STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 24 September 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 24 September 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 21 September 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 21 September 2012
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Dow Jones 13,579.47 -17.46 (-0.13%)
S&P 500 1,460.15 -0.11 (-0.01%)
[font color=green]Nasdaq 3,179.96 +4.00 (0.13%)



[font color=green]10 Year 1.75% -0.04 (-2.23%)
30 Year 2.94% -0.04 (-1.34%) [font color=black]


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

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent




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

[rfranklin]

1. Yay, second rec!

Keep up the good work!

[Demeter]

2. That is the perfect toon for all time. Here's one for Modern Times:

Last edited Mon Sep 24, 2012, 02:10 AM - Edit history (1)

[Demeter]

3. Feast of Fools How US Democracy Became the Property of a Commercial Oligarchy By Lewis H. Lapham

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32501.htm

The ritual performance of the legend of democracy in the autumn of 2012 promises the conspicuous consumption of $5.8 billion, enough money, thank God, to prove that our flag is still there. Forbidden the use of words apt to depress a Q Score or disturb a Gallup poll, the candidates stand as product placements meant to be seen instead of heard, their quality to be inferred from the cost of their manufacture. The sponsors of the event, generous to a fault but careful to remain anonymous, dress it up with the bursting in air of star-spangled photo ops, abundant assortments of multiflavored sound bites, and the candidates so well-contrived that they can be played for jokes, presented as game-show contestants, or posed as noble knights-at-arms setting forth on vision quests, enduring the trials by klieg light, until on election night they come to judgment before the throne of cameras by whom and for whom they were produced.

Best of all, at least from the point of view of the commercial oligarchy paying for both the politicians and the press coverage, the issue is never about the why of who owes what to whom, only about the how much and when, or if, the check is in the mail. No loose talk about what is meant by the word democracy or in what ways it refers to the cherished hope of liberty embodied in the history of a courageous people.

The campaigns don’t favor the voters with the gratitude and respect owed to their standing as valuable citizens participant in the making of such a thing as a common good. They stay on message with their parsing of democracy as the ancient Greek name for the American Express card, picturing the great, good American place as a Florida resort hotel wherein all present receive the privileges and comforts owed to their status as valued customers, invited to convert the practice of citizenship into the art of shopping, to select wisely from the campaign advertisements, texting A for Yes, B for No.

The sales pitch bends down to the electorate as if to a crowd of restless children, deems the body politic incapable of generous impulse, selfless motive, or creative thought, delivers the insult with a headwaiter’s condescending smile. How then expect the people to trust a government that invests no trust in them? Why the surprise that over the last 30 years the voting public has been giving ever-louder voice to its contempt for any and all politicians, no matter what their color, creed, prior arrest record, or sexual affiliation? The congressional disapproval rating (78% earlier this year) correlates with the estimates of low attendance among young voters (down 20% from 2008) at the November polls.

If democracy means anything at all (if it isn’t what the late Gore Vidal called “the national nonsense-word”), it is the holding of one’s fellow citizens in thoughtful regard, not because they are beautiful or rich or famous, but because they are one’s fellow citizens....

GOOD SLAP IN THE FACE FOR A MONDAY MORNING.

[Demeter]

4. Senators Say Hands Off Social Security

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17522-senators-say-hands-off-social-security

A major bloc of 29 senators took a strong stand today against any cuts to Social Security as part of a deficit reduction deal.

“We will oppose including Social Security cuts for future or current beneficiaries in any deficit reduction package,” the senators said in a letter circulated by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the founder of the Senate Defending Social Security Caucus.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate’s No. 3 leader, signed the letter. So did Sens. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.), who joined Sanders at a Capitol news conference.

Other senators who signed the letter are Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).

To read the letter, click http://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/092012-DearColleague.pdf

[Demeter]

5. Why the QE3 Won't Jumpstart the Economy - and What Would By Ellen Brown

http://truth-out.org/news/item/11657-why-qe3-wont-jumpstart-the-economy-and-what-would

The economy could use a good dose of "aggregate demand" - new spending money in the pockets of consumers - but QE3 won’t do it. Neither will it trigger the dreaded hyperinflation. In fact, it won’t do much at all. There are better alternatives....The Fed calls QE an asset swap, swapping Fed-created dollars for other assets on the banks' balance sheets. But critics call it "reckless money printing" and say it will inevitably produce hyperinflation. Too much money will be chasing too few goods, forcing prices up and the value of the dollar down.

All this hyperventilating could have been avoided by taking a closer look at how QE works: The money created by the Fed will go straight into bank reserve accounts, and banks can't lend their reserves. The money just sits there, drawing a bit of interest. The Fed's plan is to buy mortgage-backed securities (MBS) from the banks, but according to the Washington Post, this is not expected to be of much help to homeowners either.

Why QE3 Won't Expand the Circulating Money Supply

In its third round of QE, the Fed says it will buy $40 billion in MBS every month for an indefinite period. To do this, it will essentially create money from nothing, paying for its purchases by crediting the reserve accounts of the banks from which it buys them. The banks will get the dollars and the Fed will get the MBS. But the banks' balance sheets will remain the same, and the circulating money supply will remain the same.

When the Fed engages in QE, it takes away something on the asset side of the bank's balance sheet (government securities or mortgage-backed securities) and replaces it with electronically-generated dollars. These dollars are held in the banks' reserve accounts at the Fed. They are "excess reserves," which cannot be spent or lent into the economy by the banks. They can only be lent to other banks that need reserves, or used to obtain other assets (new loans, bonds, etc.).

As Australian economist Steve Keen explains:

... reserves are there for settlement of accounts between banks, and for the government's interface with the private banking sector, but not for lending from. Banks themselves may ... swap those assets for other forms of assets that are income-yielding, but they are not able to lend from them.

This was also explained by Scott Fullwiler, an associate professor of economics at Wartburg College, when he argued a year ago for something he called "QE3, Treasury style." This would be another form of QE: the minting of coins by the US Treasury in denominations of $1 trillion "or whatever amount is desired." He explained why the increase in reserve balances in QE is not inflationary:

Banks can't 'do' anything with all the extra reserve balances. Loans create deposits -reserve balances don't finance lending or add any 'fuel' to the economy. Banks don't lend reserve balances except in the federal funds market, and in that case the Fed always provides sufficient quantities to keep the federal funds rate at its ... interest rate target. Widespread belief that reserve balances add 'fuel' to bank lending is flawed, as I explained here over two years ago.

Since November 2008, when QE1 was first implemented, the monetary base (money created by the Fed and the government) has indeed gone up. But the circulating money supply, M2, has not increased any faster than in the previous decade, and loans have actually gone down.

Why, Then, Is the Fed Bothering to Engage in QE3?

GOOD QUESTION, MYSTERY LOVERS! READ ON FOR SOME SUSPICIONS

[DemReadingDU]

6. Why is the Fed engaging in QE3?

QE is designed for the wealthy to get wealthier before the markets crash. The insiders will take their big gains first, of course, leaving the rest of investors with empty bags.

[xchrom]

7. which one of you left your monday up in my house?!?!?!?!

[Demeter]

11. We had a big frost last night

Temperature at 34 right now, no frost on the grass so it probably wasn't a killer...

Autumn wasted no time on moving in, this year. Guess it's time to shelve the shorts and such, start the Halloween decorations.

[xchrom]

15. oy -- frosts all ready...

yeah there was very little to transitioning from summer to fall here.

no, frosts yet -- but the signs are there.

i'm guessing no mild winter this year.

[Tansy_Gold]

25. Abundant sunshine today, high of 99

[xchrom]

30. We got sunshine - but we don't got that!

[Tansy_Gold]

35. I do not have a green thumb

but I love flowers. Like my dad, I don't like them cut -- Flowers should bloom naturally.

The orange one is from the large Mexican bird of paradise bush by my driveway. It attracts lots of butterflies, and it also produces seeds that occasionally sprout "volunteer" plants. I'm currently nurturing three of those offspring, one of which is also flowering this year.

The little cactus is actually only about six inches in diameter, so the yellow flower is maybe three inches across. I was surprised to see a bud on it one morning last week, so I jumped out of the car and took a picture. In the process, I noticed that the cactus has two tiny little baby sprouts at its base, but the picture of those won't upload for some reason.

[xchrom]

36. well, i must say they are lovely.

and for not having a green thumb -- you're doing pretty good.

i love decorative gardening. -- borders, etc -- i can never have enough flowers.

[xchrom]

8. German business climate declines for fifth month

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19697643


Sentiment was particularly gloomy among manufacturers


Germany's business climate deteriorated for the fifth consecutive month in September, according to the influential Ifo Institute.

Its monthly index based on a survey of 7,000 companies, fell to 101.4 last month, from 102.3 in August.

It was the index's lowest reading since February 2010.

Analysts said the fall suggested that German businesses were not entirely convinced by the European Central Bank's bond-buying plans.

[Demeter]

13. They have only themselves to blame

This is what happens when your play "beggar thy neighbor" in a global economy.

[xchrom]

9. Foxconn halts production at plant after mass brawl

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19697344


There was extensive damage to clear up after the unrest was brought under control

Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology, a major supplier for Apple, has halted production at a plant in northern China after a fight broke out among workers.

Foxconn confirmed that a "personal dispute" escalated into an incident involving about 2,000 workers, injuring 40 of them.

Police later dealt with the situation near the facility in Taiyuan, which employs about 79,000 workers.

Foxconn has previously been accused of having poor conditions for its workers.

[DemReadingDU]

16. 5,000 police had been sent to end the unrest

brawl?

sounds more like a riot

[Po_d Mainiac]

18. How long before Foxxcon

Reverse engineers iShit, and captures the emerging markets with the same product at 1/2 the price?

[westerebus]

32. So Samsung needs to lower their price?

[Fuddnik]

53. The new and improved oShit!

[westerebus]

54. I didn't know Patty McGuiness made phones?

A great stout for sure. Must be that Finish lass he married, Nokia somebody that him up to it.

[xchrom]

10. IN EUROPE CRISIS, CONNECTION CULTURE STIFLES YOUTH

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CLASS_OF_2012_THE_RIGHT_CONNECTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-24-07-38-21


Maria Adele Carrai of Italy poses in Central, Hong Kong, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012. Maria Adele Carrai has two master degrees from Italian universities in economics and Asian languages and is now earning her PhD in international law in Hong Kong. Her linguist credentials are formidable: besides native Italian, they include nearly flawless English, a rarity in Italy; French, Arabic, Japanese and now Mandarin. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

ROME (AP) -- Maria Adele Carrai has two master's degrees from Italian universities in economics and Asian languages and is now earning her Ph.D. in international law in Hong Kong. Her linguistic credentials are formidable: Besides native Italian, she has nearly flawless English, a rarity in Italy, as well as French, Arabic, Japanese and Mandarin.

But the 26-year-old from a family of physicians in a small town near the Adriatic Sea, lacks an increasingly crucial key to unlocking the door to work in Italy: a "raccomandazione." It's Italian for the right word from the right person to get you hired, even if you might not be the best one for the job.

As Europe's economic crisis darkens the future of millions of youth, the culture of connections that has lain at the heart of hiring practices in much of the continent is becoming ever more entrenched, even as it harms prospects of recovery. It is blocking young talent or driving it overseas, and contributing to a vicious circle of stagnation that threatens to leave Europe behind in the game of globalization.

[xchrom]

12. GLOBAL GROWTH FEARS CREEP INTO FINANCIAL MARKETS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-24-06-41-38

LONDON (AP) -- Global financial markets drifted lower Monday as investors' growing concerns about the state of the global economy offset any remaining optimism over central banks' stimulus efforts.

Stocks have risen in recent weeks as the U.S. Federal Reserve and monetary authorities in other major economies announced measures to support economic activity. The European Central Bank unveiled a new plan to restore investor confidence in the government finances of the 17-country eurozone.

The latest indicators, however, suggest the global economy is still slowing down and will take some time to recover.

On Monday, Germany's Ifo index of business confidence fell for a fifth consecutive month, evidence that even the continent's largest and so far strongest economy is suffering headwinds.

[Po_d Mainiac]

14. Ag

At 9pm EST, paper contracts totaling over 1/2 of total US yearly production were dumped on one of the Asian exchanges over the coarse of 5mins.

There was a similar event at 10am EST Friday over a 15min span.

That's over 1 year's US production dumped on the market!

Someone desperate for capital?
Someone trying to avert a short squeeze?
Manipulation?

Dunno since most of this occurs OTC and in the shadows, but 30% of the slack has already been picked up. Hmmm?

Currrent ratio of world production Ag:Au is approx. 10:1. Current trading is approx 51:1. Current ore production is on par with industrial consumption with recyling covering the jewelry/investing markets.

[xchrom]

19. idon't know what any of that is -- can you tell me what that means? nt

[Po_d Mainiac]

23. Chart porn

http://www.finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=SI&p=m5.

That's a shit load of metal being dumped, on no 'news.' These moves were common when the Crimex was humping margin percentiles.
Is there a loose rumor that ain't hit the press yet?

One does not sell in bulk without the expectation of the price going South (hard and fast).
If someone is selling for the reason of raising capital, the volume would be dribbled into the market.

Something is going on.
BTFD

[xchrom]

24. ah! got it. thank you. nt

[Demeter]

26. The Centre Cannot Hold

and the wheels are coming off this ponzi--soon. Tie that to the crude drop that had everyone up in arms last week, wondering why the price dropped so much so fast, and it's just continued to go down.

And QE3, after years of protestations....the elephants are having a ball.

[AnneD]

42. On Max Keiser last week....

He was talking about some little line in the Fed report that mentions gold being used. He went on to say he thought that there might be a return to the gold standard in some form. I can't remember the whole thing but as always, he had something interesting to say.

[Po_d Mainiac]

51. Multiple clearing houses now accept Au as collateral. n/t

[AnneD]

52. Watch for evaporating wealth....

http://rt.com/programs/keiser-report/episode-343-max-keiser/

[westerebus]

31. Somebody dumped a lot of paper (ETF's) to depress the gold and silver markets.

The metals were on a tear with the FED's new round of QE. If the dollar gets suppressed by the FED pumping in new capitol (QE) the metals go up like the opposite end of a teeter-todder.

Po's pointing out the where and the time the the ETF dump was done to shut them down. And Good Morning.

[Po_d Mainiac]

41. And the day is young n/t

[Po_d Mainiac]

47. If this was an attempt to pop a bubble

It's looking like a fail.

There has been no further mass exodus. IMHO, the stomachs no longer churn at the plunge, as the weak players got weeded out during last years' smackdown. Instead of a follow-up panic sell-off, the dip is now being bought.

Whoever dumped in the last two trading sessions lost a ton. If this was an attempt to save some margin calls, (to cover shorts) the time bought may have been temporary at best.

If it was a lock on the recent rise, it was sure done in a stupid manner?

Either way, there's some serious antacids being consumed.
YMMV

[westerebus]

55. Can't put on the second floor till the first one's in.

A little consolidation is a good thing.

The Morgue plays with other peoples' money and as you know blatant is Blythe's middle name.

[xchrom]

17. ECONOMISTS SAY US NEEDS MORE TAXES, SPENDING CUTS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NABE_SURVEY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-24-07-28-47

NEW YORK (AP) -- The best way to reduce the federal deficit is through a combination of higher taxes and spending cuts, according to a group of economists.

The 236 members of the National Association for Business Economics recently surveyed say the country needs more fiscal stimulus through 2013, but by 2014 it should be time to throttle back. The reason for the delay: the sluggish nature of the country's economic recovery.

A majority of the economists favor extending payroll tax cuts, current marginal income tax rates and current tax rates for dividends and capital gains for most or all taxpayers through 2013. Deep tax cuts that were passed under President George W. Bush expire at the end of December unless Congress takes action. At the center of debate: extending the cuts for everybody. or just households earning less than $250,000 a year.

When it comes to making those cuts permanent, the group is more split. Nearly three quarters think the payroll tax cut should not be made permanent. The group is almost evenly split about whether to make the tax cuts on income, dividends and capital gains permanent.

[Demeter]

20. Face It: 2013 Is Gonna Be a Bummer By Matthew Philips

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-13/face-it-2013-is-gonna-be-a-bummer#r=hp-ls

Whether it’s Barack Obama or Mitt Romney taking the presidential oath of office in January, someone will have the misfortune of overseeing an economy that looks a lot like the one we have today: low growth, persistently high unemployment, and huge amounts of debt. Depending on what happens with the “fiscal cliff,” there’s at least a chance the U.S. will be in recession. The mere threat of $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts is already delaying business spending. Yet even if Congress does broker a deal and the worst of the fiscal cliff is postponed, 2013 is shaping up to be a rough year.

Big economic forces, both domestic and abroad, are combining to dampen growth. Fundamentals such as demographics and household finances that helped spur past recoveries are now slowing things down. These trends aren’t affected much by policy, so fixing them will be beyond the immediate grasp of an Obama or Romney administration. “No matter who wins the election, from a truly economic standpoint, 2013 will be an extremely challenging year,” says David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates.



MORE DOOM AND GLOOM AT LINK

[xchrom]

21. Chicago Fed National Activity Index Falls To -0.87 From -0.13 Last Month

http://www.businessinsider.com/august-chicago-fed-national-activity-index-2012-9

UPDATE: The Chicago Fed National Activity Index for the month of August came in at -0.87.
Last month's figure was revised up slightly from -0.13 to -0.12.

-----------------
ORIGINAL: This morning the U.S. gets two readings of manufacturing activity – the first is from the Chicago Fed at 8:30 AM ET, followed by the Dallas Fed at 10:30 AM.
Last month, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index measured a -0.13 reading, up from -0.34 in June but still indicating economic activity slightly below the historical average.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/august-chicago-fed-national-activity-index-2012-9#ixzz27OFKiQFR

[Demeter]

22. Why Taxing The 47 Percent Would Put Millions Into Poverty

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/why-the-gops-plan-for-the-47-percent-risks-putting-millions-into-poverty.php

Mitt Romney and (apparently) Tim Kaine aren’t the only politicians who have a problem with poor and middle class people paying no income tax.

In April, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor worried “Over 45 percent of the people in this country don’t pay income taxes at all, and we have to question whether that’s fair.”

“Part of the problem is today, only 53% pay any federal income tax at all; 47% pay nothing,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) last July, ahead of her presidential primary candidacy. “We need to broaden the base so that everybody pays something, even if it’s a dollar.”

Just a buck. Sounds like simple idea — maybe even an admirable project for the national community, right? In reality the suggestion has some stunning implications.

“It’s a policy that’s effectively designed to put people into poverty,” says Chuck Marr, director of tax policy at the nonpartisan but liberal leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The complaint Romney and others raise isn’t that some people make such small amounts of money that they’re exempt from income taxes. Their beef is with people who — thanks to tax credits and deductions targeted at poor and middle-class workers — pay no taxes on net. Many of those people actually end up paying a negative tax rate — when tax season comes around, they get a cash transfer from the government. A tax calculator provided by the Tax Policy Center produces tax burden estimates for people and families at different income levels. According to TPC, a typical poor family — two kids, $33,479 in income — has a negative income tax liability of $5,147. Such a family receives over $5,000 a year back from the IRS in what looks just like a tax refund, except they’re getting back more than they ever paid in income taxes. More than half of that comes from the Earned Income Tax Credit. Another $2,000 comes from the Child Tax Credit — both originally conservative ideas that, at least until recently, enjoyed bipartisan support.

Bachmann’s proposal is essentially a new alternative minimum tax and would effectively wipe out those benefits for a huge number of working poor people, and would cost them in some cases thousands of dollars a year. Quite a bit more than $1. And that would put millions of people at risk of falling back into poverty. According to a CBPP report, “The EITC and CTC, by supplementing the wages of low-paid workers, lifted 9.2 million people above the poverty line in 2010 (under a poverty measure many analysts favor that counts non-cash public benefits and refundable tax credit payments as income).”

“The Earned Income Tax Credit has been put in there as a way to encourage people to work, it’s been extremely successful, and a buffer from downward pressure on low wages,” Marr said. “The EITC keeps 9.2 million people out of poverty and that would be putting that all at risk.”

[xchrom]

27. U.S. Stock Futures Drop; European Debt-Crisis Talks Stall

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-24/u-s-stock-futures-drop-european-debt-crisis-talks-stall.html

U.S. stock-index futures dropped as Germany and France differed on when to introduce a banking union for the euro-area and a report showed optimism among Chinese manufacturers fell, adding to concern of an economic slowdown.

U.S. Steel Corp. and AK Steel Holding Corp. (AKS) retreated after the stocks were downgraded by Citigroup Inc. General Electric (GE) Co. fell 0.5 percent in German trading after it announced plans for a new mining unit. Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) climbed 1.9 percent after a shareholder recommended that it should be broken up into three companies to boost its stock-market value.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) expiring in December retreated 0.4 percent to 1,446.0 at 12:22 p.m. in London. The benchmark fell 0.4 percent last week as reports signaled global economies are slowing. Still, it has rallied 16 percent this year and earlier this month closed at the highest level since 2007 after the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank announced stimulus measures. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 53 points, or 0.4 percent, to 13,447 today.

“Markets seem to have lost their momentum of the past few weeks as some of the optimism fades in the autumn mists,” said Justin Urquhart Stewart, who helps oversee about $6.8 billion at 7 Investment Management in London. “Franco German bickering over regulation, Chinese growth, employment unrest and political changes have given investors reason to take some short term profits and wait before committing any further funds.”

[xchrom]

28. Fed Recovery Doubts Spur Investor Bid for Treasuries

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-24/fed-recovery-doubts-spur-investor-bid-for-treasuries.html

U.S. investors are buying Treasuries at a faster pace than foreigners for the first time since 2010, aiding the government in its efforts to borrow as total public debt outstanding rises above $16 trillion.

Government debt securities held by domestic buyers, excluding the Federal Reserve, rose 10.7 percent in the first seven months of this year to $3.61 trillion, compared with a 6.9 percent increase for countries from China to Germany, according to the latest data available from the Treasury Department and compiled by Bloomberg. Foreign purchases grew 13 percent last year, while U.S. holdings fell 4.6 percent.

Record-low yields are proving no deterrent to U.S. buyers concerned that unprecedented stimulus by the Fed and Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may neither stimulate the economy nor bring down a jobless rate that has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009. The government is dependent on demand for its debt as it seeks to finance a budget deficit poised to exceed $1 trillion for the fourth straight year.

Bonds have “stopped being a total-return market,” Tom Graff, who manages $3.6 billion of fixed-income assets at Brown Advisory Inc. in Baltimore, said Sept. 7 in a telephone interview. “The high degree of uncertainty has caused excess cash to build up among household assets.” As long as individuals are seeking safety rather than being “return- oriented, then no particular yield is too low,” he said.

[Roland99]

29. US Futures - blah

[font color="red"]DJIA 13,452.00 -48.00
S&P 500 1,445.80 -6.10
NASDAQ 100 2,835.25 -17.25[/font]

[xchrom]

33. Aussie Debacle Flags China Hard Landing as Iron Market Melts

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-23/aussie-debacle-signaling-china-hard-landing-as-iron-market-melts.html

From the end of 2008 through July, no major currency appreciated as much as Australia’s dollar, thanks to booming shipments of iron ore and other commodities to China. Since then, it’s the worst performer as the engine of world growth slows.

The so-called Aussie depreciated 1.6 percent in the past month, the biggest decline among 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. Traders are betting Australia’s central bank will cut interest rates to boost growth, dragging down the currency even though the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of commodities has risen about 18 percent from its low this year in June.

This reversal shows the dangers for an economy tied too closely to another. China, which buys 28 percent of Australia’s exports, said industrial output grew at the slowest pace in three years last month as Europe’s debt crisis cut sales of Chinese goods. Polls show Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s governing Labor Party is under pressure before elections due next year.

“The Australian dollar is very expensive from whichever metrics you look at,” Dagmar Dvorak, a director of fixed-income and currencies in London at Baring Asset Management, which oversees $50 billion, said in an interview on Sept. 20. “When a currency overvaluation is that extreme, you have to question what could be a trigger that stops it. For the Aussie, it’s the economic slowdown in China and falling commodity prices. The currency looks vulnerable.”

[xchrom]

34. Germany Losing Patience With Spain as EU Warns on Crisis

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-24/germany-losing-patience-with-spain-on-aid-merkel-ally-says.html

Germany’s governing coalition showed growing exasperation with Spain, as a senior ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy must stop prevaricating and decide whether Spain needs a full rescue.

“He must spell out what the situation is,” Michael Meister, finance spokesman for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said in an interview in Berlin today. The fact he’s not doing so shows “Rajoy evidently has a communications problem. If he needs help he must say so.”

Meister’s comments underscore Europe’s crisis-fighting stalemate amid discord over a banking union, Greece’s ongoing debate on how to meet bailout commitments and foot-dragging by Spain on a possible aid bid. European Union President Herman Van Rompuy warned today against “a tendency of losing the sense of urgency” in fighting the debt crisis three years after it erupted in Greece.

German patience is running out with Spain as it plays for time after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi offered help to lower borrowing costs in return for strict conditions.

[xchrom]

37. Catalan assembly seeks consensus to approve right-to-decide text

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/09/23/inenglish/1348427594_124615.html


The Catalan parliament is expected to approve a resolution this week in favor of giving citizens the right to decide on the region’s future.

The text, which is set to be presented in the regional assembly on Thursday, has yet to secure consensus backing but it appears likely that its content will seek to lend a voice to the outpouring of secessionist sentiment displayed on September 11, the national day of Catalonia, when hundreds of thousands of people marched in favor of independence from Spain.

The political groupings Convergència i Unió (CiU), Iniciativa per Catalunya (ICV-EUiA), Esquerra and Solidaritat Catalana, which together count on 86 of the regional assembly’s 135 deputies among their number, are set to endorse the referendum.

Oriol Pujol, secretary general of the governing CDU half of the CiU coalition and a declared supporter of independence, confirmed on Sunday the information published by the daily La Vanguardia. “We are working toward making a parliamentary pronouncement in the face of a popular clamor, unanimous, conclusive and historic, seen around the world.” Antoni Castellà of the pro-independence sector of CiU, said Sunday: “This is not just playing to the crowd.”

[xchrom]

38. Corporate tax payments fall by more than 60 percent since 2008 {spain}

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/09/24/inenglish/1348487610_693863.html

Last year businesses in Spain paid corporate tax on just 11.6 percent of their profits, according to figures from the tax authorities to which EL PAÍS has had access. Even so, the number was an improvement on 2010, when the state's coffers received a historical low of 9.4 percent.

Although the figure represents the arrest of a decreasing trend since 2007, it is still a long way off the current rates in force in Spain of 30 percent for big companies and 25 percent for small- and medium-sized businesses.

The reason Spanish companies are able to legally pay less than in other European countries lies in a plethora of deductions, bonuses and financial adjustments applied by the tax office. Since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, corporate tax payments in Spain have fallen by a total of 64 percent.

[Roland99]

39. 'Super' Mario Draghi's Problem With Germany

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49146770?__source=mnd|news|&par=mnd

"Super" Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank has a super problem: the markets might love him, the bankers might love him, politicians from Athens to Dublin might love him, but the German people don't. He's been called anything from "bankers' buddy" to "counterfeiter of coins", and depicted by the tabloid press as a devil sporting horns and a trident, set against a distinctly angelic Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann.

So what? In his position, he should accept and maybe expect more than his fair share of criticism. Comes with the office. True. But if only if were that simple.

Germany's old central bank, the Bundesbank or often lovingly called "die Buba", might only be one of now 17 national central banks that make up the ECB. But it represents the biggest economy, and with that money base in the euro area it will never be just another national central bank. The Buba, with its clout and reputation, with its stubbornly defended and often flouted independence... this Buba was and is the blueprint for the ECB. And at least in Germany, it will rightly or wrongly always be set against and compared with the specter of the old Buba.

You see, the Germans have always had a very special (and often romantically clouded) relationship with their old currency, the deutschmark, and the guardians of that currency, the Buba. For the Germans, this dynamic duo symbolizes the country's post-war economic miracle. Both have long become legend. And legends are difficult to match, let alone outshine.

[xchrom]

40. Whatever happened to responsible capitalism?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/23/high-frequency-trading-city-of-london



‘Most of our political leaders cannot imagine what a British economy might look like without a free-wheeling financial sector.' Photograph: Davis Mccardle/Getty


Four years ago, as they looked into the post-Lehman Brothers abyss, our political leaders promised "never again". Both David Cameron and Vince Cable have called for a new "responsible capitalism", where banks would invest for the long term. But behind the scenes the Treasury is sabotaging efforts to control one of the most extreme forms of casino capitalism – "high-frequency trading". And that tells us a great deal about our ruling elite's real plans for Britain's economic future.

The past fortnight has seen growing calls for curbs on HFT – the use of complex computer systems that spot market patterns, buy millions of shares and hold them for micro-seconds before selling them on. Last Thursday, a US Senate committee heard harsh criticisms of these technologies, and the head of the Australian stock exchange denounced some practices as "inherently dangerous". Meanwhile, MEPs have announced plans to impose severe regulation. The Treasury, however, has been fighting to dilute any reform, claiming that HFT makes markets more efficient.

HFT generates huge profits for financiers and stock exchanges, but many blame it for market volatility and crashes. The most recent victim was the American firm, Knight Capital, which almost collapsed last month when a computer malfunction cost it $440m. More serious was the "flash crash" of 2010, when these technologies briefly sent American shares plummeting and threatened market panic.

HFT also reveals a deeper problem with the economy of the last few decades: finance's extreme short-termism, and the funnelling of resources into trading rather than investment and jobs.



*** who ever thought it was a good idea to erect a fancy dildo in the middle of london?

[Tansy_Gold]

44. Response to your final question: Someone who plans to fuck us all over? n/t

[xchrom]

48. ...

[AnneD]

45. it's just their way of telling the world...

to bugger off.

[xchrom]

49. ok -- you and mistress tansy...

*** i thought the boys were supposed to be the bad ones?!?!

[xchrom]

43. Up to Two Trillion Europe Plans to Leverage Euro-Zone Bailout Fund

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/european-leaders-plan-to-leverage-esm-bailout-fund-a-857565.html

With the launch of the permanent common-currency bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), just around the corner, euro-zone member states are looking into ways to leverage the €500 billion ($647 billion) available to the fund, SPIEGEL has learned. But with Finland still concerned about the leveraging plans, it is unlikely that they will be initially included when the ESM is launched on Oct. 8.

The plan envisions the continuation of leverage instruments currently in use in the temporary euro bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). Should they be applied to the ESM, the permanent fund could be able to mobilize up to €2 trillion instead of the €500 billion lending capacity it currently has -- a size that would make it easier to provide emergency aid to countries as large as Spain and Italy, for example.
The leveraging proposal was a focus of last Friday's meeting of euro-zone finance ministers in Cyprus. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is in favor of the plan, sources told SPIEGEL. But Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen is worried that such a change is dramatic enough that it would require the ESM to be resubmitted to Finnish parliament for approval.

Plans for leveraging the ESM envision creating a vehicle to attract private investors as was created for the €440 billion EFSF last year. For the temporary fund, the plan called for protecting investors against the first third of losses they might sustain on purchases of EFSF bonds. In addition, to attract additional private funding, potential investors were promised that the euro zone would cover the riskiest portion of, for example, purchases of Spanish government bonds. Private investment would cover the rest of such purchases.

[Roland99]

46. Dallas Fed - Sept TX Manufacturing Output >>>>

DALLAS FED TEXAS MANUFACTURING OUTPUT INDEX 10.0 IN SEPTEMBER VS 6.4 IN AUGUST

DALLAS FED TEXAS MANUFACTURING INDEX OF GENERAL BUSINESS ACTIVITY -0.9 IN SEPTEMBER VS -1.6 IN AUGUST

[xchrom]

50. ‘Chateau’ isn’t made in America, French vintners say

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/an-american-chateau-french-winemakers-say-no/2012/09/23/a4b08432-03ee-11e2-8102-ebee9c66e190_story.html

PORTETS, France — When Dominique Haverlan pastes the label “Vieux Chateau Gaubert” on his wine bottles, he proclaims this to his customers: I am selling you 400 years of French pedigree, the shadow of aged Palladian buildings restored at a cost of nearly $2 million, the fruit of 87 acres of vines tended to like children and the glories of a winemaking heritage here in the Graves flatlands near Bordeaux that reaches back for centuries.

How, then, Haverlan asks, can American winemakers pretend to put “chateau” on their labels from the New World? What chateau? They have chateaux in America? The very word is French, he notes, and the Vieux Chateau Gaubert, formerly Le Bordillot, was standing here before there even was an America. Worse, how can American merchants try to sell such wines in Europe? And even in France — maybe even Bordeaux?

But they are.

The European Commission, the 27-nation European Union’s executive body in Brussels, is considering a U.S. request to drop a ban on import into Europe of American wines bearing the label “chateau” or “clos,” a similar term used mainly on wines from Burgundy in eastern France. An E.U. wine committee is tentatively scheduled to vote on the request Sept. 25, whereupon it will go to the commission for a final decision that, given the tides of globalization in Europe, could well be positive.

“They’re trying to steal our reputation,” Haverlan said during a tour of his sun-splashed property. “The real chateaux, they’re certainly not in the United States.”