STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 5 September 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 5 September 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 4 September 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 4 September 2012
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Dow Jones 13,035.94 -54.90 (-0.42%)
S&P 500 1,404.94 -1.64 (-0.12%)
[font color=green]Nasdaq 3,075.06 +8.10 (0.26%)



[font color=black]10 Year 1.57% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=green]30 Year 2.68% -0.01 (-0.37%) [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
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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




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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. They really had to flog those fairies for their measly 50 points

Ah, well. When it comes to fairy-flogging, ask a 1%er. He'll only charge an arm and a leg....

[Demeter]

2. Bedtime, Buckaroos! Tomorrow is Another Day

[Demeter]

3. Federal government push to collect on student loans amid bad economy fuels growth in filings

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/local-education/government-push-to-collect-on-student-loans-amid-b/nR2qY/

Nearly 30 years after graduating from the University of South Florida, William Milner Jr. this year got an unwelcome memento from his college years: the bill. But this was no ordinary invoice. It was a lawsuit filed by the U.S. government, demanding that the 57-year-old Delray Beach resident repay decades-old student loans. And the government doesn’t just want back the $1,660 Milner borrowed. With interest and attorney fees, Milner’s debt now stands at $7,746. “The Mafia is in the wrong business,” Milner said. “It’s gotten to such a high amount. I think it’s unreasonable.” Milner is far from alone.

So far this year, the federal government has filed 139 suits in U.S. District Court in South Florida seeking to recover money from student loans that are years, often decades, old. At that pace, it is likely more than 200 lawsuits will be filed before the year’s out. By comparison, in 2008, 82 lawsuits were filed in the nine-county district that includes Palm Beach County. “What you’re seeing in South Florida is what’s happening on a broad scale nationally,” said Michelle Asha Cooper, president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy in Washington, D.C. In 2006, two years before the crippling recession began, the government filed 918 lawsuits against people across the nation who defaulted on student loans. Three years later, 2,596 lawsuits filed. Last year, the number more than doubled to 5,393, she said. “It’s a reflection of our broader economic woes,” Cooper said. People who are out of work can’t afford to repay their loans. And the government, strapped for cash, needs the money more than ever. If reforms aren’t enacted, she and others said, the unpaid debt will continue to grow. Nationally, the student loan debt is nearly $1 trillion, more than the amount people owe on credit cards. In a report last month, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York agreed it’s getting worse.

Unlike other forms of debt, such as mortgages and home equity lines of credit, education debt is increasing, the report said. Not surprisingly, it also found the number of people who aren’t repaying their loans is on the rise. As of June 30, 8.92 percent of borrowers were at least 90 days late on their payments, up from 8.45 percent in December. While some lament the deadbeats who refuse to repay college loans, studies have shown that most who default aren’t just thumbing their noses at the government program designed to make sure money doesn’t stand in the way of a college degree. A study released in May by the National Consumer Law Center found that 80 percent of the people who defaulted on student loans from May 2011 to May 2012 were unemployed. Of the 40 people they interviewed, 85 percent were on public assistance. Only 47 percent completed their educations... Lawsuits, such as the one filed against Milner, are the last resort. Before the government turns cases over to private attorneys to sue those who don’t pay, debt collection companies are unleashed. In many cases, the tactics of the collection agents scare people rather than spur them to embrace a payment plan, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of finaid.org and an expert on college financial planning...


“The only way to get out of them is to die or become totally disabled,” he said. Also, student loans are one of the few debts that can’t be extinguished in bankruptcy. The government has enormous power to collect. They seize income tax returns, garnish wages or deduct payments from Social Security checks. There are cases where a disabled person trying to survive on a meager Social Security check is forced to give up 15 percent of it to repay an outstanding student loan, he said. Lawsuits are usually filed against self-employed people who don’t receive tax refunds so the government has no way to seize the money. He suspects officials look at where people live to help them determine whether the person has the ability to pay...


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STUDENT LOANS

The number of lawsuits filed against people in South Florida federal court has skyrocketed in recent years.

2012 - 139*

2011 - 142

2010 - 153

2009 - 50

2008 - 82

*Filed through Aug. 31.

Source: U.S. District Court for South Florida.

[AnneD]

15. Pillars of wealth for the middle class...

Home ownership.....destroyed 2006, check
Investment in WS.....destroyed 2008, check
Employment with decent pay.........2000, check
Higher education......destroyed 2012, check

I don't know about you but I am starting to sense a pattern here. Good thing our system of government is working, otherwise we would really be in trouble.

[Fuddnik]

24. With all this going on, me and you should get together and write "The Donner Party Cookbook".

People are soon going to need a good recipe for braised bankster.

[AnneD]

30. I think.....

Last edited Wed Sep 5, 2012, 02:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Hannibal Lectur had the better recipes.

Investors have been playing fast and loose with commodities and screwing farmers out of their crop insurance (a la MFGlobal). What are you going to use to buy seed, etc. Farmers go belly up, no one else wants to do it, food shortages surface, now homeless families are hungry and more importantly angry and desperate. With no working government, it is a short drop off the edge and it is FSP for all Fraudsters.

I hope people stop directing their shame and anger inward via suicides and take action against those that are truly guilty.

[Demeter]

4. Republicans Have Greater Access to Basic Necessities

http://www.gallup.com/poll/157010/republicans-greater-access-basic-necessities.aspx

Democrats, independents twice as likely to lack money for food, shelter

Republicans' 85.5 Basic Access Index score -- which accounts for their access to 13 different items essential to good wellbeing -- surpasses the 82.0 for Democrats and 79.8 for independents....These findings are based on more than 400,000 interviews conducted from January 2011 through March 2012 with American adults as a part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The Basic Access Index is a 13-item measure of Americans' access to basic necessities, ranging from food and shelter to clean water and healthcare.

Republicans More Likely to Have Healthcare... Republicans are also less likely to struggle to afford food and shelter. Less than 6% of Republicans report that they didn't have enough money for shelter at times over the past 12 months, compared with about 10% of Democrats and independents who said the same.

And less than 13% of Republicans struggled to afford food compared with at least 20% of Democrats and independents.

TOO BAD OBAMA NEVER BOTHERED TO ASK QUESTIONS LIKE THESE...HE MIGHT HAVE COME UP WITH A PLAN TO BUILD HIS BASE, AND NOT BE IN A FIGHT FOR HIS POLITICAL LIFE...

[AnneD]

34. The sad thing is....

many DEMS refuse to believe that he is going to be in 'a fight for his political life'. They are too busy counting their chickens before they hatch.

[Demeter]

5. "Countdown To Currency Collapse" with Max Keiser.

Escalating financial fraud; pump and dump scams; Wall Street banks; auditing fraud; absence of regulation; default or hyperinflation?; currency collapse; the trigger; Japan; China; bank holidays; social cohesion index; City of London; financial repression; confiscation of wealth; derivatives; interest rates; precious metals; the next nine months.

AUDIO AT LINK

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/83610

[Demeter]

6. DAVE BARRY REPORTS ON THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION (AND GOP)

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/03/2983588/can-joe-biden-possibly-compete.html

Dave Barry: GOP Convention draws to a close, and Tampa is safe again

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/30/2976939/dave-barry-gop-convention-draws.html#storylink=cpy

Dave Barry: GOP conventioneers feeling the heat in Tampa

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/29/2974516/dave-barry-gop-conventioneers.html#storylink=cpy

Dave Barry: GOP Convention day one all about humanizing Mitt Romney

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/28/2972396/dave-barry-gop-convention-day.html#storylink=cpy

[Demeter]

7. Secret Service U-Haul truck stolen in Detroit ahead of VP Joe Biden's visit to city

LET'S HEAR IT FOR MY HOMETOWN!

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57505236-504083/secret-service-u-haul-truck-stolen-in-detroit-ahead-of-vp-joe-bidens-visit-to-city/

[AnneD]

16. Say,

Wasn't U-haul Mc Veigh's vehicle of choice?

[Demeter]

18. There aren't too many choices left

[Tansy_Gold]

19. Ryder n/t

[Fuddnik]

20. I think it was Ryder.

But, I may be confusing Timmeh with the first WTC bombers.

[Demeter]

9. Paul Craig Roberts ON THE GOP CONVENTION

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32356.htm

...After witnessing the Republicans at their nominating convention at Tampa violate all their own rules and ride roughshod over the Ron Paul delegates, one expected some discussion of the Republican Party’s refusal to allow Ron Paul to be placed in nomination or his delegate account to be announced.

The operative question was obvious: How can the American people trust the Republicans with the awesome power of the executive branch when the Republican Party just finished demonstrating for all to see its Stalinist qualities by crushing the anti-war, anti-police state wing of its party?

The authoritarianism was gratuitous. Romney had a sufficient number of delegates to be nominated. It would have cost Romney nothing to follow the rules and allow Ron Paul to be placed in nomination and his delegate numbers to be reported. Instead, Romney wrote off the liberty contingent of the Republican Party. The Brownshirts demonstrated their power.

The last Republican who wrote off a chunk of his own party was Barry Goldwater, and he went down to crushing defeat. Makes one wonder if the Republicans are relying on those electronic voting machines programed with proprietary Republican software that leave no paper trail. The Democrats have acquiesced to Republican election theft. There have been numerous cases where exit polls indicate that voters chose a different candidate than the one chosen by the Republican programmed voting machines.

One would have thought that NPR and its pundits would have found the parallel with Goldwater worth comment, but the suppression of the Ron Paul delegates was already down the memory hole. ...

[Demeter]

13. Barry Crimmins SAYS IT BEST

“We have a presidential election coming up. And I think the big problem, of course, is that someone will win.” –Barry Crimmins

[Fuddnik]

21. Unfortunately, correct.

I've been up half the night. So, I'm having coffee, and I switch on Democracy Now, and they're playing clips of convention speeches.

They got to former Congressman Wexler's speech. Sponsored by the Likud Party, and it was enough to make me puke. I thought he was supposed to be one of the good guys, but now he's an Israeli lobbyist. Nut N Yahoo had to have written that vile, speech.

[Demeter]

8. U.S. home prices make biggest jump in 6 years

HOLDING ALL THOSE FORECLOSURES OFF THE MARKET IS WORKING...THANKS, FANNIE MAE!

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-home-prices-20120904,0,1983417.story

[Demeter]

10. June Foodstamp Recipients Hit All Time High As 3X As Many Americans Enter Poverty As Find Jobs

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/june-foodstamp-recipients-hit-all-time-high-three-times-many-americans-enter-poverty-find-jobs

Following a brief period in which it seemed that US foodstamp recipients may have peaked, with those living in poverty maxing out at 46.514 million in December 2011, and then declining modestly for the next few months, June saw a new surge in those Americans living in poverty and thus eligible for foodstamps, with 173,600 new entrants into the system, bringing the total to a new all time high of 46.670 million and once again rising fast. Furthermore, with subsequent emergency events affecting the heartland due to the drought, the administration has made sure even more Americans will be eligible going forward. As a result expect the July and August numbers to promptly surpass 47 million on their way to the psychological resistance level of 50 million.

Indicatively, the 173,600 increase in Foodstamps recipients in June was three times greater than Americans finding jobs (64,000, most of which part-time) according to the BLS. Finally, a new record was also breached for American households on foodstamps, which now hit 22.4 million, an increase of 106,298 households. The average benefit per household decline once more, this time to $276.5. Not an all time low, but just above it.

[Demeter]

11. Commodities Beat Stocks, Bonds for Second Month in August

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-02/commodities-beating-all-assets-again-for-first-time-in-16-months.html

...The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Total Return Index of 24 commodities rose 6.4 percent in August, led by silver, cocoa and heating oil. The MSCI All-Country World Index of equities gained 1.9 percent for a third straight advance, as the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), a measure against six currencies, dropped 1.7 percent. Bonds of all types returned 0.2 percent on average, led by Europe’s most indebted nations, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Global Broad Market Index.

...Raw materials entered a bull market last month after rising more than 20 percent since mid-June, erasing this year’s losses. They last beat every other asset for two months in March and April 2011. Commodities rose more than 80 percent from December 2008 to June 2011 as the Fed bought $2.3 trillion of debt in two rounds of quantitative easing.

Silver futures added 13 percent last month, the most since January, as holdings through exchange-traded products advanced for a fourth month, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Investors buy silver both as a hedge against inflation and as a bet on a stronger economy because 53 percent is used in industrial applications from televisions to batteries. The spot price rose 1.2 percent to $32.115 an ounce at 4:37 p.m. New York time. Earlier, the metal reached $32.3025, the highest since April 13. Heating oil rose 12 percent. July was the hottest month in the lower 48 states in records going back a century. The worst U.S. Midwest drought since 1936 is hurting crops in the biggest agricultural exporter, driving corn and soybean prices to records. Cotton jumped 8.3 percent, the most since February 2011, and cattle futures advanced 1.3 percent. All 105 counties in Kansas, the biggest grower of winter wheat, have been declared federal disaster areas...

[Demeter]

12. Growing Crops With No Water, The Old-Fashioned Way

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=growing-crops-with-no-water-the-old-2012-08

Before we thought the water supply would last forever (or at least several political cycles), we had dry farming. As the worst drought in decades grips the U.S., dry farming is getting a second look.

Farmers see the horizon, and there's not much water on it (The "global water shortage is now 'chronic'" according to a UN report). In the U.S., the federal government has added at least 218 more counties to the list of natural disaster areas, now more than half of the total counties in the U.S. are low on water.
"Dry land farming was a staple of agriculture for millennia in places like the Mediterranean."

Dry farming, while not designed to counter the worst droughts, "evokes the image of a wet sponge covered with cellophane," writes Brie Mazurek, the online education manager at the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA).

By tapping the moisture stored in soil to grow crops, rather than using irrigation or rainfall during the wet season, dry-land farming was a staple of agriculture for millennia in places like the Mediterranean, and much of the American West, before the rise of dams and aquifer pumping...

SEE HOW AT LINK

[Ghost Dog]

14. Spain is breakwater for eurozone; solidarity well-advised.

In an escalating game of brinkmanship, Spanish finance minister Luis de Guindos said his country is not yet willing to sign a Memorandum giving up fiscal sovereignty to EU inspectors. “First of all, one must clarify the conditions,” he told German newspaper Handelsblatt.

Mr de Guindos said the crisis engulfing the region is larger than any one country and warned north Europe not to scapegoat Spain.

“My colleagues are aware that the battle for the euro will be fought in Spain. Spain is right now the breakwater for the eurozone,” he said, adding that “solidarity” would be well-advised.

The warning comes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves for Madrid for talks with premier Mariano Rajoy to thrash out the conditions of a full sovereign rescue of up €300bn (£238bn), beyond the €100bn bank rescue already agreed...

... The ECB has tied its hands under an implicit deal with Germany, announcing that it cannot proceed until Spain and Italy request help from the eurozone’s bail-out funds and submit to tough conditions.

/... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9521465/Brinkmanship-as-Spain-warns-over-bail-out-terms.html

[DemReadingDU]

17. Spain’s Jobless Rate Leaves Pensions With Little Support

9/5/12 Spain’s Jobless Rate Leaves Pensions With Little Support

Spain’s headline unemployment numbers are high: there are 4.63 million people signed up for jobless benefits, or about a quarter of the workforce. The cost of social security payments is greater than the government had forecast and money being paid into the system has fallen short of official predictions. One way of making sense of the large numbers that are tossed around is to look at some ratios – these can help show how sustainable, or in this case how unsustainable, the current situation is. For example, there are now two people paying into Spain’s social security system for each pensioner, the so-called support ratio, as El Pais reports. This compares with ratios of three or more in other European Union member states.

This is a lot worse than expected. The OECD wrote in Pensions at a Glance just last year:

The pattern for the EU27 broadly follows the OECD average. European countries are already older than the OECD average: a support ratio of 3.5 for the EU27 in 2010 compares with an OECD figure of 4.1. By 2050, the support ratio for the EU is just 1.8.

The trend across most developed countries is downward, as this graphic from The Economist shows. But with Spain already where it was expected to be in 2050 in terms of pension support, it’s clear what faces Spanish pensioners sooner rather than later.



http://go.bloomberg.com/euro-crisis/2012-09-05/spains-jobless-rate-leaves-pensions-with-little-support/

[Ghost Dog]

35. German Economy Tanks; Eurozone Bailouts Enter Phantasy Land

... New car sales in Germany had been holding up well through June—a miracle in face of the fiasco playing out in the Eurozone’s auto industry. But they caved in July; and instead of miraculously recovering in August, they caved again: down 4.7% from August 2011 and down 8.6% from July. Ominously, sales of medium-heavy and heavy trucks, a thermometer of the business investment climate, fell off a cliff: -18.8% for trucks over 12 metric tons, -15.1% for trucks over 20 tons, and -9.4% for tractors (now down 5% for the year!).

Retail sales, which had been on a roll through May, stalled in June, and skidded in July. Early indications are even worse for August: retailers’ negative sentiment worsened for the fourth month in a row. They suffered from a nasty margin squeeze, given the dual pressures of wholesale price inflation that “increased sharply,” and heavy discounting, as Germans struggle to make ends meet [read.... The “Pauperization of Europe”].

And manufacturing, the vaunted engine of the German economy, after a rout in July, was hit by another “deterioration in business conditions” in August. It recorded the fifth month in a row of job losses. And export orders plummeted at the “steepest rate since April 2009.”

Alas, 2009 brings up horrid memories. In the first quarter that year, GDP plunged 3.8% from the fourth quarter of 2008, when it had already plunged 2.1% from the third quarter. Annualized, those two quarters added up to a double-digit collapse in GDP, the worst in the history of the Federal Republic. The German economy, which lives and dies by its exports, was saved not by hard-working Germans or smart managers or a superior system, but by the drunken stimulus frenzy in the US and China. German companies and their suppliers sucked with all their might on a wide variety of programs, from green-energy boondoggles to the cash-for-clunkers fiasco.

But now, without such foreign deus ex machina, Germany’s ability to bail out the Eurozone is more than ever in doubt. So, the ECB’s latest machinations hit fertile ground when they were leaked after ECB President Mario Draghi outlined them to the European Parliament late Monday: buy up Spanish and Italian debt with maturities of up to three years—up from the six to 12 months proposed at his last press conference. It worked. Italian and Spanish yields on two-year debt dropped below 2.8%, down from over 7.5% and 6.9% respectively this summer. Central-bank market manipulation at is best. Crisis solved. In phantasy land. Until reality sets in.

Namely a rift in Germany...

/... http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-09-04/german-economy-tanks-ecb-throws-gasoline-fire-and-eurozone-bailouts-enter-pha

Behind the scenes Draghi has been frantically putting together a rescue package that makes more sense than the dozen we’ve been through already. The bank will place a cap on bond yields for Italy and Spain, with the threat of unlimited intervention in the markets from the central bank if rates spike above a well-defined level.

Reuters
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi

We don’t know all the details yet. Whether the bank would take money out of the system to neutralize the impact of all that money remains to be seen. Also, we’ve yet to learn whether the countries involved would have to formally apply for a bailout, and so submit to having their economic and budget policies approved by the rest of the countries within the system, before the ECB started buying on their behalf.

It would be a lot more effective if the plan were put in place without any conditions — if it were, investors might genuinely feel confident about buying Spanish and Italian bonds again, and might even tiptoe into Portuguese and Irish ones (although probably not Greek).

Either way, unlike previous euro rescue plans, this one could actually work, at least in the short-term. Why? Because it is backed up with printed money rather than the real sort. The ECB finally looks prepared to unleash a European version of quantitative easing in an attempt to stop the debt crisis once and for all...

... There is a problem however. The German central bank is fanatically opposed to the scheme.

Its president, Jens Weidmann, has already threatened to resign over the issue, according to reports in the German press. In an interview with Der Spiegel last week, Weidmann said the bond buying made it look as if ECB was financing governments directly — and shouldn’t go ahead. An empty gesture? Don’t count on it. His predecessor Axel Weber was lined up to take over the ECB last year but resigned in protest at a similar scheme...

... But if the Bundesbank is successful in blocking the plan — or waters it down so much it can’t work — the markets will crash...

/... http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gamble-on-ecb-but-only-with-money-you-can-lose-2012-09-05

In what can only be interpreted as a huge disappointment for the ECB and Draghi yielding to German demands, Bloomberg has leaked what likely will be the final plan of the ECB tomorrow, which contrary to previously rumors stating that the ECB will pursue yield caps, or even just buy bonds on an unsterilized basis, appears to be a huge dud:

· ECB BOND PLAN SAID TO REFRAIN FROM SETTING PUBLIC YIELD CAPS
· DRAGHI'S BOND PLAN SAID TO PLEDGE UNLIMITED, STERILIZED BUYING
· ECB PLAN SAID TO FOCUS ON GOVT BONDS, MATURITIES UP TO 3 YEARS
· ECB SAID TO CONSIDER SELLING BONDS IF CONDITIONS NOT MET
· ECB PLAN SAID TO STRESS CONDITIONALITY OF ANY BOND PURCHASES
· ECB BOND PLAN SAID TO HAVE BROAD COUNCIL SUPPORT - but not unanimous, as Germany again objects

The keyword above is highlighted: sterilized, which simply means for those who are unaware, such as all the algos taking the EURUSD higher, that the ECB's entire overhyped plan is nothing more than a continuation of the Securities Market Program, or the SMP, which has been dormant for over 25 weeks, and which was deactivated because it did not work! Because sterilized means no new money enters the system, something which for Europe is unacceptable considering Spain alone is now seeing $100 billion in outflows each month.

It also means this is merely a flow-targeting program, and one which does nothing to actually stimulate inflation with new money creation...

... Bottom line: if this is indeed the final shape of the ECB "bazooka" tomorrow the market will be hugely disappointed...

/... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/ecb-backtracks-draghi-will-not-pursue-yield-caps-will-sterilize-bond-buys-merely-smp-continuati

[Hotler]

22. Judge: Airlines must stand trial over 9/11 negligence claims

Judge, how about Bush/Cheney and the rest of the Neocons stand trial for their negligence on 9/11? Do the Neocons really have so much power today that people in high places are scared to speak the truth about 9/11? (inside job?)

A U.S. judge ruled that AMR Corp's American Airlines and United Continental Holdings Inc must face trial over claims relating to the September 11 attacks that destroyed the landmark towers of the World Trade Center in New York almost 11 years ago, court documents showed.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/05/13672331-judge-airlines-must-stand-trial-over-911-negligence-claims?lite

I have lost my mind. If anyones sees it please send it home, thanks.

[Roland99]

23. US Futures dampened by yet more Europium

[font color="red"]S&P 500 -0.2%
DOW -0.1%
NASDAQ -0.3% [/font]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ecb-report-weighs-on-treasurys-us-dollar-2012-09-05?link=MW_home_latest_news

[Demeter]

25. Cute! Europium--very catchy!

Japan certainly isn't happy, these days, either.

[Roland99]

26. 'This Guy Hates Us': Why Wall Street Turned Against Obama

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/this-guy-hates-us-why-wall-street-turned-against-obama/261936/

The financial services community swooned for President Obama four years ago and opened its collective wallet to offer him more than $16 million in campaign cash. This cycle its well-heeled members have ponied up far less for the president -- contributions to the Obama campaign have barely reached $4 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics - and many who backed the president last time say they don't plan to again.

It's not anger over Wall Street reforms that prompted their change of heart and vote, they say, but questions about the country's economic future. And even while they remain queasy about former Gov. Mitt Romney's socially conservative positions, including on gay marriage, and eager to hear focused and specific economic proposals rather than "59-point plans," they say their desire for stronger economic leadership is leading them toward the GOP nominee.

"I don't feel what I am about to express is a minority opinion; There are a lot of folks who feel disappointed with Obama," says Dave Alpern, a private equity investor who voted for Obama in 2008. He donated to GOP nominee Sen. John McCain while his wife donated to Obama. "I bought off on the 'let's do things differently' and 'change is in the air.' I found his message to be very inspiring."

...

The president irked a number of financial services players who once filled his coffers by coming out on "60 Minutes" and saying that he did not "run for office to help a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street." But after the Dodd-Frank bill passed two years ago, he has been attacked by a slew of heavy hitters, who continue to fight the Volcker Rule, a measure which places limits on proprietary trading. Other investors say that the political rhetoric was more damaging than any substantive legislative changes. Some even joke that if a form of the Volcker rule survives, it should be called the "Dimon Rule," since it looked likely to go away until Jamie Dimon announced JP Morgan's several-billion-dollar trading loss resulting from the debacle of the "London Whale."

They feel..."irked"??


FUCK THEM!

[Tansy_Gold]

27. sideways n/t

[DemReadingDU]

28. It's all about the money

Of the wealthy, for the wealthy, by the wealthy.
Romney is their guy.

[Hotler]

33. WOW! Just wow.

Those fuckers should be jumping for joy. Obama went on Sixty Minutes and told the nation that the bankers did nothing wrong.

[Fuddnik]

43. What do you expect him to do?

He has another election coming up, after all.

[MattSh]

29. Hey Demeter and Tansy and all...

Hey Demeter, got your message a few weeks ago. Been meaning to check back with you and the group, but being summer and having slow internet and all... But back on fast internet now.

Yes I'm still alive and well and still living in Kiev.

Yeah, I've sort of backed away from SMW and WEE and DU in general, even stepped away the photography group! Not just posting, but even reading too. Although I'm more likely to be spotted in GD, for some odd odd reason. But not too often... I know some people make a scene before stepping away, but that just isn't me. And I couldn't have done that anyway because even I didn't know I was going to do that either, and certainly not for this long.

I guess SMW and WEE got somewhat liking watching Titanic for the 10th time. You just know the freaking ship is going to go down again and hoping for a different ending just makes hanging around and watching the damn thing sink again to be a big, fat, freaking disappointment.

I know at some point the shit will hit the fan again and maybe the thrill will be back.

Keep on keeping on, even against the long odds here at DU. People may not believe you now, but they'll be sorry they didn't pay more attention to you later!

[AnneD]

36. Good to see....

lurk when you can. Sometimes I feel a tad bit masochistic being here, but I do get good info that keeps me ahead of the game.

Be sure to let someone here have a way to contact you, because you never know.

[Demeter]

38. It's the infinite variety of scams that draws me

There were a couple times this year already I had to back off. But curiosity is a curse.

Now, I've got the election fascination....wondering who will survive the slow-moving train wreck. It's like that epic one from the Fugitive...catastrophe piled on top of catastrophe.

Glad to know you are all right. How is Ukraine?

[jtuck004]

31. How Farmers Became Slaves to the Corporate Masters

I ran across a book, "Divided We Stand", first published in 1937, Professor Webb posits three regions of the country and how the corporations of the North dominate the South. A long time has passed, and the greedy people inside some corporations have destroyed life for many, and I thought this paragraph could be written today....

... In the face of this situation the business interests of America have the nerve to talk to farmers of rugged individualism, democracy, freedom, and the merits of thrift. In reality there is a rugged individualism among the farmers, and it is their misfortune. They are rugged, and they are unwilling as a whole to co-operate, either in the conduct of their affairs or in politics. As individualists they stand, unorganized and practically inarticulate, against the greatest organized forces of the world. They furnish the best soil in which these organized forces can grow. They are the manure at the roots of the corporate tree ....”

Here.

For those of who don't garden, manure must rot and decay to be useful as food for plants and soil conditioner.

What do we and our neighbors, our country, become when there will be no jobs that can sustain us for the rest of our lives?

[Tansy_Gold]

39. And yet those "rugged individuals"

had enough cooperative sense to form. . . . . CO-OPs!








teh stoopid it burns, and it stinks like burning shit.

[jtuck004]

41. And still wound up with twice the suicide rate of the rest of the population,

thousands run off their farms in the pursuit of "development", lobbyists who got subsidies so bigger, more "connected" companies could profit at their expense. Stupid seems a little harsh for the tragedy that encompassed, but ymmv.

More coops were formed for marketing than anything else, it appears, not nearly enough people joined, and though there were a few good efforts not nearly enough organizing for political power went on. Then again, they were mostly honorable, hard-working people, and I suspect they never had a thought that they would be seen as disposable by the junk bond traders of the day. They also get lumped in with the cooperatives that were formed to control commodities, such as sugar, by really big corporations that see capital as more important than labor.

Broken farms and farmers littered that landscape in the 1930's when he was writing this, and we live on top of their bones now.

(Not part of this, but I was in the store the other day and the limes were marked "Chile". It's an amazing country where it is cheaper to grow things thousands of miles away and fly them here to be stocked by low wage employees, growing the power of the corporations over all of us. All while people are barred from urban farming by zoning laws that keep them from taking just that little piece of their lives back.

[Tansy_Gold]

44. Good heavens, jtuck, where do you live that people don't know

the difference between a lime




and a chile?






Only kidding, of course.

But yes, some of the farmers were able to co-operate enough to set up various co-ops, many of which are still in (co) operation today. It was the rural electrification co-ops that brought electricity ot rural areas, for instance. Unfortunately, the message of cooperation didn't stick strongly enough, and the message/propaganda of the right wing did, even though it was a lie.

My in-laws sold the family farm in Indiana in 2003 because there was no one in the family to farm it. And though they had been life-long Republicans active in the local party, they also believed in the co-operative effort. My father-in-law belonged to two labor unions. And they couldn't bring themselves to vote for boooosh or the old fart with the dumb broad.

I think what happened was that too many in the Democratic party wrote off the rural areas, the fly-over zones, and let the pukes have 'em. When people are ignored, they will turn toward whoever pays them some attention, especially if that attention includes stories they like to hear.

[jtuck004]

45. LOL - that clears it up!

I think what caught my attention in his original book (written in the 30's, so we have the benefit(?) of hindsight...) was this passage

"As individualists they stand, unorganized and practically inarticulate, against the greatest organized forces of the world. They
furnish the best soil in which these organized forces can grow. They are the manure at the roots of the corporate tree .."

Basically saying the unorganized farmer was their own worst enemy, they become the nutrient for the corps who work against them. And I can see those same people today, no longer farmers, bathed in a mythical story of independence from their neighbors, the pool from which the radical right has come.

I can't help but think of the parallel to today - independent, individualists, practically (politically, financially) inarticulate - they can hardly spell moron or socialist, yet they hurl those as an invective to defend against the dreaded liberalism. They aren't really "organized", just a bunch of people who hate the same thing. And they are likely following a paid True Believer, one who will sit and eat with them, in their home or neighborhood, in a time when reliance on Facebook, the web, and cable tv may fool people into thinking that they are just as effective.

Your last paragraph puts me in mind of this poem...

Hearken to the "Song of the Plow": Here.

It was I who built Chaldea and the Cities of the Plain;
I was Greece and Rome and Carthage and the opulence of Spain.
When their courtiers walked in scarlet and their queens wore chains of gold,
And forgot 'twas I that made them, growing Godless folk and bold,

I went over them in judgment, and again my cornfields stood
Where empty courts bowed homage in obsequious multitude. . . .
For the nation that forgets me, in that hour her doom is sealed
By a judgment as from Heaven that can never be repealed!

There is a price to be paid for ignoring people that should be on your side. Yet if Democrats won't do the old-timey organizing work, it doesn't mean someone else won't.

I really don't want to think of what that price might be.

[Tansy_Gold]

46. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.

It's like this business with this piece of shit Gina Rinehart from Australia, worth billions because of her mining interests, and now saying that, in essence, workers are only worth $2 a day.

And when they say, when they the workers declare they will not work for $2 a day? And when there are no workers at all? How much are her minerals worth then? In the ground, under the ground, they aren't worth squat, and it is labor, labor, always and only labor that makes anything worth anything.

I overheard something on the tv last night, just a line or two and I couldn't tell you if it was from the DNC or something the BF had on ESPN. But someone was saying something about "who built this country?" and I wanted to scream back at that faceless voice.

SLAVES built this country. Some were chattel slaves who worked the plantations of the south, but there were others as well, from the Chinese who labored on the railroads and the Irish who dug the canals and the Welsh and Cornish who mined the coal and the braceros who worked the fields. They were the women of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and the workers at the Imperial Food Processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. They are the greeters at Walmart and the burger flippers at McDonald's and the day laborers standing under the shade of a palm tree in front of Home Depot or Lowe's, hoping someone will hire them to assemble a storage shed or trim an oleander hedge. They're the caregivers at the nursing homes, the maids in the hotels, the servers and the dishwashers and cashiers and stockers and all the other less-than-living-wage workers who make life so comfortable -- and the profits even more comfortable -- for the people like Ann Romney.

The venture capitalists and the leveraged buyer outers and the banksters and the quants, they never built a fucking thing. They never laid a brick, squared a door frame, grouted a tile, dug a well. They neither sow nor grow nor harvest. They neither teach nor learn.

We can do all of that. We can teach. We must teach.

[DemReadingDU]

47. Elizabeth Warren makes this point

it's a 2 minute video, she makes this statement in the 2nd minute

9/18/11 Elizabeth Warren: "There Is Nobody In This Country Who Got Rich On His Own"

&feature=player_embedded#!

[Roland99]

37. SEC Investigating ResCap for Possible Mortgage Fraud

http://www.mortgagecrisiswatch.com/2012/09/05/sec-investigating-rescap-for-possible-mortgage-fraud/

The SEC disclosed in court documents on Monday that it formerly commenced an investigation in February of this year to probe possible fraud in the offer and sale of mortgage-backed securities by ResCap. The agency was forced to reveal the existence of the investigation in order to compel R.R. Donnelley & Sons to turn over due diligence reports that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Office Tiger Global Real Estate Services, prepared for the investment banks that underwrote the troubled securities.

The SEC claims it needs the reports to determine whether ResCap violated federal securities laws by making “material misrepresentations or omissions about the mortgage loan pools that backed the securitizations under investigation.”

Specifically, the SEC “is investigating ResCap’s origination and underwriting practices used to make and approve loans in connection with offerings of residential mortgage backed securities, and the creditworthiness of borrowers on loans underlying offerings of residential mortgage backed securities.”

The SEC subpoenaed the due diligence reports from R.R. Donnelly in June, but the company refused to fully comply with the subpoena, citing privacy concerns arising from the Right to Financial Privacy Act, 12 U.S.C. § 3401, et seq. In its motion to compel, the SEC argues that R.R.Donnelly is neither a financial institution nor an agent of a financial institution, and as such, the company is not subject to the RFPA.

[Roland99]

40. JPMorgan Chase CEO on mortgage crisis >>>>

RTRS - FORMER JPMORGAN CHASE CEO WILILAM HARRISON SAYS BORROWERS WERE ABUSING THE SYSTEM DURING THE CRISIS - CNBC INTERVIEW

RTRS - FORMER JPMORGAN CHASE CEO WILLIAM HARRISON SAYS BIG BANKS DID NOT CAUSE 100 PCT OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS - CNBC INTERVIEW

RTRS- FORMER JPMORGAN CHASE CEO WILILAM HARRISON SAYS BAD IDEA TO BREAK UP BIG BANKS - CNBC INTERVIEW

[Fuddnik]

42. Silly! Everyone knows it was that evil Community Re-Investment Act that caused the whole thing.

I know, because a guy in the bar told me he saw it on Fox News.

Actually, he didn't have to tell me. The way he was babbling like a Moonie disciple told me exactly where he saw it.