STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, December 6, 2011

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Tuesday, December 6, 2011

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON December 5, 2011

Dow 12,097.83 +78.41 (+0.65%)
Nasdaq 2,655.76 +28.83 (+1.09%)
S&P 500 1,257.08 +12.80 (+1.02%)
10-Yr Bond... 2.08 +0.03 (+1.66%)
30-Year Bond 3.07 +0.04 (+1.19%)

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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:
The Big Picture    Financial Sense    Calculated Risk    Naked Capitalism    Credit Writedowns
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. No reports today. nt

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. Oil falls to near $100 after S&P warning

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell to near $100 a barrel Tuesday in Asia after a U.S. credit rating agency warned it may cut the debt ratings of 15 eurozone countries.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 52 cents to $100.47 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 3 cents to settle at $100.99 on Monday.

In London, Brent crude was down 59 cents at $109.20 on the ICE futures exchange.

Standard and Poor's said late Monday it was reviewing "with negative implications" its long-term sovereign credit ratings of European countries including Germany, France and Austria.

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

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. U.S. Stock Futures Fluctuate After S&P Puts 15 Nations on Review

U.S. stock futures fluctuated between gains and losses after Standard & Poor’s put 15 nations in the euro area on credit-rating review, while Germany and France resolved to push the region toward greater fiscal union.

United Technologies Corp. (UTX) advanced, while Alcoa Inc. (AA) declined in Germany.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring this month retreated 0.1 percent to 1,253.6 at 9:41 a.m. in London, after rising as much as 0.3 percent and dropping as much as 0.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average contract was unchanged at 12,066 points.

The S&P 500 yesterday increased 1 percent, extending its best weekly gain since March 2009. Improving U.S. economic data reduced concern that the euro-area debt crisis will threaten the recovery in the world’s largest economy. Germany and France said they will push for rewriting European Union rules to enforce stricter budget discipline, at a regional summit on Dec. 9 in Brussels.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-06/u-s-stock-futures-fluctuate-after-s-p-puts-15-nations-on-rating-review.html

[fasttense]

51. Fluctuation or flatulence? n/t

[Demeter]

54. Now THERE'S a Definition of Bubble-Blowing I hadn't Considered!

I'm too pure minded for my own good.

[xchrom]

4. it's morning isn't it?

:donut:

[Pachamama]

45. It is somewhere.....

Its dark out and I have a big cup of Java with me now and I think I am awake now.....okay, its morning.... :hi:

[xchrom]

5. U.S. is among developed economies with highest income inequality

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-1206-oecd-income-20111206,0,7728506.story

Reporting from New York—
The United States continues to outpace other developed economies globally with one of the biggest divides between rich and poor, according to a new report.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported that the average income of the richest 10% in developed nations is nine times that of the poorest 10%, up from five times as large in the 1980s. The difference between the highest and lowest paid is greater in the United States than in most other wealthy countries, while inequality has risen faster in others such as Sweden and Finland, the report says.

"This phenomenon is not confined to the U.S. — it's much more general to advanced countries in the world," said Edward Wolff, a professor studying income inequality at New York University.

The study from Paris-based OECD, whose members are 34 developed countries, joins a growing number of recent studies showing that income inequality has grown since the 1970s after falling in the decades after World War II. This is the organization's first report on the subject since 2008.

[Demeter]

6. Here's Another Not-So-Funny

[xchrom]

8. +1

[xchrom]

7. Many Americans already finished holiday shopping

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45556806/ns/business-holiday_retail/

More than a third of U.S. shoppers are already done with most of their holiday shopping, a survey showed on Monday, signaling that retailers need to offer bigger incentives to win sales in the few weeks before Christmas.

The findings underscore the fragility of the U.S. recovery, since consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's economy.

About 32 percent of people surveyed by America's Research Group said they finished a majority of their Christmas shopping in November. Last month included Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when stores pulled out all the stops on discounts to woo shoppers during their biggest season of the year.

More than 6 percent completed most of their holiday shopping in the first weekend of December.

[Demeter]

9. The rest are waiting for After Xmas Sales

or maybe next Xmas...

[DemReadingDU]

40. or doing without

[Hotler]

61. Doing without. Christmas like health care....

is a privilege.

[Warpy]

68. Xmas shopping became easy when my dad died

because he was the last close relative I had. My friends are my age and more interested in getting rid of stuff than accumulating it.

The only thing I'm sending out is a hat I made last year out of some experimental fiber I spun up, more to show the recipient what I've been doing lately than to gift her with something particularly elegant, although it is pretty neat.

The irony is that I can finally afford to lavish what I want to on people I love instead of finding things to make do because I had so little money to spend. So I lavish it on Feeding America and other charities.

[Demeter]

10. Gavyn Davies: Germany is winning the debate on fiscal union

This is the week in which Angela Merkel’s “grand bargain” is due to reach fulfillment at the European summit. On one side of the bargain, the eurozone will be required to accept Germany’s demand for “fiscal union”. On the other side, Germany will agree to the provision of funds to help indebted countries to remain liquid while they reduce government deficits and debt ratios, and thereby regain market access.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/19JYUU/8ZISC9/GYN7Q/L9R8OT/97I3WV/B7/t?a1=2011&a2=12&a3=4

I HOPE HE'S WRONG, FOR ALL OUR SAKES

[xchrom]

13. under sarkozy -- the french got downgraded -- kinda hard to bring to

the table when in the 'estimation' of the credit agencies you ain't so hot.

it's all so fucked up.

[Demeter]

14. Raghuram Rajan: Europe’s pain must be widely shared

Any proposed resolution to the European crisis over the next few days will have to be economically viable as well as politically palatable to both the rescuers and the rescued if it is to restore confidence to the sovereign bond markets. This means paying attention not just to the technical details but also to how it is presented.

There is growing consensus about the key elements of any resolution. Italy and Spain will have to come up with credible medium term programmes that will not just boost their fiscal health, but also improve their ability to grow their way out of trouble.

While any plan will involve pain for the citizenry, the markets must also deem the pain politically tolerable, at least relative to the alternatives.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/5VKNAC/LSLXF/974R34/ORH5P6/6C/t?a1=2011&a2=12&a3=6

THIS PERSON IS OBVIOUSLY A PSYCHOPATH

[Demeter]

15. France and Germany agree new rules

France and Germany said on Monday they had reached a “comprehensive” agreement on a new set of fiscal rules for governing the beleaguered eurozone, which they will ask a critical European Union summit in Brussels to approve on Friday

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/LVA6WW/R367YW/K91WR/302R7E/97IU66/28/t?a1=2011&a2=12&a3=5

THE WORLD'S GONE MAD, MAD I SAY!

[xchrom]

11. U.S. job growth engine is badly broken

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/05/9228766-us-job-growth-engine-is-badly-broken


The job market seems to be perking up a bit, but it’s just not creating work fast enough. The problem may be that it’s badly broken.

A closer look at the numbers points reveals that entire sections of the labor market are simply not adding jobs because they’re “structurally impaired, ” according to a recent research report from economists at Credit Suisse. And it looks like they’re going to remain crippled for some time.

From real estate, to finance to manufacturing, these sectors have all but shut down as job-creators. Together, these industries account for about half of the jobs lost from the January, 2008 peak to the January, 2010 trough. With little or no job growth from these sectors, it’s as if half of the job market’s cylinders just aren’t firing.

The hardest-hit sector, real estate, has created the biggest crater in the job market. After overall employment levels peaked, the housing bust wiped out nearly 2.5 million real-estate related jobs over the next two years. Since then, employment levels for the industry has more or less flat-lined. That sector accounts for 38 percent of the jobs lost since the job market collapsed, according to Credit Suisse.

[Demeter]

16. TURN OFF THE JOB-KILLING MACHINERY, FIRST!

Then maybe we will get somewhere.

[Tansy_Gold]

28. AMEN!!!!!!

:hi: and :donut:

[DemReadingDU]

42. +++

[Demeter]

12. After MF Global: How to protect customers’ cash

Customer money is missing at MF Global. After three mysterious weeks, we don’t even know whether the shortfall is $600m or $1.2bn. (OR $3 BILLION, THE LATEST I HEARD==DEMETER) While this is obviously a problem for MF customers, it’s also a significant challenge for the larger financial system.

When missing customer cash is needed as collateral for other transactions, its absence could contribute to a cascade of failures in other markets. Worried investors, meanwhile, might suddenly reduce their derivatives positions in order to retrieve the margin cash they had placed with other futures brokers to back their trades. This retreat could contribute to dangerous fire sales, further worsening a downward spiral.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/G8OTZZ/QN8ZPG/VTVRG/5VZFX5/8ZYPP8/JY/t?a1=2011&a2=12&a3=5

[Demeter]

20. US futures watchdog tightens client funds rules

CFTC reacts following the fall of broker-dealer MF Global as investigators continue to look for an estimated $1.2bn still missing from client accounts

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/NA70KK/XHAYOE/SUO9T/FKI1HW/304R46/OS/t?a1=2011&a2=12&a3=6

[Demeter]

30. MF Global customer: My entire account is missing

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/02/us-mfglobal-missing-account-idUSTRE7B12AD20111202?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=56943

An Illinois-based futures fund on Friday said its more than $50 million account with the broker-dealer unit of MF Global Holdings Ltd (MFGLQ.PK) is missing, and asked a federal bankruptcy judge to order the trustee to find it...Highridge Futures Fund LLP said the trustee James Giddens has refused to help locate its account with MF Global Inc, even after transferring some 38,000 other accounts and giving customers access to some of their collateral...The Highridge fund said Giddens, CME Group Inc's (CME.O) Chicago Mercantile Exchange and regulators have told it nothing about the status of its account, which held commodity positions and cash. It also said it had been told twice that the account was being transferred, but the transfer never occurred...The trustee's office has been in contact with Highridge, and will try to resolve the matter without the need for a court ruling, said Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Giddens.

Giddens this week asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn, who oversees MF Global's bankruptcy, to allow the distribution of as much as $2.1 billion to former MF Global commodities customers, roughly doubling the total payout to $4.1 billion. He said the payout should restore at least two-thirds of U.S.-based property to former customers of that unit, where funds were frozen because of the bankruptcy.

On Friday, the House Agriculture Committee in Congress voted to subpoena Corzine to testify about MF Global's collapse. A spokesman and a lawyer for Corzine each declined immediate comment.

[DemReadingDU]

50. Corzine Tries to Delay Congressional Hearings on Firm's Collapse

12/5/11 Corzine Tries to Delay Congressional Hearings on Firm's Collapse
Written By Charlie Gasparino

Jon Corzine isn’t getting off to a good start with congressional investigators after his attorney spent the past two weeks seeking a delay in upcoming hearings and forcing subpoenas to compel his testimony at upcoming hearings into the demise of the brokerage firm he ran, MF Global, the FOX Business Network has learned.

Corzine’s attorney Andrew Levander angered staffers in as many as three committees investigating the firm’s Nov. 1 bankruptcy and its impact in the securities markets. As much as $1.2 billion in client money remains missing from MF Global, and investigators are examining whether senior officials at the brokerage improperly co-mingled the customer accounts with money used for operations during its tumultuous final days, people with knowledge of the matter tell FOX Business.

The committees have asked Corzine voluntarily testify at their upcoming hearings this month on these and other issues surrounding the bankruptcy, which faces both civil and criminal investigations by the likes of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. Justice Department.

But Levander attempted to persuade the leaders of both the House and Senate Agriculture committees and the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Investigations to postpone their hearings until sometime in January. Levander cited scheduling conflicts and the need to prepare for a public grilling as the reason he and his client needed more time.

But his insistence to postpone the hearings angered some lawmakers and their staffers who believed Levander was merely trying to delay the hearings indefinitely.

Since then, they have vowed to force Corzine to appear through subpoena if he doesn’t show up on his own. So far, the House Agriculture committee has issued a subpoena to Corzine for its scheduled hearings on Thursday. People close to the former New Jersey governor say it’s still unclear if he will exercise his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination and decline to answer lawmakers' questions.

Both the Senate Agriculture Committee and the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Investigations will hold votes in the coming days to determine whether to issue a subpoena to compel Corzine’s testimony as well. Both committees are likely to issues subpoenas for Corzine’s testimony if he continues to ignore their request to testify voluntarily, people close to the matter say.

Through a spokesman, Levander declined comment. A person close to him tells FOX Business that Levander offered to have Corzine testify without a subpoena if the committees pushed the hearings to January. Committee staffers say that response came only after they had established hearing dates.

Meanwhile, Levander and his client appear in a tight spot as the hearings into MF Global’s fall heat up. In addition to angering lawmakers, Levander has to decide whether he should allow Corzine to give testimony or simply plead the Fifth. Failing to answer questions will be an embarrassment to Corzine, who before he served as governor, was a U.S. senator from the Garden State.

But answering questions could also open up Corzine to a perjury trap with prosecutors seizing on inconsistencies in his testimony rather than on anything related to the circumstances behind MF Global’s implosion.

“The trick is to figure out how Corzine can say something—anything—so he won’t have to plea the Fifth but doesn’t get himself in trouble,” said one prominent white collar attorney who had worked as a senior investigator at the Securities and Exchange Commission, but is barred from commenting because he represents a party in the MF Global bankruptcy.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/2011/12/05/corzine-tries-to-delay-congressional-hearings-on-firms-collapse/

[Demeter]

53. Good thing he's a nominal Democrat

Otherwise Congress would give him a complete pass.

[MsLeopard]

58. He's probably trying to buy time

to pull a Ken Lay over the holidays. Seems like a nice time to relocate to central America or some island somewhere.

[DemReadingDU]

55. House Panel Votes to Subpoena Corzine for MF Global Hearing

12/6/11 House Panel Votes to Subpoena Corzine for MF Global Hearing

The U.S. House Agriculture Committee voted to subpoena Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd., for a Dec. 8 hearing on the collapse of the New York-based brokerage.

House lawmakers on the panel voted by voice without opposition today in Washington to issue the subpoena. The Senate Agriculture Committee and the House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations subcommittee separately announced plans to consider Corzine subpoenas next week.

Congress has joined federal regulators in seeking answers about the steps that led to MF Global seeking bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31 after wrong-way bets on European sovereign debt. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department are investigating as much as $1.2 billion in missing customer funds.

“The events that have unfolded since Oct. 31 are unprecedented and have resulted in the loss of property of many of our constituents and a loss of confidence in the futures markets for many more,” Representative Frank D. Lucas, the Oklahoma Republican who leads the House Agriculture Committee, said at the meeting. Corzine’s testimony “is essential to fulfill our objectives on behalf of our constituents and to complete the hearing record,” Lucas said.

more...
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-06/house-panel-votes-to-subpoena-corzine-for-mf-global-hearing.html


edit:
I wonder if CSPAN will televise this hearing on Thursday?

[DemReadingDU]

56. Karl Denninger: Clawback Risk. Must Read!

12/6/11 Karl Denninger: Clawback Risk

Even if it turns out that your funds as a customer were stolen through a rank violation of the segregation that is supposed to be in place, JP Morgan and Bank of America, among others, want to be able to claw back your money should their claims against the bankrupt entity prove up. (read following article)

So much for the alleged "separation" that the entire premise of brokerages rest upon -- that your free cash and margin deposits are yours and are not "investments" in the underlying business of the firm you are choosing to trade with.

If you think this risk doesn't apply to you and you're in the market in any way, shape or form you're quite-simply wrong.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=198641



12/6/11 Dimon eyes clawback
Chase leads block of MF distribution

Mf Global’s burned commodity customers turned their ire from Jon Corzine to Jamie Dimon yesterday after MF’s creditor committee, led by Dimon’s JPMorgan Chase, objected to a plan to distribute $2.1 billion to customers who have seen their accounts frozen since Halloween.

In a Manhattan bankruptcy court filing, the creditors committee, which also includes Bank of America and hedge fund Elliott Management, said they want more assurances that the $2.1 billion is not their money.

Among their requests: They want customers to agree in writing that the money they receive could be clawed back.
more...
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/dimon_eyes_clawback_kREEfrYWIbA84Om6j2kKmK

[Hotler]

63. Mr. Dimon, there is a Bud White here to see you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L7UDkPAO5I&feature=related

[AnneD]

57. Our quote of the day....

"It is a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 19–28.

I think of that line everytime I see a congressional hearing. My nineth grade English teacher would be so proud of me. I was actually paying attention.

[Hotler]

64. Well played. eom.

[Tansy_Gold]

69. Uh, not to be picky, but that would be your N-I-N-T-H grade English teacher.

:hide:

[AnneD]

70. It was English....

literature...neither composition nor even math.

I plead frequent interruptions while trying to posts. I have a band aid on my finger today and having to use other digits. I do run a busy school clinic she tried to explain as the Spelling Nazis hauled her away.

But I really do remember that line these days. Never thought of it during Watergate. It actually started popping into my brain during Penisgate.

[Hotler]

62. Why is Corzine not in jail waiting to testify before a Grand Jury or,

been in jail and posted bail? Why only Corzine? Where are the rest of MF Global's upper management? Why are they not being called to testify? So many questions.

[DemReadingDU]

67. He needs a visit with Bud White

:evilgrin:

[Hotler]

71. We could keep Bud White busy. eom.

[Demeter]

74. I'll bite; Who is Bud White?

[DemReadingDU]

76. see this video posted earlier by Hotler #63

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5081577#5081866

direct link to video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L7UDkPAO5I&feature=related


link to movie L.A. Confidential information
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119488/

[Demeter]

17. BP claims Halliburton destroyed evidence

Oil group demands handover to an independent forensic electronics firm of the computer used to conduct analysis into the Deepwater Horizon spill

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/NA70KK/XHAYOE/SUO9T/FKI1HW/PFBMBF/OS/t?a1=2011&a2=12&a3=6

[xchrom]

18. Dollar gains in wake of S&P’s EU warning

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-gains-in-wake-of-sps-eu-warning-2011-12-06?dist=markets

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar edged higher versus most major rivals Tuesday, slightly extending a gain versus the euro scored late the previous day after Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services placed 15 euro-zone countries on a negative “credit watch.”

The euro /quotes/zigman/4867933/sampled EURUSD +0.04% traded at $1.3373, down from $1.3386 in North American trade late Monday.

The dollar index /quotes/zigman/1652083 DXY -0.06% , which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of major rivals, edged up to 78.753 from 78.654.

[Demeter]

19. ITC to buy Entergy’s south-east US grid

Group will become US’s largest high-voltage operator, while Entergy will cut its debt and offload business that needs substantial investment over the next few years

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/NA70KK/XHAYOE/SUO9T/FKI1HW/QNG5BQ/OS/t?a1=2011&a2=12&a3=6

[xchrom]

21. asia: Asia stocks slide after S&P warning on Europe

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asia-edges-lower-after-sps-europe-move-2011-12-05

SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Asian shares finished lower Tuesday, with investors unsettled after Standard & Poor’s warned of possible ratings downgrades for much of the euro zone.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index /quotes/zigman/2622475 HK:HSI -1.24% lost 1.2%, while the Shanghai Composite Index /quotes/zigman/1859015 CN:000001 -0.31% slipped 0.3%.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average /quotes/zigman/5986735 JP:NIK -1.39% dropped 1.4%, South Korea’s Kospi /quotes/zigman/1652118 KR:0100 -1.04% retreated 1%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index /quotes/zigman/1653884 AU:XJO -1.37% fell 1.4%.

[xchrom]

27. Chaoda joins junk heap

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/ML07Cb02.html

HONG KONG - The latest debt downgrade of Chaoda Modern Agriculture (Holdings), which bills itself as China's largest fruit and vegetable producer, further undermines confidence in Chinese companies and the strength of their corporate oversight.

The downgrade by Moody's Investors Service last week came amid claims Chaoda's top two executives had engaged in insider trading. The debt was downgraded by six notches to B3 "junk" status from investment grade Ba3 and the rating was placed on review for further possible downgrade.

Numerous mainland companies, many of them agricultural firms and many listed in America, are now involved in investigations


over alleged accounting irregularities and bad governance. In February, Li Hanchun, former chief executive of Hong Kong-listed China Forestry, was detained in the mainland for alleged embezzlement. China Forestry in May admitted its bank statements and harvesting records had been faked, while its accounts had gone missing.

Since then, more than 40 privately owned Chinese companies listed on US exchanges have acknowledged accounting problems or regulatory investigations.

[xchrom]

32. Vietnam Risks Stability If Policy Eased, IMF, World Bank Say

http://sfgate.ldc.bloomberg.wallst.com/SFChronicle/Story?docId=1376-LVRFZG6KLVR501-42PU6Q23K50SHR1OHFHN7TVEHF

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam may undermine progress toward economic stability if it loosens monetary policy now, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank said as the nation struggles with the fastest inflation in Asia.

“The authorities need to move rapidly and decisively to ensure financial sector soundness while re-establishing macroeconomic stability,” Sanjay Kalra, the IMF’s resident representative in Vietnam, said in comments prepared for a conference in Hanoi today. “Failure to do so, or even loosening policies now, would jeopardize the gains already made.”

Vietnam faces an inflation rate close to 20 percent, a trade deficit, slowing economic growth and risks in the banking sector. The government said today gross domestic product may climb about 6 percent this year, lower than 6.8 percent in 2010, and Kalra said a transparent framework for recapitalization and consolidation in the financial sector is “urgently needed.”

Officials should consider raising interest rates again to support the nation’s currency if necessary, and while Vietnam’s foreign-exchange reserves rose in the summer, they “have declined again in an effort to contain renewed pressures on the exchange rate,” Kalra said.

[xchrom]

47. Exclusive - Shell strikes shale gas in China

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/uk-shell-chinashale-idUKTRE7B50HH20111206

(Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc has found shale gas in China, a development that could cap imports in a market natural gas producers are hoping will drive demand.

An official with Shell's partner, PetroChina, a unit of the country's top energy group, state-owned CNPC, said drilling results from two wells Shell drilled had been positive.

"Shell has two vertical wells and they got very good primary production," Professor Yuzhang Liu, Vice president of Petrochina's Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED), said in an interview at the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Doha.

"It's good news for shale gas," Liu, who regularly represents PetroChina at industry events around the world, told Reuters late on Monday.

[xchrom]

48. China Development Bank inks pact with global buyout

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-permira-cdb-idUKTRE7B50TU20111206

Reuters) - China's banking powerhouse, China Development Bank Corp (CDB), signaled its global ambitions on Tuesday as it launched an overseas investment platform and signed strategic agreements with global private equity funds KKR (KKR.N), Permira and TPG Capital TPG.UL.

China's state-owned CDB CHDB.UL, which is transforming into a commercial lender from a government-focused bank, has been stepping up investment in domestic funds as well as in several Sino-foreign funds aimed at facilitating cross-border investment.

The move reflects CDB's ambition to become a globally competitive institution, as well as Beijing's desire to fund overseas expansion by Chinese companies.

"Hong Kong-based CDB International will participate in direct investment and asset management, making use of the CDB brand and government resources to help Chinese companies invest overseas," CDB said in a statement issued after announcing the tie-ups.

[Demeter]

22. When the Banksters Finally Go On Trial, Let Us Rework This Quote

"We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders
are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it ": U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Robert Jackson, U.S. representative to the International Conference
on Military Trials, Aug. 12, 1945

[Demeter]

31. Iceland's special prosecutor arrests former Glitnir CEO

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/30/us-iceland-glitnir-idUSTRE7AT2UX20111130

Iceland's special prosecutor arrested the former chief executive of Glitnir Bank on Wednesday NOV. 30, and questioned nearly two dozen people related to the collapse of the bank in 2008. (Glitnir Bank was the first of Iceland's top three commercial banks to collapse three years ago, imploding under the weight of huge debts racked up during years of aggressive expansion.) Special prosecutor Olafur Hauksson said his office had made several arrests on Wednesday -- the first for activities related to Glitnir. He told local media that former CEO Larus Welding would be held in custody for up to one week. "Welding is being held in the interest of the investigation in order to prevent him for influencing other suspects or removing evidence that we're after," he was quoted as saying by Morgunbladid.

Hauksson said he had initiated nine new investigations, made several arrests and questioned nearly two dozen people related to the fall of Glitnir...Inquiries are being made into the purchase of Glitnir's shares, as well as into loans provided to a number of firms to purchase Glitnir shares. It also investigated a 15 billion Icelandic crown ($126 million) guarantee provided by Glitnir in connection with a share offering in FL Group.

The prosecutor has also been conducting investigations at Kaupthing and Landsbanki. Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir all collapsed in the space of a week during the 2008 crisis.

[Demeter]

33. One Bank to Rule Them All By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29876.htm

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve and the central banks of Canada, England, Japan, Switzerland, and Europe launched a coordinated monetary intervention aimed at easing interbank lending in the eurozone. While the emergency action sent stocks into the stratosphere, it did not relieve tensions in the markets or increase trust between the banks. In fact, on Thursday, banks stashed €313.763 billion at the European Central Bank’s overnight deposit facility, a new high for the year. Banks leave money with the ECB overnight when they are too worried about counterparty risk to lend to other banks. At the same time, the amount of money that EU banks are borrowing from the ECB, continues to rise, indicating their inability to raise money in the capital markets. These signs of growing distress show that the hoopla surrounding the central bank action are unwarranted. Conditions in the eurozone continue to deteriorate.

Many of Europe’s biggest banks are loaded with sovereign bonds that have lost much of their value since the crisis began. Crashing collateral values have gummed up the funding apparatus and cast doubt on the solvency of the EU banking system. This same type of thing thing happened in July 2007, when 2 Bear Stearns hedge funds defaulted. The incident sent shockwaves through Wall Street as trillions of dollars in dodgy mortgage-backed securities (MBS) were downgraded leaving most of the country’s biggest banks underwater. The Lehman implosion merely exposed the extent of the damage. The capital-depleted system was bankrupt and had to be rebuilt with trillions in loans, subsidies and bailouts from the Fed and Congress. (TARP) Europe now faces a similar crisis.

While Wednesday’s CB intervention provides EU banks with cheaper access to dollar funding, it doesn’t address any of the existential problems facing the eurozone. In fact, its effects should be quite small. Here’s how Paul Krugman summed it up on his blog Conscience of a Liberal:

“So this looks to me like a non-event. Yet markets went wild. Are they taking this as a signal that substantive actions — like the ECB finally doing what has to be done — are just around the corner? Are they misunderstanding the policy? Was this cheap talk that nonetheless moved us to the good equilibrium? (If so, not enough: Italian bonds still at more than 7 percent)” (New York Times)

The Guardian provides an interesting graph that explains why the Fed acted:


EU banks are in the throes of a vicious credit crunch which is deepening the debt crisis and hurtling the EZ towards a long-term slump. Bank funding costs are rising while the value of collateral (sovereign bonds) continues to fall. At the same time, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has ordered banks to increase their core-capital to a minimum 9 percent, even though credit markets are in turmoil and balance sheets are dripping red. All of this is leading to a sharp cutback in lending which will show up in slower growth and higher unemployment. This is from Forbes:

“Bank lending standards have tightened, Barclays suggests, and debt funding costs have risen sharply, both for financials and non-financials. “Historically, such a tightening of lending standards has presaged economic weakness and a consequent rise in high yield corporate credit default rates, typically with a 12-month lag,” wrote the analysts….” (“European Credit Crunch Starting As Crisis Spreads To Private Sector, Forbes)

The only way for banks to raise capital in the current environment is by shrinking their balance sheets which means that they will be forced to dump their assets on the market pushing prices down further. Here’s an excerpt from an article in International Financing Review:

“Banks are feeling pain on both sides of the balance sheet,” said Alberto Gallo, head of European credit strategy at RBS. “On the one side you have a funding squeeze with banks unable to raise cash in the capital markets. At the same time, many of the assets they hold are deteriorating in quality.”

“Banks need to reduce their balance sheets as much as €5trn in assets over the next three years or so,” he added. “The problem is that there just aren’t enough buyers. Most banks will be forced to hold on to much of this stuff to maturity, which will affect their ability to lend and impact on the real economy.”

People involved in asset sale talks say price is the major sticking point. Lenders want only to sell higher-quality assets near to par value so as to avoid huge write-downs, which would erode capital further. By contrast, potential buyers want high-yielding investments and are offering only knock-down prices.”…(European banks’ asset sales face disastrous failure, IFR)

So, EU banks are on the ropes. Their asset base is wasting away with every downgrade and they no longer have the option of raising capital through the conventional means, by issuing equity or increasing deposits. Unless the ECB launches an emergency rescue effort, it’s only a matter of time before one of the larger banks defaults and the dominoes start to tumble through the financial system.

So, how would a major bank failure in the EZ effect things in the US? That’s a question the Economist answers in a recent article. Here’s a clip:

“Financial markets are far more integrated than product markets, and they acted as a conduit of contagion from the American banking system to banks abroad. Falling asset prices in one place impact the balance sheet of leveraged institutions in another place. This transmits the crisis, which then impacts the real economy….

Should trouble in the euro zone lead the European banking system to freeze up entirely, the crisis will quickly be transmitted to America’s economy; credit will dry up to American firms, and the real economy will lurch downward. That is the big risk to most large, non-European economies. Trade accounts for too little activity in big economies for a European collapse to be too disruptive; the financial spillover, on the other hand, will be dreadful. Where the Federal Reserve could do quite a lot to shield the American economy from the drop in European demand stemming from a deep euro-zone recession, it is more difficult for the central bank to provide insulation against an all-out banking panic.” (“US will not decouple from eurozone”, The Economist)

So, what should be done?

The simplest remedy–as most of the experts have noted–would be for the ECB to step in as lender of last resort and buy enough Italian and Spanish debt to keep interest rates at a manageable level. That, in turn, would put a floor under the value of the assets on banks balance sheets, so they wouldn’t be dipping deeper into the red. And this is exactly what new ECB chief Mario Draghi–former managing director of Goldman Sachs– intends to do, as soon as he creates a big enough crisis for him to impose the terms of the settlement on the member states. That’s the real goal, to reshape the EZ so it best fits the objectives of finance capital. So what does Draghi want? He wants his ministers to control national budgets, he wants more money diverted from working people into an over-bloated financial system, he wants his own appointments in positions of power (ie–check Italy and Greece’s new “technocratic” governments), he wants to dictate economic policy, he wants to abolish the welfare state and the social safety net, he wants to keep Europe in a permanent state of Depression (“austerity measures”) so more of the EZ’s wealth flows to the 1 percent at the top. Here’s an excerpt from a Thursday article on Dow Jones:

“European Central Bank President Mario Draghi called Thursday for a recommitment in the euro zone to sound fiscal policy. Speaking to the European Parliament, the new president said the euro zone needed a “new fiscal compact.”

The compact would be “a fundamental restatement of the fiscal rules together with the mutual fiscal commitments that euro area governments have made,” Draghi said…. “a fiscal compact would enshrine the essence of fiscal rules and the government commitments taken so far, and ensure that the latter become fully credible, individually and collectively.” (“ECB’s Draghi Calls For New Euro Zone Fiscal Compact”, Dow Jones)

And what will this new “fiscal compact” look like? Well, it’s probably going to look a lot like the German plan for enforcing the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact. Here’s a summary from the Financial Times blogsite:

1. All planned deficits in excess of 3 per cent of GDP should require unanimous approval across euro area governments. All planned deficits in excess of a country’s medium term objective (but less than 3 per cent of GDP) have to be approved by qualified majority.

2. A commitment to correct past fiscal slippages with essentially no room for discretion: countries to adopt national “debt brake” rules.

3. A country requiring assistance under the ESM (note: European Stability Mechanism–a permanent bailout facility) is placed in financial receivership if its adjustment programme fails to remain on track, with the planning and execution of budgets requiring the agreement of the appointed financial receiver. This is necessary “where countries have no political consensus in support of reforms” to mitigate risks of countries failing to comply or defaulting.

4. Automatic fines and sanctions upon breach of the 3 per cent deficit limit.

5. All national countries introduce an independent budget office to produce budgetary forecasts, create an independent entity at European level to monitor national policies and administer ESM programmes.” (“Europe’s grand bargain”, FT Alphaville)

Take a good look: This is the future of European democracy; one country after another stuffed into a fiscal straitjacket while their public assets are privatized, their unions are crushed, and their sovereignty is surrendered to unelected bankers and eurocrats. Europe is being handed over to big finance on a silver platter. This isn’t a crisis; it’s blackmail.

[Hotler]

65. YES! n/t

[xchrom]

23. europe: Neither Paris nor Berlin, but Frankfurt...

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1250461-neither-paris-nor-berlin-frankfurt

In a week that is set to end with the 9 December European summit, the Franco-German relationship will once again be the key to a possible exit to the crisis. But with this in mind, we should acknowledge and correct one mistake, and avoid another that derives from an error of perspective.

The mistake, a major one, is that of all the Germanophobic voices heard before the weekend. “Europe under a jackboot,” (Marine Le Pen – president of the far-right Front National) “Mrs Merkel’s Bismarckian politics,”(Arnaud Montebourg – Socialist MP who was ranked third in the Socialist party primaries]; Nicolas Sarkozy is “Daladier in Munich” (Jean-Marie Le Guen - Socialist MP] implicitly implying a comparison between the Chancellor and Hitler; “Surrender” (Martine Aubry – First Secretary of the Socialist Party]. These words run the risk of “reviving old demons” to cite the title of the excellent recent work by economist Jean-Pisani Ferry.

A refusal to resort to scapegoating tactics that are an insult to history does not mean that we cannot criticise our major partner: in a time of recession, its sluggish response to two years of developments in the Eurozone crisis, and its insistence on a focus that is restricted to budgetary issues are certainly not beyond reproach.

But words chosen are never innocent and the remark made by François Hollande in yesterday’s Journal du dimanche (“Let’s avoid hurtful language”) falls well short of what should be said.

[xchrom]

24. Ireland One year after bailout, a bitter budget

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief-cover/1253671-one-year-after-bailout-bitter-budget

“Health, social welfare and education face bulk of cuts,” headlines the Irish Times, as the government unveils another austerity budget, the fourth since the Irish economy collapsed in 2008. “The Department of Health is taking the biggest cut of €543 million, followed by social protection with an adjustment of €475 million and education with €132 million,” the Dublin daily writes. In addition to an anticipated 6,000 jobs lost in the public sector, the government has “slashed child benefits, winter fuel, disability and back-to-school allowances,” notes the Irish Independent.

The announcements come a little over a fortnight after it emerged that the Irish budget was subject to an initial review in the German Bundestag, an indicator of Ireland’s loss of economic sovereignty after it accepted an €85 billion bailout from the EU/EC/ECB troika in November 2010.

On December 4, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny in a televised address announced that “Difficult choices are never easy.” His address has drawn a bitter attack from veteran columnist Fintan O’Toole –

"Difficult choices are never easy.” Savour the phrase. Hold it to the light. Swirl it round the glass. Stick your nose in deep and inhale the rich aromas of full-bodied absurdity. Get the pungent whiff of carmelised cliche and curdled smugness.

<…> The truly difficult decisions are not being made. <…> If the pain was being shared fairly, this State would be a more equal society than it was before the crash, because the well-off would be bearing more of the burden. <…> Inequality is rising rapidly. In 2009, the top 20 per cent had 4.3 times the income of the bottom 20 per cent. In 2010, the ratio was 5.5.

[xchrom]

34. German Factory Orders Surge on Rebound in Export Demand: Economy

http://sfgate.ldc.bloomberg.wallst.com/SFChronicle/Story?docId=1376-LVS3NE1A74E901-15CTK1DH5H5J3IT0J1HCN64IVB

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- German factory orders surged the most in 19 months in October after three straight declines, led by a rebound in demand from abroad.

Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, jumped 5.2 percent from September, when they dropped 4.6 percent, the Economy Ministry in Berlin said in a statement today. Economists forecast a gain of 1 percent, according to the median of 34 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. In the year, orders rose 5.4 percent when adjusted for work days.

Germany faces a possible recession as the sovereign debt crisis and a global slowdown sap demand for exports, while Standard & Poor’s warned yesterday that the nation faces the risk of a credit rating downgrade. Business confidence still rose for the first time in five months in November and unemployment declined more than forecast, suggesting domestic demand may help Europe’s largest economy weather the downturn.

“Our outlook for the economy is clouded and we would stick to that, but it’s good to see that the fourth quarter may not be quite as weak as many had expected,” said Christian Lips, an economist at NordLB in Hanover, Germany. “Germany is at the edge of a recession, but maybe we’ll just manage to get around it.”

[xchrom]

39. More evidence emerges of renewed contraction in Spanish economy

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/More/evidence/emerges/of/renewed/contraction/in/Spanish/economy/elpepueng/20111205elpeng_9/Ten

Information made available on Monday added growing credence to forecasts that the Spanish economy is set to contract in the last quarter of the year due to the ongoing turmoil in the euro-zone sovereign debt market and slowing activity worldwide.

Industrial output on October fell to its level last seen in 2009 when Spain was still locked in its worst recession in living memory, while the service sector in November suffered its sharpest decline in over two-and-a-half years.

With Prime Minister-elect Mariano Rajoy expected to announce further measures to ensure Spain fulfills its deficit-reduction obligations, the downturn in activity could also extend well into next year.

The National Statistics Institute (INE) said Monday that after correcting for differences in the number of working days, its industrial production index declined 4.2 percent in October to its lowest level in 19 months. Output shrank across the board, with the biggest falls registered by consumer durables, which contracted 13.6 percent. Production in the first 10 months of the year contracted 0.7 percent.

[xchrom]

43. EU Leaders Attack Standard and Poor's After Ratings Warning

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,801973,00.html

European share prices and the euro fell on Tuesday after ratings agency Standard Poor's warned it may downgrade 15 of the 17 euro-zone nations, including triple-A nations like Germany, as a result of the euro crisis.

European policymakers criticized the timing of the announcement, just three days ahead of a make-or-break EU summit on Thursday and Friday, and said the agency hadn't taken into account proposals for far-reaching reforms of the euro zone's debt rules agreed by the leaders of France and Germany on Monday.

Standard & Poor's had warned late on Monday that it may carry out an unprecedented mass downgrade of euro-zone countries if EU leaders fail to reach an agreement on how to solve the debt crisis at this week's summit.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said the S&P announcement was "like a knockout blow" to countries that were cutting their budget deficits.

[Demeter]

25. U.S. seen only partly backing global accounting rules

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/05/accounting-idUSL5E7N52GS20111205

The United States is likely to signal, perhaps this week, only qualified support for switching to global accounting rules, said a top standards official on Monday. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said it will give more clarity by year-end on whether it will switch to rules authored by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) which are used in 120 countries.

The SEC is due to give a keynote speech on Monday morning in Washington, where the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is holding its annual accounting and auditing conference over the next three days. Regulators often use the conference to make significant policy announcements. Commenting on possible outcomes, IASB Vice Chairman Ian Mackintosh said: "One extreme would be a "big bang" wholesale adoption like in Canada, and the other would be a flat 'No'...My betting is for something in between," he told a conference organised by the ICAEW accounting body on Monday.

Mackintosh noted an SEC paper outlining a possible system of "condorsement" where each IASB rule is adopted individually rather than a wholesale switch -- an idea backed by the trustees of the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). "Probably the SEC will come out with some sort of exposure draft or consultative paper with their view forward," Mackintosh said.

The IASB will then have to decide, through consultation with its members, how to respond to the U.S. announcement and IASB Chairman Hans Hoogervorst will make an "important" speech to the U.S. conference on Tuesday, Mackintosh said. Many big U.S. firms are keen to make the switch in order to cut reporting costs as they have many subsidiaries across the world that file statements using IASB rules. Smaller, domestic-focused U.S. companies and some vocal investor groups say IASB rules are not detailed enough and many in Congress don't want to give up regulatory sovereignty to a body based in London. Accounting industry officials say the SEC will probably have to go beyond broad support to some sort of clear commitment and timeline to switch to IASB rules. This could be over several years and just for large companies.

EXCEPTIONALISM LIVES!

[Demeter]

26. Guess Which Country Has Debt Of Nearly 1000% Of GDP...

A few notes here:

This chart is looking at all kinds of debt, not just sovereign debt. The UK's staggering debt-to-GDP ratio is largely due to the size of its financial sector.

All financial sector debt is, to some extent, potentially government debt, since all governments end up having to rescue their financial sectors in the event of a crisis. That's what brought down Iceland and Ireland.

And yet, for reasons we explained here, the UK is still seen as a gold-standard among safe-havens.

By no measure does the US look remarkable debt-wise -- even household debt/GDP doesn't look that bad. For that matter, Europe doesn't look that bad either. Their problem is not debt, but fiscal/monetary structure.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/g10-countries-by-total-debt-to-gdp-2011-12#ixzz1fl5KX8v8

[Demeter]

29. Jobs Mirage: 315,000 Drop Out Of Workforce, Driving Unemployment Rate To Three-Year Low

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/jobs-report-december-november-2011_n_1125180.html

...The U.S. economy added 120,000 jobs in November -- falling short of economists' expectations -- while the unemployment rate dipped from 9.0 to 8.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning. But roughly half of the decline in the unemployment rate came from the 315,000 Americans who dropped out of the labor market last month, in part a reflection of the slow pace of the recovery, economists said.

"When unemployment is this high for this long, it's very likely that most of the people dropping out are doing so because they can't find work," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, who has studied the shrinking labor force during the years since the recession began. "There is some movement here, that's true. But it's just so slow."

While November's job gains roughly kept pace with population growth, a more positive glimmer can be found in the upwards revisions of the past two months of employment growth. Job growth for September was revised up to 210,000 from 158,00, and October's gains were up to 100,000 from 80,000.

120,000 may not be 250,000 -- the lowest number most economists look to for a really healthy recovery -- but it's also better than zero, the initial headline number of new positions created in August, when fears of a double-dip recession really began to take hold. In October, the number of new positions created in August was revised upwards to 103,000...

[Tansy_Gold]

37. And what do those 120,000 pay the people in them?

A minimum wage that is half of what a "sustainable" or "living" wage ought to be?

Why do pukes hate work so much? (That's a rhetorical question; don't answer.)



Giving you a brief respite from Demeter's condo board woes, my artists' group board met yesterday, and one of the items on the agenda was suggested revisions to the "mission statement." The proposed statement began, "(Name of organization) is a group of talented, proficient artists. . . . . " There was consensus on removing "talented" since a.) it's redundant and b.) it's subjective. There was also consensus on changing "proficient" because it didn't apply. I proposed "working," since one of the requirements of membership is that the artist actually be producing art, and since one of the goals of the group is to help artists sell their work (pun intended), hobbyists who only dabble for their own enjoyment or to give to friends technically don't qualify for membership. And in fact, virtually all of our members are actively producing artwork (pun intended) for sale.

The change was accepted, but when the revised mission statement was emailed late last night, , the prez (a low level aristo who invited me to run for the board next month until I told her "No, because I tend to piss people off, and because I don't CARE that I piss people off) accompanied the attachment with this message: the word "working didn't seem right as it sounded like we all had jobs".....so i changed the first line to something I think all will like..... She left the mission statement reading ". . . a group of artists." Period.

I wrote back:

I do have a job. I didn't know a job was something to be ashamed of and not mentioned in polite company.

There's nothing wrong or negative about the word "working" when applied to artists In this context, it designates artists who are actually doing art, instead of a bunch of dabblers and dreamers and dilettantes who sit around and talk about art but never actually do it.

It doesn't mean the artist does nothing else or spends every waking moment on her or his art. It just means that they actually work at producing art.

By not describing what KIND of artists we are, the mission statement doesn't say anything.at all.

I for one am proud of the work I do as an artist. I'm proud to be a working artist, even if I can't devote myself to it full time the way I'd like. And I do work hard at creating my art, each and every piece of it. I'm really a bit insulted that someone thinks "working artist"is a bad thing.


"Work" is only for the poor, especially poor children in newtie's vision for America. "Work" is what the poor don't even know how to do. Yet how many days of honest labor has the exalted Mr. G. put in during his entire lifetime? Collecting millions of dollars for sitting on the board of an organization that is destroying jobs and homes and families is not "work."


Tansy Gold, becoming more of a Marxist every day.

[Demeter]

52. I've been AWOL from the Condo Board for About a Week

The Fundie Fascist wanted to do Great Things...so people would re-elect him. He did NOTHING for two years, not even attend a committee meeting...not even his own committee...so let him. See how big a hole he can dig for his own grave.

I've been sick (sick of his politics).

[xchrom]

35. Wis. firm reverses 1-way flow of shoes from Asia

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/05/national/a220238S58.DTL&type=business

There's a good chance the shoes you're wearing right now were made in China. Now an American shoemaker wants to put the shoe on the other foot, by persuading the Chinese to wear shoes made in the USA.

The Allen Edmonds Shoe Corp., whose high-end shoes have been worn by U.S. presidents for generations, is preparing to open stores in China while keeping the manufacturing work at home. The plan marks a reversal of sorts in a footwear industry that has flowed almost entirely from East to West.

Nearly 99 percent of shoes sold in the U.S. are imported, with China accounting for about 88 percent of the total, according to a report by the American Apparel & Footwear Association.

Allen Edmonds is hoping to become a larger player in the world market. So the Wisconsin-based shoe company announced Tuesday it has signed a licensing agreement with a Shanghai-based company to sell its shoes in China, Hong Kong and Macau. The first store is slated to open in Shanghai by the end of June.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/05/national/a220238S58.DTL#ixzz1flBUFb3A

[Tansy_Gold]

38. Just one of the reasons I go barefoot as much as possible n/t

[Demeter]

36. "26 TRILLION Dollars In Bank Bailouts! That's Not Including TARP!" Alan Grayson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP362CWj2fo&feature=player_embedded

[xchrom]

41. Dolls, Candy and Mechanism Design Theory

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Dolls/Candy/and/Mechanism/Design/Theory/elpepusoc/20111205elpepusoc_15/Tes

Decision makers - including individuals, companies, governments, etc. - are often faced with the problem of allocating a number of indivisible objects among a set of agents. Examples include negotiations for the final disposal of nuclear waste, where the indivisible object is the facility selected for final disposal, the allocation of a limited number of frequency bands mobile telephone use, or, to take a more everyday example, how a father should allocate different dolls between his children.

Although the first two examples concern multi-million dollar industries, the basic challenge is the same in all three: how to find a fair principle by which indivisible objects can be allocated among a number of agents given that they each hold private information about their valuation of the objects, and given that they can each act in self-interest? The answer to this question is found in the research area of mechanism design theory, whose founders L. Hurwicz, Maskin E. and R. Meyerson were awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Let us return to the father's problem. Say that he has bought one light- and one dark-haired doll to give to his daughters Molly and Allis. He has also bought a bag of candy. Both Molly and Allis want the dark-haired doll. Who should it be given to? The natural solution is to give the child that is assigned the light-haired doll a larger share of the candy bag in compensation for not receiving their preferred choice. But how big should this share be? A first traditional solution is that the father makes a unanimous decision - as would be the case in a centrally managed economy. A second traditional solution is to let the children solve the problem themselves through negotiation - as in a market economy. One problem with the first principle is that the children's valuation of the dolls in relation to the candy is unknown to the father, which makes it difficult for him to find a solution that satisfies both of the children. The problem with the second principle is that the children may act in self-interest: there are incentives to lie about the true valuation to achieve a better bargain. The basic idea of mechanism design theory is simple: decisions are taken by those who have the most information - as in a market economy - but the rules of the game are determined by a central planner - as in a centrally managed economy.

Pioneering research performed over the past few decades has provided a solution to the above type of allocation problems. The basic idea, described using the above example, is that the central planner (the father) designs two consumption bundles containing an indivisible object (a doll) and a divisible good (the share of the candy bag). The central planner also specifies a maximum limit of the divisible goods than can be included in each bundle. Say, for instance, that the candy bag contains 100 pieces of candy and the bundle with the dark-haired doll can contain at most 30 pieces of candy. Then the agents (Molly and Allis) report how they value the indivisible objects in terms of the divisible goods to the central planner. Say that Molly reports that the dark-haired doll is worth 200 pieces of candy and that the light-haired doll is worth 140 pieces of candy, while Allis values the dark-haired doll at 180 pieces and the light-haired one at 130 pieces. The central planner takes these assessments and then decides the share of the divisible goods in each bundle so that each agent can be assigned a bundle that maximizes the sum of the valuation of the doll and the share of the candy. The central planner also maximizes the payment of the divisible good. In the above example, the unique solution is that Molly would be assigned the dark-haired doll plus 20 pieces of candy, while Allis would be assigned the light-haired doll and 70 pieces of candy. Note that Allis is indifferent between the two bundles (both have the value 200 pieces of candy) and that Molly strictly prefers the bundle designed for her. In this sense the solution is free from envy and can therefore be regarded as fair.

[Tansy_Gold]

44. Re the toon -- Stetson U reaches out to 60 Minutes family

Courtesy of JohnnyBoots --


Details here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2430378#top

[AnneD]

59. I am happy for the kids....

but that is an every day encounter for me. I can't tell you how many kids and their families are in the same boat. It is great to give them hope, but they need food and shelter first. It is as simple as Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

I try to get them clothes, glasses, health care, food just to get them through the school year. College is in the far off.

But I have learned that community college is cheap and even I can afford to gift a student a few hours to get them started. A call and a letter from a concerned citizen to a community college Regent about a promising kid can really go far. Folks like the story and folks really like to help if we appeal to their better nature. I work hard to help these kids tell their stories to people that can help.

[DemReadingDU]

79. AnneD - you are a kind and caring person

God surely is reserving a special place in heaven for you.

[AnneD]

81. I always say that about....

Kindergarten teachers (helping all those little boys pants unzip their pants as they are dancing around trying to hold it, teaching kids to share and take turns, etc) and Special Ed teachers.

In fact, if I had my druthers....I would want to go to their heaven, esp SpEd teachers, or maybe dog heaven.

[xchrom]

46. south asia: Gold hits week low, silver down from 3-week high

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Gold-hits-week-low-silver-down-from-3-week-high/articleshow/11005148.cms

MUMBAI: Gold futures fell back on Tuesday afternoon to their lowest level in a week, following overseas trends, where fears of a possible credit rating downgrade for euro zone nations by Standard & Poor's weighed.

* The most-active gold for February delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) was 0.54 percent lower at 28,890 rupees per 10 grams, after hitting 28,763 rupees, a level last seen on Nov. 26.

* Silver also fell from the highest level in three weeks following the yellow metal.

* The most-active silver for March delivery on the MCX was 0.78 percent lower at 56,397 rupees per kg, falling from the previous day's highest level since Nov. 16.

[Demeter]

49. The Decline and Fall of Just About Everyone By Pepe Escobar

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29223.htm


September 26, 2011 "TomDispatch" -- More than 10 years ago, before 9/11, Goldman Sachs was predicting that the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) would make the world economy’s top ten -- but not until 2040. Skip a decade and the Chinese economy already has the number two spot all to itself, Brazil is number seven, India 10, and even Russia is creeping closer. In purchasing power parity, or PPP, things look even better. There, China is in second place, India is now fourth, Russia sixth, and Brazil seventh. No wonder Jim O’Neill, who coined the neologism BRIC and is now chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, has been stressing that “the world is no longer dependent on the leadership of the U.S. and Europe.” After all, since 2007, China’s economy has grown by 45%, the American economy by less than 1% -- figures startling enough to make anyone take back their predictions. American anxiety and puzzlement reached new heights when the latest International Monetary Fund projections indicated that, at least by certain measurements, the Chinese economy would overtake the U.S. by 2016. (Until recently, Goldman Sachs was pointing towards 2050 for that first-place exchange.)

Within the next 30 years, the top five will, according to Goldman Sachs, likely be China, the U.S., India, Brazil, and Mexico. Western Europe? Bye-bye!

Increasing numbers of experts agree that Asia is now leading the way for the world, even as it lays bare glaring gaps in the West’s narrative of civilization. Yet to talk about “the decline of the West” is a dangerous proposition. A key historical reference is Oswald Spengler’s 1918 essay with that title. Spengler, a man of his times, thought that humanity functioned through unique cultural systems, and that Western ideas would not be pertinent for, or transferable to, other regions of the planet. (Tell that howler to the young Egyptians in Tahrir Square.) Spengler, of course, captured the Western-dominated zeitgeist of another century. He saw cultures as living and dying organisms, each with a unique soul. The East or Orient was “magical,” while the West was “Faustian.” A reactionary misanthrope, he was convinced that the West had already reached the supreme status available to a democratic civilization -- and so was destined to experience the “decline” of his title. If you’re thinking that this sounds like an avant-la-lettre Huntingtonesque “clash of civilizations,” you can be excused, because that’s exactly what it was. (Speaking of civilizational clashes, did anyone notice that “maybe” in a recent TIME cover story picking up on Spenglerian themes and headlined “The Decline and Fall of Europe (and Maybe the West)”? In our post-Spenglerian moment, the “West” is surely the United States, and how could that magazine get it so wrong? Maybe? After all, a Europe now in deep financial crisis will be “in decline” as long as it remains inextricably intertwined with and continues to defer to “the West” -- that is, Washington -- even as it witnesses the simultaneous economic ascent of what’s sometimes derisively referred to as “the South.”)

Think of the present global capitalist moment not as a "clash," but a “cash of civilizations.”

If Washington is now stunned and operating on autopilot, that’s in part because, historically speaking, its moment as the globe’s “sole superpower” or even “hyperpower” barely outlasted Andy Warhol’s notorious 15 minutes of fame -- from the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union to 9/11 and the Bush doctrine. The new American century was swiftly throttled in three hubris-filled stages: 9/11 (blowback); the invasion of Iraq (preemptive war); and the 2008 Wall Street meltdown (casino capitalism).

.............................................

It’s worth remembering that capitalism was “civilized” thanks to the unrelenting pressure of gritty working-class movements and the ever-present threat of strikes and even revolutions. The existence of the Soviet bloc, an alternate model of economic development (however warped), also helped. To counteract the USSR, Washington’s and Europe’s ruling groups had to buy the support of their masses in defending what no one blushed about calling “the Western way of life.” A complex social contract was forged, and it involved capital making concessions. No more. Not in Washington, that’s obvious. And increasingly, not in Europe either. That system started breaking down as soon as -- talk about total ideological triumph! -- neoliberalism became the only show in town. There was a single superhighway from there and it swept the most fragile strands of the middle class directly into a new post-industrial proletariat, or simply into unemployable status. If neoliberalism is the victor for now, it’s because no realist, alternative developmental model exists, and yet what it has won is ever more in question. Meanwhile, except in the Middle East, progressives the world over are paralyzed, as if expecting the old order to dissolve by itself. Unfortunately, history teaches us that, at similar crossroads in the past, you are as likely to find the grapes of wrath, right-wing populist-style, as anything else -- or worse yet, outright fascism. “The West against the rest” is a simplistic formula that doesn’t begin to describe such a world. Imagine instead, a planet in which “the rest” are trying to step beyond the West in a variety of ways, but also have absorbed that West in ways too deep to describe. Here’s the irony, then: Yes, the West will “decline,” Washington included, and still it will leave itself behind everywhere...

MUCH MORE AT LINK

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Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times and a TomDispatch.com regular. His latest book is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). To listen to Timothy MacBain’s latest Tomcast audio interview in which Escobar reflects on the fate of the global economy click here, or download it to your iPod here. He may be reached at [e-mail].

[AnneD]

60. Time for this thought...

Be Nice to People on Your Way Up. You’ll Meet ‘Em On Your Way Down

We as a country and as a government have not been very nice since WWII and the Marshall plan. We will reap what we have sown.

[Hotler]

72. Will a European bank fail or

will something here in the USA cause the dominos to start falling?

[Hotler]

66. k&r n/t

[Hotler]

73. We should start a pool. Guess the date or time frame that

the financial collapse starts. I say sometime around the January 30th.

[Demeter]

75. I want Goldman to Fail

They've been asking for it for so long....and it won't stop until they go down.

[Hotler]

77. I know you do.

:hug: but, I don't think that Goldman will be the one that starts the chain reaction.

[Demeter]

78. "The bigger they are

[Tansy_Gold]

80. metoo metoo metoo metoo metoo metoo!!!!!

(it was supposed to be all one really big word -- metoometoometoometoometoo!! -- but the DU software made me break it up. What a shame we can't use that software on some corporations. . . . . . )