STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday August 9

[ozymandius]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday August 9, 2010

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON August 6, 2010

Dow... 10,653.56 -21.42 (-0.20%)
Nasdaq... 2,288.47 -4.59 (-0.20%)
S&P 500... 1,121.64 -4.17 (-0.37%)
Gold future... 1,211 +5.50 (+0.46%)
10-Yr Bond... 2.82 -.00 (-0.07%)
30-Year Bond 4.02 +0.02 (+0.53%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours

Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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Bush Administration Officials Convicted = 2
Names: David Safavian, James Fondren

Bush Administration Officials Charged = 1
Name(s): Richard Lopez Razo

Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = 11

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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.

Read more: du

[ozymandius]

1. no goobermental reports today n/t

[ozymandius]

2. Oil sneaks above $81 as stock markets steady

Sneaks?


BANGKOK – Oil prices rose above $81 a barrel Monday in Asia, clawing back part of a big fall triggered by weak U.S. jobs figures as regional stock markets steadied.

Benchmark crude for September delivery was up 65 cents at $81.35 a barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.31 Friday to settle at $80.70.

Oil's fall on Friday was sparked by a Labor Department report that showed private employers hired 71,000 workers in July — way below the level needed to lower the unemployment rate which remained stuck at 9.5 percent.

That suggests U.S. demand for fuel will remain subdued as Americans keep a tight rein on personal spending.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

[ozymandius]

3. Forced to retire, some take Social Security early

MIAMI – Paul Skidmore's office is shuttered, his job gone, his 18-month job search fruitless and his unemployment benefits exhausted. So at 63, he plans to file this week for Social Security benefits, three years earlier than planned.

It is one of the most striking fallouts from the bad economy: Social Security is facing a rare shortfall this year as a wave of people like Skidmore opt to collect payments before their full retirement age. Adding to the strain on the trust are reduced tax collections sapped by the country's historic unemployment — still at 9.5 percent.

More people filed for Social Security in 2009 — 2.74 million — than any year in history, and there was a marked increase in the number receiving reduced benefits because they filed ahead of their full retirement age. The increase came as the full Social Security retirement age rose last year from 65 to 66.

People entitled to full benefits at 66 would receive 75 percent of their check if they began collecting four years early. Conversely, if they waited until they turned 70, collecting four years late, they would earn 32 percent more.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100808/ap_on_re_us/us_social_security_early_retirees

[fasttense]

9. Full retirement age is 70 years old under Social Security.

It was changed by Ronnie Raygun and Greenspan in 1983. Before they meddled with it, it was 65 for full retirement.

Take a look at your Social Security statement. There are 2 levels of payments on it. To get your full payments (the ones you paid twice for) you have to be 70 years old. On my statement it says that my full retirement age is 66 but when I look at what I would get if I waited until 70 years old, it would be 28% more.

In order to get your full payout, the full amount you are owed for paying double in Social Security taxes most of your life, you have to retire at 70 years old.

So, the next time an idiot Repuke says they are going to raise the age of retirement, ask yourself how much older? Do you really have a chance of living that long?

[ozymandius]

10. Consider how the retirement age was determined.

Otto von Bismark, whose model for retirement age the United States followed with Social Security, chose the age of 65 as the age when veterans of German wars would receive their full pension. That also happened to be the age when they typically died from years of rough living.

[saigon68]

15. Few lived to 65 a hundred years ago

With no antibiotics and little science into disease 1 in 3 children never lived past 18 months

[rfranklin]

19. They also never contributed to Social Security....

Their demise is hardly a factor in evaluating the economics of the sytem.

[Warpy]

39. People who survived the usual childhood diseases

generally had robust enough immune systems to allow them to live to what we still call a ripe old age, well into their 70s. It's a fiction that people died shortly after they achieved the age of 65 when Social Security was first started, the 1930s were not that primitive, folks. Dentistry is the one thing that allowed people to survive longer, and painless dentistry and tooth restoration had been around for some time, thanks to nitrous oxide and then novocaine.

Raising the retirement age is cruel, short sighted, and stupid. Not all of us work cushy jobs like the one Mr. Boehner has. Most of us have some degree of physical work and that's the kind of work that wrecks our bodies, usually before we hit 65. Others of us have found that corporate expiration date of 55 stamped on our foreheads, the actuarial tables telling them that's the age we're likely to start driving health premiums up and we're making too much money, anyway, and it's now cheaper to train a green kid right out of school. We're taking early retirement at 62 now, not because all of us are incapable of working, but because our benefits and savings are gone and we need to eat.

Mr. Boehner and the young and healthy need to consider the other options, like raising the cap on contributions and making it impossible for Congress to raid overpayments to the system in the future by taking it out of the general fund. Mr. Boehner is terrified of raising that cap because he knows his have-mores constituents won't like it.

Republicans have been talking like this since the program first started and have always been its deadly enemies, chipping away at it whenever they could. They need to be fought tooth and nail on raising the retirement age and cutting benefits. They need to be kept out of office forever.

[Demeter]

40. The Anti-Smoking and Healthy Heart Programs Have Also Had an Impact

My mother died at 63 of cancer due to smoking.

[ozymandius]

4. World markets mostly higher, yen hits Japan stocks

BANGKOK – World stock markets mostly rose Monday, shrugging off weak U.S. jobs figures as a sign of a slow economic recovery rather than a lurch back into recession.

The Labour Department report showing that private employers in the world's biggest economy hired only 71,000 workers in July was disappointing but not bad enough to reactivate the recession fears that unnerved markets in the past two months. Unemployment remained stuck at 9.5 percent.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 1.5 percent at 5,414.47, France's CAC-40 gained 1.6 percent to 3,774.30 and Germany's DAX added 1.2 percent to 6,337.18. Futures pointed to modest gains on Wall Street with Dow futures up 18 points, or 0.2 percent, at 10,631.

Earlier in Asia, the yen approaching a 15-year high against the dollar hit shares of Japanese exporters as a strong yen makes their products less competitive in overseas markets. The Nikkei 225 stock average lost 69.63 points, or 0.7 percent, to 9,572.49.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100809/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

[ozymandius]

5. Crash of 2015 Won’t Wait for Regulators to Rein In Wall Street

Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The financial system experiences a crisis “every five to seven years,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in January. By that measure, the next crash could come by 2015 -- years before new banking reforms are in place.

Many of the measures ordered by Congress and global regulators, aimed at cushioning the financial system in future crises, are years away from being implemented. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision plans to give the world’s banks until 2018 to comply with limits on how much they can borrow. Parts of the Volcker rule, a provision of the new Dodd-Frank Act that would force firms to cut stakes in in-house hedge funds and private-equity units, may not go into effect for a dozen years.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York prior to and during the crisis, said in a speech last week that the administration wants to change the “frustrating, glacial pace” at which rule-writing has occurred in the past. “We will move as quickly as possible to bring clarity to the new rules of finance,” he said.

The Dodd-Frank Act requires 67 studies and 243 new rules to be created, according to law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. The act creates a Financial Stability Oversight Council with 10 voting members, including a to-be-named insurance expert and heads of at least 3 regulatory agencies awaiting new leaders. The law’s Volcker rule, which bans banks from proprietary trading and limits investments in private equity and hedge funds, requires a study by the council before rules are drafted.

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHCeGoX7trQw&pos=2

[Roland99]

18. "requires 67 studes"

I think my brain just exploded

[rfranklin]

20. The rulemaking is where the financial "reform" is going to be gutted...

Wall Street and its lobbyists will hamstring any regulation at the committee level.

[ozymandius]

6. U.S. Investors Regain Majority Holding of Treasuries (Update1)

Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- For the first time since the start of the financial crisis in August 2007, U.S. investors own more Treasuries than foreign holders.

Mutual funds, households and banks have boosted the domestic share of the $8.18 trillion in tradable U.S. debt to 50.2 percent as of May, according to the most recent Treasury Department data. The last time holdings were as high, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke cut interest rates for the first time between scheduled policy meetings as losses in subprime mortgages spurred a flight from riskier assets.

Demand for Treasuries from U.S. investors is climbing as consumer spending and incomes stagnate and the savings rate reaches the highest level in almost 18 years -- 6.4 percent in June. The retrenchment by individuals, as well as banks buying government bonds instead of increasing lending, is driving yields lower as President Barack Obama’s administration borrows record sums to finance an unprecedented budget deficit.

The savings rate for American households increased to 6.4 percent, the highest level since June 2009, the Commerce Department said Aug. 3. At the same time, personal consumption and incomes were unchanged. The savings rate has averaged 5.9 percent since November 2008, the most for a 20-month period since 1992 through 1994. It fell as low as 0.8 percent in April 2005, and averaged 2.2 percent from 2005 through 2007.

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=a_ZFq4y9oJiY

[ozymandius]

7. The crisis of middle-class America

....

The slow economic strangulation of the Freemans and millions of other middle-class Americans started long before the Great Recession, which merely exacerbated the “personal recession” that ordinary Americans had been suffering for years. Dubbed “median wage stagnation” by economists, the annual incomes of the bottom 90 per cent of US families have been essentially flat since 1973 – having risen by only 10 per cent in real terms over the past 37 years. That means most Americans have been treading water for more than a generation. Over the same period the incomes of the top 1 per cent have tripled. In 1973, chief executives were on average paid 26 times the median income. Now the ­multiple is above 300.

The trend has only been getting stronger. Most economists see the Great Stagnation as a structural problem – meaning it is immune to the business cycle. In the last expansion, which started in January 2002 and ended in December 2007, the median US household income dropped by $2,000 – the first ever instance where most Americans were worse off at the end of a cycle than at the start. Worse is that the long era of stagnating incomes has been accompanied by something profoundly un-American: declining income mobility.

From the point of view of most economists, the story so far is uncontroversial. Most agree on the diagnosis. But they diverge on the causes. Many on the left blame the Great Stagnation on globalisation. The rise of China, India, Brazil and others has undercut wages in the west and put America’s unskilled, semi-skilled and even skilled workers out of jobs. Manufacturing now accounts for only 12 per cent of US jobs. Think of the typical Detroit car worker 30 years ago, who had a secure middle-class lifestyle, good healthcare and a fat pension to look forward to. Today, he lives in Shenzhen.

Then there are those, such as Paul Krugman, The New York Times columnist and Nobel prize winner, who blame it on politics, notably the conservative backlash which began when Ronald Reagan came to power in 1980, and which sped up the decline of unions and reversed the most progressive features of the US tax system.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1a8a5cb2-9ab2-11df-87e6-00144feab49a.html

[ozymandius]

8. “Technically Incompetent” NY Fed Examiner of Biggest Banks Pre Crisis Promoted for Blowing Up the Ec

We pointed out that reappointing Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chairman would be inconceivable in the private sector, since CEOs who preside over disasters are dismissed (captains have the good taste to go down with their ships).

But of course, Bernanke is a failure only if you believe that the Fed’s official mandate – soundness and stability of the banking system, full employment and price stability – is the real one. But if you think his job, like that of Soviet apparatchiks, is to preserve the existing order, no matter how rotten it and its incumbents are, then he has succeeded admirably.

The true raison d’etre of the Fed, that of serving as the protector of large banks and their executives, is evident in the disgraceful promotion of Sarah Dahlgren, the recent head of the Federal Reserve System’s Large Financial Institution Group from 2004 onward. That makes her not only the regulatory analogue of the captain of the Titanic, but to add insult to injury, she ignored warnings from outside and inside the Fed and refused to require AIG counterparties to take bigger haircuts and along with other Geithner followers, kept information from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Even if Dahlgren had the skills to lead FRBNY supervision, her appointment makes it seem like the Fed is thumbing its nose at Main Street by appointing someone who is so publicly tarnished by the bailouts of AIG, GS and other OTC dealers. Does Governor Tarullo really believe the world wants a self-described central banker and bank relationship manager with no significant risk or financial experience, and who is tainted with supervisory failures and bailouts, to run the most important Federal Reserve Bank’s financial company supervision? We thought Governor Tarullo and Chairman Bernanke had taken control of Reserve Bank supervision and was starting to enforce some accountability. But it seems the despite the McFadden Act and other legislative changes since the Fed’s creation in 1913, the FRBNY still can’t be controlled by the Board of Governors.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/08/technically-incompetent-ny-fed-examiner-of-biggest-banks-pre-crisis-promoted-for-blowing-up-the-economy.html

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This editorial examines the many ways that the Fed-Washington bubble simply does not care what exists outside of itself.

[tclambert]

13. "CEOs who preside over disasters are dismissed "?

I'm calling bullshit on that one. CEOs who preside over disasters get multi-million dollar bonuses.

[rfranklin]

21. Yes, but they do have to step down...

Boo-hoo-hoo all the way to the hedge fund!

[Loge23]

32. No wonder copier ink is so expensive.

...and today's award for the stupidest company in Americas goes to...
Hewlett-Packard!
Disgraced CEO Mark Hurd will have to pay back the $20,000 he left off of the expense report (wouldn't you love to see the expense report of a CEO??), but the caviar budget at the Hurd household won't suffer. It seems that Hurd will get a cash payment of around $12.2 million along with a total severence package of around $38 million (according to the WSJ today).
$12.2 million!!! I can retire early if I could win a measly $2M in the lottery!
What freakin' planet do these people live on anyway?

[ozymandius]

11. FOMC Meeting on Tuesday

Calculated Risk:

From the Financial Times: Fed set to downgrade outlook for US

The Federal Reserve is set to downgrade its assessment of US economic prospects when it meets on Tuesday to discuss ways to reboot the flagging recovery. ...

(The Fed might make) ... a decision to reinvest proceeds from maturing mortgage-backed securities held by the US central bank ... most economists believe that it would take several more months of poor data for the Fed to actually begin a new round of (large scale) asset purchases

It is possible that the Fed could announce they will reinvest the proceeds from maturing MBS (some people put this at $200 billion through 2011, but other analysts expect it might be closer to $400 billion with lower mortgage rates and more refinance activity).

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/08/fomc-meeting-on-tuesday.html

[ozymandius]

12. Have a nice day - even to the people who unrecced the thread.

:donut: :donut: :donut: Work is calling. Later...

:hi:

[Dr.Phool]

14. I guess some morons have nothing better to do.

Regardless of their idiocy, this thread shall persevere, and be here every morning, thanks to Ozy. We're not dependent on recs for exposure. We all know where it is.

[mbperrin]

33. I hope those who unrec this thread get just what they deserve

at the hands of the corporofascist powers that be.

Other than that, sure, they can have a nice day........

;)

[AnneD]

16. Morning Marketeers...

:donut: This will have to be a drive by post. Obama will be in town for DLC fundraisers and the best DEM candidate we have had i a while will not be there to greet him. This is sad for several reasons.
1) why do they need to raise money from us-the corps bought him off-why in these times do we need to to give up our hard earned cash.
2) why take a chance- those photos of White and Obama will be the kiss of death here.I

I am late so must leave on the first day.
Happy hunting and watch out for the bears.

[Roland99]

17. "Happy days are here again. The skies above are clear again."

S&P 500 1,125 +5.20 +0.46%
DOW 10,655 +42.00 +0.40%
NASDAQ 1,910 +7.50 +0.39%

[Demeter]

22. Fannie Mae Seeks $1.5 Billion From U.S. Treasury After 12th Straight Loss

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-05/fannie-mae-seeks-1-5-billion-from-u-s-treasury-after-12th-straight-loss.html


....A decline in costs from bad loans helped narrow the second- quarter loss to $1.2 billion from $14.8 billion in the same period a year earlier, the Washington-based company said today in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fannie Mae has accrued more than $148 billion in consecutive losses since 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Treasury seized Fannie Mae and McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac, the biggest sources of U.S. mortgage funding, in 2008 as souring subprime loans pushed the companies to brink of collapse. Including today’s request, Fannie Mae has drawn $86.1 billion in aid. The growing tally has helped spur the Obama administration to solicit proposals to fix the companies, and prompted some lawmakers to demand their closure.

“Congress must act to end this taxpayer-funded bailout,” said Representative Jeb Hensarling, in a statement after today’s earnings were announced. The Texas Republican is the lead sponsor of legislation to abolish the companies.

Freddie Mac hasn’t yet disclosed second-quarter results...

[Demeter]

29. Fannie and Freddie's Foreclosure Barons

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26083.htm

....A Florida notary's stamp is valid for four years, and its expiration date is visible on the imprint. But here in front of Ice were dozens of assignments notarized with stamps that hadn't even existed until months—in some cases nearly a year—after the foreclosures were filed. Which meant Stern's people were foreclosing first and doing their legal paperwork later. In effect, it also meant they were lying to the court—an act that could get a lawyer disbarred or even prosecuted. "There's no question that it's pervasive," says Tom Ice of the backdated documents—nearly two dozen of which were verified by Mother Jones. "We've found tons of them."....

AND THE FRAUD GOES ON

[Demeter]

23. BP Scores Stimulus Cash

http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/08/bp-stimulus-funds-california-power-plant

The federal government is giving a joint venture involving oil giant BP millions of dollars in stimulus money to build a power plant on farmland near the tiny Kern County town of Tupman, even as the company faces heavy government pressure and a criminal probe into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP is benefiting from a $308 million federal grant over several years for the cutting-edge power plant on cotton and alfalfa fields seven miles from the western edge of Bakersfield. More than half of the money, $175 million, is coming from stimulus funds. The rest is coming from another federal program.

The stimulus portion alone ranks as the second biggest award in California to a corporation and among the largest in the country benefiting private interests, according to data reported to the government by stimulus recipients...

[Demeter]

24. Scientists say it is 'just not true' that the vast majority of oil from the BP spill has gone

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/05/oil-spill-white-house-accused-spin

The White House was accused today of spinning a government scientific report into the amount of oil left in the Gulf of Mexico from the BP spill which had officials declaring that the vast majority of the oil had been removed.

As BP workers finished pouring cement into the well as a first step to permanently sealing it today, environmental groups and scientists – including those working with government agencies to calculate the scale and effects of the spill – said White House officials had painted far too optimistic a picture of a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (Noaa) into the fate of the oil.

"Recent reports seem to say that about 75% of the oil is taken care of and that is just not true," said John Kessler, of Texas A&M University, who led a National Science Foundation on-site study of the spill. "The fact is that 50% to 75% of the material that came out of the well is still in the water. It's just in a dissolved or dispersed form."

[Roland99]

31. And just how is that cutting-edge power plant supposed to work?

The 250-megawatt power plant would be a unique, groundbreaking combination of advanced technologies. It would turn coal and petroleum coke—a hard, black byproduct of oil refining—into hydrogen, which would be burned for energy.

The plant would trap 90 percent of the resulting carbon dioxide emissions, or about 2 million tons a year, and funnel it to the nearby Elk Hills Oil Field, in the barren hills above Tupman. There, the captured gas would be used to push out previously unreachable oil for Occidental Petroleum. The carbon dioxide is intended to be stored underground forever.

I don't think anyone could foresee anything going wrong there.

[Tansy_Gold]

25. :U.S. is becoming a Plutonomy"

It's a week old, but I hadn't seen it before, and the fact that it's on the Yahoo front page means A LOT of people are gonna see it.


http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/110258/us-economy-is-increasingly-tied-to-the-rich

U.S. Economy Is Increasingly Tied to the Rich
by Robert Frank
Sunday, August 1, 2010


provided by
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


Who cares how the rich spend their money?

Well, perhaps everyone should these days. Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product, or the value of all goods and services produced in the nation. And spending by the rich now accounts for the largest share of consumer outlays in at least 20 years.

According to new research from Moody's Analytics, the top 5% of Americans by income account for 37% of all consumer outlays. Outlays include consumer spending, interest payments on installment debt and transfer payments.

By contrast, the bottom 80% by income account for 39.5% of all consumer outlays.

It is no surprise, of course, that the rich spend so much, since they earn a disproportionate share of income. According to economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty, the top 10% of earners captured about half of all income as of 2007. (TG: And do any of us think the top 10% are earning LESS in 2010 than they did in 2007??)

. . . .

The data may be a further sign that the U.S. is becoming a Plutonomy–an economy dependent on the spending and investing of the wealthy. And Plutonomies are far less stable than economies built on more evenly distributed income and mass consumption. "I don't think it's healthy for the economy to be so dependent on the top 2% of the income distribution," Mr. Zandi said. He added that, "In the near term it highlights the fragility of the recovery."


<end snips>



Makes you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.


Just don't get suckered into reading the comments, or you'll be here all day. . . . .



TG, NTY

[DemReadingDU]

30. My siblings still spend a lot of money

They make a lot of money too. Buying houses, new cars, taking exotic vacations, purchasing the latest gadgets. Of course they believe the propaganda that the economy will recover.

[Demeter]

26. Bernanke eating crow amid gloomy reports

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/bernanke_eating_crow_amid_gloomy_mV80vxrURVrko1UIVikUJL

A day after Ben Bernanke said rising wages would likely spur household spending, a spate of weak economic reports is painting an entirely different picture.

While the US has "a considerable way to go" before the economy fully recovers, the Federal Reserve chairman said on Monday that rising demand from households and businesses should sustain growth.

Undercutting Bernanke's optimistic outlook was a series of economic reports yesterday showing consumer spending was flat in June as personal income growth ground to a halt...

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/bernanke_eating_crow_amid_gloomy_mV80vxrURVrko1UIVikUJL#ixzz0w7HqSMBh

[ozymandius]

36. I really would like to serve him the plate so I could spit in his food.

Or switch crow for the merde sammich.

Grabbing a moment to read over lunch. Thanks for the posts, everyone.

[Demeter]

27. Argentina Colder Than Antarctica Raises Power Imports

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-03/argentina-colder-than-antarctica-spurs-record-power-imports-shuts-plants.html

Argentina is importing record amounts of energy as the coldest winter in 40 years drives up demand and causes natural-gas shortages, prompting Dow Chemical Co. and steelmaker Siderar SAIC to scale back production.

Electricity supplied from Brazil and Paraguay rose to a daily combined record of about 1,000 megawatts on July 12, while consumption peaked at 20,396 megawatts three days later, according to Buenos Aires-based energy broker Cammesa. Shipments of liquefied natural gas are set to double this year.

Dow, Siderar and aluminum maker Aluar Aluminio Argentino SAIC are among companies closing plants, cutting output or seeking alternative energy sources after temperatures in parts of Argentina fell below those of Antarctica on July 15. Rising demand is exacerbating a shortage that began six years ago as economic growth accelerated and energy investment fell. The shortage is boosting costs as companies spend more to guarantee supplies.

“The situation is getting worse, because the shortage period is growing every year,” Gerardo Rabinovich, a director at the General Mosconi Energy Institute in Buenos Aires and an adviser to the opposition Radical Party, said in a telephone interview. “When this started in 2004, it lasted for about a week, then it was two weeks and now it’s more than a month.”...

[Demeter]

28. Do the Rich Need the Rest of America? By Robert Frank

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26089.htm

INVITE THEM TO LEAVE, THEN.

[Ghost Dog]

34. Wheat Tumbles as Farmers to Plant More, Inventories Sufficient

Aug 9 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat plunged for a second day on speculation farmers will boost plantings after prices surged to a 23-month high and stockpiles are sufficient to meet demand.

Futures for December-delivery dropped as much as 5.3 percent to $7.15 a bushel and traded at $7.2150 a bushel at 2:16 p.m. Singapore time. The price tumbled 7.4 percent on Aug. 6 after soaring to $8.68 a bushel, the highest level since August 2008, following Russia’s ban on grain exports.

The rally will spur a “huge” increase in planting around the world, weather permitting, said Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. U.S. inventories will probably climb to a 23-year high, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Speculators slowed bets on higher prices, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show.

“The global wheat supply situation is not tight enough to warrant prices up around $8 a bushel,” Mathews said by phone from Sydney today. “There is no shortage of wheat in the biggest exporter in the world.”

/... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-09/wheat-tumbles-as-world-s-farmers-to-plant-more-u-s-stockpiles-sufficient.html

[Roland99]

35. So, bread *won't* be $5/loaf now?

But someone made a killing in the last few days.

[Roland99]

37. Paul O'Neill (W's first Sec of Treasury) on expiring the Bush tax Cuts...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x493292

[cbdo2007]

38. Seems like a great day to buy HPQ

$7 Billion of market share lost due to an overreaction of the CEO leaving? This should recover in 2-4 weeks for a 10% profit.

[Demeter]

41. HP Isn't Lucky In Its Choice of CEOs--That's Two Lemons Already

Too bad Hewlett and Packard are no more.

[cbdo2007]

42. Hurd was a lemon?? 136% stock increase in the past 5 years.

compared to -7% for the DJIA and -12% for the S&P 500.

If that's your idea of a "lemon" CEO, 95% of companies in the U.S. would love to have a "lemon" as their CEO for 5 years.

[Festivito]

43. Debt: 08/05/2010 13,310,887,351,665.80 (UP 8,585,674,365.70) (Thu)

(Up some. Good day.)
At the hospital. About to transfer to another one. Weekend wild and wet.
(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 8,777,035,305,005.64 + 4,533,852,046,660.16
UP 5,243,790,680.65 + UP 3,341,883,685.05

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 310-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.23 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,227.69 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.68, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 13 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 309,819,316 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 04/09/2010 15:49 -> 309,034,742
Currently, each of these Americans owe $42,963.39.
A family of three owes $128,890.16. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 24 reports in the last 30 to 34 days.
The average for the last 24 reports is 5,648,192,500.05.
The average for the last 30 days would be 4,518,554,000.04.
The average for the last 34 days would be 3,986,959,411.80.
There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 212 reports in 309 days of FY2010 averaging 6.61B$ per report, 4.53B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 899 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.5 and 18.0T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
08/05/2010 13,310,887,351,665.80 BHO (UP 2,684,010,302,752.72 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,401,058,348,154.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof10 +1,654,971,835,198.21 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Linear Projection

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
07/16/2010 +000,234,726,558.99 ------------********
07/19/2010 -000,002,380,240.85 ----- Mon
07/20/2010 +000,028,467,145.72 ------------*******
07/21/2010 +000,002,455,391.44 ------------******
07/22/2010 +010,637,573,043.16 ------------**********
07/23/2010 -000,409,271,286.12 ---
07/26/2010 +000,027,014,896.10 ------------******* Mon
07/27/2010 +000,542,206,084.16 ------------********
07/28/2010 -000,094,171,033.04 ----
07/29/2010 +003,752,718,531.15 ------------*********
07/30/2010 +000,337,023,124.63 ------------********
08/02/2010 +069,233,337,488.16 ------------********** Mon
08/03/2010 -000,228,970,360.68 ---
08/04/2010 +000,329,380,791.87 ------------********
08/05/2010 +005,243,790,680.65 ------------*********

89,633,900,815.34 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4494012&mesg_id=4494117

[Festivito]

44. Debt: 08/06/2010 13,310,114,269,532.31 (DOWN 773,082,133.49) (Fri)

(Up a little. Good day.)
A wet, wild weekend, and, now, school rooms and bank rooms.
(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 8,777,088,587,625.31 + 4,533,025,681,907.00
UP 53,282,619.67 + DOWN 826,364,753.16

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 310-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.23 THAT'S 1B$, and $3,227.62 makes 1T$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.68, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 13 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 309,825,962 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 04/09/2010 15:49 -> 309,034,742
Currently, each of these Americans owe $42,959.97.
A family of three owes $128,879.91. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 24 reports in the last 30 to 31 days.
The average for the last 24 reports is 5,519,562,289.61.
The average for the last 30 days would be 4,415,649,831.69.
The average for the last 31 days would be 4,273,209,514.54.
There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 213 reports in 310 days of FY2010 averaging 6.57B$ per report, 4.52B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 898 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.5 and 17.9T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
08/06/2010 13,310,114,269,532.31 BHO (UP 2,683,237,220,619.23 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,400,285,266,020.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof10 +1,648,722,974,508.13 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Linear Projection

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
07/19/2010 -000,002,380,240.85 ----- Mon
07/20/2010 +000,028,467,145.72 ------------*******
07/21/2010 +000,002,455,391.44 ------------******
07/22/2010 +010,637,573,043.16 ------------**********
07/23/2010 -000,409,271,286.12 ---
07/26/2010 +000,027,014,896.10 ------------******* Mon
07/27/2010 +000,542,206,084.16 ------------********
07/28/2010 -000,094,171,033.04 ----
07/29/2010 +003,752,718,531.15 ------------*********
07/30/2010 +000,337,023,124.63 ------------********
08/02/2010 +069,233,337,488.16 ------------********** Mon
08/03/2010 -000,228,970,360.68 ---
08/04/2010 +000,329,380,791.87 ------------********
08/05/2010 +005,243,790,680.65 ------------*********
08/06/2010 +000,053,282,619.67 ------------*******

89,452,456,876.02 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4496907&mesg_id=4497405

[Tansy_Gold]

45. Pinal County (AZ) Supervisor's home to be auctioned

http://www.ajnews.com/vol14/080910/pdfs/0809_com_AJNW_A3.pdf

Link to pdf of local Apache Junction News article regarding home of Pinal County Supervisor Bryan Martyn (R). Home purchased 5 years ago with $598,000 mortgage, Martyn says he's "in a situation shared by millions of Americans": "I can no longer afford my home."

The article doesn't say what has changed in Martyn's circumstances to make the home no longer affordable. He's a retired USAF major, so he's got a halfway decent chunk of change coming in from the military. I don't know what his wife does for a living, if anything. I don't know what, if any, salary he gets as a Pinal County Supervisor.

His website -- www.BryanMartyn.com -- contains link to RNC, other puke links.


Yours truly is livid. This puke asshole, whose claim to fame before being elected was that he collected money to buy schoolbooks (and Bibles) for kids in Afghanistan, is probably walking away from his mortgage because he just doesn't want to have to pay it. What a crock.

I've already written a LTTE; the editor is a bit of a lefty, so we'll see what happens.



Tansy Gold, disgustipated.

[Demeter]

46. Disgustipated? Sounds Serious and Chronic

You've caught the Palin disease!

Unclean! Unclean!

[Tansy_Gold]

47. Oh, there's more, much more

http://az.newszapforums.com/view_topic.php?id=107629&forum_id=26&jump_to=696047#p696047


Link is to local newspaper's "forum," in which Supervisor Martyn gives his "whole" story. Yeah fuckin' right.


Tansy Gold, STILL disgustipated.

[Warpy]

49. Wow. Either he was astonishingly bad at managing money

and everything he had was on tick and went back to the repo man, or he was astonishingly bad at life and will sacrifice his family's home to be able to afford to buy his toys back. In any case, he doesn't look like he should be supervising anything bigger than a blow up kiddie pool in a back yard and I hope the voters are waking up.

That letter was a rip snorter and I hope some of it makes its way into the news. I also hope the bank short sells the house and keeps him on the hook for the difference, something that is possible in some states barring the declaration of bankruptcy---something he can't do because his pension income is likely too high, even without his public salary.

[Tansy_Gold]

50. Ah, you're absolutely correct, Warpy, and I'd forgotten about that

Bankruptcy, that is. And of course if Martyn WERE to declare bankruptcy, all his finances would more or less be an open book for all to see, and I'm quite sure he doesn't want that.

And, if his income is sufficient to cover his debts, he wouldn't be able to declare bankruptcy anyway.

Whether the home is in foreclosure or not, I don't know. Haven't had time to research it yet.

My LTTE went to the other local paper, and it's not quite as rip-snortin' as the one on the "forum." But it hits on the same points.

[alterfurz]

48. Holy Mackerel, Andy!

I'se regusted!

Alterfurz, who's way past old enough to have gotten legally drunk to celebrate Nixon's resignation 36 years ago today, and did.