STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 1 October 2013

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, 1 October 2013[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 30 September 2013

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 30 September 2013
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Dow Jones 15,129.67 -128.57 (-0.84%)
S&P 500 1,681.55 -10.20 (-0.60%)
Nasdaq 3,771.48 -10.11 (-0.27%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.61% -0.01 (-0.38%)
[font color=red]30 Year 3.68% +0.01 (0.27%) [font color=black]


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

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
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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=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
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.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.








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

[Demeter]

1. Ted Rall speaks for Me!

He expresses my very biggest, most global dream. May we find each other, find more, build a movement, and get democracy off its ass (if you will pardon the pun, expression, and image that invokes) and into the GOVERNMENT!

[xchrom]

2. WELLS SETTLES WITH FREDDIE ON MORTGAGE CLAIMS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WELLS_FARGO_FREDDIE_MAC_MORTGAGES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-30-19-34-14

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to an $869 million settlement with Freddie Mac over claims on home loans it sold to the government-controlled mortgage finance company.

The agreement announced Monday by Wells Fargo involves mortgages sold to Freddie before January 2009. Wells said the amount of the agreement was adjusted to reflect credits for previous claims payments, resulting in a cash payment to Freddie of about $780 million. Freddie and its bigger sibling Fannie Mae demanded that Wells Fargo and other big banks buy back mortgages they sold that later soured in the housing bust.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo said it reached the agreement with Freddie on Friday. Citigroup Inc. also agreed last week to pay $395 million to Freddie to settle similar claims.

[xchrom]

3. FIGURES ON GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND DEBT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOV_FINANCES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-30-16-28-33

WASHINGTON (AP) --

Figures on government spending and debt (last six digits are eliminated). The government's fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
Total public debt subject to limit Sept 27 16,699,396
Statutory debt limit 16,699,421
Total public debt outstanding Sept 27 16,738,433
Operating balance Sept 27 16,949
Interest fiscal year 2013 through Aug 230,817
Interest same period 2012 233,789
Deficit fiscal year 2013 through Aug 755,345
Deficit same period 2012 1,164,373
Receipts fiscal year 2013 through Aug 2,472,542
Receipts same period 2012 2,187,527
Outlays fiscal year 2013 through Aug 3,227,888
Outlays same period 2012 3,351,900
Gold assets in Aug 11,041

[xchrom]

4. EUROZONE LABOR MARKET STABILIZING AS ECONOMY GROWS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-10-01-05-40-53

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Unemployment across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro held steady in August, official figures showed Tuesday, in another sign that the eurozone economy is stabilizing following its longest-ever recession.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said the unemployment rate was 12 percent in August, unchanged from the previous month and down modestly from the 12.1 percent peak recorded in the summer. In total, the number of unemployed dipped by 5,000 to 19.18 million.

The improvement in the eurozone labor market has come in the wake of the region's emergence from recession. The economy grew in the second quarter after contracting for six straight quarters and most surveys suggest it expanded further in the summer months.

That view was supported by a closely-watched manufacturing survey Tuesday that suggested the sector continues to expand, albeit at a modest pace. The purchasing managers' index - a gauge of business activity published by financial information company Markit - was at 51.1 points in September. Though down on August's 26-month high of 51.4, the survey points to continuing expansion - anything above the 50 threshold indicates growth.

[xchrom]

5. JAPAN PM SAYS SALES TAX TO INCREASE IN APRIL

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_ECONOMY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-10-01-04-41-13

TOKYO (AP) -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe went ahead Tuesday with a much debated sales tax hike needed to offset Japan's soaring public debt, gambling that the country's economic recovery is strong enough to absorb the shock.

The sales tax will rise to 8 percent in April from the current 5 percent, Abe announced at a policy meeting of ruling party and top government officials. The Cabinet also cleared the increase and was set to give a green light for tax breaks and other stimulus measures meant to counter the wallop to consumer demand from the tax hike.

In opting to press ahead with the tax increase, Abe judged the world's third-largest economy robust enough to withstand that blow. Holding back might have provoked a backlash from international investors worried over Japan's ability to handle its public debt, which is the highest among developed nations as a percentage of GDP. Experts say the tax increase is crucial to getting government finances under control.

The decision comes after a survey showed improved business confidence among Japanese companies.

[xchrom]

6. Insight: As Ukraine looks west to Europe, Russia's shadow looms

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/us-eu-ukraine-russia-insight-idUSBRE99008920131001

(Reuters) - When Russia wants to get its point across, it tends not to leave room for misunderstanding.

Put out by Europe's efforts to build closer relations with six countries in east Europe and the Caucasus - former Soviet republics that Russia regards as in its sphere of influence - Moscow has been steadily turning up the heat.

Armenia was the first to cave, turning its back on an "association agreement" with the European Union and agreeing instead to join Russia's customs union - a trade zone with Belarus and Kazakhstan launched in 2010.

Moscow has also homed in on defense or trade vulnerabilities in Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan, although the first two remain likely to move ahead with closer EU ties at a special summit in Vilnius in late November. Belarus, despite friction with Moscow, remains firmly in Russia's camp for now.

[xchrom]

7. Euro zone factory growth eases but strong demand enables price hikes: PMI

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/us-poll-euro-zone-idUSBRE9900A020131001

(Reuters) - Euro zone factory activity grew for the third month running in September as stronger demand enabled manufacturers to raise prices for the first time since mid-2012, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Although factories didn't quite maintain the pace of growth seen in August, survey compiler Markit said that the data showed manufacturers were lifting the region's economy and that even the bloc's periphery countries were seeing improved demand.

Markit's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) dipped to 51.1 last month from August's 26-month high of 51.4, in line with an earlier flash estimate.

A sub-index measuring output, which feeds into the wider composite PMI due on Thursday and seen as a good indicator of growth, eased to 52.2 from August's 27-month high of 53.4, just above the flash estimate of 52.1.

[xchrom]

8. Apart from dollar, most investors keep cool about U.S. shut down

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/us-markets-global-idUSBRE96S00E20131001

(Reuters) - The first U.S. government shutdown in 17-years weakened the dollar on Tuesday, sending it to an eight-month low against the euro, but met a subdued response from investors in equity and fixed income markets.

U.S. Federal government agencies have been directed to cut back services after lawmakers failed to pass a temporary spending bill before a midnight deadline, threatening the salaries of over a million workers.

"No one really knows when they are going to get their act together, so you would have thought there would have more of a reaction than there has been," said Greg Matwejev, director of FX Hedge Fund Sales and Trading at Newedge.

The dollar has borne the brunt of the response so far, falling to a 1-1/2 year low against the safe-haven Swiss franc and hitting an 8-month low against a basket of six major currencies .DXY. The weakness lifted the euro to an eight-month high of $1.3589.

[xchrom]

9. Buffett's Berkshire set to get nearly $2.15 billion of Goldman stock

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/us-goldmansachs-berkshire-idUSBRE99005I20131001

(Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) will receive Goldman Sachs Inc (GS.N) stock worth nearly $2.15 billion on Tuesday through warrants acquired as part of a deal originally signed during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis.

Buffett received the warrants five years ago when his investment in Goldman was seen as a vote of confidence in the bank, which was reeling from turmoil in the credit market.

Under that deal, Berkshire had the right to buy about 43.5 million Goldman shares - or a roughly 9 percent stake then - at an exercise price of $115 per share, for $5 billion in total.

Goldman announced an amended deal in March that would give Berkshire a much smaller stake but would not require it to commit any capital to exercise the warrants.

[Demeter]

15. Buffett bailed Golden Sachs out

Otherwise, it would be a much different, way less corrupt world.

Thanks a lot, Warren. Whose side are you on, anyway?

[xchrom]

10. U.S. small business borrowing rises in August, slowly

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/us-usa-economy-paynet-idUSBRE9900C320131001

(Reuters) - Borrowing by U.S. small businesses edged up in August, pushing an index of borrowing to a six-year high.

The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index, which measures the volume of financing to small companies, rose 1 percent to 116.6, the highest level since August 2007. The index registered 115.4 in July, revised from an initial reading of 117.7, PayNet said on Tuesday.

Historically, PayNet's lending index has correlated to overall economic growth one or two quarters in the future.

The reading came as investors were boosting expectations the Federal Reserve would likely reduce its massive stimulus program in September.

[xchrom]

11. German joblessness unexpectedly rises in September

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/us-germany-unemployment-idUSBRE9900AD20131001

(Reuters) - German unemployment rose unexpectedly in September on a seasonally adjusted basis but remained close to its lowest level since reunification more than two decades ago.

The Labour Office said on Tuesday the increase - to the highest level since May 2011 - was not down to economic swings but because measures to integrate jobless people into the workforce had less effect in September.

"The seasonal increase in September is due to labour market policies providing less relief," said Heinrich Alt of the Labour Office, adding that the department was switching from short-term policies to longer-term ones intended to train the unemployed.

Data showed the number of people out of work rose by 25,000 to 2.975 million on a seasonally adjusted basis last month.

[xchrom]

12. Detroit's expected bond default seen raising constitutional issue

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-usa-detroit-bonds-idUSBRE98T18V20130930

(Reuters) - Detroit is poised to default on about $641 million of its general obligation bonds on Tuesday, an event that is likely to spur a legal challenge over Detroit's decision to take tax money earmarked for bond payments and apply it instead to city needs.

About $411 million of the bonds targeted for default were subject to voter approval and raise money through property taxes, called millages.

A default on bonds that had been considered secured obligations could give rise to a claim that it is a violation of Michigan's constitution, which prohibits diverting revenue from tax millages to alternative purposes.

If the city does default, bondholders can still expect to receive payments, but the funds will come from bond insurance policies purchased by Detroit as its financial picture weakened in recent years.

[Demeter]

16. Kevin Orr and Rick Snyder will do ANYTHING

to avoid doing the RIGHT thing.

[xchrom]

13. Analysis: U.S. shutdown strategy - Many advisers keep clients in stocks

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-usa-fiscal-wealth-analysis-idUSBRE98T13J20130930

(Reuters) - Should I stay or should I go?

The looming U.S. government shutdown has plenty of investors asking if it's time to exit the stock market or stay put.

Stock prices have been under pressure in recent days in anticipation that the government may shut down on Tuesday if lawmakers are unable to agree on a spending bill.

With the S&P 500 less than 3 percent from its all-time high, some advisers said the threat of a shutdown is a chance to reap some gains in a market that could be ripe for a correction anyway.

Yet most financial advisers and institutional investors interviewed by Reuters on Monday are telling clients to hang tight - for now. Only a minority are putting clients on red alert and jumping into cash or other safe-haven assets.

[xchrom]

14. Shutdown Would Cost U.S. Economy $300 Million a Day, IHS Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-01/shutdown-would-cost-u-s-economy-300-million-a-day-ihs-says.html

A partial shutdown of the federal government would cost the U.S. at least $300 million a day in lost economic output at the start, according to IHS Inc.

While that is a small fraction of the country’s $15.7 trillion economy, the daily impact of a shutdown is likely to accelerate if it continues as it depresses confidence and spending by businesses and consumers.

Lexington, Massachusetts-based IHS estimates that its forecast for 2.2 percent annualized growth in the fourth quarter will be reduced 0.2 percentage point in a weeklong shutdown. A 21-day closing like the one in 1995-96 could cut growth by 0.9 to 1.4 percentage point, according to Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.

“Government spending touches every aspect of the economy, and disruption of spending, more than the direct loss of income, threatens to damage investor and business confidence in ways that can seriously harm economic growth,” LeBas said yesterday in an interview.

[DemReadingDU]

24. Shutdowns used to happen every year

So what's the big deal this time?


A Brief History Of Federal Government Shutdowns

September 30 to October 11, 1976 (10 days)
September 30 to October 13, 1977 (12 days)
October 31 to November 9, 1977 (8 days)
November 30 to December 9, 1977 (8 days)
September 30 to October 18, 1978 (18 days
September 30 to October 12, 1979 (11 days)
November 20 to November 23, 1981 (2 days)
September 30 to October 2, 1982 (1 day)
December 17 to December 21, 1982 (3 days)
November 10 to November 14, 1983 (3 days)
September 30 to October 3, 1984 (2 days)
October 3 to October 5, 1984 (1 day)
October 16 to October 18, 1986 (1 day)
December 18 to December 20, 1987 (1 day)
October 5 to October 9, 1990 (3 days)
November 13 to November 19, 1995 (5 days)
December 5, 1995 to January 6, 1996 (21 days)

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/a-brief-history-of-federal-government-shutdowns/

[Demeter]

27. The Big Deal is the stupid Debt Ceiling

Speculation is that if they can get away with the shutdown, nothing will stop them from defaulting....and then it's watch out, below!


Looks like somebody tried to squish a gold bug today.....

[Demeter]

17. Obedience to Corporate-State Authority Makes Consumer Society Increasingly Dangerous

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19050-the-experiment-requires-that-you-continue-obedience-to-corporate-state-authority-in-an-increasingly-dangerous-consumer-society

...Obedience and disobedience are universal social experiences. All human beings know what it feels like to obey - with varying degrees of enthusiasm - and we all know what it feels like to disobey. Each of us has plenty of experience with both, and we are always capable of one or the other at any given moment. Every individual with the capacity for independent thinking and action makes multiple daily decisions about whether to obey or disobey various laws, rules, wishes and suggestions of others, whether we are aware of these decisions or not.

Modern societies are largely founded on the seductive idea that valuing obedience over disobedience will bring personal success and social cohesion. We are taught from an early age that even minor disobedience will sharply increase the likelihood of scary prospects like personal failure and social chaos. These emotionally powerful messages are drilled into us at home and at school, cultivating the necessary habits for powerful interests to function effectively, from parents and teachers to state institutions and large multinational corporations.

When it comes to the nature of obedience-disobedience, there is nothing we could accurately call normal. While obedience can be a particularly strong habit to break, humans (in contrast to other primates with more hard-wired social behavioral programming) are born neither obedient nor disobedient. We have strong tendencies to engage in both types of behavior across cultures and generations, in rational and irrational ways. Whether to obey or disobey in any given situation is a personal choice. Human social reality is extremely variable and complex. As long as we remain social creatures, we must deal with the obedience-disobedience question.

Acts of obedience have over the centuries been the cause of far more destruction and savagery than have acts of disobedience - maybe most dramatically during World War II. Humanity witnessed an eruption of systematized violence on a scale never before seen, an outcome fully dependent on the obedient behavior of ordinary people. The war ended with two extraordinarily destructive acts: a handful of men obediently followed orders over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in the instant incineration of several hundred thousand human beings. Soon afterward, as a result of the Nuremberg Tribunal, it became crystal clear for anyone touched by the war that personal considerations of conscience were simply unavoidable when making decisions in hierarchical contexts. The duty to obey authority could no longer justify inhumane actions, neither morally nor legally. Questions regarding obedience and disobedience were revealed to the world as intensely personal, deeply ethical and of supreme consequence. In a post-Nuremberg world, the ultimate responsibility for one's actions falls on the individual, not on powerful interests that persuade or coerce....


AND EVEN COMPLETE OBEDIENCE BRINGS NO PROTECTION

THOUGHTFUL, PROVOCATIVE PIECE

[xchrom]

18. Bank Secrets Exposed in EU’s Credit Derivatives Antitrust Probe

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-30/bank-secrets-exposed-in-eu-s-credit-derivatives-antitrust-probe.html

European Union regulators inadvertently sent confidential data to 13 of the world’s biggest lenders as part of an antitrust complaint in an investigation of the credit derivatives industry.

The European Commission said sensitive information was accidentally left in the documents by law firms representing companies in the probe. After the revelation was discovered, recipients including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) were told they must promise to destroy the information without reading it.

“The access was caused by mistakes committed by some members of IT departments of some law firms who represent companies in this investigation,” said Antoine Colombani, a spokesman for Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s antitrust chief. “The commission declines any responsibility if document owners” use inappropriate IT software to redact sensitive information, he said.

The credit-default swaps probe, which includes HSBC (HSBA) Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), is one of two priority EU investigations into financial institutions. Almunia has also led the EU’s probe into the rigging of the London interbank offered rate, a scandal that’s tarnished the reputation of banks seeking to recover from the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

[westerebus]

23. There's a Hong Kong bank account that just went ten figures large.

Wonder if AG Holder's chat with Jammie Diamon covered a guess what I found in my e-mail today?

[Demeter]

28. Sure, they will destroy it without reading it ( ;) )

but as they say, nothing is ever deleted when it's on the internet....

[xchrom]

19. Shutdown Raises Disquiet Outside U.S. as Impact Seen Muted

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-01/shutdown-raises-disquiet-outside-u-s-even-as-impact-seen-muted.html

The global economy will probably withstand the U.S. government’s first partial shutdown in 17 years even as financial market volatility rises in coming days, analysts and policy makers say.

A one-week shutdown of some government services should have a less-than 0.1 percent impact on U.S. gross domestic product, said Tomo Kinoshita, chief economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Tokyo. Halting non-essential government services won’t have much effect on imports from Asian economies, said Richard Jerram, chief economist at Bank of Singapore Ltd.

“Investors will likely become more risk-averse due to the shutdown,” South Korea Finance Ministry Director General Choi Hee Nam said in a telephone interview today before the U.S. government was forced into the shutdown. Any impact on the global economy will be short-lived, he said.

The U.S. government began a partial shutdown at midnight, idling as many as 800,000 federal employees after Congress failed to break a partisan deadlock. Asian stocks pared gains as the lack of immediate plans for further negotiations raised concerns among some lawmakers that the shutdown could bleed into a fight on how to raise the nation’s debt limit to avoid a first-ever default after Oct. 17.

[Demeter]

20. The Perfect Alternative to Wall Street Banks

http://admin.alternet.org/economy/perfect-alternative-wall-street-banks?akid=10971.227380.DMFr-i&rd=1&src=newsletter900814&t=23&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

A national postal and infrastructure bank could protect our money, rebuild the nation, and won't cost taxpayers a dime.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is the nation’s second largest civilian employer after WalMart. Although successfully self-funded throughout its long history, it is currently struggling to stay afloat. This is not, as sometimes asserted, because it has been made obsolete by the Internet. In fact the post office has gotten more business from Internet orders than it has lost to electronic email. What has pushed the USPS into insolvency is an oppressive 2006 congressional mandate that it prefund healthcare for its workers 75 years into the future. No other entity, public or private, has the burden of funding multiple generations of employees who have not yet even been born. The Carper-Coburn bill (S. 1486) is the subject of congressional hearings this week. It threatens to make the situation worse, by eliminating Saturday mail service and door-to-door delivery and laying off more than 100,000 workers over several years.

The Postal Service Modernization Bills brought by Peter DeFazio and Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, would allow the post office to recapitalize itself by diversifying its range of services to meet unmet public needs. Needs that the post office might diversify into include (1) funding the rebuilding of our crumbling national infrastructure; (2) servicing the massive market of the “unbanked” and “underbanked” who lack access to basic banking services; and (3) providing a safe place to save our money, in the face of Wall Street’s new “bail in” policies for confiscating depositor funds. All these needs could be met at a stroke by some simple legislation authorizing the post office to revive the banking services it efficiently performed in the past.

Funding Infrastructure Tax-free

In a July 2013 article titled “ Delivering A National Infrastructure Bank . . . through the Post Office,” Frederic V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, addressed the woeful state of US infrastructure. He noted that the idea of forming a national infrastructure bank (NIB) has had bipartisan congressional support over the past six years, with senators from both parties introducing bills for such a bank:

An NIB would provide a means to channel public funds into regional and national projects identified by political and community leaders across the country to keep the economy healthy. It could issue bonds, back public-private partnerships and guarantee long-term, low-interest loans to states and investment groups willing to rebuild our schools, hospitals, airports and energy grids. An NIB with $10 billion in capital could leverage hundreds of billions in investments.

What has blocked these bills is opposition to using tax money for the purpose. But Rolando asks:

What if we set up the NIB without using taxpayer funds? What if we allowed Americans to open savings accounts in the nation’s post offices and directed those funds into national infrastructure bonds that would earn interest for depositors and fund job-creating projects to replace and modernize our crumbling infrastructure?

A post office bank . . . would not offer commercial loans or mortgages. But it could serve the unbanked and fund infrastructure projects selected by a non-partisan NIB.

The Unbanked and Underbanked: A Massive Untapped Market

The “unbanked” are not a small segment of the population. In a 2011 survey, the unbanked and underbanked included about one in four households. Without access to conventional financial services, people turn to an expensive alternative banking market of bill-pay, prepaid debit cards, check cashing services, and payday loans. They pay excessive fees and are susceptible to high-cost predatory lenders...Globally, postal banks are major contributors to financial inclusion. Catering to this underserved population is a revenue-generator for the post office while saving the underbanked large sums in fees. Worldwide, according to the Universal Postal Union, 1 billion people now use the postal sector for savings and deposit accounts, and more than 1.5 billion take advantage of basic transactional services through the post....

[Demeter]

21. Get Out While You Can: Why Young Americans Should Emigrate

http://admin.alternet.org/culture/get-out-while-you-can-why-young-americans-should-emigrate?akid=10971.227380.DMFr-i&rd=1&src=newsletter900814&t=14&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Instead of accepting low-paid work or unpaid internships, young people should focus on globalizing themselves. The 20-somethings of my generation have been marginalized by the economic situation in America. We've had a tricky time finding a place in the economy and many of us have become burdens on our families, through student loans and living costs. Now, how do we fix that? Emigrate, if you can afford it. Millennials have a ton of education and no use for it. There are many other countries that represent a great opportunity for millennials looking to enter into an increasingly globalized work market. I'm not saying we should try to be members of an elite in other countries -- we should reject our shackles and become more worldly. Part of that is learning a second or third language, something I thought I never would do. This changed after my time abroad in Ireland while studying at University College Dublin. I decided I was going to learn German, even though it was not the most useful of languages. Four years later, after teaching myself German from scratch, I have an operating fluency in German and now live in Berlin, where I will soon start my master's degree. The tuition costs a fraction of what it would in America. Despite being an foreigner, I have access to public health insurance available for students at only 60 Euros a month.

How did I get here? It started with the betrayal and selling-out of our generation.

In the 1950s and 1960s it was possible to attend a state college, work for minimum wage for a nominal amount of hours, and graduate with no debt. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a minimum wage worker in 1979/1980 would have had to work 254 hours to pay tuition to attend a four-year public institution. As of 2010 a minimum wage worker would have to work 923 hours. That means instead of finding a summer job and working to avoid debt, many students need to find steady full-time jobs while studying, or graduate with massive debt. The class of 2013 has an average debt of $35,200 and a lot of them still attended state school.

Neoliberal reforms have been shoved down the throat of America since the '80s and had two large effects: lowering taxes on the rich and the destruction of organized labor, resulting in declining wages and worker protections. The Bureau of Labor Statistics stated in January that union membership fell 400,000 last year, to a 97-year low. And it has been by design; illegal firings of union supporters exploded in the late 1980s, seeing one out of every 36 union supporters fired in contrast to one in 110 in the late '70s. Millennials have it even worse. With a great proportion of job "opportunities" coming in the form contract or part-time work, their entry into organized labor is increasingly difficult. A senior economist at Wells Fargo remarked recently, "A large portion of the jobs we're adding tend to be in low-skill occupations."

Meanwhile, our higher education system is failing the younger generation in different ways -- it's increasingly taking on the appearance of a lending operation, and treats students more and more as customers. My alma mater recently built a large series of luxury apartments on campus. The facility is not owned by the university, though it was built by a private contractor. The cost? Rent comes in at $1,500 for a one-room apartment, $2,500 a month for a two-room apartment. Public institutions like state universities weren't founded to shackle us through debt. The University of Maryland also recently built luxury boxes for the football stadium and charges almost $6,000 for rent for only eight months in a dorm, and almost $4,000 for a meal plan. With tuition at almost $10,000 a year, a student receiving no grants or help could easily pile up almost $80,000 in debt. Instead of providing practical skills or work training at universities, students must often decide whether to take unpaid internships and put themselves further in debt, or risk being unemployed for extended periods after graduation. Both higher education institutes and companies alike have created a race to the bottom environment where students jump at the chance to work for free, and are often afraid to complain when such work impoverishes them. After my independent contractor contract expired at a public relations software company (after a year and four months) I was desperate to find anything that might allow me to work in the policy field. I took an unpaid internship in D.C. and racked up a $2,000 credit card debt from transportation costs over six months. In contrast, many countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland have a "dual education" system, in which students who do not pass an entrance exam for university can attend technical schools, and work while studying. The government subsidizes wages that companies pay students. Practical experience and education are combined, and despite rising youth unemployment thanks to the euro crisis, young workers are prepared for their careers.

Young people today should not have to fall into the trap of make-it-or-break-it by accepting low-paid work or unpaid internships (unless your parents can afford to support you). Instead, millennials should focus on globalizing themselves. The wage race to the bottom is something that will only get worse by accepting societal pressures and worrying about resume gaps.

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[mnhtnbb]

30. My youngest son--who majored in German in college--happens to be in Berlin right now until next July

on a Fulbright scholarship. He wants to come back to graduate school in the US fall 2014.
Hubby and I are both encouraging him to think about trying to stay in Germany instead.

[jtuck004]

31. I'm not sure but that title should change the word "Young" to "Many Smart". Of any age.

'Cause barring some kind of miraculous awakening this place is on a downhill trajectory for at least the next 30 years or so, and even then it would take decades and tens of trillions of dollars to re-create what has been wasted or stolen away away.

[Demeter]

32. All it takes is a party dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal

That will take a whole lot longer than 30 years, or it could happen by 2014. Life is a crap shoot.

[jtuck004]

33. Even if all the Democrats suddenly become Democrats and the Repubs faded away in 2014

it would take tens of trillions of dollars and at least 30-40 years to rebuild this place into some modicum of prosperity, along with changing the minds of 100 million Americans who have no concept, no educational foundation to even conceptualize such a country. Which means tens of millions of us would be dead before that ever happens.

And it won't, of course.

That would also leave the other 200 million having to figure out some way of achieving "prosperity" without natural resources and/or people to exploit, which was what our past was based on. No one has come up with a way to do that yet. It would take a level of cooperation between people that has never been seen in the history of our world, I think, as well as a whole new definition of "prosperity" among humans who, like cats, just hate change. And in a world where we are surrounded by people who have yet to exploit their own natural resources and people for their own profit, who are not likely to share.

Ain't gonna happen.

[Demeter]

34. The Chinese did it

but they have 5000 years more experience than we do....

[jtuck004]

35. lol. n/t

[xchrom]

22. The Failures of Crowdfunding: No, Kickstarter Cannot Support an Opera Company

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/09/the-failures-of-crowdfunding-no-kickstarter-cannot-support-an-opera-company/280118/

On Saturday night, the New York City Opera performed Anna Nicole, a musical work making its American premiere. In the words of the New York Times, it was about “yes, that Anna Nicole” — the model and reality TV star who died in 2007.

Anna Nicole was the first production of the company’s season, and it received good reviews. It is also, however, likely the opera company’s final production, ever.

The opera company’s closing is a tragedy by itself — the death of an egalitarian institution in profoundly un-egalitarian times. But for those interested in the culture enabled by and built around the Internet, the company’s story also exemplifies the failures of Kickstarter.

Established 70 years ago by Mayor Fiorella La Guardia as “the people’s opera,” the New York City Opera has struggled financially for the last decade. As the Times has reported in a series of stories this month, since 2008, the City Opera has left its longtime home at Lincoln Center, slashed its performance schedule, and borrowed against its endowment. Its endowment, too, now produces less than $200,000 a year, according to the Times. It used to produce millions.

[Demeter]

29. I had a voice teacher who sang with them

She's in Canada, now. I've asked to be adopted....

[AnneD]

25. Why do I have the feeling.....

that Goldman Sachs has placed some bids somewhere that the US gov will shut down and they will be making an obscene amount of money.

[AnneD]

26. Honest to God...

I thought about this before I saw this:

http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-nails-it-on-why-you-should-want-to-see-a-government-shut-down-2013-9