Weekend Economists Wring Out the Old, Ring in the New January 3-5, 2014

[Demeter]

Last edited Sat Jan 4, 2014, 10:18 AM - Edit history (2)

Can it be the weekend already? I had an Epiphany just now--



Epiphany (Koine Greek: ἐ???ά????, epiphaneia, "manifestation", "striking appearance&quot or Theophany (Ancient Greek (ἡ ????ά????, ?heophaneia meaning "vision of God&quot , which traditionally falls on January 6, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ. Western Christians commemorate principally (but not solely) the visit of the Magi to the Baby Jesus, and thus Jesus' physical manifestation to the Gentiles. Eastern Christians commemorate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, seen as his manifestation to the world as the Son of God.

Eastern Churches following the Julian Calendar observe the Theophany feast on what for most countries is January 19 because of the 13-day difference today between that calendar and the generally used Gregorian calendar.

Since 1970, the rule for the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church is: "The Epiphany of the Lord is celebrated on 6 January, unless, where it is not observed as a Holy day of obligation, it has been assigned to the Sunday occurring between 2 and 8 January."

In the Church of England, the feast is celebrated on the Twelfth Night (holiday), the Twelfth Day being January 6. The Monday after Epiphany is known as Plough Monday.

A separate celebration of the Baptism of the Lord was introduced for Latin Rite Roman Catholics in 1955. Initially, this was to be held on January 13, previously the octave day of the Epiphany, but in the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar the date was changed to the first Sunday after January 6. In countries where in a particular year the Epiphany falls on January 7 or 8, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated on the following Monday. In the Church of England, the same custom may be followed. In the Episcopal Church in the United States, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is always the Sunday after January 6.

Alternative names for the feast include (?? ????ά???, Theophany as neuter plural rather than feminine singular, ? ??έ?? ??? ?ώ???, i Imera ton Foton (modern Greek pronunciation), hē hēmera tōn phōtōn (restored classic pronunciation), "The Day of the Lights", and ?? ?ώ??, ta Fota, "The Lights". ---wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_%28holiday%29





If you check out the wikipedia link, there's descriptions of the celebration customs of many nations and peoples for this holiday.

All I can say is, God help us here in the USA, if we have to find 3 Wise Men.

LET'S SEE, WHO WOULD YOU NOMINATE FOR THE 3 WISE MEN (I'M GOING TO INSIST ON MEN, SINCE WE KNOW TONS OF WISE WOMEN...BUT WE CAN COMPILE THOSE, TOO!)

MY NOMINATIONS:

EDWARD SNOWDEN AND ELIZABETH WARREN



SAD NEWS, FOLKS. PHIL EVERLY IS DEAD

This Weekend is dedicated to his memory. Thank for your music, Phil! We needed that.

Phil Everly Of The Everly Brothers Dies At 74

Phil Everly, who with his brother Don formed an influential harmony duo that touched the hearts and sparked the imaginations of rock 'n' roll singers for decades, including the Beatles and Bob Dylan, died Friday. He was 74.

Everly died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at a Burbank hospital, said his son Jason Everly.

Phil and Don Everly helped draw the blueprint of rock 'n' roll in the late 1950s and 1960s with a high harmony that captured the yearning and angst of a nation of teenage baby boomers looking for a way to express themselves beyond the simple platitudes of the pop music of the day.

The Beatles, early in their career, once referred to themselves as "the English Everly Brothers." And Bob Dylan once said, "We owe these guys everything. They started it all."

The Everlys' hit records included the then-titilating "Wake Up Little Susie" and the universally identifiable "Bye Bye Love," each featuring their twined voices with lyrics that mirrored the fatalism of country music and a rocking backbeat that more upbeat pop. These sounds and ideas would be warped by their devotees into a new kind of music that would ricochet around the world.

In all, their career spanned five decades, although they performed separately from 1973 to 1983. In their heyday between 1957 and 1962, they had 19 top 40 hits.

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/03/259542492/phil-everly-of-the-everly-brothers-dies-at-74

[Demeter]

1. I doubt that there will be any bank failures tonight

but watch this space....

[Demeter]

2. Looking To 2014 By Charles P. Pierce

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_New_Year

... The world, at the age of 4.5 billion years, more or less, and increasingly depending on whether you're a Republican or not, has spun merrily around the sun one more time, and all of us are still here. We survive, but it's an open question whether or not we evolve.

It's not just the newly quantified stupid inherent in one half of our political system that bothers me, although knowing that an ever-increasing slice of one of our two political parties adheres to the biological principles of 1838 is worrisome. (What, for example, are they teaching their children? What will their children teach their own children? And on and on until half the country is painting in caves again.) It's that it's always been my conclusion that human evolution -- political, cultural, and social -- is tied to the impulse toward cooperation, or, in the case of our politics, the inclination toward commonwealth....

I have seen the country take a startling, and alarming, turn away from what I believed was an irresistible movement and, indeed, I have seen people actively campaign against it, conflating in their fevered minds what drove the signers of the Mayflower Compact with the ambitions of the Bolsheviki, and translating the first three words of the Constitution from "We, The People," to "I Got Mine."

MORE HORROR, AND PRESCRIPTIONS FOR CHANGE, AT LINK

[Demeter]

3. This was my first day rejoining the living, and of course, it was a challenge

what with the bitter cold.

So I am going for some zzzz's. If I wake before midnight, I'll post some more tonight, if not, see you all bright and early!

Don't forget your Wise Man / Woman nominations!

[kickysnana]

4. I nominate Jimmy Carter.

[jtuck004]

5. Second. n/t

[Demeter]

20. Excellent choice!

[DemReadingDU]

29. Yes, Jimmy Carter

Also I would nominate whistleblowers. They have leaked out much information to inform us about the fraud and corruption that is ongoing in the banking, housing, government.

[Demeter]

30. Fair enough. A Whole class of people

Small, but vital.

[xchrom]

6. Tax Break for IRA Conversion Lured 10% of Millionaires

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-03/tax-break-for-ira-conversion-lured-10-of-millionaires.html


Congress dangled an incentive for high-income Americans to convert their tax-deferred individual retirement accounts into post-tax plans. Their response was overwhelming.

Conversions from regular IRAs to Roth retirement accounts increased more than nine times in 2010, rising to $64.8 billion from $6.8 billion in 2009, according to data released today by the Internal Revenue Service.

That marked the first time Roth conversions were greater than contributions. Conversions were especially common among IRA holders with annual incomes exceeding $1 million. More than 10 percent of them converted to a Roth account, the IRS said.

The increase in conversions stemmed from a 2006 law that set 2010 for ending a $100,000 income limit on Roth conversions. There’s no ceiling on conversions if an investor has multiple IRAs and no cap on the amount that can be shifted.

“There was a rush of interest in 2010,” when the restrictions on conversions were lifted, said Thomas Rowley, director of retirement business strategies for Atlanta-based Invesco Ltd. (IVZ) Wealthy investors could better manage their tax liability in retirement and pass the Roth accounts to heirs free of income tax, he said.

[xchrom]

7. JPMorgan Settles Pittsburgh Bank Suit Probing U.S. Deal

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-03/jpmorgan-to-settle-pittsburgh-bank-lawsuit-over-mortgage-debt.html


JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) agreed to settle a Pittsburgh lender’s lawsuit after a judge ordered the New York-based bank to turn over the government’s draft complaint at the center of its $13 billion deal with regulators.

Lawyers for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh said yesterday in Pennsylvania state court that they had reached an agreement, without disclosing terms of the deal. The Pittsburgh FHLB sued JPMorgan and credit-ratings companies in 2009 over losses on $1.8 billion in mortgage-backed securities it bought in 2006 and 2007.

The deal came less than a month after a judge ordered JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. lender by assets, to give the plaintiff’s lawyers a draft of the U.S. Justice Department’s proposed complaint that the record settlement was based on. That deal resolved allegations involving sales of mortgage bonds that officials said helped fuel the financial crisis of 2008.

The Pittsburgh FHLB argued that the conduct and transactions at issue in its case were the same as those addressed in the settlement with the government. The draft complaint, the bank said in court papers, would provide a more detailed account of the federal probe and reveal the name of a JPMorgan employee who cooperated with the federal investigation.

[xchrom]

8. Detroit Emergency Manager Calls Swaps ‘Ticking Time Bomb’

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-03/detroit-emergency-manager-calls-swaps-ticking-time-bomb-.html

Bankers who sold Detroit interest rate swaps placed “a ticking time bomb” in their structure, the city’s emergency manager said in court as a trial resumed over a proposal for canceling the transaction.

Although the city collected $40 million over eight months from the swaps deal, falling interest rates helped the banks behind the deals turn a profit, Kevyn Orr, the emergency manager, testified today before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes in Detroit.

Since 2009, the city has paid more than $200 million to the banks behind the swaps, according to public records. The city has proposed paying UBS AG (UBSN) and Bank of America Corp. a $165 million termination fee to get out of the swaps contract.

Days before Detroit filed the biggest ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy, Orr negotiated an agreement to end the swaps at a discount. After that deal was attacked by creditors and questioned by Rhodes, the city on Dec. 24 announced a renegotiated termination payment about $65 million lower than the original.

[Demeter]

22. Well, Kevin, that's what they are paying you the big bucks for

Go in there and disarm those suckers---steal back the loot from JPMorgan, Golden Sacks, BoA, UBS and whoever.

[xchrom]

9. State Budgets to Aid U.S. Growth Amid Federal Cuts: Economy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-03/state-spending-to-boost-u-s-growth-amid-federal-cuts-economy.html

State and local governments are poised to increase spending this year, adding to the U.S. economic expansion, even as their federal counterpart cuts back.

Outlays by state and local authorities will add about 0.2 percentage point to gross domestic product in 2014, according to a forecast by economists at Morgan Stanley in New York. The federal government will probably contribute nothing to a projected increase of at least 2.6 percent in this year’s GDP.

The boost to growth represents a shift from 2010 through 2012, when cuts by states and municipalities reduced U.S. output by 0.3 percentage point each year on average, according to Commerce Department data. The reductions to GDP from local governments were the longest and deepest in the post-World War II era.

“The bulk of the fiscal imbalance at the state and local level is in the rear-view mirror,” said Ellen Zentner, a New York-based senior economist for Morgan Stanley. “It’s just another example of a headwind for the U.S. economy that’s shifting to a tailwind.”

[xchrom]

10. EU deal to close failed banks won't break 'doom loop' - Reuters poll

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/03/uk-ecb-rates-poll-idUKBREA020L120140103

(Reuters) - The European Union's blueprint to close failing banks won't be enough to break the pattern of euro zone states haemorrhaging funds by propping up weak lenders, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

Hailed as "the final pillar" for a banking union by Germany, last month's deal aims to prevent bank failures from dragging governments to the brink of bankruptcy, as happened in Ireland and Cyprus.

It features a single resolution fund that banks will pay into over the next ten years, giving roughly 55 billion euros (46.2 billion pounds) . Until then, individual governments would be left holding the bill.

In a Reuters poll this week, 27 of 41 economists said this structure would not break the so-called "doom loop" between banks and states.

[xchrom]

11. Corporate Wake-Up Call: German Dads Demand Family Time

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/german-fathers-force-family-friendlier-corporate-cultures-a-941499.html


Even just a couple years ago, Gerd Göbel likely would have come across as unreasonable to most human resources directors. It's very possible he would have surprised his colleagues as well. Göbel has a successful career at Germany's second largest bank, Commerzbank, where he heads his own team for portfolio and asset management. He also works part time, because he has a young daughter.

When his daughter was born a little under three years ago, the 47-year-old reduced his work hours, initially working 40 percent, then 60 percent and more recently 80 percent. In his division of 80 employees, the banker was the first father to take parental leave and the first to give up a full-time position. "At the time, I certainly asked myself whether it was even possible to work part time in a leadership position," says Göbel, who heads a team of five. But his experiment has proven successful, and he continues to spend one workday a week at home, although he remains reachable by BlackBerry even on those days.
Göbel is an exception -- at least for now.

The fact is that he is one of many fathers who are no longer satisfied working all week, only to see their children on weekends. He's one of many men who want, despite their dedication to their careers, to be a part of their children's daily life as well -- and who have at their side self-confident, professionally successful women who take it as a matter of course that both parents will participate in raising and caring for their children.

[xchrom]

12. Storming the Food Banks: Charities Struggle with Growing Demand

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-food-banks-and-soup-kitchens-struggle-with-demand-a-941661.html

In mid-October in a Wetzlar church hall, about 200 visitors sat in rows of tightly packed chairs, leaning against the walls with their arms crossed and sullen expressions on their faces, or standing in front of the open doorway, hoping to hear at least some of what was being said at an event that will have a significant impact on their lives. Some stood under open umbrellas, a symbolic gesture meant to convey the message that they don't want to be left standing out in the rain.

The issue being discussed that evening in Wetzlar, a city in the western German state of Hesse, was not the future of a local company or student tuition, but the free food programs at the city's food bank, called the Wetzlarer Tafel. The organization that runs the operation is short on funds to pay for its fleet of vehicles and volunteers. About 4,200 people, including recipients of Hartz IV welfare benefits, asylum seekers and others in need, are dependent on the charity. "We can't make it on our own," says director Harald Würges. "We need a solution so they won't go hungry."

There were a number of similarly dramatic appeals on this evening, and they made an impression on a group of local politicians sitting at a long table. In early December, the city of Wetzlar allocated a subsidy of €14,000 ($19,000) to the food bank. "It's a good start," says Würges, "but we're not quite out of the woods yet."

Würges and many other representatives of 917 other food banks and soup kitchens in Germany share the same fear over their future. Across the country, food pantry workers, most of them volunteers, are sounding the alarm that charitable donations are no longer enough to pay for storage space, delivery trucks and rents. Some are also having trouble stocking enough food to satisfy demand. In Hamburg, for example, food banks have been forced to turn some people away in recent weeks.

[xchrom]

13. Coalition Row: Merkel Tries to Defuse 'Poverty Immigration' Debate

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/coalition-conflict-merkel-tries-to-defuse-poverty-immigration-debate-a-941737.html

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday indirectly entered into a debate within her governing coalition about controversial calls by conservatives to restrict welfare payments to immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania.

The calls -- which included the slogan "Those who commit fraud are out" and a suggested three-month ban on welfare payments for immigrants -- came in response to the Jan. 1 opening of European labor markets to residents of the two countries, which are among the European Union's poorest members.

It's a development that has sparked fears of an influx of "poverty migration" across Europe, one that has sparked debates in France, Britain, Germany and elswhere in the EU. And Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party to Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has taken the lead in warning against allowing these potential immigrants to benefit from the German social system, prompting criticism from their center-left coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD), plus accusations of right-wing populism from the opposition.

In reaction, Merkel, who was also previously criticized for her silence on the matter, telephoned her new vice chancellor and SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel to arrange the creation of a special committee for reviewing the issue during a cabinet meeting next Wednesday.

[xchrom]

14. SKIMPY HEALTH LAW PLANS LEAVE SOME 'UNDERINSURED'

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_OVERHAUL_UNDERINSURED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-01-04-03-36-19


This photo taken Dec. 19, 2013 shows Avalere Health Vice President Caroline Pearson posing for a photo in her office in Washington. For working people making modest wages and struggling with high medical bills from chronic disease, President Barack Obama's health care plan sounds like long-awaited relief. But it could turn into an unfulfilled promise. Chronically ill people are likely to be underinsured and face extremely high out-of-pocket costs, says Pearson, who tracks the health care overhaul for Avalere Health, a market research and consulting firm. While the subsidies help, there still may be access problems for some populations. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For working people making modest wages and struggling with high medical bills from chronic disease, President Barack Obama's health care plan sounds like long-awaited relief. But the promise could go unfulfilled.

It's true that patients with cancer and difficult conditions such as multiple sclerosis or Crohn's disease will be able to get insurance and financial help with monthly premiums.

But their annual out-of-pocket costs could still be so high they'll have trouble staying out of debt.

You couldn't call them uninsured any longer. You might say they're "underinsured."

[Demeter]

23. Tansy, would you be a dear and stamp this, please!

[xchrom]

24. !

i'm gonna stand back while does.

[Demeter]

28. Good morning, X! How is the New Year treating you so far?

I'm at least keeping even, in spite of the weather.

[xchrom]

35. it's too cold for me.

but the farmer's almanac said it would be colder and drier this year and so far that's right.

i know it's bad where you are.

glad you're hanging in there.

[Demeter]

36. 20F! We're having a heat wave today! (of course, the windchill is 10)

I will start putting on layers, shortly, to venture out. Sending you warm thoughts!

[Fuddnik]

46. I'm not going to tell you what I'm doing today.

All this cold weather and shit.

[xchrom]

15. KOMEN SEES BIG DROP IN CONTRIBUTIONS AFTER DISPUTE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_KOMEN_FINANCIALS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-01-03-19-38-53

DALLAS (AP) -- Susan G. Komen for the Cure saw a 22 percent drop in contributions in the year following the controversy over its decision, quickly reversed, to stop giving grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings.

Citing audited financial statements posted on its website this week, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based breast cancer charity said contributions - including donations and corporate sponsorships - dropped from about $164 million from the fiscal year ending in March 2012 to $128 million in the year ending March 2013.

After news of the plan to quit offering grants to Planned Parenthood broke in January 2012, several executives left the organization and fewer people took part in its fundraising Races for the Cure across the country. The organization announced last summer that it would cancel half of its three-day charity walks for this year because of a drop in participation.

The statements also showed that revenue from Race for the Cure and three-day events had a 19 percent drop for the same fiscal period, falling from about $258 million to $208 million. Total revenue, which included the race fees, contributions, other fundraising and interest, dropped 18 percent in that time period, from $399 million to $325 million.

[xchrom]

16. The housing recovery: built on sand{uk}

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/03/housing-recovery-built-on-sand-editorial

So here we go again. A month after George Osborne gleefully announced that growth in national income would be 1.4% in 2013, the Nationwide reports that during the same 12 months house prices have risen by 8.4% – which is precisely six times as fast. And that is merely the average. While housing remains cheap in parts of the north, and Scotland is another country entirely, in the hotspots, such as London and central Manchester, prices are soaring at twice or even thrice that average rate.

The gathering recovery has not yet restored overall output (it's still lower than seven years ago), nor has it rebalanced an economy incapable of paying its way in the world (the balance of payments deficit has swollen to 5% of GDP, an overdraft last seen in the late 1980s boom). Still less has it done anything to swell pay packets of ordinary workers, which are being eaten up by inflation that is remorselessly outpacing pay. What the nascent recovery has done, however, is rekindle the true national sport since the 1970s – property speculation. Even if it is not possible to invest, build or earn our way out of economic difficulties, millions of freeholders can once again hope to own their way out of trouble. The British dream is not dead! After the chancellor was reported to have quipped to the cabinet that he'd "get a little housing boom and everyone will be happy", the Daily Express purrs that good times have returned.

So what's not to like? Even to pose such a question in jest could offend the near 2 million families on council waiting lists. For those who never had the earning power to take up the right to buy, decent housing has, barring brief recessionary interruptions, become steadily less affordable over a third of a century. Through the 1980s, this group were contemptuously ignored as an outmoded minority, hopelessly stuck in their anachronistic status as tenants in property-owning times – a social problem perhaps, but a political irrelevance.

[xchrom]

17. US economy losing 'up to a $1bn a week' after jobless benefits cut

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/03/us-economy-losing-1bn-jobless-benefits-cuts

The US economy is losing up to a billion dollars a week because of the “fiscally irresponsible” decision to end long-term unemployment benefits, a Harvard economist said on Friday.

Professor Lawrence Katz based his assessment on official forecasts of the impact to the economy of 1.3 million jobless Americans losing benefits

The benefits, which apply to people who are unemployed for longer than six months, expired last week after a bipartisan budget deal on federal spending for the next two years failed to include a reauthorisation of the program.

Democrats have launched a sustained push to reintroduce the federal program, and a Senate vote on a bipartisan bill to restore the benefits for three months is expected early next week.

[Demeter]

25. Not only Wise, but honest and brave!

And I'd include Pope Francis, because given the low level of the bar over in Rome, he really stands out.

[xchrom]

18. Panama Canal dispute: Spain in talks to resolve row

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25592574

The Spanish government is in talks with Panama to try to resolve a row over the expansion of the Panama Canal.

Spain's public works minister Ana Pastor will fly to Panama this weekend, following a meeting between diplomats on Friday.

Work began on the expansion of the shipping hub in 2009, but it has gone over-budget by $1.6bn (£1bn).

The group behind the project, led by Spain's Sacyr, has threatened to halt work unless the extra money is paid.

[xchrom]

19. Bernanke's Explanation For The Weak Economy Will Infuriate Republicans

http://www.businessinsider.com/bernanke-on-fiscal-policy-2014-1

In his final speech as Fed Chair, Ben Bernanke identifies the No. 1 thing that's caused the economy to be so slow: not enough government spending. He specifically calls fiscal policy "excessively tight."

To this list of reasons for the slow recovery--the effects of the financial crisis, problems in the housing and mortgage markets, weaker-than-expected productivity growth, and events in Europe and elsewhere--I would add one more significant factor--namely, fiscal policy. Federal fiscal policy was expansionary in 2009 and 2010. Since that time, however, federal fiscal policy has turned quite restrictive; according to the Congressional Budget Office, tax increases and spending cuts likely lowered output growth in 2013 by as much as 1-1/2 percentage points. In addition, throughout much of the recovery, state and local government budgets have been highly contractionary, reflecting their adjustment to sharply declining tax revenues. To illustrate the extent of fiscal tightness, at the current point in the recovery from the 2001 recession, employment at all levels of government had increased by nearly 600,000 workers; in contrast, in the current recovery, government employment has declined by more than 700,000 jobs, a net difference of more than 1.3 million jobs. There have been corresponding cuts in government investment, in infrastructure for example, as well as increases in taxes and reductions in transfers.

Although long-term fiscal sustainability is a critical objective, excessively tight near-term fiscal policies have likely been counterproductive. Most importantly, with fiscal and monetary policy working in opposite directions, the recovery is weaker than it otherwise would be. But the current policy mix is particularly problematic when interest rates are very low, as is the case today. Monetary policy has less room to maneuver when interest rates are close to zero, while expansionary fiscal policy is likely both more effective and less costly in terms of increased debt burden when interest rates are pinned at low levels. A more balanced policy mix might also avoid some of the costs of very low interest rates, such as potential risks to financial stability, without sacrificing jobs and growth.

This of course flies right in the face of the GOP argument that government spending is way too high and that fiscal policy is too loose.

[xchrom]

21. Private Equity Giant Carlyle Group Wants To Sell Mutual Funds To Mom-And-Pop Investors

http://www.businessinsider.com/carlyle-group-to-launch-mutual-funds-2014-1

(Reuters) - Carlyle Group LP is preparing to launch its first two publicly listed mutual funds, according to a regulatory filing by the latest alternative asset manager seeking to offer its investment platform to retail investors in this way.

Carlyle Enhanced Commodity Real Return Fund will mainly invest in commodity sectors including energy and metals, while Carlyle Global Core Allocation Fund will invest across equities, debt, real estate, commodities and currencies using primarily exchange-traded funds, according to the filing published this week by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Carlyle spokesman declined to comment beyond the filing.

Developing mutual funds has historically been challenging for private equity firms because the average buyout fund is illiquid, with a typical life span of 10 years. But as these firms diversified into relatively more liquid alternative assets such as credit and hedge funds, they have sought to widen their investor base beyond institutional investors.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/carlyle-group-to-launch-mutual-funds-2014-1#ixzz2pR5Emk5L

[Demeter]

31. I'm sure they do

However, a determined whispering campaign ought to make that a non-starter.

What transparent scams they are devising...securitized rental receipts on foreclosed properties, mutual funds from the BFEE, what next? Health insurance from La Cosa Nostra?

[Fuddnik]

47. At least with La Cosa Nostra, you get burial benefits.

[Demeter]

48. BUT A VERY SMALL NETWORK FOR BURIAL PLOTS.

Most of them unconventional....

[xchrom]

26. Persistent Credit Contraction Is Europe's Achilles' Heel

http://www.businessinsider.com/credit-contraction-in-europe-charts-2014-1

In spite of a number of positive economic indicators out of the Eurozone (see example), credit growth remains the area's Achilles' heel. The latest private sector loan growth aggregate from the ECB shows an annual decline of 1.8% (adjusted for sales and securitization - see press release). Here is what it looks like for the area's households and corporations



Read more: http://soberlook.com/2014/01/euro-areas-persistent-credit-contraction.html#ixzz2pR6nisHL

[Demeter]

27. Good morning! It's 35F in Helsinki, and 16F here.

I ask you, is that fair?

[Demeter]

32. All we have to do is dream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lTYe9eDqxe8

[Demeter]

33. Let it be us

[Demeter]

34. So Sad

[Demeter]

37. When Will I Be Loved--forever, guys!

Phil wrote this. I never knew!

[Demeter]

38. Together Again--together never more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vXkXY_BEd4Y

[Demeter]

39. Edward Snowden Evolved From Gaming Geek to Conscientious Whistleblower

http://truth-out.org/news/item/20983-edward-snowden-evolved-from-gaming-geek-to-conscientious-whistleblower-how-a-high-tech-spy-came-in-from-the-cold

The year 2003 was the last that 18-year-old Edward Snowden lived a normal life. Snowden, a computer gaming jock and fan of Japanese animation, was about to enter a decade-long journey deep inside the "black ops" secret spy world of the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA], the Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA] and the National Security Agency [NSA]. His trip would end in June 2013, at a chic room at the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong, where he divulged thousands of top-secret NSA documents to filmmaker Laura Poitras and investigative reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill of The Guardian newspaper.

The publication of the "Snowden Papers" has caused an international sensation for 6 months as each revelation adds to the sense that US intelligence is completely out of control and without any limits. Even US diplomats were shocked by the depth of US spying. Overnight, Snowden became the most famous leaker in the annals of US intelligence. He was nominated for the alternative Nobel Peace Prize, won awards for being a whistleblower; yet to many in the US intelligence community he also became Public Enemy #1.

But back in May 2003, Snowden was a little-known teenage tech geek helping friends at Ryuhana Press, a website where the young Snowden worked at what he described as "Web Editor/Coffee Boy. "His avatar was a geek, with a T-shirt emblazoned "I (heart) Me," spiky hair, granny glasses on the tip of his nose and a green scarf draped around his neck. "I really am a nice guy," was the intro to his online web profile that continued, "you see, I act arrogant and cruel because I was not hugged enough as a child, and the public education system turned it's [sic] wretched, spiked back on me."

THE LEGEND BEGINS....FASCINATING READING


Snowden's initial plan, according to an interview he gave The Guardian, was to release secret files in late 2007. However, Barack Obama's election offered Snowden pause, a moment of hope. Would Obama revert the massive surveillance systems and balance citizen freedoms and privacies? Snowden thought the answer was a possible yes, so he postponed his plans to blow the roof off NSA secret ops.

YES, THE IRONY OF OBAMA...THE EMPTIEST OF SUITS...IMITATING ART, IE:

"LUKE, I AM YOUR FATHER"

Yet, Snowden's story is far from over. He will be called a hero. A traitor. A spy for Russia. A Chinese collaborator. A kamikaze information trafficker and far worse. Some will call for him to be awarded the Noble Peace Prize. Others will suggest a one-way trip to the firing squad. But analyzing what is known about the last decade of Snowden's life, the evidence points to the growing frustration of a programming wizard who accidentally fell into the world of Top Secret information warfare. Snowden's decision to go public had little to do with money or fame. He was firing a shot in what he hoped would ignite as a worldwide debate regarding what he described as the "Architecture of Oppression."

Jonathan Franklin is an author and reporter based in Santiago, Chile. He writes frequently for The Guardian and is author of 33 Men, the chronicle of 33 Chilean miners trapped underground. He is currently working on a book about solutions to PTSD in US war vets. He can be contacted at [e-mail]

Copyright of Jonathan Franklin. Not to be reprinted without the permission of the author. Follow him at @FranklinBlog on Twitter.

[Demeter]

40. NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption

THE LATEST NEWS FLASH FROM "HERO OF THE REPUBLIC" EDWARD SNOWDEN...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-seeks-to-build-quantum-computer-that-could-crack-most-types-of-encryption/2014/01/02/8fff297e-7195-11e3-8def-a33011492df2_story.html?hpid=z1



In room-size metal boxes ­secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world.

According to documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the effort to build “a cryptologically useful quantum computer” — a machine exponentially faster than classical computers — is part of a $79.7 million research program titled “Penetrating Hard Targets.” Much of the work is hosted under classified contracts at a laboratory in College Park, Md....

[Demeter]

41. The NSA Is Building a Quantum Computer? We Already Knew That

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/01/hard_targets/


WITH ANY LUCK, THEY WILL DEVELOP COLD FUSION, FIRST....

[Demeter]

42. Administration moves on 2 fronts to preserve NSA surveillance

FOX NEWS?!! MAYBE AN ALLY TO SHUT THE DAMN THING DOWN?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/03/justice-department-appeals-judge-ruling-against-nsa/

The Obama administration moved on two fronts Friday to preserve the National Security Agency's controversial spy programs, appealing a major ruling against the agency while winning permission from a secretive court to continue collecting Americans' phone records.

The request to keep collecting phone records was made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. These requests are made periodically -- and have been made public ever since the NSA controversy erupted last summer -- but this would be the first since two conflicting court decisions about the program's legality. The FISA court approved the request.

The Justice Department on Friday also appealed the ruling of a federal judge who, in a major rebuke for the administration, said the National Security Agency's data collection likely violates the Constitution. In its brief court filing, the department said it was appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia....

[Demeter]

43. Solar Ascendancy: Minnesota Court Ruling for Solar over Gas a Harbinger of Things to Come Juan Cole

http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/ascendancy-minnesota-harbinger.html?

Minnesota Judge Eric Lipman found that solar is a better deal than natural gas for Xcel Energy, permitting Geronimo Energy to construct 20 huge solar facilities worth $250 million in Xcel’s service area in that state. The amount of solar power in the state would increase by a factor of 7. The ruling still has to be approved by the Public Utilities Commission.

Here’s the kicker: Geronimo’s Aurora solar project will get no state subsidy (it is eligible for a Federal tax break, as are most solar projects including individual rooftop solar panel installations– these have not been affected by the budget uncertainties on Federal wind farm subsidies). This ruling marks the first time that unsubsidized solar has gone toe to toe with natural gas and won (natural gas also receives Federal subsidies). As such, it may mark a turning point. The ruling itself is the harbinger, whether the plan goes through or not.

But we can expect Big Oil and unscrupulous billionaire hydrocarbon moguls like the Koch brothers to attempt to block renewables by having pliant right wing legislators slap penalties on them (such Libertarians, they are). Remember that Big Oil and the other hydrocarbon industries get billions in government subsidies...



The US recently has been installing almost a gigawatt of new solar power every quarter, and has just joined the 10 gigawatt club. (A light bulb uses 40 watts; a gigawatt is a billion watts). All new power generation in November came from renewables....

[Demeter]

44. Capitalism in Crisis: Who Are the Real "Takers"? By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers |

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20988-capitalism-in-crisis-who-are-the-real-takers

Capitalism is in crisis across the globe. When both the President of the United States and the Pope take out after its worst manifestations within days of each other, you know there's an internal time-bomb inside this dysfunctional economic system.

Though the American population clearly feels and is forced to deal with the ramifications of this failing system, it's highly unlikely that capitalism will be dismantled in favor of full-scale socialism. (Even though recent U.S. polls demonstrate that "socialism" no longer is a boogeyman to be frightened of.) So the question now is which type of economic system do we want to live under: hard line, I've-got-mine-Jack-you're-on-your-own capitalism? "capitalism with a human face"? democratic socialism? a new blend?

While we're considering those choices, let's look at a little history...Back in the 1930s, following the economic crash and Great Depression, both socialism and communism were gaining force in the United States and around the globe.

To cut the legs out from under those leftist movements, the aristocratic President Roosevelt borrowed a bit of socialism for the creation of the Social Security system and other people-friendly programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) to put out-of-work laborers temporarily on the federal payroll to help construct roads, bridges, parks and public buildings...

CONTINUES

[Demeter]

45. Well, it's now up to 23F (windchill of 13F)

so I will bundle up and deal with it for a while. See you all tonight!


DON'T FORGET: NOMINATIONS FOR WISE MEN AND WOMEN!

[Fuddnik]

49. Well, guess which lazy Phool is tarting a new job Monday.

[Demeter]

50. I dread the answer, but how do you TART a job?

Congrats, Doc! If that's what you really wanted....

[Fuddnik]

52. Okay the keyboard is acting goofy again.

Didn't really wanna, but between homeowners and flood insurance, I need a buffer.

But I still want to keep the job at the golf course, just for the free golf.

[Demeter]

51. bedtime for Demeter

See you all after brunch! Stay warm and dry, and sleep well!

[Fuddnik]

57. Wasn't that the title of a Ronald Reagan movie?

[Demeter]

62. You trying to make a monkey out of me?

[xchrom]

53. WEED STARTUPS: High Times Magazine Is Launching A Private Equity Fund For Marijuana Businesses

http://www.businessinsider.com/high-times-private-equity-fund-2014-1



It's now legal to purchase recreational marijuana in Colorado — and while the legal weed market is young — it's going to get a serious boost from executives of High Times magazine, who announced a new private equity fund to invest in cannabis-related businesses, Denver Post is reporting.

HT Growth Fund hopes to raise $100 million over the next two years, the Post reported.

Led by Michael Kennedy, general counsel and director for High Times, and Michael Safir, High Times' business manager, the fund hopes to make investments in companies from $2 million to $5 million.

This is obviously good news for businesses affiliated with marijuana, as it can be tougher to get small business loans or even have bank accounts.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/high-times-private-equity-fund-2014-1#ixzz2pWUFoSay

[xchrom]

54. Feldstein to Summers Forecast Quickening U.S. Growth This Year

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-04/feldstein-joins-summers-predicting-stronger-u-s-growth-in-2014.html

U.S. economic growth will accelerate this year even as the pace of expansion remains sub-par almost five years after the end of the recession, according to academic economists and former policy makers.

“2014 is going to be a better year,” Martin Feldstein, a professor at Harvard University and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Ronald Reagan, said yesterday in Philadelphia. “There is no reason for pessimism about our near future if we adopt appropriate policies.”

Feldstein pointed to diminishing drag from fiscal policy and an $8 trillion increase in household wealth over the last 12 months from rising stocks and home prices. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 30 percent last year for its biggest advance since 1997, while house prices rose in October from a year earlier by the most in more than seven years, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index of values in 20 cities.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is among the Wall Street banks turning more optimistic, predicting this week the economy will expand 2.8 percent this year, an increase from its 2.5 percent estimate of a month ago and faster than the 1.9 percent it calculates for 2013.

[xchrom]

55. Water Bonds Shrivel as California Sees Driest Year

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-02/water-bonds-shrivel-as-california-sees-driest-year-muni.html



The driest year on record for Los Angeles and San Francisco is threatening water supplies to the world’s most productive agricultural region and almost doubling borrowing costs on some bonds issued by California water agencies.

Los Angeles, which normally gets almost 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain a year, got less than 4 inches in 2013, according to the National Weather Service. San Francisco, where 22 inches is typical, got 6. Severe or extreme drought grips 85 percent of California, a federal monitor reported Dec. 24.

The scarcity is depleting California’s reservoirs and jeopardizing the credit of at least 30 water agencies that had been considered safe bets because their debt is backed by user fees rather than general taxes. Concern grew in November when the California Water Resources Department, the state’s largest supplier, said it was filling just 5 percent of orders from local water agencies, the lowest in five years. Less supply means lower sales and revenue.

“Supply is always at the center of our analysis of California water agencies,” said Michael E. Johnson, managing director of Gurtin Fixed Income Management LLC in Solana Beach, California.

[xchrom]

56. Loans in Asia Recover as Borrowing Costs Slip Most in Decade

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-02/loans-in-asia-recover-as-borrowing-costs-slide-most-in-decade.html

Syndicated lending in Asia rebounded last year as companies boosted borrowing to take advantage of the biggest drop in loan interest rates in a decade.

Borrowers led by China National Offshore Oil Corp. and Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG) pushed lending volumes in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan to $423.6 billion last year from $387.6 billion in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The average interest margins charged for U.S. dollar-denominated loans shrank 23 basis points, the most since at least 2003, to 267 basis points, the data show.

After sliding 16 percent in 2012, the amount of loans jumped last year ahead of moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve to unwind record stimulus that had caused volatility in the bond market and helped lower loan prices. Dollar bond sales in the region fell almost 50 percent to $44.9 billion in the second half of 2013 from $82.6 billion in the first six months.

“Price tightening in the loan market had a positive impact on overall volumes in 2013,” said Priscilla Lee, the Hong Kong-based head of northeast Asia loan syndications at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. “Spreads are unlikely to drop further this year.”

[xchrom]

58. Libya restarts southern oil field amid ongoing blockade

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25612254

Libya has restarted oil production at the El Sharara field in the south of the troubled country after protesters ended a blockade, Reuters reports.

The National Oil Corporation said that it was shipping the equivalent of 60,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).

It hopes to reach the field's maximum output capacity of around 340,000 bpd within three days.

Blockades of oil terminals since July have severely restricting exports of oil, Libya's main source of income.

[xchrom]

59. No bonanza yet for big funds from new rules to cut risk

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/05/uk-regulation-collateral-funds-idUKBREA0405R20140105


(Reuters) - If pension funds, insurers and sovereign wealth funds were hoping to cash in on lending "high quality" assets to those scrambling to meet tougher collateral requirements in 2014, they are likely to be disappointed.

The phasing in of the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act and its European equivalent EMIR (European Markets Infrastructure Regulation) over the next 18 months is expected to boost demand for assets like top rated sovereign debt to back derivative trades.

But for all the industry warnings of a squeeze in supply -dismissed by regulators as a tactic to lobby for weaker rules - the amount of available collateral outstripped demand last year and things are unlikely to change much near term.

"People are still expecting this demand to come but there's plenty of supply at the moment and until that comes under pressure, fees won't rise appreciably," said David Lewis, senior vice president at Sungard's data firm, Astec Analytics.

[xchrom]

60. Retreating U.S. stimulus poses risk to world recovery

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/04/uk-economy-global-idUKBREA030D120140104

(Reuters) - The world economy should finally overcome its hangover from the global financial crisis this year as growth picks up and house prices rise, but reduced U.S. monetary stimulus will pose a challenge.

After months of angst, investors will see how the U.S. Federal Reserve handles its decision to curtail its policy of easy money, starting from this month.

U.S. jobs data on Friday will give markets a sense of the pace at which the Fed plans to pare back its bond-buying programme, while minutes on Wednesday from its December 18 meeting will throw light on the central bank's thinking.

"The United States will be the main focus given the Fed has finally started to taper its asset purchases," said James Knightley, a senior economist at ING in London, referring to what economists call the "tapering" of U.S. stimulus.

[xchrom]

61. Watchdog slams Deutsche Bank for Libor probe response - report

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/05/uk-deutschebank-libor-report-idUKBREA0408E20140105

(Reuters) - German banking watchdog BaFin criticised Deutsche Bank's (DBKGn.DE) management for the way it responded to a probe into manipulation of the Libor benchmark interest rate, according to German magazine Der Spiegel.

BaFin and other regulators are investigating more than a dozen banks and brokerages over allegations they manipulated benchmark interest rates such as Libor and Euribor, which are used to benchmark trillions of dollars of financial products from derivatives to mortgages and credit card loans.

BaFin launched a probe last year on which it is working with the Bundesbank and accountant Ernst & Young ERNY.UL, delving into suspected misconduct by individual traders and their counterparts at other banks.

"The Ernst & Young report shows that insufficient efforts were made to investigate and clear up events in the bank," weekly Der Spiegel on Sunday quoted a BaFin report as saying. That BaFin report summarised preliminary findings that the regulator submitted to Deutsche Bank in August.

[Demeter]

63. I'm too cold to post

Try for later...like Monday?

[Demeter]

64. No Idiot Left Behind

http://assets.amuniversal.com/d5c852b057900131618d001dd8b71c47