breadth and strength of the economic recovery."
Five Charts That Prove We’re in a Depression and
That the Federal Reserve and Washington Are Wasting Money
By Graham Summers - GoldSeek.com
Wall Street and mainstream economists are abuzz that we’re seeing a recovery in the US due to the latest jobs data. These folks are not only missing the big picture, but they’re not even reading the fine print (more on this in a moment).
The reality is that what’s happening in the US today is not a cyclical recession, but a one in 100 year, secular economic shift.
How High Will The Gold Bull Climb?
By Mark Motive - GoldSeek.com
Gold is once again above $1,700 and eyeing its all-time high. Yet, the same two camps are saying the same things they have since the yellow metal was at $600: either this is a bubble, or it's headed much higher. While the gold bulls have clearly been right for over ten years, that doesn't mean they will always be right. There are many ways to determine whether gold will continue its historic climb. In the past, I have looked at gold fundamentals - such as monetary inflation, increasing government deficits, and an unsustainable debt - all which indicate a bullish future. Today, I am examining a technical bellwether which has been used for decades to analyze the relative performance of stocks vs. gold.
Barclays: Long term picture supportive for gold,
near term technicals neutral
LONDON (Commodity Online): Barclays Capital lists a supportive long-term view for gold but is technically neutral for the short term.
Barclays describes the macro environment and investor flows as bullish but fundamentals as neutral.
"Gold had been boosted by investor interest but sidelined the mixed physical market. While some physical buying has emerged upon the sharp price corrections, the cushion for prices has not proved to be solid thus far. However, it bodes well for prices that ETP (exchange-traded-product) holdings have remained stable at record highs," Barclays continued.
UBS maintains bullish outlook for gold;
but says technical picture challenging
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): UBS describes gold’s technical picture as "challenging" at the moment but says it maintains its overall bullish outlook for the longer term.
According to UBS, another price drop after a strong U.S. jobs report Friday suggests the bulk of quantitative easing expectations built into the market after the Jan. 25 FOMC meeting have been remove.
"Although gold has managed to claw its way back above $1,700, our technical strategist highlights that the overall picture remains challenging…," bank added.
The Silver Catalyst:
An Exclusive Interview with Hugo Salinas Price
BY JOHN BUTLER - FinancialSense.com
This month I am pleased to provide readers with the transcript of my recent interview withHugo Salinas-Price, focusing on his plan for re-introducing circulating silver coinage. For those not familiar with Mr. Salinas-Price, he has been a tireless and eloquent hard-money advocate for decades. However, rather than merely rant at the destabilizing effects of inflationary monetary policies, some years ago he formulated a detailed plan to not only help protect savers from the erosion of wealth through inflation but also to potentially catalyze a return to sound monetary policy in his native Mexico and elsewhere. While ambitious in its potential effects, his plan is nevertheless refreshingly simple and would be quick to implement, making it ideal for any country seeking a way to restore financial stability, protect savings, attract investment and create jobs.
Important Data Outlook for U.S. Economy
BY SHERAZ MIAN - FinancialSense.com
Stocks will likely not do much in today’s trading session given the absence of anything meaningful on the economic calendar. But we do have a host of economic reports on deck for the rest of this week that will likely further confirm the improving outlines of the domestic economic outlook.
Investors will be keenly evaluating the odds of further quantitative easing from the Fed through Tuesday's FOMC announcement. The overall trading action this week will largely reflect investors’ desire for more Fed help in each economic release.
FOMC Preview: No Policy Changes Expected At Fed Meeting
By MORAN ZHANG: - IBTimes.com
Federal Reserve officials, scheduled to hold their March Federal Open Market Committee meeting Tuesday, are not expected to announce any policy changes, say economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Fed officials will debate whether the economy is making sufficient progress under the current policy and what conditions might warrant additional easing, and Tuesday's statement should provide some clues as to what the Fed is and is not prepared to do.
The Case for Shorting U.S. Bonds
By Doug Kass - TheStreet.com
NEW YORK (Real Money) -- Bonds have achieved a near 50% total return since year-end 2009. With those outsized returns, shorting bonds has been a toxic strategy.
Over the last half century, bonds have historically been considered a risk-free asset class.
Nevertheless, I believe bonds should now be seen as a return-free asset class that is very risky, and long-dated fixed income should require a warning label for all potential buyers.
Meredith Whitney was right The more general point that Meredith Whitney was trying to make about public debt -- that municipal finances in this country were a mess that was only going to get messier -- was dead on.
By Duff McDonald - Fortune.com
FORTUNE -- To readers of the business press, the story is a familiar one: fifteen months ago, superstar analyst Meredith Whitney rocked the world of municipal finance with a December 2010 prediction on 60 Minutes that a wave of municipal debt defaults was headed our way. Her forecast was quite specific: "You could see fifty to a hundred sizable defaults," she told her interviewer, correspondent Steve Kroft. "This will amount to hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of defaults."
Banks Buy Treasuries at Seven Times 2011 Pace
By Susanne Walker - Bloomberg.com
U.S. banks bought more government and related debt in the first two months of 2012 than they did in all of last year, an endorsement of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s assessment of the economy that’s boosting demand for bonds even with yields near the lowest on record.
Commercial lenders purchased $78.2 billion of Treasuries and securities of agencies in January and February, compared with $62.6 billion in all of 2011, bringing their holdings to $1.78 trillion, Fed data show. Deposits exceeded loans by a record $1.63 trillion last month, up from $1.17 trillion in January 2011, providing scope to buy more bonds.
Obamanomics delayed the recovery What took so long? Why O’s policies slowed recovery
By Charlie Gasparino - NYPost.com
The US economy finally seems on course toward a sustained recovery — but why did it take so long?
Consider this analysis: Job creation is strong, while economic growth as measured by the gross domestic product will finally creep back to pre-2008 levels, something close to 3.5 percent.
That was not the takeaway from last week’s strong jobs report, but a prediction more than a year ago from Goldman Sachs analysts, possibly the best economics team on Wall Street.
Two-Year Treasury Yields
Match Highest in Seven Months Before Retail Sales
By Masaki Kondo - Bloomberg.com
Treasury (YCGT0025) two-year yields matched a seven-month high before U.S. data that economists said will show retail sales increased, easing speculation that the central bank will add to monetary easing.
Ten-year notes were little changed after four days of declines before the Federal Reserve holds a policy meeting today. The Treasury is scheduled to sell $21 billion in 10-year notes today and $13 billion in 30-year debt tomorrow.
Big banks: Too big to behave?
By Eleanor Bloxham, CEO of The Value Alliance
and Corporate Governance Alliance - Forbes.com
FORTUNE – Disclosure failuresrelated to mortgage offerings are again in the sights of the SEC, this time related to Goldman Sachs (GS) and Wells Fargo (WFC). And a recent court order describes potential client conflicts of interest involving advice provided by Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (with the apparent knowledge and participation of CEO Lloyd Blankfein) related to the Kinder Morgan-El Paso acquisition. Are these and other large financial firms just too big to behave?
Portugal Yield at 13% Says Greek Deal Not Unique: Euro Credit
By Lucy Meakin and Keith Jenkins - Bloomberg.com
The good news is Greece won’t default on March 20, and 10-year borrowing costs for Spain and Italy have dropped below 5 percent. The bad news is similar - maturity Portuguese bonds still yield more than 13 percent.
Last week, Greece pushed through the biggest sovereign restructuring in history, with private holders forgiving more than 100 billion euros ($131 billion) of debt, a condition for the nation to win the bailout it needs to repay 14.5 billion euros of debt coming due next week.
Biggest debt restructuring in history
buys Greece only 'a bit of time' Private investors agreed to write off 85.8 percent of Greece's private debt, but analysts warn that if Greece doesn't address underlying problems, the deal will not fix things for long.
By Michael Steininger - CSMonitor.com
BERLIN - Greece has succeeded in pushing through the biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history, with 85.8 percent of those holding private Greek debt agreeing to join a debt write-off deal, according to the Ministry of Finance in Athens.
The deal cuts Greek debt by around €105 billion ($138.8 billion) – about half of the country's private debt – and clears the way for Greece's second international bailout package, this one worth €130 billion ($173 billion). European finance ministers said today that they would immediately release the first tranche of the funds, worth €35 billion ($46.2 billion).
Not Solving the Greek Debt Crisis
Might Just Solve the Greek Debt Crisis Everybody assumed that when Greece defaulted, Europe would fall apart. This weekend, Greece defaulted. And Europe's still around. What if extend-and-pretend actually works?
by Matthew O'Brien - TheAtlantic.com
Greece and the euro zone are the Sid and Nancy of currency unions. We know these crazy kids are going to break up eventually -- so why not go ahead and get it over with already? The answer is that neither side is prepared for their inevitable divorce. The Germans have roughly a trillion reasons to keep Greece around for now. And the Greeks, for their part, still want to stay in the euro zone. The prospect of bringing back the drachma simply terrifies many of them. It shouldn't. Greece's recent managed default shows that leaving the euro, though ignominious, wouldn't need to be the end of the world.
Euro ministers to approve 2nd Greek bail-out
BY VALENTINA POP - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - Eurozone finance ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday (12 March) to give their final approval to the second Greek bail-out. But Spain's deficit problem is likely to weigh heavily on the talks.
In a conference last Friday, the so-called Eurogroup ministers approved the release of around half of the €130 billion bail-out, which is to help fund a massive bond-swap between Greece and private debt-holders
Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee
calls for Greece to exit the euro Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, tonight called for Greece to exit the euro and for the resources of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be significantly boosted to tackle future financial crises.
By Damian Reece - Telegraph.co.uk
In a well received speech at the annual British Venture Capital and Private Equity Association's annual chairman's dinner, Mr Tyrie said the current lull in the single currency's crisis, after last week's Greek bond swap, should be used to engineer a permanent exit for Greece.
The economic and political challenges facing the country if it stays in the eurozone would be too great to be sustainable, he argued.
Mr Tyrie also said increasing the size and fire power of the IMF was essential. But he also warned the body should avoid getting too close to the eurozone in future but should instead "get tough" with the single currency bloc.
Hungary feels the heat under strengthened EU budget rules
BY VALENTINA POP - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - Finance ministers are on Tuesday expected to approve the freezing of €495 million in funds for Hungary if Budapest fails to bring down its deficit in the coming six months. - the first such move under the EU's strengthened budget rules.
A large majority of member states is said to favour the two formal proposals: One giving Hungary a six-month deadline for "sufficient corrective measures" slashing budget spending by 0.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product, the other setting a funding freeze from 1 January 2013 if the deadline is not met.
Finland: EU countries do not want joint foreign policy
BY ANDREW RETTMAN - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - Finland's foreign minister has said EU countries are more divided on foreign policy now than before the Lisbon Treaty came along.
Erkki Tuomioja made the remarks after informal talks with his EU counterparts in Copenhagen on Friday (9 March) and Saturday.
"The real problem is with member states and their willingness to work together - this should be a basic pre-condition when we start a discussion on this or that subject, there should be no red lines ... [But] the commitment to this is actually less than it was five years ago. The Lisbon Treaty has given us a new instrument, but this is a matter of political will," he told EUobserver by phone from the Danish capital.
A reality check on the US economy More volatile even than the markets, media reporting veers from double-dip recession to strong recovery. So, some sobriety …
By Dean Baker - Guardian.co.uk
Economists and economic reporters are about as quick to change their assessments of the economy as teenagers are to shift allegiances to the latest pop star. While the economy rarely undergoes rapid shifts in direction, the public could be excused for not recognizing this fact – based on economic reporting.
Unfortunately, the analyses that look at underlying trends to determine the future course of the economy are the exception. More typically, reporting amplifies the latest report and ignores other evidence about the likely future direction of the economy.
Fed to Test 19 Banks’ Capital Against Recession Scenario
By Craig Torres - Bloomberg.com
The Federal Reserve will show how the capital of 19 U.S. banks might fare through a deep recession and a second housing crisis when they unveil stress-test results in three days.
The tests will show results for revenues, capital ratios and profits or losses at each firm over a nine-quarter period, the Fed said in a paper released today in Washington. The results will be released at 4:30 p.m. on March 15. Templates included in the Fed release today showed an array of categories it plans to disclose, from trading and counterparty losses to credit cards and first-lien mortgages.
Two Reasons Why the Global Economy Will Slow
and Government Promises to Retirees Will be Broken
Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research - ZeroHedge.com
The coming years will be marked by a seismic change in the economic landscape in the US. Firstly and most importantly, we are going to see economic growth slow down dramatically. Jeremy Grantham, an asset manager I respect, believes we’ll see global growth at 2% over the next seven years. Personally I believe it could be even lower than that.
The reasons for this slow down are myriad but the most important are:
• Age demographics: a growing percentage of the population will be retiring while fewer younger people are entering the workforce.
• Excessive debt overhang.
Gas prices top $3.80 a gallon
By CNNMoney staff @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The national average price for a gallon of gasoline rose above the $3.80 mark Monday, resuming the advance that has plagued drivers throughout the winter.
The average price rose nine-tenths of a cent, according to the survey of gas stations conducted for the motorist group AAA. It was the third straight advance, with prices gaining 3.4 cents a gallon over Saturday and Sunday.
No Jobs For Americans
By: Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org
Today (March 9, 2012) the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that 227,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs were created by the economy during February. Is the government’s claim true?
No. Statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) reports that 44,000 of these jobs or 19% consist of an add-on factor derived from the BLS’s estimate that 44,000 more unreported jobs from new business start-ups were created than were lost by unreported business failures. The BLS’s estimate comes from the bureau’s "birth-death model," which works better during normal times, but delivers erroneous results during troubled times such as the economy has been experiencing during the past four years.
Wyoming Town for Sale Is Cheaper Than Most Houses
By ADAM MARTIN - TheAtlanticWire.com
It looks like one of the great bargains in American real estate right now: A whole town in Wyoming is going up for auction with a starting bid of $100,000. That's far cheaper than the average U.S. home price, cheaper than listings in the closest city of Laramie, and far cheaper than the average price of most whole towns. Compared to recent zip-code sales, such as that of Scenic, South Dakota, which went for $799,000 last year, and Wauconda, Washington, for $360,000 in 2010, the asking price for Buford, Wyoming -- current population: one, Don Sammons, the man who's selling it and retiring from his self-proclaimed "mayorship" -- is a steal.
Locked into an underwater mortgage, low-pay job Job mobility hurt by housing woes
By Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Jose, 47, hoped to build a life with his wife Maria, 43, and three children in Phoenix, where he took a new job at a plastic-bag factory in 2007.
Unfortunately, he was unable to sell a home he and his wife had bought in 2002 in La Puente, Calif., six hours away by car. After five years of frustration, Jose moved back there in September to take a lower-paying job at a factory where he had previously worked.
Like many of their neighbors in La Puente, a community of about 40,000 located 15 miles from downtown Los Angeles, they are "underwater," which means they owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth.
Housing settlement details filed in court
By Jennifer Liberto @CNNMoney
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Final details were filed in federal court Monday in the $26 billion settlement to help struggling homeowners and settle charges against big banks of abusive and negligent foreclosure practices.
The Department of Justice filed five separate consent agreements, each more than 300 pages, between 49 states, federal agencies and the largest bank servicers:Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Ally Financial (GJM).
Health reform's cost under scrutiny
By Jeanne Sahadi @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Capitol Hill's official budget cruncher will offer new estimates on Tuesday of one of the most controversial parts of health care reform: the government's cost of covering tens of millions of uninsured Americans.
The Congressional Budget Office's estimates will be part of its annual March revision to its budget baseline -- the marker against which any spending and tax proposals are measured.
US government blocks controversial Texas voter ID law Department of justice says Texas has not proved that new voting laws would not punish Hispanic voters disproportionately
By Ryan J Relly - Guardian.co.uk
The federal government will not preclear a photo voter identification law signed by Texas governor Rick Perry because it would have a greater impact on Hispanic voters, a Justice Department official said in a letter to state authorities on Monday.
Hispanic registered voters in Texas were either 46.5% or 120% more likely than average voter to lack a form of photo ID, according to data the state submitted to DOJ. The first data set was sent in September and the second in January, though Texas has refused to tell federal authorities which they believe is more accurate.
The hidden traps in new 2012 tax forms A number of new forms may surprise taxpayers this year
By Eva Rosenberg, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Bingo! The new 1099-K forms — just one of a number of tax-form changes this year — caught a PayPal seller.
This young man, selling things from his home, did not think of himself as being in business, but he just received a Form 1099-K. It doesn’t take into account any of his charge-backs or refunds. This is exactly the kind of person they had in mind when they created the 1099-Ks.
Ron Paul Tells Reporters He Is Suspicious
About Results Of GOP Caucuses Congressman says he has "theories"
that foul play may be involved
By Steve Watson - Infowars.com
In a conversation with reporters in Missouri this weekend, GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul said that he and his supporters were suspicious about the outcomes of several caucuses because the crowds and volumes of support have been much bigger for him than for any other candidate.
"Quite frankly I don’t think the other candidates get crowds like this, and we get them constantly" Paul said, after he had spoken to yet another crowd of over 2500 supporters in Missouri.
LinkedIn is a hacker's dream tool
By Stacy Cowley @CNNMoneyTech
SAN FRANCISCO (CNNMoney) -- If you use LinkedIn, you've probably told the site where you work, what you do and who you work with. That's a gold mine for hackers, who are increasingly savvy in using that kind of public -- but personal -- information for pinpoint attacks.
It's called "spear phishing," and it paid off last year in two especially high-profile security breaches: a Gmail attack that ensnared several top U.S. government officials and a separate attack on RSA, whose SecurID authentication tokens are used by millions.
When a Robot Becomes the Life of the Party Ms. Garriott Uses Keyboard
to Shake Her Robootie at Remote Wedding
By EMILY GLAZER - WSJ.com
When Richard Garriott de Cayeux threw a costume party the night before his wedding in Paris, his 82-year-old mother dressed up as an Indian princess and attended as a robot.
Helen Mary Garriott wasn't strong enough to make the long trip from her home in Las Vegas. So Mr. Garriott de Cayeux went looking for alternatives. The one he hit upon was a portable robot about the size of a canister vacuum cleaner with a telescoping neck, binocular-shaped eyes and a screen for a forehead.
Homeless hotspots plan causes controversy for BBH ad agency
BBC.co.uk
An "experiment" which involved using homeless people as mobile wi-fi hotspots has attracted criticism, forcing the advertising agency behind it to defend itself.
A division of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) equipped 13 homeless people with 4G mifi devices in Austin, Texas.
It suggested the public pay $2 (£1.30) for 15 minutes access to the net.
Comments posted to the BBH's site accused the project of being "unseemly" and "wrong".
Members of Twitter asked "what has this world come to?" and accused the project of being a "gimmick".
Celente: Hawks circling over Iran as only ally Syria on ropes
The White House may be claiming it wants a diplomatic solution in Syria, but it seems it may not have faith in its own convictions.The Pentagon has been ordered to review its potential options.
Gerald Celente, publisher of the Trends Journal talks to RT, claiming Washington might be contemplating a military operation, because bringing down the Syrian regime would weaken Iran.
Syria crisis: US and UN urge Security Council unity
BBC.co.uk
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the US secretary of state have urged the international community to speak with one voice on Syria.
Hillary Clinton said that Syria's "horrific campaign of violence" had "shocked the conscience of the world".
Russia and China have blocked resolutions condemning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In Syria, activists report that at least 47 people were killed in an attack by government militia in Homs.
Taliban Promise Revenge for Civilian Murders in Afghanistan
By Kurt Nimmo - Infowars.com
The Taliban has called for revenge following the massacre of 16 civilians in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan, allegedly by a U.S. soldier on a rampage. The Taliban posted a message on their website denouncing the "barbaric actions" of "sick-minded American savages" and said they would seek revenge.
Taliban Vow Revenge for Afghan Civilian Deaths
The Taliban vowed revenge Monday for an "inhumane attack" in which an American soldier allegedly shot to death 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan and torched their bodies.
"Is there any military … in the entire world which gives legality for unstable persons to be armed and drafted into the military and then be given the duty of so-called peacekeeping?" the group asked.
Afghan shooting will not affect 2014 security handover, says US US soldier's killing of 16 civilians 'inexplicable', says Hillary Clinton, as White House and Pentagon stress 'isolated incident'
By Ben Quinn - Guardian.co.uk
Efforts to prevent the massacre of 16 civilians by a US soldier inAfghanistan from derailing the international military strategy were stepped up on Monday as western political leaders tried to portray the incident as an isolated case.
The killings on Saturday were "inexplicable," said the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who insisted that the episode would not force a change of course.
Obama and Cameron set to end
troops' lead combat role in Afghanistan Leaders meeting to discuss plans for British and US military move to support and training role by middle of 2013
By Nicholas Watt and Nick Hopkins - The Guardian
David Cameron and Barack Obama will on Wednesday agree tentative plans for British and US troops to end their "lead combat role" inAfghanistan by the middle of next year.
Their meeting comes amid growing anger in Afghanistan over the killing of 16 civilians on Sunday by a US soldier, and follows the funerals in Britain of six soldiers killed by a bomb earlier this month, taking the death toll of UK troops over the 400 mark.
An Israeli Attack Against Iran
"Would Destroy Chance of Peace for Generations"
By Richard Silverstein - Infowars.com
In an interview in The Nation, David Grossman, Israel’s leading novelist and moral conscience, expresses the conviction that Bibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak want a war against Iran:
…He said he had "a very bad feeling" that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were going to order an attack, even against America's wishes. “There is a dynamic to all these warlike declarations," he said.
Israel’s Grand Strategy
BY JR NYQUIST - FinancialSense.com
"When the principle of authority is injured in the public mind it dissolves very rapidly," wrote Gustave Le Bon in The Psychology of Revolutions. The figure of authority for the United States is the president, who is commander-in-chief of a powerful military machine. Although the military situation of the United States may be characterized in terms of growing weakness, the free world nonetheless looks to America for security. Israel, among other countries, would be overrun by enemies without the support of the United States. And that is why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington last week to meet with President Barack Obama.
War with Iran - Obama looking for a way out?
March 8, 2012 - Iran has agreed to take part in nuclear talks. The country is prepared to engage in face-to-face negotiations after feeling intense pressure from both the US and Israel to abandon it's nuclear program. America and Israel have intensified their rhetoric when it comes to using military action against Iran, and earlier this week President Obama expressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that diplomacy efforts should be given more time. Obama didn't rule out military action against Iran to protect US interests just yet though, and Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan administration official, joins us for the latest development.
H.Con.Res. 107
112th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. CON. RES. 107
Expressing the sense of Congress that the use of offensive military force by a President without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.
OBAMA IMPEACHMENT BILL NOW IN CONGRESS Declares president's use of military
without approval 'high crime, misdemeanor'
by DREW ZAHN - WND.com
Let the president be duly warned.
Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-N.C., has introduced a resolution declaring that should the president use offensive military force without authorization of an act of Congress, "it is the sense of Congress” that such an act would be “an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor."
Specifically, Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution reserves for Congress alone the power to declare war, a restriction that has been sorely tested in recent years, including Obama’s authorization of military force in Libya.
Will A Sitting President Finally Be Held Accountable
For High Crimes and Misdemeanors? Impeachment proceedings begin in the House and the Senate over Obama’s brazen use of aggressive military force without congressional authority.
By Eric Blair - Infowars.com
Since 2005, Veterans for Peace and others have been calling for the impeachment of the sitting president for war crimes. After their demands to lawmakers to uphold the rule of law against Bush were largely ignored, they renewed their effort to impeach Obama once he continued to bomb sovereign nations without congressional approval. Now, lawmakers seem to have finally decided to take the rule of law and Separation of Powers seriously.
Déjà Vu:
Obama's Military Actions in Syria May Be Impeachable
BY RAVEN CLABOUGH - TheNewAmerican.com
On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Obama administration would seek "international permission" before engaging in war in Syria. Besides the possibility that it is merely a ruse — as there is growing evidence that the United States may already be covertly involved in Syria’s war — for the United States to seek permission from other nations to go to war is unconstitutional. For that reason, Representative Walter Jones (R-N.C., left) has just introduced House Concurrent Resolution 107, calling for the impeachment of the President if he declares war without congressional approval.
The Impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama?
by Phil Olson - GroundReport.com
Could it be possible? Congress wants to impeach Barack Hussein Obama? Or is this just another Republican maneuver for election time publicity? According to a March 8, 2012 infowars.com article it is possible that Congress could seek an impeachment on the grounds of unauthorized military use. According to Congressional rules Barack Obama has violated the rules set that clearly state that the President must seek Congressional approval before using military force. Now he says it was OK because he had international support but how does that make it OK. They aren't our Congress. They don't determine what is right or wrong for us. Our Congress is supposed to determine whether or not to use the military for forceful actions on another country. This law also clearly states "any use of military force by Obama without explicit consent and authorization of Congress constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, Section 4 of the Constitution." So how then, last year, was Barack Hussein Obama able to use military force in Libya? That is the question at hand here. That is also why Congress is pushing a resolution through Congress, which has been highly underreported by mainstream media, to look into further actions to be taken upon the President.
- - - - - - - -
Regulators close small Chicago bank,
making 13 bank failures so far this year
By Associated Press, WashingtonPost.com
WASHINGTON — Regulators have closed a small bank in Chicago, the 13th U.S. bank to fail this year.
By this time last year, 23 had been shuttered.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday closed New City Bank, which had $71.2 million in assets and $72.4 million in deposits as of Dec. 31.
The FDIC did not find another lender to take over the bank’s operations, so it will mail out checks to depositors in the amount of their insured funds.
Gold could see potential bounce next week
By Debbie Carlson - CommodityOnline.com
After the recent volatility in gold, some market participants believe the yellow metal could see a rebound next week, but overall their tone is cautious given jitters in the Middle East, technical charts and Tuesday’s monetary policy meeting.
Prices were higher on Friday and mixed on the week. The most-active April gold contract on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled at $1,711.50 an ounce, up 0.1% on the week. May silver settled at $34.525 an ounce, down 0.9% on the week.
Gold bull market will continue
as central banks print more money
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Gold Bullion market run is expected to continue as the central banks are going on printing money around the world which gives chance for more investors to participate in the great bull run, says a recent article by Danny Esposito, Co-editor to Penny Stocks Detectives.
Esposito comments, "Historically, gold bullion has always done well when central banks print money. In the last three years, central banks have been on a money-printing binge never seen before in the history of the world."
Gold Not Automatic Crisis Winner
BY CARL SWENLIN - FinancialSense.com
We are in the midst of turbulent times, and it seems inevitable that things can only get worse. When casting about for a safe investment, it seems that gold is one of a very few areas of safety (and I don't know what the other ones are); however, when we look at historical charts, it is obvious that gold doesn't always behave in the way we would expect.
Gold Confiscation 1934 v. 2012?
Ian R. Campbell - StockResearchPortalBlog.com
An article came to my attention this past weekend that purports to explain why the Franklin Roosevelt Administration confiscated physical gold from Americans in 1933. The article’s conclusion "to get it out of the hands of the people" seems to me to be a rather 'ho hum' one.
However, assuming the statistics quoted in the article are accurate, I did find a number of them very interesting when compared with today’s prevailing circumstances. Those statistics enable the following calculations:
• in December 1932 the U.S. Gold Reserve stood at 204.5 million ounces, or 6,390.6 tons (5,797.5 tonnes); and,
• by August 1933, as a result of confiscation and I assume other U.S. Federal Government net purchases, the U.S. Gold Reserve stood at 227.9 million ounces, or 7,121.9 tons (6,460.9 tonnes).
Handicapping the Collapse
BY JIM WILLIE - FinancialSense.com
Scattered diverse and almost uniformly unfavorable and dangerous events are unfolding, as the global economy and financial structure undergoes the equivalent of endless earthquakes and bombardment of solar emissions. Reporting is difficult, since information is distorted toward the sunny side. Events are moving fast, as quickly as the danger level is rising. As conditions worsen, the hype and spin has risen almost out of control. The political machine, tied at the hip to the banking apparatus, has ramped up the growth story even as the strain on the information spin has become more visible and subject to heavy criticism. A re-election year is always fraught with risk of unmasked falsehoods making headlines. For some reason the Mayans have been lifted in prominence despite their cultural vanishing act. Like calling the dodo bird the epitome of future evolution in the aviary world of ornithology. The Jackass prefers the eagle, hawk, and falcon. Nonetheless, the list of acts on stage is replete with stories of collapse. A review is useful. Keep in mind that whatever happens to Greece will serve as vivid preview of what is to come in Italy, Spain, and perhaps France. Much more ruin comes. Witness the great unraveling. The only winners will be tangibles, like gold, silver, crude oil, and farmland.
America Is Being Transformed From A Wealthy Nation
Into A Poor Nation At Breathtaking Speed
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
America is losing wealth far faster than any other nation on earth is. In fact, since the mid-1970s there has been a transfer of wealth of almost 8 trillion dollars from the United States to the rest of the world. Sadly, most Americans have no idea what is happening. Most of them are completely unaware that America is being transformed from a wealthy nation into a poor nation at breathtaking speed. Most Americans just assume that America will always have the largest economy on earth and will always be the wealthiest nation on the globe. Unfortunately, just because something was true in the past does not mean that it will be true in the future. Right now, the United States is bleeding wealth at a pace that is almost unimaginable. Every single month, tens of billions of dollars of wealth is permanently transferred from the American people to the rest of the world. That means that the overall economic pie is shrinking. While the rich and the poor are busy fighting over the distribution of wealth in this country, the size of the pie that they are dividing up is continually getting smaller. America is poorer than it was last month, and next month it will be even poorer. If this continues, it will result in a complete and total economic nightmare.
End Fed’s power; give it to free market
By Armstrong Williams - WashingtonTimes.com
Ron Paul wants to abolish the Federal Reserve. He may be right: It is hard to see how the Fedhas enhanced our economy.
Since 1971, when President Nixon ended the gold standard, the dollar’s value has been more volatile than in any previous period, not only in immediate, day-to-day volatility, but also over the long run. People often marvel that a loaf of bread used to cost a dime, but they never ask why so much inflation has occurred over these past few decades.
As Fed Officials Prepare to Meet,
They Await Clearer Economic Signals
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — The scheduled meeting Tuesday of the Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee is unlikely to resolve the foremost question confronting the central bank: What happens next?
The Fed plans to complete by the end of June its current campaign to suppress long-term interest rates, keeping borrowing costs low for businesses and consumers. Some Fed officials see no reason for new measures, as the economy appears to be gaining strength. Others are eager for a new campaign, arguing that the recovery remains weak. But public remarks by Fed officials suggest a decision will not come before the committee’s next meeting in April.
Greek insolvency averted;
future issues likely to mean safe haven gold demand:
Commerzbank
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): A Greek bond swap appears to have been successful, enabling the country to avoid insolvency for now, but gold could still draw safe-haven demand since European debt problems are likely not over, said Commerzbank in a research note.
According to the bank, the agreement of investors to take a "haircut" on their Greek debt holdings was a prerequisite for the country to receive payment on a new bailout package.
Why China Is Dumping The Dollar -
And Why You Should Read Up on the Weimar Republic
Submitted by CrownThomas - ZeroHedge.com
As ZH posted today, China is systematically dumping the dollar (and beginning to set up other agreements). CNBC assures everyone, however, that things are fine. Don't read those anonymous financial blogs.
China has a long way to go in turning itself into more of a consumption based economy, so the dumping of USD has to be rather gradual (as to not rock the boat too much, the U.S. still needs to be supplied the funds to purchase Chinese goods, and also most trades are settled in USD for now), but it is happening.
Greece Has Defaulted - Which Country In Europe Is Next?
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Well, it is official. The restructuring deal between Greece and private investors has been pushed through and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association has ruled that this is a credit event which will trigger credit-default swap contracts. The ISDA is saying that there are approximately $3.2 billion in credit-default swap contracts on Greek debt outstanding, and most analysts expect that the global financial system will be able to absorb these losses. But still, 3.2 billion dollars is nothing to scoff at, and some of these financial institutions that wrote a lot of these contracts on Greek debt are going to be hurting. This deal with private investors may have "rescued" Greece for the moment, but the consequences of this deal are going to be felt for years to come. For example, now that Greece has gotten a sweet "haircut" from private investors, politicians in Portugal, Italy, Spain and other European nations are going to wonder why they shouldn't get some "debt forgiveness" too. Also, private investors are almost certainly going to be less likely to want to loan money to European nations from now on. If they will be required to take a massive haircuts at some point, then why in the world would they want to lend huge amounts of money to European governments at super low interest rates? It simply does not make sense. Now that Greece has defaulted, the whole game is going to change. This is just the beginning.
Forget 'economic spring' - Greek outlook is stormy While last week's debt swap was obviously important, there is still a very real danger of Greece needing yet another bail-out quite soon and eventually leaving the euro.
By Liam Halligan - Telegraph.co.uk
A couple of weeks ago, I sat on the speakers' podium during the opening panel of the Euromoney Bond Investors' Congress in London. Together with leading industry experts, including senior ratings agencies' officials, we engaged in a detailed discussion of the contentious aspects of the Greek debt debacle and the fate of the eurozone.
The audience was "top drawer; the room packed with 500 of the world's biggest bond market participants; the combined assets under management measured in the trillions of dollars.
Is Germany Actually Preparing To Leave The Euro?
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
For a long time, most analysts have believed that if someone was going to leave the euro, it would be a weak nation such as Greece or Portugal. But the truth is that financially troubled nations such as Greece and Portugal don't want to leave the euro. The leaders of those nations understand that if they leave the euro their economies will totally collapse and nobody will be there to bail them out. And at this point there really is not a formal mechanism which would enable other members of the eurozone to kick financially troubled nations such as Greece or Portugal out of the euro. But there is one possibility that is becoming increasingly likely that could actually cause the break up of the euro. Germany could leave the euro. Yes, it might actually happen. Germany is faced with a very difficult problem right now.
There Will Be Contagion
By: John Mauldin - GoldSeek.com
The headlines are about Greece, but the real story is not Greece but who is next. European leaders were right to be worried only a short while ago about contagion effects of a Greek default to the entire Euro system, which of course they now say doesn't exist. This week we look at Europe, and sort through the ever more fascinating implications of the news in today's headlines.
Should Iceland's Next Currency
Be the Canadian Loonie or Gold?
BY PETER KRAUTH, Global Resources Specialist, Money Morning
My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I read this headline: "Iceland Considers Adopting Canadian Loonie."
The loonie is otherwise known as the Canadian dollar.
Of course, gold would be a much a better choice as I'll explain later.
But the simple fact that this tiny nation of 330,000 is even thinking about using the Canadian dollar as its currency would have been unheard of just five short years ago.
After all, we live in a world that is literally littered with fiat money. In this world the U.S. dollar has been at the top of the heap.
That the loonie may be Iceland's top choice is just stunning.
Global liquidity peak spells trouble for late 2012 The global liquidity cycle has already rolled over. Assuming that no fresh action is taken, world economic growth will peak within a couple of months and then fade in the second half of the year - with grim implications for Europe’s Latin bloc.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Data collected by Simon Ward at Henderson Global Investors shows that M1 money supply growth in the big G7 economies and leading E7 emerging powers buckled over the winter.
The gauge - known as six-month real narrow money - peaked at 5.1pc in November. It dropped to 3.6pc in January, and to 2.1pc in February.
This is comparable to falls seen in mid-2008 in the months leading up to the Great Recession, and which caught central banks so badly off guard.
Greek tutorial in credit-default swaps Credit default swaps are insurance products. It’s time we regulated them as such.
By Barry Ritholtz - WashingtonPost.com
Last week, Greece officially defaulted on its debt. (Unofficially, it defaulted long ago.) This formal default on about $100 billion triggered payment of $3 billion in credit-default swaps. These are the non-insurance insurance products that pay off in the event of a default.
Let’s take a closer look at the tortured history of the swaps and see why they should be regulated as commercial insurance policies.
Evaluating ECRI’s Recession Call
BY DOUG SHORT - FinancialSense.com
ECRI's Weekly Leading Index Improves (Slightly) Yet Again
The Weekly Leading Index (WLI) growth indicator of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) came in at -2.6 in today's public release of the data through March 9th. This is the eighth consecutive week of improvement (less negative) data for the Growth Index and the highest level (i.e., least negative) since August 19th of last year. The underlying WLI also improved, increasing from an adjusted 124.1 to 124.3 (see the third chart below).
"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do sir?" – John Maynard Keynes
If the market is doing something quite different than what you think it should be doing, it's time to reevaluate your thesis.
Great calls are not just about getting the direction right but also the timing. If you take a bearish or bullish view on the market, economy, or an individual stock and it moves contrary to your opinion, there are two questions an investor should ask: 1) am I wrong or 2) am I right and suffering the consequences of bad timing?
Keiser Report: Hackers & Pirates -
true GDP boosters (E260)
n this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss hackers and pirates as true GDP boosters and independent artists being censored by the financial industry. In the second half of the show, Max talks to independent journalist Teri Buhl about a crowd-funded investigation into swinging and scamming in the hedge fund capital of the world, New Canaan, Connecticut.
U.S. Still Down 6 Million Jobs
By Sarah Morgan - SmartMoney.com
The stock market has recovered its losses since hitting bottom three years ago today. But despite gains in employment during that same stretch, America is still down six million jobs, data shows.
The economy added 227,000 jobs in February, more than the 204,000 economists expected, the Labor Department reported this morning. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.3% from last month. But while the economy has added more than 200,000 jobs for three straight months, the damage to employment done by the Great Recession is still far from repaired.
Why Markets Disliked the Positive Jobs Report
BY SY HARDING - FinancialSense.com
There was much anticipation in advance of Friday’s Labor Department employment report for February. The report has a reputation for often coming in with a big surprise in one direction or the other that creates a dramatic market response. This time it did not. The consensus forecast was that 213,000 new jobs were created in February, and the unemployment rate would remain at 8.3%. The actual report was that 227,000 new jobs were created, and the unemployment rate remained at 8.3%.
Newspapers Are America's Fastest-Shrinking Industry
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
LinkedIn and the Council of Economic Advisors mapped the fastest-growing and fastest-shrinking industries since 2007, the year the Great Recession started. Renewables are at the top and newspapers are at the bottom. Here's the graph:
Rep. Frank joins calls for top Fannie,
Freddie regulator to be replaced
By Mike Lillis - TheHill.com
Rep. Barney Frank has joined the growing chorus of Democrats calling for the removal of the nation's leading housing regulator.
The Massachusetts Democrat said Edward DeMarco, head of the federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has been "too rigid" in his approach to foreclosure prevention and should be replaced.
"He's been too rigid in refusing to help on foreclosures," Frank, the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, said Wednesday.
FHA mortgages are poised to get more expensive The FHA plans to impose limits on the amount of money that home sellers can contribute at closing and to raise mortgage insurance premiums.
By Kenneth R. Harney - LATimes.com
Reporting from Washington—
If you're considering buying a house with an FHA mortgage and expect the seller to help out with your closing costs, here's a heads-up: The Federal Housing Administration plans to impose significant restrictions on the amount of money that sellers can contribute at closing in the near future.
On top of that, the FHA also will be raising its mortgage insurance premiums during the coming weeks, increasing charges for new purchasers across the board.
Stockton... the next bankruptcy? Stockton residents watch their port city slip away
Within three months, the Central Valley city of 300,000 could become the nation's largest municipality to file for bankruptcy. The City Council is trying to slow or stop the bust by entering mediation.
By Diana Marcum, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Stockton — The name painted in the plate-glass window, "Bradley's," has a martini glass standing in for the "y."
The late-afternoon sun has turned the other windows into mirrors. Deep inside, in bar-appropriate shadow, patrons rest their drinks on 100-year-old mahogany and, as in many a neighborhood pub, consider hopes gone astray.
* * * * *
Evolving Global Financial Crisis. Selling "Foreclosed Homes"
By Bob Chapman, International Forecaster - InfoWars.com
The government is preparing to package and sell foreclosed homes. We do not know what discount to the current market there will be but you can guess it will be 20% or more. This event will cause home prices to trend lower dependent on whether the houses are put up for sale or rented. These homes will only be available to big buyers such as hedge funds and others with enormous amounts of capital. It is expected that the homes will be sold in lots of 5,000 to 10,000 and the minimum bid would be $1 billion. This is corporatist fascists busy at work. You could call it the largest transfer of wealth from the private to the public sector in history. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be sellers of 250,000 or more homes with more in the wings, perhaps another 250,000. Can you image what further damage that would do to home prices? In the auction process the big winners will be the big NYC money center legacy banks, hedge funds and other mega investors. Others playing a big part will be management and marketing contractors that presently manage government properties. The owners and officers of these firms are former high-ranking government officials. The goal is to rent these residences, creating cash flow and then roll the bundles into REITS, real estate investment trusts. At that juncture the public can then participate as investors.
Foreign buyers are snapping up U.S. homes With foreign entities wary of mortgage-backed securities, buyers are focusing on individual homes — a welcome occurrence in regions suffering from a glut of properties on the market.
By Lew Sichelman - LATimes.com
Reporting from Washington—
Because of the housing market meltdown, foreign governments and banks are shying away from bonds backed by American home loans. But individual foreign buyers are taking advantage of the crash to snap up U.S. bargains at a record clip.
When housing was flying high, foreign entities were buying the lion's share of the mortgage-backed securities packaged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two quasi-government agencies that help keep the housing finance system flush with cash by buying mortgages from Main Street lenders.
Why Are Police In America Treating Women Like Dogs?
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
When I was growing up, police in America generally treated women with gentleness and respect. It was generally understood that women were not to be thrown around or mistreated by police unless they were being openly violent. But in most areas of the United States those days are long gone. Sadly, many police officers seem to make it a point to be especially mean and degrading to women. All over the country women are being openly abused and humiliated by police. In America today, women are being yanked around by their hair by police, women are being pepper sprayed directly in the face by police, and women are being brutally strip-searched in front of leering male police officers. This is not how a civilized nation should be treating women and there is no excuse for treating women like dogs. The incidents that you are about to read about are absolutely shocking. They reveal just how far America has fallen. If police will treat non-violent women like dogs, then what will they do when the time comes to arrest you? That is something to think about.
Why Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion
Will Reduce Health Care Access
By Avik S. A. Roy (guest)- TheAtlantic.com
Chapin White of the Center for Studying Health System Change has published an important new paper inHealth Services Research, a journal of health economics, which suggests that a critical part of the Affordable Care Act--its expansion of Medicaid coverage to 16 million more Americans--may actually reduce those individuals' access to health care.
White's report comes on the heels of numerous studies that show that patients on Medicaid, our national government-run health-care program for the poor, do far worse on health outcomes than do those on private insurance, and in some cases, worse than those with no insurance at all.
States reject offer to buy prisons Trend moving away from once-popular privatization
By Greg Bluestein - AP - WashingtonTimes.com
ATLANTA — The nation's largest private prison company made an enticing offer to 48 states that went something like this: We will buy your prison now if you agree to keep it mostly full and promise to pay us for running it over the next two decades.
Despite a need for cash, several states immediately slammed the door on the offer, a sign that privatizing prisons might not be as popular as it once was.
70% of all Ground Beef Contains "Pink Slime" ... and USDA Bought 7 Million Pounds of the Stuff for School Lunches
Submitted by George Washington - ZeroHedge.com
ABC news notes:
"Pink slime," a cheap meat filler, is in 70 percent of the ground beef sold at supermarkets and up to 25 percent of each American hamburger patty, by some estimates.
The USDA just bought 7 million pounds of pink slime to add to school lunches (up from 5.5 million pounds in 2009).
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution:
70% of America's Beef is Treated with Ammonia
On the Season Premiere of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution filmed in Los Angeles and aired on April 12, 2011, Jamie demonstrates how 70% of America's ground beef contains leftover cow parts (a.k.a. "pink slime") containing e.coli and salmonella that has been treated with ammonia. Ammonia treated meat can be found in virtually all conventional grocery stores, fast food restaurants, many national restaurant chains, and school cafeterias. The saddest part is that the USDA allows this ammonia treated meat to enter the marketplace and with no labeling requirement on the packaging to inform the consumer that the meat their about to buy contains ammonia, thus hiding the truth and pulling a wool over the consumer's eye. This is certainly a rude awakening to the majority of Americans that don't know where the meat in their fridge, the meat in their conventional local grocery store, the meat in their fast food hamburger, and the meat in their restaurant made hamburger comes from. How do you avoid this poison? Buy beef that has come from grass fed cows, which can be found at natural and organic grocery stores and your local farmers market. No matter the size of your town or city, grass fed beef (real beef) is not out of reach. Unlike ammonia treated beef, grass fed beef is clearly labeled and contains no ammonia.
It's now illegal to know what's in your food
Todd Tucker, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch joins Thom Hartmann. Put down that fork! Do you now what's REALLY on your dinner plate? Well - it's becoming increasingly difficult for you to find out and there may be very little our lawmakers can do about it. Do you know what's in your dinner? Chances are...you probably don't. That's because recent rulings by the World Trade Organization have made it harder and harder for Americans to know if what they're eating is safe - and exactly where it came from. For example - last month - the the WTO struck down a law passed by Congress and signed by the President in 2008 had required labels on all meat so that we know what country the cattle was born, raised, and slaughtered in. Think about that for a second - laws passed by our elected Representatives are being struck down by foreign bureacrats and corporations through the World Trade Organization. Also this year - the WTO struck down dolphin-safe tuna labels - arguing that it would do economic harm to foreign fishing fleets that slaughter dolphins in the process of catching tuna. So why is this? Why is it suddenly illegal for us to know more about what's in the food we eat? And why are we as a nation bending at the will of the WTO?
ACLU warns of expanded spying powers
in new GOP cybersecurity legislation
By Brendan Sasso - TheHill.com
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is warning that a cybersecurity bill from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other Republicans would give spy agencies unprecedented powers to snoop through people’s personal information.
McCain's bill, the Secure IT Act, would encourage companies to share information about cyber threats with government agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command.
The Cato Coup
By Jeff Harding - DailyCapitalist.com
There is a huge buzz going around the libertarian Internet about Charles Koch’s lawsuit to take control of the Cato Institute and kick Ed Crane off the board. The controversy is, according to the Koch brothers, about Cato’s lack of enthusiasm for supporting political candidates. Ed Crane, a founder and its president, says because of its tax status it cannot support political candidates, and that Cato’s goal should remain one of influencing political ideas. What makes it interesting is that there is a history going back to its founding that contrast the mission of Cato and the Mises Institute.
Brazil’s new consumer class flocks to U.S. to shop
By Gisela Salomon and Jenny Barchfield - AP - Washingtontimes.com
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The overstuffed bags filling Fernando Mello’s luggage cart wobbled precariously as the gym owner made his way home one morning through Rio's international airport. Navigating the terminal, Mr. Mello was part of a horde of other Brazilian travelers returning with loot found in the strip malls and discount outlets of south Florida.
His girlfriend’s freshly purchased Michael Korshandbag in gold lame sat atop four bulging suitcases like a shining crown — a testament to the newfound consumer power of Brazilian travelers, who now spend more per capita than any other visitors to the U.S.
World Government = Global Death!
The elites establishing world government have openly stated a plan to exterminate 6 billion people. The system is not run by people who are just corrupt, it is controlled by blood lusting control freaks who are unspeakably evil.
U.S. soldier held in shooting rampage
that killed 16 Afghans, officials say
By Ernesto Londoño and Javed Hamdard - WashingtonPost.com
KABUL — An American soldier walked off his base in a remote southern Afghan village shortly before dawn Sunday and opened fire on civilians inside their homes, killing at least 16, including nine children, Afghan officials said.
The shootings in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province appeared to mark the deadliest intentional attack on civilians by a U.S. soldier in the decade-long Afghanistan war. Although U.S. officials promptly detained the suspect, a staff sergeant, the incident seemed certain to stoke anti-American sentiment at a time of growing unease about the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and increasing pessimism among Americans about the U.S. mission here.
Aircraft Carrier Enterprise Sets Off
On Final Journey - Direction Iran
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Today at noon Eastern, the storied aircraft carrier Enterprise, aka CVN-65, left its home port of Naval Station Norfolk one final time for its final voyage with a heading: Arabian Sea, aka Iran. There in a week it will join CVN 72 Lincoln and CVN 70 Vinson, as well as LHD 8 Makin Island, all of which are supporting any potential escalation of "hostilities" in the Persian Gulf region. As a reminder, back in January we learned that the Enterprise's final voyage will be in proximity to Iran, and in the meantime, the aircraft carrier held extended drills off the Florida coast to attack a "faux theocracy" consisting of fundamentalist "Shahida" states. Why the Arabian Sea in about 7-10 days will be home to not two but three aircraft carriers and a big deck amphibious warfare ship is very much an open question, although we may have some thoughts.
Ahmadinejad: Iran doesn't fear bombs and warships Iranian president responds to talk of military strike on nuclear facilities, saying 'the time of arrogance and colonialism has passed'
Reuters
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched a fresh tirade against the West, saying the Islamic Republic does not fear military action, Iranian media reported on Sunday.
"The Iranian nation doesn't fear your bombs and warships and planes. Such weapons are worth nothing," the Fars News Agency quoted him as saying on a visit to the town of Karaj, to the west of Tehran.
Israel to delay strike on Iran until after US elections? White House tells Sunday Times Obama pressed Netanyahu to postpone Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities until after November, adding president 'might visit Israel in summer'
YnetNews.com
Israel will only strike Iranian nuclear facilities in September or after the United States presidential elections in November, a White House official told the British Sunday Times newspaper after a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama last week.
The end of the Catholic Church as we know it? Catholicism is not the Tea Party at prayer
By E.J. Dionne Jr., Opinion Writer - WashingtonPost.com
The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops will make an important decision this week: Do they want to defend the church’s legitimate interest in religious autonomy, or do they want to wage an election-year war against President Obama?
And do the most conservative bishops want to junk the Roman Catholic Church as we have known it, with its deep commitment to both life and social justice, and turn it into the Tea Party at prayer?
Today's American Churches Are Neutered:
Pastor Chuck Baldwin Reports 1/3
Alex talks with the former presidential nominee of the Constitution Party and the founder and former pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, Chuck Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin currently lives in Montana. Baldwin is the co-author of Romans 13: The True Meaning of Submission, now available at the Infowars Store.
Gold, silver boosted by physical demand,
report about Federal Reserve
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Comex gold was higher as the pit session ended. "Gold has found support between $1,670 and $1,675, this level having been tested many times today," said Triland Metals in a research note.
"Asian physical demand had helped underpin the market." Further, support came from a Wall Street Journal report saying that the Federal Reserve was considering "sterilized" bond purchases, which induced short covering in gold, Triland added.
Gold correction may be nearing,
although market still hostage to Greece: HSBC
LONDON (Commodity Online): Gold prices may be near the end of a downward correction, although the metal’s fortunes could still hinge on Greece for a while yet, HSBC said in a research note.
According to HSBC, prices tumbled Tuesday as renewed worries about the Greek debt situation prompted a flight out of risk assets, including equities, and weakened the euro.
If Ft. Knox Isn't Empty
Sell the gold to Americans at $42.22 an ounce Loaded Guns and an Empty Fort Knox
by Gary North - LewRockwell.com
All guns are loaded. Never forget this.
I never knew my great uncle Gerald. That's because he was killed in an accident. His son shot him.
Uncle Gerald was a hunter in Oregon. He had taught his son to regard every gun as loaded. He always was careful to unload his gun whenever he came in from hunting. But one day he forgot. His son, knowing that his father was meticulous about such things, for some reason pulled the trigger.
In my household, I was taught that every gun is loaded until it is examined to see if it is unloaded. This is the #1 rule for gun safety.
The reverse rule applies to every warehouse. Every officially full warehouse is empty until it is shown to be full. This is #1 rule for storage safety.
FORT KNOX IS EMPTY
Gold Bulls Strengthening
as Bullion Wagers Reach $131 Billion: Commodities
By Maria Kolesnikova and Nicholas Larkin - Bloomberg.com
Gold traders are the most bullish in four months after investors accumulated more metal than ever and hedge funds raised bets on gains to a five-month high.
Sixteen of 23 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect prices to gain next week and one was neutral, the highest proportion since Nov. 11. Investors increased their holdings in exchange- traded products backed by bullion for seven consecutive weeks and now hold 2,407 metric tons valued at $131 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Switzerland Wants Its Gold Back From The New York Fed
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Earlier today, we reported that Germans are increasingly concerned that their gold, at over 3,400 tons a majority of which is likely stored in the vault 80 feet below street level of 33 Liberty (recently purchased by the Fed with freshly printed money at far higher than prevailing commercial real estate rates for the Downtown NY area), may be in jeopardy,and will likely soon formally inquire just how much of said gold is really held by the Fed. As it turns out, Germany is not alone: as part of the "Rettet Unser Schweizer Gold", or the “Gold Initiative”: A Swiss Initiative to Secure the Swiss National Bank’s Gold Reserves initiative, launched recently by four members of the Swiss parliament, the Swiss people should have a right to vote on 3 simple things:...
Full disclosure via the Initiative's website: http://www.goldinitiative.ch
Dollar at a Critical Juncture
BY JUSTIN SMYTH - FinancialSense.com
As we go through the first significant pullback in the market for 2012, the dollar seems to be at a turning point that should influence market trends for the next few months. Going all the way back to 2002, there has been a strong inverse correlation between stocks and commodities, and the U.S. dollar. For the most part, the dollar has been falling during this period, which has helped drive cyclical bull markets in stocks and commodities. More recently, the stock market panic of 2008 and the first Euro crisis of 2010 drove significant countertrend rallies in the dollar, and corrections in stocks and commodities.
Most Arabs support unified currency
and see US and Israel as biggest threats: Survey
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Majority of people in the Arab world support the idea of a unified Arab currency and military forces while also viewing the US and Israel as the two biggest threat to the region, as per the Arab Opinion Index report published by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS).
The index report is the largest of its kind, covering 12 countries and 85% of the people of the Arab world and compiling the findings of 16,173 face-to-face interviews.
North Dakota oil production hits record, again, in January Output increase apace of last year's big increaseNorth Dakota's crude oil production continues to increase steadily, keeping pace with last year's big gains.
By: Stephen J. Lee, Grand Forks Herald
North Dakota's crude oil production continues to increase steadily, keeping pace with last year's big gains.
According to the latest figures released today by the Department of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Division, in January daily oil production rose to a record 546,000 barrels of oil per day, up 11,000 barrels from December's daily output.
Legal skull-duggery in Greece may doom Portugal Europe has ring-fenced Greece's debt crisis for now but its escalating recourse to legal legerdemain has shattered the trust of global bond markets and may ultimately expose Portugal, Spain, and Italy to greater danger.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
"The rule of law has been treated with contempt," said Marc Ostwald from Monument Securities. "This will lead to litigation for the next ten years. It has become a massive impediment for long-term investors, and people will now be very wary about Portugal."
At the start of the crisis EU leaders declared it unthinkable that any eurozone state should require debt relief, let alone default. Each pledge was breached, and the haircut imposed on banks, insurers, and pension funds ratcheted up to 75pc.
Investors Agree to Swap About 85% of Greek Debt
By Christos Ziotis and Maria Petrakis - Bloomberg.com
Private investors agreed to swap about 85 percent of their Greek government bonds for new securities in the biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history, according to a banker briefed on the results.
Preliminary indications showed that as much as 155 billion euros ($205 billion) of the 177 billion euros of Greek-law bonds were offered, said the banker, who declined to be identified. Twelve billion euros of debt not under Greek law was also tendered, as was 7 billion euros of bonds from state-owned companies guaranteed by the government, the banker said.
German newspaper says 'nein' to Greek bond haircut Germany's Bild newspaper says 'nein' to Greek bond haircut
Germans are famous for their mullet haircuts. So no wonder the nation's Bild newspaper is bristling at the No1 variety being meted out by the Greek government.
By Alistair Osborne - Telegraph.co.uk
The tabloid, with 12m German readers, bought €10,000 (£8,350) of Greek debt in the secondary bond market back in December – at a knock-down €4,815.
On Wednesday it declared it was saying "Nein" to the Greek debt swap, which is trying to force the holders of €206bn of bonds to accept a trimming of about 75pc.
Stark slams ECB's 'shocking' balance sheet Germany's monetary doyen slams ECB's 'shocking' balance sheet
The doyen of German monetarism has denounced the stimulus policies of the European Central Bank as a dangerous leap into the unknown, giving voice to growing misgivings among the German policy elite.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Jurgen Stark, the ECB's former chief economist and Germany's board member until two months ago, said the blitz of lending had corrupted collateral standards and risked inflation.
"The balance sheet of the euro system isn't just gigantic in size but also shocking in quality," he said.
Unlimited lending to banks for three years has pushed the ECB's balance sheet to over €3 trillion (£2.5 trillion), overtaking the US Federal Reserve to become the world's most activist bank.
The Fed's latest plan to boost the economy
By Mark Thoma - CBSNews.com
(MoneyWatch) The economy is recovering and the Fed has policy on hold for the moment, but if further action is needed in coming months the central bank is discussingwhat to do. The most likely course of action is a new bond purchase plan similar to the "Operation Twist" policy that was launched in September and ends this coming June.
One thing that is clear from the latest discussion is that some members of the Fed are very worried about inflation. This is evident in the design of the bond purchase plan which mimics a key feature of the Fed's $400 billion Operation Twist policy. Under Operation Twist, the Fed essentially removes long-term securities from the private sector and replaces them with short-term securities of equal value. Thus, this operation does not change the money supply, and hence does not change inflationary pressure.
US Budget Deficit Hits All Time High In February
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
For a global economy that is "improving" we sure are getting a whole lot of records in the won't direction in the last two days. Yesterday it was Japan which printed a record current account deficit (yes, the most indebted country in the world was once upon a time supposed to exportits way out of debt). Today, we learn that in February the US will report its largest budget deficit in history, as the Keynesian floodgates open full bore, and as Zero Hedge has noted repeatedly, tax revenues just refuse to come in at anything close to the pace of accelerated spending, forcing the US to borrow 54 cents for every dollar it spends (not the often cited 42 cent number which does not take into account tax refunds - see here). We would comment more on this, but frankly the chart speaks for itself. And now that the US has to fund an additional $100 billion due to the taxcut extension this means that things are only going to get worse, fast.
Not So Fast On That Whole Economic Recovery Thing
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Not so fast. Those that are publicly declaring that an economic recovery has arrived are ignoring a whole host of numbers that indicate that the U.S. economy is in absolutely horrendous shape. The truth is that the health of an economy should not be measured by how well the stock market is doing. Rather, the truth health of an economy should be evaluated by looking at numbers for things like jobs, housing, poverty and debt. Some of the latest economic statistics indicate that unemployment is getting a little bit worse, that the housing market continues to deteriorate, that poverty in America continues to soar and that our debt problem is worse than ever. If we were truly experiencing the kind of economic recovery that the United States has experienced after every other post-World War II recession we would see a sharp improvement across the board in most of our economic statistics. But that simply is not happening. Sadly, this is about as much of an "economic recovery" as we are going to get because soon the economy will be getting much worse. So enjoy this period of relative stability while you can.
Keiser Report: Sharkboy & Lava Girl (E259)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss boating accidents with Sharkboy and Lava Girl and a futures market to lay off your Blythe Masters risk. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Dr. Michael Hudson about Modern Monetary Theory at the University of Missouri - Kansas City and about the Chicago Boys gutting the economic competition, literally.
How does an America with no middle class look like? Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects top two jobs for the next decade will pay roughly $20,000 a year. Approval rating of Congress at 10 percent. In comparison, Americans approved of BP’s handling of the Gulf oil crisis at a 16 percent rate.
by MyBudget360
A strong middle class has been at the core of what has been promoted as the American Dream. How would America look like if the middle class simply vanished? We may not need to wait too long at the current rate since we are quickly siphoning people off the middle class and throwing them into lower income brackets. The vast majority of Americans do not buy into the propaganda promoted on the tightly controlled media outlets. In fact, the latest Congressional job approval numbers are at a record low of 10 percent according to Gallup. To put this low figure in perspective 16 percent of Americans approved of how BP handled the catastrophic Gulf oil spill at the peak of the blowout. This low Congressional approval is all coming during a supposed economic recovery where 46,000,000 Americans receive a monthly charge to their debit card for food assistance. Even government figures show the big job growth sectors of the next decade to be in low paying fields. What would America look like without a middle class?
The US Deleveraging Is Now Over The credit bubble is now officially back.
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Today the Fed released its quarterly Flow of Funds report, also known as the Z.1., which is mostly tracked to show quarterly changes in consumer net worth (and which we find far more valuable to show changes in shadow banking liabilities - more in that in a later post). So while in Q4 household net worth did increase by $1.2 trillion to $58.5 trillion, all of this change, and then some, was purely driven by the central bank induced ramp in the stock market: $1.3 trillion of the $1.2 trillion increase in Net Worth was from the change of value in equity shares at market value which at December 31 was $17.3 trillion. In other words, the illusion of wealth is and continues to be merely a iCTRL+P keystroke away.
FAA forecast: High air fares most of this decade
By Joan Lowy-Associated Press - WashingtonTimes.com
WASHINGTON — Air fares are likely to stay high throughout this decade, as passenger travel grows but airline capacity shrinks, according to a government forecast issued Thursday.
In its annual economic analysis, the Federal Aviation Administration said travelers won’t get much relief until airlines start getting more competition, which is years off. The FAApredicted that more airline mergers and consolidation will shrink the number of cities served and the number of flights available in the nation’s air travel network.
High-Frequency Trading: Menger vs. Walras
Mises Daily: by John Paul Koning
While Carl Menger and Léon Walras simultaneously discovered the principle of marginal utility, their ideas about the nature of market prices are very different. Walras was more interested in the final equilibrium prices arrived at by traders than the process by which these prices were formed. Therefore, he dramatically simplified the pricing process by imagining it as if it were governed by an auction mechanism capable of instantly calculating all prices in an economy.
For his part, Menger was fascinated with the actual process by which prices are formed. Rather than trying to abstract from the messy process of haggling by devising an artificial auction mechanism, Menger worked with a number of real-life pricing scenarios including isolated bargaining, monopoly, and competitive exchange.
Obama unveils new foreclosure measures
to resuscitate housing market
By Zachary A. Goldfarb - WashingtonPost.com
President Obama has begun embracing housing policies that administration officials earlier thought unwise or unworkable as he embarks on his most aggressive push to address the nation’s foreclosure crisis and depressed real estate market since the first months of his tenure.
Obama has unveiled more than half a dozen plans in recent months to help millions more Americans refinance their mortgages at low rates, to reduce the debts owed by struggling homeowners and to expand existing programs to broaden the pool of borrowers eligible for government aid. The latest initiatives, announced this week, seek to help members of the military and Americans who have government-insured mortgages.
The FBI, The CIA, Homeland Security, The Federal Reserve And Potential Employers Are All Monitoring You On Facebook And Twitter
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Why is there such a sudden obsession with monitoring what average Americans are saying on Facebook and Twitter? To be honest, the vast majority of what is being said on Facebook and Twitter is simply not worth reading even if you could understand it. But for the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Reserve, Facebook and Twitter represent a treasure trove of intelligence information. Tens of millions of us have compiled incredibly detailed dossiers on ourselves and have put them out there for the entire world to see. Since the information is public, the various alphabet agencies of the federal government see no problem with scooping up all of that information and using it for their own purposes. Many potential employers have also discovered that Facebook and Twitter can tell them an awful lot about potential employees. Social media creates a permanent record that reflects who you are and what you believe, and many Americans are finding out that all of this information can come back and haunt them in a big way. In the world in which we now live, privacy is becoming a thing of the past, and we all need to be mindful of the things that we are exposing to the public.
Can the President Kill You?
by Andrew P. Napolitano - LewRockwell.com
Can the president kill an American simply because the person is dangerous and his arrest would be impractical? Can the president be judge, jury and executioner of an American in a foreign country because he believes that would keep America safe? Can Congress authorize the president to do this?
Earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder attempted to justify presidential killing in a speech at Northwestern University law school. In it, he recognized the requirement of the Fifth Amendment for due process. He argued that the president may substitute the traditionally understood due process – a public jury trial – with the president's own novel version of it; that would be a secret deliberation about killing. Without mentioning the name of the American the president recently ordered killed, Holder suggested that the president's careful consideration of the case of New Mexico-born Anwar al-Awlaki constituted a substituted form of due process.
Nullify the NDAA!
Tom Woods, the New York Times bestselling author of Nullification and ten other books, discusses state efforts to defang the NDAA, which remains dangerous despite the president's apparent retreat.
We need a: Protect America from Congress Act
By Marti Oakley - The PPJ Gazette
I believe it is time that we, the public, wrote our own legislation and called it The Protect America from Congress Act (PACA). In light of all the legislation that has been passed by both Democrats and Republicans in the last 14 years, most of which flies in the face of the Constitution and civil rights we need to act to defend ourselves from what is obviously the greatest threat we face as a nation. The onslaught of unconstitutional pieces of legislation that have cost us our freedom, privacy and liberty is a clear indicator that our greatest enemy is housed in the District of Criminals.
Senate backs Obama in pipeline rejection
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times
Democratic senators voted Thursday to ratify President Obama’s decision to reject theKeystone XL pipeline, leaving the project in limbo but ensuring it remains a political issue through this year’s elections.
Mr. Obama personally lobbied Democrats to support his decision, and was rewarded when 42 of them sided with him — enough to sustain a filibuster against a GOP-led effort to undo the president’s rejection.
Pelosi says Keystone might be 'worthy'
but won't cut prices at the pump
By Mike Lillis - TheHill.com
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline might be a "worthy" project, but it won't ease prices at the pump.
The remarks are the first hint that the California Democrat might see merits in the controversial pipeline, which many liberal Democrats say will ravage the environment.
Many Obama donors get administration jobs The Influence Industry:
Obama gives administration jobs to some big fundraisers
By T.W. Farnam - WashingtonPost.com
Big donors considering whether to work the phones raising money for President Obama’s reelection campaign might consider the fate of his 2008 bundlers. Many of them, it turns out, won plum jobs in his administration.
Obama campaigned on what he called "the most sweeping ethics reform in history" and has frequently criticized the role of money in politics. That hasn’t stopped him from offering government jobs to some of his biggest bundlers, volunteer fundraisers who gather political contributions from other rich donors.
What's Really Making Us Fat? It may not be as simple as calories in, calories out. New research reveals a far more complex equation for weight gain that places at least some of the blame on organic pollutants.
By Kristin Wartman - TheAtlantic.com
Conventional wisdom says that weight gain or loss is based on the energy balance model of "calories in, calories out," which is often reduced to the simple refrain, "eat less, and exercise more." But new research reveals a far more complex equation that appears to rest on several other important factors affecting weight gain. Researchers in a relatively new field are looking at the role of industrial chemicals and non-caloric aspects of foods -- called obesogens -- in weight gain. Scientists conducting this research believe that these substances that are now prevalent in our food supply may be altering the way our bodies store fat and regulate our metabolism. But not everyone agrees. Many scientists, nutritionists, and doctors are still firm believers in the energy balance model. A debate has ensued, leaving a rather unclear picture as to what's really at work behind our nation's spike in obesity.
Charles Koch: I Am Not Backing Down
Posted by Lew Rockwell on March 8, 2012 06:21 PM Statement by Charles G. Koch Regarding the Cato Institute
March 8, 2012
In December 1976, when I co-founded and provided the seed money to establish the Cato Institute, which originally was the Charles Koch Foundation, my vision was to build a principled and non-partisan organization that would advance the ideas that enable all people to prosper — by promoting individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace. This was my intent then, and remains my steadfast intent 35 years later.
With its emphasis on education, Cato has contributed greatly to the marketplace of ideas and is now a respected thought leader. My brother David and I have every intent to ensure Cato continues its work on the full spectrum of libertarian issues for which it has become known.
I am troubled by recent false allegations that our actions to preserve shareholder rights were done in disregard of Cato's interests. Here are the facts behind what we have done and why.
MIT Prof: The Kochs Will Not Takeover the World
by Robert Wenzel - EconomicPolicyJournal.com
Well this is a relief. Simon Johnson writes in NYT:
In the new Bloomberg billionaire index, released this week, the Koch brothers are each worth $33.5 billion. If they choose to act together, as they often seem to, including in the case of Cato, they are the richest pair in the world.
Professor Acemoglu is concerned about the Kochs’ well-organized attempts to exert sway over American politics (e.g., through Americans for Prosperity and its affiliated organizations). But he feels that American democracy is sufficiently strong and will prevail. If he is right, the Koch brothers are unlikely to end up calling the shots as corporate titans did in the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th century.
How good is the Kochs' case in the Cato flap?
Alison Frankel, Reporting by Erin Geiger Smith - ThomasReuters.com
By now you've probably heard that the billionaire, Tea Party-funding Koch brothers are attempting to regain control of Cato Institute, the non-profit libertarian think tank Charles Koch cofounded in 1974. The Koch v. Cato kerfuffle has generated so much heat that we decided to take a close look at the legal argument underpinning the takeover attempt.
More Details on the Increasingly Bitter
Koch/Cato Lawsuit and Feud
By Matt Welch - Reason.com
As mentioned here last week, controversial libertarian philanthropists Charles and David Koch are suing the country's largest libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute, in a dispute over ownership shares. Cato PresidentEd Crane, who is one of the defendants, has described the suit as an attempted "hostile takeover," an "effort by the Kochs to turn the Cato Institute into some sort of auxiliary for the G.O.P"; the Kochscounter that they intend no such takeover and are instead fighting for the sanctity of contract and rule of law.
The Koch Brothers, The Cato Institute, And Why Nations Fail
By Simon Johnson - BaselineScenario.com
A dispute has broken out between the Cato Institute, a leading libertarian think tank, and two of its longtime backers – David and Charles Koch. The institute is not the usual form of nonprofit but actually a company with shares; the Koch brothers own two of the four shares and are arguing that they have the right to acquire additional shares and thus presumably exert more control. The institute and some of its senior staff are pushing back.
Why Congress May Be Done for the Year It's not even spring yet, but with the elections looming, the House and Senate may already have done everything they will do in 2012.
By Linda Killian - TheAtlantic.com
The American people think Congress is broken and judging by its track record that assessment is accurate.
The average House and Senate member now sides with their party about 90 percent of the time, according to a recent Congressional Quarterly study, a level of lockstep agreement that reflects the most profound partisan polarization in Congress in 100 years. Now, with Democrats trying to hold onto their majority in the Senate and Republicans trying to win it as the election draws closer, the chance that legislative comity might improve is close to vanishing.
Inside that new anti-Occupy bill HR 347 is drawing fire -- but many of its shameful restrictions already exist
BY NATASHA LENNARD - Salon.com
In recent days, there has been a considerable amount of online speculation over a bill that made its way through the House and the Senate last week with little opposition — HR 347, or the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. Some have decried it as specifically anti-Occupy legislation with the aim to further curtail First Amendment rights. HR 347 makes it a prosecutable offense to knowingly, and without lawful authority, enter "(1) the White House or its grounds or the Vice President’s official residence or its grounds, (2) a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting, or (3) a building or grounds so restricted due to a special event of national significance."
U.S. forces vulnerable to Chinese cyberattack
By Shaun Waterman-The Washington Times
In a future war with the United States, China likely would first use cyberweapons to attack computer networks of U.S. forces in the Pacific rather than strike with conventional arms, according to a congressional report Thursday.
The cyberattacks would aim to disrupt the electronic systems on which U.S. Pacific Command relies for communications, command and resupply, impeding its ability to fight back against the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), says a report for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Pentagon tries to sell skeptical Congress
on new rounds of base closures
By Jeremy Herb - TheHill.com
Facing a hostile crowd in Congress, Pentagon officials Thursday tried to make the case that lawmakers need to accept more base closures as important medicine to cure Defense budget problems.
Dorothy Robyn, deputy under secretary of Defense for installations and environment, appearing at a subcommittee hearing on the defense budget, tried to rebut the frequent arguments made in Congress against two new rounds of closures prescribed by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Congress has expressed wide bipartisan opposition to BRAC in this year’s budget hearings.
Clinton: There's still space for talks to tackle Iran nuclear issue In joint press conference with Libyan PM, U.S. Secretary of State says world powers responded positively to Iranian missive regarding renewed nuclear talks expecting 'openness and transparency.'
By Natasha Mozgovaya - Haaretz.com
There's still space for diplomacy in the attempts to resolve Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday, adding that Iran has to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Speaking in a joint press conference with Libyan Prime Minisnter Abdurrahim ElKeib, Clinton said that, as U.S. President Barack Obama said, "we continue to believe we have space for diplomacy."
The Coming Arab Identity Crisis The Arab Spring could renew Nasser's 60-year-old mission for pan-Arabism, but the movement would face new challenges today.
By Massoud Hayoun - TheAtlantic.com
Just after the 18-day uprising in Tahrir Square ousted President Hosni Mubarak, a Cairene businessman living in Hong Kong told me in rapturous excitement, "Now that we are freeing ourselves from dictators, all we need is to unify. One currency like the E.U., a common goal of economic development, and integrity for our Arab world."
He was not the first Arab idealist to envision pan-Arab unification as a legitimate goal. In 1960, at the height of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's Pan-Arabist, socialist movement, Egyptian musical iconMohammed Abdel Wahab composed Watani al Akbar (in English, My Grand Nation), an ode to the idea of a united Arab super-state that would stretch from Morocco to Iraq. Many of the greatest singers of the Arab world came together on the same stage for the performance.
Celente: Hawks circling over Iran as only ally Syria on ropes
The White House may be claiming it wants a diplomatic solution in Syria, but it seems it may not have faith in its own convictions.The Pentagon has been ordered to review its potential options.
Gerald Celente, publisher of the Trends Journal talks to RT, claiming Washington might be contemplating a military operation, because bringing down the Syrian regime would weaken Iran.
Syrian rebels reject Annan's call for dialogue with Assad In Damascus, authorities continued to crack down on Assad opponents, with government forces shooting and wounding three mourners at a funeral.
By Reuters - Haaretz.com
Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, said he would urge President Bashar Assad and his foes to stop fighting and seek a political solution, drawing angry rebukes from dissidents.
"The killing has to stop and we need to find a way of putting in the appropriate reforms and moving forward," Annan said on Thursday in Cairo ahead of his trip to Damascus on Saturday.
It's 10 Minutes to Midnight: Introducing The Iran War Clock
By Dominic Tierney - TheAtlantic.com
War or peace in the Middle East amounts to a coin toss. The probability that the United States or Israel will strike Iran in the next year is 48 percent according to a new project that predicts the chances of conflict--the Iran War Clock. And as a result, the clock is set to 10 minutes to midnight.
How does the Iran War Clock work?
War with Iran is not inevitable, says Netanyahu Israeli PM warns Iran has 'bamboozled the west' and that only military threat will deter Tehran from developing nuclear weapon
By Chris McGreal in Washington - Guardian.co.uk
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has said that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities is not inevitable. But he claimed it is the threat of military action, not sanctions, that will deter Tehran from developing an atomic bomb.
Following his White House meeting with Barack Obama this week, Netanyahu differed with the president over the value of diplomacy and was sceptical about a fresh round of talks between Tehran and the major powers, telling Fox News that Iran has "bamboozled the west".
War: Big Government's Best Friend
Bestselling author Tom Woods speaks at the Mises Institute's seminar at Furman University, "War: Big Government's Best Friend." Sponsored by the Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow.
Netanyahu: Strike of Iran's nuclear facilities
possible within months Prime minister says he prefers diplomatic pressure stop the Iranian nuclear program and war be avoided.
By Jonathan Lis - Haaretz.com
An attack on Iran could take place within a matter of months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a series of television interviews on Thursday.
"We're not standing with a stopwatch in hand," he said. "It's not a matter of days or weeks, but also not of years. The result must be removal of the threat of nuclear weapons in Iran's hands."
Gold, silver boosted by physical demand,
report about Federal Reserve
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Comex gold was higher as the pit session ended. "Gold has found support between $1,670 and $1,675, this level having been tested many times today," said Triland Metals in a research note.
"Asian physical demand had helped underpin the market." Further, support came from a Wall Street Journal report saying that the Federal Reserve was considering "sterilized" bond purchases, which induced short covering in gold, Triland added.
Why Buffett and Gartman are Wrong About Gold
By Eric Fry - DailyReckoning.com
Warren Buffett doesn’t like gold. Neither does Dennis Gartman. That settles it for us; gold must be a table-pounding buy.
In this year’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Warren Buffett scorned gold as an asset that is "forever unproductive."
"[Gold] will never produce anything," he wrote. "Gold has two significant shortcomings, being neither of much use nor procreative."
Buffett’s statement is literally correct, but it has two significant shortcomings, being neither of much use nor insightful. No one holds gold hoping it will produce something. They hold gold because no one can produce it. Precisely for this reason, mankind has considered gold the ultimate money for several thousand years…and it has performed this role with meritorious distinction.
Bernanke Spooks Gold
BY JOHN BROWNE - FinancialSense.com
This past week, gold and silver experienced one of their steeper drops in recent months. After gold had touched a four month high, and silver came close to a six month high, prices abruptly reversed course. By the end of the week gold had sold off more than 5 percent, and silver was down almost 10 percent (down 6.5 percent on Leap Day alone). Often, such sudden price falls create downward momentum. And it looks as if that may be the case this week. Thus far this week silver has dipped 3 percent.
Based on these sharp movements it would have been logical to assume that some great piece of economic news had been issued that kindled hopes of a strong and sustainable economic recovery either in the U.S. or in Europe. In such case, investors would be expected to pull money out of "defensive" metals and into "aggressive" stocks. But the news on that front was far from reassuring. Alternatively, a selloff in metals would normally be expected if central bankers were to move to tighten monetary policy. That did not happen either.
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
I am concerned about the Greek situation, and a little guarded about the non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.
On the bullish side, the Fed is going to start up QE again as soon as they get the proper excuse. Their rationale is going to include the notion that by printing new money to buy debt from the banks, they will not contribute to inflation because they will lock up the money on their balance sheet.
Unintended Consequences
By Eric Sprott - DailyReckoning.com
2012 is proving to be the 'Year of the Central Bank'. It is an exciting celebration of all the wonderful maneuvers central banks can employ to keep the system from falling apart. Western central banks have gone into complete overdrive since last November, convening, colluding and printing their way out of the mess that is the Eurozone. The scale and frequency of their maneuvering seems to increase with every passing week, and speaks to the desperate fragility that continues to define much of the financial system today.
Tensions Are Mounting
as the Greek Debacle Heads to a New Turning Point
by Tom Cleveland - 247wallst.com
When will market uncertainty be a thing of the past? Investors keep asking this simple question, almost rhetorically, but no easy answer has been forthcoming as tension continues to mount in our financial markets. The European debt crisis is in its third year of evolution with a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, but keep your matches at the ready. Previous "flickers" of hope have been extinguished by the slightest of contrary breezes, and government officials profess that the current issues will require years to reach a favorable resolution.
Plunge protection team hedging on Greece Commits to more free money ahead of key debt swap
By David Callaway, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- At some point, the world’s major central banks are going to turn off the three-year spigot of free money supporting much of the world’s economic and market gains these days.
Just not right before a key Greek debt swap on Thursday that could ignite the European crisis all over again.
The Federal Reserve’s signal on Wednesday that it is considering buying more bonds to keep interest rates low was welcomed by global markets stinging from the worst day of the year in their previous sessions. The Wall Street Journal’s Jon Hilsenrath broke the story during the morning trading session in New York, turning a wait-and-see day in the markets into a nice rally for stocks, bonds, and everything except the U.S. dollar.
Spain Is the New Greece
By Arnold Ahlert - PatriotPost.us
The socialist-inspired traveling circus more commonly known as the EU debt crisis is moving from Greece to Spain. Last Friday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that a deepening recession in that country would make it impossible to meet the EU-mandated deficit reduction target of 4.4 percent of GDP for FY2012. He proposed a target of 5.8 percent instead. The latest "readjustment" is similar to the one that occurred in 2011, when Spain's target of 6 percent gave way to the reality of 8.5 percent. Ironically, Rajoy made his announcement on the same day 25 European leaders signed a fiscal pact -- aimed at strengthening budgetary discipline among its member nations.
Battlefield USA 2012 Gerald Celente
on year's top trends listen up this is coming soon
I've tried to warn those i work with that what Gerald CELENTE is discussing here is going to happen by the end of this year or shortly there after and it is going to have nothing to do with the myan calender. turn off your tv and turn on your common sense when you start seeing tv ads for relocation camps for those who are displaced due to the economy or are home less wake up and sound the alarm the more frequent the ads the closer they are to getting ready to cause an event to happen tat will make you flock to them for your safety .they are treating you like sheeple being lead to the slaughter .wake up spread this video .don't buy into the deception .the closer to this fall we get the greater the chance of a false flag attack or bio weapon being used to implicate iran or syria or some other middle east country when in reality it's the new world order wake up everyone be vigilant take no for an answer.!!!!
Triple trouble in Europe, US and China brings out the bears The blistering asset rally of 2012 has run ahead of economic realities in Europe, America and China. It is exhibiting symptoms of a schizophrenic market, with technical indicators flashing signs of exhaustion.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Graham Secker from Morgan Stanley said it is rare for global stocks, oil prices and government bonds to rise in lockstep, and such exuberance becomes a "very reliable sell signal for stocks" once speculators join the party.
Equity long positions on NASDAQ have reached 1.5 standard deviations and long bets on oil are at an extreme of 1.9, according to data from the Commodity Futures Exchange Commission. This is occurring at a time when yields on 10-year US Treasuries are still at 1.96pc, signalling depression, deflation, or both.
Is China raising a red flag? Middle kingdom plants seed of slowing global growth
By Todd Harrison
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Throughout the latest stages of the European crisis, while everyone obsessed about whether the force-fed policy measures would pass the collective muster, we asked the question in Minyanville: What if it does?
The uniformity of opinions that the EU, ECB, IMF, LTRO, EFSF, ESM, EIB and other alphabet soup solutions would somehow solve a debt crisis that took decades to build — and in some cases, was a cumulative by-product of disparate cultures — is worthy of a nose scrunch. What if it in fact works? The resulting outcome would be strictly enforced austerity measures and higher taxation, neither of which is pro-growth.
Tough climate, dilemmas for China’s small business
By Zhang Huanyu - MarketWatch.com
BEIJING ( Caixin Online ) — A Dalian clothing manufacturer is confronting one of the many hard dilemmas weighing down small and family business owners in China.
Because foreign demand for the company’s goods has softened, the owner plans to modify production and gear his business toward the domestic market. But he’s worried about the risks, in part because he says government tax policies favor clothing exporters over domestic-market manufacturers.
Fed weighing new form of bond buying
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Federal Reserve officials are considering a new type of quantitative easing that will attempt to boost the economy without accelerating inflation, according to a report published Wednesday.
Analysts said the new approach would allow the Fed to move despite high oil prices.
Under the new approach, the Fed would print new money to buy long-term mortgage or Treasury bonds but effectively tie up that money by borrowing it back for short periods at low rates, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.
Wells Fargo to charge $7 fee on more checking accounts
By Blake Ellis @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Wells Fargo will start charging $7 a month for checking accounts in six more states, expanding on its efforts to do away with free checking accounts altogether.
While Wells Fargo stopped offering free checking accounts to new customers in 2010, existing customers were able to hold onto their free accounts. But then last year, the bank transitioned a group of existing customers -- mainly in Western states -- to the same $7-a-month accounts that it provides new customers. And now existing customers in six more states are about to be hit with the fee.
Vulture Capitalism
By John Stossel - PatriotPost.us
Now that Mitt Romney is likely to be the Republican nominee, we can expect new attacks on his "vulture capitalism." That's how Rick Perry characterized his private equity work. Newt Gingrich's supporters ran an ad about Romney's firm, Bain Capital, that said, "Their greed was only matched by their willingness to do anything to make millions in profits."
Give me a break.
"Greed" means you want more for yourself. Fine. If you obtain it legally, without force or privilege -- say, by buying a business and making it more efficient, or shifting resources to where consumers prefer them -- that is a good thing. "Creative destruction" makes America richer.
Happy Birthday, Alan Greenspan:
The Housing Bubble Wasn't Your Fault The legendary Fed chair turns 86 this week, which gives us a moment to reflect on the most misunderstood piece of his legacy: Maestro's role in the real estate bubble
By Matthew O'Brien - TheAtlantic.com
There's one unassailable rule when it comes to writing about the housing bubble: you must criticize Alan Greenspan for keeping interest rates "too low for too long." Once you get past this ritual invocation, you can talk about whatever else you'd like, whether it's securitization, too lax regulation, or even Fannie Mae. But first: toolowfortoolong!
But what if the unassailable rule is wrong?
Huge Spike in Repeat Foreclosures
By: Diana Olick - CNBC Real Estate Reporter
The pig in the python is suddenly moving.
Thousands of foreclosures that were stuck in process due to delays over the so-called "Robo-signing" paperwork scandal are working their way through a revamped banking system and heading toward final bank repossession.
Foreclosure starts surged 28 percent in January from December, according to a new report from Lender Processing Services. More than 230,000 loans began the foreclosure process in January.
Foreclosures will probably rise in 2012 —
and that could be a good sign
Posted by Suzy Khimm - WashingtonPost.com
There are too many vacant houses and not enough people who want to buy them. And that’s a reality that’s likely to get worse before it gets better: The number of foreclosures is expected to rise significantly in 2012, adding to a housing overhang that has depressed prices and held back the recovery.
But some of these new defaults may be necessary medicine for the housing market to recover in the long term: They represent homes that have been backlogged in the courts and elsewhere that can’t be sold until they finish going through legal foreclosure proceedings.
31% of FHA loans in negative equity
by Tom Lawler - CalculatedRisk.com
In CoreLogic’s “Negative Equity Report” for December 2011, the company estimated that properties backing a conventional mortgage that were in a negative equity position had an average mortgage balance of $269,000 and were "underwater" on average by $70,000. For properties backing FHA-insured mortgages that were in a negative equity position, the average mortgage balance was $169,000 and the average negative equity amount was $26,000.
IRS offers relief to unemployed taxpayers
By Blake Ellis @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The IRS is offering some relief to taxpayers struggling to pay their taxes due to unemployment or a significant loss of income.
The agency said Wednesday it will give certain taxpayers a six-month grace period on "failure-to-pay" penalties, which are typically assessed each month a taxpayer is late paying their taxes.
Without the grace period, a taxpayer who is late paying their taxes initially incurs a fee of 0.5% of their tax bill. That fee may increase the later they become -- with a cap of 25%. But now some taxpayers won't incur any fees until Oct. 15.
The Real Cost of Living: $150,000 Minimum
By YUVAL ROSENBERG, The Fiscal Times
The divide between the 1 percent and the 99 percent has ignited a national debate about the income gap, especially since Occupy Wall Street protesters descended on lower Manhattan last fall. But how much money does it take to feel financially secure these days?
The answer, at least according to a new survey of Americans by WSL/Strategic Retail, is $150,000. That level of income is more than three times the national median of $49,445 for 2010, and it’s enough to put a household into the top 10 percent nationally.
CFOs Expect Hiring Surge
By MERRILL GOOZNER - TheFiscaltimes.com
All eyes will be on Friday’s jobs report for signs that the economic recovery is gathering steam, which would be good news for the Obama campaign. There was positive foreshadowing this morning from the nation’s chief financial officers.
The latest quarterly survey by Duke University for CFO Magazine showed top finance officers at the nation’s leading corporations expect to expand their total employment by 2.1 percent this year. That should pull the unemployment rate below 8 percent by yearend, the survey authors said.
Ben Bernanke Says That His Son
Will Graduate With $400,000 Of Student Loan Debt
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Who ever imagined that Ben Bernanke would become a poster child for the student loan debt problem in America? Recently Bernanke told Congress that his son will graduate from medical school with about $400,000 of student loan debt. For most Americans, such a staggering amount of debt would almost certainly guarantee a lifetime of debt slavery. Unfortunately, Bernanke's son is not alone. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, approximately 167,000 Americans have more than $200,000 of student loan debt. The cost of a college education has increased much more rapidly than the rate of inflation over the past several decades, and most students enter the "real world" today with a debt burden that will stay with them for most of their working lives. In an economy where there are so few good jobs for college graduates, it can be incredibly difficult to get married, buy a house or afford to have children when you are drowning in student loan debt. It would be hard to overstate the financial pain that student loans are causing many young adults in America today. The student loan debt problem is a national crisis and it is not going away any time soon.
Consumer Credit Surges 8.6%, Mostly on Student Debt
By: Jennifer Leigh Parker - CNBC.com
The American consumer is levering-up again, as consumers borrowed more for everything from student loans to cars.
Consumer credit jumped 8.6 percent, or $17.7 billion, in January to $2.54 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported. It was the fifth straight month that borrowing increased and the largest gain since 2004.
Wal-Mart’s gasoline jitters Rising prices at the pump siphon off sales
By MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in a bind.
Here’s a company aimed at "value-seekers," the millions of Americans struggling to live within meager means. Despite stiff competition from other discounters, Wal-Mart’s business model has held its ground these past few years as unemployment and home foreclosures rose to levels not seen since the 1930s.
But it’s not ideal. During the Great Recession, Wal-Mart customers weren’t exactly loading up on high-margin products. That reinforced the company’s already strong efforts to slash costs and concentrate on volume.
Solar storm heads for Earth
by Dave Hennen - CNN.com
U.S. politics had its "Super Tuesday" yesterday, and so did the sun, says Joseph Kunches from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.
That's because the sun had two solar flares associated with two coronal mass ejections. Coronal mass ejections involve massive amounts of energy and charged particles shooting out of the sun, and can cause problems if directed at Earth, as was the case over the last couple of days.
Massive solar storm heading for Earth Airlines and energy suppliers are on alert as the largest solar storm in five years threatens to disrupt flights and power lines
By David Batty and agencies - Guardian.co.uk
Airlines and energy suppliers are on alert as the largest solar storm in five years heads toward Earth, threatening to disrupt flights and power lines.
The eruption on the surface of the sun, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), has led to a "massive amount of solar particles heading towards Earth", which are due to hit the planet between 6am and 10am on Thursday morning, a Met Office spokesman said. But he added that the phenomenon was likely to go unnoticed by most.
3 hospitalized after shooting outside Oklahoma court
From Nick Valencia and Carma Hassan, CNN.com
(CNN) -- A sheriff's deputy and a man who exchanged gunfire with officers on a plaza outside a Tulsa, Oklahoma, courthouse Wednesday were among three people hospitalized, officials said.
A bystander also was shot and wounded near the Tulsa County Courthouse, said Sgt. Shannon Clark of the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office.
The incident began when the gunman, identified as Andrew Joseph Dennehy, 23, discharged a handgun into the air around 2:39 p.m. (3:39 p.m. ET), officials said. Deputies swarmed to the plaza.
Why doesn't the new iPad have a name? A Plain Old Name Puzzles Experts
By SUZANNE VRANICA And JESSICA E. VASCELLARO - WSJ.com
Apple Inc.'s introduction of the latest iPad has left Madison Avenue, and Silicon Valley, scratching their heads.
While some pundits predicted the device announced Wednesday would be called the iPad 3—and others said iPad HD—Apple threw a curveball and didn't use a specific moniker for its latest upgrade. Rather, the company simply called it "the new iPad."
U.S. Warns Apple, Publishers Justice Department Threatens Lawsuits,
Alleging Collusion Over E-Book Pricing
By THOMAS CATAN And JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG - WSJ.com
The Justice Department has warned Apple Inc. and five of the biggest U.S. publishers that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the price of electronic books, according to people familiar with the matter.
Several of the parties have held talks to settle the antitrust case and head off a potentially damaging court battle, these people said. If successful, such a settlement could have wide-ranging repercussions for the industry, potentially leading to cheaper e-books for consumers. However, not every publisher is in settlement discussions.
The Fukushima Syndrome
Martin Freer - Project-Syndicate.org
BIRMINGHAM – The dramatic events that unfolded at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant after last year’s tsunami are commonly referred to as "the Fukushima disaster." We need look no further than this description to begin to understand the significant misconceptions that surround nuclear energy.
It was the tsunami, caused by the largest earthquake ever to strike Japan, that killed more than 16,000 people, destroyed or damaged roughly 125,000 buildings, and left the country facing what its prime minister described as its biggest crisis since World War II. Yet it is Fukushima that is habitually accorded the "disaster" label.
Why Are We Still in Afghanistan? The violent response to accidental Koran burning once again drives home the perils of nation-building.
By DOUG BANDOW - The American Spectator.org
American soldiers mistakenly burned a half dozen Korans in Afghanistan. Predictably, the response was riots by many and murder by a few Muslims. Violence has become the tactic of choice of Islamic extremists around the world against secular critics and religious minorities alike.
Indeed, this isn't the first time that Afghan mobs have killed to avenge a perceived insult to their faith. Last year a crowd in the generally peaceful city of Mazar-e-Sharif slaughtered a dozen United Nations staffers after Rev. Terry Jones burned a Koran in Florida.
Leon Panetta pushes back
on calls for military intervention in Syria Defense secretary cautions call by Senator John McCain and others to launch airstrikes against Bashar al-Assad's regime
Associated Press - Guardian.co.uk
The US defense secretary, Leon Panetta, has pushed back against fresh demands for US military involvement in Syria to end President Bashar al-Assad's deadly crackdown on his people.
"What doesn't make sense is to take unilateral action right now," Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday about advising President Barack Obama to dispatch US forces. "I've got to make very sure we know what the mission is … achieving that mission at what price."
U.S. tracks Syrian elite’s money transfers,
but picture remains murky
By Greg Miller - WashingtonPost.com
Searching for any sign of splintering in Syria’s ruling class, the United States has tracked what it suspects is the transfer of millions of dollars in foreign accounts by elites with ties to President Bashar al-Assad.
But the flow of money is murky. U.S. intelligence officials said they cannot estimate the total amount and are still trying to assess what the transfers mean: Is Assad’s inner circle starting to fray, or are wealthy Syrians simply hedging their bets?
A little more conversation
Economist.com
THREE hours of sombre private discussion between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday March 5th, which came after fulsome public reassurances by the president to the pro-Israel lobby the day before, appear to have reduced the chances that the Israeli prime minister will order an attack on Iran without a green light from America.
But though apparently less likely, an attack is still possible. "When it comes to Israel's security," Mr Netanyahu insisted at the start of the White House meeting, "Israel has the sovereign right to make its own decisions. I believe that’s why you appreciate, Mr President, that Israel must reserve the right to defend itself."
Israel is "Master of Its Fate"
By Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com
On Monday, President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in the White House to discuss how they were going to handle Iran’s nuclear program. I think the meeting was a disaster for anyone who thinks we are on the way to settling the situation with sanctions and diplomacy. The President wants to give sanctions against Iranian banking and petroleum exports a chance to work. They are harsh and getting rougher by the month. Maybe they are working because, just yesterday, the Iranians agreed, once again, to face-to-face negotiations with world powers. Then again, maybe they are not because many suspect the Iranians are stalling for time–again. Talks about Iran’s nuclear program have been on and off since Obama took office.
Faber: "Middle East Will Go Up In Flames" ...
"Have To Be In Precious Metals and Equities"
by Mark O'byrne - nasdaq.com
....Swiss money manager and long term bear Marc Faber, aka "Dr Doom", says political risk in the Middle East has increased significantly with war between Iran and Israel "almost inevitable", and precious metals and equities investments offer some safety.
"Political risk was high six months ago and is higher now. I think sooner or later, the U.S. or Israel will strike Iran - it's almost inevitable," Faber, who publishes the widely read Gloom Boom and Doom Report, told Reuters on the sidelines of an investment conference.
Stay Long Gold
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
As gold pulls back under $1700, back to 6 week lows (and Silver collapses in its high beta way, reverting back in line with Gold), Morgan Stanley says 'Stay Long Gold'. The recent sell-off notwithstanding, they remain bullish through 2012 and while the current USD strength is a headwind, they expect aggressive Fed action (and other global central banks), including the likely adoption of QE3 in 1H12, to be gold positive. Deciphering the demand and supply dynamics, they forecast prices to rise on a quarterly average basis through 4Q13 as the four pillars of their bull market thesis persist.
Is the Fed a Failure?
By: Steve Saville - GoldSeek.com
....It is not the least bit surprising to us that the historical record doesn't justify the Fed's existence, but no definitive conclusions can be drawn unless the data are viewed through the lens of good economic theory. For example, in the absence of good theory Fed apologists could argue that although the historical record doesn't seem to validate the Fed, things would have been much worse without the Fed. The pro-Fed crowd could also argue that the concept of a central bank is good, it's just that the right people haven't always been in charge. It could even be argued that the Fed has been less effective than originally envisaged because it hasn't had enough power. In the absence of good theory, how could these arguments be refuted?
Ben Bernanke’s gas pump bump QE2 has weakened dollar, and boosted crude prices
By Joseph R. Mason
BATON ROUGE, La. (MarketWatch) — Any motorist on the road can see our domestic energy policy isn’t working. It’s posted on the prices at the pump, and it continues to rise.
Consumers are rightfully worrying while politicians scramble to point the finger. Certainly there is no shortage of factors to blame — precarious international markets, political gridlock, poor consumer confidence — and the list goes on. But a not-so-obvious culprit is causing some of the biggest and longest-lasting impact: misdirected U.S. monetary policy.
How Iran and Russia Could Cause an Oil Shock
By DAVID FRANCIS, The Fiscal Times
The good news behind the price increase that sent gas to $3.76 a gallon this past weekend is that it is being driven in part by the improvement in the economy and major stock indices. The bad news behind the spike – and the primary reason gas prices are expected to continue to rise through the summer –Iran.
With help from Moscow, and with continuing demand from markets like China and India to the east, Iran could still use its vast energy resources to counter sanctions by the West, complicating efforts to strangle the Iranian economy and end Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Tim Geithner Covers for Corruption On Pennsylvania Avenue
By Charles Kadlec OP/ED - Forbes.com
Last Friday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner charged in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that those who oppose the Obama Administration’s regulatory regime for the financial services industry "seem to be suffering from amnesia about how close America came to complete financial collapse under the outdated regulatory system we had before Wall Street reform." Au contraire, Secretary Geithner, it is you who choose to ignore and misrepresent the lessons of the financial crisis by perpetuating the myth that the source of the crisis was a lack of regulation.
First, your essay glosses over the central role the federal government played in creating the crisis. In particular, the government through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac directed $5.2 trillion (that is trillion with a "t") of capital to increase the supply of mortgages. In addition, it passed a law that required banks to make billions of dollars in loans to individuals that were unlikely to pay off the loans, in the end with 0% down.
Jitters grow over Greece debt swap Warning of painful consequences
if Greece succumbs to hard default
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — Greece continues to rattle investor nerves ahead of a Thursday deadline for private investors to voluntarily offer up Greek government bonds in a debt swap that will cut the value of their holdings by more than half.
Strategists blamed jitters over the process combined with concerns over global growth prospects as spoiling investor appetite for risk on Tuesday, sending European and U.S. equities lower and undercutting the euro and other risk-oriented currencies.
ECB Surpasses €3 Trillion,
Still Most Undercapitalized Hedge Fund In The World
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
A few days ago when discussing the "stability" of Europe's biggest and most undercapitalized hedge fund, we said that "The adjusted balance sheet is pro forma for today's LTRO 2, which we noted earlier will add at least €311 billion in net assets to the ECB's balance sheet, and potentially much more. Assuming the minimum, it means the ECB's balance sheet will now hit €3 trillion." Sure enough - as of minutes ago, the total ECB balance sheet just passed €3 trillion, or €3.023 trillion to be precise (which is just why of $4 trillion based on today's exchange rate), as our estimate of net LTRO contribution was on the low side, with total assets increasing by €331 billion in the past week. Needless to say, capital and reserves has been unchanged, which means that our analysis from a week ago factoring in the ECB balance sheet expansion of the "well-capitalized" ECB was correct. Incidentally, the spike in the chart below was factored in long ago (about 20% lower in the market ago). And as we have been saying all along, the next bank on the docket to ease is the Fed, as everyone else has already done so. However before that happens stocks and more importantly crude, have to plunge by at least 15-20%, much to Dick Fisher's shock. It seems that the market is finally getting the hint today.
Why big money is turning to China Today's investing game is about figuring out which central bank will be the next to open the stimulus floodgates. Europe is done, and the Fed is quiet, so . . . .
By Jim Jubak - Money.MSN.com
The global casino is moving on.
Now that the European Central Bank has flooded the European banking system with 1 trillion euros, and now that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that the U.S. central bank isn't thinking of a new program of quantitative easing, the best candidate for a big injection of central bank cash into global asset markets is the People's Bank of China.
With $700 Billion In QE3 Already Priced In,
Who Will Blink First?
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Something interesting happened when the ECB announced last week that its balance sheet was about to rise by €1 trillion gross, and hit a record €3 trillion net earlier today: the EURUSD barely budged. Why? Because as a reminder, the key driving relationship for relative risk performance of 2012 as we forecast back in December is the correlation of the Fed and the ECB's balance sheets, and the EURUSD, respectively, because while we may pretend that there is still alpha in this joke of a market, the truth is that in this new normal only beta matters (the more lever the better), and the only beta that matters is that generated by relative USD strength/weakness.
How Goldman Sachs Fleeced Greece... Goldman’s Secret Greece Loan Reveals Sinners
By Nicholas Dunbar and Elisa Martinuzzi - Bloomberg.com
Greece’s secret loan from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) was a costly mistake from the start.
On the day the 2001 deal was struck, the government owed the bank about 600 million euros ($793 million) more than the 2.8 billion euros it borrowed, said Spyros Papanicolaou, who took over the country’s debt-management agency in 2005. By then, the price of the transaction, a derivative that disguised the loan and that Goldman Sachs persuaded Greece not to test with competitors, had almost doubled to 5.1 billion euros, he said.
Spain's sovereign thunderclap
and the end of Merkel's Europe
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
The Spanish rebellion has begun, sooner and more dramatically than I expected.
As many readers will already have seen, Premier Mariano Rajoy has refused point blank to comply with the austerity demands of the European Commission and the European Council (hijacked by Merkozy).
Taking what he called a "sovereign decision", he simply announced that he intends to ignore the EU deficit target of 4.4pc of GDP for this year, setting his own target of 5.8pc instead (down from 8.5pc in 2011).
Keiser Report: Cosa Wallstra (E258)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss financial hermaphrodites opening their kimonos and JP Morgan swaps occupying Cassino, Italy. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Das, author of Extreme Money, about potemkin villages of credit derivatives and five-year plans for the world economy.
15 Potentially Massive Threats
To The U.S. Economy Over The Next 12 Months
TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
We live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, and the potential for an event that could cause "sudden change" to the U.S. economy is greater than ever. There are dozens of potentially massive threats that could easily push the U.S. economy over the edge during the next 12 months. A war in the Middle East, a financial collapse in Europe, a major derivatives crisis or a horrific natural disaster could all change our economic situation very rapidly. Most of the time I write about the long-term economic trends that are slowly but surely ripping the U.S. economy to pieces, but the truth is that just a single really bad "black swan event" over the next 12 months could accelerate our economic problems dramatically. If oil was cut off from the Middle East or a really bad natural disaster suddenly destroyed a major U.S. city, the U.S. economy would be thrown into a state of chaos. Considering how bad the U.S. economy is currently performing, it would be easy to see how a major "shock to the system" could push us into the "next Great Depression" very easily. Let us hope that none of these things actually happen over the next 12 months, but let us also understand that we live in a world that has become extremely chaotic and extremely unstable.
Insiders as bearish now as last April Insider selling has become even more lopsided
By Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — Corporate insiders continue to sell shares of their companies at a well-above-average pace.
In fact, they are behaving even more bearishly than one month ago. And that’s really saying something, since — as I reported then — their pace of selling in early February was the highest since last July, right before the bottom dropped out of the market.
"Thousands upon thousands are yearly brought into a state of real poverty by their great anxiety not to be thought of as poor." – Robert Mallett
I hear the term de-leveraging relentlessly from the mainstream media. The storyline that the American consumer has been denying themselves and paying down debt is completely 100% false. The proliferation of this Big Lie has been spread by Wall Street and their mouthpieces in the corporate media. The purpose is to convince the ignorant masses they have deprived themselves long enough and deserve to start spending again. The propaganda being spouted by those who depend on Americans to go further into debt is relentless. The “fantastic” automaker recovery is being driven by 0% financing for seven years peddled to subprime (aka deadbeats) borrowers for mammoth SUVs and pickup trucks that get 15 mpg as gas prices surge past $4.00 a gallon. What could possibly go wrong in that scenario? Furniture merchants are offering no interest, no payment deals for four years on their product lines. Of course, the interest rate from your friends at GE Capital reverts retroactively to 29.99% at the end of four years after the average dolt forgot to save enough to pay off the balance. I’m again receiving two to three credit card offers per day in the mail. According to the Wall Street vampire squids that continue to suck the life blood from what’s left of the American economy, this is a return to normalcy.
The crisis of solvency – peak debt, peak food stamp usage,
and massive financial deception by media. The faux economy
of solving a solvency issue with more debt.
Job postings up but hiring flat.
by MyBudget360.com
The economy is largely running on a solidamount of debt, Orwellian news, and selective perception. Take for example the absolute lack of coverage on our peak debt situation. The media simply assumes that going over the $15 trillion mark on national debt was somehow a story not worth reporting. The total amount we have taken on in borrowing is larger than our annual GDP yet countries around the world are being chastised for this exact problem. Or what about the peak number of Americans now on food stamps? One out of every seven men, women, and children is now onfood assistance at well over 46,000,000. You get food assistance when you are economically scraping by. Yet the media is largely absent on this story. We are living in a crisis of solvency and much of the recent recovery is simply a choice of ignoring glaring issues of solvency.
35 Shocking Statistics
That Prove
That Things Used To Be Much Better In America
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Most Americans know that things used to be much better in the United States, but they don't have the facts and the figures to back that belief up. Well, after reading the shocking statistics in this article nobody should be left with any doubt that things have gotten worse in America. There are less jobs, incomes are down, home values have plummeted, poverty is up, consumer debt is way up, dependence of the government has skyrocketed and government debt is totally out of control. Sadly, it hasn't really mattered which political party has had control over the White House. Things have gotten worse under Obama, they got worse under Bush, and they got worse under Clinton. We are in the midst of a horrific long-term economic decline and the American people desperately need to wake up.
In Ohio, dashed dreams and a housing hangover One Ohio family's tragic story of emotional and financial loss is a stark reminder of the hard times that hit the battleground state during the financial crisis.
By David Whitford, with Doris Burke - CNN.com
FORTUNE -- "Bad times right now are good times for us," says Craig Shanower. "You know what I'm saying?" It's a gray February afternoon on the east side of Cleveland. Shanower is standing outside a three-story house, white with red shutters: 3399 East 105th Street. Four bedrooms, two baths, according to Zillow. Built in 1910. Last changed hands, for $94,911, in March 2006. It's empty now, has been for years, and this afternoon it's coming down.
"We did 185 houses last year and this year we're hoping to double that," says Shanower, who operates a shovel-truck for Cherokee Demolition, which has a lucrative contract with the city.
Judge allows plan
for Jefferson County bankruptcy to move forward
By Jay Reeves - AP - MontgomeryAdvertiser.com
BIRMINGHAM -- A judge has cleared the way for an Alabama county to move forward with the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, overruling Wall Street claims that state law didn't allow the county to file the case.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Bennett issued his order late Sunday, allowing Jefferson County, the state's largest county, to remain in bankruptcy as it attempts to sort out more than $4 billion debt linked to borrowing for the county's sewer system.
Scott Walker Caught In Pre-Election Lie
On Collective Bargaining Plans-Will Wisconsin Voters Care?
By Rick Ungar - Forbes.com
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is fond of pointing out that he was voted into office based on his promise to take on state employee union collective bargaining rights so that he could get on with balancing the state’s budget.
Indeed, shortly after introducing his controversial ‘beat down’ of collective bargaining in the Badger State, Walker claimed that nobody should have been surprised by his actions because he had campaigned on the issue.
Obama Unveils New J.P. Morgan,
Wells Fargo Bailout Plan, Disguised as Mortgage Relief
By Mike Shedlock - GlobalEconomicAnalysis.Blogspot.com
Under guise of helping homeowners, president Obama has finalized his plan to further aid banks. Please consider Obama's alleged Mortgage Relief Plan.
The White House on Tuesday announced it was cutting the mortgage fees charged by the Federal Housing Administration’s refinancing program in another effort to help the languishing housing market recover.
President Barack Obama will announce the move at an afternoon press conference, his first since November.
An estimated 2 million to 3 million FHA borrowers will be eligible to benefit from the revamped program, the White House said in a statement.
Subprime to the Rescue
By Greg Hunter - USAWatchdog.com
Subprime lending is back, and it is creating headlines like: “February auto sales rise to highest level in 4 years.” That comes from a story last week from Reuters. Reuters goes on to say,“U.S. auto sales rose nearly 16 percent in February and the annual sales rate leapt to its best level in four years . . . For a second month in a row, sales surpassed even the most optimistic expectations. Analysts ascribed the gains partly to rising consumer confidence and upbeat U.S. economic data.” (Click here for the complete Reuters story.)
Subprime lending was one of the major causes of the 2008 economic meltdown. You would think the banks and the government would have learned a lesson, but they did not.
Couple Lives In $1.3 Million,
4,900 Square Foot Home
For Five Years Without Making A Single Mortgage Payment
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Wonder how Americans can afford to buy millions of iGadgets, a second LCD TV for the shoe closet, and eat at restaurants more than almost any time in the past despite sliding personal income? Simple - increasingly fewer pay the biggest staple bill in a US household: their mortgage. The following story of Keith And Janet Ritter, who have lived in their Fort Washington, MD $1.29MM, 4,900 square foot McMansion for 5 years (which they purchase with no money down) without ever making a single mortgage payment, and who are not even close to being evicted, may explain much about the way US society currently operates, and why other perfectly responsible and hard-working taxpayers (who do have to pay for their mortgage) continue to fund tens of billions in Fannie and Freddie losses who are first on the hook to absorb the implicit losses by allowing families such as the Ritters to live in perpetuity without paying, and the banks to keep said mortgage on the books at par without any impairments.
"When a bank does all it can to save itself, that’s good business," Keith said. "When a homeowner does the same thing, he’s called a deadbeat."
Reprieve after reprieve
For a guy who has lost much of his wealth and is on the verge of getting booted from his home, Keith Ritter is oddly calm. He says things such as, "No matter what happens, we are at peace" and likes to quote Scripture.
He and Janet pray daily, read the Bible, attend Pentecostal services and are reliable tithers. Their faith fuels their hope that they can somehow stave off eviction. But they also keep the sheriff’s office on speed dial. Keith calls the number every few days, always with the same question: "Do you have a date for us yet?"
Zillow and Trulia Face Backlash from Realtors
By STEVE YODER, The Fiscal Times
It used to be a given for anyone selling their house – a realtor would put their listing on national real estate aggregator websites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com to maximize exposure and sell homes quickly. But that could be changing fast as the two entities face off.
Since 2005 or so, realtors have shared data about homes they have for sale with those national sites, which have millions of visitors (Zillow, for example, had 32 million last month). But even though the sites have grown, sales haven't in the distressed housing market, and some agents believe the sites may not be helping. They accuse them of engaging in practices that give buyers inaccurate information that may hurt sales.
Postal Service can pay taxpayers - if Congress acts
By Jennifer Liberto - CNN.com
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- The Postal Service is facing such a cash crunch that it has a $12.1 billion loan outstanding from Treasury.
But taxpayers will be paid back, especially after Congress acts to help save the Postal Service, according to most experts.
While progress on a measure has been slow-going in Congress, both House and Senate legislation would dramatically reduce or eliminate debt by tapping overpayments made in retirement accounts.
Report on college loan delinquency rate raises alarms As many as 1 in 4 borrowers was carrying a past-due student loan balance in the third quarter, a much higher delinquency rate than previously thought, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington — Some experts have called the nation's soaring college debt load a "ticking time bomb" — a looming crisis threatening young adults, their families and the broader economy.
A new report raises even more alarms: It's likely that as many as 1 in 4 borrowers was carrying a past-due student loan balance in the third quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Monday.
10 Insanely Overpaid Public Employees
By BLAIRE BRIODY, The Fiscal Times
When it comes to government employees, there’s plenty of news about laid off social workers in Florida, furloughed forest rangers in Minnesota, and underpaid teachers everywhere else. Yet even during these hard times, there are thousands of government employees who still earn great, big salaries – many of them hundreds of thousands more than the $400,000 Obama pulls down each year. In 2009, 347 Texas state employees earned more than the president; 53 of them made more than $600,000. In New York, 35 employees were paid over $400k last year. Since 2005, the number of Federal employees earning $150,000plus has jumped tenfold: going from 12,399 to 171,689. Much of the increase has been in medicine. Doctors at veterans hospitals and prisons averaged $179,500 in 2010, up from $111,000 in 2005.
Potential employers, colleges asking for Facebook passwords
Puget Sound Business Journal
Some employers and colleges are asking to have access to the Facebook pages of job applicants and student athletes, according to a report on Tuesday.
MSNBC's Red Tape Chronicles blog said job applicants at the Maryland Department of Corrections have been asked to log into their accounts so that interviewers could see their wall posts, friends, photos and anything else they may have behind the social network's privacy wall.
The American Civil Liberties Union complained when the department asked applicants to surrender their user name and password, so now the request is that they log in "voluntarily" during the job interview.
U.S. Swoops Down on Alleged Computer Hackers
By CHAD BRAY - WSJ.com
U.S. authorities unveiled criminal charges on Tuesday against six people in the U.S. and overseas that they described as important members of a computer hacking group that carried out a series of high-profile online attacks in recent years and stole confidential information from major companies.
The charges are the latest development in a global crackdown on hackers who have undertaken denial-of-service attacks and computer breaches at corporations, banks and government affiliates. Computer hacking groups Anonymous and Lulz Security, a splinter group, have taken credit for many of the incidents.
The Illuminati are Panicking: David Icke Reports 1/4
On the Tuesday, March 6 edition of the Alex Jones Show, Alex talks with former BBC television sports presenter, spokesman for the Green Party, author and speaker David Icke. He is the author of Infinite Love Is the Only Truth: Everything Else Is Illusion and is featured in a number of videos, including Speaking Out: Who Really Controls the World and What We Can Do About It and Freedom or Fascism: The Time to Choose.
Libertarians: Only now, at the end, do you understand...
By Noah Smith - NoahpinionBlog.Blogspot.com
Given my history of critiquing libertarianism, it would hardly be surprising if I felt a flash of gleeful schadenfreude to see the dismay with which so many movement libertarians are reacting to the Koch takeover of the Cato Institute. But I don't. I just feel sad. Here are a bunch of smart people who truly, honestly believe in their worldview - a worldview that shares some key elements with my own - discovering for the first time that they are in fact merely a proxy army for people who don't take them or their worldview seriously at all.
To those of us outside the movement, the fact that libertarians are a proxy army has always been painfully obvious. The key piece of evidence was always the set of issues that libertarians chose to emphasize. Most Americans share the belief that civil liberties are good, war is to be avoided, and high taxes are bad. But the fact that our country's libertarian movement spent so much time fighting high taxes and so little time fighting the encroaching authoritarianism of conservative presidential administrations was a clear sign that some priorities were seriously out of place. Should we really be more afraid of turning into Sweden than turning into Singapore? The contrast between libertarians' continual jeremiads against taxes and their muted, intermittent criticism of things like warrantless wiretaps, executive detention, and torture was a huge tip-off that the movement was really just some kind of intellectual front for America's right wing.
Cato Institute Is Caught in a Rift Over Its Direction
By ERIC LICHTBLAU - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — From its perch in a spacious brand-new headquarters blocks from the White House, the Cato Institute has built on its reputation as a venerable libertarian research center unafraid to cross party lines.
Now, however, a rift with one of its founding members — the billionaire conservative Charles Koch — is threatening the institute’s identity and independence, its leaders say, and is exposing fault lines over Mr. Koch’s aggressive and well-financed brand of Republican politics.
Cato Koch Fight
By JAMES JOYNER - OutsideTheBeltway.com
Reading the comments to Doug Mataconis' posting "Battle For Control Of Cato Institute Reveals Conservative-Libertarian Divide" I see a lot of comments along the lines of Brad DeLong's snark that, "The Kochs' point of view is simple: since William Niskanen's death the shareholders’ agreement says that they own a majority of the shares of Cato, and it is their property with which they can do as they wish. It is hard to see how any true libertarian could possibly disagree, and seek to do anything other than to vindicate the Kochs’ liberty interest in what is their property."
But I’m not seeing anyone argue to the contrary. Not Julian Sanchez. Not any of the dozen-plus commentators that DeLong rounds up and consumes with "delicious irony" on the grounds that they "are not libertarian but rather Burkean, communitarian, and social democratic ones, and thus arguments that no true libertarian could ever possibly make." Libertarianism, at least in its Cato-style American form, is about the relationship between man and the state. Most libertarians would bitterly oppose government action to prevent the brothers Koch from turning Cato into a Republican hack shop.* None who are bemoaning the possibility of that becoming Cato’s fate would dispute that, if the Kochs indeed have a controlling interest, they have every right to fire every independent thinking employee who fails to hew to the party line. Sanchez, for one, cheerily concedes that point.
Cato Goes to War The Koch brothers have launched an extraordinary campaign to take control of America’s most respected libertarian think tank. Will they destroy it?
By David Weigel - Slate.com
On Friday afternoon, as the Washington offices of the Cato Institute were emptying out for the weekend, the libertarian think tank’s president sent an e-mail to all staff. The subject was the Koch brothers crisis.
"Catoites," wrote Ed Crane, "You are all probably aware by now of the unfortunate development with Charles and David Koch. They are in the process of trying to take over the Cato Institute and, in my opinion, reduce it to a partisan adjunct to Americans for Prosperity, the activist GOP group they control."
Koch v. Cato — A View from Cato
By Jonathan H. Adler - Volokh.com
My friend Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, offered me his perspective on the Koch-Cato dispute. Jerry’s obviously sympathetic to Cato President Ed Crane, but he also offers a fair amount of detail about recent events, including recent changes to the Cato Institute’s Board of Directors - changes that occurred last Thursday and I have yet to see reported in the press.
I understand that the Kochs have a different perspective on some of the relevant events but have not (as yet) gotten anything on-the-record beyond that which has appeared in various news accounts. If I do, I will post that as well.
Koch versus Cato: unravelling the riddle
By Charles Rowley
....Readers should not expect many free market think tanks to speak out against the Koch assault. Too many of them benefit financially from the pocket money doled out by Charles and David Koch through their various well-funded foundations. That pocket money comes at a significant cost. I can assure you that there is no such thing as a free Koch luncheon.
Save the Cato Institute
By Timothy B. Lee - Forbes.com
You may have heard the news last Thursday that Charles and David Koch had filed a lawsuit seeking to take control of the Cato Institute. My friend Dave Weigel has an in-depth look at the background of the dispute. I want to endorse the comments of my colleague Gene Healy:
I can understand why so many people in the small-government movement feel conflicted and disappointed about this dispute. But while I'm disappointed, I'm not conflicted.
When it comes to this lawsuit, like Jonathan Adler, "I cannot understand how [the Kochs'] actions can, in any way, advance the cause of individual liberty to which they’ve devoted substantial sums and personal efforts over the years."
On Thursday, Charles G. Koch told the press, "We are not acting in a partisan manner, we seek no 'takeover' and this is not a hostile action."
With all due respect, Mr. Koch, that is not true.
But why a lawsuit at all, you ask? Why does it matter? No one knows for sure, but here's one possibility, from yet a third Post story, quoting Cato board chair Bob Levy (who may or may not be right):
Cato’s board chairman, Bob Levy, said in an interview that the Koch brothers, who have the power to appoint half of the board, have been choosing "Koch operatives" for [board] members, with an eye to push Cato towardsupport of the Republican Party.
Koch Email to Alumni Regarding Cato Lawsuit
UnderPenaltyofCatapult.com [Editor's note: This email was sent from the Charles G. Koch Foundation to a mailing list of CGK program alumni on March 6, 2012.]
Thank you for bringing your inquiries forward regarding the shareholders’ agreement with Cato. We’d like to take this opportunity to respond and provide some additional context. Please continue to let us know what questions you have from here.
Think Tank in Koch Brothers Dispute
Could Find Its Tax Status at Risk
By Debra E. Blum - Philanthropy.com
Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers active in Tea Party politics, last week sued the libertarian Cato Institute, which Charles Koch helped found more than 30 years ago, in a move that would ensure their control over the institution.
But in filing the lawsuit, the brothers may well have tipped off the Internal Revenue Service to concerns that the organization has never deserved to be a charitable institution eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions or other benefits of tax exemption, says a former head of the tax agency’s charity division.
Koch Brothers Sue Cato in Ownership Dispute
by R Butler - TXWCLP.org
In a move that could have significant impact on institutional libertarianism, Cato Institute founder Charles Koch and his brother David (the latter of whom sits on the boards of both Cato and the Reason Foundation, which publishes this website), are suing Cato, Cato President Ed Crane, and the widow of recently deceased former Cato chairman William Niskanen in a dispute over Niskanen's ownership shares in the $39 million libertarian think tank. Here’s how the Washington Post, which broke the story, characterized events:
"If the 1973 embargo experience repeats itself, the price of a barrel of oil could soar to $440 a barrel." -- Tehran Times, "Oil Prices Could Soar to $440 a Barrel if Strait of Hormuz Closed"
If the Tehran Times is correct, a quantum rise in the price of crude oil could be the next black swan event.
For now, let's characterize the Tehran Times column as extremely hyperbolic and, perhaps, bordering on the delusional.
Regardless, there is much debate today as to the precise price level of crude that will dent economic growth.
With crude oil at around $107 a barrel on Friday, many say that the economic tipping point is $120 to $135 a barrel.
What Happens if Iran Does Close
the Strait of Hormuz? $440 Oil?
By Paul Ausick - 247WallSt.com
As Iran continues its tough talk about US-led sanctions against the country’s oil and banks, the Islamic Republic’s threatened closure of the Strait of Hormuz remains the most potent weapon in the country’s arsenal. Should Iran manage to close the Strait, the impacts on both the world’s crude oil market and on Iran itself could be profound.
Gold: Buy on dips and wait for move above $1800/oz
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Investor interest has been in the driver's seat for gold so far this year, with speculative positioning on Comex at its highest level since September and gold ETP holdings have scaled successive highs this year.
Gold still faces near-term hurdles such as bouts of dollar strength, broad risk reduction and profit-taking, but this is a healthy correction and the broader macro backdrop remains gold favourable, given the negative interest rate environment, longer-term inflationary concerns and lingering sovereign debt uncertainties.
Gold Market Update
By: Clive Maund - GoldSeek.com
Gold reversed violently to the downside last week, an event which has serious implications. It had been doing well up to that point and we did not see this reversal coming, so this is going to be "wise after the event" update - still it is considered to be better to be wise after the event than not wise at all, particularly if our interpretation of the meaning of this development proves to be correct.
Morgan Stanley: Gold supportive influences remain intact
LONDON (Commodity Online): Gold-supportive fundamentals remain intact, with last week’s decline largely a profit-taking pullback, said Morgan Stanley in a research note.
According to Morgan Stanley, gold lost 5.4% on Wednesday, the largest daily move in three years, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke failed to comment on the likelihood of another round of quantitative easing, leading investors to believe that the timeframe for expanding easing measures will be pushed out.
How much is Buffet priced in Gold?
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Warren Buffet's distaste for gold is well known and even after a 10 year bull market, most investors are amazed when Buffet not only refuses to buy gold but goes on to thrash it.
And with gold being increasingly considered as a currency, what exactly is Buffet's worth in terms of gold? The below graphic shows Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway priced in gold (chart courtesy: www.azizonomics.com): [see chart]
US Dollar Takes Respite Ahead of Key Event Risk - RBA on Tap
By Michael Boutros, Currency Strategist - DailyFX.com
The greenback was fractionally weaker at the close of North American trade with the Dow Jones FXCM Dollar Index off by just 0.02% on the session. Equity markets spent the entire day paring early losses carried over from European trade with news that China had cut its 2012 growth forecast to 7.5% from 8.0% weighing on broader market sentiment. The move opens the door for further easing from the PBoC suggesting that the economy may ultimately face a ‘hard landing’. Stocks closed well off session lows but ended the lower on the day with the Dow, the S&P, and NASDAQ off by 0.11%, 0.39%, and 0.86% respectively.
Fed Up with the Fed
By: Dr. Ron Paul, U.S. Congressman - GoldSeek.com
While the Fed has recently released an unprecedented amount of information on its activities, there is still much that remains unknown. Predictably, every push towards transparency has been fought tooth and nail. It took disclosure requirements enacted within the Dodd-Frank Act to get the Fed to provide data on its emergency lending facilities. It took lawsuits filed by Bloomberg and Fox News to provide data on discount window lending during the worst parts of the financial crisis. And it will take further concerted action on the part of Congress, the media, and the public to keep up pressure on the Fed to become and remain transparent.
Will Greece Be Ruled by the Bankers or Its People?
By Peter Bratsis, Truthout - Truthdig.com
The most central and constant dilemma in modern politics has been the choice between the political desires and demands of citizens versus the policy expertise and prudence of bureaucrats and specialists. For the more democratically inclined, those like Machiavelli and Aristotle, the judgments of the many, as flawed as they often may be, are nonetheless more trustworthy than the commands of the elite. The few, no matter their credentials or honors, are never able to match the collective intelligence of the multitude.
For others, including those who drafted the US Constitution, the whims and desires of the many are a great threat to social order, and the special few must stand as a moderating force between them and the levers of government.
Dutch Freedom Party pushes euro exit
as €2.4 trillion rescue bill looms The Dutch Freedom Party has called for a return to the Guilder, becoming the first political movement in the eurozone with a large popular base to opt for withdrawal from the single currency.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
"The euro is not in the interests of the Dutch people," said Geert Wilders, the leader of the right-wing populist party with a sixth of the seats in the Dutch parliament. "We want to be the master of our own house and our own country, so we say yes to the guilder. Bring it on."
Mr Wilders made his decision after receiving a report by London-based Lombard Street Research concluding that the Netherlands is badly handicapped by euro membership, and that it could cost EMU’s creditor core more than €2.4 trillion to hold monetary union together over the next four years. "If the politicians in The Hague disagree with our report, let them show the guts to hold a referendum. Let the Dutch people decide," he said.
The Mainstream Media
Still Doesn’t Get the ECB Greek Debt Swap
By Graham Summers - GoldSeek.com
First off, the details of the swap are as follows: the ECB simply exchanged 50€ billion worth of old Greek sovereign bonds (which were soon to be worth much less if not be outright worthless) for 50€ billion worth of new Greek sovereign bonds which would not be exposed to default risk or any kind of debt restructuring (unlike those bonds held by private Greek bond holders).
I want to mention here that the ECB only owned about 50€ billion worth of Greek sovereign bonds to begin with. So they exchanged roughly ALL of their exposure to Greece to new bonds that will not lose money during a restructuring or default.
What the Greek Rescue is Really About
By Dan Denning - DailyReckoning.com
03/05/12 Melbourne, Australia – In today’s Daily Reckoning, we’ll do something we can barely stand to do: we’re going to write one more time about Greece. If you can stand to read it, you may come to the same conclusion we reached.
That conclusion is simple: what’s going on Europe has nothing to do with solving a debt crisis and everything to do with preserving a corrupt system based on limitless debt and growing government power. The sooner you understand that fact, the sooner you’ll be able to prepare for what happens next. There are two options for what happens next, and we’ll get to those shortly.
How the IMF reasserted its power in Greece’s debt crisis
By Howard Schneider - WashingtonPost.com
On a crisp day last October, the prime minister of Greece, George Papandreou, strode along a red carpet into an emergency summit of European leaders in Brussels and boasted to reporters of his government’s "superhuman" response to its debt crisis.
But in the private reports flowing from Athens, the International Monetary Fund’s point person for Greece, Poul Thomsen, could see a different reality unfolding.
Greece bubbles towards a third bailout and boiling point After my prognostications last Monday about the Greek deal, the markets took a decidedly more optimistic view. The catalyst was the announcement of a bumper amount of funding by the ECB to eurozone banks. Is the euro crisis now effectively over?
By Roger Bootle - Telegraph.co.uk
The sense of optimism in the markets derives partly from the contrast with the dire mood just before Christmas. At that point, many thought the New Year would usher in Armageddon. Yet we have been back at work for more than two months and still the roof hasn't fallen in. So that's all right then.
In truth, there were always more stages to go through before the crisis got to boiling point. Greece was likely to receive a second bailout. My doubts were based primarily on the unreality of the economic forecasts behind such a package, and the conviction that there would, before long, have to be a third bailout.
Private Investors Holding About 20%
of Greek Debt to Participate in Swap
By Fabio Benedetti-Valentini and Natalie Weeks - Bloomberg.com
The private investors that so far declared their participation in Greece’s debt restructuring hold about 20 percent of the bonds involved in a swap required for an international bailout.
The 12 members of the creditors’ steering committee that said yesterday they would join in the exchange have debt with a face value of at least 40 billion euros ($53 billion), compared with the 206 billion euros of Greek bonds in private hands, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from company reports.
When in France, tax the rich
By Charles Riley - CNN.com
Raising taxes on the rich isn't just an election year issue in the United States -- it's also a big deal in France.
Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande last week proposed a 75% tax rate on income above 1 million euros, a move that has sparked debate, with some arguing that raising taxes to that level would result in an exodus of French citizens to other European countries with more favorable rates.
Hollande is expected to face off against Nicolas Sarkozy in a May election that has implications for both France, and the way the eurozone debt crisis will be handled.
Is Artificial Intelligence Taking Over the Stock Market?
BY CRIS SHERIDAN - FinancialSense.com
In case you weren't aware, machines are now reading the news. Actually, a few thousand machines—probably more—may have already read and scanned what you're about to read for any hint of tradable information. Of course, this isn't just limited to blogs or news disseminated on the web, but social media too.
Late last year, a company decided to launch "streams of data from Twitter and the securities discussion site StockTwits that are 'normalized' and ready to be fed to computers for analytical processing...designed for use by hedge funds and high-frequency traders."
Companies line up to sell debt; Treasurys slip
By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Companies continued to rush into the bond market Monday, with March debt sales looking likely to continue at a strong pace after record-setting issuance in February.
Even though companies are sitting on piles of cash, many continue to issue debt to take advantage of low, stable interest rates and a small premium over benchmark Treasury bonds, analysts at Informa Global Markets said.
Fed's Fisher: Wall Street May Be Addicted To Cheap Money
By Michael S. Derby and Rob Curran Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
DALLAS -(Dow Jones)- A key Federal Reserve official argued forcefully Monday against providing more monetary-policy stimulus to the economy, and accused Wall Street of getting addicted to cheap money from the Fed, though he noted that inflation seems to be under control for now.
Fisher said the Fed had done enough in terms of monetary policy, and the responsibility now lay with lawmakers and regulators to help the U.S. economy through fiscal means.
Fisher: Investors Should Prepare for Less Easing
By Aki Ito and Steve Matthews - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said he opposes additional Fed purchases of securities and urged Wall Street to get ready to become less dependent on monetary easing.
"I would suggest to you that, if the data continue to improve, however gradually, the markets should begin preparing themselves for the good Dr. Fed to wean them from their dependency rather than administer further dosage," Fisher said today in a speech in Dallas. Financial markets "have become hooked on the monetary morphine we provided" after the 2008 financial crisis, he said.
Obama shifts location of G-8 summit
from hometown of Chicago to his Camp David retreat
AP - WashingtonPost.com
WASHINGTON — The White House abruptly announced Monday that it had scuttled plans to hold the upcoming G-8 economic summit in Chicago, and would instead host world leaders at the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.
It was an unusually late location change for a large and highly scripted international summit and came with little explanation from the White House. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — the former White House chief of staff who personally lobbied President Barack Obama to hold the summit in Chicago — was informed only hours before the official announcement.
Credit Default Swap Fraud Exposed/Confirmed
by Jeff Nielson - BullionBullsCanada.com
One of the most poorly kept secrets in Wall Street’s empire of fraud was that credit default swaps were never anything but pretend-insurance. The credit default swap market is a $60+ trillion paper Ponzi-scheme. The Wall Street crime syndicate claiming to “back” this insurance have nothing more than a few $billion of liquidity apiece. It is a fact of arithmetic that these fraud-factories never intended to honour these contracts.
Wall Street, Fed face off over physical commodities
By David Sheppard, Jonathan Leff and Josephine Mason - Reuters.com
(Reuters) - Wall Street's biggest banks are locked in an increasingly frantic struggle with the Federal Reserve over the right to retain the jewels of their commodity trading empires: warehouses, storage tanks and other hard assets worth billions of dollars.
While the battle over proprietary trading and new derivatives regulations has taken place largely in public view since the 2008 financial crisis, the fight by JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to retain or expand their prized physical commodity operations - most acquired in only the past six years - has remained hidden.
Fed Takes a Break to Weigh Outlook
[Google title for free article pass]
By JON HILSENRATH - WSJ.com $$
The Federal Reserve is pausing after a six-month campaign to boost growth, while policy makers assess a puzzling economic outlook.
Fed officials meeting next week are unlikely to take any new actions to spur the recovery, and they are likely to emerge with a slightly more upbeat—but still very guarded—assessment of the economy's performance. This comes after a series of moves in recent months, including recasting its securities portfolio in January as a way to spur growth. Then the central bank signaled in January that short-term interest rates are likely to stay near zero through most of 2014.
Bernanke Leaks, Spoils the Punch
BY BRUCE KRASTING - FinancialSense.com
Jon Hilsenrath, at the WSJ, must have had a phone call with Ben Bernanke on Saturday. Accordingly, Jon put an article out just in time to influence the market on Monday morning. The headline says it all: [see graphic]
No doubt, Bernanke is watching the price of crude and the tape is telling him his inflation forecast is no good. The leak this evening is just Ben’s way of hinting to the market that he understands where we are on inflation, and he is not going to stir the pot anymore than he has.
Fed Would Focus Solely on Prices
Under Bill Proposed by Brady
MoneyNews.com
Representative Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the Joint Economic Committee, will introduce legislation March 8 that would narrow the Federal Reserve’s focus to price stability and eliminate its full-employment mandate.
"The Federal Reserve’s monetary experimentation of the last decade must end," the Texas lawmaker said in remarks prepared for delivery today in Washington. "Congress should give the Federal Reserve a single mandate for price stability, and the Federal Reserve should return to a rules-based system of inflation targeting to achieve that mandate."
Washington's $5 trillion interest bill
By Jeanne Sahadi @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Interest rates on U.S. bonds may be ridiculously low, but that doesn't mean the country's future interest payments on the national debt will be.
Uncle Sam will shell out more than $5 trillion in interest payments over the next decade, according to the latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office.
That's more than half of the projected $11 trillion increase in debt held by the public during that period. Those figures assume that a host of expensive policies such as the Bush-era tax cuts are extended.
Giant, Safeway hiring as potential labor strike nears
Washington Business Journal by Gary Haber
Looking to pick up some temporary work? A job could be as close as your local supermarket.
As Safeway Inc. and Giant Food negotiate a new labor contract with theUnited Food & Commercial Workers Union, the two supermarket chains have taken out help wanted ads seeking temporary workers.
The ad for Safeway said applications are being accepted "due to a possible labor dispute." The current contract is set to expire March 31.
Birmingham judge clears way
for record bankruptcy by Alabama’s largest county
By AP - WashingtonPost.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A judge has cleared the way for an Alabama county to move forward with the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, overruling Wall Street claims that state law didn't allow the county to file the case.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Bennett issued his order late Sunday, allowing Jefferson County, the state’s largest county, to remain in bankruptcy as it attempts to sort out more than $4 billion debt linked to borrowing for the county's sewer system.
N.C. write offs total $3.5B
Triangle Business Journal by Lee Weisbecker
The state has a term for money that by all accounts should be flowing into state coffers but doesn't for a variety of reasons: "write offs." And North Carolina's total write off is a big number.
In the 12 months ending June 30, 2011, the dollar figure hit $3.5 billion, up 13 percent from the $3.1 billion that didn't come in during 2010, according to a new report by the state controller's office.
Bad News for Boomers Demographic trends will depress portfolio returns,
this researcher warns
By KAREN DAMATO - WSJ.com
If you're a baby boomer, you've got a big problem when it comes to the investment returns you can expect in retirement: It's the sheer number of other boomers who are also getting ready to leave the workplace and rely on their portfolios to help pay the bills.
That's the depressing conclusion Robert D. Arnott, a portfolio manager, asset-management executive and inveterate researcher, has come to in more than 20 years of studying demographic trends and financial-market results.
Need a Reason to Question Obamacare?
Just Look to Louisiana
By Avik S. A. Roy - TheAtlantic.com
....Medicaid, America's government health-care program for the poor, is jointly funded by the states and the federal government. The federal government chips in at different levels to different states, using a formula called Federal Medical Assistance Percentages, or FMAP. FMAP is determined by several factors, such as a state's per-capita income, and the state's own Medicaid spending. (FMAP has come under a lot of criticism from policy types, who point out that its structure incentivizes state politicians to spend more on Medicaid, knowing that taxpayers in other states will foot most of the bill.) The Medicaid law specifies that the feds will contribute no less than 50 percent of a state's Medicaid costs; the national average prior to the Obama Administration was about 57 percent.
The 60th ObamaCare Vote
Opinion - WSJ.com
A soon-to-be released report shows how rogue prosecutors defeated Ted Stevens.
Mitt Romney recently argued that campaign rival Rick Santorum was responsible for ObamaCare because the former Pennsylvania Senator had, years before its passage, supported Arlen Specter, his homestate colleague and one of the 60 Senators who later voted for the bill. Mr. Romney's Massachusetts creation of the prototype for President Obama's signature law appears to be the greater sin against free health-care markets. But after March 15, even Mr. Romney may agree that the blame for the 60th vote really belongs to the U.S. Justice Department.
That's the day a federal court has ordered the release of an independent report on Justice's "systematic concealment" of evidence. Specifically, the report ordered by Judge Emmet Sullivan found that federal attorneys prosecuting the late Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska hid "significant exculpatory evidence which would have independently corroborated [his] defense and his testimony, and seriously damaged the testimony and credibility of the government's key witness."
What the Business Roundtable knows about U.S. health care
By Ezra Klein - WashingtonPost.com
On Sunday, I reported on new data from the International Federation of Health Plans showing that health-care prices are far higher in the United States than anywhere else. An MRI, for instance, costs $1,080 here, but only $280 in France. The main reason, I reported, was that in other countries, the government sets the price and providers take it or leave it.
But some readers thought I missed the boat with that explanation. So let’s go through some of the objections.
Next Pension Clash: Law Firms Unfunded Retirement Plans Burden Younger Partners,
but Some Say It Builds Loyalty
By JENNIFER SMITH - WSJ.com
Retirement should be a happy time for a generation of baby boom-era lawyers near the end of their working lives. Less joy may await the partners they'll leave behind.
At some of the country's top firms, younger lawyers will foot the bill for deluxe pension plans that could drag down their own earnings for years to come.
These pensions are largely unfunded: there is no money saved to pay retirees. Instead, most law firms with such plans pay the benefits as they go, using a portion of their current profits.
IRS: The rich are getting richer... Income goes up...especially for the rich
By Tami Luhby - Money.CNN.com
After two years of declines, Americans' income finally rose in 2010. The Internal Revenue Service provided a first peek at taxpayers' returns and it showed that adjusted gross income totaled $8 trillion, up 5.2% from 2009.
But a closer look at the data reveals that only the wealthiest Americans will be popping the Cristal.
Taxpayers earning more than $250,000 saw their total adjusted gross incomes rise by 13.8%, while those bringing home between $200K and $250K enjoyed a 6.7% increase, according to a CNNMoney analysis.
High price soured Chevy Volt sales
By Peter Valdes-Dapena - CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Despite winning a trophy case worth of awards -- including Motor Trend Car of the Year and North American Car of the Year -- the Chevrolet Volt plug-in car has failed to meet GM's sales expectations.
The problem is simple: The car's price is simply too high for most customers to swallow, according to analysts.
GM had expected to sell 10,000 Volts by the end of last year, the car's first full year on the market. Actual sales tallied up to only about 7,600.
Illegal Mortgage Foreclosure,
JP Morgan and a Federal Injunction
By Chris Ryan - NewsWire.net
JP Morgan has a new liability from mortage foreclosures on its hand, thanks to the Lawfirm of Ken Eade who won a landmark federal injuction against Washington Mutual and JP Morgan. The economic crisis of 2008 had its roots in the mortgage crisis and collapse of the American housing market. Millions of homeowners were pushed into foreclosure due to the illegal predatory lending practices of mortgage lenders. As the real estate crisis deepened, mortgage lenders had little incentive to work with borrowers, as it was more economical to simply foreclose. A recent court decision, however, over the alleged predatory lending practices of Washington Mutual Bank and its successor, JP Morgan Chase, may allow millions of these homeowners to sue their mortgage lenders for compensation.
Florida lawmakers consider accelerating foreclosures
By Brady Dennis - WashingtonPost.com
Lawmakers in Florida are considering measures this week to accelerate foreclosures in the state, one of the hardest hit by the mortgage crisis, underscoring the tug-of-war over how to spur a housing recovery while protecting the rights of struggling homeowners.
It takes roughly two years to push a foreclosure through Florida’s clogged court system. In a state with a backlog of 368,000 cases and a quarter of the country’s foreclosures, that means a housing crisis with no end in sight.
Boom-Era Property Speculators
to Get Foreclosure Aid: Mortgages
By Prashant Gopal - Bloomberg.com
The Obama administration will extend mortgage assistance for the first time to investors who bought multiple homes before the market imploded, helping some speculators who drove up prices and inflated the housing bubble.
Landlords can qualify for up to four federally-subsidized loan workouts starting around May, as long as they rent out each house or have plans to fill them, under the revamped Home Affordable Modification Program, also known as HAMP, according to Timothy Massad, the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial stability. The program pays banks to reduce monthly payments by cutting interest rates, stretching terms, and forgiving principal.
Super Tuesday: Missing the Primary Issue
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. - Truthdig.com
PARMA, Ohio—What happens in Ohio politics never stays in Ohio, and there are two story lines here on the eve of Super Tuesday.
There is, first, the Republican presidential primary fight. Rick Santorum has to win Ohio to keep his candidacy alive. A Mitt Romney triumph would, at last, turn him into the "inevitable" Republican nominee. The second narrative involves the struggle for a state that Republicans must take in November to have any chance of defeating President Obama.
The problem for Republicans is that the two story lines are not coming together.
In Alaska, a Showdown of Lawyers, Guns,
and Bush-Era Firearms Law Was Ray Coxe, a Juneau firearms dealers, negligent when he sold a would-be murderer a rifle without a background check? Answering that question is no easy legal task.
By Andrew Cohen - TheAtlantic.com
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Alaska heard argument in an extraordinary case about gun control, federalism, and so-called "tort reform." At the heart of Kim v. Coxe is the question of how state judges ought to apply a Bush-era law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which was designed and enacted by Congress to protect gun manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits and liability for crimes committed with their weapons.
The State Is a Harsh Mistress
Mises Daily: by David Masten
When I mention that I believe that it is not the proper role of government to subsidize research in space technology, the looks I receive from my fellow aerospace engineering classmates seem to suggest that they want to send me to the dark side of the moon (on the taxpayers' dime).
If there's one libertarian position that is exceedingly difficult to argue, it is the notion that scientific research should not be the concern of the state. This essay will focus on outlining two possible approaches that may allow my dear reader to explain free-market space technology to an outsider without sounding like a green-eyed Martian. These are as follows:
Wednesday, March 7th, Apple to unveil new iPad3 Small-Biz iPad Use Explodes
by Michael del Castillo - Portfolio.com
With the debut of the iPad 3 this week, it's worth seeing just how much of an impact the tablet's two predecessors have had on entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Apple's game-changing device is rewriting how business gets done.
In the two years since the late Steve Jobs unleashed the iPad on the world, it hasn't just changed how we play games or watch TV shows and movies or read books and magazines. The iPad also has transformed how we do business—use of the Apple device has nearly quadrupled among small- and mid-sized business owners in the past year alone, according to a new survey by The Business Journals.
Why I'm learning to code
By Danielle Sucher @CNNMoneyTech
Tech companies say they can't find enough skilled programmers to hire, a gap that training programs like San Francisco's Dev Bootcampand Codecademy's "Code Year" aim to help fill. What's the immersive experience like -- and can a newbie come out a coder? Programming novice Danielle Sucher is keeping a running diary for CNNMoney of her experience at New York's Hacker School.
I left my law practice to do a three-month, full-time coding retreat called Hacker School this winter. Not entirely, I suppose -- I'm still in the middle of motion practice representing a few of the Occupy Wall Street arrestees -- but other than that, my career is on hiatus for the moment.
Angry Birds Boom Spurs U.S. Job Revival on Mobile Demand
MoneyNews.com
A surge in technology-industry hiring is helping to spearhead a jobs-market revival as demand swells for computer-software applications and data.
Online help-wanted advertising for computer and mathematical occupations rose 2.1 percent in February from January to the second-highest since the Conference Board began compiling the data in 2005. Vacancies outnumbered job seekers by more than three to one, according to the New York-based research group. Postings on tech-career website Dice.com are 12 percent higher than a year ago, with openings for workers skilled in mobile applications up more than 100 percent.
Putin rounds up political opposition... Hundreds of anti-Putin protesters detained in Russia
By Lidia Kelly and Alissa de Carbonnel
(Reuters) - Russian riot police detained more than 500 protesters including opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Monday at rallies challenging the legitimacy of Vladimir Putin's victory in the presidential election.
Putin, who secured almost 64 percent of the votes on Sunday, portrayed his return to the presidency as a triumph over opponents who were trying to usurp power, though international monitors said the vote was clearly skewed in his favour.
U.S. can lawfully target American citizens
By Peter Finn and Sari Horwitz - WashingtonPost.com
The U.S. government has the right to order the killing of American citizens overseas if they are senior al-Qaeda leaders who pose an imminent terrorist threat and cannot reasonably be captured, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Monday.
"Any decision to use lethal force against a United States citizen — even one intent on murdering Americans and who has become an operational leader of al-Qaeda in a foreign land — is among the gravest that government leaders can face," Holder said in a speech at Northwestern University’s law school in Chicago. "The American people can be — and deserve to be — assured that actions taken in their defense are consistent with their values and their laws."
EU criticizes shortcomings in Russian election
(Reuters) - The European Union shares the concerns of international monitors over "shortcomings" in Russia's presidential election and called on Moscow to address them, an EU spokeswoman said on Monday.
The EU broadly agrees with reports by the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) that highlighted problems with Sunday's election, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.
Japan Is Now Another Spinning Plate
in the Global Economy Circus
By Chris Martenson - GoldSeek.com
At the circus, you are sometimes treated to the spinning plate act where a performer tries to keep an improbable number of plates spinning at once, racing from one plate to the next as their wobbles indicate the need for another dose of momentum. Considering the number of spinning and wobbling plates that our central planners are managing, it's easy to be both amazed and anxious at the same time.
The difference between the spinning plate analogy and real-world economic and financial systems is that if a failure occurs out in the real world, it has a very high chance of spreading across and through the other elements of the system. Contagion is the fear, as if in finally toppling, one plate will crash into its neighbor and set off a chain reaction of falling plates.
U.K. Police Linked to Blacklisting of Workers
Truthdig.com
An investigation has found that British police or security forces supplied personal information to major construction companies looking to keep roughly 3,200 "left-wing or troublesome" workers off their payrolls. The blacklist provided records of "workers’ trade union activities and conduct at work" to more than 40 building firms, The Guardian reports.
David Clancy of the Information Commissioner’s Office—the agency responsible for the inquiry—said the relationship between the group that collected the information and the police and security forces dates back to a time when the government cooperated with building companies to keep an eye on Irish construction workers who may have been involved in IRA terrorism.
McCain seeks airstrikes on Syria; US presses Putin
By BRADLEY KLAPPER, AP - The Atlantic Journal-Constitution - AJC.com
WASHINGTON — Frustrated by a diplomatic logjam and a bloody Syrian offensive, Republican Sen. John McCain on Monday urged the United States to launch airstrikes against President Bashar Assad's regime to force him out of power — a call for dramatic military intervention that wasn't supported by the Obama administration or its European or Arab partners.
McCain's statement on the Senate floor came as the U.S. and European governments pleaded for Russia's Vladimir Putin to rethink his anti-interventionist stance on Syria, in what appeared to be an increasingly desperate effort for consensus among world powers to stop a crackdown that has killed more than 7,500 people. Hundreds fled to neighboring Lebanon on Monday fearing they'd be massacred in their homes.
Obama, Netanyahu give no sign of narrowing gap on Iran
By Jeffrey Heller and Matt Spetalnick
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama appealed to Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to give sanctions time to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions, but the Israeli prime minister offered no sign of backing away from possible military action, saying his country must be the "master of its fate."
The two men, who have had a strained relationship, sought to present a united front in the Iranian nuclear standoff as they held White House talks. But their public statements revealed differences over how to prevent Iranfrom developing nuclear weapons.
Regulators shutter small Georgia bank,
making 12 bank failures in 2012
By Associated Press - WashingtonPost.com
WASHINGTON — Regulators have closed a small bank in Georgia, bringing to 12 the number of U.S. bank failures this year.
The pace of bank failures has slowed markedly, however. By this time last year, 23 had been shuttered.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday closed Global Commerce Bank, in Doraville, with $143.7 million in assets and $116.8 million in deposits.
Metro City Bank, also of Doraville, agreed to assume all of Global Commerce Bank’s deposits and about $79 million of the failed bank’s assets.
Inflation amounts to "sticker shock" for everyday folks The EPI Reflects Basic Economic Change
by AIER Staff - AIER.org
Technology and globalization have restrained prices on big-ticket items. But they caused fewer price breaks for frequently purchased goods. Toothpaste ain’t so high-tech.
AIER developed the Everyday Price Index (EPI) to address the widespread perception that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) does not reflect the day-to-day experience of Americans. As we continue to study and refine the EPI, we find that the divergence between inflation measured by the CPI and an index that measures direct experience is mostly a product of 21st-century changes in the economy.
Physical buying picks up
following Wednesday sell off in gold
LONDON (Commodity Online): Physical demand for gold has picked up following the sharp mid-week drop in prices, says Barclays Capital in a research note.
"Strong buying from Asia emerged and volume traded on the Shanghai Gold Exchange jumped to its highest since end January," Barclays added.
"February had been a weak month for physical demand across key regions and Turkey's import data for February confirmed the weak start to the year with gold imports down to 2.06 (metric) tons from 2.96 tons in January," Barclays continued.
Gold Far From Bubble Phase
Interview with Marc Faber - GoldSeek.com The Gold Report: After Standard & Poor's (S&P) downgraded a cluster of Eurozone countries in January, you came out saying that downgrades should have been even deeper, depending on the country's credit-worthiness. S&P did give below-investment-grade ratings to Portugal and Cyprus—BB and BB+, respectively—but you indicated that some of these countries warrant CCC ratings. Do you anticipate additional downgrades? Marc Faber: If you accounted for the unfunded liabilities of most European countries, as well as the U.S., the quality of the government debt would be significantly lower. In other words, yes, I do expect to see more and more downgrades over time. TGR: Could that happen in 2012? MF: Yes, and some thereafter.
Buy, Sell or Hold: Buy the Dips in Gold
BY JACK BARNES, Global Macro Trends Specialist, Money Morning
SPDR Gold Trust experienced a major pullback on Leap Day this week, dropping almost exactly 100 points on the day.
This happened while the European Central Bank offered its second tranche of three-year Long Term Recapitalization Operations.
The sell-off in gold on Wednesday is a related sign that liquidity is currently in demand.
But you only have to look at gold's big move up since the start of 2012 to know this stage of the move was unsustainable short-term.
Silver to outperform gold significantly in 2012
Interview with Sean Rakhimov - CommodityOnline.com The Gold Report: You last talked with The Gold Reportin January 2011 and at that time you gave us your view on the prospects for silver for 2011. What's your analysis now as to what happened in 2011? Sean Rakhimov: 2011 was a breakthrough year for silver. Last time we talked I think the title of the interview was "Silver Going Mainstream," which I believe it did last year. The silver price did run up to $50/ounce (oz). It settled back slightly under $30/oz, and sometime around the end of last year and the beginning of this year I believe we put in a major bottom in both gold and silver. The markets have been looking up since then.
Keiser Report 256: Market Manipulation
Max Keiser & Stacy Herbert discuss pirating Repo Man and jack-booted accountants here to help you. In the 2nd half of the show, Max talks to J.S. Kim of SmartKnowledgeU.com about silver, gold and market manipulation.
Coin-grading firm helped bring order to a free-for-all industry Collectors Universe in Santa Ana evaluates and authenticates rare coins, sports cards and autographed memorabilia. Its stock price is up nearly 14% year to date.
By Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times
Mike Faraone bent over his desk, peering at a 1929 $2.50 Indian-head gold piece glowing in the lamplight.
He tilted the coin, snapping it left and right, checking its luster. Then he drew out a five-power eyeglass and inspected the gold piece through the lens. He examined its strike — the raised areas left by the mint's stamp — and scanned for unwanted marks.
Then he set the eyepiece down and took one last long look at the Indian head coin, determining its "eye appeal."
The Greek Bailout, the CDS Market, and the End of the World
BY SHAH GILANI, Capital Waves Strategist, Money Morning
A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the latest Greek bailout.
The terms and conditions of the bond swap Greece agreed to before getting another handout constitutes a theoretical default - but not a technical default.
That's not funny to CDS holders.
Greece hasn't defaulted (so far), but some of the buyers of credit default swaps, basically insurance policies that pay off if there is a default, claim the terms and conditions of the bond swap constitutes a "credit event" or default.
China reduces holdings of US govt bonds
By Wei Tian (China Daily)
BEIJING - China has made the first annual reduction in its holdings of US Treasury bonds in a decade. Experts are viewing the move as a sign that the country is accelerating the move away from dollar assets in search of more diversified investment channels.
According to the latest monthly figures from the US Treasury Department, China's holdings of US Treasury bonds dropped for a fifth consecutive month in Dec to $1.15 trillion.
The number was an update of a figure released in February, after the US department adjust edits method of collecting data on foreign holdings of US government bonds, a move aimed at obtaining more information about the use of proxies buying and holding US securities.
SANDERS: Time to foreclose on the World Bank
ANALYSIS/OPINION: By Sol Sanders - The Washington Times
An adage holds that bureaucracies can pursue their original goals successfully only for a generation at most. After that, their efforts go to feathering their bureaucratic nests. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are examples: outrageous executive compensation and payoffs to congressional friends, all contributing to a housing bust now requiring ever more billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts.
Another example might well be the World Bank, which, along with the International Monetary Fund, is one of the two great post-World War II institutions for restructuring the world economy. John Maynard Milord Keynes, the author of the Bretton Woods accords setting them up, said the clerks got it wrong: The bank should have been called a fund and the fund should have been called a bank.
Shadow Banking System Pervasive -
Global Financial Suicide (Part 1).flv
If you've ever watched Max Keiser talk and thought he was a nut-job whose head pops off his body and "We're committing Global Financial Suicide!", if you've ever thought he was just stark raving mad, it would be to your benefit to watch this episode of Capital Account, featuring James Koutoulas, published here under Creative Commons Attribution License, as it serves as a good primer to help viewers understand the basis for Mr. Keiser's particular selection of words.
Utsumi Says 'Quicksand' of BOJ Bond Purchases
Adds to Japan Fiscal Risks
By Masahiro Hidaka and Toru Fujioka - Bloomberg.com
The Bank of Japan is locked into purchasing more government bonds and may contribute to a loosening of fiscal discipline in the world’s largest public debt market, a former top Japanese currency official said.
"Since they have come this far, if the BOJ stops purchasing bonds, there will be a fall in bond prices and huge valuation losses" for banks, said Makoto Utsumi, former vice finance minister for international affairs and now president of Japan Credit Rating Agency Ltd. "They're damned if they do and they’re damned if they don't," he said in an interview in Tokyo on March 1.
Brazil Declares New Currency War on US and Europe;
Japan Losing Balance of Trade Battle
By Mike Shedlock - GlobalEconomicAnalysis.blogspot.com
In hope-against-hope scenario, countries with balance-of-trade surpluses struggle to maintain it. Put Japan, Germany, Brazil, and China in that group.
In that group, Japan is losing the Balance of Trade Battle.
Japan’s trade deficit widened to a record level in January, as falling exports combined with surging imports of energy.
Imports rose 9.8 per cent from a year earlier, while exports were down 9.3 per cent, resulting in a record monthly deficit of ¥1.48tn ($19bn).
Tim Geithner's Amnesia
By Mark Calabria - Townhall.com
In case you missed Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s revisionist fiction in today’s Wall Street Journal, he takes the critics of Dodd-Frank to task for forgetting about the financial crisis and how it came about. Sadly it is Geithner who forgets (or willfully ignores) the causes of the crisis. Just a few highlights:
Geithner reminds us of the AIG bailout. He forgets that it was the NY Fed’s approval of using credit default swaps to lower bank capital that lead to so much bank counter-party risk being concentrated in AIG (see Gillian Tett’s Fool’s Gold), as well as increasing bank leverage. But then who was heading the NY Fed at this time? Tim Geithner.
The Two Economic Clutch Type Events Of This Period
Jim Sinclair - SilverBearCafe.com
The history of this period will focus attention on two economic clutch type events. These events will have mandated the need for the construction of a new monetary system utilizing a virtual reserve currency traded only by central banks. This reserve currency will be related to gold via a global Western world M3.
An economic clutch type event is one that by its occurrence allows the world to shift gears and change into a new economic velocity and direction.
The first economic clutch event took place when the decision was made that the US Federal Reserve and US Treasury would not support a rescue of the prestigious investment firm of Lehman Brothers. By doing this, they threw that institution and all of its transactions in which it was the deficit other party into default via bankruptcy.
BofA Clash With Fannie Intensifies
as Insurers Reject Loans
By Hugh Son - Bloomberg.com
Bank of America Corp. said it’s facing more demands by Fannie Mae for refunds on flawed home loans because mortgage insurers who cover defaults rejected 25 percent more claims last year.
Unresolved insurance rejections rose to 90,000 at the end of 2011 from 72,000 the year earlier, Bank of America said last week in its annual filing with regulators. Last year’s denials equal $1.2 billion in unpaid loan balances, according to a note yesterday by Compass Point Research and Trading LLC.
"The national housing market took a hit in the latter half of 2011, falling to new lows not seen since the housing crisis began six years ago, according to data out Tuesday by S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices……The index is down 33.6 percent from its peak in mid-2006." – Washington Post
The reason that housing prices have dipped only 33.6 percent in the United States instead of 60 percent as they have in Ireland, is because the big banks have been keeping inventory off the market. If the millions of homes–that are presently headed for foreclosure–were suddenly dumped onto the market, prices would plunge and the biggest banks in the country would be declared insolvent. That’s why the banks have slowed the flow of foreclosures. According to Amherst Securities Group’s Laurie Goodman, "….2.8 million borrowers haven’t made a payment in over a year. Add that to the over 450,000 real estate owned (REO) units and you have approximately 3.2 million that are in the shadows. We are liquidating about 90,000 homes a month. That’s about 36 months of overhang; a really shocking number."
Wealth Gap Socially Destabilizing Stiglitz: Income inequality bad for economy
By Andrew Tangel - NorthJersey.com
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, offered a sobering outlook on Europe's debt crisis at Ramapo College, predicting the euro in its current form was unlikely to survive.
Stiglitz – a Columbia University professor whose résumé includes stints as the World Bank's chief economist and Clinton administration adviser – said Europe's austerity measures wouldn't end the crisis, only lead to greater civil unrest or debt-saddled countries like Greece leaving the continent's common currency.
High health-care costs: It’s all in the pricing
By Ezra Klein - WashingtonPost.com
There is a simple reason health care in the United States costs more than it does anywhere else: The prices are higher.
That may sound obvious. But it is, in fact, key to understanding one of the most pressing problems facing our economy. In 2009, Americans spent $7,960 per person on health care. Our neighbors in Canada spent $4,808. The Germans spent $4,218. The French, $3,978. If we had the per-person costs of any of those countries, America’s deficits would vanish. Workers would have much more money in their pockets. Our economy would grow more quickly, as our exports would be more competitive.
What’s ailing the Chevy Volt?
by Brad Plumer - WashingtonPost.com
On Friday, GM announced it was halting production of the Chevrolet Volt until April, so as to maintain "proper inventory levels." Sales of the electric vehicle have been disappointing, with the company missing its target of 10,000 Volts sold last year. Why hasn’t the car caught on?
GM executives have said the recent frenzy over a Volt battery fire in crash tests has hurt sales. On the merits, the fires weren’t a huge concern — the Volts only caught fire days or weeks after extreme lab testing, and according to a government investigationthey’re no more likely to catch fire than gas-powered automobiles. Still, panicky headlines ensued. Conservatives started denouncing the company (Rush Limbaughcalled GM "a corporation that’s trying to kill its customers"). And GM needed to retrofit new vehicles. Add that up, and GM sold only 603 Volts in January, down from 1,520 in December.
GM laying off 1300 due to low Volt sales
by Joel Gehrke - WashingtonExaminer.com
General Motors Co. announced the temporary suspension of Chevrolet Volt production and the layoffs of 1300 employees, as the company is cutting Volt manufacturing to meet lower-than-expected demand for the electric cars.
Gas Prices Doomed Carter—Will They Doom Obama? Obama's the first Democrat to face down rising gas prices in an election year since Carter. But he has advantages his unfortunate predecessor didn't.
By Jordan Weissmann - TheAtlantic.com
Gas prices are up, and there's a Democrat in the Oval Office seeking reelection. What year is it?
For Politico, 2012 is 1980 all over again, and the newspaper is now pondering whether President Obama will end up "owning" high gas prices much the way Jimmy Carter did by the end of his term in the White House.
It's certainly possible that, as fuel costs inevitably rise in the coming months, enough cash-strapped voters will start casting blame on the president to cripple his reelection chances. You never know. But economically, comparing Carter's dire predicament, which he notoriously mishandled, with Obama's is silly, in part because you can't look at gas prices in a vacuum. The late 1970s were an economic nightmare in which fuel costs were one of several scourges. Today, we're looking at a strengthening recovery that's better equipped to withstand a bit of pain at the pump.
Can the shale gas boom save Ohio?
By Steven Mufson - WashingtonPost.com
The help-wanted sign is out in Canton, Ohio, for Chesapeake Energy.
The company that has led the charge in shale gas drilling is looking for truck drivers with licenses for hazardous materials, a purchasing coordinator for oil field equipment, a pipeline technician, a field safety coordinator, administrative assistants, troubleshooting electricians, a tax analyst and more.
Chesapeake is mobilizing for a massive drilling and development campaign in the state. The company has spent $2.2 billion and amassed about 800,000 acres of leases in the rich Utica shale that runs underneath eastern Ohio. It has eight rigs running and will have 20 poking holes in the ground around Election Day. It plans to install 200 miles of pipeline this year to bring its bounty to market.
Plateau Oil meets 125m Chinese cars Oil spikes usually metastasize once energy costs reach 9pc of global GDP. The longer they stay there, the greater the damage.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
That proved to be the pain barrier in the 1970s and again in 2008, and we are just shy of that level right now. "Oil is already capturing a higher level of European GDP than in 2008," said Francisco Blanch from Bank of America.
The rule of thumb is that a 10pc rise in crude cuts US growth by 0.2pc four quarters later, but the science is flabbily soft and nobody knows where the inflexion point lies. The effect is famously "non-linear". Nothing much seems to happen until confidence suddenly snaps.
Keiser Report: D.I.C.s and Hackers (E257)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss the Stratfor bimbo, the bank that is in bed with it and Wikileaks as the modern day Gutenberg press. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Andy Bichlbaum of TheYesMen.org about Stratfor, culture jamming and targeting the system's bottom line.
Why Can’t Americans Have Democracy?
by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - CounterPunch.org
Syria has a secular government as did Iraq prior to the American invasion. Secular governments are important in Arab lands in which there is division between Sunni and Shi’ite. Secular governments keep the divided population from murdering one another.
When the American invasion, a war crime under the Nuremberg standard set by the US after WW II, overthrew the Saddam Hussein secular government, the Iraqi Sunnis and Shi’ites went to war against one another. The civil war between Iraqis saved the American invasion. Nevertheless, enough Sunnis found time to fight the American occupiers of Iraq that the US was never able to occupy Bagdad, much less Iraq, no matter how violent and indiscriminate the US was in the application of force.
Alex Jones: Blueprint to Defeat
The New World Order from Dallas, Texas
By Saman Mohammadi - Infowars.com
Alex Jones is a great soul.
"We are at the crossroads of human destiny. The universe lays before us. The eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, what God has got in store for us. The psychopath guild knows humanity is awakening and has used our energy and skills to construct a global chemical, biological, electronic, spiritual concentration camp. But our spiritual discernment and our ancestral genetics has sensed the threat, and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And you are that shield of humanity." – Alex Jones. Great words from a great man.
Alex Jones: Blueprint to Defeat
The New World Order from Dallas, Texas
Alex took to the road and visited a affiliate radio station in Dallas, Tx. He presented detailed talks and covered the history of the New World Order, its philosophy and mindset, what makes it tick and how we can decisively defeat its plan to establish a technocratic totalitarian world order and prison planet.
The New American era of socialism
By Armstrong Williams - The Washington Times
We have veered so far from the vision of our Founding Fathers that, unless the American people regain a strong commitment to the traditional American values of self-reliance, individual liberty and equality of opportunity, our democracy will inevitably lead to socialism.
In fact, it’s hard to argue that we aren’t already there.
We live in an age when some banks are too big to fail - when the tax-paying minority of Americans must carry the burden of failed investment firms that were run into the ground by our "best and brightest."
The Economic Crisis is a Sideshow to the Real Issue
By Monty Pelerins - EconomicNoise.com
The world is changing and few people understand the implications. Old rules and guidelines which worked for generations no longer apply. Profound changes, termed "discontinuities" by the late Peter Drucker, have obsoleted them. For those accustomed to linear change, there is a new normal. Mr. Drucker described a discontinuity as a change so profound that normal extrapolation of the past would produce misleading forecasts.
The most profound change the world faces is the future role of government in relationship to its citizens. Here are a few of the unsettled issues:
New privacy policy lets Google watch you — everywhere
By Michelle Singletary - WashingtonPost.com
Several weeks ago, I bought some exercise videos online. Then I noticed that whenever I did an Internet search about anything, an ad for that same video package and other similar workout videos kept popping up. It was spooky.
The whole thing reminded me of two scenes from the Tom Cruise movie "Minority Report." In one, as Cruise is walking through a mall, various holographic ads pop up. There’s a commercial for Lexus, and, as Cruise strolls along, a voiceover says: "The road you’re on, John Anderton, is the one less traveled." Another says: "John Anderton! You could use a Guinness right about now." It’s creepy.
China announces double-digit hike in its defense budget
By Barbara Demick - LATimes.com
REPORTING FROM BEIJING -- China announced on Sunday an 11.2% increase in its defense budget for 2012, the latest in a string of double-digit hikes in recent years.
For the first time, China’s defense spending will top $100 billion and that figure is believed by international experts to omit such large-ticket items as its space program.
Although the increase is not as large as last year’s, it is enough to provoke anxiety at a time that the United States is shifting military resources to the Asia-Pacific.
The budget was unveiled, as in past years, on the eve of the opening session of the National People’s Congress, China’s equivalent of a legislature, which meets annually in March.
China Boosts Military Spending by Double Digits Continuing Buildup, China Boosts Military Spending
More Than 11 Percent
By JANE PERLEZ - NYTimes.com
BEIJING — China announced a double-digit increase in military spending on Sunday, a rise that comes amid an intensifying strategic rivalry between the United States and China in Asia and concerns in Washington about the secrecy surrounding the Chinese defense budget.
The increase, reported to be 11.2 percent, is in step with the increased pace of military spending by China over the past decade, but the official statement did not give details of what weapons systems China is developing or offer a description of military strategy beyond protection of the country’s sovereignty. China analysts said the true figure was probably significantly higher and was underreported because much of the military’s decision-making is kept opaque.
North Korea’s Kim visits DMZ, orders high alert
By Hyung-jin Kim - Associated Press - WashingtonTimes.com
SEOUL (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-unvisited the heavily armed border with rival South Korea and ordered troops to be on high alert, state media reported Sunday, just days after Washington and Pyongyang agreed to a nuclear deal after years of deadlock.
Mr. Kim’s visit to Panmunjom village in the Demilitarized Zone, his first reported trip there since the December death of his father, Kim Jong-il, comes amid escalating militaristic rhetoric aimed at U.S. ally South Korea.
Al Qaeda in Iraq mounts comeback Claims a string of fatal bombings
By Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times
Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Osama bin Laden-inspired terrorist group that sank the country into sectarian violence five years ago, is trying to make a comeback in post-U.S.-occupied Iraq, analysts and intelligence officials say.
Washington is closely watching whether AQI, as it is called, in the next year can reassemble networks smashed by the U.S. counterterrorism campaign. American commandos and intelligence officers killed AQI leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in 2006 and then scores of other chieftains until, by 2011, the group was decimated.
Israel offers humanitarian aid to Syria
By Abraham Rabinovich - WashingtonTimes.com
JERUSALEM — Israel’s foreign minister on Sunday offered to send humanitarian aid to Syria through the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"The Jewish state cannot sit idly by while horrific acts are taking place in a neighboring country and people are losing all that is dear to them," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.
* * * * *
Peres: U.S., Israel agree on stopping Iranian nukes He denounces Iran as 'evil regime'
By Ben Birnbaum - The Washington Times
Israeli President Shimon Peres railed Sunday against the "evil, cruel, morally corrupt regime" in Iran and pledged that Israel and the United States will stop it from developing nuclear weapons.
"Iran is an evil, cruel, morally corrupt regime. It is based on destruction. It is an affront to human dignity," Mr. Peres said, speaking before the annual gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
"Iran is the center, the sponsor, the financier of world terror. Iran is a danger to the entire world."
Obama: 'Too much loose talk of war' with Iran
By Sam Mamudi, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) ) — President Barack Obama said Sunday that he has not ruled out any options in dealing with Iran, but warned that talk of war only helps Iran’s government.
Amid increasing discussion of a military attack on Iran, Obama said in a closely-watched speech that his policy is to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.
"Iran’s leaders should know that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," said Obama at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Washington, D.C.’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group. "And as I’ve made clear time and again during the course of my presidency, I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests."
Barack Obama tells Israel conference:
'too much loose talk of war' In address to Aipac, president says world has responsibility to discourage Tehran from pursuing nuclear weapon
By Chris McGreal in Washington - Gurardian.co.uk
Barack Obama has admonished Israel for "too much loose talk of war" with Iran and said the world has a responsibility to give sanctions an opportunity to discourage Tehran from pursuing a nuclear weapon.
Speaking before a meeting on Monday with the Israeli prime minister,Binyamin Netanyahu, Obama sought to head off pressure for him to commit to military action against Tehran if it crosses specified "red lines" in its nuclear programme.
Obama: I will not hesitate in using force
to block Iran’s nuclear threat from Iran Barack Obama vowed he would "not hesitate to use force" to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon on Sunday, but chided Israel for its "loose talk" of impending war and demanded more time for a diplomatic solution.
By Jon Swaine, Washington,
and Phoebe Greenwood in Jerusalem - Telegraph.co.uk
Speaking before a critical White House showdown Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, Mr Obama tried to buy more time for "crippling sanctions" against Tehran to take effect before Israel decides to strike its nuclear facilities.
"Iran's leaders should know that I do not have a policy of containment," Mr Obama told a major pro-Israeli conference in Washington. "I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon".
Gold’s Role in the Future World Economy
BY ALEX STANCZYK - FinancialSense.com
A speech delivered at the 5th Annual Conference on Analysis of International Financial Markets, Beijing China Jan. 7th, 2012
Ni hao, it is an honor for me to speak to you today.
Briefly about myself, I am not a formally trained economist, rather as a young man I spent some years in the US Military serving in both the US Navy as well as the US Army, with several years of combat experience in the deserts of the Middle East. Because of this, I tend to view things plainly, and I will speak plainly to you today.
I am going to talk to you today about gold’s potential role in the future economy, more precisely the monetary system. I realize this is a topic that has been hotly debated for decades by people who are probably much smarter than me. I am not going to try and make an argument that we should be on a gold standard nor a paper standard. I would like to simply point out that gold may matter as we move forward, and for an entirely different reason than use as daily money.
Fractal Gold Report: Flash Crash
By David Nichols - GoldSeek.com
Wednesday brought on one of the more shocking trading days in recent gold history, as a "flash crash" hit the gold market while Ben Bernanke was delivering his usual bland remarks to Congress.
Financial journalists were quick to talk about the "disappointment" that Bernanke didn't discuss detailed plans for QE3, but that doesn't make much sense. This bullish pattern was not unfolding merely on speculation that QE3 was imminent. There just really wasn't anything all that remarkable from the Fed chairman on Wednesday, and certainly nothing to trigger this type of sell-off.
UK's top gold fund manager:
'I would buy gold at almost any price' Leading gold fund manager Evy Hambro
on why he doesn't expect the bullion price to fall.
By Emma Wall - Telegraph.co.uk
Gold has emerged as one of the few winners from the financial crisis. Turbulence across markets globally and returns of next to nothing on cash over the past two years saw investors pour money into bullion. As a result, the gold price soared and Evy Hambro's BlackRock Gold & General fund saw inflows of nearly £1.5bn in the past 24 months alone, bolstering the fund to £3.4bn.
Emerging market demand
may pick up after sell-off in gold: HSBC
LONDON (Commodity Online): Emerging-market demand for gold may pick up after Wednesday’s sharp sell-off, said HSBC in a daily research note.
According to HSBC, gold and silver fell as the dollar rose when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, appearing before Congress, stopped short of signaling readiness to conduct another round of bond purchases.
"The inability of gold to clear USD1,800/oz in recent days, the sharp increase in net long speculative positions on the Comex since the new year, and the paucity of emerging-market buying in recent weeks left gold vulnerable to a selloff, which dragged silver lower in its wake," HSBC added.
Bullion Shakedown Stampedes the Ignorant
By: Rick Ackerman - GoldSeek.com
Although yesterday’s Congressional testimony by “Helicopter Ben” Bernanke was fundamentally meaningless, it caused gold and silver prices to take a spectacular dive. They got hit after the ‘Nank, prevaricating as usual, said the central bank wasn’t rushing to crank up a QE3 stimulus. While this may be true as far as it goes, it belies the fact that the money spigots have been wide open for years and will remain so, probably, until the financial system collapses. More on that below. Concerning the savaging that precious metals received, they are all but certain to recover, since the forces that have been driving them steeply higher for more than a decade are still very much in place.
"One dog goes one way, the other dog goes the other way, and this guy's sayin', 'Whadda ya want from me?'"
--Tommy Devito, Goodfellas
Another session in the world's most famous arena is upon us and the bulls are still catching their breath from yesterday. They know that following outsized action, the tape tends to (at least) probe that direction the following session, and while the meat of the heat was in gold—which fell like a rock (because it is)—it planted a seed of doubt in the mindset of the masses. Today—and tomorrow's—action will be telling, particularly given the proximity to S&P 1375 (recent highs, drawn with a crayon).
Brazil declares new 'currency war'
By Samantha Pearson in São Paulo - FT.com
Brazil has declared a fresh "currency war" on the US and Europe, extending a tax on foreign borrowings and threatening further capital controls in an effort to protect the country’s struggling manufacturers.
Guido Mantega, the finance minister who was the first to use the controversial term in 2010, said the government would not "sit by passively" as developed nations continue to pursue expansionary monetary policies at the expense of Brazil.
China's march to currency dominance just got longer
By John Foley - Reuters.com
China’s path to currency dominance just got a bit longer. Hong Kong holdings of the Chinese yuan fell in January, according to data out on March 1; there has been an 8 percent decline since the end of November. With the yuan no longer certain to rise in value, foreigners have much less reason to hold it. For a would-be reserve currency, that’s a real spanner in the works.
When the yuan looked undervalued, everyone wanted it. As China started letting yuan flow more freely over the border into Hong Kong in 2010, financial osmosis took place. Individuals took up their daily allowance of the currency, suppliers to Chinese companies asked to be paid in it, and for those too impatient to wait for gradual appreciation, the higher offshore exchange rate offered a quick profit.
Inflation Is A Tax
And The Federal Reserve
Is Taxing The Living Daylights Out Of Us
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Ronald Reagan once famously declared thatinflation is a tax, but sadly most Americans did not really grasp what he was talking about. If the American people truly understood what inflation was doing to them, they would be screaming bloody murder about monetary policy. Inflation is an especially insidious tax because it is not just a tax on your income for one year. It is a continual tax on every single dollar that you own. As your money sits in the bank, it is constantly losing value. Over time, the effects of inflation can be absolutely devastating. For example, if you put 100 dollars in the bank in 1970, those same dollars today would only have about 17 percent of the purchasing power that they did back then. In essence, you were hit by an 83 percent "inflation tax" and all you did was leave your money in the bank. So who is responsible for this? Well, the Federal Reserve controls monetary policy in the United States, and the inflationary monetary policy that the Fed has gotten all of us accustomed to is taxing the living daylights out of us. This is madness, and it needs to stop.
Oil climbs above $110
on pipeline explosion report denied by Saudis
By Bloomberg News - WashingtonPost.com
Oil climbed above $110 a barrel for the first time since May after an Iranian state-run news channel reported an explosion on a pipeline in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi official said no oil facilities were sabotaged.
Futures reached $110.55 in New York on Thursday afternoon after Iran’s Press TV reported on its English-language Web site that "an explosion has hit oil pipelines in the flashpoint Saudi Arabian city of Awwamiya," then fell back below $109. Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, a spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, said no oil facility in the region had been sabotaged after reports of a fire near the Ras Tanura refinery.
Painful savings rebalancing ahead for U.S. economy
By Martin Hutchinson - Reuters.com
Up to now, Americans have not suffered much for their lack of thrift. Until 2008, higher asset prices kept wealth up while the household savings rate declined, as Barry Bosworth points out in his Brookings Institution study "The decline in saving – a threat to America’s prosperity." Since then, higher household savings have been offset by large government budget deficits. A painful "anti-Keynesian" rebalancing lies ahead, with much lower consumption by households and government.
Households saved about 10 percent of their disposable personal income in the 1970s. That ratio fell to 2.8 percent between 2000 and 2007. Conversely, the ratio of personal consumption to GDP, which had been flat at around 62 percent from 1950 to 1980, increased to 70.8 percent in 2011.
Will 2012 feel like a comeback or a setback? Quick! Was 2011 or 2010 a better year for the economy?
Posted by Ezra Klein - WashingtonPost.com
The answer is 2010, at least if you're looking at growth. That year -- widely considered a disappointing one for the recovery -- saw three percent economic growth. As for 2011, even with the strong fourth quarter, growth was only 1.7 percent. That's not so impressive. And yet this, right now, feels like a recovery. It feels like we turned the corner in 2011. 2010, meanwhile, felt like a setback.
That's because we judge the economy based on its trend more than its level. The strongest growth in 2010 came early in the year. In the first quarter, the economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.9. By the fourth quarter, it had slowed to 2.3 percent. We lost speed, and it felt like we were losing our recovery.
Euroland will pay for this monetary madness The flood of cheap money from the European Central Bank is storing up grave trouble for the future.
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
When something looks dangerous, it generally is. And few things look quite so high-wire right now as the European Central Bank’s efforts to hold the euro together by flooding the banking system with free money.
This week, the ECB injected a further 529.5 billion euros via "long-term refinancing operations", or LTROs, bringing the tally to more than 1 trillion euros.
Eurozone unemployment hits record high of 10.7pc The eurozone's unemployment rate rose to a record high of 10.7pc in January, reaching levels of extreme social distress across large parts of Southern Europe.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Data from Eurostat showed that the region lost 185,000 jobs in one month, with the vast gap between North and South growing ever wider. The figures for the previous four months were also revised upwards sharply. There are now more than 450,000 more people without jobs than assumed a month ago.
Klaus Baader from Societe Generale said the outlook was "deteriorating drastically" in the region. "Economic slowdown and fiscal austerity has hit the labour market much harder than previously thought."
10.7 Percent: Unemployment In Europe Is Worse
Than It Was At The Peak Of The Last Recession
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
The unemployment rate in the eurozone is now 10.7 percent. That is the highest the unemployment rate has been since the introduction of the euro. The unemployment rate in the eurozone never got any higher than 10.2 percent during the last recession. This is very troubling news. It was just recently announced that the eurozone has entered another recession, and already the unemployment rate is hitting new record highs. So how bad are things going to get in the months to come? The truth is that the problems for Europe are just starting. The European sovereign debt crisis continues to get worse, and another major global financial crisis is going to be here way too soon. The EU as a whole has a larger population, a larger banking system and more Fortune 500 companies than the United States does. When the financial system of Europe crashes, the entire world is going to feel it.
It's Not Really about the Debt
Mises Daily: by Frank Shostak
In his Outside the Box e-letter, February 13, 2012, respected economic commentator John Mauldin presents an interview with Dr. Lacy Hunt, a highly regarded US financial economist. According to Hunt the key factor behind the current world economic crisis — in Europe and the United States in particular — is a very high level of debt relative to gross domestic product (GDP). For instance in the United States, as a percentage of GDP, both public- and private-sector debt is currently at around 400 percent, while in the eurozone it is 450 percent.
This way of thinking follows in the footsteps of the famous American economist Irving Fisher who held that a very high level of debt relative to GDP runs the risk of setting in motion deflation and in turn a severe economic slump.[1] According to Fisher the high level of debt sets in motion the following sequence of events that culminate in a severe economic slump:
Central Banks Now Operating as One Global Monopoly? Dominant Social Theme:
More is better. But each bank "does its own thing."
by Staff Report - TheDailyBell.com Free-Market Analysis: It is a much denied fact that what may be called a New World Order is continually being developed at the highest reaches of power. But what is less well known is the amount of coordination already developed between the facilities that provide the engine for global governance.
Central banks are separate banking facilities and responsible for various elements of their country's economies. Some are operated at an arm's length from government but all are likely, one way or another, controlled by theAnglosphere power elite.
Fed officials flag soft economy but mum on easing
By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other top officials of the U.S. central bank on Thursday highlighted risks to the economic recovery despite recent signs of strength, but offered few hints that any additional monetary stimulus might be needed.
Bernanke told lawmakers there was reason to be suspicious of the recent decline in unemployment given the weakness of economic growth. [see chart]
So the spat of good news means we should sit back and quietly expect the Federal Reserve to demur on any more quantitative easing, right?
Wrong!
Americans earning more, but spending still in question
By Ylan Q. Mui - WashingtonPost.com
Americans are earning more money amid the strengthening job market, but economists say the arc of the recovery largely hinges on what consumers do with the extra cash.
Government data released Thursday showed wages and salaries rose 0.4 percent in January from the previous month, following a similarly strong increase in December. Total personal income increased 0.3 percent in January, and government economists recently revised their calculations upward for income growth during the second half of last year.
Surprise! The Case for QE3 Is Stronger Than Ever Think the economy is too healthy for another round of Bernanke's stimulus? Wrong! In fact, this is the perfect time for more monetary easing. Let me explain...
By Matthew O'Brien - TheAtlantic.com
For the past three years, economists have loved to hate the recovery. But they're coming around to the possibility that they might have to fall in love with the idea that the comeback is real. Typically, a stronger economy means a more conservative Fed. As this chart from Reuters shows, when growth goes up, interest rates go up.
Fed's Lockhart: economy far from optimal
By Karen Jacobs
(Reuters) - The U.S. economy is gaining strength as evidenced by lower unemployment and other positive recent economic data, but it remains far from its 'optimal condition,' Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart said on Thursday.
Lockhart, a voting member of the U.S. central bank's Federal Open Market Committee this year, also said he still favors low-rate monetary policy even though at present low rates aren't stimulating much credit growth.
Fed's Raskin: Stronger U.S. economy will help savers
By Steven C. Johnson
(Reuters) - While record low interest rates have cut income for savers, they will ultimately nurse the U.S. economy back to health, increasing returns for savers and investors alike, a top Federal Reserve official said on Thursday.
"Critics of the Federal Reserve's accommodative monetary policy are correct that the low level of interest rates represents a strain on households who rely on income from interest-bearing assets," Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin said in a speech to the Y's Men of Westport/Weston.
Fed's Pianalto: no significant change to outlook
By Leah Schnurr
(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve faces risks if it takes more policy action or if it withdraws monetary accommodation, making the central bank's "already quite accommodative" stance fine for now, a top U.S. Federal Reserve official said on Thursday.
Pianalto described the Fed's current stance as appropriate, though she nodded to a recent string of stronger economic data.
"It's an appropriate policy. I think it has us on a path for continued, steady growth and output, which will then lead to more employment growth, but keeping prices stable," Pianalto said in a rare question-and-answer session with reporters.
Five Largest Banks 'Should Be Broken Up': Fed’s Fisher
By: Reuters with CNBC.com
The five biggest banks in the United States are too powerful and should be broken up, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said on Wednesday.
The financial crisis has left the five biggest banks even more powerful than before, he said at an event in Mexico City.
The five biggest U.S. banks are: JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup.
"After the crisis, the five largest banks had a higher concentration of deposits than they did before the crisis," he said. "I am of the belief personally that the power of the five largest banks is too concentrated."
Bernanke warns of slow progress ahead on jobs
By Mark Felsenthal and Pedro da Costa
(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday offered a tempered view of the U.S. economy, pouring cold water on the notion that recent upbeat signs herald a stronger recovery.
Bernanke told Congress that unless growth accelerated, the unacceptably high U.S. unemployment rate would not keep dropping.
But he stopped short of signaling further Fed bond purchases, dashing the hopes of some traders in financial markets who were betting on more monetary stimulus.
Explaining the U.S. Home Health Care System
By Megan McArdle - TheAtlantic.com
Yesterday's post on early hospital discharges has triggered a lot of interesting discussion. Two questions came up over and over: why can't we do this more like European countries, who have single-payer systems--and why can't we do this more like our ancestors, who regarded caring for family members as an important part of familial duties?
No one made both arguments, so I'll try to take them one at a time. On the question of Europe, I do get the impression that European governments provide a lot more automatic in-home care. But that's all anecdotal--I'm not aware of any really good studies on the matter. Moreover, the anecdotes I have heard indicate that it's far from uniform: Spanish families are supposed to provide lots of care for sick relatives; Norwegian families, almost none.
To residents of another Washington,
their cherished values are under assault
By Eli Saslow - WashingtonPost.com
WASHINGTON, Okla. — Here is the only light amid the Sunday-night darkness of the plains, its yellow glow visible for a mile around. People travel here down two-lane roads, past flags that snap in the wind and a sign that reads “Only God Can Save America.” They park in front of the steeple at the corner of Center and Main. Pastor Fred Greening greets them at the door.
Theirs is a church of 400 in a town of 600, where four generations stand together to bow their heads in prayer. Cowboys wear boots and roughnecks wear flannel. A 9-year-old sets down his toy truck and clasps his hands. Together they recite pledges of allegiance to the United States, to the Bible and to the Christian flag.
Exposing world class hypocrites... Delegitimizing Government Power
by Joel F. Wade - TheDailyBell.com
Al Gore excoriates us on how we need to restrict our wasteful lifestyles and limit our "carbon footprint" while flying around the world in private jets, using orders of magnitude more energy than any of us little people.
Barrack Obama attacks the "fat cats" and nags us for not being generous enough – requiring the government to spread the wealth around – while making millions of dollars, giving little to charity, and traveling on exorbitant vacations.
Leftist politicians claim that they support the "99 percent" crowd of the Occupy Wall Street protests, though they personally tend to be among the wealthiest and the most involved in the kind of fascist crony capitalism that is most oppressive to regular citizens.
These are all examples of world-class hypocrites. They say one thing and do another. They go around telling everybody else how to live while they themselves indulge their own appetites.
Koch brothers sue Cato Institute In suit, Koch brothers seek bigger control over D.C. think tank
By T.W. Farnam and Dan Eggen - WashingtonPost.com
The billionaire Koch brothers, whose outsized political spending has become an issue in the 2012 elections, are attempting to take control of a prominent Washington think tank in a move that would expand their influence in conservative politics, according to court recordsand interviews.
Charles and David Koch, owners of a Wichita-based conglomerate that ranks as one of the largest private corporations in the world, filed a lawsuit this week in Kansas seeking an option to increase their 50 percent control of the Cato Institute.
THE KOCHS VS. CATO
by Jane Mayer - NewYorker.com
The arch-conservative billionaire Koch Brothers have sued the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington—often mistakenly seen as merely a tentacle, if not mouthpiece, for the Kochtopus—for control of Cato. Slate’s Jacob Weisberg wryly tweeted: “Brothers sue to regain ownership of CATO. Like the Iran-Iraq War, but better.”
The lawsuit, filed in Kansas, certainly adds a new layer of rancor, and, if it goes forward, promises a glimpse inside the secretive machinations of the Kochs. But the friction between Charles Koch and the Cato Institute isn’t new—there’s a long backstory here. In fact, Charles Koch, whom many regard as the brains behind the Kochs’ powerful political and industrial empires, first broke with Cato some two decades ago, while still retaining a stake in the think tank, for reasons that have never been made public.
The End of Ownership:
Why Aren't Young People Buying More Houses? Richer couples! Cheaper mortgages! Millions of unwanted houses! Despite all this, young home owners declined for 30 years, even before the Great Recession. Here's how the American Dream shrank.
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
When older generations wonder what's the matter with Millennials, they often judge their younger cohorts against such financial and social benchmarks as finding a job, getting married, and buying a home. These observations often come wrapped in weak science -- "blame Facebook for their indolence" -- or dripping with judgment -- "blame their parents for making them weak." The science is weak, but the observations are true. Fewer young people are finding jobs. Fewer young people are getting married. Fewer young people are buying homes.
Nearly half of Arizona homes are 'under water'
Phoenix Business Journal by Jan Buchholz, Reporter
About half the homes with mortgages in Arizona had negative equity in the fourth quarter of 2011, CoreLogic reported Thursday.
In Arizona, 48.3 percent of 631,126 residential properties with a mortgage were underwater for the fourth quarter, according to CoreLogic. That compares with 47.1 percent in the third quarter.
Nevada, at 61.1 percent, was the only state with a higher negative equity rate than Arizona.
Lumps of Labor
By NED RESNIKOFF - TheNewInquiry.com
Barack Obama’s most recent State of the Union included no less than 33 repetitions of the word jobs, and that does not even include his one glowing reference to the recently deceased Steve Jobs. Most of them were piled up near the top of the speech, in statements like this: "Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed."
Yet for all this talk about jobs, the president was strikingly reluctant to specify what kind of jobs he’d like the business community to "bring back." One job, it seems, would do as well as any other. Perhaps that’s why he praised American manufacturing for "creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990s," while declining to note that new hires in that sector are getting paid far less than their predecessors.
Sheriff Arpaio: Obama birth certificate a 'forgery'
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times
PHOENIX — Armed with a new 10-page report he commissioned, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday he suspects the birth certificate President Obama released last year is a "computer-generated forgery" — and also raised questions about the authenticity of the president’s selective service registration card.
In an extensive — and at times combative — press conference in Phoenix, Sheriff Arpaiorepeatedly said he is not questioning the president’s legal status under the Constitution nor alleging fraud on Mr. Obama’s part, but did say there is evidence crimes have been committed by someone and his investigation continues.
Forgery most foul!
Sheriff Joe Arpaio's birth certificate revelations Arizona sheriff's six-month investigation ends with Arpaio vowing to find whoever 'forged' Barack Obama's birth certificate
Guardian.co.uk
It's hard work being a conspiracy theorist. Just look at Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-styled tough guy of American policing, who has released the preliminary results of his "birther" investigation into whether Barack Obama is a true American.
The details of the inquiry – announced at a packed press conference in Arizona – were enough to make you want to lie down in a darkened room for a week just to recover from the terrible exertion of it all. And that's even before you hear his conclusion: that Obama's birth certificate is probably a computer-generated fraud.
Witchcraft is growing threat
to children in Britain, warn police Children in Britain are being abused and murdered in increasing numbers because the belief in witchcraft is rife in some African communities, police said.
By Nick Britten and Victoria Ward - Telegraph.co.uk
The warning was issued as a couple from the Democratic Republic of Congo were found guilty of murdering the woman’s 15-year-old brother during an "exorcism ceremony".
The Metropolitan Police yesterday said it had investigated 83 "faith-based" child abuse cases involving witchcraft in the past 10 years but believed it was still an "under-reported, hidden crime".
Hackers Seized Control of Computers
in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab
By Kim Zetter - Wired.com
Hackers seized control of networks at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory last November, gaining the ability to install malware, delete or steal sensitive data, and hijack the accounts of users in order to gain their privileged access, according to a report from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s inspector general.
The breach, originating from Chinese-based IP addresses, allowed the intruders to compromise the accounts "of the most privileged JPL users" giving them "full access to key JPL systems," according to Inspector General Paul K. Martin in a report to Congress (.pdf).
New World Order? It was nice while it lasted.
By GEOFFREY NORMAN - The American spectator.org
Twenty years ago this week, the war known as "Desert Storm" ended with the United States and its allies utterly victorious and President George H. W. Bush's vision of a "new world order" seemingly validated. Aggression had been met, turned back, and punished. So decisively, it seemed, that no rogue state would try anything like Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait again. Bush's approval ratings soared, briefly, to 90 percent.
That now seems not merely a long time ago but like something from another, dimly remembered age. Which may account for why not much was made of the anniversary. There were no speeches and no parades recognizing a military triumph that would, we were told, usher in a Pax Americana.
Military Spending and Bastiat's "Unseen"
Mises Daily: by Eric Phillips
You will often hear self-styled conservatives say, "I support the free market and a strong national defense." But if by supporting a "strong national defense" they mean supporting a large and aggressive conventional military — as they almost invariably do — these two positions are mutually exclusive. A military establishment funded by taxation, inflation, and debt is just as destructive to the market economy as a welfare establishment funded by taxation, inflation, and debt. Every dollar spent on the military, just like every dollar spent on the Department of Health and Human Services, is a dollar not spent or invested in the civilian economy. Every person employed by the military or the firms that supply the military with equipment is a person not employed in the civilian economy. And since civilian employment and capital accumulation are the foundations of a prosperous capitalist economy, a conventional military can only exist at the expense of a fully functioning free-market capitalist system.
The beginning of the end of Putin Vladimir Putin will once again become Russia’s president.
Even so, his time is running out
Economist.com
Russia knows that Vladimir Putin, who is now prime minister, will be elected president on March 4th. This is not because he is overwhelmingly popular, but because his support will be supplemented by a potent mixture of vote-rigging and the debarring of all plausible alternative candidates.
The uncertainty will come after the election, not before. Developments in the past few months have shown that Mr Putin cannot rule his country indefinitely. The beginning of the end of his reign has begun (see article). Whether it is a good end or a bad one is up to him.
Leave Afghanistan Now
By Cal Thomas - PatriotPost.us
Most wars have a turning point that either signals the road to victory or the ditch of defeat. In Vietnam, the 1968 Tet Offensive by communist troops against South Vietnamese and American forces and their allies is regarded as the turning point in that conflict. Though communist forces suffered heavy losses, which would normally define defeat, CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite and others in the U.S. media, portrayed the operation as an allied loss, thus encouraging not only the anti-war movement, but North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops who believed all they had to do was hang on until America grew tired of the war and quit.
Is War Imminent?
US and UK Step up Military Action in the Persian Gulf
By James Burgess - OilPrice.com
War against Iran seems imminent as both the US and UK military commands ask for more funding to increase the preparation and deployment of military arms and personnel in the Persian Gulf.
The US has already added to the number of aircraft carriers it has stationed in the area, sending both the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Carl Vinson, along with a number of warplanes and tens of thousands of troops. The warships will be modified with antitank weapons and rapid fire machine guns, all specially designed for dealing with the Iranian fast attack boats.
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a reason NOT to attack Iran... Exiled Crown Prince campaigns to bring Arab Spring to Iran Iran's exiled Crown Prince has launched a campaign to rally political exiles behind an Arab Spring-style demand for free elections and a new constitution.
By Damien McElroy - Telegraph.co.uk
Reza Pahlavi, the son and heir to the last Shah, wants to revive the opposition by uniting critics of the regime behind a common platform. He sees Friday’s elections for the Iranian Majlis, or parliament, as an opportunity.
Calls for a boycott are circulating widely inside the country and activists hope to push the turnout to a record low.
There have also been warnings from hardliners that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was prepared to use the interior ministry to rig the ballot boxes.
a reason to attack Iran... Time to act on Iran Obama administration efforts
dangerously out of touch with reality
By Mike Huckabee-The Washington Times
I have just returned from Israel, where I spent 10 days and had the opportunity to visit with people from the prime minister to street market vendors in Jerusalem’s Old City and gained perspectives ranging from Knesset members and rabbis to Arab Israelis, Christian Israelis and Muslim merchants. I can attest firsthand that the threat ofIran's government to “wipe Israel off the face of the map” is taken far more seriously than in the Obama administration, where the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey, spoke for the president by saying that"Iran is a rational actor."
Really? A government is “rational” that denies the Holocaust, publicly boasts of its goal of obliterating entire nations, is poised to execute by hanging a young Christian pastor because his faith offends the sensitivities of a government that will shoot women in the streets of Tehran should they dare question the results of a phony election? Calling such a government “rational” is not only irrational, but recklessly dangerous and not just to Israel, but to every nation in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States, not to mention the decent and civil people who live in Iran, but who do not share the radical, racist and ruthless outlook of their own maniacal government.
Why Bombing Iran Would Mean Invading Iran
By Robert Wright - TheAtlantic.com
Mitt Romney is tired of hearing President Obama threaten Iran in only vague terms. Enough of this "all options are on the table" stuff. Obama, Romney says, should declare that "we are considering military options" and "they're not just on the table--they are in our hand."
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Romney will get some support next week when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington: Netanyahu will ask Obama to say publicly that "the United States is preparing for a military operation in the event that Iran crosses certain 'red lines'."
Russia upgrades radar station in Syria to aid Iran
By Abraham Rabinovich - Special to The Washington Times
JERUSALEM — Russia has upgraded a surveillance station it maintains in Syrian territory in order to provide Iran early warning of an Israeli attack, according to the Israeli security-related blog Debkafile.
The surveillance station, located south of Damascus, had been able to monitor air traffic in Israel as far south as Tel Aviv, as well as northern Jordan and western Iraq.
Since the upgrade, its range reportedly extends to all parts of Israel and Jordan and as far south as the northern part of Saudi Arabia.
Israeli PM demands Obama commit to military action
if Iran sanctions fail Binyamin Netanyahu pressing for explicit threat from US ahead of crucial meeting with Obama next week in Washington
By Chris McGreal in Washington - Guardian.co.uk
Israel is pressing Barack Obama for an explicit threat of military action against Iran if sanctions fail and Tehran's nuclear programme advances beyond specified "red lines".
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is expected to raise the issue at a White House meeting on Monday after weeks of intense diplomacy in which Obama has dispatched senior officials – including his intelligence, national security and military chiefs – to Jerusalem to try and dampen down talk of an attack.
Why Israeli Public Opinion Opposes a Strike on Iran A new poll shows Israelis are skeptical of attacking Iran, especially without U.S. support.
By Paul R. Pillar - TheAtlantic.com
Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland, in cooperation with the Dahaf Institute of Israel, has just released the results of a poll taken within the past week of Israeli opinion toward Iran and American politics. Israeli attitudes toward the efficacy of a military strike against the Iranian nuclear program parallel the range of views one hears on that subject in the United States. If there is any surprise, it is that Israeli views are not any more hawkish than they are, notwithstanding the war rhetoric that the Netanyahu government has been disseminating for many months. (Anyone who doubts the ability of government drum beating to build public support for a war should recall the enormous effect on American public opinion of the George W. Bush administration's drumbeat on Iraq.)
Gold Falls 3% in an Hour Following Bernanke Comments, Iran Trading with Bullion as "Universal Currency"
BY BEN TRAYNOR - FinancialSense.com
Wholesale market gold bullion prices dropped 3.2% to $1727 per ounce in less than an hour Wednesday afternoon in London, after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before Congress.
Higher gasoline prices are "likely to push up inflation temporarily while reducing consumers' purchasing power," Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee.
Bernanke's comments "eased speculation the central bank is moving closer to providing more monetary stimulus," news agency Bloomberg reports.
Iran 'to accept payment in gold for oil'
BBC.co.uk
Iran is to accept gold instead of dollars as payment for its oil, the country's state news agency has said.
The move comes as US and European Union sanctions against Iran have made it difficult for buyers to make dollar payments to Iranian banks.
Mahmoud Bahmani, the governor of Iran's central bank, is reported to have said that the country would accept payment in gold "without any reservation"
Gold tumbles as US Fed signals no further stimulation measures
By Ross Norman - CommodityOnline.com
LONDON: Gold shed 5% on Wednesday afternoon following the the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's semi-annual testimony on monetary policy before the House Financial Services Committee this afternoon. In his report he gave no clear indication of further economic measures to stimulate the US economy and the outlook for inflation being "subdued'. The effect on gold was palpable.
Gold and Silver Fall Over 5% and 6%
By: Chris Mullen - GoldSeek.com
Today was Fed Chairman Bernanke's chance to testify before the Congress' Financial Services Committee. Here is a quick synopsis of his comments as I see them.
"The economy is getting better based on what we can see of the employment numbers but it is not growing at a fast enough clip to justify any immediate change in our accommodative monetary policy. The uptick in hiring has been helped by this policy and any change to it at the present time is not warranted. Real Estate is still a concern. Us fiscal condition is dire and faces a serious challenge at the end of this year. Inflation is not a concern although temporary rises in energy prices bear monitoring".
Gold Tumbles More Than $100 As $1700 Stops Triggered
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
In what is increasingly peculiar market action, gold dropped over $100 intraday, following triggering of $1700 sell limits, at which point sell signals hit every bid all the way to $1685 then a knee jerk bounce appeared, in some rather chaotic late day trading in paper gold. Whether this is due solely to algo driven liquidations following the earlier described shift in sentiment, or has some assistance from central banks is irrelevant as anyone and everyone who is happy to convert paper fiat into hard currencies is taking advantage of this latest short-term rout, to prepare for the next battery of printing which will come with 100% certainty. Remember: as we have been saying since the summer of 2011, Bernanke needs a tumble in stocks to get a green light for more easing, and he obviously won't get that with the S&P where it is, nor with WTI still sticking to $107.
Is Gold Backwardation Now Permanent?
By Keith Weiner, Casey Research - GoldSeek.com
Worldwide, an incredible tower of debt has been under construction since President Nixon's 1971 default on the gold obligations of the US government. His decree severed the redeemability of the dollar for gold and thus eliminated the extinguisher of debt. Debt has been growing exponentially everywhere since then. Debt is backed with debt, based on debt, dependent on debt and leveraged with yet more debt. For example, today it is possible to buy a bond (i.e., lend money) on margin (i.e., with borrowed money).
Gold Falls as Bernanke Damps Stimulus Bets
By Debarati Roy - Bloomberg.com
Gold futures fell as much as $100 to below $1,700 an ounce on signs that that the Federal Reserve will refrain from offering more monetary stimulus to bolster the U.S. economy.
In testimony before Congress today, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke gave no signal that the central bank will take new steps to boost liquidity. The dollar rose as much as 0.8 percent against a basket of major currencies, eroding the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment. Yesterday, gold reached $1,792.70, a three-month high, even as coin sales by the U.S. mint slumped in February.
Ron Paul Tells Bernanke He Killed The Dollar,
Silver Coin In Hand
By Agustino Fontevecchia - Forbes.com
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had an interesting morning over on Capitol Hill, facing the ire of Ron Paul and receiving Democratic praise from Barney Frank. Bernanke was testifying before the Committee on Financial Services, where he said the economic recovery continues but remains frail, but was put on the spot by Ron Paul who pulled out a silver eagle and accused him of debasing the currency and destroying America’s wealth.
Dollar Alternative Anyone?
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Countries around the world have been actively seeking ways to not do business in dollars for the past few years. The U.S. dollar is the so-called world reserve currency, but the big question is for how long? China and Japan are beginning to shun the dollar in trade between the two countries. Mind you, this is the 2nd biggest economy in the world doing business without dollars with the 3rd biggest economy in the world. Russia and China, also, have an agreement to notuse the dollar, and even India recently announced it would trade gold for oil with Iran. Additionally, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been calling for an alternative to the buck. The big push is not because the U.S. dollar is held in the highest regard but because it is losing its luster on the world stage. After all, the debt debacle facing America is worse than what the Greeks are facing according to a new report from U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions. (Click here to see for yourself.) Senator Sessions says every man, woman and child in the country is saddled with $44,000 in debt.
Yes, Google Once Considered Issuing Its Own Currency
By Megan Garber - TheAtlantic.com
The digital world has BitCoin; it's come close, it turns out, to having SchmidtCoin.
Google, Eric Schmidt revealed in a speech today, once considered getting into the digital currency game. The company has seen "various proposals," its chairman told a crowd at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, to develop a currency that would serve as tender for peer-to-peer economic exchanges taking place across Google's platforms.
Any second thoughts about 2014, Mr. Bernanke?
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Wall Street will be listening closely to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke over the next two days for any signs of distancing himself from the central bank’s pledge to keep rates at ultra-low levels for up to three years.
Bernanke is testifying Wednesday in front of the House Financial Services Committee and Thursday in front of the Senate Banking Committee as part of his semi-annual report to Congress on monetary policy.
Warren Buffett May Know Value,
But He Doesn't Know What Money Is
By Daniel Oliver Jr. - Forbes.com
Warren Buffett may be able to spot value, but the poor man has no idea what money is. In his latest screed against gold, Buffett compares the metal of kings to tulips: an asset to be bought either for decorative value or in the hope it can be sold again to a greater fool at a higher price. Gold has little industrial use and does not procreate: “if you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one ounce at its end.”
Buffett is correct that an once of gold will never increase nor diminish in size, but he ignores the fact that its value has been steadily increasing for at least 200 years.
ECB's Mario Draghi raises the stakes with trillion euro gamble The European Central Bank is doubling up on a very risky bet.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Mario Draghi’s latest half-trillion blast of credit averts a funding crunch for crippled banks and crippled EMU states, but raises the ultimate cost to catastrophic levels if the underlying crisis in southern Europe drags on into the middle of the decade.
Some 800 banks took up €529.5bn of loans at Mr Draghi’s second long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) on Wednesday, borrowing at 1pc for three years with almost any form of collateral. Citigroup said this amounts to €316bn of fresh liquidity, stripping out renewal of old loans. This compares with €200bn in extra stimulus at the first LTRO in December.
Euro-area banks tapped the European Central Bank for a record amount of three-year cash in an operation that may boost bond and equity markets.
The Frankfurt-based ECB said today it will lend 800 financial institutions 529.5 billion euros ($712.2 billion) for 1,092 days. Economists predicted an allotment of 470 billion euros, according to the median of 28 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. In the ECB’s first three-year operation in December, 523 banks borrowed 489 billion euros.
So, basically, nearly twice as many banks are in trouble now as compared to just three months ago. This is bullish, right???!!!
The UK tax system has reached breaking point There have been almost as many memorable sayings about taxation over the years as about marriage, divorce and religion. Everyone knows the one about there being only two certainties in life – death and taxes. Here are a few others.
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
Never mind relativity, the hardest thing in the world to understand, according to Albert Einstein, is income tax. Mark Twain opined that the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector was that the taxidermist took only your skin, while Plato observed that wherever income tax exists, the just man will pay more and the unjust less.
Art Cashin And Europe's Clashin' Culture
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
As the ECB supposedly takes it foot off the gas, and EU Summits and 'events' loom large for the careening wagon of shared sacrifice, unity, and sovereign risk, perhaps it is the nodding donkeys of Greek and Italian technocrats juxtaposed with Ireland's feistier "R" word gambit (and of course Zee German Overlords) that makes Art Cashin reflect somewhat philosophically on recent headlines. Their stereotypical interpretation has him concerned as the potential for ever-increasing culture clashes increases across the pond as sour memories and generational hatreds abound.
World Bank warns: China is a ticking time bomb Will Super Rich in China or U.S. be first to trigger meltdown?
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — "It’s as if 2008 never happened," warned a BusinessWeek editorial last year. A new crash is certain to complete what the 2008 meltdown started but failed to complete — reform Wall Street.
Everybody knows Wall Street’s still playing the same speculative games that triggered the 2008 crash: Bankers and politicians never learned history's lessons from the 2008 crash, that our "mutant capitalism" is eating at America’s soul, handicapping future generations — we will repeat them.
Bernanke sees ‘different signals’ from economy
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The recent improvement in the unemployment rate has put the Federal Reserve on alert and watching incoming data closely, said Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday.
"It will be especially important to evaluate incoming information to assess the underlying pace of economic recovery," in light of the "somewhat different signals" received recently from the labor market than from indicators of final demand, Bernanke said in testimony prepared for the House Financial Services Committee. Follow live blog of Bernanke testimony.
$5 Gas: Play it Again Sam!
BY JAMES J PUPLAVA CFP - FinancialSense.com
It’s happening again. Gasoline prices are on the rise. Since bottoming nationwide last September 29th at $2.69 a gallon, they have risen to $3.698; up $0.30 in the last month. The blow-dry’s on cable television are going bonkers with hysteria trying to explain it. News anchors like Bill O’Reilly are ranting vociferously: "It’s all due to greedy oil companies." Politicians are blaming speculators. Meanwhile, at the pump the average American is stuck with higher fuel bills to help pay for the weekly cost for commuting to work. We’re less than $0.30 away from taking out the highs reached last summer and only $0.42 a way from surpassing the record set in July of 2008...and it's still only February!
The China Factor will Drive American Gas Prices
Well Past $6 a Gallon this Decade
BY DAN COLLINS - FinancialSense.com
Some people understand and some never will. Many politicians and media personalities such as Bill O’Reilly are screaming at the world wondering why U.S. gas prices are so high. From their prism, U.S. oil production is up and the U.S. market is flooded with crude oil. They ask, why is the price so high? What they don’t understand is that there happens to be an additional 7 billion or so people on the planet that we need to compete with for scarce resources such as crude oil.
Bernanke Says Dodd-Frank’s Volcker Rule
Won’t Be Ready by July 21 Deadline
By Craig Torres and Cheyenne Hopkins - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank and other regulators won’t meet a July deadline to complete work on the so-called Volcker rule limiting proprietary trading at banks.
The ban is set to take effect by July 21 even if the rule- making is still in progress. It would include a two-year transition period; the Fed could issue one-year implementation extensions on a case-by-case basis after that.
Why Is the Financial World So Messed Up?
Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research - ZeroHedge.com
Why is the financial world so messed up? Because it’s run by Central Bankers. And those folks view money very differently than the businesspeople who create businesses, jobs, and wealth.
For your average Central Banker, the professional relationship between money and risk is a distant one. This has much to do with the fact that your average Central Banker is an academic, someone whose income has been fixed based on his or her status at a particular academic institution (tenure vs. non-tenured).
Fed finds better real estate, banking conditions
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Residential real estate markets and banking conditions are improving across most of the nation, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book reading of economic conditions released Wednesday.
Overall, the report found a modest, moderate expansion underway, with only New York the only one of the dozen Fed districts to report slower activity through mid-February.
The Beige Book survey, a collection of anecdotes from business contacts at the Fed, was collected this time by the St. Louis Fed District Bank and based on information received before Feb. 17.
Keiser Report: Weed Out Wall St. Crooks! (E255)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss 'no wrongdoing' settlements, defrauding school children and a morbidly obese, bedridden Volcker Rule. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Karl Denninger of the Market-Ticker.org about rigging Libor, ruining Volcker and shorting Facebook.
Geithner and the 'Privilege' of Being American The Founders argued that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were rights that preceded government—not things to be granted by it.
By LAWRENCE B. LINDSEY - WSJ.com
Last week Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that the "most fortunate Americans" should pay more in taxes for the "privilege of being an American." One can debate different ways of balancing the budget. But Mr. Geithner's argument highlights an unfortunate and very destructive instinct that seems to permeate the Obama administration about the respective roles of citizens and their government. His position has three problems: one philosophical, one empirical, and one logical.
Philosophically, the concept that being an American is a "privilege" upends the whole basis on which America was founded. Privileges are things granted to one individual by another, higher-ranking, individual. For example, in my house my children's use of the family car is a privilege. One presumes Mr. Geithner believes that the "privilege" of being an American is granted by the presumably higher-ranking, governing powers that be.
An Unexpected New Growth Industry for Retired Americans
By Eric Fry - DailyReckoning.com
02/29/12 Laguna Beach, California – What does marijuana have to do with Ben Bernanke’s monetary policy? A lot, as it turns out. But it’s not what you think.
The connection has nothing to do with the idea that Bernanke’s wacky policies are the work of "somebody who must be smoking something." No, not that. In fact, we’re pretty sure Ben isn’t a pot smoker. We doubt he has ever inhaled anything more mind-bending than his Harvard education. And frankly, why would you bother with weed, when you’ve got access to Harvard’s pharmaceutical-grade economic theories?
Sadly, the after-effects of sustained econ-theory abuse are usually irreversible. But that’s a story for another day. Our story for today relates to the far-reaching and unintended consequences of a reckless monetary policy.
Why Doctors Die Differently Careers in medicine have taught them the limits of treatment and the need to plan for the end
By KEN MURRAY - WSJ.com
Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. It was diagnosed as pancreatic cancer by one of the best surgeons in the country, who had developed a procedure that could triple a patient's five-year-survival odds—from 5% to 15%—albeit with a poor quality of life.
Charlie, 68 years old, was uninterested. He went home the next day, closed his practice and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with his family. Several months later, he died at home. He got no chemotherapy, radiation or surgical treatment. Medicare didn't spend much on him.
What Cutting Health Care Costs Looks Like
By Megan McArdle - TheAtlantic.com
If you've been wondering about the rather light posting schedule, here's most of the explanation: two Saturdays ago, my mother's appendix burst. It was a lengthy, draining saga that fouled up a rather full writing schedule. We just brought her home from the hospital today; she'll be staying with us while she finishes a course of IV antibiotics. Luckily, we're both writers with a great deal of flexibility about where we can work, and we have a spare bedroom, and the means to purchase a bed for her to stay on.
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The TSA Is Coming To a Highway Near You
By Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) - Forbes.com
One of the great honors of my service to Tennessee is having the opportunity to represent Ft. Campbell which is home to the storied 101st Airborne, the 5th Special Forces Group and the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment which piloted Navy SEAL Team Six during the raid on Osama Bin Laden.
Each soldier who calls Ft. Campbell home has gone through some of the most intensive training on the planet which pushed their minds and bodies to their physical limits. In the end, those who make the cut have earned the right to be part of our United States military, are honored to wear its uniform, and are serving on the frontlines in the fight against global terrorism.
Reversing the Presumption of Military Custody Chipping Away at the NDAA
by JOANNE MARINER - CounterPunch.org
Two positive steps have just been taken toward limiting the scope of the detention provisions of theNational Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the recently-passed federal statute on the military detention and trial of terrorist suspects.
The first is that, yesterday evening, the Obama Administration issued a policy directive that effectively negates much of the NDAA’s section 1022, the section that purports to require that non-citizens suspected of strong links to terrorism be held in military, rather than civilian, custody. Using a national security rationale, the directive reverses the presumption of military detention that section 1022 had established.
An Anti-Worker Union
By Ken Blackwell - PatriotPost.us
While refinery workers of the United Steelworkers held demonstrations in Washington Feb. 15 to protest the closure of two Philadelphia area refineries and the likely closure of a third in June, their leader continued his support of policies that might lead more refineries to cut back operations or shut down -- costing even more of his own members their jobs.
The Keystone XL pipeline, the bane of radical environmentalists throughout the country, would bring oil from Canada to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast creating jobs and stimulating local economies and industries along the way. Unfortunately, President Obama figures he needs radical environmentalists more than instead of middle class workers for his re-election orts so he's denying permits for the pipeline's construction.
Bombardier’s Shrinking Jet Backlog Adds Urgency to Orders
By Frederic Tomesco - Bloomberg.com
Bombardier Inc. (BBD/B), which sold more small commercial planes in this year’s first two months than all of 2011, must step up the pace of orders even more to keep from cutting production a second straight year, analysts said.
The planemaker garnered only four orders from February through December for regional jets, planes of 50 to 100 seats that were a mainstay of its aerospace unit a decade ago. Sales of seven turboprop planes in the same period marked the worst year since 2003.
Apple's New iPad May Be Mind Blowing;
Co-Founder Woz wants more Siri
By Connie Guglielmo, Forbes Staff
Less than a week after Apple CEO Tim Cook told shareholders the company was working on "some products that will blow your mind," Apple sent out an invite to a March 7 event that suggests it is readying the third-generation of the iPad tablet.
"We have something you really need to see. And touch," Apple said in its media invitation earlier today.
The Cloud That Rains Money
By Ray Blanco - DailyReckoning.com
02/28/12 We live in a time when you can pick up a tiny computer, ask it a question out loud and have a satisfactory answer provided in a matter of seconds. It’s amazing if you stop to think about it.
Voice-recognizing digital personal assistants have become commonplace. One such assistant is among the most important new features unveiled in Apple’s latest smartphone. Called Siri, it recognizes natural language questions and accesses a plethora of web services to provide an answer. Android-based phone users (like yours truly), on the other hand, have enjoyed voice recognition to navigate, search or compose messages since summer of last year.
Facebook faces nationwide class action tracking cookie lawsuit
By Emil Protalinski | ZDNet.com Summary: Facebook is once again being sued for tracking its users even after they logged out of the service. This new nationwide class action lawsuit alleges the company violated federal wiretap laws.
Facebook users are suing the social networking giant over allegations that itviolates federal wiretap laws. In addition to several lawsuits filed in multiple states, including Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the company is now facing a nationwide class action lawsuit. Law firms Murphy PA and Girard Gibbs have made their case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing Facebook of continuing to ignore concerns over its tracking cookies. They argue the company violates its own privacy policy, which states post-log-out activity is not tracked by the social networking giant.
Why It's Great to be a Psychotic A-Hole
By Ben Shapiro - PatriotPost.us
President Obama apologized this week for the U.S. military's accidental burning of Qurans in Afghanistan. "I wish to express my deep regret for the reported incident," said Obama. "I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies. ... We will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible."
The Quran burnings prompted massive riots in Afghanistan, as per the Islamist handbook, page 248, which, incidentally, may be the only book other than the Quran published in most Arabic-speaking countries. U.S. servicemen were murdered. The Qurans were only burned in the first place because terrorists were writing messages in them to their friends. None of that stopped Obama from making his apology.
Change For the Worse Pakistan: a Dangerous Uncertainty
by JUNAID S. AHMED - CounterPunch.org
Lahore.
Relations between the Pakistani government and the military have been tense recently, even resulting in rumours of an impending military coup. A coup is not very likely at this stage, but the situation has created the environment for at least one new political actor to emerge and gain popular support.
With relations between Pakistan’s civilian government and military incredibly tense, speculation is rife in the Pakistani and international media of a looming military takeover. The military is allegedly buoyed by support of the Supreme Court and the country’s business and political elite. However, the nature of events is changing at such a fast pace that it is difficult to predict the future.
Netanyahu: No Lebanon will be on the map
Pravda.ru
Israel what was that about MAPS?
For years, the paranoid Israelis have been screaming bloody murder that the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that "Israel should be wiped from the map." Of course, the man said no such thing, it was a deliberate mis-translation meant to serve their purposes: to demonize Ahmadinejad and Iran and to justify an unprovoked attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
So what did Ahmadinejad actually say? To quote his exact words in Farsi:
"Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad."
The full quote translated directly to English:
"The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time."
Assad could be classified as a war criminal – Clinton
RT.com News
With the US labeling the Syrian President as a “war criminal” and France calling for his prosecution in the International Criminal Court, the West appears to be ratcheting up its rhetoric against the Syrian government.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before a Senate subcommittee on the State Department's budget. Pressured by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) into answering whether she thinks Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad fits the definition of a war criminal, Clinton said: "Based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be made that he would fit into that category."
Criminal: Clinton ratchets up anti-Assad rhetoric
With the US labeling the Syrian President as a "war criminal" and France calling for his prosecution in the International Criminal Court, the West appears to be ratcheting up its rhetoric against the Syrian government.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before a Senate subcommittee on the State Department's budget. Pressured by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) into answering whether she thinks Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad fits the definition of a war criminal, Clinton said: "Based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be made that he would fit into that category."
Middle East: Stupid is the Order of the Day
by PETER LEE - CounterPunch.org
The stupid Attack Iran obsession seems to have infected virtually all discussion of the Middle East.
Marc Lynch of G.W. University said something stupid…then Amnesty International said something stupid…and how about those stupid Islamic terrorist plots?
I have already written about Marc Lynch’s rather terminal and embarrassing misunderstanding of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in the matter of Syria, a major problem since he presents threatening Assad and his cohorts with prosecution by the ICC as the cornerstone for his vision of coercive diplomacy.
'Pentagon knows China will be US enemy No.1 starting in 2017'
The World Bank has a sobering forecast for the future of China's economy. It's produced a report saying without reform, the globe's second biggest economy will suffer a major slowdown over the next 20 years. With major consequences for the whole world. Let's get more on this from author and international consultant Adrian Salbucci, who joins RT from Buenos Aires in Argentina.
France, US arming Syrian rebels
with anti-aircraft missiles – report
RT.com News
A general in the opposition militia known as the Free Syria Army has told journalists that the rebels have received French and American military assistance, amid reports of worsening violence in the stricken nation.
In Homs on Tuesday, a general claiming to be from the rebel group appeared on camera and told a journalist from Reuters news agency that “French and American assistance has reached us and is with us.” When asked to elaborate on the nature of the assistance he added, "We now have weapons and anti-aircraft missiles and, God willing, with all of that we will defeat Bashar [President Assad]."
North Korea pledges to halt nuclear programme
in exchange for US aid Washington promises food aid for first time since 2009, with Hillary Clinton hoping new leadership will 'guide nation to peace'
By Chris McGreal in Washington
and Tania Branigan in Beijing - Guardian.co.uk
North Korea has agreed to suspend nuclear missile tests and uranium enrichment, and submit to international monitoring, in return for US food aid.
Washington described the deal, which breaks with the US's previous assertion that large-scale deliveries of food are not tied to North Korea curbing its nuclear programme, as "important, if limited".
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