Showboating on The Weekend Economists July 23-25, 2010

[Demeter]

Showboating: Definition

show·boat n.
1. A river steamboat having a troupe of performers and a theater aboard for performances on the river.
2. One who seeks attention by ostentatious behavior; a showoff

intr.v. show·boat·ed, show·boat·ing, show·boats
To show off.

We're going for the first definition, showcasing the American Classic Novel, Broadway musical, and film "Showboat". If any of the second definition creeps in, we'll be tombstoned again, no doubt...oh, well!

It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon.....oops, wrong cue card!

It's been hell on earth over much of the nation, as we relive the Long Hot Summers of 1966, 1967 and 1968, all in one year, without the domestic assassinations, thank god. We off-shored those....

The markets have been running around like chickens with their heads cut off, spewing points like drops of blood. The carnage in the domestic economy continues, with more unemployed everyday--but at least they will be getting lunch money again, after 6 weeks of merciless GOP austerity including ranking member Ben Nelson...you say he's NOT in the GOP? Could have fooled me!

Rachel Maddow I will never be, but as the guide on this safari, let me welcome you to America's heartland, the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, where our story begins....

[Demeter]

1. 5 Banks Gone to History at 6 PM

Sterling Bank, Lantana, Florida, was closed today by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with IBERIABANK, Lafayette, Louisiana, to assume all of the deposits of Sterling Bank.

The six branches of Sterling Bank will reopen on Monday as branches of IBERIABANK....As of March 31, 2010, Sterling Bank had approximately $407.9 million in total assets and $372.4 million in total deposits. IBERIABANK did not pay the FDIC a premium for the deposits of Sterling Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, IBERIABANK agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and IBERIABANK entered into a loss-share transaction on $244.3 million of Sterling Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $45.5 million. Compared to other alternatives, IBERIABANK's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Sterling Bank is the 97th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the eighteenth in Florida. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Metro Bank of Dade County, Miami, on July 16, 2010.

Crescent Bank and Trust Company, Jasper, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking & Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Renasant Bank, Tupelo, Mississippi, to assume all of the deposits of Crescent Bank and Trust Company.

The 11 branches of Crescent Bank and Trust Company will reopen under normal business hours beginning Saturday as branches of Renasant Bank...As of March 31, 2010, Crescent Bank and Trust Company had approximately $1.01 billion in total assets and $965.7 million in total deposits. Renasant Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of 1.0 percent to assume all of the deposits of Crescent Bank and Trust Company. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Renasant Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and Renasant Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $617.4 million of Crescent Bank and Trust Company's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $242.4 million. Compared to other alternatives, Renasant Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Crescent Bank and Trust Company is the 98th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the tenth in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was First National Bank, Savannah, on June 25, 2010.

Williamsburg First National Bank, Kingstree, South Carolina, was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with First Citizens Bank and Trust Company, Inc., Columbia, South Carolina, to assume all of the deposits of Williamsburg First National Bank.

The five branches of Williamsburg First National Bank will reopen on Monday as branches of First Citizens Bank and Trust Company, Inc...As of March 31, 2010, Williamsburg First National Bank had approximately $139.3 million in total assets and $134.3 million in total deposits. First Citizens Bank and Trust Company, Inc. will pay the FDIC a premium of 0.5 percent to assume all of the deposits of Williamsburg First National Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, First Citizens Bank and Trust Company, Inc. agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and First Citizens Bank and Trust Company, Inc. entered into a loss-share transaction on $64.4 million of Williamsburg First National Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $8.8 million. Compared to other alternatives, First Citizens Bank and Trust Company, Inc.'s acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Williamsburg First National Bank is the 99th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the fourth in South Carolina. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Woodlands Bank, Bluffton, on July 16, 2010.

Thunder Bank, Sylvan Grove, Kansas, was closed today by the Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with The Bennington State Bank, Salina, Kansas, to assume all of the deposits of Thunder Bank.

The two branches of Thunder Bank will reopen on Monday as branches of The Bennington State Bank...As of March 31, 2010, Thunder Bank had approximately $32.6 million in total assets and $28.5 million in total deposits. The Bennington State Bank did not pay the FDIC a premium for the deposits of Thunder Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, The Bennington State Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets...

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $4.5 million. Compared to other alternatives, The Bennington State Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Thunder Bank is the 100th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Kansas. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was SolutionsBank, Overland Park, on December 11, 2009.

Community Security Bank, New Prague, Minnesota, was closed today by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Roundbank, Waseca, Minnesota, to assume all of the deposits of Community Security Bank.

The sole branch of Community Security Bank will reopen on Saturday as a branch of Roundbank...As of March 31, 2010, Community Security Bank had approximately $108.0 million in total assets and $99.7 million in total deposits. Roundbank will pay the FDIC a premium of 0.89 percent to assume all of the deposits of Community Security Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Roundbank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets...

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $18.6 million. Compared to other alternatives, Roundbank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Community Security Bank is the 101st FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the seventh in Minnesota. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Pinehurst Bank, St. Paul, on May 21, 2010.

[ozymandius]

4. FDIC: "burp"

First rec, by the way. It is an all you can eat buffet tonight.

[Demeter]

5. In this weather, I'm sticking to watermelon and ice cream

We had Florida-style cloudbursts all day, but now we are having an Allegheny's style, Rip Van Winkle thunderstorm and vertical flood. The gutters just run over, no time to drain.

Guess the grass will need cutting next week.

[Demeter]

7. Tornado warning at 6:30 PM

Dang sirens, how can a person type?

[DemReadingDU]

12. Send rain to Ohio!

It is HOT and dry, must go water tomatoes, followed by big bowl of ice cream!
:hi:

[Demeter]

19. ANOTHER BITES THE DUST

SouthwestUSA Bank, Las Vegas, Nevada, was closed today by the Nevada Financial Institutions Division, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Plaza Bank, Irvine, California, to assume all of the deposits of SouthwestUSA Bank.

The sole branch of SouthwestUSA Bank will reopen on Monday as a branch of Plaza Bank...As of March 31, 2010, SouthwestUSA Bank had approximately $214.0 million in total assets and $186.7 million in total deposits. Plaza Bank did not pay the FDIC a premium for the deposits of SouthwestUSA Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Plaza Bank agreed to purchase approximately $137.3 million of the failed bank's assets. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition.

The FDIC and Plaza Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $111.3 million of SouthwestUSA Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $74.1 million. Compared to other alternatives, Plaza Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. SouthwestUSA Bank is the 102nd FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the fourth in Nevada. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Nevada Security Bank, Reno, on June 18, 2010.

[ozymandius]

38. This part stands out: $214.0 million in total assets.

Yet when FDIC and Plaza Bank redeem the value of those assets, the sum shrinks to $137.3 million. The "garbage" asset package will be sorted out later. Overvalued assets, maybe? Just like so much real estate?

[Demeter]

44. I'm Not an Accountant, Ozy, Nor Do I Play One

But the whole process is somewhat less than transparent.

We need Tansy Gold to explain it--didn't she work in the S&L fiasco?

[ozymandius]

53. Maybe Tansy. I know that UpInArms did a stint in the S&L aftermath.

She relates her experiences of that era with utter disgust, as I recall.

[Tansy_Gold]

100. I'm here, I'm here, semi-sorta -- and I know nothing.

I don't know how the bank/FDIC sorts out values of assets at all. Not my area of expertise/experience.



Tansy Gold, recovering from an unpleasant drug interaction (nothing serious) and waking up to find herself WAAAAY behind on work. But NTY!!! :evilgrin:

[Name removed]

106. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Demeter]

42. And We Have a Late Entry into the List

Home Valley Bank, Cave Junction, Oregon, was closed today by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with South Valley Bank & Trust, Klamath Falls, Oregon, to assume all of the deposits of Home Valley Bank.

The five branches of Home Valley Bank will reopen on Monday as branches of South Valley Bank & Trust...As of March 31, 2010, Home Valley Bank had approximately $251.80 million in total assets and $229.6 million in total deposits. South Valley Bank & Trust will pay the FDIC a premium of 1.05 percent to assume all of the deposits of Home Valley Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, South Valley Bank & Trust agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and South Valley Bank & Trust entered into a loss-share transaction on $211.6 million of Home Valley Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $37.1 million. Compared to other alternatives, South Valley Bank & Trust's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Home Valley Bank is the 103rd FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in Oregon. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Columbia River Bank, The Dalles, on January 22, 2010.

[Demeter]

43. In Summary: 7 Banks Tonight, 103 for the Year to Date

And the round sum of $431M in evaporated assets, reimbursed by the FDIC. At a minimum.

[DemReadingDU]

45. FDIC was busy last night

[amandabeech]

92. And the banks from Georgia just keep on coming!

Something like 98 and 100% humidity here in the DC burbs.

I just hate this shit and am counting the days until Oct. 1 when we start to have what I call summer.

[Demeter]

2. THE BANKSTERS

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed)
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it.
Bob Hope (1903 - 2003)

Drive-in banks were established so most of the cars today could see their real owners.

E. Joseph Cossman

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

I don't have a bank account, because I don't know my mother's maiden name.

Paula Poundstone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDGibUnfGK8

[Demeter]

3. Seven banks fail EU stress tests

Only seven out of 91 European banks failed a long-awaited stress test, regulators announced on Friday night, a result that risks undermining the credibility of an exercise designed to restore the market’s confidence in the eurozone banking sector.

Five of the seven were local Spanish savings banks, or cajas, sparking nervousness in Spain that the pan-European exercise that they had campaigned hard for might backfire. The Bank of Spain was last night discussing what kind of emergency liquidity measures could be put in place to reassure caja customers and see of the threat of a run on account
withdrawals.

Overall, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors said there was a capital shortfall of €3.5bn at the seven banks that failed the test. Germany’s Hypo Real Estate and Greece’s Atebank were the only non-Spanish institutions to fail.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/TWK799/8AQ27X/PNGIU/18XRY8/C5IXB9/82/t

[Demeter]

10. Data Underline Some Banks' Dependency on ECB

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704684604575380673545402114.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

As the European Union prepares to prove to the world how solid its banks are, new data from around the euro area show that its weaker members' dependence on the European Central Bank has never been higher....

The Committee of European Banking Supervisors said this week that it intends to announce aggregated country results of its tests after the European markets close Friday, with national regulators following hot on its heels with a bank-by-bank breakdown for the 91 institutions. The goal was to allow markets 48 hours of relative calm to assess the data before trading on it.

However, many European banks also are listed in the U.S., exposing them to immediate market scrutiny that their non-U.S.-listed peers would escape...

AND THAT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IS WHY THE MARKET WENT UP AT 1 PM.

[Demeter]

6. SEC Had 'Window Dressing' on Radar for Years

But not Bernie Madoff?

Guess they at least read technical journals during the commercial breaks on the porn sites...


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704723604575379633816181998.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Federal regulators were aware of and concerned about potentially questionable accounting of short-term trades on Wall Street long before Lehman Brothers' collapse raised the issue, a report indicates.

Since 2004, the Securities and Exchange Commission has questioned 115 transactions by 102 different companies to assess if they accounted properly for repurchase agreements, or "repos," among other short-term trades, according to AuditAnalytics.com. The research firm reviewed more than 115,000 comment letters the SEC sent to companies asking questions about their securities filings.

An SEC spokesman declined to comment on the report....

[Demeter]

8. Global effort needed on bank capital: U.S. officials

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66J3CR20100720

Global cooperation will be crucial to hardening world banks' capital armor along the lines backed by Congress and the Obama administration, senior U.S. regulators said on Tuesday.

As standard-setters in Switzerland hammer away at a new set of worldwide bank capital standards, U.S. Treasury Department official Lael Brainard said, "Capital rules must be harmonized internationally to be effective domestically."

More broadly, she told a Senate subcommittee, the tougher financial regulations that are headed for President Barack Obama's desk to be enacted on Wednesday will be less effective without global consensus on some key policies.

"In many of these areas ... if we are not able to achieve convergence, we won't be able to protect American consumers, businesses and workers the way that this legislation would like to," said Brainard, who is Treasury's under secretary for international affairs...

MORE PUFFERY--SEE HOW BIG AND SCARY WE CAN GET WHEN WE ARE FULL OF HOT AIR?

[Demeter]

9. TARP Lending Programs Curtailed

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704723604575379491087338852.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

The Treasury Department, under Congressional orders to shrink and end sooner the much-maligned Troubled Asset Relief Program, plans to curtail two programs originally intended to help consumer and small-business lending.

Treasury officials say they plan to end a long-delayed, never-utilized $30 billion program designed to boost small-business lending and cut the amount of money available for a Federal Reserve lending program. :banghead:

The Treasury will also stop creating any new programs to stabilize the financial sector.

The moves are expected to have minimal impact since the programs were not being used to the extent originally envisioned.

The Fed's Term Asset-Backed Lending Facility, which provided financing to bolster issuance of consumer and business loans, was used less than anticipated after markets stabilized.

The Treasury's small-business program, which never got off the ground, is expected to be replaced by a $30 billion lending fund. The House has already authorized the fund and the Senate could vote this week.:banghead:

[Demeter]

11. LIFE UPON THE WICKED STAGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QdxKw_EHZA&feature=related

ELLIE
Why do stage struck maidens clamor
To be actin' in the drammer?

GIRLS
We've heard say
You are gay
Night and day.

ELLIE
Oh, go 'way!

GIRLS
We drink water from a dipper,
You drink champagne from a slipper.

ELLIE
Tho' it seems Crool to bust
All your dreams,
Still I must;
Here's the truth I tell you:
Life upon the wicked stage
Ain't ever what a girl supposes;
Stage door Johnnies aren't rag-
Ing over you with gems and roses.
When you let a feller hold your hand (which
Means an extra beer or sandwich),
Ev'rybody whispers: "Ain't her life a whirl?"
Though you're warned against a roue'
Ruining your reputation,
I have played around
The one night trade around
A great big nation:
Wild old men who give you jewels and sables
Only live in Aesop's Fables.
Life upon the wicked stage
Ain't nothin' for a girl.

GIRLS
Though we've listened to you moan and grieve, you
Must pardon us if we do not believe you,
There is no doubt
You're crazy about
Your awful stage!

ELLIE
I admit it's fun
To smear my face with paint,
Causing ev'ryone
To think I'm what I ain't,
And I like to play a demi-mondy role
With soul!
Ask the hero does he
Like the way I lure
When I play a hussy
Or a paramour,
Yet when once the curtain's down
My life is pure,
And how I dread it!

GIRLS
Life upon the wicked stage
Ain't ever what a girl supposes,
Stage door Johnnies aren't rag-
Ing over you with gems and roses.

ELLIE
If some gentleman would talk with reason
I would cancel all next season.
Life upon the wicked stage
Ain't nothin' for a girl.

[Demeter]

13. Fannie Subpoenas to Show $30B Bad Mortgages, Rosner Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-21/fannie-freddie-subpoenas-reveal-30-billion-of-bad-mortgages-rosner-says.html

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator may identify as much as $30 billion of debt included in mortgage bonds that the companies can force sellers to repurchase, according to Joshua Rosner, an analyst who in 2007 predicted the collapse in the market for the securities.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this month said it issued 64 subpoenas seeking loan files and other documents related to so-called non-agency mortgage securities bought by the two government-supported companies. The U.S. is trying to determine whether misrepresentations might require issuers to repurchase debt, producing funds from firms that may include Wall Street’s largest banks to help repay taxpayer money.

Rosner’s estimate of the amount of bad loans the FHFA might find doesn’t equal how much Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may recover because banks can argue some misstatements weren’t “material,” the New York-based analyst at independent research firm Graham Fisher & Co. said in a telephone interview. At the same time, the move bolsters other investors’ efforts, he said.

“The most important thing is probably that the subpoenaed documents will support other private actions and other government-agency actions,” said Rosner, co-author of a May 2007 paper that said the failure of mortgage bonds would roil housing and financial markets. “It will cause a lot of unhappiness on Wall Street.”

Corinne Russell, an FHFA spokeswoman, declined to comment...Fannie Mae, based in Washington, and McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac have already been forcing repurchases of loans they insure or hold directly at a pace drawing industry complaints. In the first quarter, the companies required lenders to buy back $3.1 billion, up 63 percent from a year earlier.

THIS IS APPALLING--AND THERE'S STILL MORE AT THE LINK

[Demeter]

14. Basel Committee Nears Agreement on Definitions of Capital, Leverage Ratio

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-21/basel-committee-nears-agreement-on-definitions-of-capital-leverage-ratio.html

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, nearing agreement on how to redefine capital and when to impose borrowing caps on banks worldwide, has left a final decision to its governing board, which meets next week.

The committee, a body of regulators and central bankers from 27 countries that sets capital standards, narrowed differences about how to count minority stakes in other financial institutions, deferred tax assets and mortgage- servicing rights, according to people with knowledge of the discussions that took place in Basel, Switzerland, last week.

It plans to present to its governing board two or three choices on how much of each of these items should be deducted from a bank’s capital, the people said. The board, which is made up of central bank governors and heads of supervisory agencies, will also decide on a time frame for making the leverage ratio binding on banks, they said...

[Demeter]

15. New financial rulebook tangles loan bundlers, ratings agencies

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/22/AR2010072206046.html

Merely days old, the financial regulatory law has already generated its first real-world hiccup. A minor rule change in the law unexpectedly shut down the market for selling new bundles of car loans and consumer loans after bond issuers, ratings agencies and the Securities and Exchange Commission found themselves caught in a tangle of old and new regulations.

The SEC intervened Thursday afternoon, but traders viewed the incident as a warning that more dust-ups could come as the gargantuan law makes the leap from paper to reality.

The confusion stemmed from a provision in the law that removes legal protection for ratings firms when they lend their opinions to bond issuers introducing new products. If the ratings turn out to be wrong -- for instance, if an agency gives the debt product a top rating but then the debt defaults -- the ratings companies can be sued.

In response, the three major ratings agencies -- Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's -- started telling clients that they weren't allowed to use the agencies' opinions in documents used to register new bond products.

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This put the bond issuers in an impossible position. The SEC requires them to include these ratings anytime they register new asset-backed securities to sell to investors. Without permission to use the agencies' opinions, bond issuers couldn't offer new products. And so, earlier this week, the public market for asset-backed securities came to a full stop...

WELL, TOO BAD THEY FIXED IT! ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW:

SEC Grants Six-Month Delay on Ratings for Asset-Backed Debt in Statements

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-22/sec-grants-six-month-delay-on-ratings-for-asset-backed-debt-in-statements.html

[Tansy_Gold]

101. "TOO BAD THEY FIXED IT!" TTWROOMFT

Took the words right out of my finger tips.

TG, NTY

[Demeter]

18. Smaller Banks See Loan-Book Rebound

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467304575383321057681554.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Earnings from regional banks showed a credit rebound that extends to Ohio and the Southeast, two areas that struggled for two years with loan losses.

In Ohio, which suffered badly during the recession, Fifth Third Bancorp, Huntington Bancshares Inc. and KeyCorp all said their loan books improved during the quarter.

In the Southeast, SunTrust Banks Inc. reported a narrower quarterly loss, and said its costs from bad loans could start falling over the second half of the year.

Bearing more sober news Thursday was BB&T Corp., whose levels of troubled loans rose in the quarter.

The nation's ranks of traditional banks, especially regional institutions, still must grapple with shrinking sources of future profits, especially the scarce appetite for new loans.

Thursday's reports suggest regional banks finally have accounted for a majority of the mistakes they made during the nationwide property bubble, which popped in 2008....

[Demeter]

32. F.D.I.C. Gets More Power to Evaluate Banks’ Risk

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/business/13fdic.html?ref=business

Federal bank regulators have agreed to give the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation unlimited authority to investigate banks, clarifying the agency’s power, which was in question during the financial crisis...

[Demeter]

34. AIG Said to Weigh Using Bond Stake to Repay U.S.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-14/aig-said-to-weigh-using-bond-stake-to-repay-u-s-.html

American International Group Inc. is considering repaying part of its U.S. bailout by handing over stakes in the mortgage-linked bonds that pushed the firm to the brink of collapse, said three people with knowledge of the plan.

The assets are contained in Maiden Lane II and Maiden Lane III, entities created in 2008 as part of the U.S. effort to remove toxic securities from the firm. AIG’s proposal reflects the insurer’s confidence in the rebound of these holdings, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plan hasn’t been approved. AIG valued the stakes at $6.2 billion as of March 31, $900 million more than at the end of 2009.

“The only reason they look good now is because the Fed has ramped up the market with its policies,” said Christopher Whalen, managing director of Torrance, California-based Institutional Risk Analytics. As long as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke “is willing to print money, as he has been, the Maiden Lanes will do just fine.”

Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche, 66, has said AIG would pay down a Federal Reserve credit line with the planned divestitures of two non-U.S. life divisions and then turn to its Treasury Department obligations. The New York-based insurer hired Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. to explore options to repay loans within AIG’s $182.3 billion bailout...

THEY HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING...

[ozymandius]

39. Citigroup Sold Protection on AIG to Goldman Sachs

July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG were among banks that sold the most protection to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. against a failure of American International Group Inc., a document released today shows.

Goldman Sachs stood to gain $1.7 billion in payments from credit-default swaps had AIG defaulted, according to the list of 148 counterparties released by U.S. Senator Charles Grassley’s office. Citigroup could have owed more than $400 million to Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse’s payment could have been about $310 million.

Goldman Sachs turned over the list of counterparties to the Congressional Oversight Panel and Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which are reviewing the use of taxpayer funds in financial bailouts. AIG received a government rescue in 2008 that swelled to $182.3 billion, averting a collapse that may have forced the banks to make payments to Goldman Sachs.

The five biggest counterparties on the list are Citigroup, Credit Suisse, a division of Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s London branch, and Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc. Not all of the counterparties were banks -- the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., which manages more than $100 billion of the nation’s foreign reserves, is on the list.

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUyeOlzUSboU&pos=5

---

This story has a who's-who of international behemoths.

[Demeter]

48. Robbing Peter to Pay Paul to Pay Peter, to Pay Paul.....

It's insane. the ultimate sucker of this con: The US People.

[Tansy_Gold]

102. Used to have an acquaintance, years ago, back in Indiana

Lew and his wife, along with Lew's brother and the brother's wife, operated a small retail business in our small town. During one of those recessions back in the 70s, someone asked Lew how they were weathering the decline in sales. Oh, he bragged, it was no problem, because his wife was a whiz at juggling payments from one credit card to another. She could just keep the money goin' from one account to another, making sure everything was paid up current so no one started bothering them.

But you can't do that forever. One day, one of the cards was maxed out and rejected the amount charged to it, creating a cascade of defaults. Within a few weeks, the business closed.


Don't you wish that would happen to Goldman Sachs?



TG, NTY

[truedelphi]

40. A Democratic President who fully understood the "Bankers" (ie the thieves)

On June 4, 1963, a virtually unknown Presidential decree, Executive Order 11110, was signed with the authority to basically strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the United States Federal Government at interest. With the stroke of a pen, President Kennedy declared that the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank would soon be out of business. (The Christian Law Fellowship has exhaustively researched this matter through the Federal Register and Library of Congress.) it is safe to conclude that this Executive Order has never been repealed, amended, or superceded by any subsequent Executive Order. In simple terms, it is still valid.

When President John Fitzgerald Kennedy - the author of Profiles in Courage -signed this Order, it returned to the federal government, specifically the Treasury Department, the Constitutional power to create and issue currency -money - without going through the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank. President Kennedy's Executive Order 11110 gave the Treasury Department the explicit authority: "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury."

This means that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury's vault, the government could introduce new money into circulation based on the silver bullion physically held there. As a result, more than $4 billion in United States Notes were brought into circulation in $2 and $5 denominations. $10 and $20 United States Notes were never circulated but were being printed by the Treasury Department when Kennedy was assassinated. It appears obvious that President Kennedy knew the Federal Reserve Notes being used as the purported legal currency were contrary to the Constitution of the United States of America.

"United States Notes" were issued as an interest-free and debt-free currency backed by silver reserves in the U.S. Treasury. We compared a "Federal Reserve Note" issued from the private central bank of the United States (the Federal Reserve Bank a/k/a Federal Reserve System), with a "United States Note" from the U.S. Treasury issued by President Kennedy's Executive Order. They almost look alike, except one says "Federal Reserve Note" on the top while the other says "United States Note". Also, the Federal Reserve Note has a green seal and serial number while the United States Note has a red seal and serial number.

President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and the United States Notes he had issued were immediately taken out of circulation. Federal Reserve Notes continued to serve as the legal currency of the nation. According to the United States Secret Service, 99% of all U.S. paper "currency" circulating in 1999 are Federal Reserve Notes.

Kennedy knew that if the silver-backed United States Notes were widely circulated, they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve Notes. This is a very simple matter of economics. The USN was backed by silver and the FRN was not backed by anything of intrinsic value. Executive Order 11110 should have prevented the national debt from reaching its current level (virtually all of the nearly $9 trillion in federal debt has been created since 1963) if LBJ or any subsequent President were to enforce it. It would have almost immediately given the U.S. Government the ability to repay its debt without going to the private Federal Reserve Banks and being charged interest to create new "money". Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S.A. the ability to, once again, create its own money backed by silver and realm value worth something.

Just five months after Kennedy was assassinated, no more of the Series 1958 "Silver Certificates" were issued either, and they were subsequently removed from circulation. Perhaps the assassination of JFK was a warning to all future presidents not to interfere with the private Federal Reserve's control over the creation of money. It seems very apparent that President Kennedy challenged the "powers that exist behind U.S. and world finance". With true patriotic courage, JFK boldly faced the two most successful vehicles that have ever been used to drive up debt:

1) war (Viet Nam); and,

2) the creation of money by a privately owned central bank. His efforts to have all U.S. troops out of Vietnam by 1965 combined with Executive Order 11110 would have destroyed the profits and control of the private Federal Reserve Bank.


Executive Order 11110

AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY. By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:

SECTION 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended - (a) By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j): "(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12, 1933, as amended (31 U.S.C. 821 (b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denominations of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption," and (b) By revoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof. SECTION 2. The amendment made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made.

JOHN F. KENNEDY THE WHITE HOUSE, June 4, 1963


Once again, Executive Order 11110 is still valid. According to Title 3, United States Code, Section 301 dated January 26, 1998:

Executive Order (EO) 10289 dated Sept. 17, 1951, 16 F.R. 9499, was as amended by:

EO 10583, dated December 18, 1954, 19 F.R. 8725;

EO 10882 dated July 18, 1960, 25 F.R. 6869;

EO 11110 dated June 4, 1963, 28 F.R. 5605;

EO 11825 dated December 31, 1974, 40 F.R. 1003;

EO 12608 dated September 9, 1987, 52 F.R. 34617

The 1974 and 1987 amendments, added after Kennedy's 1963 amendment, did not change or alter any part of Kennedy's EO 11110. A search of Clinton's 1998 and 1999 EO's and Presidential Directives has also shown no reference to any alterations, suspensions, or changes to EO 11110.

The Federal Reserve Bank, a.k.a Federal Reserve System, is a Private Corporation. Black's Law Dictionary defines the "Federal Reserve System" as: "Network of twelve central banks to which most national banks belong and to which state chartered banks may belong. Membership rules require investment of stock and minimum reserves." Privately-owned banks own the stock of the FED. This was explained in more detail in the case of Lewis v. United States, Federal Reporter, 2nd Series, Vol. 680, Pages 1239, 1241 (1982), where the court said: "Each Federal Reserve Bank is a separate corporation owned by commercial banks in its region. The stock-holding commercial banks elect two thirds of each Bank's nine member board of directors".

The Federal Reserve Banks are locally controlled by their member banks. Once again, according to Black's Law Dictionary, we find that these privately owned banks actually issue money:

"Federal Reserve Act. Law which created Federal Reserve banks which act as agents in maintaining money reserves, issuing money in the form of bank notes, lending money to banks, and supervising banks. Administered by Federal Reserve Board (q.v.)".

[Demeter]

46. Not To Mention Cuba Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs Invasion and Nuclear War

A true American Martyr.

[truedelphi]

84. can you imagine the Obama Administration handling a crisis

Like the Cuban Missile situation?

He would be like, "Petraeus, tell me what to do! And show the wife and the kids to the air raid shelter."

While the rest of us would be kissing our asses good bye!

[Demeter]

86. No, Frankly

He can't even handle normal. Or what passes for it these days.

Keep your promises, and you sleep better at night. Or don't make the promise in the first place.

Besides, this Administration wants to cause crises for others. Proactive....looking forward, not behind.

[Tansy_Gold]

103. In view of the "crisis" that unfolded this past week --

I've been slowly reading Ted Kennedy's "True Compass," and I had reached the point a few weeks ago of JFK's assassination. Yesterday, with a few rare moments of both leisure and lucidity, I picked the book up again.

From Chapter 11, Falling to Earth, 1964-1965 (p. 214-218)

In the end, the best way to honor Jack's memory was to take up his unfinished work.

His great dreams had included sending an American to the moon, nuclear disarmament, and the passage of a landmark civil rights bill. A lunar quest was years from feasibility. The checkered progress of disarmament was to be measured in decades.

The civil rights bill, by contrast, virtually cried for enactment. President Johnson supported it. A majority of Congress, including several Republicans, seemed to recognize that its time had come. Its main provisions would strike down restraints imposed in an agrarian age when most living Americans had witnessed slavery as a sanctioned practice. The affection that most Americans still harbored for the late President Kennedy and his dreams lent a timely backdrop for the effort to topple segregation in schools, employment, and public places.

Yet passage in the Senate remained far from a sure thing. No important civil rights legislation since Reconstruction had ever made it past the stone wall of southern resistance. Generations of senators from the old Confederacy, although a minority, had even managed to torpedo an anti-lynching bill. No signal existed that 1964 would be any different.

The southerners' weapon of choice on civil rights bills was the filibuster, that time-honored tradition of preventing a vote on legislation by holding the Senate floor and orating on any subject until silenced by a "cloture" vote -- or, more commonly, until a compromise is forged or the opposition gives up. In the early 1960s, cloture required assent by at least sixty-seven of the Senate's one hundred members. Sixty-seven Senators were Democrats in 1964; but of these, twenty-one were from the "solid South." Among the current Republicans, only twelve of the thirty-three were moderates; the rest were conservative. A filibuster against the bill was inevitable, and we knew that the math was against us: we were nine votes short of cloture, which by all previous indicators was a hopeless gap. . . .

When I first entered the Senate, new members usually did not make floor speeches for at least two years. Today, they all speak almost immediately. But not in 1964. And when they finally did take the podium, members usually spoke on issues of local concern. So it was something of break with tradition when I decided to make my maiden speech on April 9, 1964, and use it to advocate for the passage of the Civil Rights Act. But it seemed to me that civil rights was the issue and this was the time. I was increasingly involved in both the substance of the discussion and the debate and felt it was very important to speak out. . . .

After voicing a series of buttressing arguments to support these major points, I wound up my maiden speech as follows: "I remember the words of President Johnson last November 27: 'No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the Civil Rights Bill for which he fought so long.'

"My brother was the first president of the United States to state publicly that segregation was morally wrong. His heart and his soul are in this bill. If his life and death had a meaning, it was that we should not hate but love one another, and that we should use our powers not to create conditions of oppression that lead to violence, but conditions of freedom that lead to peace. It is in that spirit that I hope the Senate will pass this bill."

On June 19, 1964, a year to the day after my brother sent his civil rights bill to Congress, it passed into law on a vote of seventy-three to twenty-seven.

We knew that the Democratic Party would pay a price for this achievement. Lyndon Johnson himself put it most succinctly when he remarked, "We may win this legislation, but we're going to lose the South for a generation." And he was right; this marked the onset of the transformation of that region from Democratic to Republican.

Other Democratic leaders foresaw this as well, yet they acted to pass the bill nonetheless. I'm convinced that they acted, as had my brother in his speech, beyond political calculus: this was simply the right thing to do.



Tansy Gold

[truedelphi]

104. What a beautiful passage. Thank you for

Posting it.

I finally quit missing Jack (maybe three or four years ago?) It was all just so long ago. But now I miss Teddy. So very much.

[Demeter]

47. Show Boat (1936) - Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5owzfuvE2k&feature=related

[Demeter]

50. Wall Street Exhales After Sidestepping Pay Czar's Wrath

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703294904575385120617510164.html

Wall Street took the latest government report on its pay practices in stride Friday, saying it would review U.S. pay czar Kenneth R. Feinberg's suggestions about compensation while privately expressing relief that the report wasn't tougher on them.

Mr. Feinberg's four-page public discussion of banks' pay practices concluded that 17 banks had handed out $1.6 billion in "ill-advised" executive compensation before he was assigned in 2009 to oversee banks that accepted government money during the financial crisis. Mr. Feinberg's report didn't disclose the level of ill-advised pay at the 17 firms, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Morgan Stanley.

Although Mr. Feinberg noted that payments sometimes exceeded $10 million per-person, he said some forms of payment such as cash bonuses and retention awards have been limited by subsequent rules. He declined to request that the firms return any payouts, saying he didn't find them against the public interest and expressing reluctance to trigger private lawsuits and additional congressional investigation....

THESE THINGS MUST BE HANDLED DELICATELY

[Demeter]

51. Shadow Banking Makes A Comeback By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25999.htm

Credit conditions are improving for speculators and bubblemakers, but they continue to worsen for households, consumers and small businesses. An article in the Wall Street Journal confirms that the Fed's efforts to revive the so-called shadow banking system is showing signs of progress. Financial intermediaries have been taking advantage of low rates and easy terms to fund corporate bonds, stocks and mortgage-backed securities. Thus, the reflating of high-risk financial assets has resumed, thanks to the Fed's crisis-engendering monetary policy and extraordinary rescue operations. Here's an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal:

"A new quarterly survey of lending by the Federal Reserve found that hedge funds and private-equity funds are getting better terms from lenders and that big banks have loosened lending standards generally in recent months. The survey, called the Senior Credit Officer Opinion Survey, focuses on wholesale credit markets, which the Fed said functioned better over the past quarter." ("Survey shows credit flows more freely", Sudeep Reddy, Wall Street Journal)

In contrast, bank lending and consumer loans continue to shrink at a rate of nearly 5% per year. According to economist John Makin, there was a "sharp drop in credit growth, to a negative 9.7 per cent annual rate over the three months ending in May." Bottom line: the real economy is being strangled while unregulated shadow banks are re-leveraging their portfolios and skimming profits. Here's more from the WSJ:

"Two-thirds of dealers said hedge funds in particular pushed harder for better rates and looser nonprice terms, and they said some of the funds got better deals as a result....(while) The funding market for key consumer loans remained under stress, with a quarter of dealers reporting that liquidity and functioning in the market had deteriorated in recent months." ("Survey shows credit flows more freely", Sudeep Reddy, Wall Street Journal)

As the policymaking arm of the nation's biggest banks, the Fed's job is to enhance the profit-generating activities of its constituents. That's why Fed chair Ben Bernanke has worked tirelessly to restore the crisis-prone shadow banking system. As inequality grows and the depression deepens for working people, securitization and derivatives offer a viable way to increase earnings and drive up shares for financial institutions. The banks continue to post record profits even while the underlying economy is gripped by stagnation.

Central bank monetary policy is largely responsible for the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Low interest rates and an unwillingness to rein in over-leveraged banks and non-banks triggered a run on the shadow system that left many depository institutions insolvent. Eventually, the Fed was able to stop the bleeding by providing trillions of dollars in emergency relief and by issuing blanket government guarantees on complex bonds and securities that are currently worth roughly half of their original value. The Fed is now reconstructing this same system without any meaningful changes. The upward transfer of wealth continues as before...Financial system instability is no accident. It's Central Bank policy. As financial institutions discover they can no longer count on organic growth in the real economy to increase profits, (because consumers are too strapped to spend freely) they will rely more heavily on dodgy accounting, bogus ratings, opaque debt-instruments, high-frequency trading and lax lending standards. This is the shadowy regime that Bernanke is trying so hard to rebuild. The Fed is laying the groundwork for another disaster.

[Demeter]

64. The Fed is Steering the Economy into Deflation By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25933.htm

The Fed is steering the economy into deflation. It's a political calculation that will keep unemployment high, increase excess capacity, and deepen the recession. C.P.I. continues to fall, bank lending is down 4 percent year-over-year, housing prices are slipping, business investment is off, and consumer credit continues to shrink. On Wednesday, the Commerce Dept reported that retail sales fell 0.5 percent, more than analysts expected. This is the second drop in retail purchases in the last two months signaling weakness in consumer demand. The slowdown hit nearly every sector including auto sales, furniture, computers, building materials, clothing and sporting goods. There was also bad news on housing on Wednesday. The Mortgage Brokers' Association reported that loans purchase applications fell to a 13-year low last week, and refinancing contracts continued to slide despite record-low mortgage rates. The housing depression is ongoing and is adding to deflationary pressures in the broader economy.


Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke claims the recovery is still "on track", but more than 60% of last quarter's GDP can be attributed to fiscal stimulus and inventory adjustments. That means demand will drop as the stimulus runs out and restocking ends. Then the economy will have to stand on its own. Expect negative growth by the forth quarter 2010 or first quarter 2011...

[Demeter]

79. Economic Recovery Takes a Break By Bill Bonner

http://dailyreckoning.com/economic-recovery-takes-a-break/

The poor recovery. It seemed to be doing so well. And now look at it. Fallen on hard times. Down on its luck. Worn out.

“Unusually uncertain,” is how Ben Bernanke explains the situation.

What he means by that is that he doesn’t have any more idea of what is going on than he did three years ago or two years ago…or one year ago.

You remember, Mr. Bernanke was the one who warned Congress that “we may not have an economy by Monday,” if Congress didn’t pass a bill providing bailouts and boondoggles.

And now, after he’d doubled the US monetary base at the Fed…and encouraged the government to put about $10 trillion at risk in various bailouts, guarantees and spending projects…he’s dumbfounded. Where’s the recovery?

[Demeter]

60. Banks repossess homes at record pace: RealtyTrac

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100715/us_nm/us_usa_housing_foreclosures

Banks repossessed a record number of U.S. homes in the second quarter, but slowed new foreclosure notices to manage distressed properties on the market, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

The root problems of job losses and wage cuts persist, making a sustained U.S. housing recovery elusive.

Banks took control of 269,962 properties in the second quarter, up 5 percent from the prior quarter and a 38 percent spike from the second quarter of last year, RealtyTrac said in its midyear 2010 foreclosure report.

Repossessions will likely top 1 million this year...

[Demeter]

61. Fed's volte face sends the dollar tumbling (Ben's Moment of Candor)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/currency/7893238/Feds-volte-face-sends-the-dollar-tumbling.html

Rarely before have a few coded words in the minutes of the US Federal Reserve caused such an upheaval in the global currency system, or such a sudden flight from the dollar.

The euro rocketed to a two-month high of $1.29 and sterling jumped two cents to almost $1.54 after the Fed confessed that the US economy may not recover for five or six years. Far from winding down emergency stimulus, the bank may need a fresh blast of bond purchases or quantitative easing...

[Demeter]

16. EUROPA

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=-5_YVkLAVnk&feature=related

[Demeter]

17. Running for the Door: German Giants Flee Wall Street

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,706321,00.html

With expensive accounting rules, an increased threat of litigation and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for some firms, the once prestigious New York Stock Exchange and other American markets have become unattractive to Germany's biggest companies. Daimler and Deutsche Telekom have fled this year and the few remaining are likely to follow...

[Demeter]

23. Europe CFOs Pick Dollar for Bonds as Faith in Euro Wavers: Credit Markets

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-18/europe-cfos-pick-dollar-for-bonds-as-faith-in-euro-wavers-credit-markets.html

European borrowers are selling more of their bonds in dollars than at any time since the euro’s record low in 2000 as issuers lose faith in the common currency....

[Demeter]

24. Hungary's IMF revolt augurs ill for Greece

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/7899304/Hungarys-IMF-revolt-augurs-ill-for-Greece.html

The collapse of Hungary's talks with the International Monetary Fund and the EU is a chilly reminder that sovereign debt crises do not end with a rescue package and a click of the fingers. As austerity drags on for year after year, democracies react.

"We told the IMF/EU that further austerity was out of the question," said Hungary's economic minister Gyorgy Matolcsy, offering no hint that the Fidesz government is willing to back down despite yesterday's surge in Hungarian default costs by 51 basis points.

The Fidesz movement – an amalgam of libertarians and nationalists with a Left-populist tilt – won a crushing victory in April on a campaign of defiance against both Brussels and the IMF. It has been spoiling for a fight ever since...

[Demeter]

78. The State the Welfare State is In By Bill Bonner

http://dailyreckoning.com/the-state-the-welfare-state-is-in/

“You can take your loans and shove them,” the Hungarian economic minister, György Matolcsy, did not say. But that’s what he was thinking. Watch out. The Hungarians are trendsetters. They ran a budget deficit of 9% of GDP back in 2006. They got a $20 billion bailout in 2008 and have been living with austerity measures ever since. The current budget is only in deficit by 3.8% of GDP – barely a third of the US level.

After a regime change in April, they’ve had enough. “We told the IMF/EU that further austerity was out of the question,” said Matolcsy.

Les Echos reported this week that 64% of French workers were retired by age 60. People working for favored state enterprises – such as the SNCF, which runs the train system…or for the “fonction publique,” which keeps people from getting anywhere – may retire earlier. They get extra credit for years worked in hardship overseas destinations – such as Tahiti, for example. And a French politician can get a pension after only 6 years in government. In the old days it was a lucky man who retired before his beard grows white. Now, if he plays his cards right, he could begin collecting a pension before his beard starts to grow at all.

This information comes in the context of a great debate, “a parliamentary battle.” The French government has proposed a law raising the retirement age to 62. The socialists have proposed 150 amendments. Over at The Financial Times, meanwhile, the editors have devoted this week to their own great debate on the subject. “To tighten, or not to tighten – that is the question,” writes Martin Wolf.

The rumbles in Paris and London are just two of many mock skirmishes going on. Neither side wants to aim too carefully at the real problem; they fear they might hit themselves!

You’ll recall, the G20 – the USA dissenting – urged member states to cut public expenses. They pledged to cut public deficits in half by 2013 and to stabilize debt by 2016. But Hungary has already broken ranks.

THEN BONNER GOES OFF ON A SOCIAL SECURITY RANT--IGNORING THE FACT THAT THESE ARE PRE-PAID BENEFITS....HE'S GOT ALL THE FACTS, JUST CAN'T REASON WORTH A BEAN.

[Demeter]

31. Germany, France push for financial transactions tax

http://www.euractiv.com/en/financial-services/germany-france-push-financial-transactions-tax-news-496236

[Demeter]

33. Creating Order in the Euro Zone: Merkel's Rules for Bankruptcy

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,705959,00.htm

Fearing a lasting burden on taxpayers, the German government is preparing a set of insolvency rules for countries in the euro zone. It would require private investors to bear some of the financial burden and force the affected countries to give up some sovereignty. The plan is guaranteed to meet with resistance...

[Demeter]

83. Europe approves US mass data grab : Feds get all our bank info

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/29/swift_agree_approved/

Europe has signed a deal to hand over all bank transaction data to the US in order to help the ongoing war on terrorism.

The SWIFT agreement was signed yesterday (JUNE 28) in Brussels by Spanish minister for home affairs Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and the US embassy's economic economic officer to the EU, Michael Dodman...

The treaty must now be approved by the European Parliament. Assuming it does pass it will be in force for five years.

IT gives the US Treasury access to bank transactions although there is now some filtering at the European end. The agreement will be overseen by Europol.

The Swift agreement was first approved in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. It lapsed in February after the European Parliament rejected an earlier draft.

The European Data Protection Supervisor remains unimpressed and has questioned the need for bulk transfers of data and the time such data is kept without being investigated by US authorities. The EDPS has also called for better oversight of the process.

Most of the world's bank transactions are transmitted by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), based in Belgium.

[Demeter]

20. PANDEMONIUM ON THE POTOMAC

(Header is borrowed from a very funny sci-fi novel I actually bought in hardcover--can't find it now, but if you get a chance, it's a scream. Written by William C. Anderson, published in 1966.)

[Demeter]

21. Short List Emerges for Consumer Guardian

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/business/17regulate.html?_r=1&src=busln

...With an estimated budget of $500 million and broad discretion to write and enforce rules for mortgages, credit cards, student loans and debt collection, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will affect ordinary Americans more than any other element in the measure. Its first director will have to set priorities and shape its institutional culture and assertiveness.

A three-person short list includes Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor whose proposal to create the agency was embraced by Mr. Obama and who is the favorite of liberal advocacy groups.

The other candidates are Michael S. Barr, an assistant Treasury secretary who helped shepherd the legislation through Congress, and Eugene I. Kimmelman, a former consumer advocate who is deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division of the Justice Department....On Friday, David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president, called Ms. Warren “a great, great champion for consumers” and said she was “obviously a candidate” for the job. But Ms. Warren, 61, a scholar of bankruptcy law, has limited management experience, and as chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Wall Street bailout, has occasionally clashed with the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner...Mr. Kimmelman, 55, is a former Washington lobbyist at Consumers Union, and Mr. Barr, 44, a University of Michigan law professor, has battled frequently with banks over the last year and a half, so all three of the likely nominees are likely to face serious opposition from the banking industry. All three declined to comment...

WE HAVE A POOL! I THINK THE O MAN WILL PICK PROFESSOR BARR...

[Dr.Phool]

71. I bet on Gordon Gecko.

You know, the guys who created the mess, are best equipped to straighten it out. :sarcasm:

[Demeter]

22. Treasury Auction Bids Rise 18% to Record as Investors Surpass Bond Dealers

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-18/treasury-auction-bids-rise-18-to-record-as-investors-surpass-bond-dealers.html

For the first time since the government started collecting the data, central banks, mutual funds and U.S. banks are buying more government securities at Treasury auctions than Wall Street’s bond dealers...

[Demeter]

49. FORECAST FOR SATURDAY IN DC: 105F

According to my sister, who is leaving while the getting is good. Dad is home from the hospital, because Physical Therapy personnel said he was willing and capable of caring for himself (totally ignoring the state he came into the hospital) and he's doing his own infusion of antibiotics...

Meanwhile, Sis and BIL have been throwing stuff out. BIL is going for personal best--1 ton of recyclable metals--he's getting cash for it. Sis discarding empty pill bottles, expired pills, ancient flour, canned food old enough to attend grade school, etc.

It's no wonder Mom died.

[Demeter]

54. The Jobless Effect: Is the Real Unemployment Rate 16.5%, 22%, or. . .?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25978.htm

Raghavan Mayur, president at TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, follows unemployment data closely. So, when his survey for May revealed that 28% of the 1,000-odd households surveyed reported that at least one member was looking for a full-time job, he was flummoxed.

"Our numbers are always very accurate, so I was surprised at the discrepancy with the government's numbers," says Mayur, whose firm owns the TIPP polling unit, a polling partner for Investors' Business Daily and Christian Science Monitor. After all, the headline number shows the U.S. unemployment rate today is 9.5%, with a total of 14.6 million jobless people.

However, Mayur's polls continued to find much worse figures. The June poll turned up 27.8% of households with at least one member who's unemployed and looking for a job, while the latest poll conducted in the second week of July showed 28.6% in that situation. That translates to an unemployment rate of over 22%, says Mayur, who has started questioning the accuracy of the Labor Department's jobless numbers...

[Demeter]

55. The 18 States Facing The Most Brutal Austerity Cuts

Even the sober Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says 46 states are facing a Greek-like crisis. These state governments must inaugurate an austerity regime to cut spending by $112 billion for FY2011.

FY2011 begins on Thursday.

States have already cut over $300 billion from budgets in the past two years to make up for rising costs and disappearing revenue. For California and New York, this means some of the bloodshed is over. For other states, it's getting much worse.

Unlike the Federal government, states can't just print their way out of a crisis. Except for Vermont, all states MUST balance the budget.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/18-states-facing-the-most-painful-austerity-cuts-for-next-year-2010-6#the-worst-nevada-57-cuts-18#ixzz0ubPkuxDS

[Demeter]

56. Stage Two of the Credit Crisis Austerity Measures Could Force a Depression By Bob Chapman

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25969.htm

The crisis affecting Europe is nothing new. It goes back three years and the beginning of the credit crisis, 60% of the subprime CDOs, collateralized debt obligations, had been sold to European institutions. These were the mortgage bonds, which contained a variety of toxic waste, which the rating agencies, S&P, Moody’s and Fitch, in collusion with banks and brokerage houses, had sold as AAA bonds, when in fact their ratings should have been considerably lower. The holders of these bonds in many instances became insolvent and had to be bailed out by capital injections from central banks, most of the funds were lent by the Federal Reserve.

These debt problems, as in the US, have never been resolved. Those companies and institutions have over the past three years been allowed to keep two sets of books.

Six months ago the Greek crisis arose adding another financial and economic problem not only for Greece, but also for four other euro zone members and their debt holders, namely banks and other sovereign debt holders.

You might say the current additional crisis was frosting on the cake, because unbeknownst to most Europe has never emerged from its original crisis. We have now an internal bank and sovereign debt crisis combined. What is of passing interest is that the raters and sellers of the toxic waste, that started all this, have never been prosecuted nor pursued civilly.

European banks a year ago used a temporary ECB loan facility funded by more than $500 billion, which was in part funded by the Federal Reserve and has been due for the past two weeks. Needless to say, the introduction of the Greek crisis and the recognition of the problems in Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain have put European banking into a very compromised position. If the ECB liquidity is removed very simply the bottom could fall out. This is still a severe crisis with no solution in sight. What we have is crisis upon crisis caused in part by the US subprime crisis, but also the result of European credit expansion that began ten years ago and structural problems caused by one interest rate fits all within the euro zone. The cost of money fell during the past ten years due to perceived safety and guarantee that all euro zone debt would be equal to the quality of German debt. It did not work out that way and as it turned out Germany in varying degrees ended up carrying all the other members, especially when it came to balance of payments deficits.

In last weeks missive we cited the end of the one-year loan program for refinancing on July 1st. That now has been replaced by another facility. The new loans of $166 billion for three months and a $140 billion six-day facility and numerous other offerings now replace the original facility. The original one-year facility was for $557 billion. If you total the 3-month increments for a year at least $664 billion is available, plus the other goodies. The bottom line is more and more money is being lent into a failing system...

[Demeter]

59. 35 Million May Experience Unemployment This Year: EPI

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/15/35-million-may-experience_n_647930.html

[Demeter]

57. The U.S. Economy Is A Dead Horse And The American People Are Starting To Get Really Pissed Off And F

The U.S. Economy Is A Dead Horse And The American People Are Starting To Get Really Pissed Off And Frustrated

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-u-s-economy-is-a-dead-horse-and-the-american-people-are-starting-to-get-really-pissed-off-and-frustrated

INTERESTING WEBSITE....

[Demeter]

25. CHINATOWN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aifeXlnoqY

[Demeter]

26. China denies IEA label as world's top energy user

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFTOE66J02Y20100720

IEA says China surpassed U.S. last yr as top energy user

* China official says IEA figures overstate China usage

* U.S. outpaced China on energy efficiency -IEA


BEIJING, July 20 (Reuters) - China on Tuesday denied a report that it had surpassed the United States last year to become the world's largest energy user.

The Financial Times, citing the International Energy Agency, reported that China last year consumed 2.252 billion tonnes of oil equivalent of energy from sources including coal, oil, natural gas, hydro and nuclear power, about 4 percent more than the United States.

But Zhou Xian, spokesperson for China's National Energy Administration, said on Tuesday that the IEA's estimate of China's energy consumption was too high, although he declined to give an alternative estimate.

The IEA estimate, he said, "could be used as a reference but is not very credible".

"We believe that (IEA) did not understand fully the Chinese situation, in particular the efforts China made in energy saving, emission reductions and development in new energy sources," said Zhou.

[Demeter]

27. Bangladesh, With Low Pay, Moves In on China

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/business/global/17textile.html?_r=4&hp

...It is the sort of place to which foreign manufacturers may increasingly turn, if the rising wage demands of factory workers in China prompt companies to seek new pools of cheap labor elsewhere.

Already, in factories behind steel gates and tall concrete walls, tens of thousands of workers, most of them women, spend their days stitching T-shirts, pants and sweaters for Wal-Mart, H&M, Zara and other Western retailers and brands.

One of the Bangladeshi companies here, the DBL Group, employs 9,000 people making T-shirts and other knitwear. Business has been so good that the company is finishing a new 10-story building with open floors the size of soccer fields, planted with row after row of sewing machines...

As costs have risen in China, long the world’s shop floor, it is slowly losing work to countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia — at least for cheaper, labor-intensive goods like casual clothes, toys and simple electronics that do not necessarily require literate workers and can tolerate unreliable transportation systems and electrical grids...

[Dr.Phool]

70. In another 10 years, they'll pack up and head to Darfur.

[Demeter]

28. THE OIL BIDNESS

[Demeter]

29. Deadly Gulf blowouts persist

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/deepwaterhorizon/7115411.html

Dangerous and short-tempered subterranean gases have erupted to kill 29 oil drillers since 1979, and despite repeated recommendations aimed at quelling blowouts, years and even decades have passed as accidents continued unabated.

The Houston Chronicle reviewed 66 blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico — one of the most dangerous places on Earth to drill for oil — and found that time and again, federal investigators' calls for improvement were either largely ignored or delayed amid industry consternation.

In the last 10 years, blowouts triggered explosions on five rigs in the Gulf, a minefield of Mississippi mud deposits, and caused the evacuation of 17, according to the Chronicle's examination of scores of documents.

Blowouts, known technically as "loss of well control incidents," range in seriousness from slow old leakers to explosive killers that can open the earth and swallow a rig while spewing gas, drilling mud, water vapor, sand and oil.

There are so many man-made holes in the Gulf, 50,000, that the government has lost track of at least 4,500 old wells, records show.

And preventing blowouts may be more difficult than curbing airline disasters. Unlike airplanes, no two wells are alike. Building an oil well is like building a ship in an opaque bottle, threading massive pipes and intricate tools through a dark, narrow hole.

Documents show the top two causes of blowouts are failed cement jobs and surprise encounters with shallow gas pockets. Also common are well-design mistakes and poor maintenance....

A LOT OF REAL DETAIL IN THIS ARTICLE SEE LINK

[Demeter]

30. BP set for deep-water drilling off Libya

BP will start deep-water drilling off the coast of Libya within weeks in spite of concerns about the UK group’s environmental and safety record after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.
Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/TWK799/9Z9ADP/WH2F8/GKUC37/D4EK8X/LE/t

[Demeter]

35. BP defends CEO, eyes new option for plugging well

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65O5TA20100721

BP Plc defended its embattled chief executive on Wednesday and denied he would soon leave as the company prepared to launch within days a new approach to ending the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

CEO Tony Hayward, criticized for a series of public relations gaffes and failed efforts to end the disaster, has the full support of the company's board and will remain in his job, a BP spokesman said. The spokesman dismissed a Times of London report that Hayward would step down within 10 weeks....

[Demeter]

107. Latest Rumor is Captain Tony Will Be Gone By Monday

so he can sail away on his yacht.....

[Demeter]

82. ‘Not enough money in world’ to pay every spill claim: oil fund czar

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0630/not-money-world-pay-spill-claim-oil-fund-czar/

The prominent US lawyer managing BP's 20-billion-dollar oil disaster fund said Wednesday not all claimants will be paid, especially some of those seeking compensation for falling houses prices.

"There's not enough money in the world to pay every single small business that claims injury no matter where or when," Kenneth Feinberg told the House of Representatives Committee on Small Business.

"You've got to decide in a principled way... and work out some definition in that regard," he said, while stating his determination to "pay every eligible claim."

"I use that famous example of a restaurant in Boston that says, 'I can't get shrimp from Louisiana, and my menu suffers and my business is off.'" Well, no law is going to recognize that claim."

In another example, Feinberg said the fund was not meant to pay out to all home owners whose properties had declined in value....

[Demeter]

36. Sun's Going Down, Sky's Clearing Up

Time to rustle up some grub...

[hamerfan]

37. Can't have Showboat

without Paul Robeson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s

[Tansy_Gold]

41. totally worthless trivia ---

discovered in the course of my paid work this afternoon ---


did you know that there is a Clenis Lane in North Richland Hills, Texas?


Tansy Gold, buried in work this past week but surfacing . . . . . . . . . .

[Demeter]

52. Haitian Farmers Reject Monsanto Earthquake Relief Donation and Burn GMO Seeds

http://www.naturalnews.com/029222_GMOs_Haiti.html

In an attempt to backdoor GMO seeds into a new market, Monsanto has taken the opportunity to donate hundreds of tons of GMO seeds to Haiti and is calling it an effort to help the people in Haiti with earthquake relief. However, Monsanto's "generosity" is being met with skepticism and outright rejection.

Recently, a large group of small farmers burned a symbolic quantity of Monsanto's donated hybrid corn seed in the central square of the agricultural town of Hinche. A 200,000-member national coalition is encouraging Haiti farmers to burn all Monsanto seeds that have already been distributed, and has called on the government to reject additional shipments.

Peasant leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste told IPS News: Farmers want to preserve their traditional "organic agriculture that respects the environment and fights against its degradation. We defend native seeds and the rights of peasants on their land." Jean-Batiste also said "Fighting hybrid and GMO seeds is critical to save our diversity and our agriculture" and maintained that a "county has a right to define it own agricultural policies, to grow first for the family and then for local market, to grow healthy food in a way which respects the environment and Mother Earth."

Another peasant farmer stated, "We have a problem today with Monsanto and all the multinationals who sell seeds. Seeds and water are the common patrimony of humanity."

[bread_and_roses]

58. "the Family Farmer, Could Save the American Economy"

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/23-6

This is not a particularly well-written article but I think there's some good nuggets buried in it (the writer tries but I think she's a bit over her head).
<[br />

How Willie Nelson’s Bedrock, the Family Farmer, Could Save the American Economy

by Laura Edwards-Orr

In celebration of its 25th year, Farm Aid, the longest running concert-for-a-cause, has published a report to help us make this push. Rebuilding America's Economy with Family-Farm Centered Food Systems takes one of the more sensitive topics in the American psyche today, the economy, and convincingly demonstrates the bounty of opportunity that family farmers can bring to local and regional communities.

Starting with a rally cry from Farm Aid's celebrity board, originally drafted in a letter to Congress in September of 2008 in a call to recognize the potential of family farmers to revive the collapsing U.S. economy, Rebuilding America's Economy paints a vision of what our nation could look like:

A $1 billion investment in family farm agriculture would enrich us all, because we are all shareholders of the family farm. The return on investment in the family farm includes thriving local economies, nutritious food for better health, a safer and more secure food supply, a cleaner environment and more renewable energy. Investing in local, sustainable and organic food would shorten the distance between eaters and farmers, conserve energy, create economic opportunities, and new jobs through innovative processing and distribution systems, resulting in a better, greener, more efficient food and farm economy.

Sounds good to me.

And regarding the Haitian farmers, once again they prove what I read in a Chomsky article long ago, when he commented that the Haitians understood democracy a lot better than their more well-fed and educated American critics and so-called "rescuers."

[Demeter]

90. Try This One

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25332.htm

[Demeter]

62. Phantom debts, real anguish Courts impose few burdens of proof on firms seeking to collect old debt

http://www.startribune.com/investigators/97231649.html?elr=KArksi8D3PE7_8yc+D3aiUo8D3PE7_eyc+D3aiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr

The page was mostly blank. It contained only a name, three words and a series of tiny numbers. But in Minnesota's creditor-friendly court system, the page became the sole legal evidence that Darren Sabinske had defaulted on a Citibank credit card nearly eight years ago.

Sabinske, a security technician from Albertville, was ordered to pay $7,595 to Debt Equities LLC of Golden Valley, whose business is collecting old debts. Sabinske insists he never owned a Citibank card but was soon to learn the frustration of trying to defend himself against a computer database that listed his name near that of the bank.

"All they had was a row of numbers," he said.

In the hands of the new breed of debt collectors, those rows of numbers have become gold mines. Firms with little known names, like LVNV Funding and Unifund CCR Partners, buy massive databases of unpaid debts for cents on the dollar, and then inundate courts with legal actions seeking to collect the full amount, plus interest and fees. These firms, known as debt buyers, base their claims on data up to 15 years old that can be impossible to verify.

The National Consumer Law Center, an advocacy group for low-income Americans, estimates that one in 10 debt-buyer lawsuits nationwide is based on inaccurate information. Bank accounts have been tapped, wages seized and people threatened with arrest for debts they don't owe or for inflated amounts.

In Minnesota, the court system rubber-stamps most debt claims without scrutinizing them for accuracy. Proof is needed only if a debtor disputes a debt claim in writing, which happens in less than 10 percent of cases. People disputing those claims often face an expensive legal fight in which the burden of proof falls on them to prove a database is wrong....

[Demeter]

63. GUNS AND BUTTER: Attacks on Social Security After Election TODAY'S MUST HEAR

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/62402

PODCAST

[Demeter]

65. The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security By Dean Baker

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25951.htm

A few years back, there was a fear in some parts about black UN helicopters that were supposedly taking part in the planning of an invasion of the United States. While there was no foundation for this fear, there is basis for concern about the attack of another international organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Last week, the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction. This one is more than a bit outrageous for two reasons.

First, the IMF deserves a substantial share of the blame for the economic crisis that gave us big deficits in the first place. The IMF is supposed to oversee the operations of the international financial system. According to standard economic theory, capital is supposed to flow from rich countries like the United States to poor countries to finance their development. In other words, the United States should be having a trade surplus, which would correspond to the money that we are investing in poor countries to finance their development.

However, the IMF messed up its management of financial crises so badly in the last 15 years that poor countries decided that they had to accumulate huge amounts of currency reserves in order to avoid ever being forced to deal with the IMF. This meant that capital was flowing in huge amounts in the wrong direction. One result of this reverse flow was that the United States ran a huge trade deficit instead of a trade surplus.

The trade deficit in the United States was a big part of the story of the housing bubble. The trade deficit cost millions of workers their jobs. This was one of the main reasons that economy was so weak coming out of the 2001 recession. This weakness led the Fed to keep interest rates at 50-year lows, until the growth of the housing bubble eventually began to generate jobs in the fall of 2003....

[Demeter]

77. Will we lose mortgage deductions, Medicare?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2012335016_debt12.html

The chairmen of President Obama's national debt commission painted a gloomy picture Sunday as the United States struggles to control its spending.

Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles told a meeting of the National Governors Association that everything needs to be considered — including curtailing popular tax breaks, such as the home-mortgage deduction, and instituting a financial trigger mechanism for gaining Medicare coverage.

The nation's total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 trillion — about $47,000 for every U.S. resident.

"This debt is like a cancer," Bowles said in a sober presentation lightened by humorous asides between him and Simpson. "It is truly going to destroy the country from within."

Simpson said the entirety of the nation's current discretionary spending is consumed by the Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs.

"The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans, the whole rest of the discretionary budget, is being financed by China and other countries," Simpson said. China alone holds $920 billion in IOUs from the U.S. government...

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FUNGIBILITY OF MONEY? THE LOCKBOX? THE CONTRACT WITH THE AMERICAN WORKER THAT SOCIAL SECURITY IS?

[Demeter]

66. THE SHOWBOAT HISTORY

Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. (I ACTUALLY OWN A COPY OF THIS--I HAVEN'T READ IT YET--DEMETER) The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat, from 1880 to 1927. The show's dominant themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love.

Show Boat is widely considered one of the most influential works of the American musical theatre. As the first true American "musical play", it marked a significant departure from operettas, light musical comedies of the 1890s and early 20th century and the "Follies"-type musical revues that had defined Broadway. According to The Complete Book of Light Opera, "Here we come to a completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now... the play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play. Now... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity."...

Background

Show Boat is based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. Ferber spent several weeks on the James Adams Floating Palace Theater in Bath, North Carolina, gathering information for the novel about a disappearing American phenomenon: the showboat. In a few weeks, she gained what she called a "treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true." Jerome Kern was impressed by the novel and, hoping to musicalize it, asked critic Alexander Woollcott to introduce him to Ferber in October 1926. Woollcott introduced him to Ferber that same evening during the intermission of Kern's latest musical, Criss Cross.<2> Ferber granted Kern and his collaborator, Oscar Hammerstein II, the rights to musicalize her novel, and the collaborators, after composing most of the first act songs, auditioned their material for producer Florenz Ziegfeld, sensing that only Ziegfeld could create the elaborate production necessary for Ferber's sprawling work.<3> Ziegfeld was impressed with the show and agreed to produce it, writing in a letter the day after, "This is the best musical comedy I have ever been fortunate to get a hold of; I am thrilled to produce it, this show is the opportunity of my life..."<3>Show Boat, with its serious and dramatic nature, was considered an unusual choice for Ziegfeld, previously known mainly for revues such as the Follies...

[Demeter]

67. Show Boat (1936) - 16 PARTS ON YOUTUBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo8oJPr-NBg&feature=related

This was the second film--the first was a silent version based more on the original novel.

[Demeter]

87. The Third Film with Kathyrn Grayson and Howard Keel in Technicolor

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzazvLlgVWg&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFhAzZv-Dsg&feature=related



We lost Kathyrn Grayson this February:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/movies/19grayson.html

[DemReadingDU]

68. Free Week at ElliottWave.com

FreeWeek is Here! For One Week Only...
You Get Full Access to all of EWI's intensive Energy Specialty Services at an opportune time

Click for Details
http://www.elliottwave.com/freeweek/ss/EnergyFreeweek.aspx?code=43629

[DemReadingDU]

69. Fiore: Gadgets

7/21/10 Gadgets

http://www.markfiore.com/political-cartoons/watch-steve-jobs-and-crew-with-guilty-gadgets-mobile-phones-congo-animated-video-mark-fiore-animation

[Hugin]

73. ...

I was going to post a Fiore on my short stint as WEE host a couple of weeks ago... But, my mind went totally blank and I couldn't remember how to spell his name. :blush:

Not one of my best moments... :/

Good thing Demeter is back! I can retire again. (or is that re-retire?)

[DemReadingDU]

75. I have him bookmarked

otherwise I can't remember his website
:silly:

[Demeter]

108. Want to Take Another Stab at It?

If there's a good weekend for you, Hugin, I'll do something useful...

[DemReadingDU]

72. BUBBLE UP

7/13/10 BUBBLE UP: bp gulf oil spill disaster song

be sure to read the summary at the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N6BiGlr0I0

[Demeter]

74. AND NOW FOR HUMOR: Stocks on brink of breakout

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100723/bs_nm/us_usa_stocks_weekahead

Wall Street enters next week on the cusp of a breakout in U.S. stocks, but it will need another spate of convincing earnings reports to feed the rally that sprouted at the end of this week.

The markets endured malaise with poor economic data and downbeat testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday but turned decisively after a number of strong results pointed to better times ahead.

Next week brings more results from bellwethers like Chevron (CVX.N), DuPont (DD.N) and Boeing (BA.N). The trick will be turning the whipsaw action into accumulated gains -- and hoped-for improvements in volume -- that would signal an upturn in sentiment.

"There's a constant struggle between the bulls and the bears when in fact the answer is in the middle ground. This market is more like a turkey and not a bull or a bear," said Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Fund Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

Investors have been forced to readjust their expectations for the economy, with data showing the pace of the recovery has gone from a sprint to a crawl.

It has also prompted a divisive argument over the likelihood of an encore recession. But if worries over a double dip are starting to be washed out of the market, an unexpected positive could fuel the market higher.

STANDING ON 1,100

The broad S&P 500 also finds itself standing on top of a key resistance level that could turn into a floor for the market. The index closed at 1,102.66, just above the psychologically important 1,100 level for the first time in a month. The level has been a hard one to hold and could buoy the market if the move is ultimately a decisive one.

With the S&P 500 edging out of official correction territory, trading down about 9 percent from this year's April high, analysts appear to have reconciled themselves to a slower recovery than they had hoped for. A correction is generally defined as a 10 percent decline from the top.

"All the indicators still indicate growth, we're just not growing as quickly as we were when we were coming off the bottom, and that makes total logical sense," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at BTIG LLC in New York.

O'Rourke added he believes the selloff has run its course, and the early July low will prove to be the low for the year....

[DemReadingDU]

76. Luring in the last of the suckers

before the big crash
:(

[Demeter]

80. City Manager of Bell, CA, Earns $800,000 — Twice President Obama’s Salary By Rocky Vega

This week, Bloomberg reports one of the poorest areas in Los Angeles County, the City of Bell (population of 38,000), erupted in protest after word spread its city manager earns about $800,000 per year, or nearly twice the salary of the US president.

Exorbitant pay is a rampant problem in the pint-sized city, where the police chief earns almost $460,000 — more than the police chief of the City of Los Angeles (population of 3.8 million) — and council members make roughly $100,000 for the part-time work of meeting twice a month. This all takes place in a California city with a per-capita income of $24,800 in 2008. It’s yet another example of the wise and efficient allocation of taxpayer dollars… right.

You can view a VIDEO clip of the story:

http://dailyreckoning.com/city-manager-of-bell-ca-earns-800000-twice-president-obamas-salary/

read more details at Bloomberg:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-20/california-official-s-800-000-salary-in-city-of-38-000-triggers-protests.html

or visit The Daily Bail, where this post came to our attention:

http://dailybail.com/home/meet-california-public-employee-robert-rizzo-news-of-his-800.html

[Demeter]

81. New Gold-Backed Currency Could be in Use Next Month By Rocky Vega

http://dailyreckoning.com/new-gold-backed-currency-could-be-in-use-next-month/

Malaysia, well, at least its northern state of Kelantan, is putting the Islamic gold dinar and silver dirham into circulation as legal tender and it could be implemented as early as mid-August. It won’t be the first nation using gold coins — Indonesia has already minted about 25,000 pieces for use in Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore — but, they are going to be useable in a rather comprehensive fashion.

According to The Guardian:

“If information on its website is to be believed, the council has the blessing of the state’s Islamist government, Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pas), to kickstart the dinar in three moves. First, the state will pay a quarter of its public servants’ salaries using the dinar. Second, all state companies will accept dinar payments. Lastly, some 600 commercial enterprises will also embrace this currency.

“Inspired by selective religious sources and backed by historical precedents within the annals of Islamic history, the gold dinar system is touted by certain fiercely proud Muslims as the Islamic answer to thwart capitalism’s woes.

“The idea was first mooted by Malaysia’s former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. He argued that the coins would never hang their possessor out to dry in the same way that paper money had. As precious metals with intrinsic value, gold and silver are more resistant to market fluctuations and devaluation compared to the US dollar – an argument he took to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference as a tool to battle western hegemony.”

In and of itself, choosing a gold-backed currency as a tool “to thwart capitalism’s woes” seems a bit wrongheaded. Its use could raise the ire of capitalist public accustomed to paper money, but there are many true-blue capitalists that would sing the praises of a gold-backed US dollar, for instance, given the opportunity. The concept of a gold-backed currency other than the dollar, in this case the dinar, could conceptually offer a threat to the dollar’s reserve currency resilience, but not without a global endorsement of its usefulness in international trade. Anything’s possible, but it seems unlikely even China, with its particular reserves quandary, is going to rush to support a Malaysian reserve currency anytime soon...

[girl gone mad]

85. How the SEC seems set to fix the ratings impasse

From http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/07/23/how-the-sec-seems-set-to-fix-the-ratings-impasse/">Felix Salmon:

Wow, it seems I was actually right for a change! After I declared earlier this afternoon that “repealing AB1120, if only temporarily while the SEC works out some kind of sensible permanent solution, seems to be the obvious way to go”, the SEC has gone and done exactly that:

Within the next day, the Division of Corporation Finance expects to issue a ‘no action’ letter allowing issuers for a period of 6 months to omit credit ratings from registration statements filed under Regulation AB.

As Stacy-Marie Ishmael notes, however, this looks very much like the regulatory equivalent of avoiding the pain of paying for something in cash by putting it on a credit card instead; she quotes RBS strategist Paul Jablansky as saying that “at the end of the six-month period, market participants will be faced with the same concerns that froze the market this week”.

I do think that Stacy is a bit too quick to discount the 144a option, though. If you do a private bond sale, rather than a public one, then the SEC rules are loosened a little and the ratings problem goes away. There are two downsides, as explained by BofAML:

Many investors cannot participate in the 144a market, so we do not think that market provides a long-term solution…

A shift to the 144a market has the potential of increasing funding costs to issuers and consequently consumers. Instead of seeing their funding costs rise, some issuers may reduce origination volumes.

I’m not so convinced. I’ve seen big bond deals done in the 144a market in the past and if the structured-credit world just moves en masse over to the 144a market, it won’t take all that long for investors to follow it. The kind of people who buy structured products can normally get certification to buy 144a deals if they put their mind to it.

[Demeter]

88. Europe's Fiscal Dystopia: The "New Austerity" Road By Michael Hudson

A hard-driving rant, but not as cutting as others. I hope Michael Hudson is feeling well.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25826.htm

[Name removed]

89. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Demeter]

91. The Shrinking Influence of the US Federal Reserve By Gabor Steingart in Washington

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25329.htm

April 26, 2010 -- Humiliation for Mr. Dollar: Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, faces a general investigation by the International Monetary Fund. Just one more example of the Fed losing its power.

The United States Federal Reserve Bank, or Fed, seems as much a part of America as Coca-Cola or Pizza Hut. But at least one difference has become apparent in recent days. While the pizza chain and soft-drink maker are likely to expand their scope of influence in the age of globalization, the US central bank is finding that its power is shrinking.

No Fed chief in US history has been forced to submit to the kind of humiliation that Ben Bernanke is facing...

[Demeter]

93. Bankrupt GM uses $3.5 billion of taxpayers’ money to buy subprime auto lender AmeriCredit...

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/07/bankrupt-gm-uses-3-5-billion-of-taxpayers-money-to-buy-subprime-auto-lender-americredit-and-signal-a-return-to-the-good-old-days-for-wall-street.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29


GM, still currently in bankruptcy, is spending $3.5 billion of money it presumably doesn’t have to buy a subprime lender, AmeriCredit.

AmeriCredit is a subprime auto lender dependent entirely on the securitization market for its existence; it’s flirted with bankruptcy a few times itself, over the years (hat tip: anonymous). At the moment it finances almost exclusively secondhand cars, any make.

GM needs a subprime lender so they can get someone to make loans to their potential buyers, otherwise GM won’t be able to sell so many cars, which would spoil GM’s planned IPO (which the administration and Geithner will be hailing as evidence of their successful plans, in time for the elections). Surely AmeriCredit will be a captive lender very soon after the merger is done.

The bailout funds are evidently being invested on Americans’ behalf, rather than simply returned, and there will be some strong opinions on that. Perhaps the move will be justified by success: let’s see what emerges from the subprime securitization pipeline this time, shall we, and how GM’s sales go? In the mean time there is enough private/public entanglement here to make holders of just about any political conviction feel decidedly queasy.

What about GMAC, you ask? Good question. GM sold a majority interest in GMAC, but still owns 6.7% direct and another 9.9% via a trust (and the US Treasury owns 56.3%). GMAC’s business is making loans on GM (and Chrysler) cars. It is worth noting that GMAC was not, and is not, a subprime auto lender. Their auto loans have always been prime, or nearly, apart from a post-crisis foray to prop up GM, when already in a ‘bailed out’ state. GMAC did make most of their auto loans interest-free for many years, to help sell autos (!), but maintained credit standards (for the most part). Nevertheless, GMAC went underwater to the tune of around $17Bn. It was subprime RE loans, plus the Crunch, that really did them in.

Why wasn’t GMAC (now Ally Bank) enough? One commenter speculated that GM needed a lender they could control, so they could make sure the loans get made. Ahem. WSJ’s report of AmeriCredits’s activity puts it like this:

But GMAC, which received roughly $20 billion in federal bailout funds, is still licking its wounds from the financial crisis. (Ironically, the most serious of GMAC’s wounds were not inflicted by auto loans, but by the company’s foray into risky mortgage and other real-estate-financing programs). That has left GMAC, now known as Ally Bank, badly hobbled.

Not so with AmeriCredit. The lender has been ramping up its loans to subprime borrowers at breakneck speed. The company said loan originations could total as much as $900 million for the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30 up from $175 million a year earlier.

It has done three successful securitization deals this year alone, signaling the thaw in that market after it went into a deep freeze during the financial crisis. The company has increased its relationships with dealers to 8,100 in its fiscal third quarter from 3,000 in the depths of the financial crisis in 2008. Like other large lenders, credit losses in its AmeriCredit’s $9 billion loan portfolio have been steadily improving.

Breakneck. AmeriCredit’s shareholders must be very happy with the way it’s worked out; we will see how it looks when GM IPOs.

Perhaps this counts as a first sighting of an expected development in the credit markets in the early stages of a recovery cycle (if that’s what you think we’re in) – a lowering of credit standards to drive loan book expansion. But it is an oddball deal: of course it is all being done to drive GM sales, and it has huge political linkages. Not quite BAU, really…

[Po_d Mainiac]

95. One thing that I have not seen in print yet

There already exists a market for sub-prime borrowers.

It's called the used car market. There is no "new" car market per-se without the secondary system to move used off the dealer's lot. Manufacturers got into the "certified" used gigs a few years ago because the "no" interest/down payment/paperwork gimmicks were clogging the system with pre-owned.

As is taking place with the "new" housing market today

:popcorn:

[Demeter]

96. This firm WAS the Subprime Car Lender

for used cars. Now it's going to take on sub-prime NEW car buyers....

[Po_d Mainiac]

105. Ayuh

My point is that further erosion of the used market, will have a domino effect on the "new" car market.

This can is beat to shit from being kicked up one side of the road and down the other. The auto makers and dealers need a solid used car market in order to move new inventory.

Trade-ins become inventory on a dealers balance sheet. (Displaces cash) Washington is taking some serious shit (justifiably so) for canceling dealer franchises as part of TARP to the auto makers. To understand the workings of any industry it requires a industry mind that can see the whole picture.

Of late "bean counters" (my version of asshole scum sucking pieces of shit) have taken over the front office. They have no visibility beyond the 30 day bottom line.

ymmv

[Demeter]

94. It's Sunday and the Presses are Down

So I'm waiting for the call (the papers will be 3 hours late), watching the lightning and the rain.

The Bermuda High is with us, just as it was in the 60's. It squats in the Atlantic, pumping heat and humidity upon us. Somebody go spray silver nitrate on it, make it dissipate! I'm growing fungus, here!

[DemReadingDU]

97. My afternoon at the Winery

It was a lovely, hot day yesterday. Spouse and I decide to go to the winery near my daughter's house. Her husband plays guitar and sings at this winery, http://www.hhwines.com/

Everyone brings snacks to eat while drinking wine, and the cold wine tasted so good on this hot lovely day, listening to the music.

So we're drinking and chatting and eating, and the next thing that I can remember I'm violently getting sick. Daughter tells me she had never seen anyone go from sober to drunk to sick in such a short period of time, 2 hours. I told her don't recall the drunk phase, just went from sober to sick.

So spouse brings me home, and I sleep for 12 hours! Thankfully, this morning, no hangover, no headache, but hungry. This episode will no doubt cause embarrassing stories for me for the rest of my life.

[Hugin]

98. I know someone who has a...

food allergy to Sage.

I saw the reaction a couple of times before the culprit was recognized and it was pretty close to what you're describing.

Zero to kablooie in a short time. Also, the fact you report no traditional hang-over symptoms makes me wonder if it wasn't something other than the wine.

Food poisoning, perhaps?


Glad to hear you're over the worst of it now. :)

[DemReadingDU]

99. We all ate the same things

cheese, crackers, grapes. So not food poisoning.
Actually I've had this reaction to wine before, almost as if my system recognizes it as a poison and reacts to expel it, quickly. So could be something in the wine. I'll research the sage, though. But isn't sage used in Thanksgiving turkey dressing? And I've never eaten too much dressing.

Thanks for the well wishes!

[Demeter]

109. You May Be Allergic to Sulfites

That's supposed to set people off, and naturally occurs in wine.

Stay well, we can't lose a one of us sane people.

[DemReadingDU]

111. Many foods have sulfites too

and I rarely ever get sick from anything. Probably due to the hot weather, cold wine combo. And possibly drinking too fast(!?) Did I mention it was hot and I was so thirsty.

Thanks for all your postings!

[Demeter]

110. I'm Really Too Tired to Go On

but I made considerable progress on the email inbox. Some really dead letters have been deleted, and much of last fall is finally out of date...

So let's pick it up tomorrow in SMW. Besides, how much doom and gloom can a body take?

Weather update: We are supposed to go down into the 50's tonight!!!!!