STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 12 January 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 12 January 2012[/font]

SMW for 11 January 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 11 January 2012
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Dow Jones 12,449.45 -13.02 (-0.10%)
[font color=green]S&P 500 1,292.48 +0.40 (0.03%)
Nasdaq 2,710.76 +8.26 (0.31%)

[font color=red]10 Year 1.90% -0.04 (-2.06%)
30 Year 2.96% -0.04 (-1.33%)


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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
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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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Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]


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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]

[kickysnana]

1. 1st Rec. Wow been a while. n/t

[Ghost Dog]

2. What can I say, Tansy, good American folks?

Listen to this, for example. Think about this. Act. Remember who you are. What you represent. Save at least yourselves. Athough I'm a furriner sayin' dis:

&feature=related

... We really don't want to have to hurt you...

But, if you insist...

[Tansy_Gold]

3. Oh, you have no idea

Still I must go on. . . . .


Demeter?????

[Ghost Dog]

4. We can't trust you anymore. That's the fact.

:weep:

But, let's fight. It's worth it.

Fuck, that track, like everythig else in America, was corrupted already.

But, try this:

[Tansy_Gold]

25. Well, frankly, I don't know why you should be any different

I realized/was told the other day by someone I considered my dearest and closest friend online -- no, not one of you because she's not an active DUer -- that basically no one really gives a shit about me, that it's a shame I don't have more friends the way she does, and I should more or less get over myself.

I'm not feeling particularly charitable toward anyone these days.


Joan Baez has been my idol and icon for almost half a century. When I wrote "You have no idea," I meant, "You have no idea how just seeing a photo of her pulls at my heart and makes me weep for all she has stood for and all that remains unchanged."

[Po_d Mainiac]

40. No quills for that bitch

[Tansy_Gold]

45. .

[Ghost Dog]

94. Ok.

Sorrry.

Sometimes I stupidly imagine there is a wider audience. As if it matters.

[Demeter]

6. You Rang?

Yesterday's horoscope remarked that something I'd been planning wouldn't happen, so I joked that I wouldn't be re-elected to the Condo board.

And then it happened as foretold--we didn't have a quorum (short by 8 people) and so no business could be transacted, including the election. But we did all the annual reports and questions.

I don't blame people for not showing. There's a lot of illness around just now, and it started raining before we gave up.

I still had the route to do after, though, which went without incident. And 3/4 of my sinuses are clear again, so that's better....

What was the question?

[Hugin]

15. I believe Ghost Dog is trying to knock a rather large chip off of someone's shoulder. n/t

[Ghost Dog]

19. Who, me?

I was just listening to some (more) very nice, peaceful music.

For example:

So, you're right. Beware.

[Hugin]

31. Try to keep it down.

The Superbowl is in a couple of weeks and then I'm sure there's the season premier of some show or another on Rupertvision.

:semisarcasm:

[Po_d Mainiac]

52. Step slowly away from the time/warp continuum

Or tell us who is playing so's we can bet the farm on the conference semi's and finals. Cuzz for most of us, the SB is 4 Sundays distant!

[AnneD]

69. Words to live by....

I refuse to put my hand in the crazy.

[Fuddnik]

74. Crazy?

Somebody calling me?

[Po_d Mainiac]

76. Is that what u call it? 'The Crazy'

Most refer too it as a toilet. Good advice though!

[AnneD]

80. Just good advice I got...

during my psych rotation. I was selected to go to the psych ER. It is an ER because they aren't on their meds yet.

You meet an interesting class of society there like the man that the police pick up walking nekked down a busy main street (Fudd-when is the last time you came to Houston!), the guy that mumbles to himself while urinating at the local resturant, the woman that tried to run over her hubby in the family suv, or the occasional stray confused old timer . A genteel class of folks for sure. I learned to stay on my toes, think on my feet, and duck and weave like Ali.

Guess that is why I do so well in Middle School.

[dixiegrrrrl]

83. Another piece of advice

Make a LOT of notes when you come home at night.
If I had done that, I really could have written the most interesting book by now of truly weird and wonderful adventures in Mental Health.
I have never figured out why so many schizophrenic patients get nude in public when they
are off their meds, but it seems to be pattern.

[AnneD]

87. I did a PRN stint...

at the State School. I have a good memory-and don't need to have notes. Again it was very interesting.

My two favorites...two mental patients that were evacuated Katrina and ended up in our School outside of Houston. One came to us with a note pinned to his shirt saying..."Please take care of my boy-I will be to pick him up". This boy was 5'8" and had gray hair. Mainly non verbal but nice enough. The other was in more serious shape and also non verbal.

We took care of their wounds and spoiled them-getting them clothes, shoes, games etc. As the days turned into weeks and the amount of devastation and the extent of the diaspora became known, we started to give up hope of ever finding their family. But then one day this ancient little lady came in to pick up her boy. We didn't need much ID-his reaction on seeing her was enough proof. And shortly after that, family came to pick up the second man...again, no ID necessary.

[DemReadingDU]

96. Teachers really are the best to look after others

How nice of you and other teachers to take care of those 2 men until the families came back. It must have been a frightening experience for the men to be dropped off, not knowing anyone, yet so trusting of the teachers. What a heartwarming story!

[Ghost Dog]

97. That's a very nice story. And good to know that sometimes no red tape is necessary,

just the hands-on judgement of those able to know.

[Ghost Dog]

5. Top Greek union calls austerity strike

Last edited Thu Jan 12, 2012, 06:24 AM - Edit history (1)

AFP - Greece's main union on Thursday called for a strike in Athens next week as the government upped pressure on labour unions to accept wage cuts to avert bankruptcy.

The GSEE union said Tuesday's strike would send a "strong message" to the government, employers and Greece's institutional creditors "who are planning new and harsher anti-labour measures."...

... The government has called on unions and employers to revise wages to boost competitiveness at a time when the economy is facing its worst recession in decades.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has warned that labour cuts are among measures that will determine Greece's economic survival, as they are tied to European and International Monetary Funds keeping the country afloat.

The unions counter that the recession is a direct result of austerity measures followed for nearly two years under EU-IMF supervision...

/... http://www.france24.com/en/20120112-top-greek-union-calls-austerity-strike

&feature=fvwrel

[bread_and_roses]

49. I was there .... and that performance still

raises the hair on the back of my neck ....

[Ghost Dog]

99. Yeah.

[Warpy]

81. This is where we all start to realize

that allowing the rich to skate is no longer an option.

Greek parents are starting to abandon children to the mercies of the church. That means the "austerity" has reached an absolutely intolerable level. And that means anybody in a compound with a hidden swimming pool had better petition the government for fair taxes and start to pony up or his fellow citizens are going to smash their way in and murder him.

Revolutions can be peaceful or bloody. However, they are now inevitable.

[Ghost Dog]

98. That's my feeling about what I sense other people feeling around here, in (far) Southern Europe.

And you've expressed it in a much better way that I could have done.

[Demeter]

7. I'll see your 1% Cartoon and Raise You Another from Dilbert

[Demeter]

8. AND THEN, THERE'S REALITY: Three Carlyle founders shared $413m last year

The news that David Rubenstein, Bill Conway and Daniel D’Aniello each received $138m puts the buy-out sector in the spotlight at a sensitive time

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/ZG42CA/204L2/L9NKLB/C4RUMW/N9/t?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=12

[Demeter]

12. The Real Crisis in Capitalism By Bill Bonner

http://dailyreckoning.com/the-real-crisis-in-capitalism/

...In 1965, US chief executives received 24 times the wages of the average worker. Over the next 25 years, the ratio went to 70 times. Then, it exploded to the upside, rising to 299 times in 2000 and 325 times today. People look at these figures with the same look of appalling disgust as they once looked at syphilitics. It is ugly, the outward sign of an inner sin, they believe....But it is hardly the heart of capitalism. Nor the liver. Nor the kidneys. Nor any other vital organ. Executive pay is not a benefit to capitalism. It’s not what makes the system works. It’s a cost. A drag. An impediment. It’s only a benefit to a very special segment of the working class, the managers. They are the cadres...the insiders...the controllers. More like plantation overseers and prison wardens than capitalists, their interests are very different from either the working stiffs or the shareholders. They squeeze the former and cheat the latter. They cut costs...deliver profits...and pay a large percentage of them to themselves.

According to John Kay, also writing in the FT, a breach opening between capitalists and managers was observed as early as the 1930s. The capitalists still owned the capital. But the managers controlled it. “Modern titans derive their authority and influence from their position in a hierarchy, not their ownership of capital,” Kay explains. “They have obtained these positions through their skills in organizational politics, in the traditional ways bishops and generals acquire positions in an ecclesiastical or military hierarchy.” They are bureaucrats, in other words...glad handlers...schmoozers...not entrepreneurs or capitalists. And over time, like major domos, regents, and regisseurs, they use their control of the institution for their own benefit.

How do they get away with it? It is a part of the process we call ‘zombification.’ Institutions all tend to shift, over time, from fulfilling some outward-centered purpose — such as making bread or making war — to looking out for themselves. Whether it is a government or a corporation, hustlers, anglers, and idlers figure out how to take advantage of them. These ‘insiders,’ pervert the organization and divert its power and money to themselves.

The club secretary, the company president, the charity director, the dictator and the senator...all look for ways to build their own power and wealth. National economies are undermined. Whole industries are corrupted...

[Hotler]

50. FUCKERS! n/t

[Demeter]

9. Goldman departures a sign of higher turnover

Two of four securities trading heads leave just before the bank reports its results and amid higher pressure on traditional profit sources

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/ZG42CA/204L2/L9NKLB/NJGC9I/N9/t?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=12

[Fuddnik]

28. They might have to lay off half the Cabinet.

And most of the Treasury Dept.

[Demeter]

57. Wouldn't THAT Be a Shame!

I'm with Hotler. And we need another smilie, just for that.

[dixiegrrrrl]

84. Duzy...in a bitter way.

[Demeter]

10. Rivals circle over Romney’s ‘vulture’ past

The Republican frontrunner’s career in private equity is under scrutiny in the primaries – which could ultimately be a plus for his campaign

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/5F39HH/IILFYF/ULCJB/FKQ7FN/KQT8D6/SN/t?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=12

AND HOW COULD THIS BE SPUN AS A "PLUS"?

[AnneD]

72. I thought they would be all over him.....

for the fact that his father came from a Mormon community in Mexico and Mitt could qualify for dual citizenship. I mean, it worked for Obama....but what do I know.

[Demeter]

11. Irish farming reaps growing success

Agriculture is one of Ireland’s few domestic industries to thrive despite an economic crisis that forced it to accept a bail-out

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/5F39HH/IILFYF/ULCJB/FKQ7FN/PF6V97/SN/t?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=12

[Demeter]

13. Oil refiners sever links to Iran

European refiners have started to sever links with Iran, stopping spot purchases of crude ahead of a European Union meeting later this month that could impose a full oil embargo on Tehran

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/73UJGG/SPVHG0/JQU4J/97XOGJ/979FJ3/ZH/t?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=11

[Demeter]

14. “When Offshoring Backfires”

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/when-offshoring-backfires.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

YVES SMITH SAYS: ...There is plenty of evidence that the case for offshoring and outsourcing are considerably overdone. First, direct factory labor is only a small part of the total wholesale cost of manufactured goods, typically 10% to 15%. While offshoring clearly reduces those costs, there are offsets: increased managerial/coordination cost, greater transport and inventory financing costs. I’ve had some executives in different lines of business tell me their company decided to outsource/offshore despite the fact that the business case was not compelling. Second, offshoring increases risk, particularly the risk of getting stuck with inventory you can’t sell.

This VoxEU article does a nice job of looking at the tradeoffs between cost savings and customer responsiveness. SEE NEXT POST...

[Demeter]

16. When offshoring backfires / Xiaole Wu Fuqiang Zhang

http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/7226

As the global economic downturn grinds on, more companies are acknowledging that labour costs aren’t always the most important factor when deciding where to build their next factory. This column argues that, in times of recession, some companies find that bringing their business home can give them a competitive edge...

By 2002–03, about a quarter to half of the manufacturing companies in Western Europe were involved in offshore production (Dachs et al 2006). And by 2008, more than 50% of US companies had a corporate offshoring strategy (Minter 2009).

Recently, though, many of the perceived offshoring advantages have been called into question. First, the sourcing costs from emerging economies have been rising rapidly. For example, as of mid-2010, many Chinese firms were facing labour shortages and were forced to boost wages to attract qualified workers (Plunkett Research 2010). Second, the global commodity price index has risen significantly (Archstone Consulting 2009). This has led to more expensive transportation costs, particularly as a result of higher oil prices, as well as higher production costs. Third, the economic recession that started at the end of 2007 has had a severe impact on the market. Consumers are more cautious in spending, and firms are seeking new strategies to retain customers (Dodes 2011).

So it should not come as a surprise that more US manufacturers are ‘reshoring’, ’onshoring’ and ‘backshoring’. General Electric announced last year that it is moving some of its appliance manufacturing from China to Louisville, Kentucky. NCR Corp. is pulling all of its ATM machine production from China, India, and Hungary back to a facility in Columbus, Georgia, in order to customise products and get them to clients faster. In their announcements, these firms emphasised that by being closer to the market, they can better understand the market and are able to respond quickly to market changes...As these industry examples illustrate, the tradeoff between cost and flexibility can be quite involved and difficult to evaluate. It now appears that the labour-cost benefits gained from offshoring might not be sufficient to cover the lost flexibility under many circumstances. So before making any sourcing decisions, firms at the crossroads need to understand the business environment as well as the competitor’s sourcing strategy...

AND THAT'S NOT EVEN COUNTING THE POLLUTION BY THE BIG SHIPS (SEE YESTERDAY'S THREAD)

[dixiegrrrrl]

85. So, add a deep recession plus peak energy costs =

downside of off shoring.

Can you say........margin compression?

[Demeter]

103. They couldn't give that muck they burn away

The supertankers were a new source of revenue for the Oil Bidness.

[Demeter]

17. Marshall Auerback: The Road to Serfdom

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/marshall-auerback-the-road-to-serfdom.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29


...Creditworthiness precedes credit. You need policies designed to promote job growth, higher incomes and a corresponding ability to service debt before you can expect a borrower take on a loan or a banker to extend one. And, as Minsky used to point out, in the old days, banking was a fundamentally optimistic activity, because the success of the lender was tied up with the success of the borrower; in other words, we didn’t have the spectacle of vampire-like squids betting against the success of their clients via instruments such as credit default swaps.

Credit default swaps themselves are to “hedging” credit exposure what nuclear weapons are to “hedging” national defence requirements. In theory, they both sound like reasonable deterrents to mitigate disaster, but use them and everything blows up. At least one decent by-product of the eurocrats’ incompetent handling of this national solvency disaster has been the likely discrediting of CDSs as a hedging instrument in the future. Note that 5 year CDSs on Italian debt have not blown out to new highs today in spite of bond yields rising over 7%, because the markets are slowly but surely coming to the recognition that they are ineffective hedging instruments – although they have been very useful in terms of lining the pockets of the likes of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

Say what you will about Silvio Berlusconi (and there’s LOTS one can say about the man as any reader of the NY Post can attest). But he was right to oppose to a crude political ploy being foisted on him by the ECB, the French and Germans to accept an irrational and economically counterproductive program fiscal austerity program in exchange for “support” from the likes of the IMF. All Berlusconi had to do was cast his eyes to the other side of the Adriatic to see the likely effect of that. The markets’ reaction to his resignation was surreal: akin to turkeys voting for Thanksgiving. The overriding imperative in Euroland (indeed, in the entire global economy) should be to stimulate economic growth to ensure that there are enough jobs for all who want them...

[Demeter]

18. Why the Fed Needs to Talk More About Housing

http://us1.irabankratings.com/pub/IRAMain.asp

...The lack of progress in dealing with the housing sector is a national scandal and one reason among many that President Barack Obama does not deserve another four years in office. There is a cost to doing nothing about the housing crisis, as Laurie Goodman at Amherst Securities has noted repeatedly. This cost is borne by the tens of millions of American households that are unable to refinance their mortgages....The Wall Street Journal is badly wrong when they criticize the Fed for speaking up on housing. The real crime is that Dudley, Chairman Ben Bernanke and other Fed officials did not listen to Sheila Bair three years ago, when she and other officials at FDIC were calling for more aggressive policy approaches to dealing with foreclosures. Instead the large banks and their partners in crime in Washington, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have formed a political and financial cartel to prevent American home owners from refinancing their mortgages, effectively thwarting Fed policy efforts to reflate the economy.

Instead of passing the savings afforded by lower interest rates to deflation ravaged consumers, the TBTF banks - BAC, C, JPM and WFC - are instead now using the low cost of funds to do nothing. Zero interest rates allow the zombie banks to sit on bad loans and foreclosed real estate, but this studied inaction also ensures a low or no-growth US economy for years to come. By doing nothing on housing, the White House and Congress are helping America to turn Japanese a la the 1980s to prop up the zombie banks and GSEs. The cost of this deliberate act of criminal indifference is shouldered by the bottom third of American households in the conforming loan sector. Now you know why last week an article from Bloomberg News set off a media tempest regarding the possibility of a mass refinance proposal from Washington. Such is the pain in the banking and consumer sectors that astute policy analysts know that something eventually will have to be done for the millions of American home owners who are now underwater on their mortgages. The question is will this be a 2012 project or wait until 2013?

Part of the dilemma facing the Fed is that the fiscal situation in Washington has become ridiculous, most recently with Congress imposing a tax on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in order to pay for the "emergency" payroll tax holiday. The refusal of Congress to deal directly with the federal debt explosion means that the central bank has no room to let rates rise and thereby force the big banks to unload foreclosed homes, office buildings and other bad assets. "Our publicly traded debt has increased 100% in the last 5 years alone! What is even worse is that our debt as a percentage of revenue is exploding," writes Mike Pento. "Back in 1971, the national debt was 218% of revenue. Back in the year 2000, that debt as a percentage of revenue had grown to 280%. Today, it has skyrocketed to 700% of revenue. Our government simply cannot survive having that much debt in relation to revenue."

Pento notes that the Fed is now clearly targeting inflation: "Therefore, the real rate of inflation suffered by most Americans will be significantly higher than the rate the Fed is targeting. The reality is that the Fed is now stepping up their easy-money rhetoric, despite the fact that they have conducted a more than four year campaign to produce a higher rate of inflation and lower the value of the dollar." Well, maybe. We see instead low rates and no job growth in the US for years to come. The sad fact is that neither the Fed nor the WSJ understand that without movement on housing, there will be neither any meaningful inflation or job growth in the US for years. The real estate sector is a millstone around the neck of the US economy with a decided deflationary bias. Without a restructuring of BAC, Ally and some of the other TBTF banks, there will be no sustained credit or job growth in the US and thus no movement in government revenues. After five years of zero rates, all that the Fed has to show for its trouble is a banking industry where the top four institutions representing 70% of total assets remains crippled...

[Demeter]

20. How a Little Bit of Good Economic News Can Be Bad for the President By Robert Reich

http://www.nationofchange.org/how-little-bit-good-economic-news-can-be-bad-president-1326210660

Two years ago the unemployment rate was 9.9 percent. Now it’s 8.5 percent. At first blush that’s good news for the President. Actually it may not be. Voters pay more attention to the direction the economy is moving than to how bad or good it is. So if the positive trend continues in the months leading up to Election Day, Obama’s prospects of being reelected improve.

But if you consider the number of working-age Americans who have stopped looking for work over the past two years because they couldn’t find a job, and young people too discouraged even to start looking, you might worry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which measures the unemployment rate every month, counts people as unemployed only if they’re looking for work. If they’re too discouraged even to enter the job market, they’re not counted. If all the potential workers who have dropped out of the job market over the past two years were counted, today’s unemployment rate wouldn’t be 8.5 percent. It would be 9.5 percent. That’s only a bit down from the 9.9 percent unemployment rate two years ago.

The genuinely good news, though, is the Bureau of Labor Statistics also tells us 200,000 new jobs were added in December. Granted, this doesn’t put much of a dent in the 10 million jobs we’ve either lost since the recession began or needed to keep up with the growth of the working-age population (at this rate we won’t return to our pre-recession level of employment until 2019) but, hey, it’s at least the right direction. But here’s the political irony. This little bit of good news is likely to raise the hopes of the great army of the discouraged – many of whom will now start looking for work. And what happens when they start looking? If they don’t find a job (and, let’s face it, the chances are still slim) they’ll be counted as unemployed.

Which means the unemployment rate will very likely edge upward in coming months. This will be bad for the President because it will look as though the trend is in the wrong direction again.

[Demeter]

78. How Nice that Today's Unemployment Reports Took Care of That Little Problem!

[Demeter]

21. Underwater Homeowners May Swim Freely By Lena Groeger

http://www.nationofchange.org/underwater-homeowners-may-swim-freely-1326299497


...Prevailing wisdom has it that homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth -- known as being "underwater" -- are forced to stay put because the property is too difficult to sell. So people who would otherwise relocate -- say, to find a job -- are "tethered to their homes." It's a theory touted by prominent New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Harvard economist Lawrence Katz, and regularly makes appearances in the media.

But according to economist Sam Schulhofer-Wohl at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, they've all got it backwards: underwater homeowners are actually more likely to move...Evidence for the tethered-to-their-homes thesis comes largely out of a paper from the National Bureau of Economics Research (NBER) whose authors hail from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The paper analyzed a national sample of homes by U.S. Census Bureau called the American Housing Survey. Since 1985, Census Bureau interviewers have tracked over 60,000 housing units across the country, returning every two years to record who lives there. If the Census records a house as occupied by its owner, then two years later there are four possibilities: the house is occupied by the same owner, a different owner, a renter, or nobody (the house is vacant.)

In the original NBER research paper, all entries recorded as renters or vacancies were dropped from the data, so that only homes with a different owner were counted as a "move." The authors explained that this was done on purpose, because housing mobility has traditionally referred to "permanent" moves where an owner sells a house and never returns. Using this measure, the researchers found that underwater homeowners were almost a third less likely to move...But if you owed more than your home was worth and were desperate for a job, maybe you'd rent while you left to try greener pastures, or you might even ditch the house altogether, especially if the bank was going to foreclose on you anyway. So Schulhofer-Wohl analyzed exactly the same data, but he included properties that were rented or vacant.

"I thought, let's count as moves all the times where someone moved out and rented their house, or moved out and left it vacant, which could happen if they were foreclosed upon." He found that if you included all the renter or vacancy cases, people with negative equity were actually more mobile than those with positive equity...Joseph Gyourko, co-author of the NBER paper and a real estate and finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, points out a more depressing reason that mobility might not affect unemployment. There could be so much unemployment that even if an underwater homeowner couldn't move to take a job elsewhere, an unemployed person near the job would snatch it up. "That's all you need for this not to have a big labor market effect," he said in an email.

JUST MORE PROOF THAT FREEDOM MEANS NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE...

[dixiegrrrrl]

86. But the "vacant" houses he counted could also belong to dead people..

who, I guess, "technically" moved....
we have several houses here in a 3 block area whose owners have died, the house has been sitting, vacant, with a for sale sign on it for years...

Surely that factor would skew his study...

[Demeter]

104. "Facts" seem to play no part in this economic fiasco

which is what makes it such a fiasco, if you catch my drift....

[Demeter]

22. Full-Blown Civil War Erupts On Wall Street – Financial Elite Start Turning On Each Other

http://wakeup-world.com/2011/09/06/full-blown-civil-war-erupts-on-wall-street-financial-elite-start-turning-on-each-other/#comments

Finally, after trillions in fraudulent activity, trillions in bailouts, trillions in printed money, billions in political bribing and billions in bonuses, the criminal cartel members on Wall Street are beginning to get what they deserve. As the Eurozone is coming apart at the seams and as the US economy grinds to a halt, the financial elite are starting to turn on each other. The lawsuits are piling up fast. Here’s an extensive roundup:

First up, this shockingly huge $196 billion lawsuit just filed against 17 major banks on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bank of America is severely exposed in this lawsuit. As the parent company of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch they are on the hook for $57.4 billion. JP Morgan is next in the line of fire with $33 billion. And many death spiraling European banks are facing billions in losses as well.

FHA Files a $196 Billion Lawsuit Against 17 Banks

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises), today filed lawsuits against 17 financial institutions, certain of their officers and various unaffiliated lead underwriters. The suits allege violations of federal securities laws and common law in the sale of residential private-label mortgage-backed securities (PLS) to the Enterprises.

Complaints have been filed against the following lead defendants, in alphabetical order:

1. Ally Financial Inc. f/k/a GMAC, LLC – $6 billion
2. Bank of America Corporation – $6 billion
3. Barclays Bank PLC – $4.9 billion
4. Citigroup, Inc. – $3.5 billion
5. Countrywide Financial Corporation -$26.6 billion
6. Credit Suisse Holdings (USA), Inc. – $14.1 billion
7. Deutsche Bank AG – $14.2 billion
8. First Horizon National Corporation – $883 million
9. General Electric Company – $549 million
10. Goldman Sachs & Co. – $11.1 billion
11. HSBC North America Holdings, Inc. – $6.2 billion
12. JPMorgan Chase & Co. – $33 billion
13. Merrill Lynch & Co. / First Franklin Financial Corp. – $24.8 billion
14. Morgan Stanley – $10.6 billion
15. Nomura Holding America Inc. – $2 billion
16. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC – $30.4 billion
17. Société Générale – $1.3 billion


These complaints were filed in federal or state court in New York or the federal court in Connecticut. The complaints seek damages and civil penalties under the Securities Act of 1933, similar in content to the complaint FHFA filed against UBS Americas, Inc. on July 27, 2011. In addition, each complaint seeks compensatory damages for negligent misrepresentation. Certain complaints also allege state securities law violations or common law fraud...

And the suits just keep coming…

BofA sued over $1.75 billion Countrywide mortgage pool

Bank of America kept AIG legal threat under wraps

Nevada Lawsuit Shows Bank of America’s Criminal Incompetence

Nevada Wallops Bank of America With Sweeping Suit; Nationwide Foreclosure Settlement in Peril

FDIC Objects to Bank of America’s $8.5 Billion Mortgage-Bond Accord

Fed asks Bank of America to list contingency plan: report

Bombshell Admission of Failed Securitization Process in American Home Mortgage Servicing/LPS Lawsuit

Fraudclosure: MERS Case Filed With Supreme Court

Iowa Says State AG Accord Won’t Release Banks From Liability

Fed Launches New Formal Enforcement Action Against Goldman Sachs To Review Foreclosure Practices

Goldman Sachs, Firms Agree With Regulator To End ‘Robo-Signing’ Foreclosure Practices

Banks still robo-signing, filing doubtful foreclosure documents

JPMorgan fined for contravening Iran, Cuba sanctions

This Is Considered Punishment? The Federal Reserve Wells Fargo Farce

Exclusive: Regulators seek high-frequency trading secrets

Collapse Roundup #5: Goliath On The Ropes, Big Banks Getting Hit Hard, It’s A “Bloodbath” As Wall Street’s Crimes Blow Up In Their Face

Goldman Sachs TANKS After CEO Lloyd Blankfein Hires Famous Defense Lawyer

MOODY’S ANALYST BREAKS SILENCE: Says Ratings Agency Rotten To Core With Conflicts

Matt Taibbi Exposes How SEC Shredded Thousands of Investigations

Wall Street Pentagon Papers Part III – Are The Federal Reserve’s Crimes Still Too Big To Comprehend?

More on how the GAO’s Fed audit failed to disclose some dirty secrets about BlackRock and JP Morgan

Report Says Bear Stearns Executives Sold Illegal RMBS and Covered It Up

(LINKS TO THESE ARTICLES AT ORIGINAL LINK)

We need to keep in mind that the Federal Reserve has known about all of this criminal activity from the start. Yet, they have done everything they could, and are still trying, to keep this criminal operation up and running. As all these criminal banks begin to blow up, let’s not forget who their central bank is and what they have done to the American people.

[Hotler]

70. Feeding frenzy, good.

I hope it gets ugly between them.

[dixiegrrrrl]

88. Thanks for the good news!!!!!

Captain Ahab's obsession with the whale was almost as strong as mine over BOA...

[Demeter]

23. Soldiers With Automatic Weapons Checking IDs at a Social Security Office in Florida: Training?

http://warisacrime.org/content/soldiers-automatic-weapons-checking-ids-social-security-office-florida-more-freedom-they-hat

It may have looked like they were ready for war or some deranged person looking for his late Social Security benefits. But it was only Federal Protective Service officers with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who were conducting a random training operation early Tuesday morning when they surprisingly showed up at the Social Security Administration office in downtown Leesburg. With their blue and white SUVs circled around the Main Street office, at least one official was posted on the door with a semiautomatic rifle, randomly checking identifications. And other officers, some with K-9s, sifted through the building.

"I thought someone was upset about not getting their check," said Laura Kelly, who took a friend to the office on Tuesday...According to one Homeland official in the Washington, D.C. office, Operation Shield. is an effort that uses routine, unannounced visits by FPS inspectors to test the effectiveness of contract guards, or protective security officers -- "detecting the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities." Part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FPS is the federal law enforcement agency that provides integrated security and law enforcement services to over 9,000 federally-owned and leased buildings, facilities, properties and other assets.

Officers on the scene would not speak to the press and by noon they were gone. But Thomas Milligan, district manager for the Social Security Administration office, said while the visit came as a surprise, the office was ready. He added the officers checked videos, security measures, alarm system and more.

"It was to make sure security measures are in place and properly followed," Milligan said.


SURE IT WAS.

[AnneD]

73. One small step against Terrorism......

One giant leap for Facism...Anne D paraphrasing one of her heroes.

[Demeter]

24. GOP plan: No HS diploma? No unemployment check

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/09/10075106-gop-plan-no-hs-diploma-no-unemployment-check

...Sponsors of the measures, contained in H.R. 3630, argue that the current unemployment insurance program has been ineffective in getting long-term jobless workers back work. Some, including Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., have argued that extending unemployment benefits "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."....

[DemReadingDU]

26. Sears Noose Tightens As CIT Leaves Company Cold With No Vendor Financing

1/12/12 Sears Noose Tightens As CIT Leaves Company Cold With No Vendor Financing

Two weeks ago, when we first announced the catastrophic earnings preannouncement by Sears we noted that we were stunned "that as part of its preannouncement, Sears has decided it would be prudent to provide an update on its credit facility status as well as availability. As a reminder to anyone and everyone - there is no more sure way of committing corporate suicide than openly inviting the bear raid which always appears whenever the words "revolving credit facility" and "availability" appear in the same press release. Just recall MF Global. And here, as there, we expect shorting to death to commence in 5...4...3..."

Subsequently, when the company was downgraded to triple hooks S&P we said that "Accounts Receivable about to become one big perpetition charge off", the implication naturally being that the company is about to lose its vendor financing - which for retailers is the last step before outright default. Sure enough, the WSJ reports that this is precisely what happened. "Struggling Sears Holdings Corp. suffered another setback when a large lender said it would no longer finance loans to suppliers awaiting payment from the company.

more...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/sears-noose-tightens-cit-leaves-company-cold-no-vendor-financings


and I see we link to smileys



edit to add link to WSJ

1/12/12 Sears Suffers Setback as Large Lender Balks
Struggling Sears Holdings Corp. suffered another setback when a large lender said it would no longer finance loans to suppliers awaiting payment from the company.

Sears representatives played down the decision by CIT Group Inc., the largest U.S. provider of what are known as factoring services for vendors, saying the payables the firm had financed amounted to only about 5% of the retailer's inventory.

"We disagree with their action, in fact we'd point out that other factors are approving shipments to Sears Holdings," company spokesman Chris Brathwaite said in a statement.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577155701896978594.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[dixiegrrrrl]

89. Not 3 weeks ago I said they were going under

but now it looks like they are getting a helping shove under the bus.

[xchrom]

27. morning

[xchrom]

29. RBS ditches investment bank in fresh jobs cull

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/12/uk-rbs-idUKTRE80B0D420120112

(Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland abandoned ambitions to be a top global investment bank and said it would cut another 4,450 jobs as it bows to pressure from the government to shut down risky operations and prepare for tougher international regulations.

Britain owns 83 percent of Britain's fifth biggest bank after pumping in 46 billion pounds to keep it from going under during the financial crisis and the country's taxpayers are currently sitting on a 24 billion pound loss.

The government has demanded that RBS shrink its investment bank further, despite the bank already halving that part of its business over the last three years.

RBS will now stop trading shares and advising companies on takeovers, both loss-making businesses, in arguably the starkest retreat by a big investment bank as the financial crisis and tough new rules hit profits across the industry.

[Demeter]

58. Amazing!

England brought a bank to heel! In this day and age!

Maybe we could extraordinary-rendition Geithner to the Tower......

[Fuddnik]

30. I wonder if this will work?

Posting upside down.

I've done dumber things.

[DemReadingDU]

36. Still looks rightside up

[Fuddnik]

51. Nope. There's a madness to my method.

I've been having back problems for a few weeks (worse than normal), and if I take pain medication, I'm shot for the day. Sometimes my inversion table works.

So, my brainstorm was to hook up a strap to my laptop, hang upside down, and post from there. It may have worked, except for two certain wildebeests running around, and deciding this was an exercise in creative face smooching. I like to have never got out of there!

[AnneD]

75. Thanks....

for making me laugh. Last night, Sampson insisted I needed a nighttime cat exfolliating facial and a total body massage. And to complete the beauty regime, a nice vibrating back massage. Gotta luv em.

[Demeter]

79. My cat just meows--in a cranky fashion

Sometimes she grabs a mouth full of hair and pulls, if you don't get up fast enough to feed her.

[DemReadingDU]

91. My cat only activates when she is hungry

The rest of the day she sleeps, laziest cat ever.

[DemReadingDU]

95. ah ha!

Hope you are feeling better!

[Demeter]

105. I'm okay until about 2 PM

and I can sleep and breathe mostly. But I haven't worked all week.

[Roland99]

32. Today's Reports

[Roland99]

33. Weekly U.S. jobless claims jump 24,000 to 399,000

[Roland99]

34. Four-week claims average rises 7,750 to 381,750

[Roland99]

35. Continuing claims climb 19,000 to 3.63 million

[Roland99]

37. U.S. Dec. retail sales up 0.1% vs. 0.3% expected (Nov revised up to 0.4% from 0.2%)

[xchrom]

39. U.S. Dec retail sales post weakest reading in 7 months

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/12/uk-usa-economy-idUKTRE80B0XM20120112

(Reuters) - U.S. retail sales rose at the weakest pace in seven months in December as consumers pulled back late in the holiday shopping season, cutting purchases at department stores and spending less on electronic gadgets.

Total retail sales increased 0.1 percent after rising by an upwardly revised 0.4 percent in November, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales climbing 0.3 percent last month.

The upward revision for November sales suggests consumers likely frontloaded their holiday shopping. The government had initially estimated retail sales gained 0.2 percent in November.

[Fuddnik]

55. Sounds like that recovery is just chugging along.

[Demeter]

59. You Know, I STILL Haven't Done Any Christmas Shopping

or baking, or cleaning, nor even made the ham, yet.

And the way I'm feeling this week, it won't be this Sunday, either.

What a worthless housewife and mother I'm turning out to be....

[Fuddnik]

67. I went through the same thing over Thanksgiving.

Got a bad bug (no sinus problems) that took me over two weeks to shake. We had dinner at the SIL's house next door as usual, and had the wife's adult kids down from Cleveland and Detroit for a couple of weeks, and I couldn't do anything. Couldn't eat, couldn't drink, or celebrate anything.

All recovered from that by x-mas, but didn't do any shopping, send out cards. Nothing.

Now, my back's giving me hell. Gotta make an appointment with the orthopedist.

[Roland99]

38. World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Europe's frozen liquidity

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/key-overnight-events-and-what-expect

Just like during the holiday "break" the market is euphoric, however, briefly, on the fact that Italy sold Bills , however many, in a period protected by the 3 year LTRO. And just like the last time this happened, about two weeks ago, this auction shows nothing about the demand for Italian paper longer than 3 years, which unfortunately Italy not only has a lot of, but is rolling even more of it. And none of this changes what World Bank President Zoellick told Welt yesterday, namely that the Europe’s interbank market is frozen and continent’s banks only lend to each other through ECB due to a lack of confidence within the financial industry, World Bank President Robert Zoellick is quoted as saying by German daily Die Welt. He continues: "If European banks don’t lend to each other, how can others in the U.S. or in China be expected to do it."

[Demeter]

68. Judicious use of blackmail, as usual

Ashes, ashes, they all fall DOWN!

[Roland99]

41. Futures dropping after employment data. from +50 to nearly flat now.

European markets drop sharply, too.

[xchrom]

42. PRECIOUS-Gold rises as Spanish bond sale lifts euro

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/12/markets-precious-idUKL3E8CC3DA20120112

LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Gold climbed towards $1,660 an ounce on Thursday as the euro rose against the dollar after a well-received auction of Spanish bonds, but its gains were curbed by uncertainty ahead of a European Central Bank news conference later in the day.

Firm demand for the precious metal from leading consumers China and India and a recovery in prices to above a key technical level are reassuring investors that the metal can keep rising after prices fell 10 percent in December, analysts said.

Spot gold was up 1 percent at $1,656.89 an ounce at 1251 GMT, having earlier touched a one-month high at $1,657.60. U.S. gold futures for February delivery were up $18.00 an ounce at $1,657.60.

Traders are awaiting the ECB press conference scheduled for 1330 GMT, after the bank opted earlier to leave interest rates on hold. The wording of the post-announcement statement will be closely watched for any suggestion of further monetary easing.

[Roland99]

43. Draghi Sees Substantial Downside Risks

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/draghi-sees-substantial-downside-risks

*DRAGHI SAYS ONGOING TENSIONS KEEP DAMPING ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
*DRAGHI SAYS NON-STANDARD MEASURES ARE TEMPORARY
*DRAGHI SAYS FINANCIAL MARKET TENSIONS HURTING GROWTH
*DRAGHI SAYS INFLATION MAY STAY ABOVE 2% FOR SEVERAL MONTHS
*DRAGHI SAYS ECONOMIC OUTLOOK FACING SUBSTANTIAL DOWNSIDE RISKS
*DRAGHI SAYS GOVERNMENTS MUST CORRECT EXCESSIVE DEFICITS
*DRAGHI SAYS FISCAL COMPACT MUST HAVE UNAMBIGUOUS WORDING
*DRAGHI DECLINES TO COMMENT ON EURO DEVELOPMENT VS DOLLAR
*DRAGHI SAYS CASH DOESN'T `SIMPLY STAY IN THE DEPOSIT' FACILITY
*DRAGHI SAYS BANKS THAT BORROWED FROM ECB AREN'T REDEPOSITING
*DRAGHI SAYS FISCAL CONSOLIDATIONS ARE UNAVOIDABLE
*DRAGHI SAYS FISCAL COMPACT SHOULD BE SIGNED AT END OF JANUARY
*DRAGHI SAYS ECB WILL ACT AS AGENT FOR EFSF
*DRAGHI SAYS HARD DATA DON'T YET SHOW STABILIZATION

quite the cheerleader, eh?

heh

[Demeter]

60. I think Draghi Is Sending a Message to His "Superiors", the ones who installed him in office

Something on the order of:

"I'm not going to do it, and neither would any sane man. You pick an insane man, and you get another Hitler. Tell me that isn't what you want. I would have thought you learned that lesson last time."

He might actually have a modicum of intelligence and a scruple, or two. Or at least a well-honed sense of self-preservation.

Or, it could be the Mafia is on his heels, chewing up his territory....and he's asking for help.

[xchrom]

44. Industrial output fall raises recession risk

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/12/uk-nov-industrial-output-idUKLNE80B00920120112

(Reuters) - British industrial output posted a surprise fall in November as oil and gas extraction and electricity production were scaled back sharply, official data showed on Thursday, raising the prospect the overall economy contracted in the final quarter of 2011.

The figures from the Office for National Statistics confirm recent weak business surveys and boost concerns that Britain is slipping into recession, giving the Bank of England more reason to inject fresh stimulus into the economy to support growth.

British industrial output shrank 0.6 percent on the month in November, against forecasts for an unchanged reading.

The narrower reading of manufacturing output, which excludes utilities and oil and gas extraction, fell 0.2 on the month in November after a downwardly revised drop of 0.9 percent in October.

[xchrom]

46. Energy costs push German inflation rate up to 2.3%

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16524837

Rising energy prices pushed German inflation up to 2.3% in 2011, according to official figures from Destatis.

The inflation rate compares with 1.1% in 2010 and 0.4% in 2009. It was the highest annual figure since 2008, when inflation was 2.6%.

It takes Germany outside the European Central Bank's target rate for eurozone inflation, which is close to, but below, 2.0%.

Excluding energy prices, inflation would only have been 1.3%.

[xchrom]

47. India industrial output rebounds easing growth concerns

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16523925

India's industrial production rebounded in November, easing concerns that monetary tightening was hurting growth.

Factory output grew 5.9% in November from a year earlier, a sharp turnaround from a 4.7% decline in October.

India's central bank has raised its key interest rate 13 times in the past two years in an attempt to control rising consumer prices.

There have been fears that the high cost of borrowing was hurting the manufacturing sector.

[xchrom]

48. China inflation rate little changed at 4.1% in December

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16522996

China's rate of inflation was little changed in December, despite government efforts to rein in prices.

Consumer prices rose 4.1% from the same month last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That is down from 4.2% in November.

For the full year, inflation was at 5.4%, well above government targets.

Analysts said that while inflation remains a concern for policymakers, price growth should slow further and more quickly in 2012.

[xchrom]

53. Five Ways Obama Could Create Good-Paying Jobs in America

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/761546/five_ways_obama_could_create_good-paying_jobs_in_america/

***snip

1. 1. Adopt insourcing tax incentives, such as extending a domestic manufacturing tax credit for clean energy and enlarging a deduction for US manufacturing activity. Also, improve the research and development tax credit by making it more generous for innovation that is actually commercialized in America. Finally, adopt a federal tax incentive for companies that reshore high-paying jobs.
2. 2. Work to balance our trade account by continuing aggressive trade enforcement, where a major hat tip should be given to the Obama Administration for its support of domestic industries. But, the Administration must also work to stop China’s currency manipulation and lower our record trade deficit with that nation.
3. 3. Invest in infrastructure to make our economy more efficient, our businesses more competitive, and to create some demand for manufactured materials.
4. 4. Apply Buy America laws to make sure that our manufacturers get a reasonable preference for federal procurement on everything from commemorative wristbandsto major bridge reconstruction. The Department of Transportation does a good job of applying the Buy America laws on the books, but other agencies need to step up, and loopholes need to be closed.
5. 5. Invest in our workers to ensure we have skilled human capital on the factory floor, in the research lab, and in the executive suite. Our educational system is built towards guiding every child into a four year college and every MBA onto Wall Street. That shouldn’t be the case. We must rebuild our vocational education system from the ground up, or we will never make manufacturing great again.

There are also factors beyond our control that can help—or hurt—these efforts to reshore jobs: namely, the value of the dollar, shipping costs, and consumer preferences. But, if you think we can’t be a manufacturing powerhouse as a high-wage nation, then think again. Germany, where average manufacturing wages are in some cases double that of American wages, has balanced trade with China (we have an annual $272 billion deficit) and over 20 percent of its economy in manufacturing (we have 11 percent).

[Demeter]

61. I could think of simpler, cheaper and more effective ways

Last edited Thu Jan 12, 2012, 06:03 PM - Edit history (1)

But I never went to Harvard, not even as a tourist.

[xchrom]

66. I darkened the doorway of Juilliard.

And that's about as far from economics as can be.

And what I do know - most economists should be Fired!

[Hotler]

54. Rec. Thank you for SMW.

You guys have been there for me when I have no hope. I'm here for you if and when needed.
I have big shoulders and I'm a good listener. Let me know if you ever come through Denver, I'll buy dinner and drinks.

[Demeter]

62. Another satisfied customer!

And friend.

Look what I found! Smilies!

[AnneD]

77. Right back atcha...

I feel the same way. I have made friends with some posters here and have met a few. I am the richer for it, literally and figuratively.

I am so glad that you are in a better place. Unemployment can be rough and these are very hard time for many. It is too much of a burden for one to shoulder, even if they are big shoulders

It truly is community that gets you through times like these. Your first instinct is to curl up into a ball and blow away, but community can share the burden and give you hope that will sustain you and renew your spirit.

[xchrom]

56. Spain breezes through first debt auction of the year

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Spain/breezes/through/first/debt/auction/of/the/year/elpepueng/20120112elpeng_7/Ten

The Spanish Treasury's first debt auction of the year on Thursday attracted strong demand, with borrowing costs pushed sharply lower.

The government's debt management agency issued almost 10 billion euros in three- and four-year bonds, double the target amount of five billion. That would seem to indicate the Treasury wants to take advantage of the more favorable current funding environment to cover as much of the country's borrowing needs as soon as possible.

Thursday's auction was also the first since the new Popular Party (PP) government took power at the end of last year. The PP's first major policy initiative was to announce tax hikes and spending cuts worth some 15 billion euros to help cover a two-percentage point overshoot on the budget-deficit target for last year of six percent of GDP.

The outcome of the tender pushed Spain's risk premium down by 14 basis points.

[Demeter]

63. Boy, the Market and the $ took the Unemployment reports on the chin!

(good)

[Demeter]

64. Will Obama Issue an Order Exposing Big Corporate Political Spenders in Citizens United Era?

http://www.alternet.org/story/153729/will_obama_issue_an_order_exposing_big_corporate_political_spenders_in_citizens_united_era?page=entire

A executive order requiring that federal contractors disclose their electoral spending—by top officers and as corporations—is being reconsidered by the White House despite stiff opposition from the business lobby after it was first proposed last spring, according to civil rights attorneys working on the issue...

I SMELL FEAR!

[Demeter]

65. Have the Super-Rich Seceded From the United States?

NOT QUITE YET--WHY DON'T WE GIVE THEM SOME GOOD REASONS?

http://www.truth-out.org/have-super-rich-seceded-united-states/1326127151

It was in 1993 during Congressional deliberation over the North American Free Trade Agreement...I distinctly remember something my colleague said: "The rich elites of this country have far more in common with their counterparts in London, Paris and Tokyo than with their own fellow American citizens." That was just the beginning of the period when the realities of outsourced manufacturing, financialization of the economy and growing income disparity started to seep into the public consciousness, so at the time it seemed like a striking and novel statement.

At the end of the cold war, many writers predicted the decline of the traditional nation state. Some looked at the demise of the Soviet Union and foresaw the territorial state breaking up into statelets of different ethnic, religious or economic compositions. This happened in the Balkans, former Czechoslovakia and Sudan. Others, like Chuck Spinney, predicted a weakening of the state due to the rise of fourth-generation warfare and the inability of national armies to adapt to it. The quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan lend credence to that theory. There have been hundreds of books about globalization and how it would break down borders. But I am unaware of a well-developed theory from that time about how the super-rich and the corporations they run would secede from the nation state.

I do not mean secession in terms of physical withdrawal from the territory of the state, although that happens occasionally.(i) It means a withdrawal into enclaves, a sort of internal immigration, whereby the rich disconnect themselves from the civic life of the nation and from any concern about its well-being except as a place to extract loot. Our plutocracy now lives like the British in colonial India: in the place and ruling it, but not of it. If one can afford private security, public safety is of no concern; if one owns a Gulfstream jet, crumbling bridges cause less apprehension - and viable public transportation doesn't even show up on the radar screen. With private doctors on call, who cares about Medicare?

To some degree, the rich have always secluded themselves from the gaze of the common herd; for example, their habit for centuries has been to send their offspring to private schools. But now this habit is exacerbated by the plutocracy's palpable animosity toward public education and public educators, as Michael Bloomberg has demonstrated. To the extent public education "reform" is popular among billionaires and their tax-exempt foundations, one suspects it is as a lever to divert the more than one-half trillion dollars in federal, state and local education dollars into private hands, meaning themselves and their friends.(ii) A century ago, at least we got some attractive public libraries out of Andrew Carnegie. Noblesse oblige like Carnegie's is presently lacking among our seceding plutocracy...

[Hotler]

71. When I don't feel good I take some of this

'Flu shot soup' tastes like a bowl of therapy
http://m.rockymountainnews.com/news/2005/Oct/28/flu-shot-soup-tastes-like-a-bowl-of-therapy/

This soup is awesome.

[DemReadingDU]

92. I need some of that

My head is congested

[Demeter]

82. Well, DU3 Has Run Nearly a Month, Now

Overall, I find it lifeless and uninteresting. We here are keeping our little corner of the world lively, entertaining, educational, and open, but what about the rest of the site?

I can't tell whether there simply isn't any news, or there isn't anyone interested in posting in LBN, or the standards are too high (or too low).

And as for the Good Reads, aside from whatever xchrom puts up there, it's even worse.

A special interest group isn't likely to become a daily newsheet, but sporadic posts are better than nothing, I suppose. Still, I am a polymath, just about anything interests me. The cross-pollination effect is missing.

I've served on juries many times now, and I'm seeing an awful lot of pettiness and personal vendetta and hypersensitivity...the kind of people I used to be able to IGNORE. That's a feature I think should come back.

But worst of all is the political discussion. The incessant slamming on GOP, the total pass for Democrats. The lack of thinking ala 99%. Maybe that should be an interest group.

I liked the old DU. I feel like a Stranger in a Strange Land here.

[DemReadingDU]

93. This is the only thread I visit on DU3

for my cyberfriends and good reading

[westerebus]

100. The echo chamber effect is mind numbing.

You can't get a good mash-up started without someone getting their knickers in a knot. What has become of the legendary flame wars with snot and spiddle and blood flowing, all elbows and grief? This place is way too PC compared to the past. I don't feed the trolls and could care less when they are bounced out the door, but honestly, what happened here?

Not just here mind you, positions are hardening most everywhere. I'm reminded of pre Watergate. You could feel a tension building, you just couldn't place where it was going. Anxiety and assorted illness compounding a sullen malaise to the point of exhaustion. Here we go again. May be it's just me. It has that feeling of now what the f**k is going to break down?

Rant over. Time for a cup o tea.

[Ghost Dog]

101. Good points, all.

Time to pull out, I guess.

Edit: I did enjoy the MASH message, though.

Such understatement is imho admirable (as well as giving us a good laugh). Glad you're on my side.

[westerebus]

102. Pull out?

And miss the rays of sunshine this group has to offer?

Nay, good fellow (assumption on my part) better to bind our misery together than hang alone.

If we are to swing, it will be for the torrment we brought to their throne and not for anything less.

It's good to have comrades, comrade.

[Demeter]

106. I think it's worse than Nixon

With Nixon, even the GOP felt betrayal and outrage. Then they gave Ford a pass for the pardon, gave Reagan license to destroy the structure, and the Bushes stole everything they could lay hands on.

Then the Nobel Peace Prize winner took us to unimagined heights of criminal collusion and illegal warfare--economic and military. And there's no outrage and betrayal allowed....

[westerebus]

108. The continuation of mutual interests.

Q: Delta Kappa Epsilon had how many POTUS and name them?

Q: What is the Eberstadt Report?

Q: What is Dillion Read?

Q: Who replaced Colby at CIA and Schlesinger at DOD in 1975?

Q: Has anything changed?

[tclambert]

90. Matty Moroun could face lengthy incarceration

[b]Matty Moroun could face lengthy incarceration as Ambassador Bridge company again ordered to finish Gateway Project

Trucking magnate Matty Moroun is now part of that dubious club of billionaire inmates.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards’ decision to imprison Moroun and Detroit International Bridge Company President Dan Stamper for contempt is no slap on the wrist. If the decision holds—attorneys for Moroun, Stamper and the DIBC vow to appeal—both men will be in Wayne County Jail until the Gateway Project is completed to the judge’s satisfaction.

Michigan Department of Transportation Chief Operating Officer Gregory Johnson said he estimates it will take a full construction season the build the truck road and freeway connections MDOT and Judge Edwards says DIBC must complete in order to comply with the Gateway Project agreement.
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Some backstory for those not from the Detroit area: Matty Moroun owns the bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. The state has long wanted to build another bridge that would compete with it. Moroun has paid for loads of commercials claiming such a government-run bridge would cost taxpayers hugely. They claim this even though his bridge company has plans of its own to build a second bridge.

The reason he was sent to jail, though, is that he made a contract and received money to build a new connector ramp from his existing bridge to public freeways. The government built their parts of the ramps. Moroun instead routed roads past businesses he owns, obviously hoping to make a few bucks from motorists who stop for a bit. For years now, he has refused to complete his part of the new ramps to the freeways, despite the contracts, money, and legal threats.

This judge has now put Moroun and the bridge company president, Stamper, in jail, supposedly until their company finishes the connectors to the satisfaction of the Michigan Department of Transportation.

It seems unlikely that a billionaire will spend much time in jail over this. The court and the state want him to quit fooling around and agree to finally finish his part of the Gateway Project. The real way to show a predatory businessperson like this that the government is serious would be to seize some of his property under eminent domain and build the rest of the connector themselves, and fine him the costs plus punitive damages.

[Demeter]

107. That explains a lot. Thanks, TC