STOCK MARKET WATCH - Thursday, 16 February 2012

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 16 February 2012[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 15 February 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 15 February 2012
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Dow Jones 12,780.95 -97.33 (-0.76%)
S&P 500 1,343.23 -7.27 (-0.54%)
Nasdaq 2,915.83 -16.00 (-0.55%)


[font color=black]10 Year 1.93% 0.00 (0.00%)
[font color=green]30 Year 3.09% +0.01 (0.32%)
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[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
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[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
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Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
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The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
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LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
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[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
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Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
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Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = [/font][font color=red]12[/font]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS



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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]

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Yeah, I know. He forgot the

zombie banks.

[rfranklin]

2. Bankers: All your money is ours!

And therein lay the dirty little secret of modern banking: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SEGREGATED ACCOUNT. It is simply a helpful way to think about money and banking; it does not exist in the real world.

Consider your basic bank account — checking, savings, passbook, etc. We go through massive contortions to create an illusion that your money is yours, that its safe and sound in a bank with your name on it, in your own virtual safe deposit box. But that is simply not the reality of modern banking. What you perceive as “your money” is little more than an electronic journal on the banks accounting ledgers.

Fractional reserve banking means that the $100 you deposit is lent out — only $10 of your $100 is kept in reserve. Under normal circumstances, with thousands of depositors and millions of dollars, the banks have no trouble giving customers who ask for their money back the full amount at anytime. But it is not as if your money is sitting in an account waiting for you — you merely have a claim on those monies, and that claim is insured by the FDIC, and backed by taxpayers (theoretically).

You are, in fact, a counter-party to your bank.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/volcker-rule-mfglobal-bankcounterparty/

[Tansy_Gold]

3. Too true, too true.

For the past 12 years or so, I've kept a small amount of cash -- "small" being relative of course -- out of the banks. It started out as a couple hundred bucks, slowly grew to very low four figures. For a while I had some of it in American Express traveler's cheques and I may even still have a few of those around. Sometimes I dipped into this emergency fund and then slowly built it back up again.

I know that it's more than what my insurance will cover if it's lost or stolen or burned in a fire, so in that sense it would be safer in a bank.

But I don't trust the banks, either.

And on the third hand, those 20s and 50s and even a couple of 100s are only worth what the government will guarantee them for, and I don't trust the government either.

[AnneD]

44. And that my dear Tansy....

is the crux of the matter.

I don't trust banks. I trust my credit union over my bank. I carry very little money in my accounts.

I have no faith in the Stock Market, it is as honest and fair as a casino.

I have grown to have very little trust and faith in our fiat currency.

I am gradually having less faith in our property rights and real estate laws.

I don't trust the government at all these days.

So there you have it...who do you trust.

[Demeter]

4. Today's Theme Song

&feature=player_embedded

Yes, I'm still cranky....too many emergencies, and I'm supposed to fix them all....meanwhile, the little bit of peace and order is shot to smithereens.

[Demeter]

24. The Geek Barrier

I have (5:30 to 8:30 am) caught up with history, now there's today. I don't think I'll get any posting (or laundry) done until tonight...stay out of trouble, hear?

[xchrom]

5. i'm up -- effie and petunia are still in bed. oh and petunia SNORES.

[DemReadingDU]

8. My beagle snores, loudly

[xchrom]

9. I'm in good company! Nt

[Tansy_Gold]

18. Chiquita snores horribly, too

Usually she sleeps on her blankie on the other side of the bed so I don't hear her too much.

If Biscuit gets the blankie first,



then Chiquita curls up in a towel nest right next to my side of the bed, in the narrow space between the bed and the cedar chest.



When she curls up, she snores horribly. Biscuit grabbed the blankie first last night, so I didn't get much sleep.

[xchrom]

20. ...

that is almost more cuteness than i can stand!

petunia has taken to sleeping right by my head -- and she is a heat hog so she has to be cuddled up to boot.

[Fuddnik]

17. The Fudd used to snore and fart.

Those silent, deadly things that would take the paint off the walls. They'd wake you up out of a dead sleep.

[xchrom]

21. ...

[Tansy_Gold]

23. There's your cure for cuteness overload, X!

(Chiquita can be guilty of the same. There are times I don't need to turn around to know she's asleep behind my office chair!)

[xchrom]

28. oh indeed. nt

[Tansy_Gold]

30. (But we love 'em to pieces anyway!) n/t

[xchrom]

32. they're wondeful, really.

even though there are days i want to kill them, skin them and parade around in their pelts like a cave woman.

[AnneD]

45. LOL....

Rascal, the little old Jewish man, snores and wheezes like an asthmatic chain smoker with emphesemia. And yes, his gas clears up my sinuses. Valentine, the west highland terror, is the dumb blond. Sometimes she chases birds and squirrels in her dreams, but she is quiet at night.

Sampson the cat is the bed hog if I let him. I put him in the bathroom at night, which he does not like. I am a light sleeper and need my rest. He just won't let me sleep otherwise.

[xchrom]

46. ah -- all our little babies -- they have such personalities!

i hate it when my dogs chase rabbits in bed -- scares Teh Bejeezus out of me in the middle of the night.

thankfully it doesn't happen often.

[AnneD]

56. I had a Cairn Terrier once....

she got up in the bed with me and crawled under the covers (it must have been cold for her). I went to turn over and touched that coat and almost had a heart attack, I thought a rat was in the bed with me. We scared each other out of the bed.

[xchrom]

57. LOL! Nt

[xchrom]

6. Reform Hero Takes on Corruption in Thessaloniki

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,815289,00.html

On a recent Thursday, the mayor of the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki was sitting in an enormous office in Berlin's Tempelhof district. He didn't mince his words. "Your city is clean, while ours is dirty," said Yiannis Boutaris, speaking in a deep and gravelly voice. "What works in your city doesn't work in ours." He had come to Berlin to learn how to change this deplorable state of affairs. And he wants to do it as quickly as possible.

Boutaris, 69, is a slim, wiry man with gold-colored, metal-rimmed glasses, a gold stud in his ear and spiky gray hair. He and his delegation are visiting the headquarters of the Berlin waste utility BSR. A projector hangs on the wall above him. Boutaris has just watched a PowerPoint presentation about Berlin's approach to the "recycling of biogenic waste to use organic residual material from residential waste." He now knows that the German capital generates 1.3 million tons of garbage a year, and that the city's 200,000 dogs present one of the biggest obstacles to keeping streets clean.

Dogs are the least of his problems in Thessaloniki, where the entire waste disposal system doesn't work. Boutaris raises his hands and says: "We need your help."

The fact that the mayor of Greece's second-largest city is making this request is a minor sensation in itself. Not a day passes on which one Greek paper or another doesn't discuss the supposed parallels between present-day conditions in the country and the Nazi occupation. And now a Greek politician is asking the Germans for advice on how to clean up his city?

[xchrom]

7. Doubting Greeks’ Resolve, Euro Zone May Hold Back Full Bailout

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/world/europe/doubting-greeks-resolve-euro-zone-may-hold-back-full-bailout.html?ref=global

BERLIN — Distrustful of Greek politicians, European leaders considered a plan on Wednesday to hold back a significant share of the $171 billion bailout for the deeply indebted country even if Athens passes the austerity measures demanded by its international lenders.

“Statements and assurances from Greece are no longer taken at face value,” said Wolfram Schrettl, professor of economics at the Free University in Berlin. “There is a growing belief that Greece is looking for a sucker — and Germany’s playing the sucker.”

Financial experts say they still expect the deal to go through in some form, but the haggling and potential changes — spiced by a remark from the Greek finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, that “there are many in the euro zone who don’t want us anymore” — were enough to send financial markets reeling in Europe and the United States.

In a conference call on Wednesday evening, the European finance ministers discussed a plan under which they might pay only about $40 billion to help reach a deal with private-sector bondholders and assure that Greece could meet a $19 billion bond payment in late March. But under that plan they would not sign off on the rest of the package until a new Greek government is formed after parliamentary elections in April.

[Demeter]

25. I've never seen such bastardy over money in my lifetime

except in the US Congress, but that's domestic, not international. If they want Greece to default, cut the crap and let it die. There's no blood in that stone, not any more.

[xchrom]

29. +1

[xchrom]

10. Japan tops list of countries deepest in debt

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/15/10408834-japan-tops-list-of-countries-deepest-in-debt

The Greek government on Sunday agreed to drastic austerity measures in the hopes of securing a 130 billion euro bailout from international creditors -- the second in two years. The measures include dramatic cuts in pay, pensions and government services.

The creditors, which include the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, demanded that by Wednesday Greece show clear evidence of how it will make 325 million euro of the 3.3 billion euro cuts. Greece, which has among the worst debt in the world, faces default as early as March if it does not get the loan.
Advertise | AdChoices

In addition to Greece, several European Union member countries now face overwhelming government debt. On Monday, Moody’s downgraded six countries, including Italy, Portugal and Spain. Other countries, like Germany and Japan, also have burdensome debts, but unlike Greece or other troubled EU members, their debt problems are not unmanageable. 24/7 Wall St. has identified the countries that have the highest debt-to-GDP ratios.

Many of the countries with the highest debt levels relative to their gross domestic products have been hit hardest by the global recession. Greece, Ireland and Portugal all have unemployment rates above 14 percent. Wealth in these countries is extremely low. In the case of Portugal, GDP per capita in 2010 was just $25,575, lower than every country in the developed world except Slovakia. The combination of extremely high debt, high liabilities and sinking national productivity has resulted in credit downgrades to below investment grade, or junk, bond status. Moody’s rates Ireland “Ba2,” Greece “Ca,” and just downgraded Portugal to “Ba3.”

[DemReadingDU]

11. Moody's warns may downgrade 17 global banks, securities firms

2/16/12 Moody's warns may downgrade 17 global banks, securities firms

(Reuters) - Moody's warned on Thursday it may cut the credit ratings of 17 global and 114 European financial institutions in another sign the impact of the euro zone government debt crisis is spreading throughout the global financial system.

It was reviewing the long-term ratings and standalone credit assessments of a range of banks, Moody's added. Markets were unaffected by the Moody's announcement.

"Capital markets firms are confronting evolving challenges, such as more fragile funding conditions, wider credit spreads, increased regulatory burdens and more difficult operating conditions," the ratings agency said in a statement.

It said among 17 banks and securities firms with global capital markets operations, it might cut the long-term credit rating of UBS, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley by as much as three notches following the review. It said the guidance was indicative.

Among the banks that might be downgraded by two notches are Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings, and Goldman Sachs.

Bank of America and Nomura were included in those that might be downgraded by one notch.

The U.S. rating agency said in a separate statement its action on 114 financial institutions from 16 European nations reflected the impact of the debt crisis and deteriorating creditworthiness of its governments.

more...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/moodys-may-downgrade-17-banks-003723628.html

[xchrom]

13. wow. nt

[Demeter]

26. And about time, too

I'd say Greece, the Euro, and the shadow banking system are now officially toast...it's all over but the screaming.

[DemReadingDU]

34. Greek rhetoric turns into battle of wills

2/16/12 Greek rhetoric turns into battle of wills

The battle of wills between Athens and its eurozone lenders has intensified, with Greece’s finance minister accusing “forces in Europe” of pushing his country out of the euro while his German counterpart suggested postponing Greek elections and installing a new government without political parties.

more...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/78f9f072-5808-11e1-bf61-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1mYTAe5kJ

[Demeter]

47. Greece Ain't Ever Going to Get that Money--so they should just bite the bullet and default

and that will fix the Volkswagen, and everyone else's wagon, too.

They don't get paid enough to take this kind of abuse.

[xchrom]

48. and there it is...

'They don't get paid enough to take this kind of abuse.'

[xchrom]

12. Euro zone seeks Greek oversight

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0216/breaking14.html

Euro zone ministers are seeking additional oversight of Greece's economy in return for releasing a €130 billion bailout package, the second such rescue fund for the country.

Although finance ministers heralded progress last night in contentious negotiations on a new rescue pact, tension flared as the Greek president Karolos Papoulias declared his country would not be subjected to taunts from Germany.

A decision on the bailout is expected to be finalised on Monday.

The delay in the decision has unnerved investors and prompted a pause in the market rally that has marked the start of 2012. European shares fell and the euro eased to a three-week low in early trade.

[xchrom]

14. Still No End to 'Too Big to Fail'

http://www.thenation.com/blog/166277/still-no-end-too-big-fail

When Congress passed the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill in the summer of 2010, the Obama administration made happy talk about putting an end to “too big to fail” banks. Hold the champagne. The Federal Reserve Board has just created the fifth-largest bank in the country, despite a flood of warnings from community advocates and smaller banks.

Skeptics in financial markets are entitled to their skepticism. Capital One has been rapidly assembling this new behemoth, acquiring local deposits and credit card operations in a series of mergers. Federal Reserve governors reviewed the complaints and rejected them. In banking regulation, the “new normal” so far looks a lot like the “old normal.”

Of course, it is impossible to say this marks an end to reform. But it’s a real downer for the reform advocates. They have pleaded for a different perspective from the Fed regulators—weighing the “public benefits” of bank consolidations against the “adverse effects,” as Dodd-Frank requires. But the Fed made this calculation on very narrow grounds.The governors concluded that one more very large bank will not by itself bring down the system. True enough. But each decision the Fed makes now on applying the new rules sets a precedent for its future decisions. How big is too big? The Capital One decision seems to say size is not an issue.

Reform groups like the National Community Reinvestment Coalition argued that the new, enlarged Capital One is a bad bet on its own terms because its business model is grounded in credit card debt, with a heavy portion of so-called “subprime” credit card holders—borrowers much like the “subprime” mortgage holders now lined up for foreclosure and bankruptcy. When the credit card bubble bursts, these critics say, the government will stick with the same bad choice—bailing out the creditors when the debtors fail.

[Demeter]

27. Well, that's just .... Lovely

What is wrong with these people?

[xchrom]

31. i don't think i want to know any more about what's wrong with them. nt

[xchrom]

15. Eurozone crisis live: Greece bailout fears unnerve markets

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/16/greece-bailout-eurozone-crisis-live


Greek President Karolos Papoulias attacked Germany's conduct during the crisis yesterday, heightening disagreements within the eurozone. Photograph: Simela Pantzartzi/EPA

11.55am Last Sunday's riots continue to cause chaos in Athens, Helena Smith reports:

It turns out that practically every single traffic light in central Athens was destroyed in the orgy of violence that erupted during parliament's dramatic vote on the loan deal.

Some 200 traffic wardens have been rushed down town to bring order to the roads . But four days later traffic chaos still reigns supreme. Apparently, the cash-strapped transport ministry doesn't have the funds to replace the lights.


Photograph: Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters

Here's a picture of Athens commuters standing around one vandalised traffic light, on Tuesday.

11.35am Portugal continues to be buffetted from two sides today – its economy is weakening as austerity takes hold, and economists fear that it will be dragged deeper into the crisis by Greece.

First the economics: The Portuguese unemployment rate jumped to 14% in the last three months of 2011, up from 12.4% in the previous three months. That's the highest rate since the 1980s.

[Tansy_Gold]

50. I really reeally reeeeeally don't like

"political" leaders who have a bunch of fat generals sitting behind them.

I really really don't.

[xchrom]

51. isn't that a picture?

i think that's taken when he was telling the germans off -- so i don't think those are greek soldiers there.

why are those generals even there?

[xchrom]

16. GM Earns Record $9.19 Billion Net Income While Opel Loses Money

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-16/gm-earns-record-9-19-billion-net-income-while-opel-loses-money.html

General Motors Co. (GM), which regained the global auto sales lead last year, earned $9.19 billion last year, the largest profit in its 103-year-history, while its European business again lost money.

Profit in the fourth quarter fell 25 percent to 39 cents a share, trailing the 41-cent average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Net income attributable to stockholders slid 48 percent to $725 million, the lowest in two years.

GM North America earnings before interest and taxes more than tripled for the year to $7.19 billion on improved U.S. sales. The automaker’s Europe business, including the Opel brand, lost $747 million for the year. While that’s better than Europe’s $1.76 billion loss in 2010, it’s not break-even as GM had planned until November.

“GM’s results in Europe certainly dampen the positive results in the U.S. but you have to still say they had a really good year,” Rebecca Lindland, an industry analyst with IHS Automotive, said before the results were released. Before a government-backed bankruptcy in 2009, “they were making record losses, so they’ve made a tremendous amount of progress.”

[xchrom]

19. Angela Merkel and the politics of doom

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/angela-merkel-and-the-politics-of-doom-2012-02-16?dist=beforebell

DUBLIN (MarketWatch) — It’s a rare occasion when a German politician makes an Irish audience laugh with a joke about Italian politics. Yet recently, former German Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, speaking at Trinity College here, did just that.

He was referring to former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as the “Bunga-Bunga” prime minister. The phrase, in case you are wondering, is now a European-wide description allegedly first used by Berlusconi of the sex parties with which he has now become synonymous.

What was interesting about Fischer’s use of the phrase, however, is that it is yet another example of how the hugely diverse 500 million people who live within the European Union are becoming more aware of the political culture and language of each other’s states.

It was not that long ago that the vast majority of Europeans, on hearing of the word Papademos, would have assumed that it referred to a bleach-based toilet cleaner rather than the current Greek prime minister. Another word that has entered common parlance across the Continent because of the euro-zone debt crisis is “austerity”, although it has to be said it has taken on two meanings depending on where you stand in the political spectrum.

[xchrom]

22. U.S. stock futures lower on Moody’s bank warning

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-futures-lower-on-moodys-bank-warning-2012-02-16?dist=beforebell

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower start for Wall Street Thursday after Moody’s Investors Service threatened to downgrade global banks, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and the fate of a second Greek bailout remained unclear.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/zigman/4222696 DJH2 -0.35% fell 45 points to 12,718. S&P 500 Index futures /quotes/zigman/782502 SPH2 -0.43% declined 7.1 points to 1,335.10, while Nasdaq 100 futures /quotes/zigman/2978008 NDH2 -0.28% lost 7.5 points to 2,550.

Moody’s late Wednesday said it was reviewing the ratings of more than 100 financial institutions around the globe due to the euro-zone crisis and other issues. Among major U.S. banks, it said Morgan Stanley /quotes/zigman/182639/quotes/nls/ms MS -1.64% could see its long-term ratings moved by up to three notches, while Goldman Sachs /quotes/zigman/188479/quotes/nls/gs GS -0.59% and J. P. Morgan /quotes/zigman/272085/quotes/nls/jpm JPM -0.67% could see a two-notch move. Moody's warnings

Morgan Stanley shares fell 0.8% in pre-market activity. In Frankfurt, shares of J.P. Morgan lost 1.9%, while Goldman Sachs lost 2.5%.

[Demeter]

53. Yeah, well that lasted all of zero seconds

Uncle Ben is putting out the big bucks again.

[xchrom]

54. Yeah I saw that. Totally weird. Nt

[xchrom]

33. China soon will overtake India as top gold market

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_WORLD_GOLD_DEMAND?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-16-08-57-45

HONG KONG (AP) -- China is poised to overtake India to become the world's biggest gold market this year as rising incomes fuel demand for the precious metal and a weak rupee diminishes Indian purchases, an industry group said Thursday.

The amount of gold bought in China rose 20 percent in 2011 over the year before to 770 metric tons, the World Gold Council said in its annual report. That put China behind only first-place India, where 933 metric tons were bought.

Worldwide, the amount of gold purchased rose 0.4 percent to 4,0671 metric tons worth $205.5 billion.

The council said it's "likely that China will emerge" as the world's largest gold market for the first time in 2012. China has already moved into top place on a quarterly basis, with 190.9 metric tons purchased in the last three months of 2011 versus 173 tons in India.

[xchrom]

35. China's trademark system baffles foreign firms

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/02/16/uk-china-trademark-idUKTRE81F0N620120216

(Reuters) - China's trademark system is a minefield of murky rules and opportunistic "trademark squatters" that even the world's biggest companies and their highly-paid lawyers find hard to navigate, as Apple and Facebook are the latest to find out.

While Apple (AAPL.O) is embroiled in a legal wrangle over the right to its "iPad" brand, Facebook has to contend with a slew of applications for more 60 variations of its name as it weighs up whether to enter the China market.

The technology giants' struggles strike a cord with entrepreneur Ben Walters.

New Jersey native Walters launched his OSPOP sneakers, based on a shoe design popular with Chinese workmen, in 2007.

[Roland99]

36. Feb. Philly Fed index hits 10.2 vs 7.3 in Jan. (highest since Oct.)

[Roland99]

37. U.S. Jan. housing starts up 1.5% to 699,000 rate

[Roland99]

41. Relative Difference Between Housing Starts And Completions Hits Record

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/lost-construction-relative-difference-between-housing-starts-and-completions-hits-record

While one can discuss seasonal factors, such as abnormally warm weather, as a driver of today's beat in Housing Starts, a far less noted number for headline purposes is the other side of the equation - Housing Completions. Because after all, every house that is started has to be completed at some point. One look at the chart below, shows why completions is quietly ignored, as it presents a far less optimistic picture about the housing market. Indeed, printing at 530k seasonally adjusted annualized units, the completions number was just the second lowest in decades, better only than the 509K from January 2011. And where this becomes rather glaring is when looking at the relative, or percentage, spread between Starts and Completions: at 31.9%, this was the highest in, well, as far as our data series goes back to. Does this mean that homebuilders are merely "breaking ground" for book keeping purposes, just to "paint the tape" and then quietly fading away into the night? We will know for sure in February when we get at least one more data print to validate or deny the recent troubling trend, but for the time being, to paraphrase a famous Bill Murray movie, is there something here being "lost in construction?" Or, far more simply, is this merely the latest ploy to paint not the tape so much as the economy in an election year with the latest incarnation of "cash for clunking construction"?

[Po_d Mainiac]

55. sometimes shit just don't add up

[Roland99]

38. Wholesale prices up 4.1% in past 12 months

[Roland99]

39. Continuing claims decline 100,000 to 3.43 million

[Roland99]

40. Four-week claims average falls 1,750 to 365,250

[xchrom]

42. Euro-refugees get cold reception in Norway

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1513001-euro-refugees-get-cold-reception-norway

"For a long time there’d been nothing to fall back on. My parents, who are already elderly, had been paying my mortgage of 540 euros for a few months. Nothing was working out, and my prospects were pretty dim. One night I was in a bar and the TV was on in the background. The programme was Españoles en el mundo, or “Spaniards Around the World”. A man came on who lived in northern Norway, and he said he was earning 4,000 euros. He seemed pretty happy. I said to myself, ‘Paco, you’ve got to get yourself up there.’"

Francisco Zamora, 44, of Alcantarilla (Murcia), is a quiet guy. He’s wearing a scarf wrapped three times around his neck to keep out the bitter cold. An electronics graduate, with experience in construction and factories, he was once earning 3,000 euros a month. But all that was left behind three years ago. Like him, hundreds of Spanish who have been without work for months left a Spain in crisis with their sights set on one of the richest countries in the world; the choice simply had to be a good one.

But once there, the myths crumbled around them. Lacking both qualification and languages, doors closed in their faces. The authorities don’t want to know anything about them. Some have spent all their savings and are barely surviving, and some are sleeping on the street.

Last August, Paco asked his parents for more money and bought a one-way ticket to Bergen. It was the first time he was out of Spain. In his pocket he had 225 euros. The first week he spent wandering around one of the most picturesque cities in the world.

[xchrom]

43. France Joins Spain to Defy Moody’s Downgrade With $18.5 Billion Bond Sales

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-15/france-joins-spain-to-defy-moody-s-with-14-3-billion-euro-debt-sale-plan.html

France and Spain sold 14.2 billion euros ($18.5 billion) in bonds, defying a ratings cut for some European nations by Moody’s Investors Service and concern about a second bailout for Greece.

Both countries had more demand for their debt than they offered. France sold 8.45 billion in two- three- and five-year bonds and 1.71 billion euros of index-linked debt. Spain issued 4.07 billion euros in securities maturing in 2015 and October 2019. The yield on France’s benchmark two-year notes fell, while Spanish borrowing costs rose.

The European Central Bank’s three-year lending program for banks, dubbed LTRO, helped demand for the auctions, which come three days after Moody’s cut the ratings of six European nations including Spain and revised its credit outlook on France to “negative.” European finance ministers postponed until at least Feb. 20 a decision slated for yesterday on Greek aid totaling 130 billion euros.

“Real-money investors are buying risk,” said Padhraic Garvey, head of developed-market debt at ING Groep NV in Amsterdam.

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49. Spanish banking stocks plunge as short sellers move in again and fears of possible Greek default re-

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/02/16/inenglish/1329410163_243434.html

Spanish bank stocks fell sharply on Thursday after the National Securities Commission (CNMV) decided to lift the ban on short-selling of the shares of financial companies.

Investors were also unnerved by a further delay to an agreement on a second bailout for Greece, raising the specter again of a messy default. The fall in banking stocks also coincided with an announcement overnight by Moody’s Investors Service of ratings action on 114 financial institutions in Europe. This includes 21 institutions in Spain, including Santander BBVA, Bankia and CaixaBank.

Moody’s argued the action was justified by the “adverse and prolonged impact of the euro area crisis, which makes the operating environment very difficult for European banks.”

Among the Spanish banks most affected was Bankia, which shed over eight percent due to the added concern of its exposure to the ailing property sector. The bank’s parent BFA on Wednesday said the value of land on its books as a result of loan foreclosures shot up 56 percent in six months to 4.714 billion euros.

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52. Al Gore wants "sustainable capitalism" - ROFL

Saw that over in LBN.

That's like putting lipstick on a Zombie and calling it Miss America (another zombie incarnation, come to think of it - which since I never do I have to wonder why it popped into mind? Maybe because it's another totally artificial construct?)

Al Gore is another of the neutered "Liberals" Chris Hedges writes about so scathingly. Servants of TPTB, just pleading for a kindlier, gentler Oligarch/Plutocracy.