OCCUPY Weekend Economists! September 14-16, 2012

[Demeter]

Last edited Sun Sep 16, 2012, 12:04 AM - Edit history (1)

I'm glad to note that both SMW and WEE predate the Occupy Movement, even if we had nothing to do with its formation. We are fellow travelers, after all, of the 99%. and if that means opposing the 1%---oh, well!

The Occupy movement is an international protest movement against social and economic inequality, its primary goal being to make the economic structure and power relations in society more fair. Different local groups have different foci, but among the prime concerns is the claim that large corporations and the global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy and is unstable.

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters and partly inspired by the Arab Spring, especially Cairo's Tahrir Square protests, and the Spanish Indignants. The movement commonly uses the slogan We are the 99%, the #Occupy hashtag format, and organizes through websites such as Occupy Together. http://occupytogether.org/ According to The Washington Post, the movement, which has been described as a "democratic awakening" by Cornel West, is difficult to distill to a few demands. In fact, in a teaser poster for the beginning of Occupy Wall Street, the tagline is: What Is Our One Demand? On October 12, 2011, the Los Angeles City Council became one of the first governmental bodies in the United States to adopt a resolution stating its informal support of the Occupy movement.

The first Occupy protest to receive wide coverage was Occupy Wall Street in New York City's Zuccotti Park, which began on September 17, 2011. By October 9, Occupy protests had taken place or were ongoing in over 95 cities across 82 countries, and over 600 communities in the United States. Although most popular in the United States, Occupy has seen protests and occupations in dozens of other countries and on every continent except Antarctica. For the first two months of the protest, authorities largely adopted a tolerant approach towards the movement, though this began to change in mid November with over a dozen camps being cleared in both the US and Europe. By the end of 2011 authorities had cleared out most of the major camps. The last remaining high profile camps - at Washington DC and at St Paul's Cathedral in London - were cleared by February 2012.---wikipedia

UPDATE: THIS IS ALSO THE 4TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LEHMAN BROS. BANKRUPTCY. SO MANY EVENTS TO REMEMBER....

[Demeter]

1. Protests planned for Occupy Wall Street's 1-year anniversary MONDAY

http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/14/technology/occupy-wall-street-anniversary/?source=cnn_bin



It's been one year since Occupy Wall Street began, when hundreds of protesters descended on the nation's financial center and kicked off a nationwide social movement. Organizers plan to mark Monday's anniversary, dubbed "S17," with scores of events and demonstrations.

The main focus is again in New York, where the planned S17 events include a 6 a.m. bike ride in lower Manhattan, a "people's wall" picket line at the New York Stock Exchange, and an anniversary concert featuring Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.

The S17 gatherings may reunite members of the Occupy movement, which organizers say has evolved into somewhat disparate "affinity groups" focused on specific ideals: a debtor's revolt, a push to "get the money out of politics," a call for a reformed healthcare system.

"Media love to say that Occupy is dead, but the only thing that's really dead is that original encampment model," says Kalle Lasn, the editor-in-chief of Canadian magazine Adbusters. His activist publication hatched the idea for Occupy Wall Street and put out a call for participants back in July 2011.

"It's changed from Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Main Street, in that a whole bunch of little things are happening all around every day," Lasn says.

[AnneD]

2. First rec......

Vegas here I come......

[Tansy_Gold]

3. I haven't had an avatar since moving from DU2

I think it's time.

[Demeter]

7. I can hardly wait!

Don't keep me in suspense!

[Warpy]

22. My favorite Buddhist avatar wasn't there at first

I notice it's back so I changed it today.

[AnneD]

86. I use to change mine frequently...

But Guy has fit my mood for some time now. It is our only hope. Some people just read the tea leaves earlier than others.

[tama]

4. Resistance! Strike! Don't pay!

Weekend economists of no to debt slavery, yes to strike against paying debt and yes yes for global jubilee!

In finite world, the economic order based on debt, interest and exponential growth is the WORST possible idea.

[Demeter]

5. Gold edges higher on Fed glow

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-gains-in-asia-as-fed-glow-lingers-2012-09-14?siteid=YAHOOB

WHAT DELUSION! GOLD IS UP BECAUSE BERNANKE TRASHED THE DOLLAR, AGAIN.

Gold futures ended higher Friday, extending gains a day after settling at their highest in nearly seven months as investors cheered the Federal Reserve’s latest bond-purchase plan... The benchmark gold contract surged $38.40 in regular trading in New York on Thursday, settling at $1,772.10 an ounce, its highest close since late February.

“I fully expected some consolidation after [Thursday’s] big move and the fact that the metal is not only holding these levels but actually advancing a bit I think is highly encouraging,” said Brien Lundin, editor of Gold Newsletter, in a telephone interview.

On the week, gold gained 1.9%.

MORE

[Demeter]

6. Even If You're All-Powerful, It's Hard To Fix The Economy

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/09/14/161153421/even-if-youre-all-powerful-its-hard-to-fix-the-economy?ft=1&f=1001

The world inside Mark Zandi's computer model feels pretty familiar. It's full of people who are worried about the economy. Their homes are being foreclosed on. They're paying more for gas. Something like 13 million of them can't find jobs. Zandi is the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, and he built his model to predict what's going to happen in the real world. When he plugs what he thinks is going to happen in the real world, his model spits out a pretty grim result: Four years from now, the unemployment rate will be 6.6 percent. That's lower than today, but still much higher than the 5 percent rate that was typical before the recession.

I recently sat down with Zandi, and gave him a challenge: Fix the economy in the world inside your computer. Try to ensure that, four years from now, the unemployment rate inside the computer will get back down to 5 percent. Zandi starts big: He fixes the U.S. government. Republicans and Democrats work together to agree on a long term plan to deal with the country's debt through a mix of tax increases and spending cuts. The computer chews on this unlikely event for a few seconds, solving equations, calculating some 1700 variables. It tells us that, four years from now, the unemployment rate will be 6.1 percent.

"Still uncomfortably high," Zandi says.

Next up: Gas prices. Zandi brings down the price of a barrel of oil by about $20. The price of gas in the U.S. falls to $3 a gallon. This, sadly, only reduces unemployment by a tenth of one percent. Zandi's not surprised.

"Gasoline prices are outsized in our thinking," he says. "But when it comes down to brass tacks. still a small proportion."

On to Europe.

Let's make sure the euro survives. Inside Zandi's computer, the European economy is going to grow. Not grow like crazy, but grow more than it's growing now. That means more U.S. exports to Europe. And it means that U.S. unemployment four years from now will be 5.9 percent. Still too high. In fact, It is surprisingly hard to get back to a 5 percent unemployment rate in the world inside Zandi's computer. But we keep trying. We boost home prices by 10 percent. We make banks lend out more money. We raise consumer confidence. We still can't get to 5 percent unemployment. It's time to get crazy. We make people not just confident, but super confident. We cut the price of a barrel of oil in half. We give Europe a spectacular recovery. China keeps growing. Africa takes off.



We let the computer rip. In 2016, it tells us, the unemployment rate will be 5.2 percent. No matter what we do, we can't seem to get the unemployment rate down to 5 percent.

"What's happening is the economy is reaching its new limits," Zandi says.

This is something I hadn't really appreciated before. When you go through a really big, catastrophic recession, it's not always possible to fix things. Millions of people lost their jobs in the recession. At the same time new high school and college grads started looking for jobs. The economy just can't grow fast enough to absorb the backlog. Zandi says we'll have an extra million or two million people looking for jobs, and unable to find them.

"We dug ourselves a huge hole," Zandi says, "Its gonna take a generation to get completely out of it."

NOTICE THERE'S NO TALK ABOUT TAXING THE OBSCENELY WEALTHY, NOR EMPLOYING THE JOBLESS HORDES IN A WPA PROGRAM, NOR ANYTHING ELSE FDR LEARNED IN HIS TIME...

[Demeter]

8. Gasoline pushes up inflation, could dent growth

TAKE THAT, MR. ECONOMIST WITH A COMPUTER MODEL!

http://news.yahoo.com/gasoline-prices-push-consumer-inflation-august-123527547--business.html

A jump in the cost of gasoline pushed U.S. consumer prices up in August at the fastest pace in more than three years and squeezed spending on other items, threatening to further slow the already sluggish economy.

At the same time, production at the nation's factories, mines and utilities dropped by 1.2 percent, the biggest decline since March 2009, other data on Friday showed.

The sour mix of numbers was tempered by an unexpected increase in consumer sentiment in early September and signs underlying inflation pressures remained contained.

Economists said the reports helped justify the Federal Reserve's decision on Thursday to launch a third round of bond purchases to try to lower borrowing costs and spur growth....

OF COURSE THEY'D SAY THAT, THE LICKSPITTLE M$M...

[Demeter]

9. Bernanke: Fed OKd new stimulus because unemployment is 'grave concern'

SOMEHOW, I DON'T BELIEVE YOU, UNCLE BEN. YOU CAVED TO THE 1% AGAIN

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-bernanke-federal-reserve-stimulus-news-conference-20120913,0,3870508.story

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said "grave concern" about the nation's high unemployment rate led the central bank to launch another round of stimulus, and that the aggressive open-ended program underscores a commitment to the economic recovery.

"We've seen not enough jobs growth to bring down the unemployment rate, and what we need to see is more progress," Bernanke said. The Fed would continue with its stimulus "until we do," he said.

"We're just trying to get the economy moving in the right direction, so we don't stagnate at high levels of unemployment," Bernanke said Thursday at his quarterly news conference, which followed the Fed's announcement of its new stimulus effort.

The Fed said Thursday it would buy $40 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities until the outlook for the labor market improves substantially. Bernanke said the program "should increase downward pressure on interest rates," particularly mortgage rates, which would encourage more home sales and refinancing.

He would not give a specific level of unemployment the Fed was aiming for, but said the goal was not to continue the purchases until the labor market was at a full employment rate of about 6%. The unemployment rate in August was 8.1%.

"There's not a specific number we have in mind, but what we've seen in the last six months isn't it," he said. "We're looking for something that involves unemployment coming down in a sustained way."

Responding to criticism that the Fed's actions were hurting savers by keeping interest rates low, Bernanke said there are benefits to the rates. Low interest rates help the value of homes and business, he said. And though the rates do harm people with certificates of deposit and other savings, Bernanke said, "It's difficult to save for retirement and other goals without the income from a job."



WHAT A LOAD OF TRIPE!

[Demeter]

10. It’s now cheaper to buy than rent M$M BS ALERT!

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-now-cheaper-to-buy-than-rent-trulia-2012-09-13

It’s much cheaper to buy a home than rent one in 100 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas, according to a report released on Thursday by the real-estate website Trulia.

“Despite the recent [home] price rebound, rents continue to rise faster than [home] prices, and mortgage rates are near record lows,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist, in a news release. And that’s leading to favorable homeownership costs in most corners of the country.

In its analysis, Trulia looked at the average price of all homes for sale and the average rent of all homes for lease on the website between the beginning of June and the end of August. Averages for the metropolitan areas include properties from the inner cities to the suburbs.

The report reflects increased affordability for homeowners compared with the winter, when Trulia last did this analysis. The last time around, it was better to buy in 98 of the top 100 markets, Kolko said. But mortgage rates have dropped since then, and rents have risen faster than home prices. According to the report released on Thursday, homeownership affordability, compared with renting, was highest in Detroit, where the average cost of owning a home is $349 a month and the average cost of renting one is $1,149 a month. That’s a 70% difference of $800 a month, according to the report....

I REST MY CASE. WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO OWN IN DETROIT?

[Fuddnik]

14. I think you can buy a house in Detroit for $349.00.

Come to Florida where it costs more per month to insure a house than to buy it.

[Demeter]

11. As Predicted, Bernanke Launches QE3 to Help the Big Banks … Which Will Destroy the Economy

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-09-13/predicted-bernanke-launches-qe3-which-will-destroy-economy

We predicted last week that Bernanke would launch QE3 this week. Today, the Fed announced that it will buy $40 billion dollars of mortgage-backed securities per month ... indefinitely. This is just another bailout for the big banks. (If the government had instead given money directly to the consumer, we would be out of this economic slump by now). Bernanke claims that the main justification for QE3 is to boost employment. This is slightly ironic, since Bernanke's policies are largely responsible for creating high unemployment in the first place.

The real justification is to try to artificially prop up asset prices. But that approach has been proven to be an absolute failure...

MORE GOOD NEWS AT LINK

[Demeter]

12. The Fed’s QE 3 Program: Short Term Thinking For Long-Term Pain

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-09-14/fed%E2%80%99s-qe-3-program-short-term-thinking-long-term-pain

Yesterday the Fed announced QE 3: an open ended program through which the Fed will purchase $40 billion worth of Mortgage Backed Securities every month until it decides that the world is right again. The implications of this are severe. However, the first question we have to ask is, “why now?” After all, stocks were already at 4-year highs, food and energy prices were soaring, interest rates were at record lows, etc. On top of this, the Fed failed to announce QE 3 for over a year (QE 2 ended June 2011). Why announce it now?

There are only two reasons:

1) Things are in fact far worse behind the scenes than we know (the Fed HAD to do something to get more money into the system)

2) Politics

Regarding item #1, I want to be very clear here. The fact that my timing was off on predicting a European collapse doesn’t mean Europe will not collapse. Instead it simply means that my timing was off. With that in mind, we have to look at the Fed’s move from an EU perspective. We know that Obama literally pleaded with Angela Merkel to keep the EU together until the election was over. Moreover, we know that Europe is in a very bad place. Here’s a quick 30,000 foot view of Europe in bullet point form. I’m focusing on the country that’s in the most trouble (Spain) and the country that is the backstop for the EU (Germany).

All of the following are facts:

Spain:

1) Spain’s banking system saw a bank run to the tune of €70 billion in August. The market cap for all of Spain’s banks is just €114 billion. So Spanish banks need to raise at least €20+ billion or so per month in the coming months to stay afloat. This is without depositors pulling additional funds in September onwards. That’s really bad news.

2) Spain’s now nationalized Bankia just took another €5.4 billion from Spain’s in-country rescue fund. This indicates that once nationalized, problem banks DO NOT cease to be problems.

3) The region of Andalusia is requesting a bailout from the Spanish Federal Government. This comes on the heels of bailout requests from the regions of Valencia, Murcia and Catalonia (none of which want any “conditions” on the funds).

4) Spain has set aside €18 billion to bailout its regions. The current bailout requests already amount to €10.8 billion. That’s just from this year alone.

Simply put, Spain has MAJOR problems. And this is after the ECB put over €1 trillion in liquidity into the EU banking system to cover three year funding gaps for EU banks. Despite these measures, Spain has already asked for a €100 billion bailout for its banks from the EU. However, it’s yet to request a formal sovereign bailout. The reason for this is Spain doesn’t want the EU or IMF to impose conditions on its already troubled economy (youth unemployment at 50% and total unemployment at 25%). Also, Spain doesn’t want IMF and EU bean counters to sift through its book. Case in point, the country just discovered another €28 billion in debt on its books. One wonders what else is hidden in the darkness of Spain’s officials “numbers.”

Germany:

1) The country is now sporting a Debt to GDP of 90% courtesy of its EU bailouts.

2) Germany has committed over €2.1 trillion in backdoor bailouts to the EU.

3) German Chancellor Angela Merkel is up for re-election next year. The EU bailouts will be THE election topic. And she is facing backlash from members in her own party as well as opposition leaders concerning her actions in helping the EU.

So, we see a problem country (Spain) facing a severe bank run, regional bailouts, and more at the precise time that its ultimate backstop (Germany) has put its own solvency into question due to various EU bailout schemes. I believe that the Fed’s decision to announce QE 3 now was in part due to the severity of these issues. One has to remember that a significant number of the Fed’s Primary Dealers are based in Europe. The Fed will be feeding them liquidity via QE 3. Remember, the ECB’s recent open-ended bond program requires countries to meet “conditions.” The Fed’s QE 3 doesn’t. So this can be seen in some ways as a potential back-door bailout to Europe in that it will get liquidity into European banks. Again, I firmly believe that one of the primary reasons the Fed did this was to deal with liquidity issues that are occurring “behind the scenes.” The fact the Fed piggy-backed this announcement after the ECB’s announcement of its open-ended bond purchasing program makes this a coordinated central bank intervention.

MORE GOOD NEWS AT LINK...MUCH MORE GOOD NEWS, AND I WILL QUIT THIS GIG...

[westerebus]

15. What's a central banker to do?

For the better part of six years, give or take, the FED has not implemented policies that are pro-employment. So what? Given the policy of the FED mandate what comes first on their agenda? The economy which they translate to the stock and bond markets and the organizations that run said markets. If we are honest with ourselves, the FED isn't the solution to the employment problem. They never have been.

The CONgress makes the laws, approves trade agreements, levy's tariffs and imposes taxes. That would be the economy. If the CONgress had rejected NAFTA would we be better off? That was an easy one. How about the Graham-Leahy Financial Modernization Act that removed the protections of Glass-Stegall and opened the way for such financial wonders like Citi-bank?

That's just two. Just two. That doesn't exonerate the FED. It simply shows where and who decided who's interests needed to be served. In both cases, it's the CONgress that has failed miserably to attending to the People's business.

They do manage to assist those like Rmoney in every way possible. If no one has mentioned it, do you not find it ironic that the man who ran against Bush in the second term was also from the great state of Massachusetts, only that time the wife had the money. If history repeats itself, the current President will again take the Oath of Office in 2013 and Boston will win the World Series.

OK. Back to the FED. A constant criticism is the money is going to the banks who speculate with it to keep the markets artificially high. That is absolutely true. So what's your preference? A tanked market wherein your 401k is halved in value or all the manipulation the FED can muster so you can draw down what you had at the peak of the boom?

Again that doesn't give the FED a free pass. Once again, where is the CONgress in allowing the derivatives markets to run rampant over the housing market or worse still over the credit of the EU and worster (new jersey idiomatic phraseology) still over the finances of the States of these here United States?

Do you see the CONgress doing any thing to improve these conditions? Perhaps, improve is beyond their capacity, how about correct the disparity they have caused? No, still too high a bar for the CONgress? How about demand the current laws be put to work and the frauds prosecuted? Still too high? Which leaves us with what? Fucking politics as usual. Bravo! Mission accomplished!

$40 billion isn't enough to bail out the EU by the way. It is enough to begin dissolving the GSE's trail of debt. Then the GSE's themselves go away. All the better for the maker's of loans. Public debt, private profit. That will never happen, the CONgress will....never mind...

Bill Gross of PIMCO is money good. Gold good too as a matter of fact. ymmv

[Po_d Mainiac]

18. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act n/t

[westerebus]

23. My built in fact checker.

Works like a charm.

[Po_d Mainiac]

85. no other corrections required.

as you were.

[Demeter]

28. The Punchline In His Own Words: Bernanke Advocates Blowing Asset Bubbles As Antidote To Depression

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/punchline-his-own-words-bernanke-advocates-blowing-asset-bubbles-antidote-depression

If there was one absolutely must see moment exposing everything that is broken with the Fed's brand new policy of QE-nfinity, it was this exchange between Reuters' Pedro da Costa and the Chairman. It explains, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the only goal the Fed now has is to reflate the stock market bubble to previously unseen levels, to focus on generating jobs although not for everyone but only for Wall Street, consequences be damned, because by the time the consequences arrive, and they will (just recall that subprime is contained) they will be some other Fed chairman's problem. Bernake's term mercifully runs out in January 2014...


TOO LATE, I'M AFRAID...COOL PIC OF BERNANKE'S KEYBOARD:

[Demeter]

13. Taking a Dinner/Euchre Break

If anyone can stomach it, keep on posting. I've got more "good news" for later, tonight and tomorrow...wonder how many banks will avert failure due to QE3...

[kickysnana]

16. 5th Rec, coming in late this evening, interesting posts already...n/t

[Demeter]

17. Prelude to an Occupation

The Spanish Indignados movement began in mid May 2011, with camps at Madrid and elsewhere. According to sociologist Manuel Castells, by the end of the month there were already hundreds of camps around Spain and across the world. For some journalists and commentators the camping in Spain marked the start of the global occupy movement, though it is much more commonly said to have begun in New York during September.

On May 30, 2011, a leader of the Indignados, inspired by the Arab Spring, called for a worldwide protest on October 15. In mid-2011, the Canadian-based group Adbusters Media Foundation, best known for its advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, address a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions behind the recent global financial crisis. Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn registered the OccupyWallStreet.org web address on June 9. According to the senior editor of the magazine, "[they] basically floated the idea in mid-July into our email list and it was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world, it just kind of snowballed from there." One of the inspirations for the movement was the Democracy Village set up in 2010, outside the British Parliament in London. The protest received additional attention when the internet hacker group Anonymous encouraged its followers to take part in the protests, calling protesters to "flood lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and Occupy Wall Street". They promoted the protest with a poster featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull. The first protest was held at Zuccotti Park in New York City on September 17, 2011, the tenth anniversary of the re-opening of Wall Street trading after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The protests were preceded by a similar Occupy Dataran movement in Kuala Lumpur in July, seven weeks before Occupy Wall Street.

--wikipedia

[DemReadingDU]

19. Occupy Wall Street 2.0: The Debt Resistors’ Operations Manual

9/15/12 Occupy Wall Street 2.0: The Debt Resistors’ Operations Manual

The anniversary of Occupy Wall Street is September 17. While there will be public events in New York, it’s likely that number of people that will be involved will not be large enough to impress the punditocracy (multi-citi militarized crackdowns have a way of discouraging participation), leading them to declare OWS a flash in the pan. That conclusion may be premature.

The release of the The Debt Resistors’ Manual suggests something very different: that the movement is still alive, if much less visible, and is developing new avenues for having impact. This guide is designed not only to give individuals advice for how to be more effective in dealing with lenders but also sets forth some larger-scale ideas. This is a project of a new OWS group, Strike Debt. Fighting for debt renegotiation and restructuring, something that the bank-boosting legacy parties have refused to do, is becoming a new focus for OWS efforts.

Quite a few well qualified people who in Occupy fashion are going unnamed, participated in developing this manual. Having read most of the chapters in full and skimmed the rest, I find that this guide achieves the difficult feat of giving people in various types of debt an overview of their situation, including political issues, and practical suggestions in clear, layperson-friendly language. For instance, the chapter on credit ratings gives step-by-step directions as to how to find and challenge errors in your credit records, and what sort of timetable and process is realistic for getting results. The chapter on dealing with debt collectors is similarly specific and detailed.

more...
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/09/occupy-wall-street-2-0-the-debt-resistors-operations-manual.html

link to the manual, 132 pages
http://www.scribd.com/doc/105887484/Occupy-Wall-Street-Strike-Debt-The-Debt-Resistors-Operations-Manual

[DemReadingDU]

20. QE3 IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

&feature=player_embedded

[DemReadingDU]

21. Richard Gere - Arbitrage movie trailer

The official trailer for Nicholas Jarecki's "Arbitrage" starring Richard Gere, Brit Marling and Susan Sarandon. A troubled hedge fund magnate (Gere) desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire makes an error that forces him to turn to an unlikely person for help.
opened 9/14/12

9/14/12 In the new movie Arbitrage, actor Richard Gere plays a Wall Street tycoon who is intent on making money, no matter the fallout. Audie Cornish talks to Gere about the film.

audio at link, appx 8 minutes
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/14/161170000/richard-gere-on-playing-a-jerk-you-want-to-root-for

[Demeter]

24. Job Opportunity!

[Demeter]

25. The “Pauperization of Europe” AUGUST 29 PROB. A REPEAT

http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2012/8/29/the-pauperization-of-europe.html

It started on Monday. “Poverty is returning to Europe,” said Jan Zijderveld, head of Unilever’s European operations, in an interview. The British–Dutch consumer products company, third largest in the world, was adjusting its commercial strategy to this new reality, he said, by redeploying to Europe what worked in poor countries of the developing world. Now the stars of the industry are affirming it. “The logic of pauperization,” L’Oréal CEO Jean-Paul Agon called it on Wednesday.

“If Spaniards are down to spending on average €17 per shopping trip, I can’t sell him detergent for half of his budget,” Zijderveld explained. “In Indonesia we sell individual packages of shampoo for 2 to 3 cents and still earn a fair amount.”

That this strategy was widespread in Asia I found out in Vietnam in 1996. I cut my finger at a table at a café in Hué as we were getting up. So, walking down the dirt street, I licked my finger to keep the blood from dripping on my clothes. The girl I was with, shocked by my barbaric behavior, took me to a street stall and bought me one singled Band-Aid, which cost as close to nothing as you could get.

By looking at Europe, particularly Southern Europe, as a market with the characteristics of developing countries, Unilever has transitioned from seeing the debt crisis as a temporary event to seeing it as a trend to which it had to adjust its strategies. So now in Spain, it sells its “Surf” detergent in packages that are good for five loads. In Greece, it sells mashed potatoes and mayonnaise in small packages. And in Great Britain (!), it’s implementing the same strategy. Because people are running out of money. And it’s been successful. Since they started this in 2011, sales have stopped falling; and in the first half of the year, they edged up 1.1%. But higher input prices have exerted pressures on margins and profits.

“I agree, there is a movement of very sharp pauperization in Southern Europe,” Michel-Edouard Leclerc said on Wednesday—they’re now all coming out. He’s the CEO of E.Leclerc, the number one retailer in France with a market share of 18% and 556 semi-independent hypermarkets, supermarkets, and specialty stores. It also has numerous stores in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and other countries. And the company is adjusting to the new reality. In Italy, for example, where the stores used to sell yoghurt only in multipacks, they’ve started to sell them as single items...Jean-Paul Agon, CEO of L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty products company, countered with a mixed message. No, the company wouldn’t adjust its products around the growing poverty in Europe, he said. The race to the lowest price was “not our strategy.” Unlike the others, his company wouldn’t follow “the logic of pauperization and commoditization of products.” Rather he wanted to build on “innovation and added value,” which would allow the company to raise prices over time, “but reasonably.”...Which makes sense in light of L’Oréal’s earnings announcement Wednesday morning, a debacle which caused its stock to plummet 4.4%, the second worst performer of the CAC40—due to disappointing margins! Instead of smaller packages, it had tried heavy discounting, Agon admitted, “to adjust our strategy to the environment”—namely the pauperization of Europe. Even L’Oréal.

[Demeter]

26. PART 2: The Pauperization Of America

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-09-11/pauperization-america

It’s been an unrelenting process. Survey after survey—most recently “The Lost Decade of the Middle Class“—has shown that wages haven’t kept up with inflation since the wage peak in 2000. Periods when real wages rose, for example during the deflationary stretch between March and October 2009, a godsend for struggling workers, were stepped out by the Fed, like nasty brushfires. So, families ended up making less at the end of the decade than at the beginning, a phenomenon not seen in the US since World War II. And the middle-income tier actually shrank in size—the process of hollowing out the American middle class.

But there is a new phenomenon: a ballooning lower class. It now engulfs 32% of all adults. In America! Where lower class is the unmentionable class, the class that doesn’t exist, just like the upper class doesn’t exist, but for different reasons...Political candidates trip all over each other to promise debt-funded goodies and tax cuts—real or imaginary—to the “middle class.” They all claim that a thriving middle class is the foundation of the American economy. The middle class rules! “Everyone is in the middle class,” I was told in high school by the dad of the chick I was dating. That was in the seventies. Now 32% of all American adults find themselves in the unmentionable lower class, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. Up from 25% in 2008. And none of the presidential candidates has even mentioned them...In America, the hardest hit were young adults, of whom a stunning 39% considered themselves in the lower class, up from 25% in 2008. If trends hold for the next few years, the lower class, the politically unmentionable entity, will ensnare half of all young adults.

Education does matter but isn’t a guarantee: 41% of those with a high school education or less ended up in the lower class. But even among college grads, the trend is grim: 17% considered themselves in the lower class, up from 12% in 2008. While upward mobility survived, despite the headwinds, there has been a pernicious economic maelstrom: “downward mobility.” The middle class has shrunk from 53% to 49% since 2008, and the upper-middle class from 19% to 15%. Only the upper class has remained stable at 2%. These movements resulted in an awful number: 38% of the people in the lower classes were new arrivals. Political persuasion didn’t matter, however. Of those in the lower classes, 32% were conservatives, 30% moderates, and 33% liberals. The system, it seems, has succeeded in wringing out any excess enthusiasm from those who are struggling to climb the hurdles in front of them, though that very enthusiasm is a vital ingredient in economic success:

Americans in the lower class are more negative about their current financial standing and more pessimistic about their economic future than adults who place themselves in the middle or upper classes. Those in the lower classes also are significantly more likely than other Americans to doubt that hard work brings success.

And it has had a harsh impact on the economy: 84% of the people in the lower classes cut back on spending last year. But then, 62% of the lucky ones, those that remained in the middle class, and 41% of the even luckier ones, those in the upper classes, also cut back. A sign that the tough times have left skid marks. Yet hope has been swirling around the financial markets. The Fed keeps dangling QE3 out in front of them, and the European Central Bank has come up with its own juicy carrot. Then, just as markets reached multi-year highs, there was an ugly dose of reality...

[Demeter]

27. Middle Class Shrinks to ALL-TIME LOW

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-09-14/middle-class-shrinks-all-time-low

The Washington Post notes in an article entitled “Census: Middle class shrinks to an all-time low“:

The vise on the middle class tightened last year, driving down its share of the income pie as the number of Americans in poverty leveled off and the most affluent households saw their portion grow, new census data released Wednesday showed.

***

For many economists, the most troubling statistics were those on income inequality underscoring the middle-class squeeze.

The 60 percent of households earning between roughly $20,000 and $101,000 collectively earned 46.6 of all income, a 1.5 percent drop. In 1990, they shared over 50 percent of income.

The Post also notes that inequality has actually risen post-recession:

“What’s disconcerting is that inequality is going up post-recession, and it’s happening because the top is starting to pull away again,” Jane Waldfogel, a professor at Columbia University’s School of Social Work said.

Bloomberg reports that income inequality has grown to the highest level since 1967:

The U.S. Census Bureau figures released yesterday underscored the struggles of American families in a sputtering economic recovery. The report also showed the income gap between rich and poor people grew to the widest in more than 40 years in 2011 as the poverty rate remained at almost a two-decade high.

AH, YES, THE LONG, HOT SUMMER--THE RIOTS OF DETROIT, NEWARK, CAMDEN, ETC...DEMETER

In reality, inequality in America is the worst its been since 1917. Indeed, as we noted last year:

Inequality among Americas is worse than in Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen. As NPR notes, inequality is higher in the U.S. than in many banana republics in Latin America. And social mobility is lower in America than in most European countries (and see this, this and this).

It’s only gotten worse since then …

The Weekly Standard points out that unemployment is also worse than during the recession:

According to figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), only 58.3 percent of Americans over the age of 16 are currently employed. That’s the lowest percentage in the past year—so things are getting worse, not better. But things haven’t just gotten worse over the past 12 months; they’ve also gotten worse since the recession ostensibly ended and the recovery ostensibly began.

In fact, for an amazing 38 consecutive months, the percentage of Americans who are employed has been lower than the percentage who were employed during the recession. According to the BLS, the low-water mark for employment during the recession was 59.4 percent, while the high-water mark for employment during the “recovery” has been 59.3 percent. That’s right: When it comes to the percentage of Americans who are employed, every month of the “recovery” has been worse than any month of the recession.

The economy cannot recover unless inequality is reduced, there is a healthy middle class and people have jobs.

We’re going in the wrong direction.

Postscript: This is not a partisan issue. The radical left and extreme right are both wrong about inequality.

[Demeter]

30. Romney Says Typical Middle-Class Homes Earn $250,000 A Year

http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/romney-says-typical-middle-class-homes-earn-250000-year?akid=9394.227380.Oi6vM9&rd=1&src=newsletter710530&t=1

Another day, another out-of-touch statement from Mitt Romney. Speaking today on ABC’s Good Morning America program, Romney said the typical middle-income household in America earned a quarter of a million dollars a year. Wouldn’t it be nice if, for once, we all lived in Romney’s America?

The actual figure is one-fifth of his estimate, the Associated Press reported this week relying on U.S. Census data. The federal agency found median household income—or the midpoint for the nation—is just over $50,000. Back to paying the bills…

“Both presidential candidates are fighting to win over working-class voters,” the AP said, stating the obvious. “President Barack Obama has defined "middle class" as income up to $250,000 a year. Obama wants to extend Bush-era tax cuts for those making less than $250,000. Romney wants to extend the tax cuts for everyone."...Romney defined middle income as $200,000 to $250,000 a year and less...

But we should give Romney credit where credit is due. While he has no idea what household economics are like for typical American homes, he is firm and clear-eyed in one department: his refusal to raise taxes on the people who can most afford to pay.

[Demeter]

29. Court Strikes Down Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/14/161175928/court-strikes-down-wis-collective-bargaining-law-championed-by-gov-walker?ft=1&f=1001

The controversial law that curbed the collective bargaining rights of public employees in Wisconsin has been struck down by Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas. The law, if you remember, was championed by Gov. Scott Walker and it unleashed massive protests and even led to Democratic law makers to flee the state to forestall its passage. After it became law, union activists mobilized and triggered a recall vote, which Walker ultimately defeated.

The Associated Press reports:

"Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas ruled Friday that the law violates both the state and U.S. Constitution and is null and void. The ruling comes after a lawsuit brought by the Madison teachers union and a union for Milwaukee city employees.

"Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie says he is confident the decision will be overturned on appeal.

"It was not clear if the ruling means the law is immediately suspended. The law took away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most workers and has been in effect for more than a year."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that this means municipal workers return to what was the status-quo before the law was passed. State employees still have to abide by the new law.

"The ruling means that, unless it is overturned on appeal, school districts and local officials will have to return to the bargaining table with their workers in a much more significant way," the Sentinel reports.

SO, FAT TONY'S GOING TO BE CALLED INTO PLAY...I CAN HARDLY WAIT.

[Demeter]

31. OCCUPY WINS IN COURT: UC Davis Will Pay Damages to Victims of Infamous Pepper Spray Attack

http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/uc-davis-will-pay-damages-victims-infamous-pepper-spray-attack?akid=9394.227380.Oi6vM9&rd=1&src=newsletter710530&t=7

The wheels of justice are turning at UC Davis in the wake of the pepper spray incident. First Lt. Pike was placed on administrative leave. And now the victims will be receiving damages:

The University of California will be paying damages to the UC Davis students and alumni who were pepper-sprayed by campus police during an otherwise peaceful protest 10 months ago, officials said Thursday.

The UC regents met in closed session Thursday to discuss and approve a proposed settlement payment to 21 UC Davis students and alumni who have sued the university and contend their civil rights were violated in the incident.

But both UC officials and the ACLU of Northern California, which is representing the students in the lawsuit, refused to divulge details of the settlement, saying the rules of the agreement require a federal judge to review the matter before it can be made public. That may happen within a few days, they said.

UC regent Leslie Tang Schilling said the regents decided to settle the matter because UC needs to move past the pepper-spray controversy and focus on many pressing budgetary issues.

The only unfortunate part of all this is that the money used to pay the victims of this plutocracy-defending thug will come directly out of the funds used to cover tuitions, scholarships and researchers' salaries, rather than out of the pockets of the top %.1 percent whose interests he was serving.

They do live in a different world from you and me, and they'd like to keep it that way--with the help of a few authoritarian friends dishing out their own perverse sense of cosmic justice.

[Demeter]

32. Wall Street and the Cost of Forgetting: On the Anniversary of Lehman Brothers' Bankruptcy

http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/wall-street-and-cost-forgetting-anniversary-lehman-brothers-bankruptcy?akid=9400.227380.V9F2BX&rd=1&src=newsletter711007&t=8

Wall Street wants America to forget September 15, 2008.

That’s because outside events of violence, few dates have signified more calamity than this fateful day. On that black Monday, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. declared bankruptcy. This legal action revealed the rotten core of the world’s financial industry. Reckless mortgage lending motivated by the bonus-driven securitization business left Americans with $700 billion in collective mortgage debt beyond the lost market value of their homes. Consumers swamped by this debt cut other spending, factories were closed and layoffs were forced, leading to still less consumer spending-- a vicious cycle that became the Great Recession.

Congressional and White House investigations, books, movies and even songs have explored the financial crash of 2008 and the resulting economic mayhem. The latest damage tally comes from Better Markets: $12.8 trillion lost in estimated actual and avoided GDP, 26 million lost Americans jobs, $19 trillion lost in household wealth. For context, if you received $100,000 every second of every hour of every day, it would take three years to amass $1 trillion.

Less quantifiable are the darkened futures of college graduates, eviscerated philanthropies less able to fund worthy efforts such as finding climate change solutions, or the spike in incidences of mental illness.

Wall Street wants America to forget September 15, 2008, because its captains and lieutenants earn billions in personal lucre from the risky, speculative and intentionally complex financial activities that led to the crash. Brilliant minds have replaced the 3-5-3 bankers (pay depositors 3 percent, loan at 5 percent and hit the golf course at 3 p.m.) And these Wall Street wizards have made credit more expensive and dangerous under the misrepresentation of “innovation.” Four years after its Chapter 11 filing, the absurd complexity of Lehman’s dealings, with 150,000 open derivatives transactions at the time of bankruptcy, laid bare the casino nature of the nation’s fourth largest investment bank. Wall Street apologists tell another story about the cause of the crash: Un-creditworthy home buyers lied on their loan applications, securing funds that both inflated housing prices generally and which they couldn’t pay back except by flipping into an ever escalating market. Really? Low-wage workers snuck $700 billion by the brightest minds of Wall Street? On top of this self-serving fantasy, Wall Street proffers an even bolder fairy tale about the burden of the critical Wall Street reforms passed into law in 2010. Industry’s congressional friends claim that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act discourages lenders from loaning to worthy businesses. That means they can’t hire workers, prolonging our economic malaise. Really? What about those consumers buried in mortgage debt and unable to buy what business is selling?

Another new report from the International Monetary Fund and co-authored by Brookings Institute scholar Douglas Elliot drives a stake through this zombie argument. The new Dodd-Frank law will increase lending rates by an amount as small as the smallest adjustment made in Federal Reserve lending rates. Dwell on this: The cost of preventing another $20 trillion-$40 trillion financial crash can be financed with the smallest of decreases in Federal Reserve lending rates.

Remember September 15, 2008, and the regulations we need put in place to protect us from a recurrence. Your job, your retirement savings, even your psyche may depend on it.

[Demeter]

33. Reuters' Math Fail! Why GM Is Not Losing $49k Per Chevy Volt

http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/reuters-math-fail-why-gm-not-losing-49k-chevy-volt?akid=9381.227380.dmaDq7&rd=1&src=newsletter709068&t=5

Right-wingers couldn’t have been more thrilled to read a Reuters story revealing that GM is losing $49k on every Chevy Volt. Electric car haters and anti-government zealots rejoice! Except, Reuters — and the three journalists bylined on this story — it turns out are really bad at basic business math. Reuters writes, “Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds.”

So where’s the problem? The International Business Times explains:

General Motors has sold approximately 21,500 Volts since the gasoline-electric hybrid was introduced in December 2010, and development costs of the high-tech car are estimated at between $1 billion and $1.2 billion by Reuters' calculations. Production costs for the Volt are estimated at between $20,000 and $32,000, a wide margin to be sure. The Volt retails for a base price of $39,145 (before a federal tax credit of $7,500).

The issue with Reuters' math, though, is that it only takes into account the 21,500 Volts sold so far, as if GM would never sell another one. If that is taken to be true, then each Volt sold has cost GM around $55,000 in development costs. However, each Volt sold spreads out the development costs incrementally, pushing down the R&D cost per unit. GM has acknowledged that it has not yet sold enough Volts to break even, but it suspects that it will reach the break-even point by the time the second- generation Volt is introduced onto the market in about three years' time.

Conservatives had a field-day of course, running with Reuters poor reporting. As Wonkette details:

But look at the capitalism experts at sites like The Blaze, or Free Republic, or Townhall, or the hideously named “Twitchy.com” — The typical comment goes something like this: “They’re losing $50K per car, but don’t worry, they’ll make it up in volume!!! HAW HAW HAW!” Um. Yeah. Actually, that is how development costs work. We thought you guys understood business?

THE PROBLEM MY DEAR FRIENDS, IS TIMING. IT'S TAKING GM TOO LONG TO MAKE A FORTUNE ON THE VOLT. THEY HAVE ONLY SO MANY QUARTERS BEFORE THEY DECIDE TO PULL THE PLUG BECAUSE PROFIT MARGINS AREN'T BEING MET.

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT

1) PEOPLE CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY

2) THE PRODUCT IS OVERPRICED

3) IT'S TOO DAMN SMALL FOR ANYTHING

AND AS THINGS STAND RIGHT NOW, UNLESS GM MAKES A COMMITMENT TO GIVE THE VOLT MORE TIME (AND PERHAPS SOME TWEAKING) THERE PROBABLY NEVER WILL BE ANOTHER ONE SOLD.

AFTER ALL, LOOK WHAT GM DID WITH EV-1...

The film- directed by Chris Paine- charts the development of an electric car by General Motors, the EV1, and its mysterious withdrawal from the market and eventual destruction. Following the format of The Corporation, the film poses itself as a murder inquiry, interviewing some of the original design and marketing teams, who battle to find out why the budget is being cut and they are being laid off, and activist consumer groups who find they are unable even to buy some of the cars , in an attempt to find out who the culprit is: the Government? The Auto-industry? Surely not the Oil Industry?

Well you don’t get any prizes for guessing who it might have been, but the official line was that there was no demand, and the batteries were not good enough. This really could not explain the extraordinary lengths the manufacturers went to, as documented by the film-makers, to make sure no one at all would ever be able to drive them. As the cars are withdrawn from all those who had them on a lease, they disappear, with the EV1 supporters finally tracking them down in a huge compound in the desert somewhere from where they are eventually completely destroyed by shredding....A big incentive to developing the technology was the 1995 directive passed by the California Air Resources Board requiring auto manufacturers to supply 2% “zero-emissions” vehicles by 1998, rising to 10% by 2003.

However, this requirement was rescinded, just three years later, apparently after lobbying from the auto-manufacturers. Just as the EV1 was being withdrawn and destroyed, GM was in the process of buying and marketing the Hummer. So it seems like an open-and-shut case: scared of losing revenue to a vehicle that not only used electricity rather than oil, but needs hardly any servicing- no oil and filters to change- the oil and auto-companies simply killed it, and they didn’t shy away from using their political influence to do so.

http://zone5.org/2007/01/review-who-killed-the-electric-car/

[Fuddnik]

34. I took a Volt for a test drive a couple of months ago.

Mainly just out of curiosity.

It was a sweet ride. The interior seemed to concentrate too much on luxury. But, at over $40k, it just didn't seem worth it. Especially when you could buy a Prius at half the price.

The oil companies will grasp at any straw they can to kill off electrics and hybrids. But, I think they're losing that battle. The Prius is a proven, winning technology. Ours is almost five years old. Only six payments left. And I just put new tires on it. The only other maintenance has been changing the oil every 5,000 miles.

AT 50mpg, it's been well worth the price.

[bread_and_roses]

35. Great theme again

What cannot endure, will not endure. "Occupy" was a stab at the machine - there will be more, others, the pot is simmering, and will boil when the heat gets high enough - at least, so I believe on my best days. I've been sick and overwhelmed with family and work. I took leave of my senses and adopted a large dog. I will be here when I can be, but with all of you in spirit at least.

[Demeter]

82. Sometimes "taking leave" is the only thing left to do

I'm sure there will be compensations...Some day I'll lose the old lady cat, and then I've promised the Kid a dog, one big enough to withstand her kind of loving.

Pat the puppy for me!

[Demeter]

36. The Erskine Bowles Stock Index and the S&P 500 By Dean Baker

http://www.nationofchange.org/erskine-bowles-stock-index-and-sp-500-1347459031

Erskine Bowles is widely known in Washington policy circles as a co-chair of President Obama’s deficit commission, along with former Senator Alan Simpson. The report that he and Simpson co-authored is widely held up as the basis for a grand bargain on the deficit. This report has riled many people across the political spectrum in part because of its cuts to Social Security, the most immediate of which is a reduction in the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security. The reduced COLA would amount to a benefit cut of close to 3.0 percent for a typical retired worker. Since the median income for households of people over age 65 is just $31,000, this would be a big hit to a segment of the population that is already struggling.

By contrast, in their quest for every possible source of savings, Bowles and Simpson seem to have never seriously considered a financial speculation tax that would hit the country’s badly bloated financial sector. The United Kingdom has imposed taxes on its financial sector for centuries, and much of the European Union is considering a tax that could go into effect as early as next year. A tax comparable to the one that the UK has on stock trades applied to all financial assets could raise close to $1.5 trillion over the course of a decade. There is evidence that a bloated financial sector is a serious drag on growth, pulling resources away from productive segments of the economy. In addition, the finance sector is also where many of the highest earners get their income. This means that a tax on the financial speculation could be a real win/win/win. It could raise money to reduce the deficit, it could make the economy more efficient, and it could reduce inequality. That should place it on top of anyone’s list for deficit reduction. But apparently it didn’t make it to Bowles and Simpson’s list. While we may never know why, it is worth noting that Erskine Bowles sits on the board of directors of Morgan Stanley, the huge Wall Street investment bank. Mr. Bowles has gotten paid several hundred thousand dollars a year to sit on Morgan Stanley’s board. Interestingly, Mr. Bowles sits on many corporate boards. He has been paid millions of dollars over the last decade for his service on these boards.

Out of curiosity, CEPR constructed an Erskine Bowles stock index to see how the stock of the companies that had Erskine Bowles on their board performed compared with the overall S&P 500. It turns out that the Erskine Bowles index has not fared very well. Since April of 2003 the Erskine Bowles stock index has lost 33.5 percent of its value. By contrast, the S&P 500 is up by 53.1 percent over this period. It’s probably not fair to blame Mr. Bowles for the poor performance of the companies he serves as a director. Directors usually just attend a 4-6 meetings a year and rarely play any role in actually running the company. However, the millions Bowles makes for this work is symptomatic of a larger problem in corporate governance. Directors are essentially paid off to look the other way as CEOs and other top management plunder their companies. In principle directors should be demanding hard work and low pay for CEOs in order to maximize returns for shareholders.

In reality directors generally just take their pay and keep their mouths shut. This allows the top executives of even failing companies to draw pay checks that are an order of magnitude larger than the compensation packages of the most successful companies in Europe and Asia. The directors perform a valuable service for top management since they act as validators assuring that everything is kosher. The directors are usually people who have high reputations from their work in politics, academia (many university presidents sit on corporate boards), philanthropies, or other businesses. If a director began to ask whether the company was getting real value for its compensation package, they would likely first be ostracized (the other members of the board just want their paycheck) and then removed at the first opportunity. Directors are in theory elected by shareholders, but the election process is about as democratic as it was in the Soviet Union. Top management gets their candidates approved with almost the same frequency as the Communist party chiefs on the Politburo.

The excessive salaries of top corporate executives are not a just a problem because they pull money away from the corporations they run. They also set a pattern of compensation across the economy. It is now common for heads of universities and even charities to get million dollar compensation packages, pointing out that they would receive much more if they ran a comparably sized company. This is a big part of the upward redistribution of income we have seen over the last three decades. So Erskine Bowles gives us a real trifecta. He used his position as co-chair of President Obama’s deficit commission to protect Wall Street. He pockets millions as part of a corrupt system of corporate governance that allows CEOs to rip-off the companies they run. And he wants to reduce Social Security benefits for seniors who are already living on the edge. In short, he is a true hero of the Washington establishment.

AND OBAMA HAND-PICKED THIS PIRATE

[Demeter]

37. Growth or Equality: Two Competing Visions for America’s Future By David Korten

http://www.nationofchange.org/growth-or-equality-two-competing-visions-america-s-future-1347457675

The current political debate in America hints at an unspoken, but profoundly important choice between two radically different visions of the path to prosperity for all:

One vision holds that inequality is an essential and beneficial precondition to unleash the economic growth needed to end poverty and heal the environment. Freeing the rich from taxes and cumbersome regulation will unleash a wave of productive investment, job creation, and prosperity that eventually will trickle down to enrich us all.

The other vision holds that inequality bears a primary responsibility for the political, economic, social, and environmental failures that threaten the future of America and the world. America already has the world’s largest economy and one of the world’s highest per capita income levels. Further growth for growth’s sake is not the answer. Our priority need is to reallocate and redistribute our economic resources to get the outcomes we really want.

Equality: The Evidence

British epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson has done an exhaustive review of the evidence on the relationship between the distribution of wealth and indicators of physical, mental, and social health across and within countries. His research demonstrates that on virtually every indicator, more equal societies enjoy more positive outcomes than less equal societies.

Figure 1, below, graphs the results for the world’s high-income countries. By a substantial margin, the United States ranks first in inequality and has the worst outcomes on a range of indicators of physical, mental, and social health (see also Wilkinson’s TED talk).

/image_large

In relatively equal societies, modest differences in wealth and privilege based on differences in real competence and contribution are easy to accept as fair and justified. When, however, the differences become extreme and the winners distinguish themselves primarily by their willingness to engage in morally corrupt behavior for personal advantage, there is an inevitable deterioration of the trust, institutional legitimacy, and moral fabric essential to the healthy function of individuals, communities, and society. That creates a social deficit, from which it takes generations to recover.

Health and Social Problems are Worse in More Unequal Countries

SEE LINK ABOVE FOR GRAPHS AND DISCUSSION

To understand how it works, we must recognize that in a corrupted financial system it is possible to make a great deal of money without contributing to the production of real wealth. Money itself is not wealth. It is a system of accounts by which modern societies record and balance our obligations to one another and allocate access to marketable goods and services. When the money system allocates money fairly in proportion to our individual contribution to the health and well-being of our community, it is a beneficial mechanism essential to the function of a complex modern society. When access to the essentials of living—for example, food, water, shelter, education, and medical care—depends on our individual access to money, those who control the creation and allocation of money hold tremendous power. The more corrupt the money system, the greater the opportunity and incentive to abuse that power. The greater the abuse, the faster the wealth/power gap spirals out of control. The greater the power of those at the top and the greater the desperation of those at the bottom, the more intense the competition to improve one’s position on the wealth pyramid by any means—no matter what the cost to the society. The financial logic of profit maximization becomes the only logic. Concern for others and Earth’s living systems is off the table...MORE

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

David Korten wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas and practical actions. David is the author of Agenda for a New Economy, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, and the international best seller When Corporations Rule the World. He is board chair of YES! Magazine, co-chair of the New Economy Working Group, a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, president of the Living Economies Forum, and a member of the Club of Rome. He holds MBA and PhD degrees from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and served on the faculty of the Harvard Business School.

[Demeter]

38. Top German court clears European bailout fund

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/09/201291253030628212.html

Germany's constitutional court has approved a new European bailout mechanism and fiscal pact, striking down a raft of legal challenges aimed at preventing a euro-wide bailout fund and a new fiscal pact from becoming law. The Federal Constitutional Court met on Wednesday in Karlsruhe to rule on whether to allow Germany to join the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) - a new, permanent $638.8bn bailout fund for the 17 countries that use the euro...The taxpayer-funded reserve would be crucial in fighting the European debt crisis, as it would allow access to funds for troubled governments who would not otherwise be able to borrow. The fund would not have been able to work without the participation of Germany, the largest and most stable economy currently in the eurozone. The ESM treaty was approved by a two-thirds majority in the German parliament.

Opponents, however, challenged it in court. They said that joining the fund would amount to ceding German parliamentary oversight over how taxpayer money is being spent. The court's decision has paved the way for Joachim Gauck, the German president, to formally ratify the ESM and European fiscal pact. Merkel has remained quiet on the issue as the court kept policymakers and markets on edge for months....

Stipulations

"The Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court has rejected the injunctions with the stipulation that a ratification of the ESM Treaty is only admissible if certain conditions can be guaranteed under international law," Chief Justice Andreas Vosskuhle said. Firstly, the court specified that any financial burdens for Germany arising from the ESM were strictly limited to its share of the fund's capital or $244bn. If the burdens were to be increased beyond that amount, then it could only be done with the express approval of the German parliament, and both the upper and lower houses must be kept fully informed, the court said. The professional secrecy to which the fund's employees were bound "must not stand in conflict with the Bundestag and Bundesrat being comprehensively briefed," the statement said, referring to the lower and upper chambers.

The court also ruled that Germany must ensure a de-facto opt-out clause if it felt its interests were not being considered. "The Federal Republic of Germany must make it clear that it does not want to be bound to the ESM Treaty as a whole if any reservations it might have should prove ineffectual," Vosskuhle said....The ESM was meant to come into effect in July as a $901.2bn firewall to aid in the fight against the three-year-old debt crisis. The fund requires the approval of countries representing 90 per cent of its capital base. Germany's share is more than one quarter of the total, and it is the only country still to ratify the agreement.

[Demeter]

39. Where The (US CORPORATE) Bailouts Stand, In 1 Graphic

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/09/10/160886823/where-the-bailouts-stand-in-1-graphic#more

It's been four years since the U.S. launched a massive bailout of the financial system and the auto industry. While much of the bailout money has been paid back, the government still owns large shares in companies such as AIG and GM, and has yet to recoup some $200 billion in bailouts.

Here's a breakdown by industry:




...These figures come from ProPublica, which has tons of bailout data. The numbers are based on funds disbursed by the Treasury Department, and don't include programs launched by the Federal Reserve as part of the bailout. "How Much They've Paid Back" includes money bailout money recovered by the Treasury through direct payments, dividends, interest, stock sales and other means.

[Demeter]

40. It’s the Economy: Lehman Brothers, We Heard You Were Dead By ADAM DAVIDSON

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/magazine/lehman-brothers-we-heard-you-were-dead.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

Lehman Brothers is having a great year. The bank, which almost destroyed the global economy four years ago this week, recently emerged from bankruptcy, resolved a third of its debts and executed the largest U.S. real estate deal of the year. Today, the company appears an awful lot like a normal investment bank. Its trading floor — on one of the two floors Lehman occupies in the Time & Life Building in Midtown Manhattan — is filled with dozens of young people who stare at financial graphs on Bloomberg terminals and talk in the hallways about the deals they’re working on. Except that Lehman’s sole objective is to sell everything it owns so it can repay its lenders and disappear. The reason it has taken so long (and will take many more years) is that selling off the pieces of a big investment bank is almost ineffably complicated. Banks have few physical assets, and they go fast. (Lehman sold its headquarters the day after its bankruptcy.) A bank’s main value is really just a huge pile of promises. Banks borrow money (often from other banks) and promise to pay it back; then they lend that money (again, often to other banks) on the promise that they’ll return it, too. Every bank could collapse if more than a small percentage of people ask for their money at once.

The system works because lenders have confidence that if there’s ever a run on a bank, governments and central banks will step in and limit the damage. Of all the financial calamity that Lehman inflicted on international markets, perhaps the most significant was that it came close to destroying that confidence. And one reason this sluggish economy persists is that investors still haven’t got it back. Much of our continued distress, as measured in bond rates and fewer loans issued, comes down to a lingering fear that another bank (or for that matter, a country) could collapse. Lehman’s long unwinding has only worsened these fears. Like all big banks, Lehman was more like a loose agglomeration of hundreds of individual companies. Its bankruptcy affected thousands of subsidiary entities and triggered filings in 80 jurisdictions around the world. This led, immediately, to several conflicts. The now-separate divisions in the United States and Switzerland, for instance, are still negotiating exactly how much they owe each other.

The Lehman Brothers office in Midtown makes up around a third of the original company, in terms of assets, and is responsible for paying back $360 billion in more than 60,000 claims. It has already distributed around $22 billion and estimated that it will pay back another $40 billion — giving investors an average of 18 percent of that $360 billion — by the time it closes its doors completely, some time after 2017. The company’s entire business objective is to fulfill the terms of a 791-page legal document listing all of its unfulfilled financial promises. The task is even more overwhelming than it first appears. Each creditor is owed a different percentage based on the type of loan it gave and which division the creditor gave it to. Investors who lent money to Lehman’s commercial-paper subsidiary get a return of 56 cents on the dollar; those who bought a bond from the parent company are getting a little more than 20 cents. And each of those creditors can pursue a challenge and demand more money. One of the new Lehman’s busiest departments, not surprisingly, is legal.

Why would anyone lend money to any institution if there was a chance, once trouble hit, that they would have to wait years to get 20 cents on the dollar? U.S. officials have tried to stanch the loss of confidence by claiming that they have now solved the problems of Lehman. The core solution — as stated in Title II of the Dodd-Frank reforms — is predicated on the notion that the problem wasn’t Lehman’s overinvestment in sketchy real estate deals but rather that the U.S. government did not have the powers it needed to wind it down. The law, at the time, only allowed for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to step in and take over a troubled U.S.-chartered bank. Lehman, though, was about 2,000 companies, many outside the country and most of which weren’t chartered as banks. The government could either bail the whole thing out or let everything fail. The F.D.I.C. now has the power to take over a huge holding company, sell off the healthy parts, and — in theory, at least — manage a careful wind down. Last year, the F.D.I.C. released a remarkable paper, “The Orderly Liquidation of Lehman Brothers Holdings Under the Dodd-Frank Act,” which lays out how the agency would have saved Lehman if it possessed those new powers at the time of the collapse. The F.D.I.C. would instantly dismiss existing management and force total losses on all the shareholders, but work hard to keep all other promises. It would create a “bridge bank,” a carbon copy of Lehman, run by regulators, that would maintain the company’s role in the global financial system while helping the company gradually disappear. By their own reckoning, the new powers would have meant far more money for creditors — 97 cents on every dollar, not 18 — in far less time...Most people in finance are glad that officials will have more options for taking on the next crisis, but the stingy lending environment suggests that they are not persuaded that the problem has been solved. While the law now requires the largest financial institutions to disclose all their important subsidiaries, it is up to each bank to decide which ones are important. The major banks have each disclosed a dozen or so firms, but still keep thousands of others — some of which might be carrying massive risk — hidden. The F.D.I.C. strategy also assumes that global regulators will happily cooperate as the U.S. government takes over a huge bank and eliminates the value of all its shares, including those owned by foreigners. The F.D.I.C.’s Lehman report deals with the massive challenge in one sentence: “The F.D.I.C. would have contacted the relevant foreign and domestic regulatory authorities and governments to coordinate the resolution.”

The main lesson of Lehman’s collapse is that the response to a troubled financial system is, ultimately, determined not by technical regulation, but by politics. The F.D.I.C. can use its new powers only after receiving the consent of the Treasury secretary. And its new powers pertain only to those banks deemed systematically important, a designation determined by political appointees. So while the F.D.I.C. is working to formalize the rules governing its new powers, investment-bank lobbying has grown by nearly 60 percent since the crisis began. Bankers learned that they need to be closer than ever to politicians. Kenneth Rogoff, who co-wrote the pre-eminent history of financial crises, “This Time Is Different,” told me that crises don’t end because new laws are enacted and politicians can be trusted again. In 1945, “the financial markets were devastated,” he said. “State and local governments had defaulted on everything. Lending had shrunk.” Somehow, though, the economy recovered and experienced nearly 30 years of robust growth. Confidence comes, he said, when “enough time passes so everyone forgets there was ever a problem.” I was thinking about this as I walked through the new Lehman headquarters and overheard one employee brag about a real estate deal he had just made. (After all, the advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal could earn more than $600 million from winding down Lehman.) But the larger fact is that Lehman, which once seemed essential to the economy, is slowly disappearing. That few even know that this is happening in the Time & Life Building suggests that our confidence may not be far away.

*************************************************************

Adam Davidson is co-founder of NPR’s “Planet Money,” a podcast, blog and radio series heard on “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered” and “This American Life.”

[Demeter]

41. How Did Stocks Get So High?

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-11/how-did-stocks-get-so-high#r=hp-ls



Markets are not always rational. They are rarely—what’s the technical term?—bananas. But while a nearly unprecedented litany of depressing indicators should be devastating investor confidence the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is up 25 percent over the past 12 months and 14 percent in 2012. Close to $2 trillion has been added to equity values this year, and stocks have reached levels unseen since before the fall of Lehman Brothers Holdings and Bear Stearns. “This is about the strangest market environment I’ve ever seen,” says Donald Luskin, chief investment officer at Trend Macrolytics.

There are some strong forces propelling the market’s rally. Over the long term, stock prices tend to reflect corporate earnings. While S&P 500 per-share profits may decline 1.8 percent this quarter, they will rebound 11 percent in the final three months of the year, 11 percent next year, and 12 percent in 2014, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg, reaching record levels with every gain. Investors are also counting on help from the Federal Reserve, which is expected to start a third round of bond purchases to boost the economy. “The Fed has come out and said that things are weakening and that they’re willing to act,” says Gregory Peterson, managing director of investment research at Ballentine Partners. And Apple’s (AAPL) success—the stock is up 64 percent in 2012 through Sept. 11—is having an outsize impact on the indexes and the economy. With a market value of $620 billion, Apple represents 4.8 percent of the S&P 500 and almost 13 percent of the Nasdaq Composite Index, which has surged to a 12-year high. An analysis by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) calculates that sales of the company’s iPhone 5, introduced on Sept. 12, could add as much as 0.5 percent to U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter.

Impressive though that may be, the threats to the market are formidable. Chief among them is the fiscal cliff. Under a law passed last year in the heat of Washington’s debt-ceiling impasse, the failure of lawmakers to agree on some mix of spending cuts and tax increases could result in $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts and accompanying tax hikes in January 2013. That combination could shave 2.9 percent off economic activity in the first half of 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office. “These are significant risks that the market, in our view, hasn’t really appreciated,” said Goldman Sachs Group (GS) chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin at a Sept. 10 conference. Luskin says that even if you assume there’s a 75 percent chance a deal is struck, that means “25 percent of the time we sail off the cliff and into recession. Would you get on a plane if the pilot told you there was a 25 percent chance it would crash?”

Europe also remains a potent threat, what with Athens still needing to ratify spending cuts necessary to receive bailout funds and no guarantee that Spain, already reeling from 25 percent unemployment, will agree to more austerity in exchange for the European Central Bank’s financial aid. “There’s the election, and you have questions about monetary policy in the U.S.,” says Jonathan Golub, the chief U.S. market strategist at UBS (UBS). “You have a situation in Europe, and no matter how good anybody is feeling about it today, it’s not resolved.” Golub forecasts the S&P 500 will end the year at 1,375, or 4 percent below its closing level of 1,434 on Sept. 11.

There is one wild card that could drive the market even higher in coming months. Hedge funds have missed much of the rally...

ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON...QE3/QED!

[Demeter]

45. Three Key Take-Aways From Today’s Headlines By Chris Mayer

“Markets are going in the opposite direction of the world economy. If you’re positioned fundamentally, you’re positioned against these clowns.”

— John Burbank, Passport Capital, on the latest news from Europe’s central bank

Three headline events each tell us something important about global markets. More and more, government is a big player in markets — creating distortions, along with pitfalls and opportunities.

Item No. 1: The market says one thing. Earnings say something different.

The stock market rallied last week on news that the European Central Bank will “save the euro.” Basically, the ECB said it stands ready to buy bonds in unlimited quantities. To finance this, the ECB will essentially print money. This follows talk about how the US Federal Reserve stands ready to goose markets further — by printing more money. In essence, the actions and chatter of central bankers are what are driving the rally since that little bottom we had in June after the market sold off about 9%.

Earnings are not driving the rally, that’s for sure. The S&P 500 just registered a 0.8% growth rate in earnings for the second quarter, according to today’s Financial Times. The consensus for the third quarter is negative for the first time in three years. The ratio of companies saying they’d miss third-quarter forecasts versus those that that said they’d meet them was 3-to-1. That is the worst ratio since the fourth quarter of 2008, which came on the heels of the Lehman Bros. bust. “Historically, we have only seen numbers like this during times of recession,” says Christine Short of S&P Capital IQ (which tracks earnings) in today’s FT.

Yet the market hits a four-year high.

Take-away: Trust earnings. The market can go only so far on the gas of central banking. Don’t believe prices reflect what’s happening with the underlying companies. The market is too optimistic.

Item No. 2: Gloom spreads in China despite the best efforts of officials.
SEE LINK BELOW FOR DETAILS

Item No. 3: The US government is selling its AIG stake.

Front page on The Wall Street Journal: The US government says it is going to sell $18 billion in AIG stock. This will cut its stake in the big insurer by half.

This is a reminder that the US government is still in the business of owning major stakes in big companies. It still owns stakes in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which the government spent $188 billion on. It still owns big stakes in GM and in Ally Financial, which it spent $68 billion on. These are companies that would have otherwise gone through the bankruptcy process — as would have a long list of institutions. What the bailouts did was preserve the same bad actors that got us into trouble in the first place. The corrective tonic of bankruptcy never got to do its full work.

I’m not going to get into the politics of it, or even the economics of it. I’m a practical man in these pages. We have to take the world as it is, not how we wish it would be. We have to do the best we can with the markets we find ourselves in....Take-away: The US government still has large stakes in several financial companies. It is still a source of great distortions. However, as it sells these stakes, the overhang from its ownership will disappear. So too might the discounts these stocks trade for. AIG looks like a double as these things sort themselves out.

It’s a weird market we’re in. I can’t recall a time when government actions seemed to drive prices as much as now. I don’t like it. But there are ways to navigate your portfolio through the mess...


Read more: Three Key Take-Aways From Today's Headlines http://dailyreckoning.com/three-key-take-aways-from-todays-headlines/#ixzz26bIdRSqs

[Demeter]

42. Kent State: Was It about Civil Rights or Murdering Student Protesters? MUST READ!

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/kent-state-was-it-about-civil-rights-or-%E2%80%A8murdering-student-protesters/

IT WAS ABOUT MURDERING CIVIL RIGHTS, I EXPECT

...For forty-two years, the United States government has held the position that Kent State was a tragic and unfortunate incident occurring at a noontime antiwar rally on an American college campus. In 2010, compelling forensic evidence emerged showing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) were the lead agencies in managing Kent State government operations, including the cover-up. At Kent State, lawful protest was pushed into the realm of massacre as the US federal government, the state of Ohio, and the Ohio National Guard (ONG) executed their plans to silence antiwar protest in America.

The new evidence threatens much more than the accuracy of accounts of the Kent State massacre in history books. As a result of this successful, ongoing Kent State government cover-up, American protesters today are at much greater risk than they realize, with no real guarantees or protections offered by the US First Amendment rights to protest and assemble. This chapter (OF THE FORTHCOMING BOOK: Censored 2013: Dispatches from the Media Revolution) intends to expose the lies of the state in order to uncensor the “unhistory” of the Kent State massacre, while also aiming toward justice and healing, as censoring the past impacts our perspectives in the present.

The killing of protesters at Kent State changed the minds of many Americans about the role of the US in the Vietnam War. Following this massacre, there was an unparalleled national response: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed across America in a student strike of more than four million. Young people across the nation had strong suspicions the Kent State massacre was planned to subvert any further protests arising from the announcement that the already controversial war in Vietnam had expanded into Cambodia...BLOWBACK IS A BITCH, BUT THIS GOVERNMENT WILL LEARN BY NO OTHER METHOD...Yet instead of attempting to learn the truth at Kent State, the US government took complete control of the narrative in the press and ensuing lawsuits. Over the next ten years, authorities claimed there had not been a command-to-fire at Kent State, that the ONG had been under attack, and that their gunfire had been prompted by the “sound of sniper fire.” ...The hidden truth finally began to emerge at the fortieth anniversary of the Kent State massacre in May 2010, through the investigative journalism of John Mangels, science writer at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, whose findings supported the long-held suspicion that the four dead in Ohio were intentionally murdered at Kent State University by the US government.

Mangels commissioned forensic evidence expert Stuart Allen to professionally analyze a tape recording made from a Kent State student’s dormitory window ledge on May 4, 1970, forever capturing the crowd and battle sounds from before, during, and after the fusillade.2 For the first time since that fateful day, journalists and concerned Americans were finally able to hear the devastating soundtrack of the US government murdering Kent State students as they protested against the Vietnam War. The cassette tape—provided to Mangels by the Yale University Library, Kent State Collection, and housed all these years in a box of evidence admitted into lawsuits led by attorney Joseph Kelner in his representation of the Kent State victims—was called the “Strubbe tape” after Terry Strubbe, the student who made the recording by placing a microphone attached to a personal recorder on his dormitory window ledge. This tape surfaced when Alan Canfora, a student protester wounded at Kent State, and researcher Bob Johnson dug through Yale library’s collection and found a CD copy of the tape recording from the day of the shootings. Paying ten dollars for a duplicate, Canfora then listened to it and immediately knew he probably held the only recording that might provide proof of an order to shoot. Three years after the tape was found, the Plain Dealer commendably hired two qualified forensic audio scientists to examine the tape. But it is really the two pieces of groundbreaking evidence Allen uncovered that illuminate and provide a completely new perspective into the Kent State massacre. First, Allen heard and verified the Kent State command-to-fire spoken at noon on May 4, 1970. The command-to-fire has been a point of contention, with authorities stating under oath and to media for forty years that “no order to fire was given at Kent State,” that “the Guard felt under attack from the students,” and that “the Guard reacted to sniper fire.”3 Yet Allen’s verified forensic evidence of the Kent State command-to-fire directly conflicts with guardsmen testimony that they acted in self-defense. The government claim—that guardsmen were under attack at the time of the ONG barrage of bullets—has long been suspect, as there is nothing in photographic or video records to support the “under attack” excuse. ...The identification of the “commander” responsible for the Kent State command-to-fire on unarmed students has not yet been ascertained. This key question will be answered when American leadership decides to share the truth of what happened, especially as the Kent State battle was under US government direction. Until then, the voice ordering the command-to-fire in the Kent State Strubbe tape will remain unknown.

The other major piece of Kent State evidence identified in Allen’s analysis was the “sound of sniper fire” recorded on the tape. These sounds point to Terry Norman, FBI informant and provocateur, who was believed to have fired his low-caliber pistol four times, just seventy seconds before the command-to-fire. Mangels wrote in the Plain Dealer, “Norman was photographing protestors that day for the FBI and carried a loaded .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Model . . . five-shot revolver in a holster under his coat for protection. Though he denied discharging his pistol, he previously has been accused of triggering the Guard shootings by firing to warn away angry demonstrators, which the soldiers mistook for sniper fire.” Video footage and still photography have recorded the minutes following the “sound of sniper fire,” showing Terry Norman sprinting across the Kent State commons, meeting up with Kent Police and the ONG. In this visual evidence, Norman immediately yet casually hands off his pistol to authorities and the recipients of the pistol show no surprise as Norman hands them his gun....

Requiem for a Nun (1951)

The past is never dead. It's not even past.
Act 1, sc. 3

William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state of Mississippi. He was regarded as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century and was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature.

[Demeter]

43. Assange gets an Aboriginal passport

http://m.smh.com.au/national/assange-gets-an-aboriginal-passport-20120915-25yrt.html

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been offered an Aboriginal Nations passport in an inner-city Sydney ceremony after he was "abandoned" by Australian authorities. His father, John Shipton, accepted the document at a celebration in Darlington...He said his son had been jilted by the Australian government, and the passport ceremony - which follows Ecuador's decision to grant Mr Assange diplomatic asylum - was a show of solidarity.

"Australian governments of every colour are happy to abandon their citizens when they're in difficult situations overseas," he said.

...The group that organised Saturday's ceremony, the Indigenous Social Justice Association, wants recognition of Aboriginal sovereignty. Mr Shipton said his son had requested a change to the wording of the document but embraced the cause...Indigenous Social Justice Association president Ray Jackson said more than 200 people were present at what could become an annual event...

The passport will now be sent to Mr Assange in London.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr last month told the Labor caucus Australia had intervened on Mr Assange's behalf more than 60 times during his legal wrangle with Sweden...Indigenous Social Justice Association president Ray Jackson said... the Australian government had not given Mr Assange sufficient aid.

"Julian was treated badly by this government, who are quite happy to sit back and take orders from the US," Mr Jackson said.

[Demeter]

44. A Tale of Two Whistleblowers By Joel Bowman

...let us observe the startlingly oppositional cases of two whistleblowers. One was awarded $100 million from the United States Internal Revenue Service for revealing information to the government that was decidedly not in private citizens’ interest. The other has been locked in a cage for 28 months, and counting, for revealing information to private citizens that was decidedly not in the government’s interest. To one whistleblower, a fortune. To the other, the swift sword of vengeance. What “brave services” did the former perform, and what “heinous crimes” did the latter commit, in order to earn their respective “just deserts”?

We begin with Bradley Birkenfeld, the UBS whistleblower who was this week gifted $104 million from the IRS for providing insider information that led to the forced disclosure of private banking information for over 4,500 American clients with deposits at Switzerland’s largest bank. It is, at time of writing, the largest individual payment of its kind in the nation’s history. IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge confirmed the award and said in a statement: “The IRS believes that the whistleblower statute provides a valuable tool to combat tax non-compliance, and this award reflects our commitment to the law.” “…the law as it serves the interest of the government,” Ms. Eldridge might have added. The official IRS report went on to praise the courageous whistleblower for the extent to which he went in order to divulge his clients’ private records to the government: “The comprehensive information provided (by Birkenfeld) was exceptional in both its breadth and depth.” UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, was subsequently forced to pay a $780 million penalty as part of a deferred prosecution agreement. So far-reaching was the long arm of the US government’s law, in fact, that the Swiss government was forced to reform its bank secrecy laws.

Score: 1 for Big Brother. Score: 0 for private citizens. Score: $104 million for back-stabbing snitch. There may or may not be a sequel to Birkenfeld’s story…but there is a notable prequel. The world’s richest tattler was awarded his incredible payout only after serving time behind bars for (are you ready for this?) not snitching enough. Back in 2008, George W. Bush’s Justice Department decided to charge Birkenfeld with tax fraud and conspiracy after prosecutors claimed he had failed to disclose information on one of his biggest UBS clients, a California real estate developer. Birkenfeld and his lawyers at the National Whistleblowers Center denied the claim. But whistleblowers that don’t blow whistles often find themselves on the losing end of criminal prosecutions…at least until they learn to blow the whistles loud and clear. In August of 2009, Birkenfeld found himself on the receiving end of a 40-month prison sentence. Once behind bars, Birkenfeld became a master whistleblower in no time at all. So let’s not be too hasty in summoning the tiny violin quartet for poor Mr. Birkenfeld. The record IRS whistleblower payout he received this week equals approximately $2.6 million per month of his incarceration. That’s pretty good work…if you’re comfortable with Faustian pacts.Of course, not all whistleblowers are...

...which brings us to our second story, that of PFC Bradley Manning. The 24-year old former Army intelligence analyst is accused of leaking the now-infamous “Collateral Murder” video, in which a US Apache helicopter crew gunned down two Reuters journalists, Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh, and wounded several unarmed civilians, including children, during an attack in a public square in Eastern Baghdad, Iraq, back in 2007. You can view the shorter, WikiLeaks-edited footage AT LINK BELOW. In addition to the above footage, Manning is also accused of bringing to light documents that would eventually be compiled and released by Wikileaks as the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs, and a series of embarrassing US diplomatic cables. The following quotes, taken from an online chat attributed to Manning, may, if he is indeed found to be the author, shed light on the young man’s frame of mind at the time:

“If you had free reign over classified networks… and you saw incredible things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington, DC…what would you do?”

“God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms… I want people to see the truth…because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.”

“What would you do?” is indeed a chilling question, one that typically inspires in thinking individuals to whom it is addressed a moment of silence, of deep and prolonged contemplation. But let’s not use that as an excuse to silence the prosecuting side. In a 2010 Pentagon briefing, then Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, addressed the (wiki)leaked documents directly. His comments were instructive, both for their supreme arrogance…and for the importance (or more precisely, lack thereof) that Secretary Gates accorded the documents:

“Now, I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is; governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets. Many governments — some governments — deal with us because they fear us, some because they respect us, most because they need us. We are still essentially, as has been said before, the indispensable nation…

“Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for US foreign policy? I think fairly modest.”

For Manning’s alleged deeds, those of “fairly modest” consequences, the 24-year old has to date served 28 months behind bars, much of it enduring what the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, has described as “cruel and inhuman” treatment, including ten months of solitary confinement The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution stands guard against punishment without trial, as does United States Military Law. The Eighth Amendment expressly prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) promises soldiers fair treatment and a speedy trial.

Read more: A Tale of Two Whistleblowers http://dailyreckoning.com/a-tale-of-two-whistleblowers/#ixzz26bH05EcW

[tama]

64. Thank you

nations of and belonging to Earth.

[Demeter]

46. The Land That Time and Money Forgot BLANKFEIN'S HUMBLE ORIGINS

http://nymag.com/news/features/housing-projects-2012-9/

New York City’s housing projects are the last of their kind in the country. And they may be on their way to extinction...Asked if he’d heard of Lloyd Blankfein, the man in the Yankees cap standing by 295 Cozine Avenue in East New York muttered, “What he do?”

In the projects, when someone who looks like me comes up to you, it almost has to be bad news: a cop, a process server, a guy from the Housing Authority. But no, I explained. Blankfein was the head of Goldman Sachs. They ruled Wall Street, the Trilateral Commission too, sat at the table with the Illuminati.

“He used to live in this building,” I said.

It was so. Son of a postal clerk and a receptionist at a burglar-alarm factory, Blankfein had grown up right there, at 295 Cozine Avenue, a redbrick building more or less exactly like the other eighteen redbrick buildings at the Linden Houses. That was in the fifties and sixties, before the white people moved out of the projects and East New York became one of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Still, the Goldman CEO apparently retained affection for his childhood home, once sending a post to the East New York Project, a website for people nostalgic for the days of egg creams and spaldeens. It said: “Graduate of Jefferson (’71), Gershwin (’68), P.S. 306 (’65) and the Linden Projects. Currently reside in Manhattan with wife Laura and three kids. Lloyd Blankfein [e-mail].”

“King of the world, right here?” the man declared. “No shit.”

[Fuddnik]

47. Some big banks eyed in drug, terror money laundering

Some big banks eyed in drug, terror money laundering
2008 crisis might have eased scrutiny, but regulators taking close look now


By Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Ben Protess
updated 9/15/2012 12:11:35 PM ET


Federal and state authorities are investigating a handful of major American banks for failing to monitor cash transactions in and out of their branches, a lapse that may have enabled drug dealers and terrorists to launder tainted money, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

These officials say they are beginning one of the most aggressive crackdowns on money-laundering in decades, intended to send a signal to the nation’s biggest banks that weak compliance is unacceptable.

Regulators, led by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, are close to taking action against JPMorgan Chase for insufficient safeguards, the officials said. The agency is also scrutinizing several other Wall Street giants, including Bank of America.

The comptroller’s office could issue a cease-and-desist order to JPMorgan in coming months, an action that would force the bank to plug any gaps in oversight, according to several people knowledgeable about the matter. But the agency, which oversees the nation’s biggest banks, has not yet completed its case. JPMorgan is in the spotlight partly because federal authorities accused the bank last year of transferring money in violation of United States sanctions against Cuba and Iran.

In addition to the comptroller, prosecutors from the Justice Department and the Manhattan district attorney’s office are investigating several financial institutions in the United States, according to law enforcement officials.
(snip)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49044641/ns/business-us_business/#__utma=14933801.1168731953.1343252111.1347761925.1347766847.253&__utmb=14933801.5.10.1347766847&__utmc=14933801&__utmx=-&__utmz=14933801.1343252111.1.1.utmcsr=%28direct%29|utmccn=%28direct%29|utmcmd=%28none%29|utmcct=/&__utmv=14933801.|8=Earned%20By=msnbc|cover=1^12=Landing%20Content=Mixed=1^13=Landing%20Hostname=www.nbcnews.com=1^30=Visit%20Type%20to%20Content=Earned%20to%20Mixed=1&__utmk=108705410

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It's well past time to start revoking these criminal institutions charters, and breaking them up.

Yeah, that'll happen. After pigs fly, and standard procedure to slap them on the wrist and fine them about 5% of their illegal profits, and back to business as usual the next day.

[Demeter]

48. Fueled by Cheap Chinese Panels, U.S. Solar Use Soars

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443589304577637333545350176.html

The solar-power business is expanding quickly in the U.S., helping lift the cloud that has surrounded the industry since the demise of Solyndra LLC a year ago. But the growth isn't coming from U.S. solar-panel manufacturing, despite the money and rhetoric devoted to the industry by the Obama administration. Instead, it is in installations of largely foreign-made panels, whose falling price has made solar more competitive with other forms of power.

"There should be little emphasis put on where the panels are made," said Lyndon Rive, chief executive of SolarCity Corp., which finances and installs rooftop solar systems. "Most of the jobs are in delivery and they're long-term, permanent jobs."

The U.S. is on pace to install as much solar power this year as it did in this century's entire first decade: at least 2,500 megawatts, the equivalent of more than two nuclear-power plants. The U.S. added about 742 megawatts of solar capacity in the second quarter, or enough to power about 150,000 homes, the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a report scheduled for release Monday. The price gap with traditional power sources is shrinking fast. When President Jimmy Carter installed a solar-powered water-heating system at the White House in the late 1970s, solar panels cost about $15 per watt of electricity generated, or about $50 in current dollars, according to GTM Research, a consulting firm that co-wrote the new report. Now they average about 84 cents a watt.



...China supplied nearly half the world's solar panels last year, up from one-fifth in 2008. The U.S., which once dominated the solar industry, shipped just 3% of solar panels used globally last year, down from 7% in 2008, according to Paula Mints of Navigant Consulting. President Barack Obama's 2009 economic-stimulus package provided funds for loan guarantees to five U.S. solar manufacturers. Two have filed for bankruptcy, including Solyndra, the California maker that borrowed more than $500 million from the federal government. Of the others, two are still developing their technology and haven't drawn any loans, and one has put a factory on hold. A separate pool of loan guarantees to support large solar-power plants is on firmer financial ground...The Obama administration said it isn't satisfied with an industry built around inexpensive imports. Developing a U.S. solar-manufacturing base is "of vital importance to our future as a nation," Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman said...Even the federal government's plan to slap antidumping tariffs on Chinese-made solar cells—the devices that convert sunlight into electricity—hasn't affected prices much since Chinese companies have been able use solar cells from other countries in their panels...

After growing 71% this year, the U.S. solar-power industry is likely to grow 21% next year and 25% to 40% a year through 2016, GTM Research predicted.

[Demeter]

49. Japan aims to abandon nuclear power by 2030s

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201209140105

ENOUGH SAID

[xchrom]

50. Occupy Rosh Hashana! Sweet New Year all!

&feature=share&list=PLD1CE160C8EFC19CD

[DemReadingDU]

71. Good morning!

We've missed you!

[xchrom]

72. thank you... i've misplaced my Fabulous... hopefully it comes back soon...

[Demeter]

74. NO doubt the stars are to blame

It's nearly the Equinox, after all. Great changes unsettling us all.

[xchrom]

75. this year has gone by so fast...nt

[AnneD]

87. Ohhhh....

One of my fav movies. It never fails to cheer me up.

[Tansy_Gold]

88. Oh, honey, you IS "fabulous" personified!

Sit down and visit for a while. I'm gonna take off the slip covers. . . . .

[westerebus]

78. 5773

[xchrom]

79. I was there for the 1st one.

The food wasn't so good.

[westerebus]

80. And Moses' wife sent him out to find the rye bread.

And he came upon a burning bush where upon Moses fell to his knees in fear and wonderment upon hearing the word: " Seedless ".

[xchrom]

81. ...

[xchrom]

51. Arnault’s Childish Decision to Pack His Fashionable Bags

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-13/arnault-s-childish-decision-to-pack-his-fashionable-bags.html



It’s a shame that France’s two most powerful people, its president and its richest man, were unable to get beyond populist posturing and recrimination as they battled over taxes this week. They may have missed a golden opportunity to find common ground on restoring growth to their country’s beleaguered economy.

The clash erupted after Bernard Arnault, the chief executive officer of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (MC), acknowledged that he has applied for Belgian citizenship. He said this was a “personal action” and promised to continue paying French taxes as before. Even so, the move was seen as a ploy to avoid -- or at least express disapproval of -- a 75 percent levy on high earners that France’s Socialist government has included in its 2013 budget.

Whatever his intentions, Arnault hit a nerve. The front page of Liberation, a national newspaper, splashed a photo- montage of the billionaire, suitcase in hand, under the headline “Get Lost, Rich Jerk.” President Francois Hollande implied that the magnate lacked patriotism, saying in a television interview that Arnault “should have reflected on what it means to ask for another nationality because we are proud to be French.”

Punitive Taxes

Opposition politicians on the right, meanwhile, have seized on the Arnault case as evidence that the redistributive policies and punitive taxes imposed by their Socialist successors were driving job creators out of the country, and discouraging foreign investors from coming in.

[xchrom]

52. music to Occupy by -- itzhak perlman plays klezmer

[xchrom]

53. Panasonic, Toyota Report Damages in China as Protests Widen

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-16/panasonic-plant-in-china-on-fire-as-anti-japan-protests-escalate.html

A Panasonic Corp. (6752) factory and a Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) dealership in China were damaged by fire as demonstrations over a territorial dispute with Japan widened, prompting Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to urge the Chinese government to ensure the safety of its citizens.

Smoke and flames were reported as coming from Panasonic’s electronic-parts plant in eastern Shandong province’s Qingdao city, said Atsushi Hinoki, a Tokyo-based Panasonic spokesman. Keisuke Kirimoto, a Toyota spokesman, said an auto dealership in the same port city was damaged, and the company was checking for losses in other cities.

Tensions between Asia’s two largest economies escalated after Noda’s government said last week his country would purchase disputed islands in the East China Sea from their private Japanese owner, prompting China to dispatch government vessels near the islands known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. The row takes place as both countries grapple with a global economic slowdown and China’s Communist Party prepares for a generational leadership change.

“I intend to strongly demand that the Chinese government ensure security” of Japanese citizens, Noda said today on public broadcaster NHK’s “Sunday Debate” program. “I strongly object” to the burning of Japanese flags and the protests.

[xchrom]

54. Spanish Unions Demand Vote on Cuts as 65,000 March in Madrid

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-15/spanish-unions-demand-vote-on-cuts-as-65-000-march-in-madrid.html

Spanish union leaders demanded Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy test support for his budget cuts in a referendum as 65,000 protesters took to the streets of Madrid.

Comisiones Obreras General Secretary Ignacio Fernandez Toxo called on Rajoy to put his austerity policies to Spanish voters after the premier broke election pledges.

“It’s time to give a voice to the people again,” Toxo told the demonstration as protesters blocked the center of Madrid. “With the support of the people we will take this as far as the government wants us to. This doesn’t end here.”

Rajoy is facing a growing backlash in Spain as he tries to push through sufficient budget cuts to meet the European Union’s deficit targets. His opponents say his policies, which have included cuts in education and health spending as well as a tax amnesty on savings held offshore, have hurt poorer Spaniards while protecting the elite.

[xchrom]

55. Hong Kong Tightens Mortgages Amid QE3 Concerns of Bubble

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-14/hong-kong-tightens-mortgages-amid-qe3-concerns-of-asset-bubble.html

Hong Kong’s central bank tightened mortgage lending after saying a third round of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve risks pushing up home prices that have already surpassed their 1997 peak.

The central bank is limiting the maximum term on all new mortgages to 30 years, Norman Chan, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, told reporters yesterday. Mortgage payments for investment properties can’t be more than 40 percent of buyers’ monthly incomes, from the current 50 percent, he said.

The measures are the second set of curbs in as many weeks by the government of new Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, who is trying to rein in home prices that have gained more than 85 percent since early 2009. Hong Kong property stocks surged, pushing the benchmark Hang Seng Index to a four-month high, after the Fed said it will continue buying assets in a third round of quantitative easing without setting any limit on the ultimate amount it would buy or the duration of the program.

“Without policy intervention, QE3 will further heat up the Hong Kong property market,” David Ng, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Macquarie Securities Ltd., wrote in a note yesterday after the HKMA’s announcement. “Excessive price growth not only hurts affordability, but will further weaken the political clout of the government.”

[xchrom]

56. Spaniards Rally Against Austerity: 'There Are Alternatives'

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/15-0


Anti-austerity demonstrators in Madrid. (photo: AFP)


Tens of thousands of Spaniards rallied in Madrid on Saturday to protest the austerity measures enacted by the government which demonstrators say are sparing the wealthy while hitting the middle and working class hard.

"We want to say loud and clear to the government that we do not agree, that its policies cause too much damage, that we will not resign ourselves because there are alternatives," Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, head of trade union CCOO, one of the organizers of the protest, told the rally.

One protester, Jose Antonio Domingo, who had come from San Sebastian de los Reyes, just north of Madrid, wore a black shirt with the words "we are poor and those at fault are rich," CNN reports.

Agence France-Presse gives some of the background of the cuts:

In July, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government eliminated public workers' annual Christmas bonuses, equivalent to a seven-percent reduction in annual pay, as part of austerity measures worth 102 billion euros ($126.5 billion) to be put in place by 2014 to reduce Spain's public deficit.

The measures also include a rise in the sales tax and cuts to jobless benefits in a nation with nearly 25 percent unemployment. They follow a reduction in public workers' salaries by an average of five percent in 2010.

[xchrom]

57. OWS Begins ‘Year II’ With Three-Day Convergence and Call to Debt Resistance

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/15-4



“The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!” cried voices across Zuccotti Park on Wednesday night as 30 people sat with their arms interlocked, surrounded by cameras and sympathetic onlookers. NYPD officers were positioned some distance away at the concrete barricades that had begun surrounding the park. Confronting the sit-in with mock dispersal orders were Sam Corbin and Logan Price, OWS Direct Action trainers tasked with helping to prepare participants for the People’s Wall, a nonviolent civil disobedience action in the Financial District planned for the morning of Monday, September 17.

September 17 (S17) is of course the one-year anniversary of the occupation of Zuccotti Park, a reclaiming of public space that galvanized the political imagination of the country and the world with its proclaimed opposition between the 99 percent and the 1 percent, its prefigurative emphasis on horizontality and mutual aid, and its linking of grievances from climate change to Stop and Frisk to predatory debt. All summer, OWS organizers have poured their energy into preparing for a three-day convergence of “education, celebration and resistance” to mark the anniversary — which will include assemblies, trainings, a concert, and a day of direct actions including the People’s Wall, 99 Revolutions and the eco-themed Storm Wall Street. At the same time, those of us working to organize it are keeping our eyes on the prize of long-term movement building for campaigns like the fight against the expansion of fossil fuel extraction and Strike Debt, an effort to organize a mass upsurge of debt resistance.

Chastened by the disappointed expectations surrounding the May Day call for a general strike, throughout the S17 planning process organizers have been wary about “overpromising and underdelivering,” in the words of Aaron Bornstein. And yet, as S17 approaches, a messianic sense of expectation and promise has taken hold of crazy-eyed Occupiers working 24/7 to pull together the final pieces of the convergence as an unknown number of sympathizers from around the country make the pilgrimage to Lower Manhattan to share in the anniversary observance. Rather than simply a backward-looking commemoration of occupied Zuccotti Park, OWS organizers have stressed that the convergence is designed as a launching pad for what they call “Year II” — a phrase that boldly suggests a new calendric cycle on the order of the French Revolution.

[bread_and_roses]

61. and... “Night of the Living Debt”

http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/07/with-september-17-anniversary-on-the-horizon-debt-emerges-as-connective-thread-for-ows/

I was about to post the same link you did, with this sub-link - so clever, I think, “Night of the Living Debt.”

Playfully infusing a familiar Occupy Wall Street chant with the mindless noshing of zombies, last month around 100 costumed protestors undertook a small but significant “Night of the Living Debt” march around the New York University campus and Washington Square Park. The event was organized by All in the Red, an initiative of student activists which grows out of the nocturnal marches that began last month in solidarity with the massive popular mobilization in Quebec against austerity-related tuition hikes. Equipped with an arsenal of felt red squares, red banners, red balloons, red confetti, and pots and pans, the young organizers — recent graduates of the OWS Summer Disobedience School training program — undertook the first coordinated march in New York to translate student-specific struggles surrounding tuition and education debt into a broader discourse concerning the perpetual condition of indebtedness in which the 99 percent currently finds itself. With its necromantic pop-cultural reference, the march suggested that zombie-like servitude to Wall Street creditors is a basic condition of life for the majority of the population — a point driven home with a cathartic “debtor’s die-in” at the conclusion of the event.

Start with the students - proceed to the rest of us. We owe not just our souls but our living flesh, our work, our dreams, our future to the Company Store - time to take them back.

[xchrom]

63. ...

[xchrom]

58. Twitter Hands Over Occupy Tweets to New York Judge

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/14-3



Twitter was forced to hand over Occupy protester tweets to a New York criminal judge on Friday, following an ongoing battle between prosecutors and the social media site over the privacy of the data.


The tweets in question were posted by Occupy protestor Malcolm Harris, one of many arrested during a mass protest on the Brooklyn Bridge in October 2011. Harris has been on trial following charges from the protest.

Harris argues that police intentionally led protesters onto the bridge's roadway and proceeded to arrest him for obstructing traffic. Manhattan district attorney's office believe they can use the tweets as evidence that Harris intentionally broke the law.

A New York Judge ruled on Tuesday that Twitter must produce Harris' Tweets by today or face fines. The company's lawyers made one final plea in court Friday, but the judge refused.

[xchrom]

59. Living Up to 'The New Deal': Half the Nation Is Still Waiting

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/14-6



***SNIP


Let's examine the eight economic rights enumerated by FDR in 1944 in light of women's contemporary economic situation.

1. The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation.

Since the beginning of the so-called economic recovery (June 2009), women's share of new jobs has been just 20.7 percent. Of jobs lost during the Second Great Depression (that is, now, with 20 million people still without full-time work), women have regained only 26.7 percent while men have regained 40.6 percent of the jobs they lost in the same period. The excruciatingly slow growth of women's jobs is due entirely to the ongoing attack on the public sector, where far more women than men are employed. Of the 3.4 million private sector jobs created since 2009, only 970,000 (28.7 percent) have gone to women. In short, women's public sector job losses outweigh their private sector gains by more than 40 percent.

2. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.

Jobs in which women are concentrated -- secretaries and administrative assistants; elementary and middle-school teachers; retail salespeople; nurses; maids and housekeepers -- pay less than male-dominated jobs and the Department of Labor projects these jobs will grow faster than other occupations. Consequently women's earnings will continue to lag behind men's. The consequences of this occupational segregation are worse for single women and mothers. Single women's earnings are 78.8 percent of married women's earnings (and 57 percent of men's) while mothers earn about seven percent less than childless women.

3. The right of every farmer to raise and sell his (sic) products at a return that will give him (sic) and his (sic) family a decent living.

Since October 2000, women farmers have battled the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a landmark gender discrimination case. Although women are the fasted growing group of farmers, it may take another year or more to finalize the settlement process. There may be as many 300,000 individual women farmers eligible for claims against the $1.3 billion the USDA has allocated to the suit. This is far less than the $2.25 billion available to Native American and African American farmers.

[xchrom]

60. Barroso utters the dreaded word

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/press-review/2687731-barroso-utters-dreaded-word

In proposing a federation of nation states, the President of the European Commission has outlined an ambitious course of development for the EU. For the European press, however, such an initiative inevitably raises questions about the role of Brussels and the role of member states.

***SNIP

“Barroso did not mince his words”, announces Svenska Dagbladet. The Swedish daily notes that –

... the proposal for a banking union to reinforce supervision was expected. But he went much further by affirming that the EU “must” set its sights on a fiscal union that will ultimately lead to the formation of a federation. There is apparently no limit to what Barroso believes should reasonably be managed by he and his colleagues. […] Barroso’s idea is neither reasonable nor desirable to the point where one wonders if he himself can think it is realistic. The proposal may be a means to test how far the EU can go in proposing measures to increase its own power. And although this sounds like a conspiracy theory, it is not necessarily the case. There is a great love for the European project in Brussels, where there is a romantic belief in the positive aspects of a union that constantly brings countries closer together. However, that does not mean that this idea is rooted in reality. [...] If countries at the heart of the EU are increasingly oriented towards a tightly knit federation, the outcome of a multi-speed union will be the most likely result.

[xchrom]

62. Put citizens at the heart of the Union

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/2694331-put-citizens-heart-union

Europe today is suffering an erosion of representative democracy, citizenship and solidarity, making emerging from the crisis that much harder. If the Union cannot encourage an upswing in citizen participation it will not survive in its current form, warns a Polish columnist.

To answer the questions, “What kind of Europe do we need?” and “What kind of Europe is within our means,” we have to take a look at the Europeans, those of today and those of tomorrow. After all, we are talking about a real construction, of an existing thing, which is and will be like the people that are building it – not only intellectuals, politicians, and bureaucrats, but ordinary people too. Those who vote and those who do not, those who are interested in public affairs and those who are not, who elect presidents and parliamentarians both wise and foolish by fully exercising or not exercising at all their civil, political and economic rights.

I have the feeling that we are passing too lightly over the problem that Europe has with its own citizens, the Europeans, even if this problem is not unique to the European continent. The citizens have certainly changed and are no longer the same as those who were led half a century ago by major European leaders like De Gasperi, Schuman, Adenauer and de Gaulle. This change influences not only the democracy of today and tomorrow in the nation states, but the current form and the future of the European Union as well.

We cannot think of the Union without reflecting on some general truths. The Union was born out of the trauma of World War II and was built by the societies that emerged from that trauma. Knowing too well the risks of bad politics, the citizens interested themselves in public affairs. They read newspapers, took part in elections, and were active in political parties and trade unions. The first three decades following the war were truly a golden age of citizenship in the West.

[xchrom]

65. How Upton Sinclair and EPIC Swept the Democratic Primary 1934

[xchrom]

66. HUNDREDS MARCH IN NYC TO MARK OCCUPY ANNIVERSARY

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OCCUPY_ANNIVERSARY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-16-05-14-57

NEW YORK (AP) -- About 300 people observing the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street marched to a small concrete park in New York's lower Manhattan that served as headquarters for the protest movement and was its birthplace.

Police patrolled the crowd Saturday and took at least a dozen people into custody near Trinity Church that borders Zuccotti Park. Police confirmed they made arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct, but they did not have a total number.

Protesters marched from Washington Square Park and headed south down Broadway to Zuccotti Park, chanting as they went. The group later thinned out.

The march came on the first of three days of planned events. The official anniversary date is Monday. Occupy Wall Street's protest against economic disparity eventually spread to other parts of the country and world.

[xchrom]

67. CHINA AIMS AT JAPAN'S ECONOMY IN ISLAND PROTESTS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_ASIA_DISPUTED_ISLANDS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-16-08-29-22

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese are trying to hurt Japan economically for leverage in a bitter dispute over contested islands, turning to angry protests and calls for boycotts of Japanese businesses, abetted in part by China's government.

Sporadic protests in China over the past week became larger and at times violent and spread to at least two dozen cities over the weekend. Protesters torched a Panasonic factory and Toyota dealership in the eastern port of Qingdao, looted a Heiwado Co. department store in the southern city of Changsha and ransacked Japanese supermarkets in several cities. Though larger numbers of police imposed more order on demonstrations Sunday, they fired tear gas to subdue rowdy protesters in the southern city of Shenzhen. In nearby Guangzhou city, protesters broke into a hotel that was next to the Japanese Consulate and damaged a Japanese restaurant inside.

Japan has demanded that China ensure the safety of Japanese citizens and businesses. "Unfortunately, this is an issue that is impacting the safety of our citizens and causing damage to the property of Japanese businesses," Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, on Sunday.

[xchrom]

68. Brazil cuts growth forecast to 2% for 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19594662


President Dilma Rousseff recently launched stimulus measures to boost flagging growth

Brazil has cut its growth forecast for this year as the global downturn hits exports and rising local debt levels weigh on consumption.

The country will grow 2% this year, down from its previous forecast of 3%, Finance Minister Guido Mantega predicted.

That would be the weakest annual performance since 2009 and a sharp slowdown from growth of 7.5% in 2010.

Brazil became the world's sixth-largest economy this year, overtaking the UK.

[xchrom]

69. Spain and Portugal see big anti-austerity rallies

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19611375

Tens of thousands of people have rallied in Spain and Portugal in protest at spending cuts and tax rises in the debt-hit countries.

In Madrid, public sector workers from all over Spain blocked the capital's Plaza de Colon square and nearby roads.

Protests were held in Lisbon and across Portugal, with one person reportedly attempting to set himself on fire.

The Spanish and Portuguese governments say the austerity measures will lead to economic recovery.

[xchrom]

70. Greece euro exit would be catastrophic, says Samaras

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19615871


Mr Samaras is trying to balance demands from Greece's creditors with those of this people


Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has reiterated his belief that exiting the euro would be a "catastrophe" for his country.

In an interview with the Washington Post, he called again for more time for Greece to implement spending cuts.

There are indications creditors are considering giving Greece more time.

His comments come as a leading German politician said Germany was unlikely to agree to further help for Greece beyond that which has already been agreed.

[Demeter]

73. My Life as a TaskRabbit By Brad Stone

http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/71312-my-life-as-a-taskrabbit

Standing in the living room of his luxurious two-bedroom apartment, which has sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay, Curtis Jackson informs me that I am a terrible housecleaner. There are soap stains on the walls of his master bathroom and pools of water gathering near the edges of the tub. My Roomba vacuum, we discover after a lengthy and humiliating search, is out of power and stuck under a bed. There’s an entire room that I didn’t know about and thus never cleaned. I also neglected to take out the trash and left the living room coated in the noxious perfume of an organic cedar disinfectant. “I respect what you are trying to do, and you did an OK job in the time allotted,” he says. “But frankly, stick to being a reporter.”

The apartment is one stop in the middle of my short, backbreaking, soul-draining journey into what Silicon Valley venture capitalists often call the distributed workforce. This is the fancy term for the marketplace for odd jobs hosted by the site TaskRabbit, the get-me-a-soy-latte errands offered by the courier service Postmates, and the car washing assignments aggregated by yet another venture, called Cherry. These companies and several others are in the business of organizing and auctioning tedious and time-consuming chores. Rob Coneybeer, managing director of the investment firm Shasta Ventures, which has backed several of these new companies, says the goal is to build a new kind of labor market “where people end up getting paid more per hour than they would have otherwise and find it easier to do jobs they are good at.”

The idea of posting or finding jobs online isn’t new. Craigslist, the pioneering Internet bulletin board, allowed the primitive, gentle folk of the 1990s to find day work, not to mention cheap dates. These new services are different, partly because they’re focused and carefully supervised, and partly because they take advantage of smartphones. Workers can load one of these companies’ apps on their location-aware iPhone or Android device and, if the impulse strikes, take a job near them any time of day. Employers can monitor the whereabouts of their workers, make payments on their phones or over the Web, and evaluate each job after it’s accomplished. The most capable workers then rise to the top of the heap, attracting more work and higher pay. Lollygaggers who don’t know how to recharge their Roombas fall to the bottom of the barrel.

Distributed workforce entrepreneurs and their investors are thinking big. They compare their startups to fast-growing companies such as Airbnb, which allows people to rent out their homes. In this case, the assets for rent are people’s skills and time. Leah Busque, a former IBM (IBM) software engineer who started and runs TaskRabbit, says thousands of people make a living (up to $60,000 a year) on her site, which operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and five other cities. “We are enabling micro-entrepreneurs to build their own business on top of TaskRabbit, to set their own schedules, specify how much they want to get paid, say what they are good at, and then incorporate the work into their lifestyle,” she says.

Venture capitalists have bet $38 million on TaskRabbit and millions more on similar startups. Other distributed labor companies, with names like IAmExec (be a part-time gopher) and Gigwalk (run errands for companies) are being founded every day. Listening to this entrepreneurial buzz all summer, I got a notion that I couldn’t shake—that the only way to take the temperature of this hot new labor pool was to jump into it...

HIS EXPERIENCES FOLLOW...

[Demeter]

76. The Next Industrial Revolution Starts in this 20-foot Shipping Container

http://gizmodo.com/5942294/the-next-industrial-revolution-starts-in-a-20+foot-shipping-container

The guys at Re-Char, a small startup that makes carbon-negative products, were faced with a problem. They wanted to ship products to Kenya, but the options available were wasteful, costly, and not nearly as efficient as simply manufacturing near to the customers. To do it, in a place with little industry or infrastructure, Re-Char designed something new—a fully functioning, off-the-grid factory inside a shipping container. It worked. It worked so well, in fact, that Re-Char will now send the self-sufficient, open-source Shop-in-a Box anywhere in the world. It's hard to exaggerate how significantly life can change for a community once one of these shipping containers shows up.

(Brent reported live from Burning Man, in a possibly fruitless attempt to convince Joe that this trip should not come out of his vacation time.)

Like the gang from ReAllocate, Re-Char came to Burning Man to prove a product could work in a harsh environment. In this example, the Shop-in-a-Box performed rapid fabrication, using software to make quick designs, and then turned to a CNC plasma torch to cut the pattern out of a sheet of steel. The two-foot long demo, a Gizmodo logo, was cut out in about a minute. It was damned impressive, but what was the point? From Re-Char's perspective, the shop was a means to make the Climate Kiln, a specialized lid and chimney that adapts a 55-gallon drum so it can make the soil amendment biochar. (Quick background: In Kenya, farmers typically burn sugarcane debris in an open field, releasing tons of carbon. A Climate Kiln controls the burn to produce biochar, a carbon-rich charcoal that, mixed into soil, lets farmers use half the fertilizer they'd normally need to make crops thrive. In fact, crops grow even better with it.)

"To make these kilns, we needed to precision-cut 18-gauge metal in western Kenya," recalled Re-Char's CTO Luke Iseman. "The two main options we had were local labor—a guy with an oxy-acetylene torch literally on the side of the highway—or full-production runs out of China, a shipping container at a time." The team realized that for $30,000, including transportation, Re-Char could create a metal cutting and joining setup that could make about 600 of lids a month. A staff of two could run the factory. "It ended up being the right way to do production, even if you only look at the financial end of it," he said. Beyond being the most cost-effective, it was also the greenest—both from a manufacturing and shipping standpoint. "This is actually taking the factory to where the demand exists," Re-Char's CEO, Jason Aramburu, said. "You greatly reduce transportation. You shrink it down. It's possible to run it off of renewables and/or totally off-grid. It's a fully-integrated manufacturing center inside of a 20-foot shipping container."

Once the factory was set up, it became a center of innovation. Re-Char was able to continue honing the kiln design even as it was in production. The facility could make new products to meet the needs of the locals, and they could do it extremely quickly. "This kind of capacity doesn't really exist in East Africa," Aramburu said. "There are maybe two CNC plasmas in East Africa right now, and we're one of them." Their group's ultimate goal is to become a global network of Shop-in-a-Box factories. The design is open-source, and you can build one yourself from Re-Char's list of components. Or, for $50,000, you can buy one directly from the designers. Compared to the cost of owning a full-sized factory with the same capabilities, that's a bargain. Here's what a nascent company buying a Shop-In-a-Box can currently expect to receive:

A CNC table, working envelope 4'x4'x6", capable of running a plasma torch or wood-cutting router.

Solar panels plus batteries and inverters, adequate to power the shop's computers and hand tools.

A generator adequate to power the shop while the welders and plasma CNC do production work.

Transformers, capable of scrubbing irregular grid power so it's safe for use in the shop.

2 plasma torches—one for CNC use, one for hand operation. Each can sever metal up to 3/4? and sustain cutting in any thickness metal from 1/2? to 22-gauge.

Full MIG, TIG, and oxyacetylene welders, to join a wide variety of metals.

Electronics prototyping, focused on through-hole components and arduino microcontrollers.

Desktop 3D printer.

A desktop, aluminum-capable CNC router.

A wide variety of small hand and power tools—everything you'd expect in a well-outfitted garage.

DVR with 4 cameras, mounted to easily capture and share all details of project builds.

Computers and software necessary to support the shop.


BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

[Demeter]

77. "We are the 99%"

The phrase "The 99%" is a political slogan used by protesters of the Occupy movement. It was originally launched as a Tumblr blog page in late August 2011. It refers to the concentration of wealth among the top 1% of income earners compared to the other 99 percent; the top 1 percent of income earners nearly tripled after-tax income over the last thirty years according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. The report was released just as concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement were beginning to enter the national political debate.

According to the CBO, between 1979 and 2007 the incomes of the top 1% of Americans grew by an average of 275%. During the same time period, the 60% of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their income rise by 40%. Since 1979 the average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households has decreased by $900, while that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive. From 1992 to 2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392% and their average tax rate reduced by 37%. In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.

In 2007 the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country's total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15% —an example of the Pareto principle. Financial inequality (total net worth minus the value of one's home) was greater than inequality in total wealth, with the top 1% of the population owning 42.7%, the next 19% of Americans owning 50.3%, and the bottom 80% owning 7%.

However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%. The Great Recession also caused a drop of 36.1% in median household wealth but a drop of only 11.1% for the top 1%, further widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%. During the economic expansion between 2002 and 2007, the income of the top 1% grew 10 times faster than the income of the bottom 90%. In this period 66% of total income gains went to the 1%, who in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928.

This is in stark contrast with surveys of US populations that indicate an "ideal" distribution that is much more equal, and a widespread ignorance of the true income inequality and wealth inequality.

[Demeter]

83. When I woke from the nap

(if passing out can be called a "nap&quot

I realized that today was Sunday, not Saturday.

So, I officially declare this is a wrap. See you all on the SMW.

[Demeter]

84. BY THE WAY, ONE BANK FAILURE THIS WEEKEND

Truman Bank, Saint Louis, Missouri, was closed today by the Missouri Division of Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Simmons First National Bank, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to assume all of the deposits of Truman Bank.

The four branches of Truman Bank will reopen during normal business hours as branches of Simmons First National Bank...As of June 30, 2012, Truman Bank had approximately $282.3 million in total assets and $245.7 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Simmons First National Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's assets.

The FDIC and Simmons First National Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $117.8 million of Truman Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $34.0 million. Compared to other alternatives, Simmons First National Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Truman Bank is the 42nd FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in Missouri. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Glasgow Savings Bank, Glasgow, on July 13, 2012.