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Tansy_Gold

(17,815 posts)
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 07:06 PM Jun 2013

STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 18 June 2013

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 18 June 2013[font color=black][/font]


SMW for 17 June 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 17 June 2013
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Dow Jones 15,179.85 +109.67 (0.73%)
S&P 500 1,639.04 +12.31 (0.76%)
Nasdaq 3,452.13 +28.57 (0.83%)



[font color=red]10 Year 2.18% +0.05 (2.35%)
30 Year 3.35% +0.04 (1.21%) [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 - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
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Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.










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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]


47 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 18 June 2013 (Original Post) Tansy_Gold Jun 2013 OP
What I find so very difficult to believe. . . . Tansy_Gold Jun 2013 #1
Yeah, I didn't think Texans believed in putting any burdens on businessmen. tclambert Jun 2013 #19
FINRA director in U.S. resigns after old theft indictment surfaces GOTCHA! Demeter Jun 2013 #2
Bid to relaunch synthetic CDO unravels GOTCHA! Demeter Jun 2013 #3
SEC Makes Second-Ever Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Award 3 IN A ROW! Demeter Jun 2013 #4
EU derivatives delay gives global talks more time Demeter Jun 2013 #5
EU close to agreeing rules for insider trading in commodities Demeter Jun 2013 #6
Clearinghouses warn the EU that they're too big to fail. Demeter Jun 2013 #11
EU not trying to weaken U.S. financial services rules OF COURSE NOT! Demeter Jun 2013 #14
IMF urges repeal of 'ill-designed' U.S. fiscal cuts BUT CUT SS ANYWAY! Demeter Jun 2013 #7
Merkel Signals Readiness to Heed Concerns on EU Tax Demeter Jun 2013 #8
France backs EU-U.S. trade talks after culture clash Demeter Jun 2013 #9
G8 to shy away from naming and shaming corporate tax avoiders Demeter Jun 2013 #10
Deluded bosses: Who’s behind me? The powerful overestimate the support of underlings Demeter Jun 2013 #12
MSCI drops Greece down to emerging market status Demeter Jun 2013 #13
Tom Udall to head IRS spending panel Demeter Jun 2013 #15
Nomination of Senate aide to replace Gensler far from certain Demeter Jun 2013 #16
This Vine Captures How Gigantic Last Night's Protests In Brazil Were {@ link} xchrom Jun 2013 #17
That's a lot of people DemReadingDU Jun 2013 #29
and -- i believe there was another huge crowd in sao paolo. nt xchrom Jun 2013 #32
ZeroHedge: 200,000 Take To Brazil's Streets In Largest Protest In Two Decades DemReadingDU Jun 2013 #44
"Why America & China's Future Plans Are Totally Nuts" bread_and_roses Jun 2013 #18
The Brazilian Market Has Had A Horrendous Year xchrom Jun 2013 #20
Brazilian protests see 200,000 take to the streets xchrom Jun 2013 #21
Hong Kong investigates HSBC, other banks for inappropriate market conduct xchrom Jun 2013 #22
Japan economic growth upgraded, will likely outperform other advanced nations xchrom Jun 2013 #23
Over the Red Line: West Considers Entering the Syrian Quagmire xchrom Jun 2013 #24
Trade Talks: Deal Could See German Exports to US Double xchrom Jun 2013 #25
I don't THINK so! Demeter Jun 2013 #31
Despite unrest, foreign investment in Arab states rises xchrom Jun 2013 #26
World economic group calls for global exchange of tax information to fight evasion xchrom Jun 2013 #27
Why this? Why Now? Demeter Jun 2013 #33
UK fraud office charges trader in manipulation of Libor benchmark rate xchrom Jun 2013 #28
Volunteering lifts job prospects of the jobless xchrom Jun 2013 #30
In other words...it's a marketing tactic Demeter Jun 2013 #34
! xchrom Jun 2013 #35
7 Powerful Ways to Maintain Your Privacy and Integrity Online By Eliot Estep Demeter Jun 2013 #36
Nine Reasons You Should Care About NSA’s PRISM Surveillance By Sean Rintel Demeter Jun 2013 #39
And.. westerebus Jun 2013 #43
Britain tells airlines to keep Snowden off UK-bound flights Demeter Jun 2013 #37
Lenders seek court actions against homeowners years after foreclosure Demeter Jun 2013 #38
It's a board meeting night Demeter Jun 2013 #40
have fun storming the castle! xchrom Jun 2013 #41
Bono can't help Africans by stealing their voice xchrom Jun 2013 #42
I have an alternate explanation Demeter Jun 2013 #45
Very interesting, I have a lot to learn! polynomial Jun 2013 #46
Welcome to our little daily discussion group. Fuddnik Jun 2013 #47

Tansy_Gold

(17,815 posts)
1. What I find so very difficult to believe. . . .
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 07:08 PM
Jun 2013

. . . . . is that "the Lege" (to use dear Molly Ivins' term of affection for the gummint in Texas) even passed such a law, thus forcing Goodhair (again, thanks, Molly) to veto it.

tclambert

(11,080 posts)
19. Yeah, I didn't think Texans believed in putting any burdens on businessmen.
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 07:07 AM
Jun 2013

You know, like checking whether or not they're hiring illegal immigrants. Why, clearly, that's those clever illegals tricking the poor, gullible businessmen into paying them less than minimum wage. Any penalty should fall on the immigrants, not the business.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
2. FINRA director in U.S. resigns after old theft indictment surfaces GOTCHA!
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 07:33 PM
Jun 2013
http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/us-finra-atkins-resignation-idUSBRE95D0XL20130614

A regional director for the securities industry's self-regulatory agency resigned several weeks after the organization received a letter revealing the official had pleaded guilty two decades ago to charitable bingo fraud. The letter, which was reviewed by Reuters, was sent on May 21 by former securities broker David Evansen to Richard Ketchum, the chief executive officer of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Susan Axelrod, FINRA's executive vice president of regulatory operations.

The four-page letter said Mitchell C. Atkins, who up until this week was a regional director and head of FINRA's District 7, which is based in Boca Raton, Florida, was indicted in 1993 in Louisiana "for felony theft and charitable bingo fraud." The indictment by the 19th Judicial District in East Baton Rouge Parish was confirmed by the clerk's office for the East Baton Rouge Parish court. Atkins pleaded guilty in December 1993 to one charge of charitable bingo fraud, according to a copy of court records reviewed by Reuters. Court records reviewed by Reuters state that Atkins was sentenced in January 1994 to a year of probation, 100 hours of community service and $1,000 in fines for the bingo fraud. Atkins, 42, who resigned from FINRA earlier this week, could not be reached for comment and FINRA declined to provide a forwarding contact phone number for him. Nancy Condon, a spokeswoman for FINRA, said: "Mitch Atkins resigned to pursue other interests." She declined to comment on the letter.

Atkins' office oversees the work of brokers and brokerages working in southern states from Florida to Texas. FINRA oversees securities brokers and investment advisers, maintaining a database of their registration and disciplinary statuses and handling customer disputes. It shares regulatory duties with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and has the power to ban brokers and registered investment advisers from the industry.

Evansen said he had been banned from the brokerage business by FINRA. His publicly available broker's record indicated the ban was enacted in June, 2011 after Evansen failed to respond to a request for information. The record did not specify the nature of the request. Evansen said he is appealing the ban. In his letter to the FINRA executives, Evansen described a whistleblower complaint he had filed with the SEC alleging fraud in a Texas-based financial clearinghouse.

"It was for no small purpose, that Mr. Atkins and FINRA, went to such lengths, to prevent the sunlight from illuminating the truth," Evansen wrote in his letter.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
3. Bid to relaunch synthetic CDO unravels GOTCHA!
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 07:36 PM
Jun 2013
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/313889be-d42c-11e2-8639-00144feab7de.html#axzz2WWH6yi9v

An attempt by two big Wall Street banks to revive notorious credit boom-era securities blamed for exacerbating the global financial crisis has failed after investors balked at buying some of the derivatives on offer.

JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have scrapped a plan to sell “synthetic collateralised debt obligations” – sliced and diced pools of credit derivatives – after failing to find investors willing to take on all of the deal’s different pieces....
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
4. SEC Makes Second-Ever Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Award 3 IN A ROW!
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 07:38 PM
Jun 2013
http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2013/06/14/sec-hands-out-second-ever-dodd-frank-whistleblower-award/?mod=dist_smartbrief

The SEC and an attorney agreed that this is likely to be the start of more awards being given out as the program enshrined in the Dodd-Frank law gets underway....
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
5. EU derivatives delay gives global talks more time
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 07:39 PM
Jun 2013
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/uk-eu-derivatives-idUKBRE95D0R520130614

The European Union has delayed a deadline for deciding if U.S. firms must comply with the bloc's derivatives rules, giving more time to strike a global deal to avoid costly overlaps.

The bloc's executive European Commission said on Friday it was pushing back its June 15 deadline for the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for deciding if U.S. derivatives rules are "equivalent" to those in the EU.

If not deemed equivalent, U.S. firms doing business in Europe would have to comply with all the bloc's derivatives rules and their own rules back home, a costly burden.

The Commission said in a letter released to the media on Friday that the ESMA's new deadline would be September 1....
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
6. EU close to agreeing rules for insider trading in commodities
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 07:41 PM
Jun 2013
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/uk-commodity-regulations-idUKBRE95D0CE20130614

European authorities are close to agreeing on the final draft of markets abuse rules that will make the standard commodities market practice of trading on inside information illegal. Commodities market players say the draft regulation, which will lay the ground work for jail terms for insider trading, could force them to reveal their trading strategies and undermine their businesses. For centuries, traders have made money from their knowledge of shortages and surpluses of physical commodities, which they say enables them to play a vital role in balancing global markets.

"Applying insider trading to commodities is mad," said Craig Pirrong, University of Houston academic and commodities expert.

"It may make sense to prosecute the use of information illicitly obtained, (but) 'better information' does not mean 'inside information', and any attempt to apply insider trading concepts to commodities will sow confusion and wreak havoc."


Supporters of the regulation argue that some markets including European power markets have already successfully adapted to disclosure rules for insider trading, even though traders objected vociferously, and that other commodity markets will adapt too....
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
11. Clearinghouses warn the EU that they're too big to fail.
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 09:55 PM
Jun 2013
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323734304578540954221320588.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

European Union finance ministers are expected next week to approve new rules for how to wind down failed financial institutions. But exactly who is covered by the rules remains a moving target. And what could have been an opportunity to establish a rule of law is in danger of becoming a politicized jumble of special preferences, broad regulatory discretion and special-interest pleading.

The latest group to squeal are the derivatives clearinghouses. Following the 2008 financial panic, lawmakers and regulators rushed to push derivatives trading into centralized counterparties. The argument was that this would reduce banks' counterparty risk—the danger that a derivatives contract would not be honored if the institution on the other side of the trade went bust. One of the fears at the height of the panic was that a cascade of failed trades would leave everyone with debilitating losses.

Since then, the EU and the U.S. have adopted rules requiring certain types of derivatives to be cleared through a central counterparty or clearinghouse. This means, in theory, that the clearinghouse takes on the risk that one side of the trade can't pay—while also developing collateral and leverage rules to minimize their own risks.

That's the idea. But as the EU has worked on its "bail-in" rules for failed banks, the clearinghouses have been pushing to be excluded from any losses doled out to creditors of a failed bank. Their argument is that failing to pay the clearinghouses could have systemic consequences. Sound familiar? Some of us warned from the start that centralizing all the counterparty risk wouldn't make it disappear, but would merely create a new kind of too-big-to-fail institution. And so it has come to pass, according to the clearinghouses themselves. The latest draft of the EU's bail-in rules strips the clearinghouses of any special status in a restructuring, and the clearinghouses aren't pleased....
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
14. EU not trying to weaken U.S. financial services rules OF COURSE NOT!
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 10:03 PM
Jun 2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/13/usa-eu-financialservices-idUSL2N0EP1A920130613?feedType=RSS&feedName=governmentFilingsNews

The European Union does not want to use negotiations with the United States on a free trade agreement to weaken recent U.S. financial regulatory reforms, an EU official said on Thursday, responding to concerns raised by U.S. politicians.

But the EU is interested in exploring how financial regulations across the Atlantic can be made more compatible to allow new business opportunities, Peter Kerstens, a counselor at the European Commission's office in Washington, said at a discussion on the proposed U.S.-EU trade pact.

"We do not want to include financial market regulations to liberalize or to deregulate the sector. We actually want to improve financial market regulation," Kerstens said...Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, last week said he was concerned that both "Wall Street and industry-friendly European regulators" hoped to use the U.S.-EU negotiations to roll back reforms made by Congress in the 2010 Dodd-Frank bill. U.S. officials, sensitive to those concerns, say they want to discuss financial regulations in "parallel" talks outside the U.S.-EU pact and note there are several international forums where further reforms are already being discussed.

Kerstens said the EU has also tightened up its own financial regulation in the wake of the 2008-09 crisis.

"Any assertions that ... the European Union wants to deconstruct Dodd-Frank, or wants to assist the industry in deconstructing Dodd-Frank, I think is just illusionary. We did not spend more than five years of hard labor reforming the European financial sector to do away will all these reforms in a trade negotiations," Kerstens said...
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
7. IMF urges repeal of 'ill-designed' U.S. fiscal cuts BUT CUT SS ANYWAY!
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 07:44 PM
Jun 2013
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/uk-imf-usa-idUKBRE95D0LJ20130614

The International Monetary Fund urged the United States on Friday to repeal sweeping government spending cuts and recommended that the Federal Reserve continue a bond-buying program through at least the end of the year. In its annual check of the health of the U.S. economy, the IMF forecast economic growth would be a sluggish 1.9 percent this year. The IMF estimates growth would be as much as 1.75 percentage points higher if not for a rush to cut the government's budget deficit. The IMF cut its outlook for economic growth in 2014 to 2.7 percent, below its 3 percent forecast published in April. The Fund said in April it still assumed the deep government spending cuts would be repealed, but it had now dropped that assumption.

Washington slashed the federal budget in March, adding to the drag on the economy created by tax increases enacted in January. The IMF said the United States should reverse the spending cuts and instead adopt a plan to slow the growth in spending on government-funded health care and pensions, known as "entitlements." The Fund would also like the United States to collect more in taxes.

"The deficit reduction in 2013 has been excessively rapid and ill-designed," the IMF said. "These cuts should be replaced with a back-loaded mix of entitlement savings and new revenues."


The IMF warned cuts to education, science and infrastructure spending could reduce potential growth.

While the Fund said total debt across all levels of government would likely decline after 2015, public finances are nevertheless on an unsustainable path due to an aging population and higher spending on health care.

"Now our advice is not just to slow down (budget cuts)," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said at a news conference. "Our advice is also to hurry up: hurry up with putting in place a medium-term road map to restore long-run fiscal sustainability."


She said effects of higher spending on health care and other programs build up over time, so it was important to act quickly to address them....

SEE KRUGMAN'S RESPONSE IN YESTERDAY'S THREAD
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
8. Merkel Signals Readiness to Heed Concerns on EU Tax
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 09:43 PM
Jun 2013
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/merkel-signals-readiness-to-heed-concerns-on-eu-tax.html

Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the German government is listening to investor complaints about the proposed financial transactions tax and will take their views into account when designing the levy at a European level. Merkel, in an interview in the Chancellery in Berlin today, recommitted her government to the tax, citing the disparity between commercial transactions subject to value-added tax and financial transactions that are “basically free.” At the same time, she signaled she’s sensitive to industry concerns the tax in its current form threatens to backfire, hurting pensions and damaging the wider economy without raising the revenue planned.

“We are aware of the fact because this tax is not introduced globally that it needs to be a tailor-made kind of tax that does not have the effect that you have described,” Merkel said. “That would obviously be a very bad thing to do.”


The chancellor, who is running for a third term in national elections on Sept. 22, says the financial industry must bear part of the cost of the debt crisis and has resisted pressure by other euro-area governments, including France, to allow direct recapitalization of banks from European rescue funds. Her comments today are the first indication that she may respond to criticism of the tax on financial transactions from European officials and fellow leaders from the U.S. to the U.K.


G-8 Meeting

Speaking three days before she’ll attend a Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland at which the global economy will be on the agenda, Merkel said that Germany will pursue “the right mix” of boosting domestic consumption, spurring economic growth and solid finances, rather than relying on austerity.

With Barack Obama due in Berlin on June 18-19 for his first official visit as president, Merkel, who heads Europe’s biggest economy, said she’d throw her “full political weight behind” a free-trade agreement between the European Union and the U.S. “We need big projects together that unite us,” she said. “We ought to use this window of opportunity.”

In Europe, the EU has proposed a broad-based tax on stocks, bonds, derivatives and other trades that could be collected worldwide by Germany, France and nine other EU nations that have so far signed up. Critics argue it may cause more harm than good, with ATP, Denmark’s biggest pension fund and a major investor in bunds, saying that a levy may make German debt less appealing. ...

I'M NOT GOING TO MAKE THE OBVIOUS COMMENTS ABOUT FEMALE CANINES, WHISTLES, AND HEELS...REALLY, I'M NOT!
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
9. France backs EU-U.S. trade talks after culture clash
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 09:45 PM
Jun 2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/us-eu-us-trade-idUSBRE95D0BE20130614

France cleared the European Union to launch free-trade talks with the United States on Friday after fellow EU members accepted its demand to shield movies and online entertainment from the might of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

After 12 hours of talks, EU officials announced that the 27 EU trade ministers had finally agreed a negotiating mandate towards what could be the world's most ambitious trade agreement.

The breakthrough came only after the ministers telephoned their leaders, including French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, diplomats said.

Paris had refused to join the 26 other EU governments unless television, movies and developing online media were left out.

The final mandate given to EU trade chief Karel De Gucht, who will lead negotiations, does not include the audiovisual sector. However, it does give the Commission the right to ask member states for a broader mandate at a later stage...
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
10. G8 to shy away from naming and shaming corporate tax avoiders
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 09:46 PM
Jun 2013

MORE CALLING OFF THE DOGS...

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/uk-g8-tax-idUKBRE95D0II20130614

The G8 group of leading economies will shy away from adopting a measure aimed at curbing tax avoidance by highlighting when companies channel profits into tax havens, and will include a watered down alternative, according to a draft statement.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is hosting the annual G8 Summit in Northern Ireland next week, has said he will put tax evasion and aggressive avoidance at the heart of the meeting.

Tackling corporate tax avoidance has become a political goal internationally following public anger about revelations over the past year that companies like Apple and Google had used structures U.S. and European politicians said were contrived to minimise the amount of taxes paid.

But a draft of the communique to be released by the leaders at the end of the summit, circulated by Britain and seen by Reuters, will not support a rule that would force companies to publish their profits, revenues and tax payments on a country-by-country basis....

HIS MASTER'S VOICE HAS SPOKEN

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
12. Deluded bosses: Who’s behind me? The powerful overestimate the support of underlings
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 09:57 PM
Jun 2013

UNLESS YOU HAVE PREDATOR DRONE CAPABILITY...

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21579031-powerful-overestimate-support-underlings-whos-behind-me

HISTORY is littered with powerful people undone by hubris. Julius Caesar should have ignored the cheers of the Roman crowd and paid heed to the soothsayer. The late Steve Jobs overplayed his hand at Apple as a young man and was kicked out of the company he founded. And then there was Jimmy Cayne.

When Mr Cayne walked out of Bear Stearns for the last time, having been eased out as boss of the ailing bank, he claimed there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Through the tears, he wistfully recalls, heart-broken bankers sent him on his way with a standing ovation. This is not how his staff remember it. So disliked was he that according to “House of Cards”, a book by William Cohan, underlings would ask in meetings: “Is Jimmy staying on? Because we’re not coming back for another year of this shit.”

After reading Mr Cayne’s tale Sebastien Brion, a professor at IESE, a business school, decided to test whether the powerful overestimate the strength of their bonds with subordinates. The results, published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, will come as a shock to business big cheeses, but to no one else. In one experiment, he randomly assigned people in work groups with positions of high or low power, or to a control group. Questioned afterwards, those primed with high power were convinced the others were on their side; a view not shared by those being bossed. In another he found that lowly participants would form alliances against the powerful, even when it was not in their financial interest to do so. The mighty were blissfully unaware of the forces working against them. So not only do bosses set too much store by their strengths, as our Schumpeter column notes, they also habitually overestimate their ability to win respect and support from their underlings. Somehow, on reaching the corner office, they lose the knack of reading subtle cues in others’ behaviour: in a further experiment Mr Brion found that when a boss tells a joke to a subordinate, he loses his innate ability to distinguish between a real and fake smile.

At the very least, bosses might improve their chances of staying on top by being aware of this bias. Some might feel that it just goes to show how Andy Grove, a founder of Intel, was right to say that “only the paranoid survive”. However, besides watching his back Mr Grove also instituted a scheme in which employees stood nose-to-nose with bosses and shouted their honest advice into their faces. Maybe that is going too far, but some sort of mechanism for letting underlings speak truth unto power may be sensible, even if Mr Cayne might not have relished it.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
13. MSCI drops Greece down to emerging market status
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 10:01 PM
Jun 2013

THE FIRST SHOE DROPS...

http://www.pionline.com/article/20130612/DAILYREG/130619957?AllowView=VDl3UXpKTy9DL2FCbGhMRkNQdVFEalMyams4VURPZFVFQjhI&utm_campaign=smartbrief&utm_source=linkbypass&utm_medium=affiliate

MSCI Inc demoted Greece to an emerging market from a developed market, effective Nov. 30, the first time the company has dropped a country from its developed markets indexes, said Remy Briand, MSCI managing director and global head of index research. Also, MSCI postponed a decision on potential reclassification of South Korea and Taiwan to developed markets from emerging markets until May 31, 2014, Mr. Briand said in a conference call. South Korea accounts for 14.9% of the MSCI emerging markets index weighting, while Taiwan accounts for 11.3%. If they were included in the MSCI World index, which consists of developed markets, South Korea would account for a hypothetical 1.9% of the weighting and Taiwan, 1.4%.

MSCI has begun evaluation for potential inclusion of China A shares, which trade domestically, to the MSCI emerging markets index. No decision will be made until June 2014, said Mr. Briand, who is based in Geneva. China H shares, which trade in Hong Kong, already constitute part of the MSCI emerging markets index, accounting for 18% of its weighting, the largest share of any country. A shares, if elevated, would account for another 14% of weighting, giving China a combined 32% of the MSCI emerging markets weighting. MSCI has concern about restrictions on international investors in A shares, Mr. Briand said. “However, there has been regulatory momentum regarding accessibility to this market for international investors and that has triggered this (MSCI) review,” he said.

MSCI also raised Qatar and United Arab Emirates to emerging markets from frontier markets, effective May 31, 2014. They would account for 0.45% and 0.4%, respectively, of the weighting of the emerging markets. MSCI downgraded Morocco to frontier markets from emerging markets, effective Nov. 30. That country accounts for 0.08% of the emerging markets index weighting. In addition, MSCI has begun monitoring Egypt, an emerging market, accounting for 0.26% of the weighting, because of concern about its ability to repatriate funds out of the country. MSCI declined to move Israel, already a developed market, to MSCI Europe, keeping it in an MSCI Europe and Middle East index after investor objections over the lack of a geographical connection.

Greece accounts for 0.01% of the MSCI World index and is the smallest developed market in terms of market value and number of stocks among the constituent countries. Greece accounts for 0.02% of the MSCI Europe Australasia Far East index. The MSCI Greece index has only two stocks, Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA, known as OTE, and Greek Organization of Football Prognostics SA, known as Opap, a company that manages lotteries and sports betting. Greece would account for 0.3% of the MSCI emerging markets index weighting. Once moved to emerging markets, more Greek companies might be included because there is a lower eligibility threshold.

MSCI downgraded Greece over concerns about investor accessibility, liquidity and the shrinking size of the market. It had elevated Greece to developed markets from emerging markets in 2001. For consideration to regain its developed market status, Greece would have to have at least five eligible companies of $2 billion in market value each, among other criteria....

HEY, DOWNWARDLY MOBILE WOULD BREAK THE CORPORATE LEASH!

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
15. Tom Udall to head IRS spending panel
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 10:06 PM
Jun 2013
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/tom-udall-irs-spending-panel-92754.html

New Mexico Democratic Sen. Tom Udall will take over the appropriations panel with jurisdiction over the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Udall replaces the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).

The new position gives Udall the power of the purse over the embattled IRS. Before the agency’s announcement last month that it targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, IRS senior leadership had appealed to the subcommittee for additional funding for enforcement and taxpayer service programs.

The agency’s spending habits have come under scrutiny in the wake of an inspector general report which found that the agency spent about $50 million on a series of conferences from 2010 to 2012. Republicans are openly distrustful of the agency and have used the extra review given to conservative organizations as an example of mismanagement within a massive organization whose budget should be more closely examined. Congress has cut the IRS’s budget by $1 billion since 2010, including more than $600 million from sequestration.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
16. Nomination of Senate aide to replace Gensler far from certain
Mon Jun 17, 2013, 10:07 PM
Jun 2013
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/election/2013/06/13/nomination-of-senate-aide-to-replace-gensler-far-from-certain-report/

The nomination of Amanda Renteria, a former Senate staffer, to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is far from certain...So says Politico’s Morning Money, citing sources familiar with the situation, noting that she has limited financial regulatory experience.

The report comes after a Huffington Post article on Tuesday said the White House could announce her appointment to replace Gary Gensler as the head of the agency, as soon as this week. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that the White House was considering her for the position.

The Politico note said financial reform advocates reacted with shock to reports that the White House was considering her for the position at a time when the agency was trying to finish highly complex Dodd-Frank derivatives rules.

In fact, according to the Huffington Post, Renteria only played a small part in helping to write the Dodd-Frank Act, the landmark financial regulation reform law that was approved after the crisis.

The possibility of Renteria’s assent could become trouble for Gensler as he seeks to implement a provision in the law that would extend the reach of U.S. derivatives oversight to activities involving U.S. firms with overseas counterparts. Three of the five commissioners have publicly questioned Gensler’s timeline for the measure, and her nomination could weaken his efforts to win support for the endeavor...

MORE SKULLDUGGERY

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
17. This Vine Captures How Gigantic Last Night's Protests In Brazil Were {@ link}
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 07:06 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-vine-captures-how-gigantic-last-nights-protests-in-brazil-were-2013-6

We wrote last night about the huge protests in Brazil (which have various economic causes, including a recent decision to hike bus fare).

Anyway, the protests were gigantic.

Via Smackson on Reddit, check out this Vine showing how big the throng of protesters who came out in Rio was.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-vine-captures-how-gigantic-last-nights-protests-in-brazil-were-2013-6#ixzz2WZ5WM8MK

DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
29. That's a lot of people
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:34 AM
Jun 2013


Here's a photo that I found on twitter
Aline Portugal ?@Nanirine_line Concentration of more than 100 000 people in Rio de Janeiro during the manifestos



DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
44. ZeroHedge: 200,000 Take To Brazil's Streets In Largest Protest In Two Decades
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 10:16 AM
Jun 2013

6/18/13 200,000 Take To Brazil's Streets In Largest Protest In Two Decades
It started off a simple protest in Sao Paulo as a demonstration by students against an increase in bus fares from R$3 to R$3.20, and then quickly morphed into general demonstration of discontent with the nation’s political classes on both sides of the spectrum involving over 200,000 across the country, with those marching on Monday holding placards decrying everything from the enormous sums spent on the World Cup to the treatment by police of protesters last week. It got to the point where protesters invaded and occupied, peacefully, the roof of the national Congress complex in Brasilia. Then things turned less peaceful when a breakaway group from the main rally in Rio de Janeiro attacked the state legislative assembly building and attempted to set it on fire.

linked are a couple more articles
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-18/200000-take-brazils-streets-largest-protest-two-decades

video appx 8.5 minutes


bread_and_roses

(6,335 posts)
18. "Why America & China's Future Plans Are Totally Nuts"
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 07:07 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.alternet.org/economy/america-and-chinas-terrible-plans-future

Societies periodically go insane. Fallacious memes sweep through a frightened and confused populace and bad things happen, bad choices get made. Two bad ideas in particular infect the American thought-o-sphere these days: 1) that non-cheap oil can keep all the rackets of consumerism going; 2) that we can offset all the quandaries of non-cheap oil with accounting fraud and debt creation.

... None of these accredited morons seems to get the basic equation between available cheap energy — e.g. oil with a high energy-return-on-investment — and capital formation — the accumulation of wealth that can be deployed to produce more wealth-producing activity. That was only possible on the way up Hubbert’s curve. On the way down, alas, the relationship enters a Ponzi unwind of too many claims on excessive promises to pay. The net result is a society with a lower standard of living. Personally, I think it will go way lower, and way sooner than later.

... China is doing exactly the opposite of what the future requires — namely, destroying the basis for small-scale local food production. But, not to put too fine a point on it, China is fucked. They are simply in the hopeless zone of population overshoot and resource scarcity.

... the Princeton-bred American economists think that we can all migrate onto the Web and live a virtual existence on virtual wealth with virtual energy.

(emphasis added)

I really love that last sentence - it's the main reason I posted this.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
20. The Brazilian Market Has Had A Horrendous Year
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 07:14 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.businessinsider.com/brazilian-stock-market-2013-6

Riots have broken out in Brazil. Notionally they have to do with an increase in bus fares, but they have to do with bigger issues related to inequality, and how much the government is spending on things like hosting the World Cup.

The Brazilian economy is not well.

All you have to do is look at a chart of the Brazilian stock market (the Bovespa) and see what a horrendous year it's had. It literally had its year peak on the first day of trading, and since then has fallen about 20%.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/brazilian-stock-market-2013-6#ixzz2WZ7RL529

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
21. Brazilian protests see 200,000 take to the streets
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 07:17 AM
Jun 2013
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/18/uk-brazil-protests-idUKBRE95G15J20130618


Reuters) - As many as 200,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Brazil's biggest cities on Monday in a swelling wave of protest tapping into widespread anger at poor public services, police violence and government corruption.

The marches, organized mostly through snowballing social media campaigns, blocked streets and halted traffic in more than a half-dozen cities, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia, where demonstrators climbed onto the roof of Brazil's Congress building and then stormed it.

Monday's demonstrations were the latest in a flurry of protests in the past two weeks that have added to growing unease over Brazil's sluggish economy, high inflation and a spurt in violent crime.

While most of the protests unfolded as a festive display of dissent, some demonstrators in Rio threw rocks at police, set fire to a parked car and vandalized the state assembly building. Vandals also destroyed property in the southern city of Porto Alegre.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
22. Hong Kong investigates HSBC, other banks for inappropriate market conduct
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 07:24 AM
Jun 2013
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/18/uk-hongkong-hibor-hsbc-idUKBRE95H0A820130618

(Reuters) - Hong Kong's de facto central bank said on Tuesday that its investigation into possible benchmark rate manipulation has been extended to include HSBC and a number of other banks.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced in December that it was investigating UBS about possible misconduct relating to its submissions for the Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate (Hibor).

"Apart from UBS, the HKMA have since December 2012 followed up with a number of banks including HSBC (both local and international banks) to ascertain whether there have been any inappropriate market conducts in their benchmark rate submissions," HKMA said in a statement, adding that the investigation was ongoing.

The move is the latest announcement in a series of global investigations going on into benchmark rates following the discovery that some had been rigged, most notably Libor, the London interbank Offered Rate.


***ok = i now think the list of who hasn't investigated hsbc is shorter than the list of who has

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
23. Japan economic growth upgraded, will likely outperform other advanced nations
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 07:26 AM
Jun 2013
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/18/uk-economy-poll-japan-idUKBRE95H0AO20130618

(Reuters) - Japan's economy will likely grow faster than expected just a month ago, driven by aggressive monetary stimulus despite the recent surge in the yen and corresponding sharp fall in Tokyo shares, a Reuters poll showed.

The latest upgrade came after news that Japan's economy expanded at an annualised rate of 4.1 percent in the first three months of the year, more quickly than initially estimated.

Indeed, the world's third-largest economy is expected to outperform other advanced nations, if only in the near term for now.

That optimism has come from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's unprecedented plans to stimulate the economy out of decades of on-off recessions and persistent deflation.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
24. Over the Red Line: West Considers Entering the Syrian Quagmire
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:09 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-west-considers-weapons-deliveries-to-a-chaotic-syria-a-906144.html

The border crossing lies in a picturesque plane surrounded by rolling hills, wheat fields and olive groves. This spot between the Turkish city of Kilis and the Syrian town of Azaz is called the "Gate of Peace." But, in reality, it is the gate into the hell of the civil war in Syria.

Seventy-seven trucks and semitrailers are waiting on the Turkish side of the border. Many are crammed full of sacks of grain, while others bear tarp-covered loads. All of this is fresh supplies for the destitute civilians and rebels in the combat zones.

To seal off the insurgents' resupply routes, the military of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad is determined to slam the "Gate of Peace" shut. The task has fallen to Syrian soldiers reinforced by fighters from Hezbollah, the Shiite militia based in Lebanon, as part of a major operation dubbed "North Storm." Assad's generals have become more confident after the army and the Hezbollah Islamists recaptured the town of Qusair, strategically located near the Lebanese border in western Syria, more than two weeks ago.

A rebel fighter dressed in all black is standing at the "Gate of Peace," trying to hitch a ride into the war. Before long, the car reaches the highway that heads south toward Aleppo. Rebels have barricaded the north-heading side of the road with a dirt embankment. An armored personnel carrier menacingly points its cannon northwards. But wouldn't Assad's troops come from the south?

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
25. Trade Talks: Deal Could See German Exports to US Double
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:11 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/study-on-trans-atlantic-trade-sees-huge-benefits-for-germany-a-906407.html


If the United States and the European Union are able to reach agreement on a far-reaching free trade agreement, Germany would be one of the greatest beneficiaries. Fully 181,000 new jobs could be expected and per-capita income would spike by 4.68 percent. That is the result of a study released this week by the Bertelsmann Foundation together with the Munich-based Center for Economic Studies.

The report found that all members of the planned free trade area would benefit from the deal, with the US emerging as the biggest winner. But European Union member states stand to make large gains as well.
The report comes as the EU and the US agreed on Monday to begin talks on the sweeping new deal next month. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said on Monday on the sidelines of the G-8 in Northern Ireland that talks were starting and that it would offer "huge economic benefits" on both sides of the Atlantic. US President Barack Obama said that reaching agreement on a deal is "a priority of mine" and that he is "confident we can get it done."

According to the study, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would provide the greatest benefits to the US and to Great Britain. Gross domestic product per capita would rise by 13.4 percent in the US and by 9.7 percent in the UK. More than a million new jobs would result in America. That number would be 400,000 in Britain.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
31. I don't THINK so!
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:36 AM
Jun 2013

Germany has always exported luxury items at luxury prices to the US. But we are a Walmart nation now, aside from the 1%, and we can't afford high-tech appliances and other upscale items in any quantity.

Unless the Germans are reopening sweatshops closed since the end of WWII...

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
26. Despite unrest, foreign investment in Arab states rises
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:16 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/18/despite-unrest-foreign-investment-in-arab-states-rises/



The flow of foreign direct investment into Arab states, including those hit by uprisings, rose by 9.8 percent last year despite the unrest but remained well below their 2010 level, a report said on Tuesday.

Arab states attracted FDI worth $47.1 billion in 2012 compared with $42.9 billion the previous year, the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation said in its annual report.

However, the investment rate was 28.5 percent lower than its level of $66.2 billion in 2010, the year when the Arab Spring uprisings first erupted, said the Kuwaiti-based organisation.

The report covered 20 out of the 22-Arab League member states excluding war-torn Syria and the tiny Comoros.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
27. World economic group calls for global exchange of tax information to fight evasion
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:24 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/world-economic-group-calls-for-global-exchange-of-tax-information-to-fight-evasion/2013/06/17/5ca23292-d780-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html

A top world economic group has called for the creation of a global system to automatically funnel financial information about individuals and companies from countries where their earnings and investments are located to jurisdictions where they might owe taxes.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is spearheading an effort to curb tax evasion by individuals and close some controversial tax loopholes for corporations, said that the foundation of such a system is already emerging because of reporting requirements newly imposed by the United States.

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act requires overseas financial institutions to send the Internal Revenue Service information about accounts held by Americans in an effort to curb the use of foreign tax havens.

Though overseas banks have complained about the regulatory burden, major financial centers such as the United Kingdom already have reached data-sharing agreements with the United States. What’s more, the OECD said, the U.S. requirement is prompting other nations to consider sharing the information they will already have to send to the United States.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
33. Why this? Why Now?
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:39 AM
Jun 2013

The Corporations have won...this isn't about the corporations, though, is it?

It's about power...the lack of power by nations cheated of tax revenue, and the power of corporations to take data and use it to crush opposition...

The great struggle of our times will be the Corporations vs. the Nation States.

And where do ordinary people fit into this? We are the ants at the picnic.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
28. UK fraud office charges trader in manipulation of Libor benchmark rate
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:28 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/uk-fraud-office-charges-trader-in-manipulation-of-libor-benchmark-rate/2013/06/18/01ada626-d804-11e2-b418-9dfa095e125d_story.html

LONDON — Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has charged a former trader with conspiracy to defraud in the rigging of a benchmark interest rate.

The UK’s official financial crimes investigator says Tom Hayes, a former trader at UBS and Citigroup, was charged Tuesday as part of the investigation into the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR.

City of London police charged the 33-year-old with eight counts of conspiracy to defraud. Hayes specialized in products pegged to yen-dominated Libor and worked in offices in London and Tokyo.

He will appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court at a later date.

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
30. Volunteering lifts job prospects of the jobless
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:35 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/volunteering-lifts-job-prospects-of-the-jobless/2013/06/17/02547208-d769-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html

Unemployed Americans stand a much better chance of finding a paying job if they first work for free. That is the key finding from a new federal study that is billed as the first empirical examination of the benefits of volunteering for out-of-work Americans.

The report, to be released Tuesday by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that encourages and facilitates volunteerism, found that jobless Americans increase their odds of finding work by 27 percent if they volunteer.

Strikingly, the benefits of volunteering flow most generously to those who do not have a high school diploma and to jobless people who live in rural areas — two of the groups that have the hardest time finding new jobs. While they forfeit income during the time they spend volunteering, the effort can be an investment: Those groups increase their chances of finding work by more than 50 percent by volunteering, the study found.

“The study findings suggest that folks who tend to volunteer less typically have less human and social capital,” said Christopher Spera, director of research and evaluation for the corporation and lead author of the study. “Folks with lower levels of education tend not to have the networks and social capital enjoyed by folks with higher levels of education.”


***anything to keep wages suppressed ... or apparently free.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
34. In other words...it's a marketing tactic
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:41 AM
Jun 2013

Show yourself to be a mensch, and some soulless corporation might take you out for an exploitation...

Personally, I'd rather run for public office.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
36. 7 Powerful Ways to Maintain Your Privacy and Integrity Online By Eliot Estep
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:52 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35268.htm

The recent NSA leaks from whistleblower Ed Snowden have publicly confirmed that digital privacy does not exist. The federal government and intelligence agencies have direct server access to the world’s most popular sites and services including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and more. This means that all of your data when using these services including Skype, YouTube, etc has been compromised and can be used against you whenever strategically necessary.

Always remember, you are being recorded and monitored regardless of whether you have done anything wrong or not. This includes your emails, internet activity, searches, banking activity, passwords, etc. Basically everything to build a complete profile about who you are, how you think, how you live, etc. This is very powerful data gathering and the goal of the intelligence agencies is nothing less than Total Information Awareness to be used to control and manage populations.

For these reasons, I have compiled some helpful tips to help you maintain your privacy and integrity when using the Internet. These are by no means comprehensive, but they can be quite useful and give you some semblance of peace when browsing....

1. Use StartPage.com for all your searches. Known as “the world’s most private search engine”, StartPage will allow you to search anonymously and securely through Google. It is probably the only search engine that does not collect or share any personal information about you. You can even access pages through a proxy quickly and easily. StartPage functionality can be easily added to your browser for all searches made through the address bar. If you value your privacy, this is really a no-brainer.

If you use Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc then everything you search is logged to your IP address and is used to build a comprehensive profile about all your online activity. This means that the government literally has the ability to know everything you’ve been interested in, how you type (thus, how you think), and much more. Protect your searches!

2. Consider using an Anonymizer such as Tor to protect your identity. Tor prevents anyone from learning your location, browsing habits, and is an extremely effective tool against network surveillance and traffic analysis. Tor is essentially a network of virtual tunnels run by volunteers that allows your real IP address to remain hidden and undetectable when browsing the Internet. It is used by whistleblowers, hackers, and all those who value anonymity. You can also use it to access sites that your ISP has blocked or banned. Keep in mind, if you use Tor to access personally-identifying sites like Facebook then you pretty much lose your ability to remain anonymous. Learn more about this powerful software and please use it responsibly! To get started quickly, please download the Tor Browser Bundle. Using this software wisely and effectively will likely require changing your browsing habits, so be aware of this.

3. Consider using a private and secure social network like Pidder. This is a private social network that uses encrypted communication and offers the ability to remain anonymous. If you are truly looking for ways to stay in touch with close ones in a uncompromised manner, this could be the site for you. While it will not have the userbase of Facebook, this is still an excellent alternative for secure social networking.

4. Use a firewall and a secure wireless connection. Protecting your inbound and outbound network traffic is essential. There are many free software options available for this. I cannot guarantee the integrity of these programs, but I personally recommend Little Snitch for Mac users. It appears that Outpost may be a good alternative for Windows. The key is to be able to see what services/sites are trying to send/receive data over your connection. The more stringent your firewall rules are, the better. Keep your computer clean by using some kind of anti-spam/spyware software and minimize your use of highly sketchy sites.

5. Delete your cookies regularly and log out of Facebook when you are not actively using it. Almost everytime you visit a site, you download a cookie from that site, which is often used to track and collect data about you, the sites you visit, etc. Therefore, deleting cookies and temporary internet files from your browser frequently is necessary. I recommend CCleaner as an effective way to do this. Most people leave a Facebook tab open and continue browsing, not realizing that every page that has a “Like” button actively logs and tracks their online activity. Facebook collects all your browsing data and then sells it to third parties, including passing it onto intelligence agencies. Therefore, when you are not actively using Facebook, be sure to log out! Why should they know everything you’re up to online?

6. Cover up or disconnect your webcam when you are not using it. Did you know that your webcam can be secretly activated without you being aware of it? Hackers and intelligence agencies have the ability to do this, so effective countermeasures must be taken here. This can be done WITHOUT the indicator light coming on, so you won’t even know that you are being watched or recorded. This is why I recommend taping over or covering up your webcam when you’re not using it. Why take the risk? Do you really want the government to have the ability to spy on you while you are in your bedroom? The same thing can be done on cellphone cameras/microphones, so be aware of that too. The only way your phone cannot be used to track/record you is if the battery is taken out, which is another reason why many new smartphones come with non-removable batteries these days.

7. Learn to use secure email services like HushMail or encrypted email. Communicating using email is vital and part of our everyday lives. If we use services like Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo, those services are not secure and are compromised. Therefore, switching over to a secure service such as Hushmail can be valuable. Or learn how to use Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), which is a way to send encrypted email and files that only a trusted third party can open and view. Essentially, PGP uses public-private key cryptography, where you will give out your public key to trusted recipients. Messages can only be decrypted by using your special private key file (that you keep safe) and the sender’s public key. You can even encrypt files so that only a specific person can open them. Learning to use PGP requires some technical knowledge but can be very useful for those who want to communicate securely and is well worth learning, in my opinion. Please see this tutorial or this video to get started. There are some excellent YouTube videos that can really help out with this.

Be smart about how you communicate online. If you take no precautionary measures, then you should assume that your communications are being recorded and monitored at all times. Do not discuss illegal or secret activities on Facebook or through Skype or Gmail. Ultimately, we should be greatly decreasing our use of these compromised services altogether! Be aware of what you type and consider their ramifications if ever made public. We must exercise great discretion and discernment when it comes to our online activities now. The methods listed above are by no means comprehensive and are just a small way to boost your privacy. If you have other privacy tips, please mention them here in the comments for all to see and benefit from. In the end, it is all up to the user to do their part in maintaining their online integrity. Safe browsing my friends!
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
39. Nine Reasons You Should Care About NSA’s PRISM Surveillance By Sean Rintel
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 09:03 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35314.htm

1) Presumption of guilt

Mass surveillance and data retention overturn the foundation of the modern legal system: the presumption of innocence. Not only is the presumption lost for gathering evidence, it also weakens the effect of that presumption throughout the rest of the legal process.

If there is a normalisation in the public consciousness that there is a weakened presumption of innocence, we have compromised the effectiveness of our legal system.

2) The loss of personal data control

Mass surveillance circumvents our right to personal data control, also known as informational self-determination. As the late Professor of Public Law Alan F. Westin put it in his 1970 book, Privacy and Freedom:

The right of the individual to decide what information about himself [sic] should be communicated to others and under what circumstances.

We have envelopes for our letters and curtains on our windows not because we’re doing something wrong but because our we are choosing how to share (or not) that business. Governments and security organisations should have no part in that choice without a specific, targeted, and legally warranted reason.

3) Transferring power to security organisations

Allowing security organisations to have far-reaching capabilities without strict oversight effectively transfers power from governments to the security organisations themselves.

The power of voting for elected officials is weakened if security organisations make choices based on securing their own position rather the interests of the country.
Click to enlarge

Vladimir Putin is reputed to be finding the siloviki (the “men of power” from state security) who helped build his regime to now be more demanding than in the past. Such transfers of power are not limited to a shadowy few in a far-off land, nor just at the highest level.

In this kind of climate, the power to invoke or even just threaten a search from mass surveillance can be devolved to even front-line law enforcement.

4) False positives

Anyone searching for information on “topics of concern” to security agencies, for legitimate reasons (such as researchers, journalists, students) or even personal curiosity, could be falsely identified as a person of interest in an investigation.

As security technologist and author Bruce Schneier argued in a guest blog post last year, this is one of the fundamental problems of profiling.

The ramifications for the individual might range from inclusion on no-fly lists, denial of access to some jobs, through to false arrest.

5) Changing definitions of issues of concern

What counts as a problematic topic in the eyes of security organisations changes over time, especially in the wake of an incident. We are all still taking off our shoes at many airports because of one “shoe bomber”, Richard Reid, in 2001.

When something as seemingly benign as shoes is suddenly linked to security concerns, the potential for large retrospective data sweeps – as well as having shoe-related topics then included in future sweeps – increases, with concurrent increases in the possibility of embarrassing and/or gravely serious mistakes.

6) Political corruption

The potential exists for the government of the day to request detailed information that falls well outside the scope of legality. Watergate is the classic example of data-gathering about political adversaries, but compared to the potential corruption made possible by mass surveillance, that was a drop in the ocean.

Mass surveillance could be directed not only at direct political adversaries but also their official supporters and those who might fall into a demographic of potential support.

7) Personal abuse of power

While most security agents work within the law, there are occasions when they abuse their power. The London Police were found to be complicit in the News Of The World hacking scandal and, as ABC journalist Nick Ross noted in an article last September, many small-scale examples of abuse of power are captured on the news website Reddit.

Communication data gathered for abusive private purposes could include email, texts, pictures intended for revenge, extortion or prurience.

8) Honeypots

Large collections of telecommunications data – be it the content or the metadata – attract hackers. Unfortunately, governments and their sub-contractors have a poor track record safe-guarding such data.

Even without blunders, the data can be stolen or individuals with direct access can be manipulated to hand over this information through social engineering, bribery, or coercion.

9) Big data and the problem of patterns

The entire premise of “big data” – large and complex sets of computer data – is to find patterns from aggregates. While you may feel that, post-by-Facebook-post, you have “nothing to hide”, mass surveillance creates the possibility of finding patterns that catch the interest of security organisations.

Such patterns have the possibility of including the innocent with the guilty. Worse, there’s the possibility to not just find but “create” patterns from such aggregations that frame the innocent as potentially guilty.
Everything to lose

As security expert Bruce Schneir wrote for Wired in 2006, and is even more true today, we must not “accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong”.

The issue with the NSA PRISM program, and other such programs around the world, is not that we have “nothing to hide” – it’s that we have everything to lose.

Sean Rintel Lecturer in Strategic Communication at University of Queensland

westerebus

(2,976 posts)
43. And..
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 10:00 AM
Jun 2013

If possible buy a computer with cash, local repair shop of and independent vendor, have a third party purchase it, and create a "self".

Do not take a survey, poll, or join social media without taking precautions listed above.

You aren't doing anything illegal by protecting your privacy.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
37. Britain tells airlines to keep Snowden off UK-bound flights
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 08:59 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1261217/britain-asks-malaysia-airlines-deny-edward-snowden-passage-uk

The British government has warned airlines around the world not to allow Edward Snowden onto flights to Britain, marking the first official measure to target him even though he has yet to be charged with any crime and no warrant has been issued for his arrest.

If other countries follow Britain's example and block his entry, Snowden will have few options for seeking refuge if he is not allowed to stay in Hong Kong.

A travel alert, dated Monday on a Home Office letterhead, said carriers should deny Snowden boarding because "the individual is highly likely to be refused entry to the UK".

A British diplomat said the document was genuine and had been sent to airlines around the world. Airlines in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore also confirmed the alert had been issued...
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
38. Lenders seek court actions against homeowners years after foreclosure
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 09:00 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/lenders-seek-court-actions-against-homeowners-years-after-foreclosure/2013/06/15/3c6a04ce-96fc-11e2-b68f-dc5c4b47e519_story.html

For Jose Santos Benavides, the ordeal of losing his home was over.

The Salvadoran immigrant had worked for years as a self-employed landscaper to make a $15,000 down payment on a four-bedroom house in Rockville. He had achieved a portion of the American dream, earning nearly six figures.

Then the economy soured, and lean paychecks turned into late mortgage payments. On Aug. 20, 2008, one year after he bought his dream home for $469,000, the bank’s threat to take his house became real via a letter in the mail. Just four days before the bank seized the property, he moved out, along with his wife and their two young children.

That wasn’t the worst of it.

In November, more than three years after the foreclosure, he was stunned to learn he still owed $115,000 — with the interest alone growing at a rate high enough to lease a luxury car.

“I’m scared, you know,” Benavides said. “I can’t pay.”

The 42-year-old is among the many homeowners being taken to court by their lenders long after their houses were taken in foreclosure. Lenders are filing new motions in old foreclosure lawsuits and hiring debt collectors to pursue leftover debt, plus court fees, attorneys’ fees and tens of thousands in interest that had been accruing for years....

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
42. Bono can't help Africans by stealing their voice
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 09:14 AM
Jun 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/17/bono-africans-stealing-voice-poor


'Bono's positioning of the west as the saviour of Africa while failing to ­discuss the harm the G8 nations are doing has undermined campaigns for justice and accountability.' Photograph: Gary Calton

It was bad enough in 2005. Then, at the G8 summit in Scotland, Bono and Bob Geldof heaped praise on Tony Blair and George Bush, who were still mired in the butchery they had initiated in Iraq. At one point Geldof appeared, literally and figuratively, to be sitting in Tony Blair's lap. African activists accused them of drowning out a campaign for global justice with a campaign for charity.

But this is worse. As the UK chairs the G8 summit again, a campaign that Bono founded, with which Geldof works closely, appears to be whitewashing the G8's policies in Africa.

Last week I drew attention to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, launched in the US when it chaired the G8 meeting last year. The alliance is pushing African countries into agreements that allow foreign companies to grab their land, patent their seeds and monopolise their food markets. Ignoring the voices of their own people, six African governments have struck deals with companies such as Monsanto, Cargill, Dupont, Syngenta, Nestlé and Unilever, in return for promises of aid by the UK and other G8 nations.

A wide range of activists, both African and European, is furious about the New Alliance. But the ONE campaign, co-founded by Bono, stepped up to defend it. The article it wrote last week was remarkable in several respects: in its elision of the interests of African leaders and those of their people, in its exaggeration of the role of small African companies, but above all in failing even to mention the injustice at the heart of the New Alliance – its promotion of a new wave of land grabbing. My curiosity was piqued.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
45. I have an alternate explanation
Tue Jun 18, 2013, 12:40 PM
Jun 2013


The smart people refuse to do the stupid things the boss wants...so he needs a dummy to follow him off the cliff....because that's leadership!

polynomial

(750 posts)
46. Very interesting, I have a lot to learn!
Wed Jun 19, 2013, 03:55 AM
Jun 2013

“Too big to fail” has a new meaning for me. At first when someone says that the company is too big to fail plus declaring that entity is absolutely necessary in the banking system, for the banking system to operate, for the banking system to be able to survive, appears to me now, as the key in what is the real truth.

Too big to fail is itself a hard warning, as if the banking system is the bandit now. Imagine the banker on the other side of the teller window giving the note to the customer at gun point demanding money.

Seems like an analogy that is turned around. Here the teller on the other side of the widow servicing the customer is now the masked bandit. However this gun happens to be legal contracts such as trade agreements that have another unusual distinct term called a trigger. The new type of language, the trigger built into contracts said very often.

This becomes clear noticing the partial listing of convictions listed in this economic part of the blog. Those convictions are certainly not talked about in Mainstream media. Seems each month would be a new scandal about the Banking system, or Wall Street definitely giving all the chance or choices to avoid any negative popular opinion that would prevent bail outs.

All under the secret trade agreements, or national security laws, that offers a compelling shield that aids to corruption to profiteer in the grandest way ever conceived for any government in history.

It appears the American experiment; the constitutional approach has turned into a tool for the few one percent in the world to manipulate a giant tyranny that might be called the corporate industrial complex.

Corporations are offering an endless supply of perpetrators. Which through legal laws generated by legislation do get away with profiteering under the disguise of national security, because of ongoing perpetual war. That is too big to fail.

Fuddnik

(8,846 posts)
47. Welcome to our little daily discussion group.
Wed Jun 19, 2013, 06:20 AM
Jun 2013

And on week-ends we have the Weekend Economist.

You'll find a lot of information that doesn't make it into other discussions.

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