STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday May 11

[ozymandius]

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday May 11, 2009

Bush Administration Officials Under Indictment = 2
Financial Sector Officials Under Indictment = 0
Financial Sector Officials In Prison = 2

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON May 8, 2009

Dow... 8,574.65 +164.80 (+1.92%)
Nasdaq... 1,739.00 +22.76 (+1.33%)
S&P 500... 929.23 +21.84 (+2.41%)
Gold future... 914.90 -0.60 (-0.07%)
30-Year Bond 4.27% +0.01 (+0.31%)
10-Yr Bond... 3.29% -0.00 (-0.06%)

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U.S. FUTURES & MARKETS INDICATORS
NASDAQ FUTURES..............................................S&P FUTURES

Market Conditions During Trading Hours

GOLD, EURO, YEN, Loonie and Silver

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Read more: du

[ozymandius]

1. Market Observation

Bear Market Rallies Spark False Confidence
BY TIM W. WOOD

NO!!! What we are seeing is a bear market rally.

http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm

[ozymandius]

2. no goobermental reports today n/t

[ozymandius]

3. Oil falls below $58 on pullback from rally

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell below $58 a barrel Monday in Asia as investors mulled whether weak U.S. crude demand and bursting supplies justify building on the recent strong rally.

Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 78 cents to $57.85 a barrel by afternoon in Singapore, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract rose $1.92 to settle at $58.63 a barrel, the highest level this year.

Oil prices have jumped this month from near $50 as crude investors follow stock markets that have surged on expectations the worst of a severe recession is over.

....

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for June delivery fell 2.35 cents to $1.68 a gallon and heating oil dropped 1.50 cents to $1.50 a gallon. Natural gas for June delivery slid 4.9 cents to $4.26 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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

[UpInArms]

43. Crude drops nearly 3% as excessive supplies weigh

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Crude-drops-nearly-3-excessive/story.aspx?guid=%7B4935AEAE%2D7FE9%2D4192%2DA8E0%2DE163928E3D37%7D

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures fell Monday for the first session in four, declining from their highest level in six months on worries that the recent rally will be reversed by rising oil inventories. Crude for June delivery fell $1.68, or 2.9%, to $56.95 a barrel in early North American electronic trading. It rallied more than 10% last week, despite government data showing U.S. crude inventories rose to the highest level in nearly 19 years. "While crude has seen some buying lately, the fundamentals are definitely bearish," said Tariq Zahir, managing member at futures trading firm Tyche Capital Advisors.

[Demeter]

77. And Yet, Gas Is 10 Cents More This Morning--30 Cents in a week!

Can't believe they believe the propaganda! There is no recovery, no green shoots, just a renewal of greed.

[ozymandius]

4. U.S. Jobless Rate Hits 8.9%, but Pace Eases

The American job market remains dreadful and is still worsening, but at a slower pace than before — good news given the stomach-churning events of recent months. The government’s monthly employment report buoyed hopes that the longest, most punishing recession since the Great Depression may be relenting.

Another 539,000 jobs disappeared from the economy in April, and the unemployment rate jumped to 8.9 percent, its highest level in a quarter century, the Labor Department reported Friday. Yet the deterioration was milder than expected, prompting encouraging talk.

....

A day after the Treasury pronounced American banks healthier than many analysts had anticipated, the jobs report presented the clearest evidence yet that the nation’s economic free fall appears to have been arrested. The acute shock that began last fall with the collapse of the prominent investment bank Lehman Brothers has largely passed. Panic is no longer the dominant motif of American commercial life.

....

But others emphasized that the easing of dire worries, while positive, says nothing about the economy regaining vigor. Crisis may have merely given way to something more ordinary, yet still miserable for tens of millions of people: a continued slog through recession, with demand for goods and services weak and jobs hard to find.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/business/economy/09jobs.html

---

As Bob Herbert wrote in his latest column: The house is still burning down, but not quite as fast.

[northernlights]

82. consider the 60,000 TEMPORARY census jobs that just started

and 599,000 jobs disappeared, not 539,000.

The "slowdown" is temporary. The minute those 60,000 temporary jobs end, the numbers will spike.

[ozymandius]

5. Intel May Face Record Fine, Rebate Ban in EU Antitrust Case

May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp., accused by the European Union of giving computer sellers rebates to not buy a rival’s chips, may be ordered to stop the discounts and pay a more than 1 billion-euro antitrust fine ($1.36 billion).

The European Commission will rule this week on charges that Intel impeded competition and harmed consumers by muscling out Advanced Micro Devices Inc. from the chip market. The penalty could double the record 497 million-euro fine against Microsoft Corp. in 2004 for abusing its monopoly in personal computer operating systems, said Thomas Graf, an antitrust lawyer at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP in Brussels.

....

Intel has been entangled in a dispute with the EU for more than eight years following a complaint by AMD. Intel, facing a related civil lawsuit filed by AMD in federal court in Delaware and an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for alleged unfair business practices, is likely to start a lengthy appeal at European courts to prevent the EU ban on rebates from taking effect, lawyers said.

....

Intel’s European sales were $7.1 billion last year, meaning the potential starting amount is $2.1 billion. That amount would be then multiplied by years of the violation.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=auXjuexy7lro&refer=europe

[ozymandius]

6. Japan stocks advance for fifth straight day

Japan stocks gained for the fifth straight session Monday, as hopes for a global economic recovery eclipsed disappointment over a stream of poor corporate earnings.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average added 19.15 points, or 0.2 percent, to 9,451.98. The broader Topix index rose 0.6 percent to 895.35.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/05/11/ap6403325.html

[ozymandius]

7. How Banks Cut Stress Test Cap Requirements in Half

We have noted on repeated occasion that the Stress tests were: a) not very stressful; and b) relied on metrics that were rather generous. Odd, in my opinion, to show such largesse to those very same reckless banks that caused the entire financial mess.

In particular, the 25-to-1 leverage is absurd, as is the worst case scenario of 9.5% unemployment — a number that is mere pissing distance from the current 8.9%.

Far be it from me to call the Stress tests a charade, a dupe, a con game or an exercise in manipulation. For that, I’ll leave it to others.

Like the Wall Street Journal, who noted this morning that the banks managed to browbeat the Fed into accepting much lower Capital needs than the tests should have required:

The Fed ultimately accepted some of the banks’ pleas, but rejected others. Shortly before the test results were unveiled Thursday, the capital shortfalls at some banks shrank, in some cases dramatically, according to people familiar with the matter.”

One last note: The Stress Tests were done using “Tier 1 common capital” as a yardstick. We can assume that was also pushed by the banks, rather than the expected metric “tangible common equity.” That measure would have required another $68 billion in capital.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/05/banks-watered-down-stress-test/

[Roland99]

40. Went to my Dr for a stress test last week...

He recommended an infusion of $10 Billion or else I only have 6 months to live. I'll be redirecting Grovelbot's efforts to my account in the Caymans and am open to direct funding from family, friends, my fellow DUers, and random strangers.

Thank you for your support.

[ozymandius]

8. Three Pictures from the April Employment Situation (more cliff diving)

Revisions are downward (but getting smaller over time), the growth rate becomes less negative, but hours continue to decline rapidly.

-chart #1-

While the growth rate for nonfarm payroll (NFP) ex.-government is lower than that for overall NFP, both series show smaller decreases in April than in March.

Finally, note that aggregate hours in private industry continue to decline faster than employment. This difference is not completely accounted for by differences in composition (i.e., between total NFP and NFP minus government).

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2009/05/three_pictures_3.html

[MARALE]

62. The bad thing about employment numbers

It does not show some of the creative ways that employers are using to not lay off any workers. My brother works for a facility in Chicago. He is now required to only work every other week. His income is now cut in half, although he is not out of work. he is trying to supplement his income, but can not find anything that he can do. He is now stuck because he can not quit and can not collect unemployment. I am glad he is not laid=off, but this seems to be almost as bad. I am not sure how many others are in the same type of situation.

[ozymandius]

9. Vanishing Credit Lines for Consumers and Small Businesses

In Credit Card Lending Goes Full Cycle I posted an Email from Scott who was denied a credit card by Capital One on the basis of where he lived. Capital One did not even bother with a credit check that would have sown that Scott had a FICO score of 800.

Businesses are also feeling the squeeze. BusinessWeek is reporting JPMorgan Chase is Reducing or Eliminating Small Business Credit Lines.

....

Regardless why, talk of green shoots is premature when credit conditions are deteriorating and consumer and small business credit is contracting.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/05/vanishing-credit-lines-for-consumers.html

[ozymandius]

10. Krugman fears lost decade for US due to half-steps

BEIJING, May 11 (Reuters) - The United States risks a Japan-style lost decade of growth if it does not take aggressive action to stimulate its economy and clean up its banking system, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said on Monday.

"We're doing half-measures that help the economy limp along without fully recovering, and we're having measures that help the banks survive without really thriving," Krugman said.

....

He said stress tests carried out on 19 leading U.S. banks had bought time for the administration of Barack Obama, but they had not answered the key question of whether the banks have enough capital to fulfil their key role in the economy.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/reuters/MTFH06123_2009-05-11_07-12-56_PEK52581.htm

[Demeter]

12. We Would Be Lucky If We Fared Half as Well as Japan, IMO

I think we started in a much worse economic position both on the individual and the corporate and governmental levels compared to Nippon in our path of decline. The level of corruption is probably the same, though.

[tclambert]

30. Does the lost decade count the Bush years?

By my count that was eight bad years. Just two more to go! Is he starting his decade now? That could actually mean 18 bad years.

Actually, as far as lost growth, we've already lost almost 4 decades. If either of the Kennedies (Kennedys?) had survived, we'd have colonies on Mars by now, maglev trains crisscrossing the country, hydrogen fusion power plants, but still no George Jetson flying cars. (Have you seen how people drive on regular roads? That's just 2 dimensional driving, one dimensional most of the time. You add a third dimension and there's be flaming debris raining down on all our cities.)

[Demeter]

42. Face It, We're Talking Loss of 2 Generations--Ours and Children's

I just hope the grandchildren come out all right. We have got to get our government back from the corporations.

[willing dwarf]

32. What would real recovery look like?

The shenanigans of the last 12 years looked like thriving, but now we see that instead of being power houses,the banks became powder kegs, or maybe I should powder puffs?

I keep asking myself what real recovery would look like. Getting toxic assets off of the bank balance sheets, yes, but does anyone really think that a recovery that is all about credit is really a recovery at all?

I thought Obama would be investing in infrastructure in a major way to fuel recovery. Instead to the emphasis seems to be on increasing confidence in the stock market. ...So I look around and wonder what the next bubble will be.

[Hugin]

49. I keep asking myself that question. nt

[DemReadingDU]

54. Recovery will be different

We are not going to recover to what we've been used to for the past 20 years. I don't have a crystal ball, but common sense tells me that we will not be using credit cards as much, maybe no credit at all. There is way too much debt already, not only in people's personal lives, but also in the government national debt, and also around the world. I don't know if people will consider 'recovery' to be bad without credit, or just different to have to use cash or barter.

[willing dwarf]

60. I guess they'll need to establish metrics for the new normal.

but meanwhile, I often get the sense that there's a lot of talking at cross purposes about recovery and the expectation that normal will be as fat and swollen as it was in the last 12 years.

But honestly, who among us will miss all the stupid "must have" junk that was cluttering up our lives or the lives of our friends? Even people like me who have always been consumer-phobic have found our houses stuffed with so much stupid junk that has blown in like tumbleweeds across the consumer wasteland. Good riddance to all that!

[Hugin]

61. Funny you should mention that.

We here at Chateau Hugin had a yard (I prefer to call it, an estate) sale a couple of weeks ago...

It was bitter/sweet. I was happy (for us collectively) and sort of sad (as an individual trying to make a buck) to see the junk wasn't moving... Even at drastically reduced prices. Pennies on the Dollar.

[ozymandius]

11. Fed's Lacker: Government safety net encouraged financial risk

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - A Federal Reserve policy maker called on Monday for U.S. government protection of the financial industry to be rolled back because it had encouraged excessive risk taking at the heart of the current crisis.

"The financial safety net, especially those parts that were more implicit and perceived than explicit and written into the laws, played a significant role in the accumulation of risks that ultimately led to the turmoil we are still experiencing," said Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker.

....

"A discretionary safety net in particular, creates incentives for "too-big-to-fail" institutions to pay little attention to and underprice some of the biggest risks we face," he said.

Such overt optimism led to massive bets on the U.S. housing market as home prices soared, then to savage losses, including on assets that banks moved off their balance sheets via securitization.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE54A04W20090511

[Demeter]

13. good Morning, Ozy!

It's a brisk 39F, but the sun is shining brightly. Looks like we're in for a rough week. I don't see any green shoots in sight. The other guys must be drugged.

[Dr.Phool]

14. I might look for a few white shoots today.

I'm kicking around the idea of driving over to Canaveral and watching the Space Shuttle this afternoon.

It's supposed to be 90 degrees and sunny today. I need a break from the usual bullshit. Besides, it's one of the last launches.

[Demeter]

20. Give Us a Full Report!

[Roland99]

46. I'll miss the launch. 2nd week at work!

Probably not a good idea to take off (no pun intended!)

But...I sign lease papers on an apt in Lake Mary today! woo hoo! Moving my stuff down Memorial Day weekend.

[Dr.Phool]

51. Welcome to Florida!

If you walk outside, you should be able to see it. On a good day, we can see it from the Gulf Coast.

I think I'll wait for the next launch. It's supposed to go up in 4 1/2 hours, and it will take me close to 3 to get over there.

[Demeter]

15. Micro-payments considered for WSJ website

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/afcc5024-3d97-11de-a85e-00144feabdc0.html

News Corp is planning to introduce micro-payments for individual articles and premium subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal’s website this year, in a milestone in the news industry’s race to find better online business models.

“A sophisticated micro-payments service” will launch this autumn, Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of the Journal, told the Financial Times.

The move will position the Journal as the first big newspaper title to adopt a model many are cautiously studying as they seek to reduce their dependence on plunging advertising revenues.

It comes as John Kerry, the senator leading congressional hearings on the future of journalism, told the FT it was conceivable that publishers could be given limited exemption from antitrust laws to discuss online models...
Several newspapers, hoping to replicate the success of business newspapers in charging for web content, are working with Journalism Online, a venture developing micro-payments and subscriptions.

Mr Thomson said the Journal was developing its own system to charge small sums to occasional users who might not pay more than $100 a year for a WSJ.com subscription.

Pricing for individual articles and for premium subscriptions had yet to be decided, he said, but would be “rightfully high”.

The Journal has raised average print subscription prices 21 per cent since News Corp’s 2007 takeover, but saw advertising fall a third in the first quarter.

Its premium plan will focus on readers interested in energy, commodities, wealth management and other niches.

Premium subscribers will have web access to Dow Jones newswire stories, representing a “consumerisation” of the group’s products for companies.

[Hugin]

25. Didn't work so well for others.

A thorn by any other name still pricks as deep.

"micro-payments" :lol:

[Demeter]

28. It's the "Setting Aside Anti-Trust Regs" Part

If they all do it, and set up a fee structure, then we pay or go uninformed. Murdock probably has the pull to get this to happen, what with Congress dithering about losing our newspapers.

I'm not opposed to payments per se.

It depends on who sets the rates, who collects, and what they do about fraud. It has to be trusted, legit, and honest and fairly valued. Now Murdock's stuff should go for a penny a pound....

[Hugin]

31. But, that's just the thing... They won't all do it.

Then all of the advertising $$$ will shift to the most trafficked sites...
The few remaining freebies.

"It depends on who sets the rates, who collects, and what they do about fraud. It has to be trusted, legit, and honest and fairly valued."

Hahahahahaha!

In all honesty, I wish there was a model to reimburse The Reporters and Journalists... Everywhere. But, since Murdoch's Empire was the trend setter as far as laying them all off (Except for a very few highly paid coiffed and pithed talking bloviators.) I don't see myself sending even a penny a pound his way. This is the RIAA, revisited.

I'm resisting with every fiber of my being saying something negative about Kerry's involvement in this sham.

[Demeter]

35. I'm Betting Congress Will MAKE Them An Offer They Can't Refuse

Cynic that I am.

[Hugin]

37. But... But... But... What about the Free Markets?

:poutylips:

Oh, well... If the Media is going to act like a Soviet Era Pravda... They may as well have the same business model.

[Demeter]

39. It Is the Logical Conclusion

My Star Trek Reference for the day. I'm going to try to see it at the Imax this weekend!

[Hugin]

47. I'm extremely mixed in my feelings about seeing it...

Along the same lines as I never saw Burton's remake of "Planet of the Apes." I even went so far as to buy the DVD and it still remains in it's shrink wrap.

I have this horrible prescient vision of myself being the overweight balding poorly dressed old guy being forcefully ejected from the Cinema in a hail of Miken' Ikes and Jordan Almonds after emitting a loud and bellicose tirade against minor obscure details of the movie started by shouting the word "BLASPHEMY!"

I don't want to be that guy... It would be bad for my Blood Pressure. :scared:

Alas, it may be better that Star Trek move on to a new generation of the uninitiated Trekers... Than for me to go through that. :tearyeyes:

*sigh*

But, could we have a Star Trek themed weekend on the WEE soon?

Oh, and the "Razor's Edge" might be a good one to look into as well.

Edit: fixing tenses.

[AnneD]

69. My daughter.....

as did the children of my friends-grew up in fandom. Considering where most have ended up-it did them no harm. My daughter saw me interact with folks of every colour and sexual persuasion on an egalitarian basis. She learned that the hard sciences can have fun application and we are limited only by our imaginations. She also learned that the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few.

Of course-the special effects on the old trek series are hopelessly out dated so I think I wouldn't mind seeing it updated to inspire a new generation. I have hope.

[Hugin]

71. This is a Moses moment for me...

Forty years in the desert only to gaze at the Promised Land from a distance.

I have hope too.

(I'll let you know if I break down and go... or maybe you'll see it on the 5 o'clock news. That'll be me in the trench coat and dark shades.)

[AnneD]

74. To be a Trekker ....

is to accept disappointment. Deep Space 9-need I say more (What malls will look like in the future). I am sure we can get a collection together to spring you from jail should it be necessary.

I know your fellow Trekkers can spring you-it happened once to me (a really long time ago).

Yes folks, I did hard time in the city slammer and was bailed out by my Trekker friends in time to enjoy a Con. Sounds like a wild shore leave story.

Sorry to say, but here in Texas they take crime seriously. If they make you do hard time for a burned out tail light-it is easy to see why so many folks here end up on death row.:spray::rofl:

[tclambert]

67. The new Star Trek is great.

Siler takes over the Enterprise. Sulu gets to sword fight. Dr. Who saves everyone from the Daaleks.

Don't blink.

[Dr.Phool]

50. I wish they would charge me extra to have Faux News on my cable.

It would disappear from my set forever. I don't even want the option to watch it.

[Demeter]

16. Ackman steps up Target seat battle

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0f80d29e-3d78-11de-a85e-00144feabdc0.html

Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund investor, will on Monday step up his campaign to win seats on the board of Target, the discount retailer, in one of the largest and most expensive proxy battles in US corporate history.

Unusually, the battle over one of America’s best-known store chains is focused on the quality and composition of the incumbent board, rather than management performance.

At an open meeting for investors in New York, Mr Ackman will argue that a lack of relevant expertise among independent board members has contributed to Target’s underperforming its larger rival Wal-Mart during the current recession.

[Demeter]

17. Shortages stir coffee and sugar prices

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/64955332-3d90-11de-a85e-00144feabdc0.html

Caffeine addicts face higher prices for their daily fix as the wholesale cost of both coffee and sugar rise sharply because of poor crops and robust demand.

“We are in a dangerous situation,” Andrea Illy, chief executive of Italy’s leading coffee ­company, told the Financial Times, warning that prices could “explode” due to supply shortages.

His comments echo those of other industry players – and point to a sharp shift in sentiment among analysts.

Until recently, it was widely assumed that the global economic crisis would damp consumption and prices for coffee. However, that forecast proved wrong, since demand for coffee has remained high, even while consumers have moved from cafés to home drinking.

[UpInArms]

18. dollar watch

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=i

Last trade 82.664 Change +0.135 (+0.17%)

US Dollar Decline May Be Start of Bigger Downturn Due to Risk Appetite

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/currency/eur_fundamentals/US_Dollar_Decline_May_Be_1241819845561.html

The US dollar made meaningful breaks lower versus many of the majors, taking the DXY index below rising trendline support and the 200 SMA at 83.25 as the markets saw a resurgence in risk appetite. The first big trigger was the official result of the US government’s stress test of the 19 largest financial institutions, which showed that 10 required additional capital, as expected. The second trigger was the release of US non-farm payrolls, which fell by 539,000 in April – less than the expected drop of 600,000 – bringing the unemployment rate up to 8.9 percent. Looking at this in a historical context, these are severe numbers, as the jobless rate is at its highest level since 1983 and payrolls have contracted for 16 consecutive months, bringing the total number of job losses up to 5.738 million since the beginning of 2008. That said, the severity of these consistent declines has lessened in recent months, and after four months of losses greater than 600,000, April’s number offers a modest reprieve from the labor report’s oppressive pace, offering a sense of cautious optimism.

Looking ahead to next week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak at 19:30 ET on Monday on the stress tests, and regardless of the subject, his comments tend to be highly market-moving. As a result, words that reiterate the positive sentiment gleaned from the official report has the potential to provide yet another boost to risk appetite while leading US dollar and Japanese yen losses to be exacerbated.

On Wednesday, the Commerce Department is forecasted to report that US retail sales slipped 0.1 percent in April, after tumbling 1.2 percent in March, and excluding autos retail sales are anticipated to stagnate. However, there is potential for a better-than-expected result, as the latest ICSC chain store sales numbers show that consumption rose 0.7 percent in April from a year ago, marking the first increase since September 2008. Furthermore, initial estimates of US Q1 GDP showed that personal consumption rose 2.2 percent during the quarter, suggesting that aggressive discounting by retailers has been able to offset some of the negative impact of deteriorating labor markets, tight credit conditions, and a lingering recession.

On Friday, the April reading of the US consumer price index (CPI) is likely to highlight the ultra-slow pace of price growth in the US economy. Indeed, CPI is anticipated to have stagnated during the month, bringing the annualized pace to -0.6 percent – the lowest since January 1955 - from -0.4 percent. On the other hand, the core measure – which excludes volatile food and energy costs – is anticipated to rise 0.1 percent, leaving the annualized rate at 1.8 percent. Overall, the news is likely to add to concerns that the US is on a one-way track to deflation, a concern that has been cited by “a few” Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members, according to the latest FOMC meeting minutes. However, the markets may only respond to the news if core CPI starts to fall dramatically.



...more...

Euro Weighed by Soros Comments

A very light session of overnight trade following Friday’s extremely volatile price action which saw all of the commodity bloc currencies trade to fresh 2009 highs against the greenback. The story since has been once of consolidation, with the markets seemingly content on waiting for New York to open to make any real directional decisions. The biggest news came from well known global macro portfolio manager George Soros who was interviewed by a German newspaper. While Soros did provide some sense of optimism after saying that he did see an upturn ahead, he also conceded that the upturn will not offset the downturn and we are more likely to see a period of stagnation. Soros went on to say that he thought Asia would be the first to emerge from the global recession and that China would overtake the US as the “engine of growth.” Finally on currencies, Soros said that he already saw the USD as a weak currency and did not expect it to lose much more in value against the Euro. A recent WSJ article has been generating some attention after suggesting that the banks received concessions on the stress tests. Meanwhile HSBC has released its interim management statement which looks stronger than many were expecting, with the bank also receiving an upgrade to “Buy” from Goldman Sachs. ECB Ordonez was on the wires overnight saying that he saw a “certain amount” of good economic news and improvement in the financial markets. He also went on to say that inflation risks in Europe were relatively contained. Looking ahead, Canada new house prices is the only scheduled economic release at 12:30GMT, with the market looking for a 0.5% decline. Later in the day at 23:30GMT, Fed Chair Bernanke is slated to speak on the bank stress tests. US equity futures set for a lower open while oil is also weighed down on profit taking and comments from a member of Kuwait’s supreme petroleum council who says that OPEC is not expected to cut production at its next meeting. Gold trades relatively flat.



...more...

[Demeter]

19. McDonald’s hopes to offer its own PhD

THIS IS IN BRITAIN, FOLKS.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/024b5ff2-3d9d-11de-a85e-00144feabdc0.html

By David Turner

Published: May 10 2009 23:30 | Last updated: May 10 2009 23:30

McDonald’s hopes to offer its own PhD, throwing down the ultimate challenge to the popular wisdom that the high-street fast-food chain creates nothing but low-paid, low-quality “McJobs” to replace high-skilled work in old manufacturing industries.

David Fairhurst, the group’s “chief people officer”, told the Financial Times: “One day I’d love to see us doing a PhD, I definitely think we should go as far as we can.”

Mr Fairhurst said, however, that McDonald’s wanted initially to make sure it had perfected training in its growing range of other qualifications before embarking on a postgraduate degree.

The company’s ambition is not as bizarre as it might sound to the average visitor to a McDonald’s restaurant.

The company has developed a reputation over recent years for its training. It took a further step towards educational respectability last year when it became one of Britain’s first employers to win the power to award its own nationally recognised qualifications. McDonald’s has taken advantage of this to start offering courses in basic shift management that are equivalent to A-levels.

These teach “the whole dynamics about customer interactions”, stretching even to the hardships of “dealing with aggressive customers” and “safety during the night-time shift”. They also deal with less dangerous but equally sensitive matters, such as how to approach and aid unserved customers wandering around at the front of the restaurant.

Mr Fairhurst said its new awarding power had made it “a university in its own right”. About 2,500 people were currently signed up to the shift management course, he said.

In a strange flip of burger fate, this included “a few hundred” university graduates, he said, who were complementing their three years in academia with the course’s highly practical training.

But it does not stop there – Mr Fairhurst wants to award qualifications in “higher level management development” which are equivalent to university degrees.

The CPO said McDonald’s had become an attractive employer both to graduates and other workers, in large part because of its training, with its status as an awarding body adding to the prestige of its qualifications. The company also offers a “flexibility” that suited young people studying at university, including “McTime” – a system that allows workers to change their shifts via their mobile phones.

Mr Fairhurst rebutted the idea that a surge in job applications to McDonald’s – which he says has reached 30 for each available job at some branches – was mainly because of the recession.

Aside from McDonald’s, eight employers and employer groups have won the right to award their own qualifications since last year. The government has encouraged them because it wants more workers to have nationally recognised certificates that increase their employability across the economy.

[UpInArms]

21. you want some onion with that?

[Hugin]

27. Will my credits transfer from Burger King?

:|

[tclambert]

34. Now that was funny.

[tclambert]

57. Okay, I thought of one. Took a long time to come up with. Hope you like it.

Got a Bachelor's degree. Can I supersize that to a Master's?

[Hugin]

59. Would you like to supersize that combo degree?

Come on... Get with the program! You wanna be on closings forever?

If not, you'd better straighten your paper hat and fry right.

Get out there and push the apple pies (two for one) with breakfast... :yick:

:rofl: (Actually, that's pretty funny.) :D

[AnneD]

73. LOL LOL LOL....

You guys are too much. I'd like to get a special order degree-how long will that take?

[northernlights]

83. I'll take a double McMasters

with cheez, pleez

[Demeter]

22. Chrysler won't repay bailout money

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/05/news/companies/chrysler_loans/index.htm

An administration official confirms that a $4 billion bridge loan and $3.2 billion in bankruptcy financing won't be paid back by Chrysler following bankruptcy....This revelation was buried within Chrysler's bankruptcy filings last week and confirmed by the Obama administration Tuesday. The filings included a list of business assumptions from one of the company's key financial advisors in the bankruptcy case...Typically lenders who loan bankrupt companies funds to operate during reorganization go to the front of the line on getting the money they are owed repaid. But Corker said Chrysler's dire financial situation left it no chance to even pay back the bankruptcy financing.

[Demeter]

23. Let's Get Some Bad News

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=05&year=2009&base_name=lets_get_some_bad_news


.........last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its employment cost index for the first quarter. The index showed that employment cost (wages and benefits) growth had slowed to just a 1.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter. In the private sector the rate was just 0.8 percent. This is below the current rate of inflation. It also is a sharp slowdown from the prior quarter, which raises the possibility that wage growth will slow even further in the current quarter.

If wages slow further, then purchasing power will fall further, thereby slowing the recovery. This is a piece of really bad news that swamps by an order of magnitude the items presented as good news in this and other news articles. (Wage and benefit income accounts for about 60 percent of national income.) If reporters would focus more on reporting the news rather than repeating what the Fed chairman says the public would be much better informed.

[Festivito]

24. Debt: 05/07/2009 11,256,266,640,050.20 (UP 29,459,154,720.16) (Not huge, but a rise..)

(A not too awful increase, just in time for the Friday dump. Good Monday all.)

= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 6,955,434,473,527.65 + 4,300,832,166,522.55
UP 27,679,213,817.18 + UP 1,779,940,902.98

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

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 306-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.26 each THAT'S 1B$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.79, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 14 seconds we net gain a another American, so at the end of the workday of this report, there should be 306,307,286 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html
Currently, each of these American's owe $36,748.28.
A family of three owes $110,244.85. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 4,704,263,918.84.
The average for the last 30 days would be 3,449,793,540.48.

There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 107 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 0.18B$ per report, 0.24B$/day so far.
There were 150 reports in 219 days of FY2009 averaging 8.21B$ per report, 5.62B$/day.

PROJECTION:
There are 1,354 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 13.1 and 18.9T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
05/07/2009 11,256,266,640,050.20 BHO (UP 629,389,591,137.12 so far since Obama took office.)

Fiscal Year ends: Sep 30
Borrowed in FY1993: (Maybe later.)
Borrowed in FY1994: 281,261,026,873.94
Borrowed in FY1995: 281,232,990,696.07
Borrowed in FY1996: 250,828,038,426.34
Borrowed in FY1997: 188,335,072,261.61
Borrowed in FY1998: 113,046,997,500.28
Borrowed in FY1999: 130,077,892,735.81
Borrowed in FY2000: _17,907,308,253.43 Bill alone
Borrowed in FY2001: 133,285,202,313.20 Bill and George
Borrowed in FY2002: 420,772,553,397.10 All George
Borrowed in FY2003: 554,995,097,146.46
Borrowed in FY2004: 595,821,633,586.70
Borrowed in FY2005: 553,656,965,393.18
Borrowed in FY2006: 574,264,237,491.73
Borrowed in FY2007: 500,679,473,047.25
Borrowed in FY2008: 1,017,071,524,650.01
Borrowed in FY2009: 1,231,541,743,137.80 so far this fiscal year.

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
04/17/2009 -038,696,374,097.81 -
04/20/2009 +000,193,620,436.16 ------------******** Mon
04/21/2009 -000,363,758,089.93 ---
04/22/2009 +000,051,738,680.14 ------------*******
04/23/2009 -012,857,484,009.95 -
04/24/2009 -000,133,239,400.23 ---
04/27/2009 +000,285,896,492.06 ------------******** Mon
04/28/2009 +000,154,949,620.57 ------------********
04/29/2009 -034,727,762,120.64 -
04/30/2009 +079,347,503,951.43 ------------**********
05/01/2009 -003,202,605,992.57 --
05/04/2009 +000,068,750,275.89 ------------******* Mon
05/05/2009 +000,122,936,524.80 ------------********
05/06/2009 -000,058,764,073.21 ----
05/07/2009 +027,679,213,817.18 ------------**********

17,864,622,013.89 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008.
US borrowed $1,591,634,836,791.13 in last 231 days.
That's 1,592B$ in 231 days.
More than any year ever, including last year, and it's 156% of that highest year ever only in 231 days.
And it is over 100% of ANY dismal Bush, for any dismal Bush-year, ONLY IN 231 DAYS NOT 365.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3867580&mesg_id=3867600

[Festivito]

72. Debt: 05/08/2009 11,258,693,795,457.10 (UP 2,427,155,406.90) (Debt down, mostly FICA.)

(Not much of a move.)

= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 6,955,218,139,510.73 + 4,303,475,655,946.37
DOWN 216,334,016.92 + UP 2,643,489,423.82

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

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 306-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.26 each THAT'S 1B$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.79, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 14 seconds we net gain a another American, so at the end of the workday of this report, there should be 306,313,458 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html
Currently, each of these American's owe $36,755.47.
A family of three owes $110,266.4. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 5,151,867,966.62.
The average for the last 30 days would be 3,778,036,508.85.

There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 76 reports in 108 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 0.14B$ per report, 0.23B$/day so far.
There were 151 reports in 220 days of FY2009 averaging 8.17B$ per report, 5.61B$/day.

PROJECTION:
There are 1,353 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 13.1 and 18.8T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
05/08/2009 11,258,693,795,457.10 BHO (UP 631,816,746,544.02 so far since Obama took office.)

Fiscal Year ends: Sep 30
Borrowed in FY1993: (Maybe later.)
Borrowed in FY1994: 281,261,026,873.94
Borrowed in FY1995: 281,232,990,696.07
Borrowed in FY1996: 250,828,038,426.34
Borrowed in FY1997: 188,335,072,261.61
Borrowed in FY1998: 113,046,997,500.28
Borrowed in FY1999: 130,077,892,735.81
Borrowed in FY2000: _17,907,308,253.43 Bill alone
Borrowed in FY2001: 133,285,202,313.20 Bill and George
Borrowed in FY2002: 420,772,553,397.10 All George
Borrowed in FY2003: 554,995,097,146.46
Borrowed in FY2004: 595,821,633,586.70
Borrowed in FY2005: 553,656,965,393.18
Borrowed in FY2006: 574,264,237,491.73
Borrowed in FY2007: 500,679,473,047.25
Borrowed in FY2008: 1,017,071,524,650.01
Borrowed in FY2009: 1,233,968,898,544.70 so far this fiscal year.

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
04/20/2009 +000,193,620,436.16 ------------******** Mon
04/21/2009 -000,363,758,089.93 ---
04/22/2009 +000,051,738,680.14 ------------*******
04/23/2009 -012,857,484,009.95 -
04/24/2009 -000,133,239,400.23 ---
04/27/2009 +000,285,896,492.06 ------------******** Mon
04/28/2009 +000,154,949,620.57 ------------********
04/29/2009 -034,727,762,120.64 -
04/30/2009 +079,347,503,951.43 ------------**********
05/01/2009 -003,202,605,992.57 --
05/04/2009 +000,068,750,275.89 ------------******* Mon
05/05/2009 +000,122,936,524.80 ------------********
05/06/2009 -000,058,764,073.21 ----
05/07/2009 +027,679,213,817.18 ------------**********
05/08/2009 -000,216,334,016.92 ---

56,344,662,094.78 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008.
US borrowed $1,594,061,992,198.03 in last 232 days.
That's 1,594B$ in 232 days.
More than any year ever, including last year, and it's 157% of that highest year ever only in 232 days.
And it is over 100% of ANY dismal Bush, for any dismal Bush-year, ONLY IN 232 DAYS NOT 365.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3870913&mesg_id=3871010

[northernlights]

84. so are you suggesting

everyone go out and breed, in order to reduce the debt per headcount?

[Festivito]

86. Chuckling. That would actually cost us for 18 years.

Better, is to immigrate talented people in their twenties and thirties, which we do. At least that's good right now and for the next thirty years or so until they retire. (Hopefully, they would amass sufficient to cover their own retirement and then some.)

Increases in population would, hopefully, reduce how indebted we each are to the frivolity of the Republicans over the last thirty years.

[Demeter]

26. SC court halts thousands of home foreclosure sales

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ifXC8ff1Xuqnjj45LlzoW6qEHXxwD9809UMG0

By MEG KINNARD – 5 days ago

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina's highest court on Tuesday temporarily stopped thousands of pending foreclosure sales in the state to give homeowners more time to take advantage of a new federal program to help them refinance mortgages.

The injunction — which mortgage experts said appeared to be the nation's first court-ordered stop for an entire state — prevents judges in South Carolina from finalizing foreclosure sales on properties guaranteed by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae or any other mortgage company that has signed on to a federal assistance program.

RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing firm, says the ruling could affect 5,000 South Carolina homes facing foreclosure.

The ruling was in response to a request from a Columbia attorney representing Fannie Mae, who had argued that it was necessary to keep homeowners who might be eligible for federal assistance from being shut out of the process.

"Absent the injunction, mortgagors eligible for relief ... could be denied their right to participate because their property was sold at the foreclosure sale," lawyer Ronald Scott wrote in his three-page motion. "This qualifies as irreparable injury for which the court should provide redress in the form of a temporary injunction."

Fannie Mae said the ruling was necessary because of a South Carolina law meant to ensure that foreclosures sales are conducted in a timely fashion. Under the law, judges can cancel a foreclosure case and start over if the sale is delayed for too long.

[Demeter]

29. New Allegations Of White House Threats Over Chrysler

http://www.businessinsider.com/new-allegations-of-white-house-threats-over-chysler-2009-5


Creditors to Chrysler describe negotiations with the company and the Obama administration as "a farce," saying the administration was bent on forcing their hands using hardball tactics and threats.

Conversations with administration officials left them expecting that they would be politically targeted, two participants in the negotiations said.

Although the focus has so been on allegations that the White House threatened Perella Weinberg, sources familiar with the matter say that other firms felt they were threatened as well. None of the sources would agree to speak except on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of political repercussions.

The sources, who represent creditors to Chrysler, say they were taken aback by the hardball tactics that the Obama administration employed to cajole them into acquiescing to plans to restructure Chrysler. One person described the administration as the most shocking "end justifies the means" group they have ever encountered. Another characterized Obama was "the most dangerous smooth talker on the planet- and I knew Kissinger." Both were voters for Obama in the last election.

One participant in negotiations said that the administration's tactic was to present what one described as a "madman theory of the presidency" in which the President is someone to be feared because he was willing to do anything to get his way. The person said this threat was taken very seriously by his firm.

The White House has denied the allegation that it threatened Perella Weinberg.

Last week Obama singled out the firms that continue to oppose his plan for Chrysler, saying he would not stand with them. Perella Weinberg says it was convinced to support the plan by this stark drawing of a line between firms that have the president's backing and those that did not. They didn't want to be on the wrong side of Obama. Privately, administration officials have expressed confidence that other firms will switch sides for this reason.

These allegations add to the picture of an administration willing to use intimidation to win over support for its Chrysler plans--and then categorically deny it.

ORIGINAL ALLEGATIONS AT LINK--EVIDENTLY RATTNER THREATENED TO SIC THE WH PRESS CORPS ON PERELLA. BIZARRE!

[tclambert]

36. I weep for the poor hedge funds.

Imagine someone threatening them! They were only being greedy, rapacious, money-loving bloodsuckers. You know, good businessmen. How dare some politicians put the public good over their profit margins!

[Demeter]

44. Followup Commentary

http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/2009/05/you-realithe-of-courth-thith-meanth-war.html

[tclambert]

53. The real Hammer of God that they feared would smite them

was that the government refused to allow special treatment for them to keep their names secret during the bankruptcy. They would have to abide by ordinary law and suffer their NAMES to be REVEALED in public court proceedings. The American people might find out who greedily held up negotiations and forced the bankruptcy to happen, to the detriment of Chrysler's market share, its workers, dealers, other creditors, and the American economy. This in turn made them fear death threats. They were afraid that their actions, if attributed to them by name, might lead to enraged people trying to murder them in real life.

And I have to ask at this point, what kind of business practices do you engage in that lead to people wanting to murder you? Maybe you should contemplate the nature of your actions again, in light of that reaction, and ask yourself if you shouldn't pursue some more ethical business, like heroin dealing.

[AnneD]

75. Well as mentioned earlier......

Hubby is trying to open a music school and folks are telling him to change the name because it might offend the Taliban here. I guess we could give heroin trafficking a shot :shrug:

[Demeter]

33. Nation Ready To Be Lied To About Economy Again

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nation_ready_to_be_lied_to_about

WASHINGTON—After nearly four months of frank, honest, and open dialogue about the failing economy, a weary U.S. populace announced this week that it is once again ready to be lied to about the current state of the financial system.

Tired of hearing the grim truth about their economic future, Americans demanded that the bald-faced lies resume immediately, particularly whenever politicians feel the need to divulge another terrifying problem with Wall Street, the housing market, or any one of a hundred other ticking time bombs everyone was better off not knowing about.

In addition, citizens are requesting that the phrase, "It will only get worse before it gets better," be permanently replaced with, "Things are going great. Enjoy yourselves."

"I thought I wanted a new era of transparency and accountability, but honestly, I just can't handle it," Ohio resident Nathan Pletcher said. "All I ever hear about now is how my retirement has been pushed back 15 years and how I won't be able to afford my daughter's tuition when she grows up."

"From now on, just tell me the bullshit I want to hear," Pletcher added. "Tell me my savings are okay, everybody has a job, and we're No. 1 again. Please, just lie to my face."

The national call for decreased candor began last month, after the Department of Labor released another soul-crushing report that most Americans agreed "wasn't helping anything" and "didn't need to be so specific, at least."

The report estimated that 663,000 private and public sector jobs were lost in the month of March—a revealing statistic many people found shockingly blunt. Responding to the new information, an overwhelming majority of citizens said they believe that, during these extremely uncertain times, our leaders have a responsibility to come together, sit the American people down, and lie through their teeth about everything from misappropriations of taxpayer dollars to the severity of the credit crisis.

"I don't need to be constantly reminded that the lack of regulations on Wall Street compounded with failing institutions like AIG basically plunged the world economy into a global recession," said 32-year-old office manager Alexis Harrington. "What I want is for someone to tell me with a straight face that the GDP is through the roof so that I can feel better and instantly forget what all these terms even mean."

"For the first time in my life I know who the secretary of the treasury is," Harrington continued. "And I don't like it."

Reluctantly informed citizens like Harrington have also asked that CEOs of the nation's five largest banks release a joint statement saying that the October bailout worked perfectly, normal lending has resumed, and that we're nowhere close to having the entire monetary system collapse upon itself like a house of cards.

According to a CBS News/New York Times poll, 98 percent of Americans no longer appreciate President Barack Obama's attempts to break down the economic crisis into simple terms they can understand. Instead, many say the president should have the decency to insult their intelligence by using complex jargon to confuse and deceive them, perhaps even implying that the subprime mortgage fallout was just a big misunderstanding that resulted from a clerical error.

"I know when he's telling the truth, and it bothers me," recently laid-off schoolteacher Mary Hanover said of Obama. "He gets this serious expression on his face and says things like, 'This is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.' Who needs to hear that? For Christ's sake, smile a bit and say we just found a diamond mine under Montana that's going to pay for everything. I'll believe you."

"Please, treat me like a child. Treat me like a five-year-old," Sacramento resident David Cooke, 64, wrote in a letter to Congress. "I lost everything when the Dow tanked, and I'm too old to start working again, so why punish me further by explaining in detail the clever ways these investment firms ripped me off and how they're all going to get away with it?"

Thus far, many policymakers in Washington have responded favorably to their constituents' requests, saying they respect and understand the public's need for dishonesty.

"I think we can accommodate the American people on this," Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters. "Why, just today we made excellent progress with GM, whose CEO Fritz Henderson told us that every penny of federal and taxpayer funds would go directly to the construction of three new auto plants in Detroit that will create over 90,000 new jobs and spark the economic rebound we've been waiting for."

Continued Reid, "Things are looking very, very bright."

[mnhtnbb]

52. This deserves its own post. I think there are a lot of Americans for whom it's true.

:rofl: , sadly.

[northernlights]

85. oh god I love the onion...

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

I only wish I had the genius to work there....

[Demeter]

38. Web providers must limit internet's carbon footprint, say experts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/may/03/internet-carbon-footprint


Soaring online demand stretching companies' ability to deliver content as net uses more power and raises costs

The internet's increasing appetite for electricity poses a major threat to companies such as Google, according to scientists and industry executives.

Leading figures have told the Guardian that many internet companies are struggling to manage the costs of delivering billions of web pages, videos and files online – in a "perfect storm" that could even threaten the future of the internet itself.

"In an energy-constrained world, we cannot continue to grow the footprint of the internet … we need to rein in the energy consumption," said Subodh Bapat, vice-president at Sun Microsystems, one of the world's largest manufacturers of web servers.

Bapat said the network of web servers and data centres that store online information is becoming more expensive, while profits come under pressure as a result of the recession.

"We need more data centres, we need more servers. Each server burns more watts than the previous generation and each watt costs more," he said. "If you compound all of these trends, you have the perfect storm."

With more than 1.5 billion people online around the world, scientists estimate that the energy footprint of the net is growing by more than 10% each year. This leaves many internet companies caught in a bind: energy costs are escalating because of their increasing popularity, while at the same time their advertising revenues come under pressure from the recession.

One site under particular scrutiny is YouTube — now the world's third-biggest website, but one that requires a heavy subsidy from Google, its owner. Although the site's financial details are kept under wraps, a recent analysis by Credit Suisse suggested that it could lose as much as $470m (£317m) this year, as it succumbs to the high price of delivering power-intensive videos over the internet.

And while the demand for electricity is a primary concern, a secondary result of the explosion of internet use is that the computer industry's carbon debt is increasing drastically. From having a relatively small impact just a few years ago, it is now leapfrogging other sectors like the airline industry that are more widely known for their negative environmental impact.

However, tracking the growth of the internet's energy use is difficult, since internal company estimates of power consumption are rarely made public.

"A lot of this internet stuff is fairly secretive," Rich Brown, an energy analyst at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California, told the Guardian.

"Google is probably the best example: they see it as a trade secret: how many data centres they have, how big they are, how many servers they have."

One study by Brown, commissioned by the US environmental protection agency, suggested that US data centres used 61bn kilowatt hours of energy in 2006. That is enough to supply the whole of the UK for two months, and 1.5% of the entire electricity usage of the US.

Brown said that despite efforts to achieve greater efficiency, internet use is growing at such a rate that it is outstripping technical improvements – meaning that American data centres could account for as much as 80bn kWh this year.

"Efficiency is being more than overwhelmed by continued growth and demand for new services," he said. "It's a common story … technical improvements are often taken back by increased demand."

Among the problems that could result from the internet's voracious hunger for electricity are website failures and communications disruption costing millions in lost business every hour – as well as power cuts and brownouts at plants which supply data centres with electricity.

To combat this, initiatives are taking place across the industry to cope with the problem, including new designs for data centres, innovative cooling methods and more investment in renewable energy.

Researchers at Microsoft's £50m research lab in Cambridge are even turning to older technology in an attempt to turn the clock back – by replacing energy-hungry new machines with the systems used in older, less powerful laptops.

"It turns out that those processors have been designed to be very energy efficient, basically to make batteries last," said Andrew Herbert, the director of Microsoft Research Cambridge.

"We found we can build more energy-efficient data centres with those than with the kind of high performance processors you find in a typical server."

Google was among the first internet companies to take action to reduce its footprint by developing its own data centres — but even though it pumped an estimated $2.3bn into infrastructure projects last year, it remains unclear whether it is winning the battle.

The company's vice-president of operations, Urs Hölzle, told the Guardian that it was struggling to contain energy costs. "You have exponential growth in demand from users, and many of these services are free so you don't have exponential growth of revenue to go with it," he said.

"With good engineering we're trying to make those two even out … but the power bill is going up."

Despite mounting evidence that the internet's energy footprint is in danger of running out of control, however, Hölzle dismissed concerns about the environmental impact of using the web as "overblown".

"One mile of driving completely dwarfs the cost of a search," he said. "Internet usage is part of our consumption, just like TV is, or driving. There is consumption there, but in the grand scheme of things I think it is not the problem."

I WOULD THINK THAT THE INTERNET'S CARBON FOOTPRINT IS SMALL COMPARED TO THE OFFSET IT GENERATES FROM THE REDUCED CONSUMPTION OF PAPER, DISTRIBUTING PAPER, STORING PAPER, SHUFFLING PAPER, COPYING PAPER, ETC....

[Demeter]

41. The End of Personal Finance By helaine.olen

http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2009/05/03/end-personal-

Decades of advice turn out to be so much garbage.

Years ago, when I wrote a popular financial makeover feature for a major national newspaper, one of our subjects asked if he should be plowing his more than $50,000 in savings into gold. It was 1997 and gold was trading at a little more than $300 an ounce. The financial planner assisting with the piece laughed dismissively, and the question never made it into the final write-up. Well, my bad. As I write, gold is hovering around $900 an ounce.

For more than two decades, as income inequality increased and job security decreased, Americans lapped up personal finance columns, books, and television shows. We thrilled to stock tips and swooned at sensible strategies for using dollar-cost averaging to invest in no-load index funds. Buy and hold, my friends! The annualized gain for the S&P 500 stock index over time is more than 10 percent! You, too, can turn into the millionaire next door <3>. Carpe diem, folks! Seize the financial day!

The advice proffered by the vast majority of analysts, would-be gurus, and television pundits came down to one word: stocks. Some, like CNBC's infamous Jim Cramer <4>, advocated stock-picking strategies. Others encouraged mutual funds. But very few—at least of those that could get publicity via mainstream outlets—doubted the efficacy of the market.

That our personal finances weren't fully ours to seize didn't seem to occur to many of us until recently, when the stock market plunged almost 40 percent in a mere year, housing went into free fall, and the unemployment rate began to climb perilously toward double digits. All these facts suddenly left the personal finance industry facing a conundrum of its own making. The backbone of the self-help complex is the idea that you can do it. You. Singular. But what happens when you lose your job and can't find a new one before your six months of recommended emergency savings runs out? Or a good chunk of your retirement income is in the form of a pension from your former employer—and that employer is named Chrysler? What then?

"Personal finance has come to substitute for the role government should play for people," observes Nan Mooney, author of (Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents <5>. "In the past 20 years the myth of the person succeeding on their own has gotten bigger and bigger. This myth is dangerous. It tells you if you can't balance everything and you are in debt, it is your fault."

MORE AT LINK

[DemReadingDU]

45. Satyajit Das: Lessons of the Global Financial Crisis: 3. Built to fail

5/8/09 Lessons of the Global Financial Crisis: 3. Built to fail by Satyajit Das

The key lesson of the global financial crisis (GFC) may be that the current economic order is "built to fail".

The ability to sustain high rates of economic growth, decreed by governments and central bankers, is questionable. The aggressive increase in debt globally resulted in a sharp increase in sustainable growth rates. $4 to $5 of debt was required to create $1 of growth. Approximately half the recorded growth in the US over recent years was driven by borrowing against the rising value of houses (mortgage equity withdrawals). As the level of debt in the global economy decreases, attainable growth levels also decline.

The world used debt to accelerate its consumption. Spending that would have taken place normally over a period of many years was squeezed into a relatively short period because of the availability of cheap borrowings. Business over invested misreading demand and assuming that the exaggerated growth would continue indefinitely creating significant over-capacity in many sectors.

The noveau Jeffersonian trinity - "whoever dies with the most toys wins"; "shop till you drop"; and "if it feels good, do it" – has proved to be unsustainable.

more...
http://www.eurointelligence.com/article.581+M54f756d50c9.0.html



Edit to add Part 2 and Part 1


5/6/09 Lessons of the Global Financial Crisis: 2. Whatever it takes By Satyajit Das

The severity of the crisis was underestimated initially. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve in March 2007 stated during Congressional Testimony: "At this juncture, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the sub-prime market seems likely to be contained." In April 2007 US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson delivered an upbeat assessment of the economy: "All the signs I look at show the housing market is at or near the bottom… The U.S. economy is very healthy and robust."

The grande mal seizure of financial markets in September and October 2008, with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, a large US investment bank and near collapse of AIG, the world’s largest insurance group, highlighted the seriousness of the problems. Since then national and international "committees to save the world" have implemented a bewildering and ever changing array of measures to try to stave of economic collapse.

The actions – dubbed WIT ("What it Takes") by Gordon Brown, the English Prime Minister - have been focused on trying to stabilise the financial system and maintaining growth in the real economy.

more...
http://www.eurointelligence.com/article.581+M51f2b25c833.0.html


5/4/09 Lessons of the Global Financial Crisis: 1. The End of Ponzi Prosperity By Satyajit Das

Ponzi Prosperity

Growth, in reality, was founded on a series of elegant Ponzi schemes.

Consumption rather than investment drove growth, particularly in the developed world. Debt fuelled consumption became the norm. In the new economy, there were three kinds of people – "the haves", "the have-nots", and "the have-not-paid-for-what-they-haves".

The consumption was financed by borrowings supplied by a deregulated financial system. Many workers’ earnings fell in inflation adjusted terms as a result of global competition and associated outsourcing and off shoring practices. The ability to borrow against the appreciation in owner occupied houses and other financial assets underpinned consumption.

Investors, central banks with large reserves, pension funds and asset managers channeling privatised retirement savings, eagerly purchased the debt. Borrowing fueled higher asset prices allowing even greater levels of borrowing against the value of the asset. This virtuous cycle – a "positive feedback loop" – fueled the "doctor feel good" economy of recent years.

"Financial engineering" replaced "real engineering" in many countries. Entire cities (London and New York) and economies (Iceland) become dominated by the rapidly growing financial services industry. In the US, financial services’ share of total corporate profits increased from 10% in the early 1980s to 40% in 2007. The stockmarket value of financial services firms increased from 6% in the early 1980s to 23% in 2007.

The reliance on financial innovation proved disastrous. In A Short History of Financial Euphoria (1994), John Kenneth Galbraith noted that: "Financial operations do not lend themselves to innovation. What is recurrently so described and celebrated is, without exception, a small variation on an established design . . . The world of finance hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable version."

more...
http://www.eurointelligence.com/article.581+M553774d2c37.0.html

[KoKo]

55. These articles are a very good analysis of the Global Financial Crisis... Thanks!

Kind of cut's through the crap of much of what we read and hear from the pundits with vested interests touting "green shoots, Goldilocks and imminent recovery and the competing economists views about what to do about it.

His writing style is a treat, too.

[Dr.Phool]

48. The Fudd's Management Screening Service.

We all know the best way to move up in the corporate world. Brown-nosing! Kiss the boss's ass. We've all worked with them before.

I just got back from the morning trip to the dog park, where the Fudd normally takes care of his doggie bodily functions. Evidently, a short-haired pointer thought that His Royal Fuddliness was the Boss.

Poor woman was running all over the place to find a rag to clean off her dogs nose!



:rofl: :rofl: :applause: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :spray: :rofl: :spray: :rofl: :rofl:

[tclambert]

56. Okay, I took the plunge Friday, and dove into the market.

The waters are warm but kind of scummy, lots of algae, not enough good size fish.

I found a few dollars I could live without and bought some shares of (ready for this?) . . . Fannie Mae.

How many fainted?

Okay, they are in conservatorship, the government took over about 80% of the equity, there have been frauds and scandals associated with Fannie Mae, and the mortgage market has been terrible. The professionals rate it pretty low, think it might underperform. But they've been saying that for awhile, and it went up about 30% in the last quarter. So I'm thinking, "What do they know?" Actually, I doubt their wisdom all the time. I heard long ago you could make pretty good returns doing the opposite of what "the Street" thinks of as good investing.

Here's my reasoning: if the economy doesn't recover, if everything implodes, then there are no good investments, not even cash or gold. On the other hand, if the economy does recover, then the mortgage markets must return to sanity and settle into a stable, boring pattern again. That would mean Fannie Mae survives and continues doing the kind of business it used to. Probably not as good as it did before the real estate bubble. It used to trade for about $60/share. Reduce that by the government's 80%, and that's the equivalent of $12/share. I doubt it will return to that level any time soon. I'm hoping that in 4 years it may reach $5 or $6 per share. It's trading now for under $1/share. I suppose it could get lower, but I can afford it if it goes down to $0. With broker's fees included, my breakeven point at about 85.4¢/share.

I'm willing to wait a few years for luck to happen. I may get lucky sooner, if a mortgage relief bill passes Congress this time, or next time, or some time.

I am NOT recommending anyone follow my example. I'm just saying, "Here's what I did. Won't it be fun to watch what happens?" I've got some skin in the game, put a couple chips on the table. That's fun for me. And I think I'm smart enough to win a little. You don't have to put anything on the table to have a little fun watching what happens to my bet. And it is a bet. I know it. There is a lot of guesswork in my calculations. The only thing I have going for me really is patience. I am not a day-trader. I despise that concept. I'm more of a year-trader. I'm hoping to turn a couple chips into a little stack of chips in a few years time.

If you like, you can wish me luck. Or if you like, you may commence calling me all kinds of stupid and crow about it when I lose a few cents.

FNM currently down about 3%. Damn. Can somebody loan me lunch money?

[Dr.Phool]

58. Capitalist Pig!!!!

Just wait until Demeter passes out the FRSP!

:spank: :hi:

[Hugin]

63. Aw, why'd you go and do that?

When you could've given it to me... I have this one uncomfortable low spot in my mattress. I would've sent you a statement every quarter indicating that although you hadn't lost any of it... My back was feeling much better.

Lemme tell ya, it's a win-win.

[tclambert]

66. Huh. My broker never even told me about Hugin mattress futures.

They keep all the good advice to themselves, don't they?

[TheMachineWins]

70. A friend of mine asked about AIG

I said I have no idea whether they'll go out of business or be worth 20 times what they are now in 1 year. Most people don't recognize that the entire financial system collapsed, it's only being propped up by the gov't. Unless frauds are held accountable, the very same frauds that made the system collapse then, nothing changes for the better. This is how sad the situation is: the financial guy at Freddie Mac killed himself and that's considered a good thing.

[AnneD]

76. Once.....

I stopped and bought my next chunk of metal and was on my way back home. I decided to stop and have lunch before returning home. Well, it had taken more money to by on spot. So there I was, plenty of gold and silver in my purse-but not enough change to get a cheese burger. I am sure there is a moral in that somewhere.

I am dabbling and I like your reasoning. Good luck in the casinos.

[Demeter]

78. You're A Better man than I Am, Gunga Din

Now why would I even think about FRSP for a man who is risking his OWN money?

Au contraire (about the only French I know) mes amis! The man is free to do as he likes with HIS OWN money.

FRSP are for those who squander OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY--like yours and mine!

[AnneD]

64. Morning Marketeers.....

:donut: and lurkers.

I had a Dirty Harry moment this weekend. Hubby, at my suggestion, decided to name the school after the Hindu goddess of music-Saraswati or Swati for short. The add was suppose to come out in the Hindu-American newspaper. Imagine my shock when It came out with my Hubby's name. After I had all the website work almost complete, the business card done-etc. But when I asked him why it was changed-I went from nice to bitch in 0.05 seconds.

Seems that there is some fighting in the Swati valley in Pakistan between the Taliban and the Pakistani. This spineless chicken shit naturalized "American " citizen told my husband that there might be Taliban here in this country and that he should change the name so as not to offend these folks.

:rant: (this is what I told hubby).

If I had the power to revoke that chicken shit coward's citizenship-I would. How dare he even make that suggestion. They are taking advantage of the brave people that came before them and gave them the right to live in this country as free men. Let me tell you something to think about. There is a quote- It is better to stand on you feet and die than to live on your knees. Do you think the Taliban will like you more if you change your school name? You stand for the very things they are against-art, music, culture. Not only that-you teach that-so that makes you a double threat. I promise you-if they wanted to kill you-they would do it before the ink was dry on your business cards.

"Well what about Homeland Security, they will want to investigate." he said.

Again I am telling you it is better to die on you feet than to live on your knees. They check you out and you are a musician that teaches kids and you work as a security guard in a hospital. I think you are not suspect. And you, YOU of all people should know what happens when you live on your knees. You heard stories of life for your parents in British Colonial India-and they were the lucky ones.

We have too may people, even in this country, that want to dive to their knees first. They have forgotten how to be and think like free men. Look at Congressmen. Banks threaten them and instead of standing up for us-they grovel on their knees to those basttards-selling our country and children into slavery. I am just tired of all the chicken shits. The next ad we buy has the name we want and the picture we want. They may be chicken shits-but I'm not

He sat there thinking for while and played a little on his sitar. "You're right. If I can't even be free to name my school what I want-to show respect to my culture and my music-what's the point. I know what my next business purchase will be....a hand gun and I think the next thing we'll do is get a hand gun certifications. At least here I can fight back . In India-they were brain washed."

So I guess we must be last of the free thinkers around here that and Hubby will think twice before making an 'executive' decision. :spray:

Happy hunting and watch out for the bears.

[Demeter]

79. I Feel your Pain

500 years of anybody and everybody coming here, and it's still Smith, Jones, Brown and Bush.

[Hugin]

65. Approx twelve o' thirty EDT: Thar she blows.

Dow 8,463.06 -111.59 (-1.30%)
S&P 500 914.63 -14.60 (-1.57%)
Nasdaq 1,737.39 -1.61 (-0.09%)
10y bond 3.22% -0.01 (-0.31%)

I know I said I wasn't going to do this any more, but, the NASDAQ has been so odd today... I thought I'd make an exception.

While the S&P and Dow have been on a prolonged sounding dive all morning the supposedly tech-heavy NASDAQ has been showing off for the tour boats.

http://www.google.com/finance

[TheWatcher]

68. I wouldn't worry too much about it Hugin.

It seems they always use Monday these days to "Cash In Their Winnings" (At least according to the Headlines on Yahoo Finance).

I'm SURE tomorrow the Propagandaized, Brave New World Economic Fairy Tale Will Continue.

I can't WAIT to see what they spin as "Good News" next!

Why, I bet when EVERYONE has lost their jobs the Dow will Automatically shoot to 800,000 in ONE DAY because after all, things can't POSSIBLY get ANY WORSE, so the recovery is in full swing!

:beer:

[Demeter]

80. Sure! At That Point Cannibalism Sets In

and the unemployment numbers start to plummet.

[Demeter]

81. I Have to Say, This Is a CHEERFUL Edition of SMW

I guess we're through the disbelief and anger phases. And this is more than schadenfreude.

Okay, who brought in the laughing gas? If this was supposed to be giddy, it would have been called the Stock Comedy Watch.

Which reminds me of a funny story. Back in the 80's, laughing gas made a revival in dentistry, so the dentist tried it on me.

There I am, tears pouring out of my eyes, sobbing. "Can I do anything for you?" the dentist asks.

"Just finish," I moan. Evidently, I am one of those who does NOT laugh at nitrous oxide.

Another moment in dentistry. My mother fell asleep in the chair while having her teeth vigorously cleaned. The staff was incredulous.

What can I say? Four children in 6 years.

All this comes to mind because I just got my 6 months' postcard...