The Weekend Economists, Winter Solstice Edition, Dec. 20-22, 2013.

[Fuddnik]

It's that Holiday Festival time of year again, folks.

It's Santa Claus's birthday. Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, and as we call it in Florida, Late Summer.

It's the shortest day of the year. The days get longer until mid June. It's officially winter up North at 11 minutes after Noon. Which is about an hour before I tee off at World Woods.

The length of the day differs at different latitudes, from a quick 4hr 07 min in Reykjavic, Iceland to 14hr 29min in Buenos Aires.

But, it's not necessarily the latest sunrise and earliest sunset. In Washington DC, for example, sunrise is at 7:24 am Sat (the latest will be Jan 1st at 7:27am) and sunset is at 4:50pm. However, the earliest sunset was on Dec. 1st, at 4:46 pm. I think that was another unintended consequence of Obamacare.


So, have at it comrades!! Have a happy weekend, with lots of spiked eggnog, and have a happy Santa's Birthday.



Images from Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/12/20/winter-solstice-2013-shortest-day-of-the-year-but-sunset-already-creeping-later/

[Demeter]

1. Unbounded gratitude!

Happy Solstice, Doc. From my sickbed, whence I return immediately--Demeter.

[Fuddnik]

3. Thank you.

Just rest up and get well.

My wife's daughter is flying down from Detroit Sunday night. Hopefully, all the crap weather will be through there before her departure time.

[DemReadingDU]

4. Hope you feel better soon

At least our snow has melted today, feels almost like balmy spring. And it's the winter solstice. Crazy weather.

[Fuddnik]

2. No banks down as of 7:08 pm.

Who wants to work over the holidays, anyway?

[xchrom]

5. U.S. sees Pacific trade pact talks taking time

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/21/uk-usa-trade-transpacific-idUKBRE9BK02K20131221

(Reuters) - Negotiations on a trade pact between a dozen countries around the Pacific Rim will take whatever time they need as the deal has to be both ambitious and comprehensive, U.S. trade representative Michael Froman said on Saturday.

The U.S.-backed deal, which Washington had wanted to conclude this year, aims to establish a free-trade bloc stretching from Vietnam to Chile and Japan, encompassing about 800 million people and almost 40 percent of the global economy.

But differences over farm tariffs between the United States and Japan have proved to be one of the major roadblocks and it will now not be finalised this year.

"I think we're focused on trying to reach agreement among the 12 countries as soon as possible, but based on it being an ambitious, comprehensive, high-standard agreement and we'll take whatever time is necessary to do that, letting the substance of the negotiations dictate the timetable," Froman told Reuters.

[xchrom]

6. Japan forecasts GDP growth of 1.4 percent for fiscal 2014

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/21/uk-japan-gdp-forecast-idUKBRE9BK04B20131221

(Reuters) - The government forecast on Saturday that Japan's real gross domestic product will grow by 1.4 percent for the fiscal year starting March 2014, slowing from an expected 2.6 percent growth for the current year as a planned sales tax increase is seen dampening consumption.

The forecast is part of the annual budget review. The government projects about 50 trillion yen ($480.33 billion) in tax revenue for the coming fiscal year based on the growth forecast.

While the higher sales tax is expected to curb consumption, the government expects positive economic growth thanks to the effects of a fiscal and monetary stimulus.

The national sales tax is set to rise to 8 percent in April and could rise to 10 percent in 2015 if the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe goes ahead with its fiscal consolidation plan.

[xchrom]

7. stores open for 100 hours to attract shoppers

stores open for 100 hours to attract shoppers

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MARATHON_STORE_HOURS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-20-22-19-02

NEW YORK (AP) -- Some stores are ending the holiday shopping season the same way they began it - with round-the-clock, marathon shopping hours.

Kohl's for the first time is staying open for essentially five days straight, from 6 a.m. on Friday through 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

Macy's and Kmart are opening some of their stores for more than 100 hours in a row from Friday through Christmas Eve. And Toys R Us is staying open for 87 hours straight starting on Saturday, which is typically the second biggest shopping day of the year.

The expanded hours in the final days before Christmas are reminiscent of how some retailers typically begin the season on the day after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday. The strategy comes as stores try to recoup lost sales during a season that's been hobbled by a number of factors.

[Demeter]

16. The more they advertise, the less I want to shop

I don't even want to shop online.

I used to be a marathon shopper--whether I was buying or not.

Of course, there used to be variety from store to store, and month to month.

Now it's all crap, all the time. Who needs it?

[xchrom]

8. FURY AND FRUSTRATION OVER TARGET DATA BREACH

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TARGET_DATA_BREACH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-20-18-44-05

NEW YORK (AP) -- Potential victims of credit card fraud tied to Target's security breach said they had trouble contacting the discounter through its website and call centers.

Angry Target customers expressed their displeasure in comments on the company's Facebook page. Some even threatened to stop shopping at the store.

Target's CEO Gregg Steinhafel apologized through a statement issued on Friday. The retailer also said it's working hard to resolve the problem and is adding more workers to field calls and help solve website issues. And the discounter began offering 10 percent off for customers who shop in its stores on Saturday and Sunday and free credit-monitoring services to those who've been affected by the issue.

The Minneapolis-based discounter said that while it's only heard of "very few" reports of fraud, it's reaching out to customers who made purchases by swiping their cards when the scam occurred. The company also said it's continuing its investigation into the matter.

[kickysnana]

15. My niece was hit by this a couple weeks ago...

they changed their credit cards but they hadn't contacted Target about it but maybe they will now if Target wants to know and can answer their phones.

[xchrom]

9. OBAMA NAMES CHINA ENVOY, ECONOMIC TIES IN MIND

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITED_STATES_CHINA_BAUCUS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-21-03-09-56

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nomination of veteran Sen. Max Baucus as U.S. ambassador to China reflects the importance to Washington of advancing the economic relationship with the Asian power despite recent strains on security issues.

The Montana Democrat lacks foreign policy credentials but has a track record in pressing Beijing over trade barriers and its currency exchange rate. If his appointment is confirmed by the Senate, he will be looking to see that U.S. companies can benefit from market reforms the ruling communist party promised in November.

While the economic relationship between the countries is loaded with its own problems, including accusations of rampant Chinese cybertheft of U.S. trade secrets, it is one where their national interests are more aligned than on security, as China challenges decades of U.S. military pre-eminence in the Asia-Pacific.

China's declaration of an air defense zone over disputed territory in the East China Sea and a near-collision of U.S. and Chinese naval vessels this month brought those concerns to the fore. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday described China's conduct in the Dec. 5 incident in the South China Sea as "irresponsible."

[xchrom]

10. Banking woes haunt EU summit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25463429


EU leaders have finished two days of summit talks in Brussels amid doubts about an agreed banking union plan.

Friday's agenda included the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean and the EU's setback in Ukraine, after Kiev opted for closer ties with Russia.

Earlier new rules were agreed for bailing out or closing problem eurozone banks. The industry itself will set up a 55bn-euro ($75bn; £46bn) fund.

But the European Parliament is sceptical about the plan as it stands.

[xchrom]

11. Irish GDP growth helped by construction, figures show

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25448264

A stronger construction sector drove growth in the Republic of Ireland's economy in the July-to-September quarter, official figures show.

Gross domestic product expanded 1.5% quarter-on-quarter.

However, Ireland's trade-dependent economy continued to feel the impact of the downturn in Europe, with exports down by 0.8% quarter-on-quarter.

The bursting of Ireland's property bubble plunged the country into recession.

[xchrom]

12. Swiss to vote on incomes for all - working or not

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25415501

Switzerland, one of the world's wealthiest countries, is engaged in an intense process of soul searching - about money.

This year alone there have been two nationwide referendums on executive pay, one of which approved strict limits on bonuses and banned golden handshakes.

Now two more votes are on the way, the first on the introduction of a minimum wage, and the second, and most controversial, on a guaranteed basic income for all legal residents, whether they work or not.

A universal basic income sounds very radical, but it is not a new idea - Thomas More proposed it in his work Utopia in the 16th Century.

[xchrom]

13. Target Is Giving A 10% Discount To All Customers Because Of The Credit Card Hack

http://www.businessinsider.com/target-discount-credit-card-hack-2013-12

Target's CEO openly apologized today for the hack that swiped data from about 40 million credit cards.
He also said all Target customers will get a 10% discount on Saturday and Sunday. The deal is only good for one transaction and in store only.

Here's the apology:

Yesterday we shared that there was unauthorized access to payment card data at our U.S. stores. The issue has been identified and eliminated. We recognize this has been confusing and disruptive during an already busy holiday season. Our guests’ trust is our top priority at Target and we are committed to making this right.

We want our guests to understand that just because they shopped at Target during the impacted time frame, it doesn’t mean they are victims of fraud. In fact, in other similar situations, there are typically low levels of actual fraud. Most importantly, we want to reassure guests that they will not be held financially responsible for any credit and debit card fraud. And to provide guests with extra assurance, we will be offering free credit monitoring services. We will be in touch with those impacted by this issue soon on how and where to access the service.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/target-discount-credit-card-hack-2013-12#ixzz2o78eK8Kb

[hamerfan]

14. Musical Interlude

1913 Massacre by Woody Guthrie.
100 years ago this Christmas Eve, the following tragedy occurred, resulting in Woody's song.

More info:

[link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_massacre|

[Demeter]

17. I was hit by a second virus

This one computer...or so they told me.

After hours of debugging and $149 for the "service", the computer seems to be back to normal, and I have a full year to "enjoy" it.

As for the other virus, I seem to have turned the bend and am recovering.


The biggest problem, I have lost all the articles I was planning to post....and they were important.
Maybe the NSA....

[Demeter]

18. Former Bank of Israel Gov. Stanley Fischer Next Federal Vice Chairman REPLACES JANET YELLEN

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37106.htm

VIDEO AT LINK

Former Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer is President Barack Obama’s leading candidate to become vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, people familiar with the selection process said. Fischer, 70, would replace Janet Yellen as the Fed’s No. 2 official, according to the people, who asked for anonymity because the decision isn’t final. There are no plans by the White House to announce the choice this week, one of the people said. Obama has already offered the job to Fischer, who accepted it, according to another person familiar with the process. The person said the decision was made jointly by the president and Yellen, who is awaiting Senate confirmation to succeed Ben S. Bernanke as Fed chairman.

“I would expect Yellen and Fischer to work closely together and form a very potent team,” said Mark Gertler, a New York University economist who has coauthored research with Bernanke. “He has the ideal mix of qualities you would like in a central banker: wise, experienced and cool under pressure. His academic work was thoughtful and mainstream, where I’d expect him to be as a central banker.”...Fischer’s resume also includes service at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and a stint as vice chairman of New York-based Citigroup Inc.

Dual Citizenship

Fischer, who holds both U.S. and Israeli citizenship and now lives in New York, stepped down as governor of the Bank of Israel on June 30, midway through his second five-year term... He was credited with helping his nation weather the global economic crisis better than most developed countries. As Fed vice chairman, Fischer would take over a post that Yellen turned into a platform for promoting greater transparency at the central bank, including spelling out goals for inflation and unemployment.... Fischer wouldn’t be the first central bank governor to change countries. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney was governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 until last June

...............................


As a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fischer oversaw Bernanke’s thesis and also taught European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. Fischer credited each with helping to rescue the world economy and said in a June 13 interview with Bloomberg News in London that future students will study their policies...Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Greg Mankiw, who headed President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, also studied under Fischer...Fischer spent multiple periods at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he earned his Ph.D. in economics in 1969, joining the school’s faculty as an associate professor in 1973 and becoming an endowed professor in the early 1990s. He was taught by future Nobel laureate economists Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow...From 1988 to 1990, Fischer was chief economist at the Washington-based World Bank. After returning to teaching at MIT, Fischer joined the IMF as deputy to Managing Director Michel Camdessus in 1994, working to resolve financial crises in Mexico, Russia and Southeast Asia. He left the IMF in 2001 and joined Citigroup as a vice chairman...Born in 1943 in Zambia, then Northern Rhodesia, Fischer was a member of Habonim, a Zionist youth group, along with Rhoda Keet, his future wife. In the early 1960s, he spent six months on a kibbutz on Israel’s Mediterranean coastal plain, where he combined learning Hebrew with manual labor, picking and planting bananas...In 2005, Fischer accepted Israel’s offer to head its central bank, and became an Israeli citizen, one of the job requirements...

“I’d like to be able to say all the things they are doing were from what they learned in lectures at MIT, but it wouldn’t be true,” Fischer said then. “From now on when we teach these courses, we’ll teach the lessons we’ve learned from Bernanke and Draghi.”

MUCH MORE...I DON'T LIKE THIS GUY'S RESUME...IT SMACKS OF CABAL

[Demeter]

19. Barack Obama Is Not George W. Bush (NOT JFK NOR FDR, EITHER)

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/12/barack-obama-is-not-george-w-bush.html



Has Barack Obama turned into George W. Bush? This terrible fate, desperately hoped for since the outset of Obama’s presidency by the Bush administration veterans as a kind of vindication fantasy, has become a new conventional wisdom. It has been floated, with varying levels of certainty, by Chuck Todd, Chris Cillizza, Bill McInturff, Ron Fournier, and Politico.

It is certainly true that Obama’s approval ratings have fallen to Bush-2005 levels. It’s also entirely possible they’ll fall further still: The administration’s panicky preparations for January suggest the first month of actual Obamacare coverage may be just as chaotic and unpopular as the onset of Medicare Part D. Yet the Bush comparisons state, or imply, broader forces at work than mere sagging approval ratings. They suggest a presidency that has hit a new inflection point beyond which its credibility is severed and its agenda broken. And that conclusion falls apart because it completely misses how power works in the Obama era.

If you measure the power of Obama’s presidency as the ability to move his agenda through Congress, his presidency has been dead since Republicans took control of the House in January 2011. If you measure it by his ability to use his popularity to force the opposing party to cooperate, it has literally been dead from the outset. In Obama’s first few weeks, with approval ratings in the seventies, he could not persuade a single House Republican to support a fiscal response to the most dire economic emergency in 80 years.

Bush’s power worked very differently. He enjoyed control of Congress for most of his first term and the first two years of his second. What’s more, his opposition party genuinely feared being seen as obstructionist. Substantial minorities of Democrats decided to vote for elements of Bush’s agenda on the calculation that being seen as bipartisan, and winning narrow concessions, made more political sense than opposing Bush. A dozen Democratic senators voted for the Bush tax cuts, and another seven abstained. Democrats supported the porky energy bill, and could have blocked Medicare Part D through a filibuster but decided not to.

MORE

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LEMON AND AN ARTIFICIAL LEMON?

[Demeter]

20. Slip Sliding Away: The Incredible, Shrinking Presidency of Barack Obama By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37178.htm

According to a new Washington Post-ABC poll, Barack Obama now ranks among the least popular presidents in the last century. In fact, his approval rating is lower than Bush’s was in his fifth year in office. Obama’s overall approval rating stands at a dismal 43 percent, with a full 55 percent of the public “disapproving of the way he is handling the economy”. The same percentage of people “disapprove of the way he is handling his job as president”. Thus, on the two main issues, leadership and the economy, Obama gets failing grades. An even higher percentage of people are upset at the way the president is implementing his signature health care system dubbed “Obamacare”. When asked “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Obama is handling “implementation of the new health care law?” A full 62% said they disapprove, although I suspect that the anger has less to do with the plan’s “implementation” than it does with the fact that Obamacare is widely seen as a profit-delivery system for the voracious insurance industry. Notwithstanding the administration’s impressive public relations campaign, a clear majority of people have seen through Obama’s health care ruse and given the program a big thumb’s down.

Of course, Obamacare is just the straw that broke the camel’s back. The list of policy disasters that preceded this latest fiasco is nearly endless, including everything from blanket pardons for the Wall Street big-wigs who took down the global financial system, to re-upping the Bush tax cuts, to appointing a commission of deficit hawks to slash Social Security and Medicare (Bowles-Simpson), to breaking his word on Gitmo, to reneging on his promise to pass Card Check, to expanding to wars in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, to droning 4-times as many civilians as the homicidal maniac he replaced as president in 2008...Obama’s treatment of undocumented immigrants has been particularly shocking although the details have been kept out of the media, presumably because the news giants don’t want to expose the Dear Leader as a heartless scoundrel who has no problem separating mothers from their children, locking them up in privately-owned concentration camps and booting them out of the country with nothing more than the shirt on their back. Check out this blurb which sums up Obama’s “progressive” immigration policy in one paragraph:

“Obama is on track to deport 3 million immigrants without papers by the end of his second term, more than any other president. George W. Bush deported about 2 million over two terms. Obama will likely hit that mark this month….. The average daily count of immigrants in detention now is about 33,000. In 2001, it was 19,000. In 1994, it was 5,000, according to the Detention Watch Network. Almost all of the detainees and deportees are Latino. True, the population of illegal immigrants has also doubled in that time to more than 11 million. But the detainee and deportee counts have escalated more than twice as fast.

“He could go down as the worst president in history toward immigrants,” said Arturo Carmona, executive director of the liberal activist group Presente.org.

Hooray for the Deporter in Chief! You’re Numero Uno, buddy. You even beat Bush! Is it any wonder why the man’s ratings are in freefall? All told, Obama has been bad for the economy, bad for civil liberties, bad for minorities, bad for foreign wars, and bad for health care. He has, however, been a very effective lackey-sock puppet for Wall Street, Big Pharma, the oil magnates, and the other 1% -vermin Kleptocrats who run the country and who will undoubtedly attend his $100,000-per-plate speaking engagements when he finally retires in comfort to some gated community where he’ll work on his memoirs and cash in on his 8 years of faithful service to the racketeer class.

But, let’s face it; no one really gives a rip about “drone attacks in Waziristan” or “hunger strikes in Gitmo”. What they care about is keeping their jobs, paying off their student loans, putting the food on the table or avoiding the fate of next-door-neighbor, Andy, who got his pink slip two months ago and now finds himself living in a cardboard box by the river. That’s what the average working stiff worries about; just scraping by enough to stay out of the homeless shelter. But it’s getting harder all the time, mainly because everything’s gotten worse under Obama. It’s crazy. It’s like the whole middle class is being dismantled in a 10-year period. Wages are flat, jobs are scarce, incomes are dropping like a stone, and everyone’s broke. (Everyone I know, at least.) Did you know that 76% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Check it out:

“Roughly three-quarters of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little to no emergency savings, according to a survey released by Bankrate.com Monday.

Fewer than one in four Americans have enough money in their savings account to cover at least six months of expenses, enough to help cushion the blow of a job loss, medical emergency or some other unexpected event, according to the survey of 1,000 adults.

Meanwhile, 50% of those surveyed have less than a three-month cushion and 27% had no savings at all….

Last week, online lender CashNetUSA said 22% of the 1,000 people it recently surveyed had less than $100 in savings to cover an emergency, while 46% had less than $800. After paying debts and taking care of housing, car and child care-related expenses, the respondents said there just isn’t enough money left over for saving more.”

Savings?!? Are you kidding me? What’s that? Who do you know that’s able to save money in this economy? Maybe rich uncle Johnny whose lived on canned sardines and Akmak for the last 50 years, but nobody else can live like that. Subtract the rent, the groceries, the doctor bills etc, and there’s barely enough leftover to fill the tank to get to work on Monday. Saving just isn’t an option, not in the Obamaworld, that is...check this out from Business Insider:

“Thousands of Americans aged 55 and older are going back to school and reinventing themselves to get an edge in a difficult labor market, hoping to rebuild retirement nest eggs that were almost destroyed by the recession….

According to the Federal Reserve, household financial assets, which exclude homes, dropped from a peak of $57 trillion in the third quarter of 2007 to just over $49 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year, the latest period for which data is available.

A survey to be released this summer by the Public Policy Institute of AARP, an advocacy group for older Americans, found a quarter of Americans 50 years and older used up all their savings during the 2007-09 recession. About 43 percent of the 5,000 respondents who took part in the survey said their savings had not recovered.” (“Unemployed Baby Boomers Are Getting Hired By Going Back To School”, Business Insider)

Sure they’re going back to work. What do you expect them to do? They’re broke! They got wiped out in Wall Street’s mortgage laundering scam and they’re still behind the eightball five years later. And what’s left of the money they set aside for retirement is yielding a big zilch thanks to the Fed’s zero rate policy which is forcing people back into another decade of penal servitude at minimum wage. That’s why you see so many hunched over graybeards in red vests with “Happy to Serve You” splattered on their chests lugging shopping bags out to the cars for old ladies. Because they’re broke and out of options. Everyone knows someone like this unless, of course, they’re one of the fortunate few who make up the Nobel 1%; aka–The Job Cremators. Then they don’t have to fret about that sort of thing. Here’s another gem you might not have seen in USA Today a few months back:

“Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend….

Hardship is particularly growing among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families’ economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63% of whites called the economy “poor.”

“I think it’s going to get worse,” said Irene Salyers, 52, of Buchanan County, Va., a declining coal region in Appalachia. Married and divorced three times, Salyers now helps run a fruit and vegetable stand with her boyfriend, but it doesn’t generate much income….

Nationwide, the count of America’s poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15% of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession. While poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three times higher, by absolute numbers the predominant face of the poor is white…

“Poverty is no longer an issue of ‘them’, it’s an issue of ‘us’,” says Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who calculated the numbers. “Only when poverty is thought of as a mainstream event, rather than a fringe experience that just affects blacks and Hispanics, can we really begin to build broader support for programs that lift people in need.” (“4 in 5 in USA face near-poverty, no work”, USA Today)

Does Obama have any idea of the damage he’s doing with his Rich-First policies? The country is in a terrible state and yet Obama continues to approve bills that throw millions of people off unemployment benefits, sharply cut government spending, or undermine vital safety net programs that keep the sick and the elderly from dying on the streets. It’s like he’s trying to reduce 300 million Americans to grinding third world poverty in his short eight-year term. Is that the goal?...Everything has gotten worse under Obama. Everything. And, not once, in his five years as president, has this gifted and charismatic leader ever lifted a finger to help the millions of people who supported him, who believed in him, and who voted him into office. These latest poll results indicate that many of those same people are beginning to wake up and see what Obama is really all about.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at [e-mail].

[Hotler]

45. He could turn his approval rating around in a heart beat by....

driving a stake through the heart of Wall St. and sending a bunch of those fuckers to prison.

[Demeter]

21. New Health Law Frustrates Many in Middle Class

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/business/new-health-law-frustrates-many-in-middle-class.html

Ginger Chapman and her husband, Doug, are sitting on the health care cliff. The cheapest insurance plan they can find through the new federal marketplace in New Hampshire will cost their family of four about $1,000 a month, 12 percent of their annual income of around $100,000 and more than they have ever paid before. Even more striking, for the Chapmans, is this fact: If they made just a few thousand dollars less a year — below $94,200 — their costs would be cut in half, because a family like theirs could qualify for federal subsidies. The Chapmans acknowledge that they are better off than many people, but they represent a little-understood reality of the Affordable Care Act. While the act clearly benefits those at the low end of the income scale — and rich people can continue to afford even the most generous plans — people like the Chapmans are caught in the uncomfortable middle: not poor enough for help, but not rich enough to be indifferent to cost.

“We are just right over that line,” said Ms. Chapman, who is 54 and does administrative work for a small wealth management firm. Because their plan is being canceled, she is looking for new coverage for her family, which includes Mr. Chapman, 55, a retired fireman who works on a friend’s farm, and her two sons. “That’s an insane amount of money,” she said of their new premium. “How are you supposed to pay that?”

An analysis by The New York Times shows the cost of premiums for people who just miss qualifying for subsidies varies widely across the country and rises rapidly for people in their 50s and 60s. In some places, prices can quickly approach 20 percent of a person’s income. Experts consider health insurance unaffordable once it exceeds 10 percent of annual income. By that measure, a 50-year-old making $50,000 a year, or just above the qualifying limit for assistance, would find the cheapest available plan to be unaffordable in more than 170 counties around the country, ranging from Anchorage to Jackson, Miss.

A 60-year-old living in Polk County, in northwestern Wisconsin, and earning $50,000 a year, for example, would have to spend more than 19 percent of his income, or $9,801 annually, to buy one of the cheapest plans available there. A person earning $45,000 would qualify for subsidies and would pay about 5 percent of his income, or $2,228, for an inexpensive plan. In Oklahoma City, a 60-year-old earning $50,000 could buy one of the cheapest plans for about 6.6 percent of his income, or about $3,279 a year with no subsidy. If he earned $45,000, with the benefit of a subsidy, he would spend about $2,425. While the number of people who just miss qualifying for subsidies is unclear, many of them have made their frustration known, helping fuel criticism of the law in recent weeks. Like the Chapmans, hundreds of thousands of people have received notices that their existing plans are being canceled and that they must now pay more for new coverage.

In an effort to address that frustration, the Obama administration announced on Thursday that it would permit people whose plans had been canceled to buy bare-bones catastrophic plans, which are less expensive but offer minimal coverage. Those plans have always been available to people under 30 and to those who can prove that the least expensive plan in their area is not affordable. But the announcement does not address the concerns of those who would like to buy better coverage, yet find premiums in their area too expensive...

MORE REALITY CHECKS ON A GREAT CON CAME

[Demeter]

22. 93 percent of hospital executives think Obamacare will make health care better

XMAS CAME EARLY FOR THEM?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/19/93-percent-of-hospital-executives-think-obamacare-will-make-health-care-better/?tid=pm_business_pop

...Hospital executives think health reform is going to make the health care they deliver a whole lot better -- and a bit cheaper:

Fully 65 percent indicated that by 2020, they believe the healthcare system as a whole will be somewhat or significantly better than it is today. And when they were asked about their own institutions, the optimism was even more dramatic. Fully 93 percent predicted that the quality of care provided by their own health system would improve. This is probably related to efforts to diminish hospital acquired conditions, medication errors, and unnecessary re-admissions, as encouraged by financial penalties in the ACA.

On cost control there was similar optimism: 91 percent forecasted improvements on metrics of cost within their own health system by 2020. The vast majority, 85 percent, expected their organization to have reduced its per patient operating costs by the end of the decade. Overall, the average operating cost reduction expected was 11.7 percent, with a range from 0 percent to 30 percent (Figure 2). Most executives believed they could save an even higher percentage if Congress enacted legislation to accelerate the shift away from fee-for-service payment toward models like bundled payments. In such a case, the executives projected average annual savings of 16.0 percent, which, if applied across the healthcare system, would amount to savings of nearly $100 billion per year (Figure 2).

How can such savings be achieved? Hospital executives foresee three strategies rising to the top: reducing the number of hospitalizations (54 percent), reducing the number of readmissions (49 percent), and reducing the number of emergency room visits (39 percent). Other likely sources included reducing costs for medical devices (36 percent) and drugs (27 percent), along with improving back office efficiency (23 percent) (Figure 3). These leaders believe that savings can be found through a combination of greater administrative efficiency, price reductions, and reduced reliance on hospital services.

The researchers also asked executives what more could be done to control costs. Some of their ideas:

Roughly a third of respondents (31 percent) identified setting a specified timeline for transitioning Medicare reimbursement off of the fee-for-service payment system as a policy change that would facilitate cost control. Another 30 percent supported aligning payment policies between Medicare and private insurers, and 28 percent supported separating funds for training and research from Medicare payment and maintaining current funding levels.

In less encouraging news, a quarter of head-and-neck surgeons still think Obamacare includes death panels....

PROVING THAT AN OPINION IS USELESS WITHOUT A FACT TO BACK IT UP.

[Demeter]

23. The sign-up challenge for Obamacare

http://www.gothenburgtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6834:the-sign-up-challenge-for-obamacare&catid=1:local&Itemid=2

A LONG SAD STORY OF ONE WOMAN'S QUEST FOR HEALTH INSURANCE...CONCLUDES

“The tax credit won’t mean much when you have such a high deductible,” Marilyn said. “When people find out about the nuts and bolts, they are going to be pissed.” She summed up her experience in one word, “disappointing.”

[Demeter]

24. The Obamacare Slippery Slope––What's Your "Hardship?"

http://healthpolicyandmarket.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-obamacare-slippery-slopewhats-your.html

As of this morning, here are the new rules:

If you had a health insurance policy that was cancelled, you are now exempt from the individual mandate and its tax penalty should you not decide to buy a replacement policy. In addition, you can now sign up for the very high deductible Catastrophic Plan that was originally reserved only for those under the age of 30.

If you did not have a health insurance policy that was cancelled, you are still subject to the individual mandate and you are not entitled any special treatment toward signing up for the Catastrophic Plan. You must pay the full price for an exchange plan and accept whatever out-of-pocket costs and network limits it might have for the money.

The administration made this change under the "hardship" provisions already part of the law. They have simply defined hardship as having lost your old individual plan and your not being able to find something without it being a "hardship" to purchase, presumably over price or coverage. This change was brought about when a number of Democratic Senators, some of them facing a tough reelection battle, demanded this concession. The change was made without consulting the health insurance industry and it was a surprise to them. It is another Obamacare change months after their 2014 rates were set under the presumption all of these cancelled policyholders would be paying a lot more premium into the pool than they pay today.

I have to believe this will not be the last concession to Democrats under reelection pressure. One has to wonder how this can't other than further undermine how people feel about Obamacare––particularly its fairness––and taking their "social responsibility" to sign-up seriously. With all of the Democrats whose reelection is threatened, how many more of these should we expect? When it's all done, will this make those who lost their health plans happy? Well, they had a health plan they presumably liked and/or could afford. Obamacare forced its cancellation. Now the administration is saying they will not fine them for being uninsured and will make a very high deductible plan available to them.

It's hard to see how they will see this as an improvement.

[Demeter]

25. THE FORTY YEAR SLUMP by Harold Meyerson

http://prospect.org/article/40-year-slump

AMERICA'S WAGES STARTED TO DECLINE IN 1974....

[Demeter]

26. Wall Street Unlocks Profits From Distress With Rental Revolution

BARF ALERT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-20/wall-street-unlocks-profits-from-distress-with-rental-revolution.html

[Demeter]

27. Third-Quarter Growth in U.S. Revised Higher on Services

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-20/third-quarter-growth-in-u-s-revised-higher-on-services-spending.html

The economy expanded in the third quarter at the fastest rate in almost two years as Americans stepped up spending on services such as health care and companies invested more in software.

THIS IS NO WAY TO PROSPERITY

[Demeter]

28. A Solar Boom So Successful, It's Been Halted

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-boom-so-successfull-its-been-halted

Photovoltaics proved so successful in Hawaii that the local utility, HECO, has instituted policies to block further expansion...

[Demeter]

29. New Minas: So what got left out of the budget this year?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/19/1263894/-Bill-Moyers-The-End-of-Democracy?detail=email

1. Unemployment Extension
2. Real infrastructure development/work relief actions
3. economy-stimulating alternative energy tax credits and subsidies
4. removal of fossil fuel subsidies
5. removal of tax loopholes for the ultra wealthy
6. removal of protections for offshore tax havens
7. Carbon tax and carbon reduction targets
8. increases in school lunch programs, child-care programs, elderly care programs
9. the increase of the social security ceiling to $500,000 annual income.
10. Comprehensive work toward a Constitutional amendment prohibiting private campaign financing
11. Comprehensive work toward a Constitutional amendment denying corporate personhood.

anything else?

Bill Moyer's lament of democracy video at link...

[Demeter]

30. The pitchforks are coming out in Europe (ITALY?!!)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/19/1263756/-The-pitchforks-are-coming-out-in-Europe?detail=email

When you think of governments ready to fall in Europe, you probably think of Greece or Spain.
Instead it is Italy that is warning of a violent insurrection.

Events in Italy are turning serious. President Giorgio Napolitano has warned of “widespread social tension and unrest” in 2014 as the Long Slump drags on.
Those living on the margins are being drawn into “indiscriminate and violent protest, a sterile lurch towards total opposition”

The protest movement in Italy is literally called the Pitchfork Movement (Movimento dei forconi). Their demands are no less than the overthrow of the government. The protestors, a mix of both right-wing and left-wing extremists, have called for a military junta to replace the government. Its roots are an anti-EU protest movement. One of its leaders was recently arrested for tearing down the European flag from the EU office in Rome.

"The wind of revolt that is blowing in Italy today is the direct result of the euro and the wrong choices made by the EU and the ECB."
- Mario Borghezio, Northern League member

Italy's economy is expected to have contracted 10% by next year. The unemployment rate is 12%. The government has no answers for the high unemployment and stagnant economy. To make things even worse, the depression gripping all of southern europe is now beginning to show up as deflation.

Falling nominal GDP means the debt burden is rising on a shrinking base... It is why Italy's public debt has jumped from 119pc to 133pc GDP in just over two years despite draconian austerity and a primary budget surplus.
Ebrahim Rahbari from Citigroup said the policy is pushing the South into debt-deflation and is likely to prove self-defeating.

Greece is experiencing its worst deflation in 50 years. Credit in Spain and Italy is contracting at a rate of 6 to 12 percent a year. Soon there simply won't be any money for people to live on. Italy isn't the only country with a shaky government. Bulgaria may be ever further along to government collapse...

MORE

[Demeter]

31. Italy Pitchfork Movement: When The World Wakes Up To A New Reality By Peter Koenig

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37183.htm

The Pitchfork movement started in December 2012 in the South of Italy by farmers protesting against higher taxes, higher fuel and fertilizer prices due to Mario Monti’s (then PM), imposed austerity program – which is in turn imposed by Monti’s countryman, Mr. Draghi, President of the European Central Bank (ECB) and – what many want to ignore – former Goldman Sachs executive. The same austerity imposed on other Southern European countries, like Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland – causing unspeakable human misery, unemployment, close to 30% in Greece and Spain (Spain – 57% youth unemployment!), widespread famine, increasing mortality rates in children – especially in Greece, where a third of the population can no longer afford privatized health insurance, therefore their children are no longer routinely vaccinated.

In addition under Draghi, the chief European Central Banker, the infamous troika – International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Union (EU) and ECB – loaded these countries with debt - which generations to come may be burdened to repay.

These are typical draconian pro-cyclical measures that no ‘rich’ OECD country would accept. It is a means by the Gods of Money to continue keeping the pressure on Europe, on the euro, to salvage their worthless currency, the dollar. The Gods of Money are the masters of Wall Street, the US Fed (Federal Reserve), and the BIS (Bank for International Settlement) – the central bank of central banks; i.e. the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and JP Morgans of this world. They control the (Western) gold and monetary markets by keeping the pressure on Europe – and the euro.

This is but a nutshell summary of what’s at stake, and what’s at the origin for so much misery and so many ‘liberation’ movements, such as the Italian Pitchfork crusade, currently timidly making its way from Sicily up north – and hesitantly into some newspapers.

......................................

Originally Pitchfork was heavily Sicily centered – a protest of Italy’s separated South against the elitist Rome. In the meantime the movement is growing in strength and has reached Rome, where it is clashing with police. The farmers are being joined by truck drivers and worker unionists – and eventually by people from the street. It is still weak in numbers, has the potential to grow, but the media shun it, don’t talk about it, ignore it. The elite controlling the media know that if and when the knowledge about the crusaders spreads, it could become a dangerous avalanche throughout Europe; it could grow almost infinitely – it could mean the end of the dominating class. Unhappiness is everywhere.

Pitchfork reminds of the May 15 or M15 movement that originated on 15 May 2012 in Madrid, Spain, with protests against Rajoy’s austerity measures. It followed the ‘Occupy Wall Street Movement’, OWM, that began on September 17, 2011, in Zuccotti Park of New York’s Wall Street financial district, as a modern sit-in against the banksters abuses at home and abroad. While Wall Street was a novelty and caught initial media attention, it grew in visibility and was emulated throughout the world – it was henceforth the strongest nonviolent movement for justice and against the Western boundless banking greed on humanity and the planet. All of these strong-willed nonviolent protests of the people for the people against a merciless elite have an enormous potential of changing the social landscape of the Western world. But -
the media have purposely and miserably failed them. Social movements need media attention in order to propagate. But largely ignored by the media, they gradually fade into oblivion.

A completely different media scenario presents the Ukraine, where President Viktor Yanukovych is facing pro-Europe mass protests, since he is backing away from a trade agreement with the European Union. Yanukovych is questioning the honesty of the treaty. Against a compensation of at least 20 billion euros – the estimated amount his country would lose with the deal – he might reconsider. Fair enough, since it is clear that so called ‘free’ trade agreements are always slanted in favor of the stronger. Finally this is a question of local sovereignty. Yet the world media zoom in and make believe that Ukraine’s President is acting against the people’s will, never analyzing the size of the protests, where they come from and who pays for them.

In the case of Ukraine there is even more at stake than an unfair trade deal. If linked with the US puppet, called Europe, NATO will not be far. Imagine – NATO at Russia’s doorstep – and 50% of the US Naval fleet already in the Pacific, surrounding China's East Coast. – Imagine US reaction, if Russia were to build up missile bases in the Caribbean – and China’s naval flotilla would cruise up and down the California Coast! But the protests in Kiev get plenty of media attention. Media attention of protests against elected governments fuels the Western greed economies, when these governments second-guess, for good reasons, a pro-western stance. Protests which aren’t even genuine. They are ‘implanted’ cells, like those that triggered the so-called Arab Spring. Or those that marched against Mr. Putin’s election in different Moscow parks. They are infiltrated, trained and paid by US conservative think tanks (sic) which receive hundreds of millions from the State Department for precisely that purpose – to train demonstrators to cause unrest in countries where ‘regime change’ is desired. Media coverage will make sure that the complacent and blinded Western public at large will take position; increasing the pressure on Mr. Yanukovych and Mr. Putin. The US – via the arch-reactionary and hawk, senator McCain – is even threatening with sanctions if Yanukovych should renege on his ‘commitment’ towards Europe. --- And, not surprisingly, nobody within a blinded Western populace asks what business of Washington this may be....

MORE


Peter Koenig is economist and former World Bank staff. He worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He writes regularly for ICH, the Voice of Russia and other internet sites.

[Demeter]

32. Report Suggests NSA Engaged In Financial Manipulation, Changing Money In Bank Accounts

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131218/14533925607/intelligence-task-force-hints-nsa-manipulating-financial-systems-changing-amounts-bank-accounts.shtml

Matt Blaze has been pointing out that when you read the new White House intelligence task force report and its recommendations on how to reform the NSA and the wider intelligence community, that there may be hints to other excesses not yet revealed by the Snowden documents. Trevor Timm may have spotted a big one. In the recommendation concerning increasing security in online communications, the second sub-point sticks out like a sore thumb:



If you can't read that, it says:

Governments should not use their offensive cyber capabilities to change the amounts held in financial accounts or otherwise manipulate the financial system.

While there have been plenty of reports about the US running hundreds of offensive cyberattacks on others, outside of things like Stuxnet, not many have been directly identified. And I'm unaware of any claims suggesting attempts to "manipulate the financial system" of any particular country and/or to "change the amounts held in financial accounts." It seems a bit odd to come out of the blue like that, and certainly suggests that this particular bullet point likely came as a result of a rather specific thing that came up during the task force's review.

So, now we wait for the inevitable news of what sort of financial shenanigans the NSA was up to.

[xchrom]

33. What Has QE Wrought?

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-has-qe-wrought-2013-12

Now that we have begun tapering, we will soon see lots of analysis about whether QE has been effective. What will the stock market do? The US economy seems to be moving in the right direction, but the Fed has forecast Nirvana (seriously) – do we dare hope they can finally get a forecast right? Or have they jinxed us? This and a few other dark thoughts crossed my path on a beautiful day in San Diego; so in a very different Thoughts from the Frontline, I offer a number of small gifts rather than an overarching theme, and we will see if we can keep it short.

Let's start with a wicked-brilliant essay by Dr. Woody Brock. It is way too long and penetrating to cover fully in this letter, but we can glean some bits of wisdom.

The world has been focused on central banks and the ending of QE. But Woody muses about a second dimension to this issue. If the true winner under a zero-interest-rate policy (ZIRP) has been the shadow banking system (as many, including your humble analyst, have observed) what distortions are baked into the market? What will happen as ZIRP finally goes away?



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-has-qe-wrought-2013-12#ixzz2oCl2z08z

[xchrom]

34. Some US Companies Are Testing Out 'Unlimited Vacation' Policies

http://www.businessinsider.com/unlimited-vacation-2013-12

Unlimited vacation policies, which have so far been adopted by only a handful of US businesses, have been embraced by both workers and their employers, who say the flexibility increases profitability.

At Ryan, a tax services firm of 1,600 employees, the majority of workers have not formally declared their hours since 2008, and no one keeps track of time off.

It's an exception to the norm in the United States, where most people work 40 hours a week and paid leave is not regulated by law.

On average, Americans receive two weeks of paid vacation per year, according to a study from the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Economic and Policy Research.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/unlimited-vacation-2013-12#ixzz2oCn42EC8

[xchrom]

35. ECB's Praet says Italy must stay on path to lower debt - paper

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/22/uk-ecb-praet-italy-idUKBRE9BL03P20131222


(Reuters) - Italy must keep its public accounts in check and stay on its planned path to lower debt as its economy shows signs of emerging from recession, European Central Bank Executive Board member Peter Praet said in interview on Sunday.

Praet said there was still risk of another slowdown in the euro zone's third-biggest economy if economic reforms were not brought in.

"To stay on a sustainable path, it's essential that the government maintain its commitments," the economist told Italy's La Stampa newspaper. "You cannot afford any slippage on the public accounts."

Praet said fundamental issues such as labour market flexibility and bureaucracy had to be addressed, particularly in an economy that included a large number of small businesses.

[xchrom]

36. Lean years leave banks short of savvy dealmakers

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/22/uk-investmentbanking-experience-idUKBRE9BL02S20131222

(Reuters) - Years of quiet deal markets in Europe have left a generation of junior investment bankers with little opportunity to cut their teeth, and, with many senior staff let go, banks are finding themselves short on experience as business stirs again.

With stock markets volatile during the financial crisis and European sovereign debt woes, many companies have held back from raising new funding, going public, or attempting big merger deals.

While the European mergers and acquisitions market is still sluggish, with 2013 its slowest year in a decade, the volume of share sales has picked up, according to Thomson Reuters data, with companies raising more this year than any year since 2009.

Bankers working in the sector say this has already exposed some of their junior counterparts as a little wet behind the ears.

[xchrom]

37. Austrian finance minister sees 1.5 percent 2014 budget deficit - paper

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/22/uk-austria-budget-idUKBRE9BL03H20131222

(Reuters) - Austria is targeting a structural budget deficit of 1.5 percent of economic output next year as it works toward a balanced budget in 2016, new Finance Minister Michael Spindelegger told a Sunday newspaper.

The centrist coalition sworn in for another five-year term in the euro zone member last week is still working on the 2014 budget plan that is due to go to parliament early in the year.

"We are missing about 2 billion euros ($2.73 billion) because of the weak economy. That means we won't be able to keep the new borrowing requirement to 1.3 percent. We will stay on track with 1.5 percent," Spindelegger was quoted as saying in an interview published by Oesterreich.

Austria's 2013 budget envisioned a nominal 2.3 percent deficit, but officials have said final results will be better thanks to higher-than-expected tax revenue and one-off income from a mobile frequency auction. It had aimed for a 1.2 percent structural deficit that excludes one-off items.

[xchrom]

38. RECESSION-HIT SPAIN HOLDS HUGE CHRISTMAS LOTTERY

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_SPAIN_CHRISTMAS_LOTTERY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-22-07-19-10

MADRID (AP) -- Millions of Spaniards were glued to their televisions Sunday as the country's cherished Christmas lottery - the world's richest - distributed a bounty of 2.5 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in prize money.

The draw is so popular that most of Spain's 46 million people watch at least part of the four-hour show live, desperately hoping that the schoolchildren singing out the winning numbers will call out their ticket.

Unlike lotteries that offer one large jackpot, Spain's yuletide draw sprinkles a variety of winnings on thousands of ticketholders.

The top prize - known as "El Gordo" (The Fat One) - gave lucky winners 400,000 euros ($546,200) per ticket Sunday, while the second-best number netted them (EURO)125,000 ($170,700).

[xchrom]

39. ONLINE SHOPPING POPULAR, BUT WON'T SAVE SEASON

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ONLINE_HOLIDAY_SHOPPING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-21-15-26-59

ATLANTA (AP) -- More Americans are deciding to shop online this holiday season instead of heading to crowded stores.

But that alone won't save what is turning out to be a ho-hum Christmas for department stores and clothing chains.

Online sales have surged 9 percent so far this holiday season as Wal-Mart, Macy's and other retailers improved their web sites and prices to better compete with their online nemesis Amazon.com. Meanwhile, shopping at physical stores is up just 2 percent.

Still, it's estimated that for every $9 shoppers spend in physical stores during the two-month season that ends on New Year's Eve, they'll only spend $1 online, according to research firm comScore.

[xchrom]

40. JPMorgan Chase and Penance and Fines

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/12/22-0

And whatten penance wul ye drie for that, young Edward, oh young Edward?
— Edward, A Scottish Ballad
One has to feel sorry for JPMorgan Chase. Several months ago it thought it had not only paid a sufficient amount in fines to make up for its bad behavior but it had also engaged in a form of penance for some of the bad things it had done. Little did it know.

The penance was reformation of its practices with respect to payday loans. Before the reforms, JPMorgan Chase (and many other institutions dealing with payday lenders) permitted% payday lenders to automatically withdraw repayment amounts from the borrowers’ bank accounts and agreed to prevent borrowers from closing their accounts or issuing stop payment orders so long as the payday lender was not fully repaid. As a result a borrower who did not have enough money in the bank to repay the lender the amount due on a given date was charged an insufficient fund fee by the bank each time the lender submitted a request for payment in many cases generating hundreds of dollars in fees imposed on the borrowers. That practice came to an end in May 2013. The fines it paid, in addition to its act of penance were described by Kevin McCoy of USA Today.

Between June 2010 and November 2012 JPMorgan Chase paid more than $3 billion in fines and settlements that related to, among other things, overcharging active-duty service members on their mortgages, misleading investors about a collateralized debt obligation it marketed, rigging at least 93 municipal bond transactions in 31 states, and countless other misdeeds. In August 2012 alone it paid a fine of $1.2 billion to resolve a lawsuit that alleged it and other institutions conspired to set the price of credit and debit card interchange fees. In January 2013 and February 2012 it paid $1.8 billion to settle claims that it and other financial institutions improperly carried out home foreclosures after the housing crisis. Not only did it pay large fines. Jamie Dimon, its unfailingly cheerful, beautifully coiffed CEO, took a pay cut which, including deferred compensation, reduced his daily salary from $63,013 to $31,506. Sadly, those events were not to be the end of its troubles. Indeed, as it turns out they were merely the tip of the iceberg.

In July 2013 it paid $410 million for alleged bidding manipulation of California and Midwest electricity markets. In September 2013 it paid $389 million for unfair billing practices, in September it paid $920 million for actions of the “London Whale” disaster, and in October 2013 another $100 million with respect to the same fiasco. Then came the really big news. On November 19, 2013 it was reported that JPMorgan Chase was going to pay $13 billion to settle what in non-legal terms would be described as a whole bunch of claims that had to do with the mortgage crisis of a few years back. Included in the $13 billion is $4 billion for consumer relief, $6 billion to pay to investors and the remaining $3 billion is a fine. December 13 it was announced that the bank was entering into a $2 billion deferred prosecution agreement with the government because of its role in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. According to the settlement the bank ignored signs that suggested Bernie Madoff was conducting a Ponzi scheme and cheating his investors.

[Demeter]

41. A Follow Up on posts 10 and 20: POTUS Xmas Wish

http://assets.amuniversal.com/3c4d70e04bda01315817001dd8b71c47

[Demeter]

42. Who Owns Your Congressman?

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/12/owns-congressman.html

[bread_and_roses]

43. Hope you're all well

I am still too busy and distracted - it's been a long hard slog, this fall, with illnesses and loss and more minor troubles ... popped in Fri to scan down WE and saw Demeter was sick - looks like she's posting again so - I hope you are feeling better, Demeter.

My best wishes to all for the Solstice Festivities, whichever version suits you. We're mostly "Christmas" in my house, though stripped of all religious associations.

Though I have always thought that the story of the poor child, born to poor parents in a barn with only the animals to keep him warm, being the hope of the world speaks to the preciousness of all children, of whom the well-being of each and every one should be our primary concern as human beings. Were it so, we would not endure either savage inequality or the destruction of the ecosystem in which they must live.

peace to all of you,
b&r

[Demeter]

44. I am better, can't claim to be "well" yet

Can't carry a tune, and food tastes a little off, still. But more energy now. I couldn't believe I could get too sick to even post, but it was beyond me for a while.

We had the Condo Solstice Party. At least half the attendees were nominally Jews, and they loved the ham. It was very congenial...we are finally learning how to party around here. (Maybe the blueberry wine helped?) The first year or so was very stiff...

I heard a rumor that the whole Jesus story was fabricated by a ruling elite to pacify slave populations in Imperial Rome...if so, it was transformational for the West, bringing an entire new ethics into being and spreading it globally. Perhaps not what that manipulative Elite wanted or expected?

Who can tell which is the legend, which the truth. I'm willing to bet that information is locked up in the Vatican, and they'll never let it out...which makes that alternate theory seem much more plausible....

I have a good feeling about 2014, though. And I can't say that about most new years. Peace!