STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 13 May 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 13 May 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 12 May 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 12 May 2014
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Dow Jones 16,695.47 +112.13 (0.68%)
S&P 500 1,896.65 +18.17 (0.97%)
Nasdaq 4,143.86 +71.99 (1.77%)


[font color=red]10 Year 2.66% +0.02 (0.76%)
30 Year 3.48% +0.02 (0.58%) [font color=black]


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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.
02/06/14 Matthew Martoma convicted of insider trading while at hedge fund SAC (Stephen A. Cohen) Capital Advisors. Expected sentence 7-10 years.
03/24/14 Annette Bongiorno, Bernard Madoff's secretary; Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, and falsifying the books and records.








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[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[Demeter]

1. Still here

No touch down tornado, no hail. Just 1.6 inches of rain in an hour...and 3 days more to go.

[Demeter]

2. That cartoon makes me think of the Twin Towers.

And we all know how that ended...

[Tansy_Gold]

4. I think that was the intent

kinda looks like the Chrysler Building and Empire State in the background.

[Demeter]

3. More Businesses Shutting Down than Starting Up

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/more-businesses-shutting-down-starting_791127.html



A new Brookings Institution report indicates that businesses are shuttering their doors more quickly than new ones are popping up.

From the Washington Post:

The American economy is less entrepreneurial now than at any point in the last three decades. That's the conclusion of a new study out from the Brookings Institution, which looks at the rates of new business creation and destruction since 1978.

Not only that, but during the most recent three years of the study -- 2009, 2010 and 2011 -- businesses were collapsing faster than they were being formed, a first. Overall, new businesses creation (measured as the share of all businesses less than one year old) declined by about half from 1978 to 2011.

This descent has a broad scope; no group is immune. Brookings notes that “the national decline in business dynamism has been a widely shared experience.” It “hasn’t been isolated to particular industrial sectors and firm sizes” and “reaches] all fifty states and all but a few metropolitan areas.”

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2014/05/declining%20business%20dynamism%20litan/declining_business_dynamism_hathaway_litan.pdf

[Demeter]

5. And we had another miracle day Monday

Levitation as an art form...

[Demeter]

6. Bank Account Raid Powers Needed Or Taxes Will Rise - Cameron

COMING TO A PUTATIVE DEMOCRACY NEAR YOU...

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-05-12/bank-account-raid-powers-needed-or-taxes-will-rise-uk-prime-minister


Taxes will have to rise unless officials are given new powers to raid people's bank accounts, David Cameron told Sky News yesterday.

The Treasury select committee warned that allowing HM Revenue and Customs to remove cash from bank accounts without court orders is "very concerning" because of its history of mistakes according to The Telegraph. The committee said that taxpayers could suffer “serious detriment” if officials are able, either by mistake or through an “abuse” of power, to take money from people who have done no wrong.


Mr Cameron bizarrely threatened that the alternative was to "put up taxes".

"We have a choice here. If we don't collect taxes properly and make sure people pay their taxes properly we look at the problems of having to raise tax rates. I don't want to do that, so I support the changes the Chancellor set out in the Budget which is to really say that not paying your taxes is not acceptable.”

"It is very clear that they can only do this if there is a debt of over £1,000, they can only do it if there's £5,000 or more in the account after this has been completed. The general principle – do we want to pursue every avenue of making people pay their taxes they are meant to pay before we put up taxes, because that's the alternative – absolutely, yes we do."

Yesterday, chartered accountants noted that monies should only be taken with citizen’s approval or by a court order. ICAEW, the body representing accountants, said that members are worried the about government "mistakes and misuse". Under these proposed new measures, tax officials will have an automatic power to take money from a bank account when the holder has failed to act on four formal warnings requiring payment. Presently, monies can only be removed with the with the consent of a magistrate or judge. The UK Treasury claims that the new power is only used against those who have repeatedly refused to pay their taxes. However, MPs say in their report:

“The ability directly to have access to millions of taxpayers’ bank accounts raises concerns about the risk of fraud and error. This policy is highly dependent on HMRC’s ability accurately to determine which taxpayers owe money and what amounts they owe, an ability not always demonstrated in the past. Incorrectly collecting money will result in serious detriment to taxpayers.”

The UK Revenue has faced repeated criticism over the accuracy of its tax records and its handling of citizen’s sensitive personal data.



This is another example of creeping powers that pose a real threat to bank deposits. It will create further jitters about the safety of deposits and heighten the risk of bank runs. These risks highlight the importance of diversifying and having some of your wealth outside the vulnerable banking and financial system.

[Demeter]

7. FoRMeR NSA CHieF: US GoV'T KiLLS PeoPLe BaSeD ON MeTaDaTa...

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-05-12/former-nsa-chief-us-govt-kills-people-based-metadata

ABC NEWS--The U.S. government “kills people based on metadata,” but it doesn’t do that with the trove of information collected on American communications, according to former head of the National Security Agency Gen. Michael Hayden. SURE THEY DON'T! Hayden made the remark after saying he agreed with the idea that metadata – the information collected by the NSA about phone calls and other communications that does not include content – can tell the government “everything” about anyone it’s targeting for surveillance, often making the actual content of the communication unnecessary.

“That description… is absolutely correct. We kill people based on metadata. But that’s not what we do with this metadata,” said Hayden, apparently referring to domestic metadata collection. “It’s really important to understand the program in its entirety. Not the potentiality of the program, but how the program is actually conducted."

WB7: Not the potentiality? Of course not. They're turdworthy. Who would even consider such a thing.

[Demeter]

8. GREAT IDEA!

If you are not comfortable with the surveillance cameras, an identity replacement technology that is basically a Surveillance identity prosthetic provides you a new face.

If you find all people around you having the same face like you saw of the agents in Matrix 3, then Leo Selvaggio is the one to thank.

He has designed a rubber mask with the aim to foil surveillance cameras. The mask features his own visage, and if he gets his way, then many people would be supporting this Prosthetic in Public. He is basically a Chicago based artist and this prosthetic is among the three products that he made under the venture known as URME Surveillance. This venture has been formulated for the purpose of protecting the people from surveillance and for giving them a safe space for the purpose of exploring their digital identities.

...

The URME stated that:

“Our world is becoming increasingly surveilled. For example, Chicago has over 25,000 cameras networked to a single facial recognition hub.” It was further stated on the website that, “We don’t believe you should be tracked just because you want to walk outside and you shouldn’t have to hide either. Instead, use one of our products to present an alternative identity when in public.”

It is basically a 3D printed resin mask which has been made by using a 3D scan (of Selvaggio’s face), and has been formulated by Thatsmyface.com. The mask renders both his skin tone and his features, and provides quite a realistic look. However the eyes which appears from the eye holes in the mask look a bit creepy. Well creepiness is actually a part of the whole idea of the artist i.e. “my face in your face”. This approach is with the aim of exploring the impacts which have been caused by this hugely networked era on personal identity.

The artists said that:

“When you wear these devices the cameras will track me instead of you and your actions in public space will be attributed as mine because it will be me the cameras see.” He further said that, “All URME devices have been tested for facial recognition and each properly identifies the wearer of me on Facebook, which has some of the most sophisticated facial recognition software around.”

... http://hackread.com/anti-surveillance-mask-security-cams/

[Demeter]

10. There is art and sadly, misplaced science:

http://www.prisonplanet.com/identity-profiling-covert-biometrics.html



DARPA has begun a four year research program called ‘Active Authentication’, which will focus on methods to validate identity online using cognitive biometrics, such as computers which ‘recognise’ the operator by assessing their habitual movements, and comparing it to their stored profile to validate identity in real time...Late last year, DARPA announced another research project called ‘Human Identification at a Distance’, which includes developing techniques which can covertly collect reliable heart biometrics to verify identify without any contact with the person being tracked. Wired.com announced,

“In 2006, Darpa developed Radar Scope,which used radar waves to sense through walls and detect the movements associated with respiration. A year later, the Army invested in LifeReader, a system using Doppler radar to find heartbeats. More recently, the military’s been using devices like the AN/PPS-26 STTW (“Sense Through the Wall“) and TiaLinx’s Eagle scanner, which can sense the presence of humans and animals through walls.

Handy though these gadgets may be, Darpa wants to one-up them with some new and better capabilities. First off, Darpa wants its biometric device to be able to work from farther away. Right now, it says the accuracy of most systems taps out at around eight meters. And while some see-through devices can see through up to eight inches of concrete, they don’t do as well in locations with more or thicker walls. So Darpa’s looking for the next system to push that range past 10 meters, particularly in cluttered urban areas.”



the following features can be tracked from a distance, covertly:

Face
Iris and retina
Eye movements
Veins
Ears
Outline of hand patterns
Body odour
Finger prints
Finger image
Keystroke
Voice
Sweat pores
Vital signs: heart signature, brain wave patterns – these are unique to each individual because of our DNA (the heart and brain are composed of protein tissues)
Behavioural/cognitive biometrics e.g. gait, breathing, emotional responses to targeted stimuli, galvanic skin response.
Gait

http://www.infowars.com/new-behaviometrics-technology-allows-government-to-know-what-youre-thinking/

Big Brother doesn’t just want to know where you are, he wants to know what you’re thinking. Short of implanting a device in your brain that divulges your every thought, the government has opted for the next best thing – behaviometrics – a new omnipresent surveillance technology developed for the US Air Force and destined to be used in law enforcement to “monitor suspicious behavior”. The system revolves around a camera that tracks facial movements biometrically in order to build a psychological profile of the individual under surveillance.

“Huntsville, Alabama’s Photon-X, Inc. recently received an Air Force contract to develop such a camera,” reports Wired News. With one snap, the company claims, its sensor can build a three-dimensional image of a person’s face: the cornerstone of a distinctive “bio-signature” that can be used to track that person anywhere. With a few frames more, the device can capture that face’s unique facial muscle motions, and turn those movements into a “behaviormetric” profile that’s even more accurate.

This new technology is the next step up from DARPA’s infamous gait analysis program, which purported to be able to identify terrorists by the way they walked.

[Demeter]

23. Privacy Tools: Encrypt What You Can

http://truth-out.org/news/item/23541-privacy-tools-encrypt-what-you-can


Julia Angwin is a senior reporter at ProPublica. From 2000 to 2013, she was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she led a privacy investigative team that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2011 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2010.

"In the course of writing my book, Dragnet Nation, I tried various strategies to protect my privacy. In this series of book excerpts and adaptations, I distill the lessons from my privacy experiments into tips for readers":

Ever since Edward Snowden revealed the inner secrets of the NSA, he has been urging Americans to use encryption to protect themselves from rampant spying.

"Encryption does work," Snowden said, via a remote connection at the SXSW tech conference. "It is a defense against the dark arts for the digital realm."

ProPublica has written about the NSA's attempts to break encryption, but we don't know for sure how successful the spy agency has been, and security experts still recommend using these techniques. And besides, who doesn't want to defend against the dark arts? But getting started with encryption can be daunting. Here are a few techniques that most people can use.

Encrypt the data you store.
Encrypt the data you transmit.


DETAILS AT LINK

[Demeter]

25. New Movement Aims to ‘Reset the Net’ Against Mass Surveillance

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/reset-the-net/

[DemReadingDU]

35. PBS Frontline part 1 tonight

5/13/14
United States of Secrets
How did the government come to spy on millions of Americans?

In United States of Secrets, a two-part series airing May 13 and 20, FRONTLINE goes behind the headlines to reveal the dramatic inside story of the U.S. government’s massive and controversial secret surveillance program—and the lengths they went to trying to keep it hidden from the public.

Part one, from Michael Kirk (League of Denial, Bush’s War), goes inside Washington to piece together the secret political history of “The Program,” which began in the wake of September 11 and continues today—even after the revelations of its existence by Edward Snowden.

Then, in part two, Martin Smith (The Untouchables, To Catch a Trader) explores the secret relationship between Silicon Valley and the National Security Agency: How have the government and tech companies worked together to gather and warehouse your data?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/united-states-of-secrets/



check local listings for the time

[xchrom]

9. GERMAN OPTIMISM SURVEY POINTS TO SLOWER GROWTH

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-13-05-43-40

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- A German survey of investment professionals has found that optimism fell in May for the fifth month in a row, a sign that growth in Europe's biggest economy may be slowing.

The ZEW indicator fell to 33.1 from 43.2 in April. The decline was bigger than anticipated - the consensus in the markets was for a more modest drop to 40.0.

ZEW head Clemens Fuest said there are indications that Germany "will not be able to maintain" the strong growth it is expected to post for the first quarter. That figure is due Thursday and analysts foresee quarterly growth of around 0.7 percent.

ING analyst Carsten Brzeski said confidence has been dented by fears about the crisis in Ukraine, a possible slowdown in China, and lower stock prices.

[Demeter]

21. The EU Is 1 Big Scam & The Ukraine Is It's Next Victim... stolen from KoKo

[xchrom]

11. STOCK MARKET TOUCHES ANOTHER RECORD

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WALL_STREET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-12-17-35-43

NEW YORK (AP) -- The stock market returned to record levels on Monday as investors regained their appetite for riskier stocks.

After beating down Internet and small companies for two months, investors decided that those stocks had fallen enough. Among the big gainers were Twitter and Facebook, which had plunged in March and April. The Russell 2000, an index made up of small companies, climbed the most in two months.

Investors have been more cautious this year than last. They've favored big, less volatile stocks that pay rich dividends because of concerns about the outlook for the economy. Utility and energy companies have been among the beneficiaries of this trend, and have outperformed the overall market in 2014.

While interest rates remain low, investors will likely keep getting drawn back into stocks after any sell-off because holding cash isn't generating any returns, said Tim Courtney, chief investment officer at Exencial, an independent wealth management company.

[xchrom]

12. SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS STILL CAUTIOUS, SURVEYS FIND

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SMALLBIZ_PULSE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-13-00-04-18

NEW YORK (AP) -- Small business owners are keeping a cautious approach to running their companies even as they grow more optimistic.

Two surveys released Tuesday, one by Wells Fargo & Co. and the other by Bank of America Corp., found many owners still have conservative hiring plans and little appetite for loans.

Stronger revenue and cash flow are behind the increasing optimism. In the Bank of America spring survey, 68 percent of owners said they expect revenue to increase in the next 12 months. They feel confident about their local economies but have their eye on national and international issues that could affect their businesses.

About three-quarters cited health care costs and the federal government's effectiveness, or lack thereof, as potential problems. Seventy percent are concerned about higher commodities prices.

[xchrom]

13. WORLD STOCKS RISE AFTER NEW WALL STREET HIGHS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-13-06-15-54

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- World stock markets rose Tuesday after Wall Street indexes hit record highs, with Japan's Nikkei 225 leading gains as the yen weakened.

The Nikkei rose 2 percent, closing at 14,425.44 after a smaller-than-expected current account surplus for Japan weakened the yen. A weak yen usually boosts the share prices of Japanese exporters.

In early European trading, Germany's DAX climbed 0.6 percent at 9,763.93. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent to 6,867.15 and France's CAC-40 was up 0.2 percent at 4,503.14.

Futures augured a muted opening on Wall Street, with Dow Jones Industrial futures up 0.2 percent and S&P 500 futures barely changed.

[xchrom]

14. US ON TRACK FOR NARROWEST BUDGET GAP SINCE 2008

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BUDGET_DEFICIT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-12-14-25-09

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government ran a big surplus in April, thanks to a flood of tax payments that helped keep the budget on track for the lowest annual deficit in six years.

The Treasury Department said Monday that April's surplus totaled $106.9 billion, down slightly from last April's $112.9 billion surplus. The government typically runs a surplus during April, when individual tax returns are due and corporations make quarterly tax payments.

Through the first seven months of the 2014 budget year, which began Oct. 1, the deficit totals $306.4 billion. That's down 37 percent from the same period last year.

The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting a deficit of $492 billion for the full budget year. That would be the narrowest gap since 2008.

[xchrom]

15. VIETNAMESE WORKERS PROTEST AT CHINESE FACTORIES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_VIETNAM_CHINA_PROTESTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-13-06-05-57

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Several thousand Vietnamese workers protested at Chinese-owned factories on Tuesday, vandalizing some of them, as anger flared at Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam, a factory executive and media accounts said.

Over the weekend, Vietnam's authoritarian government gave rare sanction to street protests against China as way of amplifying its own anger at Beijing. But the protests now appear to be spreading, taking on a violent tinge and directly targeting foreign investment.

An executive at one industrial park said the protests began Monday night and by Tuesday had hit four parks which are home to Chinese and other foreign-owned businesses. He said some factories that refused to stop work were vandalized.

Police were present on Tuesday morning, but the protests were continuing, he said. He didn't give his name because of the sensitivity of the issue.

[Demeter]

19. Methinks the Vietnamese are finding the cost of Chinese support against the USA is too high

The war for Indochinese Oil, fought by France and then the US, against China and Vietnam, has now broken out between former allies.

Poor Vietnam. All that Agent Orange and suffering for generations for nothing...they should have demanded reparations.

[xchrom]

16. LEW PRESSES BEIJING TO EASE EXCHANGE RATE CONTROLS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_US?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-13-05-57-32

BEIJING (AP) -- The U.S. treasury secretary pressed China on Tuesday to ease exchange rate controls and lower barriers to trade and investment.

Beijing in March widened the narrow band in which it allows its yuan to fluctuate against the U.S. dollar. But it retained controls that critics complain keep the yuan undervalued and give its exporters an unfair price advantage.

"It is important that China demonstrate a renewed commitment to move to a more market-determined exchange rate," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told China's top economic official, Premier Li Keqiang, in a meeting.

Lew appealed for a "more transparent exchange rate policy."

[xchrom]

17. LAWMAKERS TO PRESS PFIZER CEO FOR JOB GUARANTEES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BRITAIN_PFIZER_ASTRAZENECA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-13-04-56-07

LONDON (AP) -- British lawmakers are expected to pressure the chief executive of Pfizer to guarantee jobs should the American company succeed in taking over London-based AstraZeneca, when they question him on Tuesday.

Ian Read faces Parliament's Business Innovation and Skills Committee to defend his company's $106 billion cash and stock offer. The U.S. drugmaker has sought in writing to ease worries that British jobs will be lost - but has so far failed to convince skeptical lawmakers.

Committee chairman Adrian Bailey told the BBC before the hearing that Pfizer's track record of buying foreign firms and downsizing "gives no confidence that they will deliver on the assurances."

The company reached out to AstraZeneca's stockholders even before the committee convened, publishing a presentation that they said described a "compelling rationale for a combination."

[Demeter]

20. hahahahahahaha

As a citizen of the LAST city Pfizer screwed over and sucked the jobs out of...not to mention the tax base....

[Demeter]

18. The Fed Is The Great Deceiver — Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/05/12/fed-great-deceiver-paul-craig-roberts/

Is the Fed “tapering”? Did the Fed really cut its bond purchases during the three month period November 2013 through January 2014? Apparently not if foreign holders of Treasuries are unloading them...

From November 2013 through January 2014 Belgium with a GDP of $480 billion purchased $141.2 billion of US Treasury bonds. Somehow Belgium came up with enough money to allocate during a 3-month period 29 percent of its annual GDP to the purchase of US Treasury bonds. Certainly Belgium did not have a budget surplus of $141.2 billion.

Was Belgium running a trade surplus during a 3-month period equal to 29 percent of Belgium GDP? No, Belgium’s trade and current accounts are in deficit.

Did Belgium’s central bank print $141.2 billion worth of euros in order to make the purchase? No, Belgium is a member of the euro system, and its central bank cannot increase the money supply.

So where did the $141.2 billion come from? There is only one source. The money came from the US Federal Reserve, and the purchase was laundered through Belgium in order to hide the fact that actual Federal Reserve bond purchases during November 2013 through January 2014 were $112 billion per month. In other words, during those 3 months there was a sharp rise in bond purchases by the Fed. The Fed’s actual bond purchases for those three months are $27 billion per month above the original $85 billion monthly purchase and $47 billion above the official $65 billion monthly purchase at that time. (In March 2014, official QE was tapered to $55 billion per month and to $45 billion for May.)

Why did the Federal Reserve have to purchase so many bonds above the announced amounts and why did the Fed have to launder and hide the purchase? Some country or countries, unknown at this time, for reasons we do not know dumped $104 billion in Treasuries in one week.

Another curious aspect of the sale and purchase laundered through Belgium is that the sale was not executed and cleared via the Fed’s own National Book-Entry System (NBES), which was designed to facilitate the sale and ownership transfer of securities for Fed custodial customers. Instead, The foreign owner(s) of the Treasuries removed them from the Federal Reserve’s custodial holdings and sold them through the Euroclear securities clearing system, which is based in Brussels, Belgium. We do not know why or who. We know that there was a withdrawal, a sale, a drop in the Federal Reserve’s “Securities held in Custody for Foreign Official and International Accounts,” an inexplicable rise in Belgium’s holdings, and then the bonds reappear in the Federal Reserve’s custodial accounts.

What are the reasons for this deception by the Federal Reserve? The Fed realized that its policy of Quantitative Easing initiated in order to support the balance sheets of “banks too big to fail” and to lower the Treasury’s borrowing cost was putting pressure on the US dollar’s value. Tapering was a way of reassuring holders of dollars and dollar-denominated financial instruments that the Fed was going to reduce and eventually end the printing of new dollars with which to support financial markets.The image of foreign governments bailing out of Treasuries could unsettle the markets that the Fed was attempting to sooth by tapering. A hundred billion dollar sale of US Treasuries is a big sale. If the seller was a big holder of Treasuries, the sale could signal the bond market that a big holder might be selling Treasuries in large chunks. The Fed would want to keep the fact and identity of such a seller secret in order to avoid a stampede out of Treasuries. Such a stampede would raise interest rates, collapse US financial markets, and raise the cost of financing the US debt. To avoid the rise in interest rates, the Fed would have to accept the risk to the dollar of purchasing all the bonds. This would be a no-win situation for the Fed, because a large increase in QE would unsettle the market for US dollars.

Washington’s power ultimately rests on the dollar as world reserve currency. This privilege, attained at Bretton Woods following World War 2, allows the US to pay its bills by issuing debt. The world currency role also gives the US the power to cut countries out of the international payments system and to impose sanctions.

As impelled as the Fed is to protect the large banks that sit on the board of directors of the NY Fed, the Fed has to protect the dollar. That the Fed believed that it could not buy the bonds outright but needed to disguise its purchase by laundering it through Belgium suggests that the Fed is concerned that the world is losing confidence in the dollar. If the world loses confidence in the dollar, the cost of living in the US would rise sharply as the dollar drops in value. Economic hardship and poverty would worsen. Political instability would rise.

If the dollar lost substantial value, the dollar would lose its reserve currency status. Washington would not be able to issue new debt or new dollars in order to pay its bills.

Its wars and hundreds of overseas military bases could not be financed.

The withdrawal from unsustainable empire would begin.

The rest of the world would see this as the silver lining in the collapse of the international monetary system brought on by the hubris and arrogance of Washington.

[Demeter]

22. Bitcoin A Terrorist Threat? Counterterrorism Program Names Virtual Currencies As Area Of Interest

http://www.ibtimes.com/bitcoin-terrorist-threat-counterterrorism-program-names-virtual-currencies-area-interest-1579699



After attracting attention from law enforcement, financial regulators and old-school Wall Street investors, bitcoin is now on the U.S. military’s radar as a possible terrorist threat.

Friday was the deadline for submissions to a counterterrorism program seeking vendors to help the military understand state-of-the-art technologies that may pose threats to national security, and “bitcoin” and “virtual currencies” are listed among them. The program is being conducted by the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office, a division of the Department of Defense that identifies and develops counterterrorism abilities and investigates irregular warfare and evolving threats.

An unclassified memo from January unearthed by Bitcoin Magazine detailed solicitations for CTTSO projects. The memo states that one of the mission requirements is for “innovative...solutions to develop and/or enhance new concepts and constructs for understanding the role of virtual currencies” in financing threats against the United States. The memo said the blurring of national lines is facilitating the transfer of virtual currencies: “The introduction of virtual currency will likely shape threat finance by increasing the opaqueness, transactional velocity, and overall efficiencies of terrorist attacks,” it stated. At the heart of the concern is the anonymity built into the bitcoin architecture. While every bitcoin transaction is public, the parties involved are kept anonymous. With bitcoins, illegal operations can be made with the speed and ease of the Internet and with the secrecy of cash....A Treasury Department investigation said in March that it found no evidence of “widespread” use of virtual currencies like bitcoin to finance terrorism. Still, it’s clear that nefarious individuals have recognized the potential to use bitcoin for harm. IS HE REFERRING TO THE US INTELLIGENCE/MILITARY/INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX?

The anonymity seems to be what concerns the CTTSO the most. The agency also called for research on “anonymizing software” and “Dark Web,” and views anonymous networks like TOR as a way to traffic drugs, weapons, humans and even nuclear technologies undetected. The CTTSO’s mission against irregular warfare and evolving threats also has a requirement for “methods and means to systematically discern and display ‘precursors of instability’ in the Dark Web.”...The Navy was one of the original developers of the Dark Web, as onion routing, which creates anonymous messaging by using several routers to give Internet data multiple layers of encryption, was developed in the United States Naval Research Laboratory to protect government communications.

Also on the CTTSO’s list of terrorism research topics were Android, Motorola, social media and virtual reality. Google and Facebook may want to take note.

[xchrom]

24. Europe’s top court backs ‘right to be forgotten’ in Google case

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/13/europes-top-court-backs-right-to-be-forgotten-in-google-case/

Europe’s top court sided with privacy rights supporters on Tuesday, saying that world No. 1 search engine Google can be required to remove sensitive information from its Internet search results.

The case underlines the battle between advocates of free expression and supporters of privacy rights, who say people should have the “right to be forgotten” meaning that they should be able to remove their digital traces from the Internet.

The ruling by the Luxembourg-based European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) came after a Spanish man complained to the Spanish data protection agency that an auction notice of his repossessed home on Google’s search results infringed his privacy.

The case is one of 180 similar cases in Spain whose complainants want Google to delete their personal information from the Web. The company says forcing it to remove such data amounts to censorship.

[Demeter]

26. America’s Pot Farmers Are Putting Mexican Cartels Out of Business

http://libertycrier.com/americas-pot-farmers-putting-mexican-cartels-business/



For the first time in generations, farmers in central Mexico have stopped planting marijuana.

Due to ample supplies up north, courtesy of medical and recreational cannabis legalization, cartel farmers can’t make any money off pot anymore, they told the Washington Post this week. The price for a pound of Mexican marijuana has plummeted 75 percent from $100 per kilogram to less than $25.

“‘It’s not worth it anymore,’” said 50 year-old Rodrigo Silla, a lifelong cannabis farmer. He also told the Post he couldn’t remember the last time his family and others stopped growing mota. “’I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization.’”

[xchrom]

33. Pot Firms Gain as CVS, Walgreen Competition a Pipe Dream

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-13/pot-firms-gain-as-cvs-walgreen-competition-a-pipe-dream.html

Americans seeking medical marijuana for anything from pain to seizures must turn to a patchwork of small startups for help as U.S. laws keep traditional pharmacies out of a market that may exceed $6 billion by 2019.

While more than 21 states have legalized pot for medicinal use, the drug remains illegal under federal law and banks are hesitant to accept money from its sale. That’s keeping drugstore chains CVS Caremark Corp., Walgreen Co. and Rite Aid Corp., out of the market, leaving local entrepreneurs in control.

“We aren’t going to see a big guy enter this market within the next few years,” said David Yang, an analyst with research firm IBISWorld. “There are just too many regulations and too many elements that make this impossible for them.”

In one state alone, Colorado, more than 400 companies are licensed as medical marijuana centers, with government officials predicting sales there could soon reach $1 billion. For Colorado businessman Kayvan Khalatbari, a former electrical engineer who started his business with just $4,000, federal limitations on the drug are a major benefit.

[Demeter]

36. "Can't have that," says the Corporation, huffing itself up.

"Why, before you know it, we'll have our own, home-grown Carlos Slims, taking our skimming operations over and throwing us into the streets...."

[Demeter]

38. Look at it positively

The USA will reduce its import imbalance, become self-sufficient in SOMETHING, and defund a lot of criminals (at least, until the Corruptorations get involved).

[xchrom]

27. Lehman Trade a Gift That Keeps Giving for Paulson to King Street

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-13/lehman-trade-a-gift-that-keeps-giving-for-paulson-to-king-street.html

Almost six years after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for the largest bankruptcy in history, triggering a global market meltdown, hedge funds are still feeding on its remains.

A small group of firms that waded into the morass in the aftermath of the financial crisis, including Paulson & Co., King Street Capital Management LP, Varde Partners Inc., Halcyon Asset Management LLC and Solus Alternative Asset Management LP have made billions of dollars trading in the debt. As claims are being paid out, often at a multiple of initial estimates, investors that have spent years analyzing the bankruptcy are ploughing money back into newly available loans, such as those between the investment bank’s Hong Kong and U.S. units, fueling a rally unmatched by stocks and high-risk bonds.

“A little of a surprising aspect is that there’s still this much return left in it this far along,” according to Marcia Page, co-chief investment officer of Varde, which oversees $8.5 billion and has been buying Lehman claims since 2008. “There’s just so much debt.”

The investments have been a bright spot in a world of increasingly expensive securities because they are complicated to analyze, partly hinge on decisions made by judges and may take a long time to pay out, which reduces the pool of buyers to those who have adequate resources and available capital.

[xchrom]

28. Yellen Wage Signals Showing Slack May Be Missing Cost Speedup

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-13/yellen-wage-signals-showing-slack-may-be-missing-cost-speedup.html


Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen says wage gains remain slow and that’s a sign there’s plenty of slack in the labor market. Some Wall Street economists disagree.

Yellen has cited three gauges showing hourly earnings, employment costs and compensation in arguing that salary increases are muted. Yet economists including Torsten Slok of Deutsche Bank AG say other data are better indicators of where pay is headed: higher.

“The trend is certainly not the Fed’s friend,” said Slok, Deutsche’s chief international economist in New York. He cited a speed-up in pay of production workers, which rose to a year-on-year rate of 2.3 percent in April from 1.3 percent in October 2012.

Faster growth of labor compensation would have big economic implications and play into the debate over how fast the economy will grow and whether the Fed needs to keep stimulating it. It would boost household spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of gross domestic product. Since compensation represents about two-thirds of company costs, it would also put upward pressure on inflation and make it harder for the Fed to keep interest rates near zero.

[xchrom]

29. High-Speed Traders Need Oversight, Ex-CFTC Economist Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-12/high-speed-traders-should-register-ex-cftc-economist-says.html

High-speed trading in U.S. futures markets is being dominated by a small number of firms that should be forced to register with regulators to ensure adequate oversight, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s former chief economist will tell lawmakers.

The firms, which can account for more than half of trading volume in some markets, should face new record-keeping rules and be required to have consistent policies and safeguards, according to Andrei Kirilenko, who left the CFTC in 2012 after he led a study of high-speed trading following the May 2010 flash crash.

“It is time to go at least this far, so when the next flash crash or technological malfunction happens, the regulators could go deeper into the market ecosystem to piece things together,” Kirilenko said in testimony prepared for a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on high-frequency trading scheduled for today. He urges creating a broad registration category for “automated brokers and traders,” according to a copy of his remarks obtained by Bloomberg News.

Kirilenko, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was called to testify along with Terrence Duffy, executive chairman of CME Group (CME) Inc., and Vince McGonagle, head of the CFTC’s market oversight unit. The Senate panel is holding the hearing amid regulatory scrutiny of high-speed trading firms, which drew broader public attention when “Flash Boys” author Michael Lewis accused them of using technological advantages to rig markets and harm other investors.

[Demeter]

37. High Speed Traders need to be shut down with Cease and Desist Orders

and if they don't, orange jumpsuits.

[xchrom]

30. Euro Bonds Lose Sway in Blow to Draghi’s Stimulus Plan

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-13/euro-bonds-lose-sway-in-blow-to-draghi-s-stimulus-plan.html


For the first time since 2009, the euro is strengthening even as the region’s benchmark bond yields lose ground to their counterparts in the U.S.

The breakdown in a link that’s existed for most of the euro’s 15-year history is being triggered by a surge in demand for high-yielding assets from the likes of Greece and Spain, a development that makes it harder for policy makers to weaken the currency and ward off deflation through stimulus measures.

“Why would the euro go up when yields drop?” Peter Frank, the London-based global head of Group-of-10 and Asia currency strategy at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, said May 8 by phone. “Because credit quality has come up, so euro-denominated assets are more attractive.”

That’s a problem for European Central Bank President Mario Draghi because it’s a source of currency strength that he’s less able to curb by cutting interest rates or purchasing assets. Draghi said at the ECB’s policy meeting in Brussels last week that he’s “comfortable” with the idea of boosting stimulus at the June gathering, and that a strong euro “in the context of low inflation is cause for serious concern.”

[xchrom]

31. EU Banks Urged to Boost Capital as Stress Test Doubts Voiced

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-12/eu-banks-urged-to-boost-capital-now-as-stress-test-doubts-voiced.html

European banks are being urged to boost their ability to withstand losses before the conclusion of a stress test that is drawing criticism for its design.

Axel Weber, the chairman of Zurich-based UBS AG and a former head of Germany’s Bundesbank, said yesterday that stress-testing banks that have depleted capital is akin to expecting a patient recovering from a heart attack to pass a rigorous physical exam. Moody’s Analytics Inc. said last week that the tests aren’t internally consistent.

“If some of the patients come just out of the intensive ward, and they’ve just had a massive cardiac arrest, looking at their medical is good, putting them under stress is less good,” Weber said at a conference organized by the Austrian central bank in Vienna. “That’s why upfront, early recapitalizations are what is needed. Once you actually have all the medical data out there, it is very hard to get capital in the market.”

The European Central Bank is leading the charge to prove the region’s banks are robust before it takes over financial supervision in November, and has squeezed an unprecedented Asset Quality Review and a stress-test into its year of preparation. That pressure has led to some disquiet about the compromises needed to get the job done on time.

[xchrom]

32. Hollande Hand in French Bond Gains Finds Few Buyers: Euro Credit

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-12/hollande-hand-in-french-bond-gains-finds-few-buyers-euro-credit.html

President Francois Hollande likes to trumpet his endorsement by bond buyers. Investors say French yields are dropping in spite of him, not because of him.

The yield on France’s benchmark 10-year bonds, which fell to the lowest in about a year of 1.873 percent last week, was at 1.92 percent today. At that level, France’s borrowing costs are 74 basis points below those of the U.S. and 82 points less than the U.K. The premium France pays over Germany is down to 45 points, from 72 points in January.

The bond market’s performance belies the anemic recovery in France relative to those countries and mounting political discontent that may limit Hollande’s ability to deliver on promised cuts in public spending and taxes. French borrowing costs have been driven lower by a hunt for returns and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s comments about lower interest rates, said Fabrizio Fiorini, chief investment officer at Aletti Gestielle AGR SpA in Milan.

“The yield on French government bonds is driven by flows which are influenced more by monetary policy than Hollande’s reforms,” said Fiorini, whose firm manages about 12 billion euros ($16 billion). “If I’m bearish on French bonds, it’s probably because I don’t think the European Central Bank will resort to bond purchases or quantitative easing that’s been priced in.”

[xchrom]

34. KKR Eyes Spain Lenders, Role Managing Bad Bank Assets

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-13/kkr-eyes-spain-lenders-role-managing-bad-bank-assets.html

KKR & Co. (KKR), the private-equity firm run by billionaires Henry Kravis and George Roberts, is interested in investing in a Spanish lender and may seek to manage assets of the country’s bad bank.

“We would very much like to share in the capital of a financial institution and we are following the process of the restructuring of all the banks in detail,” said Jesus Olmos, the firm’s Spanish head, in an interview in Madrid. KKR would like to “be there” if opportunities arise in a second wave of consolidation among former savings banks, he said.

Investors from Apollo Global Management LLC to George Soros have purchased Spanish banking assets as the economy began pulling out of a six-year slump. Soros Fund Management LLC was among firms that bought shares in nationalized lender Bankia as part of a 1.3 billion-euro ($1.8 billion) stake sale by the government in February. Apollo bought Banco Santander SA (SAN)’s real estate servicing platform Altamira and an 80-branch bank hived off from the bailed-out Galician lender NCG Banco SA.

KKR would also consider teaming up with a Spanish partner to manage part of the 50 billion euros of property assets and real estate held by Spain’s bad bank, known as Sareb, Olmos said. Formed in 2012 to house the soured real estate of banks that took 41 billion euros of European bailout aid, Sareb plans to hire three or four companies to manage its assets.

[Demeter]

39. Benghazi! This century's version of Banzai!