STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, November 18, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, November 18, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON November 17, 2011

Dow 11,770.73 -134.86 (-1.15%)
Nasdaq 2,587.99 -51.62 (-1.99%)
S&P 500 1,216.13 -20.78 (-1.71%)
10-Yr Bond... 2.01 +0.04 (+2.09%)
30-Year Bond 3.03 +0.04 (+1.41%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours

Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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Handy Links - Market Data and News:Economic Calendar    Marketwatch Data    Bloomberg Economic News    Yahoo! Finance    Google Finance    Bank Tracker    
Credit Union Tracker    Daily Job Cuts

Handy Links - Economic Blogs:
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Brad DeLong      Bonddad    Atrios    goldmansachs666    The Stand-Up Economist

Handy Links - Government Issues:
LegitGov    Open Government    Earmark Database    USA spending.gov

Handy Links - Videos:
The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class    Charlie Rose talks with Roubini    Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
    William Black: This Economic Disaster    Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn

Bush Administration Officials Convicted = 2
Names: David Safavian, James Fondren
Dishonorable Mention: former House majority leader, Tom DeLay

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

Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = 12

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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

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. One wafer-thin report today

Nov 18 10:00 Leading Indicators Oct 0.3% 0.6% 0.2%

Read more: http://www.briefing.com/investor/calendars/economic/2011/11/14-18/#ixzz1e3dZRl9Y

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. Oil below $99 as trader eye weak Europe economy

SINGAPORE – Oil prices hovered below $99 a barrel Friday in Asia amid concern Europe's debt crisis will undermine the continent's economic growth and crude demand.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 8 cents at $98.90 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $3.77 to settle at $98.82 in New York on Thursday.

Brent crude for January delivery was up 22 cents at $108.44 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Crude jumped to above $103 on Thursday before pulling back as Spanish and French sovereign debt yields rose sharply higher. Investors are increasingly worried austerity measures to contain debt levels could trigger a recession in Europe.

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

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. U.S. stock futures rise as ECB buys bonds

MUMBAI (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher opening on Friday, amid hopes Europe’s leaders and the European Central Bank were planning to boost measures to stem the debt crisis hitting the region.

Futures for the S&P 500 index SPX -1.68% rose 0.3% to 1,218.20, while those for the Dow Jones Industrial Average SPX -1.68% gained 0.2% to 11,763.

Worries over the euro zone accelerated on Thursday, as markets heavily sold Spanish and Italian government bonds. Stocks in Europe and in the U.S. fell sharply with the S&P 500 dropping 1.7%, the Dow losing 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite sliding 2%.

Early Friday, analysts said the ECB again intervened by buying the sovereign debt of so-called “periphery countries,” helping stem the selloff in European bond markets, and lifting the euro.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-futures-rise-as-ecb-buys-bonds-2011-11-18?link=MW_latest_news

Groundhog Day again today?

[Tansy_Gold]

7. I know how to stem a debt crisis.

1. Stop borrowing.

2. Pay off the ones you have. If you can't pay all of 'em, default on the lenders you don't ever intend to borrow from again.

3. DO NOT BORROW MORE.


Seriously, is there something wrong with my thought processes? If a government used to have a reasonably balanced budget and now it doesn't, shouldn't it look at what it did in the past that kept its budget balanced as compared to what it's doing now, and then go back to doing what it used to do? You know, like taxing the outrageously high incomes that its policies created?

Tax the fucking rich. Tax the 1%, the 0.1%, the 0.00001%. Tax the hell out of unearned income, especially speculative/investment income. This is "excess capital" that these people have acquired and are now USING to siphon off a.) taxes that should go to the common good -- education, health care, infrastructure, etc. -- and b.) income actually earned by working people.


But of course that will never happen.



TG

[xchrom]

12. i say let's tax the rich first -- then see where we stand...nt

[TalkingDog]

15. +1 to the power of X

X being something like: Hell Yeah!

[Demeter]

63. I hate to tell you

But one raised to any power is still one (unless it's imaginary, and I've forgotten what happens then, but it has to do with Euler)

[Demeter]

21. Take Back the Presses

Stop borrowing from banks, and print your own damn money.

"Money" has three functions.

The first is to serve as an immediate medium of exchange for goods and services--a marker for barter transactions, so people don't have to trade physical goods or services. It is a store of labor/resources/finished goods/any real commodity. This is what 99% of the population does daily.

The second function is to save current production for future consumption. Like retirement or illness or inheritance.

The third function is "to keep score". This is what the 1% Obscenely Wealthy hoarders do, they are keeping score against their fellow hoarders, trying to see who has the bigger pile of rotting money--since storing commodities and slaves is expensive and messy. They could not in several lifetimes consume that much wealth, so they do evil instead, buying governments and committing crimes to maintain their status quo, like getting rules to permit their going untaxed, unprosecuted for crimes, etc.

The first function is defeated by so many people having no job and no income--or insufficient for their daily maintenance.

The second function is defeated by the fact that one cannot get a return for lending money. Interest rates have been negative since Reagan/Greenspan. The entire saving mechanism is broken.

The third function is the only one going nowadays. It is criminality codified into law.

[Tansy_Gold]

48. I'm glad I read your post all the way through and then

reread your subject line


It's not a matter of STOPPING the presses, so much as making sure the proper people are running them.


You are BRILLIANT!!!



TG

[Demeter]

50. Aw Shucks! (Polishes nails on shirt)

Somebody noticed. Would send a testimonial to the condo board?

[Warpy]

68. Unfortunately, #2 and #3 are impractical and will kill people

and that means #1 will have to continue in the short term. However, solving the debt crisis means ridding ourselves of businessmen who see only the present fiscal quarter and finding people who take the long view.

By that, I mean people who will do the unpopular things like reinstitute the progressive income tax, levy a transaction tax on stocks and commodities, chop the Pentagon down to a Triangle, break up the megabanks and strip them of their investment companies, and begin a massive infrastructure rebuilding program. Slowly that will manage to swing the rudder of the massive and unwieldy ship of state and steer us away from the rocks and toward an economy that works for all of us and not just 400 rich old men by putting money into the hands of people who will spend it instead of trying to use accounting to generate more while building the kind of infrastructure that will support the next wave of industry.

You see, this present Congress full of businessmen has mistaken money for wealth and nothing could be farther from the truth. Industry is wealth. Productive land is wealth. The combined knowledge of a country full of people who have honed a trade is wealth. Money is just a numbers game.

How do I know this will work? I know because it has worked before when the pro business conservatives in both parties have stupidly tried to destroy this country by concentrating money and wrecking the working class. I know because it has been done.

We all know that what has been done for the last 40 years doesn't work.

[Demeter]

69. Hear, Hear!

To break the banks, we have to break the banks. Which are already broken, by any measure, anyway.

[Ghost Dog]

75. _Very_ well said and well put, Warpy.

Glad you're with us. :hi:

[Roland99]

27. weird...you'd think the dollar would be up against the ever-devalued euro

markets are happy though:

S&P 500 1,223.75 +9.00 +0.74%
DOW 11,812 +73.00 +0.62%
NASDAQ 2,280 +11.50 +0.51%

[Ghost Dog]

70. Ah. Reuters: Puzzle over euro's "mysterious" stability

(Reuters) - As the euro crisis intensifies to the point of investors openly contemplating a fracturing of the single currency, perhaps the most puzzling performance all year has been the stability of the euro exchange rate itself.

...

The euro's exchange rate index -- measured against currencies of the bloc's major trading partners -- is still almost two percent higher on the year. And that's pretty much where it was before the whole credit crisis kicked off in 2007. Wind back further and it remains more than 20 percent higher than when euro notes and coins first hit the streets in 2002.

...

As the United States, and other governments of the major reserve currency economies such as Britain and Japan, all cranked up dollar, sterling and yen printing presses for the second time in four years, the European Central Bank pushed up its interest rates through the early part of this year.

...

So what gives? Does the stable euro exchange rate reveal some deep-seated confidence in the currency's long-term survival that belies mounting angst elsewhere? Or is there a more complex and less understood blizzard of flows at play?

/... http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/15/uk-markets-euro-mystery-idUKLNE7AE02520111115



Not even renamed (QE) printing presses operating in the Eurozone.

[Owlet]

30. Groundhog Day every day

"....amid hopes Europe’s leaders and the European Central Bank were planning to boost measures to stem the debt crisis hitting the region."

Been reading more or less the same phrase since June. It would appear that 'hope' is the lender of last resort. Maybe one can buy a hope CDS. Oh, wait..CDSs ARE hopes, aren't they.

[Tansy_Gold]

4. Good morning! First Rec!

That rarely happens!

[rfranklin]

5. There is a true art to being the number two rec!

good morning.

[DemReadingDU]

9. You really must be up early, n/t

[Tansy_Gold]

10. As usual

I'm always up early, but early in AZ isn't very early elsewhere. And usually I try to make myself go to work. Today the work is just too unappetizing, so I'm screwing around. Where better to screw around than SMW? ;-)

[InkAddict]

6. Hey-hey, it's +3 to "get ready"

[rfranklin]

8. Wall Street still doesn't get it...

Reuters) - It was a telling moment at the height of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

John Paulson, the hedge-fund trader who famously made billions betting on the collapse of the housing market, was threatened by the demonstrators with a march on his Upper East Side home in New York last month. Paulson responded by putting out a press release that described his $28 billion, 120-person fund as an exemplar of the American Dream: "Instead of vilifying our most successful businesses, we should be supporting them and encouraging them to remain in New York City."

Other captains of finance like to portray themselves as humble entrepreneurs. One owner of a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund grumbled in the midst of the financial crisis that he has to worry not only about making trading decisions but also about "all the hassles the come with running a small business."

-more-

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/18/us-wallst-disconnect-idUSTRE7AH0Z620111118

[Po_d Mainiac]

18. Another line that speaks volume from the same article

Says Mooney: "I don't say this lightly, but the consumer is simply an income stream and exploiting that is the purpose of the banking organization."

[AnneD]

54. Most truthful comment ever....

Enough to make Diogenes turn in his lamp.

[xchrom]

11. if it's Friday -- it means that Monday didn't get me. this time...

:donut:

[Demeter]

22. I worry more about the days in the middle of the week

Most people can survive a Monday....but not every day!

[xchrom]

24. ...

:spray: very good!

[xchrom]

13. The Supercommittee's Worst-Case Scenario

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/11/the-supercommittees-worst-case-scenario/248539/

As a symbol of government dysfunction, the deficit supercommittee has succeeded gloriously.

Its basic premise, which arose from the summer's debt-limit stalemate, is that President Obama and congressional leaders could only agree on the fact that they could not agree. We can't decide what to do about deficits, they said, so let's make these other guys decide later. As solutions go, it wasn't one.

It's easy (and fun!) to look on the supercommittee cynically, but the idea could in theory actually work. If the six Republicans and six Democrats can agree on a plan, the supercommittee will look like a brilliant instance of managerial delegation.

That's what all hope for. The other possibility, of course, is that the supercommittee will fail, just as the process that preceded it did.




*** the Super Duper committee is what you get when you live in Post Democratic America...what comes next -- i do not know.

[Demeter]

25. Failure Is Good By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/opinion/krugman-failure-is-good.html

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a complete turkey! It’s the supercommittee!

By next Wednesday, the so-called supercommittee, a bipartisan group of legislators, is supposed to reach an agreement on how to reduce future deficits. Barring an evil miracle — I’ll explain the evil part later — the committee will fail to meet that deadline. If this news surprises you, you haven’t been paying attention. If it depresses you, cheer up: In this case, failure is good. Why was the supercommittee doomed to fail? Mainly because the gulf between our two major political parties is so wide. Republicans and Democrats don’t just have different priorities; they live in different intellectual and moral universes.

In Democrat-world, up is up and down is down. Raising taxes increases revenue, and cutting spending while the economy is still depressed reduces employment. But in Republican-world, down is up. The way to increase revenue is to cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and slashing government spending is a job-creation strategy. Try getting a leading Republican to admit that the Bush tax cuts increased the deficit or that sharp cuts in government spending (except on the military) would hurt the economic recovery.

Moreover, the parties have sharply different views of what constitutes economic justice. Democrats see social insurance programs, from Social Security to food stamps, as serving the moral imperative of providing basic security to our fellow citizens and helping those in need. Republicans have a totally different view. They may soft-pedal that view in public — in last year’s elections, they even managed to pose as defenders of Medicare — but, in private, they view the welfare state as immoral, a matter of forcing citizens at gunpoint to hand their money over to other people. By creating Social Security, declared Rick Perry in his book “Fed Up!”, F.D.R. was “violently tossing aside any respect for our founding principles.” Does anyone doubt that he was speaking for many in his party?

So the supercommittee brought together legislators who disagree completely both about how the world works and about the proper role of government. Why did anyone think this would work? Well, maybe the idea was that the parties would compromise out of fear that there would be a political price for seeming intransigent. But this could only happen if the news media were willing to point out who is really refusing to compromise. And they aren’t. If and when the supercommittee fails, virtually all news reports will be he-said, she-said, quoting Democrats who blame Republicans and vice versa without ever explaining the truth. Oh, and let me give a special shout-out to “centrist” pundits who won’t admit that President Obama has already given them what they want. The dialogue seems to go like this. Pundit: “Why won’t the president come out for a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes?” Mr. Obama: “I support a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes.” Pundit: “Why won’t the president come out for a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes?” You see, admitting that one side is willing to make concessions, while the other isn’t, would tarnish one’s centrist credentials. And the result is that the G.O.P. pays no price for refusing to give an inch.

So the supercommittee will fail — and that’s good. FOR WHY, SEE LINK!

[xchrom]

29. here's to Failure...

:toast:

[AnneD]

55. Slackers of the world unite....

:toast:

[xchrom]

56. ...

:evilgrin: :toast:

[xchrom]

14. The Housing Market Is Still in a Depression

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/the-housing-market-is-still-in-a-depression/248533/

Following the bubble, the housing market's pain has been deep and persistent. This isn't merely a cyclical downturn. Even six years after the market peaked, the healing process has not yet begun. The industry isn't in recession: it's in a depression.

On Monday, billionaire investor Warren Buffett made this assertion. He's right, but not for the reason he states. Here's the Associated Press quoting what Buffett said to CNBC, via Bloomberg:

Buffett told CNBC on Monday that housing construction is "in a depression, not a recession" because there is still an oversupply of homes.

By digging into the data, the depth of the industry's problems becomes clearer, but it appears to have little to do with the current supply of homes.

[kickysnana]

60. Tell me about it parents home on the market over 1 year n/t

[xchrom]

16. Has a Harvard Professor Mapped Out the Next Step for Occupy Wall Street?

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/has-a-harvard-professor-mapped-out-the-next-step-for-occupy-wall-street/247561/

Observers and participants alike have interpreted the Occupy Wall Street movement as expressions of frustration with persistently high unemployment and underemployment, with the appearance of growing income disparity in the United States, and with the sense that the richest among us are disproportionately responsible for the current crisis. But the fundamental problem, you could argue, is that we have simply not had meaningful financial reform in response to the crisis. The Dodd-Frank Bill that was passed last summer was better than nothing, but it did not do what needed to be done to fix the problems that caused the current crisis: We haven't punished anyone. We haven't broken up banks to prevent them from being "too big to fail" in the future. The banking system that's brought us the current crisis remains in power, barely chastened. "Why?" ask the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Lawrence Lessig has an answer. In his new book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress -- and a Plan to Stop It, he spends 20 pages reviewing the the 30 years of deregulation that led up to the financial crisis and outlining our present circumstances. In fact, this book, published just before Occupy Wall Street began, is perfectly positioned to become the movement's handbook. While few protesters will need convincing that the government is corrupted by money, the book lays out the case in a such a comprehensive and persuasive manner -- and proposes such specific and radical solutions -- that it seems tailor-made for the Occupy movement. And it's ambitious proposal for state-based activism on behalf of a Constitutional Convention could provide the movement with a next organizing step as it nears its two-month anniversary Thursday -- and faces such questions as how to ride out the winter and how to respond to police crackdowns.

* * *

Lessig, director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard University and a professor at Harvard Law School, spent 10 years fighting to reform the nation's copyright laws. The effort produced a half-dozen books, led to the creation of the Creative Commons licensing system and a case before the Supreme Court, which ultimately failed. Rather than dissuading him, Lessig concluded four years ago that this failure perfectly situated him to take on an infinitely harder challenge -- the reform of Congress itself. The shift in focus led him to leave Stanford University and relocate his family to the east coast to teach at Harvard in 2008, where he began the research and activity that gave rise to his latest book.

His first congressional reform effort wasChange Congress, a grass-roots movement to gather pledges from elected officials to reform campaign financing, and pledges from potential donors to not give money to officials who hadn't taken such a pledge. But as that movement failed to gain sufficient momentum, he's shifted focus towards more dramatic strategies, exploring the possibility of a Constitutional Convention at the September 2011 conference and in this book.


mr. lessig's bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig

Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, Lessig grew up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and earned a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Management (Wharton School) from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Cambridge (Trinity) in England, and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1989. After graduating from law school, he clerked for a year for Judge Richard Posner, at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Illinois and another year for Justice Antonin Scalia at the Supreme Court.<3>

Lessig started his academic career at the University of Chicago Law School, where he was Professor from 1991 to 1997. From 1997 to 2000, he was at Harvard Law School, holding for a year the chair of Berkman Professor of Law, affiliated with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.<3> He subsequently joined Stanford Law School, where he established the school's Center for Internet and Society.<4>

Lessig returned to Harvard in December 2008 as Professor and Director of the "Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics".<5>


Political activism

Lessig is currently considered a political liberal. As a law clerk, however, he worked for both Judge Richard Posner and Justice Antonin Scalia, two influential conservative judges.

Lessig has emphasized in interviews that his philosophy experience at Cambridge radically changed his values and career path. Previously, he had held strong conservative or libertarian political views, desired a career in business, was a highly active member of Teenage Republicans, serving as the Youth Governor for Pennsylvania through the YMCA Youth and Government program<6> in 1978 and almost pursued a Republican political career.

What was intended to be a year abroad at Cambridge convinced him instead to stay another two years to complete a graduate degree in philosophy there and develop his changed political values. During this time, he also traveled in the Eastern Bloc, so acquiring a lifelong interest in Eastern European law and politics.

Lessig refuses to embrace conventional libertarianism. While Lessig remains skeptical of government intervention, he favors regulation by calling himself "a constitutionalist". In his blog, Lessig came out in favor of then-Democratic primary candidate Barack Obama, citing the transformative nature of Obama's campaign as one of his chief reasons. On one occasion, Lessig also commended the John McCain campaign for discussing fair use rights in a letter to YouTube where it took issue with YouTube for indulging overreaching copyright claims leading to the removal of various campaign videos.<7>

A campaign to draft Lessig to run for the US Congress from the Bay Area began in February 2008.<8>

Lessig claimed in 2009 that, because 70% of young people obtain digital information from illegal sources, the law should be changed.<9>

[Demeter]

31. This deserves a rec on its own--Thanks for posting!

It mirrors my own post above about money's function, too.

[xchrom]

35. indeed it does...

:thumbsup:

[Tansy_Gold]

46. ditto ditto ditto!

[Demeter]

17. Looks like the dollar is tanking today

I need a theme for the Weekend, yet again. Any suggestions?

[xchrom]

23. i'll always vote for Food...or Shoes

but i'll be the only one...:hi:

how are you?

[Demeter]

34. A bit chilled

I spent yesterday putting on more and more clothing.

Winter has arrived...I expect the snow will come in Sunday, based on the NOAA charts. At least the car is winterized, and the sliding door.

I need to mend the parkas, though. Quickly.

[xchrom]

36. we've got a decent frost on the ground today...

but my dog Effie is afraid of the central heat when i turn it on and she becomes very, very restless.
drives me :crazy: because she won't settle down.

[Ghost Dog]

76. What is this fling-thing so many women seem to have for shoes?

(Often, painful shoes at that)? It can't just be the posture/figure aspect, surely.

[AnneD]

57. For a theme....

I recommend the study of the collapse of Argentina. I think that will be the theme that will give us a good look into our future. History may not exactly repeat itself, but it sure does echo. We can tango out way through difficult times.

[Demeter]

64. Don't Cry For Me!

Not a bad idea at all! Thanks, AnneD!

[Ghost Dog]

77. I can offer these links right now:

http://www.aidemocracy.org/students/dispatches-from-argentina-alternative-economies-and-an-alternative-internship/

http://interactivist.autonomedia.org/node/682

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_economic_crisis_%281999%E2%80%932002%29#Debt_restructuring

[Hugin]

61. How about a retrospective on Company Towns? N/T

[Demeter]

65. Let's keep that in reserve

Don't let me forget.

[xchrom]

19. europe: ECB's Draghi urges faster reform implementation

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ecbs-draghi-urges-faster-reform-implementation-2011-11-18?dist=beforebell

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- European Central Bank President Mario Draghi Friday demanded swift implementation of measures agreed by euro-zone leaders in recent months to combat the currency bloc's debt crisis.

"Where is the implementation of these long-standing decisions? We should not be waiting any longer," Draghi said in a speech to bankers and euro-zone government officials.

Draghi's comments underscore growing frustration about the pace of measures adopted by euro-zone leaders to resolve the region's deepening crisis, which this week risks spreading to Spain's debt market.

The new ECB president, who entered office earlier this month, specifically mentioned still incomplete efforts to broaden the scope and financial power of the euro zone's bailout fund, after several measures were agreed to strengthen the so-called European Financial Stability Facility since it was conceived last year.

[xchrom]

20. Europe stocks mixed amid debt fears

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/europe-stocks-slide-further-on-debt-fears-2011-11-18

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — European equities posted a mixed performance Friday, capped by ongoing worries over whether euro-zone leaders will be able to get a grip on a debt crisis that poses a growing risk to the region’s banking sector and the world economy, analysts said.

The Stoxx 600 index /quotes/zigman/2380150 XX:SXXP -0.08% was marginally higher at 234.07 after declining 1.3% on Thursday. The pan-European benchmark’s on track for a 2.9% weekly loss.

Earlier losses were trimmed after a news report said a proposal that would see the European Central Bank lend money to the International Monetary Fund that could be used to finance bailouts was gaining traction.

An unnamed euro-zone official told Dow Jones Newswires that Germany and the European Central Bank remained opposed but that discussions may begin soon amid a lack of other alternatives. Read Market Pulse about the report.

[xchrom]

28. Portugal Heading for ‘Shock’ Year as Crisis Deepens: Euro Credit

http://sfgate.bloomberg.com/SFChronicle/Story?docId=1376-LUSUW21A74E901-6QIV9C19PMQ0VQUVGJ66VRNPP1

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- With an economy struggling in a recession, Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is fighting to avoid the market mayhem that toppled the Italian government last week.

Coelho, whose Social Democratic Party ousted the Socialist government in June elections, is meeting targets set by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in the 78 billion-euro ($105 billion) bailout program, and he plans to implement next year what he calls the “most difficult” budget in memory. He’s slashing state workers’ salaries and avoiding further one-off income-tax surcharges to fill a financing hole.

The risk premium on Portugal’s 10-year bonds fell in the past week, contrasting with the increases in Italy, Spain and France. Portuguese growth averaged less than 1 percent a year in the past decade to rank among Europe’s weakest economies.

“2012 will be the year of shock,” said Diogo Teixeira, chief executive officer of Optimize Investment Partners, a Lisbon-based firm that manages 45 million euros in assets and holds Portuguese government debt. “Most negative effects of the government’s austerity measures will be felt in 2012, whereas the good effects, in terms of increased productivity, may only be felt in 2013 and beyond.”

[xchrom]

33. ABN Amro reports a loss after writing off Greek loans

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15788403

Dutch bank ABN Amro has reported a loss due to exposure to Greek corporate loans.

It made a net loss of 54m euros ($73m; £46m) in the three months to the end of September compared with a 341m euro profit in the same period last year.

ABN Amro holds around 1.4bn euros of corporate loans guaranteed by the Greek government and wrote off 500m euros of that.

It said it had "sufficient indications" the loans might not be repaid in full.

[xchrom]

37. Greek budget will 'cut deficit' by 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15791008

The new Greek government has submitted its plans for next year's budget, promising to almost halve the deficit.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos predicted the deficit would fall from 9% of GDP this year to 5.4% in 2012 due to a write-off of debt held by banks.

The cut, of up to 50% of Greece's debt held by commercial banks, is part of the eurozone's latest bailout deal.

Mr Venizelos said banks would be given different options over how to take part in the debt deal.

[Demeter]

39. Implement this!

[xchrom]

40. Hungary seeks new IMF agreement

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15791191

Hungary expects to sign a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU early next year, the Economy Ministry has said.

It comes a day after the ministry said it wanted "a new type of co-operation" with the IMF to act as an "insurance".

Hungary received an IMF-led bailout in 2008, but decided not to renew a standby loan agreement last year.

The EU said it was aware of Hungary's plans to ask for help but had not yet received a formal request.



***:shrug:

[xchrom]

41. Italy: PM Mario Monti set for second confidence vote

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15785651

The technocratic government of Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is facing a crucial confidence vote in the lower house of parliament.

Speaking to MPs before the vote, Mr Monti said he would meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy next week.

The new prime minister has promised to fight tax evasion and reform pensions to bring down Italy's debt.

He easily won a vote of confidence in the upper house on Thursday.

[xchrom]

49. Eurozone debt contagion stalks European stock markets

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/global-markets/eurozone-debt-contagion-stalks-european-stock-markets/articleshow/10782048.cms

LONDON: European stock markets fell further on Friday with global investors growing ever more alarmed at the risk of contagion from the eurozone debt crisis, after borrowing costs for France and Spain shot up.

In late morning trading, London's FTSE 100 index sank 1.08 percent to 5,364.74 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 shed 0.66 percent to 5,811.56 points and in Paris the CAC 40 dropped 0.54 percent to 2,994.37.

However, in the foreign exchange market, the euro climbed to $1.3534 from $1.3457 late in New York on Thursday.

European shares have fallen sharply this week as Italy, Spain and even France faced a sharp spike in borrowing costs, in a dangerous new phase as the debt crisis showed new signs of spreading.

[Ghost Dog]

73. Hmm. Spain's IBEX35 closed up 0.48% however,

- http://www.elpais.com/economia/bolsa/ficha_indice.html?id=582

(and was also up yesterday). Lazy, ill-informed English-language media reporting, as usual.

[Ghost Dog]

74. Dupe, sorry.

(Struggling, sometimes, with a weak and often intermittent wireless signal in this cheap but no-hassle neighborly rented space here in my exile... In a village on the same island, still (to go North, where everything costs much more (and home-heating is essential) this winter looks like a crazy idea to my mind. Well, I did need to attempt to work (and think) more offline).

[xchrom]

26. Cal State East Bay teachers hold 1-day walkout

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/17/BAVI1M0R07.DTL&tsp=1

They pitched no tents. They were struck by no police batons.

But the hundreds of chanting, dancing, drum-pounding California State University faculty members who converged on CSU's Hayward campus Thursday to demand promised raises did do a "mike check," the Occupy Wall Street movement's signature method of addressing large crowds without a microphone.

"Mike check!" shouted a voice from within the crowd at Cal State East Bay. "When faculty are forced to leave the CSU for better pay and working conditions, the value of your degree is on the line!"

Faculty, joined by students and some state lawmakers, repeated his words in the now familiar call-and-response fashion of Occupy protesters.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/17/BAVI1M0R07.DTL#ixzz1e3zzPq2G

[xchrom]

32. Global inventory of cooking oil down to 29 days

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/18/BUOG1M0QG7.DTL&type=business

That's how low the global inventory of cooking oils has fallen, as measured by days of consumption, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Stockpiles of soybean, rapeseed, sunflower and six other oils used to make everything from candy bars to biofuels have slipped to the lowest level since 1975. Farmers haven't been able to keep up with demand, which is growing five times faster than the world's population.

Hear here

"It used to be we send them whatever grain we had, whatever soybeans we had, we send them, they're happy to have it. Not anymore."

Peter Friedmann of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, on a 29 percent surge in grain exports to Asia using shipping containers. Midwestern corn and other commodities traditionally have been carried in bulk railcars and transferred to ships. Now buyers such as Japanese tofu maker Shikoku Kakoki want grain held in containers for the entire journey. That's good for railroads such as Burlington Northern, which can fill otherwise empty boxes heading back to Asia for another load of electronics.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/17/BUOG1M0QG7.DTL#ixzz1e41Ku9NA

[xchrom]

38. US body to probe China telecom firms on security threat

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15786743

US legislators have launched a probe into Chinese telecom firms amid growing concerns over cyber espionage.

The US House intelligence committee said the investigation would look into whether the expansion of these firms in the US posed a security threat.

The committee has named Huawei and ZTE as two of the companies that it is probing.

Huawei, founded by ex-Chinese army officer Ren Zhengfei, has previously had US deals blocked on security fears.

[Demeter]

42. S&P to update bank credit ratings within 3 weeks

http://news.yahoo.com/p-bank-credit-ratings-within-3-weeks-051536303.html

Standard & Poor's plans to update its credit ratings for the world's 30 biggest banks within three weeks and may well mete out a few downgrades in the process, possibly surprising battered global bond markets. Among the institutions that could be downgraded are Bank of America Corp , Citigroup Inc and Morgan Stanley , said Baylor Lancaster, an analyst at CreditSights Inc.

Spokesmen for the three banks declined to comment.

Some European banks could also be affected. On November 9, S&P downgraded its scores for the health of the banking industries in a number of countries, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. The updates in ratings are part of a major overhaul of S&P's methods for scoring the creditworthiness of some 750 banking groups...The updates are part of a broad push by S&P to improve its products and repair its reputation as its parent, McGraw-Hill Cos Inc , divides itself into two publicly traded companies.

The agency, the subject of intense criticism because its positive ratings for mortgage-backed securities played a major role in inflating the housing bubble, has been working on the changes for more than a year...S&P has taken pains to prepare the markets for the changes, but when it actually releases results for individual banks some downgrades could surprise, analysts say. "One reason there could be surprises is that the new ratings method is very complex and it has been very difficult to simulate results," said Beate Muenstermann, a London-based research analyst for the money management arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co. One area for potential surprise lies in differences between actions the agency may take on bank holding companies compared with grades for their operating units. Another is variations between long-term and short-term ratings. S&P posted an advance notice of the coming changes in March 2010 and in January 2011 outlined its initial plans and requested comments.

Earlier this month the agency published its final criteria and said it expects 60 percent of all bank ratings to stay as they are, while 20 percent will go up one notch, 15 percent will fall by one notch and less than 5 percent will drop by two or more notches. One notch is one-third of a letter grade -- for example, the difference between a rating of "A" and a rating of "A-minus." S&P has not said what proportion of downgrades it expects among only the biggest banks. It has said to expect regional differences in the results for all banks. Western Europe fared worse than Latin America and Asia in the November 9 changes in scores for banking industries by country. S&P estimated in January that there would be more downgrades, but the agency lowered some ratings while the plan was being completed and also eased some of the criteria. The agency plans to first announce its results for the 30 biggest banks, possibly as early as late this month, and then begin quickly rolling out its ratings for smaller banks...

[xchrom]

43. Brazil police probe Rio de Janeiro Chevron oil spill

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15783171

Brazilian police are investigating an oil spill in an offshore field operated by the US company Chevron.

Ships are working to disperse the slick 120km (75 miles) off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, and Chevron says it has plugged the oil well.

Brazil's Energy Minister Edison Lobao has said the company will be "severely punished" if it is found to have failed in its environmental responsibilities.

In recent years Brazil has discovered huge oil reserves in the Atlantic.

[Demeter]

44. European Rift on Bank’s Role in Debt Relief

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/world/europe/european-central-bank-resists-calls-to-act-in-debt-crisis.html

The financial stability of Europe has come down to one institution, the European Central Bank, which is now under heavy new pressure to rescue the euro — or possibly see it collapse.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s prime minister, on Thursday became the latest leader to demand that the bank find a solution to the euro crisis, saying that “this is what we transferred power for” and that it had to be a bank “that defends the common policy and its countries.” Mr. Zapatero made his unusually blunt statements on a day when markets sagged further and contagion continued its seemingly inexorable spread from the small economies on Europe’s periphery to Italy, Spain and even France at the core. Spain was forced Thursday to pay nearly 7 percent on an issue of 10-year debt, the highest since 1997, while investors demanded the largest premium for buying French as opposed to German debt in the decade-long history of the euro.

Only the fiercely conservative stewards of the European Central Bank have the firepower to intervene aggressively in the markets with essentially unlimited resources. But the bank itself, and its most important member state, Germany, have steadfastly resisted letting it take up the mantle of lender of last resort. European politicians and analysts say that unbending stance now threatens the survival of the euro and the broader integration of Europe itself. “There is no solution to the crisis without the E.C.B.,” said Charles Wyplosz, a professor at the Graduate Institute in Geneva and co-author of a standard textbook on European integration. “The amounts we are talking about are too big for anybody but the E.C.B.”

At issue is whether the bank has the will — or the legal foundation — to become a European version of the Federal Reserve in the United States, with a license to print money in whatever quantity it considers necessary to ensure the smooth functioning of markets and, if needed, to essentially bail out countries that are members of the euro zone. Traditionally, and according to its charter, the European bank has viewed its role in much narrower terms, as a guardian of the value of the euro with a mission to prevent inflation. But as market unease has spread over the past two years, critics say the bank’s obsession with what they say is a phantom threat of inflation has stifled growth and helped bring the euro zone to the edge of a financial precipice. With events threatening to spin out of control, the burden now rests on Mario Draghi, an inflation fighter in the president’s job at the bank barely two weeks who surprised many economists by immediately cutting interest rates a quarter point. “Everything until now is just a prelude. This is where it gets serious,” said Peter Zeihan, vice president of analysis at Stratfor, a geopolitical research center. “This is not purely economics. This is about Germany’s position in Europe and whether they control the institutions or not.”

MORE DRIVEL AT LINK

[xchrom]

45. south asia: Sensex posts biggest weekly fall in nearly 3-1/2 months

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/market-news/sensex-posts-biggest-weekly-fall-in-nearly-3-1/2-months/articleshow/10781538.cms

MUMBAI: Sensex fell 0.6 per cent on Friday, dragging the main index to its biggest weekly fall in nearly three and a half months, as fresh concerns about the European debt crisis compounded lingering worries over weak domestic growth and slow government decision making.

Cigarette and consumer goods major ITC, and frontline banking and auto stocks contributed most to the losses as investors expect growth to slow in coming quarters given rising cost pressures, high interest rates and a slump in the rupee.

Sensex fell 4.8 per cent for the week, its worst performance since the week ended Aug. 7. This was its third straight weekly decline.

"The sentiment is absolutely pathetic, we are not seeing any sort of buying support," said Ambareesh Baliga, chief operating officer at Way2Wealth Securities.

[xchrom]

47. asia: Hong Kong stocks close 1.73% lower

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/global-markets/hong-kong-stocks-close-1-73-lower/articleshow/10780712.cms

HONG KONG: Hong Kong stocks fell 1.73 percent on Friday as European sovereign debt fears deepened after the cost of borrowing for Spain and France surged, while Shanghai also finished lower.

The benchmark Hang Seng index lost 326.24 points to 18,491.23 on turnover of HK$52.95 billion ($6.80 billion).

"There isn't much bargain hunting despite the recent steep falls of the blue chips," said Jackson Wong, an investment manager at Tanrich Securities.

"This shows that many investors consider it too big a risk to return to the market as the situation in Europe remains uncertain," he added.

[xchrom]

51. Asian stocks slump as Spain borrowing costs spike

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/Asian-stocks-slump-as-Spain-borrowing-costs-spike/articleshow/10777084.cms

HONG KONG: Asian stocks slumped Friday after a spike in Spanish government borrowing costs added to the uncertainty over Europe's debt crisis and investors braced themselves for China housing data.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.9 percent to 18,459.73 while South Korea's Kospi fell 2.1 percent to 1,838.85. Japan's Nikkei 225 index slid 1.3 percent to 8,367.24.

Australia's S&P ASX 200 declined 1.5 percent to 4,192.50 while mainland China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.6 percent to 2,447.36.

Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and New Zealand also fell.

[Demeter]

52. Duty calls

I blew yesterday off...seeing as "weekend" is a non-operative concept in my schedule, (aside from the thread, of course) I need some day off!

So that means more for today...see you all tonight!

[Roland99]

53. $600 million still missing in MF Global books:WSJ

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/600-million-still-missing-in-mf-global-bookswsj-2011-11-18?link=MW_home_latest_news

anyone driving around in new cars and jetting to Bali w/their gf lately?

[AnneD]

58. The irony of it all....

is that some of these victims were 1% and active traders. This was so blatantly theft on a grand scale. But in these days of "no fault no prosecution" criminal activity, it remains to be seen how this plays out.

[Hotler]

62. Is it me or the short article?

sounds like the regulators have kind of a causal attitude to a missing six million. "but about $600 million is still missing and might never be recovered, the report said." Not a mention about Corzine being dragged downtown in the back of a squad car. Handcuffed to a desk and yelled at "WHERE DA MONEY CORZINE>" Tin foil hat time. I say laundered drug money is what went missing.

[Demeter]

66. I think we will see Madoff Treatment, at Best

If he got enough influential, big fish on the hook.

If not, business as usual. But no bailout.

[Hotler]

59. k&r n/t

[Demeter]

67. The Technocratic Nightmare By DAVID BROOKS

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/opinion/brooks-the-technocratic-nightmare.html


During the first half of the 1990s, I lived in Brussels and wrote about the European Union, among other subjects, for The Wall Street Journal. This was the heyday of European integration. Helmut Kohl, François Mitterrand and Jacques Delors were in power, negotiating the Maastricht Treaty and organizing the common currency. There was a lot of excitement among the civil servants who saw themselves as the architects of a new Europe. But there were some oddities. The European leaders would come together for a summit and issue a joint communiqué. But then if you sampled the coverage in each of the national medias, you felt as though you were reading about 12 entirely different events. Europe was unifying legalistically and economically, but there was no common language or common conversation. At one meeting, leaders embraced “federalism,” but that word meant one thing in Britain and another thing in Germany. Then there was the elitism. Off the record, Europe’s technocrats would say the most blatantly condescending things: History had taught them that Europe’s peoples were not to be trusted and government should be run from the top by people like themselves. As a consequence, European integration was opaque, and consisted of a long series of complicated fudges. When the European Union leaders were compelled to seek popular approval to get the Maastricht Treaty ratified, they sponsored a forlorn rally in a Brussels park. There were E.U. flags and booths and speakers. But the crowd was bored and sparse. At one point, everyone was asked to sing the new European national anthem to the tune of “Ode to Joy.” Dead silence. No one knew the new words that had been written to go with that masterpiece.

The European Union is an attempt to build an economic and legal superstructure without a linguistic, cultural, historic and civic base. It was the final of the post-World War II efforts — the United Nations was among the first — to build governments that were transnational, passionless and safe...Over the 17 years since I left Brussels, I’ve been impressed and surprised that they could keep the E.U. together. The desire for a unified Europe is strong, at least among the leadership class and those over 60. But now the inherent flaws are undermining the project. The nations of Europe have been running different kinds of economies and different kinds of democracies, reflecting their diverse histories, values and cultures. If you jam diverse economic cultures into a single currency, you’re bound to get an explosion.

At this moment of crisis, it is obvious how little moral solidarity undergirds the European pseudostate. Americans in Oregon are barely aware when their tax dollars go to Americans in Arizona. We are one people with one shared destiny. West Germans were willing to pay enormous subsidies to build the former East Germany. They, too, are one people. But that shared identity doesn’t exist between Germans and Greeks, or even between French and Germans. It was easy to be European when it didn’t cost anything. When sacrifices are necessary, the European identity dissolves away. The mess threatens to bring down the European project and European economies. It threatens to send the world into another global recession. (At this point, Chancellor Angela Merkel has more influence over President Obama’s re-election chances than Obama himself does.) On a superficial level, the fault lies with the current European leadership, their addiction to inadequate patches and fudges. But the real problems emerge from the technocratic mind-set, from the arrogant gray men who believe they can engineer society, oblivious to history, language, culture, values and place.

And the final curse is that while building Europe in this way was a mistake, Europeans cannot now simply reverse course. If the euro was immediately dissolved, the Deutschmark would surge, nearly every other currency would plummet and the imbalances would create a global catastrophe. In the short term, the European Central Bank, the stable European nations and even the U.S. will have to take extremely big and painful action to stabilize the situation. But, after that, it’ll be a time for chastening. It’ll be time to discard the technocratic mind-set that created this inherently flawed architecture and build a Europe that reflects the organic realities of those diverse societies. Thinking back on all the complacent conversations I used to have in Brussels, I was struck by a quotation I read this week in The Economist. A European central banker said he had always wondered how Europe’s leaders could have stumbled into World War I. “From the middle of a crisis,” he said recently, “you can see how easy it is to make mistakes.”

WHAT DO YOU KNOW! BROOKS ISN'T A TOTAL MORON. HE JUST CAN'T BRING HIMSELF TO USE THE "F" WORD, THOUGH. AND THAT'S PRECISELY WHAT HE IS DESCRIBING.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

72. I love David Brooks!

:loveya:

/

[Roland99]

71. MF Global: Was It A Hit?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-mf-global-was-it-hit#new


interesting.....

:hide:

[Hotler]

78. So who got the 600 million??????

I want details about how the hit went down. Corzine wasn't stupid enough to leverage 40:1 but was stupid enough to bet against Ben. What!

[westerebus]

79. It's only a hit if the body is dumped at sea...

other wise, it's a policy adjustment that no one could have predicted the consequences of.

[Ghost Dog]

80. Highly plausible, I'd say.

:hide: