Friday 25 December 2009

Let’s walk through the logic. The most reasonable estimates suggest that, given a crash program and the best foreseeable technologies, renewable sources can probably provide the United States with around 15% of the energy it currently gets from fossil fuels. Since every good and service in the economy is the product of energy, it’s a very rough but functional approximation to say that in a green economy, every American will have to get by on the equivalent of 15% of his or her current income. Take a moment to work through the consequences in your own life; if you made $50,000 in 2009, for example, imagine having to live on $7,500 in 2010. That’s quite a respectable income by Third World standards, but it won’t support the kind of lifestyle that the vast majority of Americans, across the political spectrum, believe is theirs by right.

That’s the bomb ticking away at the heart of America’s political system. When it goes off, the entire system of government by pork barrel will explode messily, and it’s only in the fantasies of reformers that what replaces it will likely be any improvement. (My guess? Anything from a military coup followed, after various convulsions, by a new and less centralized constitution, to civil war and the partition of the United States into half a dozen impoverished and quarreling nations.) In the meantime, we can expect to see every possible short term expedient put to use in an attempt to stave off the explosion even for a little while, and any measure that might risk rocking the boat enough to set off the bomb will be quietly roundfiled by all parties.

A meaningful political response to the growing instability of global climate is one such measure, and a meaningful political response to peak oil is another. No such project can be enacted without redirecting a great deal of money and resources away from current expenditures toward the construction of new infrastructure. The proponents of such measures are quick to insist that this means new jobs will be created, and of course this is true, but they neglect to mention that a great many more existing jobs will go away, and the interests that presently lay claim to the money and resources involved are not exactly eager to relinquish those. A political system of centralized power could overcome their resistance readily enough, but a system in which power is diffused and fragmented cannot do so. That the collapse of the entire system is a likely long-term consequence of this inability is simply one of the common ironies of history.

--> http://www.energybulletin.net/51089

--> http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2009/12/political-ecology-of-collapse-part.html
--> http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2009/12/political-ecology-of-collapse.html
--> http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2009/12/human-ecology-of-collapse.html

Wednesday 23 December 2009






Copenhagen was much worse than just another bad deal, because it illustrated a profound shift in global geopolitics. This is fast becoming China's century, yet its leadership has displayed that multilateral environmental governance is not only not a priority, but is viewed as a hindrance to the new superpower's freedom of action.

--> http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/22/copenhagen-climate-change-mark-lynas

Tuesday 22 December 2009

- Will the ECB will try to play politics and pressure Zapatero in the run up to the 2012 general elections in Spain?

- Is the situation in Spain similar to the situation in Greece?

- Why don’t Zapatero and the Spanish government seem to be reacting?

- Why is there no coherent plan to get Spain back on its feet?

- What is going on with Spanish banks?

- Will unemployment in Spain reach 25% by the end of 2010?

- Which is more important in Spanish economics: image or hard data?

- Will it be possible for the Spanish government to reduce the deficit from over 10% of GDP to less than 3% by 2012 or 2013?

- What state will the Spanish economy be in by the end of 2010?

- What will happen to Spain when the ECB raises eurozone interest rates?

- Might Spain soon be in a worse economic position than Greece?

- What are the ratings agencies trying to achieve with their warnings on Spain?

- Why won’t the Spanish government tell the Spanish people the truth about what’s going on with the Spanish economy?

- Is José Luis Zapatero really the biggest problem for the Spanish economy right now?

--> http://fistfulofeuros.net/afoe/economics-country-briefings/podcast-on-the-present-state-of-the-spanish-economy/

Sunday 1 November 2009

October 3 2009: Just the naked eye


Detroit Publishing Co. Great Grand Ma 1900
Thisbe, 'quite the Babylonian'


Ilargi: I’m starting to wonder how many people there are left who actually believe all the talk about the economic recovery we're supposed to have entered. You know, the one proclaimed by governments, central bankers, institutions such as the IMF and the entire flock of parrots and parakeets that call themselves media and are all set 24/7 to repeat their every word, chirping, tweeting and twittering as they go along. And I'm afraid there still are far too many such believers left. They have a great shot at losing a lot of money in the next few months.

I also wonder how many people have gotten real nervous by now. Who've asked themselves what I asked a while back: what are the odds that the stock markets will keep on rising? And on what grounds would they do so? Surely many must have realized by now that perhaps that talk about a recovery is just that, talk. The strength of their belief may depend, to a large degree, on the job market. After all, it should be obvious that "jobless recovery" is a term used exclusively by people who do have jobs, and often cushy ones.

I like this little graph, because it provides a very nice picture of the effect of the hundreds of billions in taxpayer money spent by the American government on the job market. From about May through September the country has bought itself a slight decrease in the rate of job losses. Still, the unemployment rate has gone up despite all the cash and credit so generously supplied by you, the taxpayer. And it by no means tells the entire story; indeed, it may well relate only the rosiest parts available.

Now other, less positive, parts are slowly being revealed that could change and even shatter the image we have of the job market. Here's a few choice bullet points from the reports that came out this week:
  • Job losses for September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' U3 calculations, were 263.000.
  • This brings the U3 unemployment rate to 9.8%.
  • While the U6 rate reached 17%.
  • The household survey by the same BLS indicates that employment fell by 785,000.
  • An alternate view at the household survey suggest 995,000 fewer people were working in September than in August, while the labor force contracted by 1,262,000 people and the number of people "not in the labor force" rose by 1,516,000.
  • More than a half a million people dropped out of the labor force
  • 551,000 initial jobless claims were filed.

I don't know about you, but I assure you that I have a hard time seeing the forest through the trees here. It's simply too much of a strange coincidence that the number most trumpeted in the media is always the lowest (U3) one. As soon as you peel away just the first few underlying layers, it becomes clear that this number merely scratches the surface. Most of the 10 million or so people who get counted in U6, but not in U3, are very much unemployed or at least underemployed. The bottom line is that even though the 263,000 number is unrealistically low, likely by a lot, it is the one that government and media stubbornly keep providing, as if the American people, who after all pay the salaries of the BLS employees, are too stupid to have a right to hear the real data.

The latest report does lift the veil a little bit: The Labor Department yesterday admitted it may have underestimated unemployment numbers by as much as 17%, partly because of its faulty birth/death model, which is a useless tool in times like these. The BLS data missed 824,000 lost jobs for the year through last March, with most of the additional job loss occurring in the first quarter of 2009. The potential revision would mean that the economy lost 5.6 million jobs for the period instead of the 4.8 million suggested until now.
[..] the tax records showed the Labor Department’s payrolls figures overestimated payrolls by about 150,000 [..] That implies the estimates missed the mark by about 675,000 in the first quarter of this year [or 225,000 per month] , which currently shows a 2.1 million drop in payrolls.[..]

Calculated Risk added these new numbers to his usual graph which compares job loss percentages in recessions.



Catherine Rampell at Economix provides a similar graph, but using the share of employment:



Awfully bad as it is, the unemployment situation, of course, is but one aspect of an economy that will now grow weaker at a rapid clip.
  • US personal bankruptcy filings will exceed 1.4 Million by the end of the year, more than the 1.3 million they reached right before the bankruptcy laws were altered with aim of bringing bankruptcy numbers down.
  • Bank card delinquencies hit a record high last month.
  • Meredith Whitney says:
    • Anyone counting on a meaningful economic recovery will be greatly disappointed. How do I know? I follow credit, and credit is contracting. Access to credit is being denied at an accelerating pace. Large, well-capitalized companies have no problem finding credit. Small businesses, on the other hand, have never had a harder time getting a loan.
    • Small business loans are hard to find, and credit-card lines (a critical funding source to small businesses) have been cut by 25% since last year.
    • [..] more than 32% of U.S. homes are worth less than their mortgages.
    • Small businesses primarily fund themselves through credit cards and loans from local lenders. In the past two years, credit-card lines have been cut by over $1.25 trillion. During the same time, 10% of all credit-card accounts have been cancelled.


But the worst part of it all is that deflation is here, and it’s here to stay for a while. In the past few days, we could see heavy hitters like David Rosenberg, Joseph Stiglitz, Janet Tavakoli address deflation in the same way that we at The Automatic Earth have even for longer than the 20 months that this site exists. Ironically, at about the exact same moment when we figured perhaps we were the only ones left (with Mike Shedlock, Bob Prechter and a few Minyans) to warn of the perils of deflation, it is slowly turning into a mainstream concern. As Tavakoli tells Max Keiser (who still can't believe it), the debts are simply too overwhelming. Not that anyone has seriously attempted to address them.

Rosenberg:
  • "We are certainly in a deflationary state," said David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist with Gluskin Sheff and Associates in Toronto. "Of that, there's no doubt."
  • "I think people still have no clue as to just how weak the economy is," Mr. Rosenberg said. Remove the "impressive medication" administered by governments, and most economies are at a virtual standstill. The U.S. economy faces a decade of stagnation, he said.
  • [..]"deflation will last until we see the next secular trend of expanding household balance sheets, and that is some time away" Mr. Rosenberg said.


The Federal Reserve decides to stick with another label for the exact same phenomenon.
  • "Disinflationary winds are blowing with gale-force effect," [Chicago Fed president] Evans said in a Sept. 9 speech in New York.
  • The Fed needs to "keep inflation expectations from slipping to undesirably low levels in order to prevent unwanted disinflation," Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said Sept. 10 in Washington during a speech at the Brookings Institution.


In other words, the government's unemployment data have proven to be unreliable. That in itself is not new, but what is, is the Labor Department's own admission that its stats are flawed. It still hasn't fully opened up by any means, but the cracks are now visible to the naked eye.

The potential for a continued rally in the stock markets is becoming more questionable by the day. If those markets start caving in, as we think they simply must, the hollowness of the recovery proclaimed by governments and media will also lie exposed to naked eye. Whether or not the government and the Federal Reserve have been busy painting lipstick on the markets pig though the past 6 months is no longer even relevant; they will be powerless to do so going forward.

We have the likes of Paul Krugman, Robert Reich and, in the UK, Samuel Brittan, shrieking loudly for more, much more, stimulus. They see the problem coming, that's true, but they fail to see that the US and UK governments opted sometime in 2007-2008 to pour money into their financial systems, and that money cannot be spent a second time.

Many of us remember how a trillion here and a trillion there were doled out withe message that the taxpayer was likely to make a healthy profit on this "investment". Haven't heard that one for a bit. The reality is that between what Washington has thrown into AIG, the Wall Street banks and the Fannie and Freddie and Ginnie family, as bankrupt as it is incestuous, there are only losses.

If and when financials stocks get hammered, banks and insurers -among others- will be forced to execute additional gigantic writedowns and losses. With a 3.6 million official housing inventory, to which we can add a 7 million shadow one, America will have a 25 month supply of unsold homes. If Fannie and Freddie weren't dead yet, that would do it. The losses are yours.

The Krugman clan now wants you to finance a second stimulus. And it will come (albeit under an alternative moniker), but it can bring only more misery for the people. The government will get a little more transparent in a desperate fight for credibility, but it was lost a long time ago. And it's not a specific government, it's the entire system that's morally broke. The entire economic, financial and political sytems, all of it and all of them, broke, broker and broken.

I asked above how many people are left that still believe all the talk about that heavily promoted recovery. And though I know they are there, scores of them, that at the same time is something that I'm starting to find hard to believe. Look at the numbers, and never forget that many of them are not even anywhere near as bad as the real ones.

Yes, consider this your storm warning. Batten down the hatches, don’t let your kids wander off, and please, take off those silly rose-colored glasses. From now on in, just the naked eye.




Friday 23 October 2009

Stocks, oil slide on recovery worries

By Herbert Lash

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar rose and global stocks fell on Friday as energy shares followed crude prices lower and investors worried about the pace of a fledgling U.S. economic recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed below the 10,000 mark, as weak results from industrials overshadowed robust earnings from bellwethers in technology.

The dollar and euro soared against sterling after data showed Britain was still mired in recession, with the economy shrinking 0.4 percent in the third quarter, which stunned investors who had expected a return to growth.

Sterling plunged nearly three cents against the dollar and notched its biggest one-day decline against the euro in six months as traders bet the Bank of England was more likely to expand its quantitative easing program to secure a recovery.

The euro retreated, falling below $1.50.

Oil stocks reversed early gains as U.S. crude futures settled almost 1 percent lower on scepticism that recovery was robust enough to spur demand.

"Any time the dollar shows signs of life, the stock market goes down. There's a flight to safety," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.

"The (weak) UK GDP gave strength to the dollar. And when the dollar is up, oil falls."

World stocks fell, with the MSCI All-Country Word Index .MIWD00000PUS losing 0.76 percent.

Weak industrial sector earnings also made investors question the recovery's strength, which overshadowed robust results from technology heavyweights Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O).

Shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (BNI.N), the No. 2 U.S. railroad, slid 6.5 percent after it posted a 30 percent drop in quarterly profit. The stock helped drag an S&P industrials index .GSPI down 1.7 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI closed down 109.13 points, or 1.08 percent, at 9,972.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX slid 13.31 points, or 1.22 percent, at 1,079.60. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC fell 10.82 points, or 0.50 percent, at 2,154.47.

For the week, the Dow was off 0.2 percent, the S&P 500 shed 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq slipped 0.1 percent.

Stocks fell despite a surge in sales of previously owned U.S. homes to a two-year high in September. Analysts said the rise was partially driven by a soon-to-expire tax incentive for first-time buyers.

Weekly U.S. government data showing a decrease in stores of gasoline helped push crude prices lower, even as overall fuel inventories are still much higher than a year ago.

"Oil is holding around $80 but the decline in equities markets and a stronger dollar mean the rally in oil prices has been stalled for now," said Gene McGillian, analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

U.S. crude for December delivery settled down 69 cents a barrel at $80.50, while Brent crude settled down 59 cents to $78.92.

The dollar rose against a basket of major currencies, with the U.S. Dollar Index .DXY up 0.48 percent at 75.476.

The euro was down 0.18 percent at $1.4995, and against the yen, the dollar was up 0.74 percent at 92.07.

U.S. Treasury debt prices eased as investors positioned to cut prices ahead of next week's record sales of government notes.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was down 19/32 in price to yield 3.49 percent.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top shares closed down 0.6 percent at 1,008.88. The index is up 21 percent this year and has gained almost 56 percent from a record low hit in March after sliding 45 percent in 2008.

"If you go through the corporate earnings results, the top line is still suggesting it's a difficult environment for improving sales," said analyst Jane Foley of FOREX.com.

Gold dropped in choppy trade. U.S. December gold futures settled down $2.20 at $1,056.40 an ounce in New York.

But copper climbed to a 13-month high on favourable economic data. Copper for December delivery rose 3.65 cents to settle at $3.0345 a pound, after touching $3.0620.

The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 1.3 percent.

The Nikkei index .N225 in Tokyo finished up 0.2 percent.

Thursday 22 October 2009

The Spooky World Of Quantum Biology
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x214055
This is just too cool not to spread around. And since the article mentions solar cells, I think it's marginally eligible for inclusion here.

The Spooky World Of Quantum Biology

Quantum computation, a science still in its infancy, promises swiftness and efficiency vastly superior to anything possible with conventional silicon chips. Rather than relying on binary bits like contemporary systems, quantum computers use “qubits” that include all possible superpositions of a particle’s classical state. Instead of being “trapped” in a single configuration, the logic gates of a quantum computer employ multiple possibilities in synchrony -- using the entire set of alternative outcomes to arrive at an answer.

It’s a promising avenue for people with big plans for strong AI or virtual reality. The only complication is that coherence -- in which the many possible states of a particle or group of particles stay hung in superposition -- is something scientists have only been able to study under extremely controlled conditions. It’s only possible when that system doesn’t interact with anything else that might “collapse the wave function,” and so most of the major options for quantum computing involve impractical scenarios like creating a supercooled vacuum.

This is one of the reasons that many scientists have considered quantum biology both unlikely and unscientific. The thermal noise of biological systems seemed too great to allow for quantum weirdness; and even if it could, how on Earth would we study it? But science is the story of ingenuity’s victory over shortsightedness -- and one research team, led by Gregory S. Engel at UC Berkeley, has devised a way to directly detect and observe quantum-level processes within a cell using high-speed lasers.

They were trying to establish exactly how organic photosynthesis approaches 95% efficiency, whereas the most sophisticated human solar cells operate at only half that. What they discovered is nothing short of remarkable. Using femtosecond lasers to follow the movement of light energy through a photosynthetic bacterial cell, Engel et al. observed the energy traveling along every possible direction at the same time. Instead of following a single trajectory like the electrons on a silicon chip, the energy in photosynthesis explores all of its options and collapses the quantum process only after the fact, retroactively “deciding” upon the most efficient pathway. (My emphasis)

More at the link.

To quote J.B.S. Haldane, "The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."

1. And with our "one shot" thinking, we fell entire forests ('it'll all grow back'),
destroy fisheries and water quality and numerous "unimportant" species, pollute ecosystems with "one shot" pesticides and other gunk that we invent for ONE purpose, ignoring all other possibilities--most of them destructive--and proceed like silicon chips to decimate the web of life upon which we and everything else depends, by viewing Nature as merely a 'gold mine' from which corporate PR departments lie that we can extract single, high profit products, without ripping the web of life to shreds. I have great admiration for human cleverness--it gives me hope; and I think trade and "the marketplace" are a human need. But our conglomeration into corporate entities that live forever, accumulating vast wealth and power, will be the end of Nature and our own demise, if we do not beef up our national governments and our own democratic power to rein them in. We need to be like the photosynthesis cell, and explore every conceivable pathway to this end. And we need to do it yesterday.



3. This is what they're referring to
From CERN:

Efficiency of photosynthesis depends on quantum coherence

Photosynthesis is an amazingly efficient process, capturing 95% or more of the light energy that hits a leaf. Now a study led by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley reveals at least part of how this is done. The trick, revealed by beat patterns in two-dimensional Fourier transform spectroscopy of a bacteriochlorophyll, seems to be that incoming light causes coherent excitation of many different states simultaneously in superposition. This then allows a very efficient search of the various possible reaction complexes into which the energy could be delivered.

The discovery hinged on the two-dimensional electronic-spectroscopy technique developed by the group, which is led by Graham Fleming at Berkeley. This enables the researchers to follow the light-induced excitation energy at it passes through molecular complexes, with a time resolution of femtoseconds. It involves flashing a sample sequentially with femtosecond pulses of light from three laser beams, with a fourth beam to amplify and detect the resulting spectroscopic signals.

The finding contradicts the classical description of the photosynthetic energy transfer process as one in which excitation energy moves step-by-step down the molecular energy ladder from pigment molecules to reaction centres. Instead, the process seems to depend on quantum coherence, which is also what underlies quantum computing. Further research into this effect could lead to a better understanding of how life uses quantum mechanics, and perhaps could also lead to new ways of making solar cells.
About the author

Compiled by Steve Reucroft and John Swain, Northeastern University.

7. Thanks for mentioning the "spooky' thing. I was gonna, but got off on another subject.
By calling it "spooky," they promote the kind of superstition that makes it oh-so-easy for corporate PR departments to manipulate public opinion on environmental issues, for instance, coining a brainwashing phrase like "trees, the renewable resource." But the intricate web of life that comprises the ecosystem in which high value trees grow is NOT "renewable" once they have driven key species to extinction. They can grow crap trees for wood chips, maybe. But the dense forest and rich ecosystem that is so vital for the health and continuance of the earth's biosphere is gone, along with high value older trees and the conditions that created them. Corporate logging has led to the extirpation of numerous forest species, including species that we never got to know much about--fungi and bacteria that interacted with everything else. That web of life is irrecoverable, and the trees it grew will never grow again in the same way.

The elaborately balanced, intricate web of species in a natural system is not "spooky." It is REALITY. It is how things are. It is how WE are--as individuals. It is how everything works. We sometimes think of it as a "mystery" because we don't understand the million filaments of the web and how they interact. I think "mystery" is an okay word, re Nature, because it implies respect. But "spooky" implies fear. Neither quantum physics nor quantum biology is "scary." It is merely the best description of certain phenomena that we have. Those phenomena may be quite surprising. They are not "spooky."

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Indexes end down as financials slide


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended lower on Wednesday, hurt by a late-day sell-off in financial shares after an influential analyst recommended selling Wells Fargo (WFC.N).

Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 92.12 points, or 0.92 percent, to unofficially end at 9,949.36. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was down 9.66 points, or 0.89 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,081.40. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was down 12.74 points, or 0.59 percent, to close unofficially at 2,150.73.

---

Surprising Sell Off, Beige Book Positive, Unemployment Grows


Stocks traded in positive territory for the majority of the session then late day downgrades triggered a surprisingly sharp sell off. Positive words from the Fed's Beige Book report indicating that the economy has indeed grown modestly were offset by a climb in unemployment across 23 states. Wal-Mart's dire predictions for a difficult holiday season and a Wells Fargo downgrade sent shares tumbling in the final hour. The DJIA dropped -92.12 to 9949.36, the Nasdaq fell -12.74 to 2150.73 and the broad based S&P 500 gave back -9.66 to 1081.40.

Wells Fargo (): Shares tumbled 5.12% or $1.56 to $28.90 after an analyst at Rochdale Securities discovered that the positive results were due to fees rather than better business.

Boeing (): Warned it will cut prices to weather the coming stressful holiday season, sending the stock down by 2.07% or $1.07 to $50.63.

Knight Capital (): Missed analysts estimates resulting in shares tumbling 16.80% or $3.66 to $18.13.

Gold climbed $5.90 to 1064.50, oil added $2.25 to $80.97 and the VIX index climbed 6.31 to 22.22.

European Stocks Rise on Morgan Stanley Earnings; Natixis Gains

By Adam Haigh - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=acVJYVdQ9snk

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks rose as higher-than- estimated earnings at Morgan Stanley bolstered speculation that the seven-month rally in equities is justified.

Natixis SA surged 11 percent after Credit Suisse Group AG added the bank to its so-called focus list. Tesco Plc gained 2.3 percent as Nomura International Plc boosted its share-price estimate by more than 25 percent on prospects for increased profitability and foreign sales. Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s largest bank, sank 2.4 percent after pretax profit missed some analysts’ estimates.

Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index added 0.4 percent to 249.19, having earlier slid as much as 1.1 percent. The regional gauge has jumped 58 percent since March 9 as the French and German economies unexpectedly exited recessions, pushing valuations in the index to more than 52 times reported earnings, the most expensive level since 2003, Bloomberg data show.

“The market has gone up a little too quickly in a short period of time,” said Chirin Gill, a London-based fund manager at Daiwa SB Investments, which oversees $60 billion. “Following that we’re likely to see a rally through the seasonally strong November and December as strong earnings results lead to another round of upgrades” from analysts, he added.

In the U.S., Morgan Stanley posted third-quarter profit of 38 cents per share today, exceeding the 30-cent average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Boeing Co. posted a loss that was bigger than analysts estimated and reduced its full-year profit forecast.

U.S. Earnings

More than 130 companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to report third-quarter results this week. Earnings have surpassed analysts’ projections for at 79 of the 97 companies that released results so far, according to Bloomberg data. More than 72 percent beat the average estimate in the second quarter, matching the highest proportion in data going back to 1993.

The S&P 500 has rebounded 62 percent since March 9 as the Federal Reserve lent, spent or guaranteed $11.6 trillion to combat the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s and companies from Alcoa Inc. to JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported earnings that beat estimates.

Natixis climbed 11 percent to 4.40 euros after Credit Suisse raised its price estimate on the shares 36 percent to 5.70 euros.

Tesco gained 2.3 percent to 392.45 pence. The U.K.’s largest retailer is a “disciplined, defensive, sustainable growth story that is significantly undervalued by the market,” Nomura analysts including Matt Truman wrote.

Russia, Sweden

Tele2 AB, Sweden’s second-largest telephone company, soared 5.1 percent to 101.80 kronor after reporting third-quarter profit rose as it added new customers in Russia and Sweden. Net income was 1.7 billion kronor ($244 million), from 831 million kronor a year earlier when the company booked writedowns in Austria. Analysts projected net income of 975 million kronor.

Deutsche Bank retreated 2.4 percent to 54 euros even after third-quarter profit more than tripled to 1.4 billion euros ($2.1 billion). Net income was boosted by tax credits and the resolution of tax audits related to prior years, the bank said. Pretax profit was about 1.3 billion euros.

“We saw a similar fairly ambivalent response to U.S. investment banking numbers and the headline pretax figure wasn’t a blow out,” said Matthew Clark, a London-based analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods Ltd. who has an “outperform” recommendation on the stock.

PSA Peugeot Citroen slid 4.8 percent to 23 euros as Europe’s second-biggest carmaker said third-quarter revenue dropped 7.7 percent to 11.8 billion euros from a year earlier.

PPR SA, the owner of the Gucci brand, sank 4 percent to 81.80 euros after sales declined 7.6 percent to 4.56 billion euros, missing the 4.63 billion-euro median estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

SEB AB declined 4 percent to 45.10 kronor after posting net income of 25 million kronor in the third quarter, trailing the median estimate by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The second- biggest lender in the Baltics also said it sees slowing growth of non-performing loans in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in London at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 21, 2009 12:57 EDT

Dos de cada tres empresas familiares posee un consejo de administración compuesto por accionistas y parientes

MADRID, 20 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

La mayoría de empresas familiares españolas (un 66%) se encuentra en un periodo de "transición", es decir, su consejo de administración está compuesto tanto por familiares como por consejeros externos, según se desprende de un estudio presentado hoy por el Centro de Gobierno Corporativo, una iniciativa conjunta de Bankinter, Iberdrola, el Instituto de Empresa (IE) y PwC.

Por el contrario, el 4,2 por ciento de las empresas familiares no posee Consejo de Administración mientras que un porcentaje idéntico cuenta con un consejo integrado por consejeros externos. En este punto, el estudio condiciona la mejora de la aplicación de normas de Buen Gobierno a la presencia de miembros familiares no externos, por lo que vaticina "la retirada de la familia en la gestión diaria de la empresa", según la experta del IE, Cristina Cruz. "Las empresas familiares van hacia la profesionalización", aseveró.

Por su parte, el profesor del IE, Joan Amat, destacó que gran parte de las empresas familiares han superado una primera fase en la que el Consejo de Administración no tiene actividad alguna, o "es inactivo". Posteriormente, se convierte en un "elemento ceremonial", para pasar por una etapa de transición, llegar a ser un 'Consejo activo', y finalmente un 'Consejo progresivo', compuesto por la mayoría de consejeros externos.

A pesar de ello, el 47 por ciento de las empresas encuestadas define de "inactivo" su Consejo de Administración, mientras que el 53 por ciento considera que es más bien "pasivo", o que existe "un protagonismo excesivo" de algún familiar.

A la hora de llevar a cabo este estudio, se analizaron un total de 24 empresas familiares españolas, con una plantilla de entre 50 y 1.000 trabajadores. Los encuestados dieron una valoración media sobre la utilidad de un Consejo de Administración de tres puntos sobre cinco.

El documento también sitúa la duración media de los cargos de presidente o máximo ejecutivo en 15 años lo que, en opinión de los autores del estudio, conlleva el riesgo de acomodarse, la posible pérdida del espíritu emprendedor y una influencia negativa en la aplicación de normas de Buen Gobierno.

Asimismo, el estudio determina que la existencia del Consejo de Administración es "más frecuente" cuando existe un accionariado disperso y está compuesto por miembros no familiares. Por otro lado, la mayoría de las empresas encuestadas no cuenta con un sistema de evaluación del Consejo y de los consejeros, mientras que las Comisiones existen en el 16 por ciento de los casos.

Respecto a la composición de los Consejos, la presencia de Consejeros Familiares es muy superior a la de no familiares. En este supuesto, se trata de personas cercanas al círculo de la familia, o con algún tipo de relación contractual. La entrada de accionistas no familiares está ligada con la incorporación de Consejeros Externos y con la profesionalización del Consejo.

En el capítulo de recomendaciones, los expertos abogan por incorporar Consejeros externos para potenciar el espíritu emprendedor y profesional de la empresa; incorporar un criterio en la selección de los Consejeros que representen a la familia, en el que pese más la profesionalidad que el carácter familiar; el cumplimiento de buenas prácticas de Gobierno Corporativo; fomentar la evaluación periódica del Consejo y de los Consejeros; y potenciar el uso del Consejo de familia, complementario del Consejo de Administración.

/. http://www.europapress.es/economia/noticia-economia-dos-cada-tres-empresas-familiares-posee-consejo-administracion-compuesto-accionistas-parientes-20091020145346.html

Friday 16 October 2009

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STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday October 15

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ozymandius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 09:29 AM
Original message
STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday October 15
Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday October 15, 2009

Bush Administration Officials Under Indictment = 2
Financial Sector Officials In Prison = 6

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON October 14, 2009

Dow... 10,015.86 +144.80 (+1.47%)
Nasdaq... 2,172.23 +32.34 (+1.51%)
S&P 500... 1,092.02 +18.83 (+1.75%)
Gold future... 1,065 -0.30 (-0.03%)
10-Yr Bond... 3.41 +0.06 (+1.91%)
30-Year Bond 4.26 +0.06 (+1.40%)




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


Market Conditions During Trading Hours



GOLD, EURO, YEN, Loonie, Silver and US$














This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.

Read more: du

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Replies to this thread
Market Observation ozymandius Oct-15-09 09:35 AM #1
Only / Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself... Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 11:13 AM #12
Didn't I ask about this just last week or so? Tansy_Gold Oct-15-09 12:07 PM #17
And You Can Bet They Don't Pay US Tax on THose Profits, Either Demeter Oct-15-09 03:49 PM #32
You Said It Demeter Oct-15-09 02:08 PM #24
Today's Reports ozymandius Oct-15-09 09:39 AM #2
Oil jumps to fresh 1-year high above $75 a barrel ozymandius Oct-15-09 09:41 AM #3
Foreclosures rise 5 percent from summer to fall ozymandius Oct-15-09 09:43 AM #4
Subprime and the Banks: Guilty as Charged Roland99 Oct-15-09 10:58 AM #8
Dear Mr. President, IT'S ALL ABOUT JOBS!! tclambert Oct-15-09 11:10 AM #11
that goes back to the question I asked upthread Tansy_Gold Oct-15-09 12:10 PM #19
Mr. President LOVES Wall Street. DOW $10,000 for Wall St., $0.00 for Main Street. janedum Oct-15-09 12:47 PM #20
NPR 10/15/09 business segments DemReadingDU Oct-15-09 03:14 PM #31
Asian markets extend rise after Dow passes 10,000 ozymandius Oct-15-09 09:52 AM #5
New Light on Emails by BofA Directors ozymandius Oct-15-09 09:58 AM #6
Weird cartoon. Someone want to explain it to me? truthisfreedom Oct-15-09 10:45 AM #7
I take it to mean we're screwed without real reform. Roland99 Oct-15-09 10:59 AM #9
Insurance is going to raise rates DemReadingDU Oct-15-09 11:04 AM #10
Kinda like this. Dr.Phool Oct-15-09 11:17 AM #13
I think the second balloon should've been. . . . Tansy_Gold Oct-15-09 11:46 AM #15
Health Insurance Companies Have a "Captive" Market Demeter Oct-15-09 03:52 PM #33
and said captives are screwed one way or the other, since the insurance lobby is one big monopoly wordpix Oct-15-09 06:49 PM #50
Remember how the Banks and WS types said ........ AnneD Oct-15-09 07:17 PM #51
Futures drop after Goldman announces $3.19 billion quarter... rfranklin Oct-15-09 11:32 AM #14
I suspect it has more to do with the "unexpected/surprise" loss at NOK Po_d Mainiac Oct-15-09 11:49 AM #16
(For the record) Goldman profit quadruples Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 04:43 PM #40
Bubble graph DemReadingDU Oct-15-09 12:08 PM #18
I'm leery of a market where the biggest talking point on Bubble Vision is PILs. Hugin Oct-15-09 01:26 PM #22
What is PILs? n/t DemReadingDU Oct-15-09 01:32 PM #23
PIL = Psychologically Important (Support) Level. Hugin Oct-15-09 02:36 PM #26
ah, yeh. DemReadingDU Oct-15-09 03:00 PM #29
Well, you did see this at zerohedge? Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 04:08 PM #35
Why are you intent on harshing my buzz, man? Hugin Oct-15-09 05:13 PM #41
Hell, didn't want to harsh that much... Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 05:31 PM #44
Debt: 10/13/2009 11,907,608,545,823.24 (UP 11,809,253,614.78) (Tue, yet a '10 surplus.) Festivito Oct-15-09 12:57 PM #21
Debt: 10/14/2009 11,903,588,660,952.03 (DOWN 4,019,884,871.21) (Wed, yet in surplus.) Festivito Oct-16-09 06:07 AM #69
Let me see if I have this straight spotbird Oct-15-09 02:08 PM #25
Because it's not as painful as pulling your hair out? Dr.Phool Oct-15-09 02:40 PM #27
It will end the way these things always end: Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 04:26 PM #36
House Banking Panel Votes to Regulate Derivatives Roland99 Oct-15-09 02:46 PM #28
Where are the idiots saying there's no difference in parties? mullard12ax7 Oct-15-09 04:32 PM #38
Recession ends in 79 metro areas! Dr.Phool Oct-15-09 03:09 PM #30
And Oddly Enough, No People! Demeter Oct-15-09 03:54 PM #34
all you have to do it browse GD and GDP to see that there are many neverforget Oct-15-09 04:30 PM #37
Yeah, I just left a thread in LBN about SS COLA adjustments. Dr.Phool Oct-15-09 04:34 PM #39
Doing away with COLA... AnneD Oct-15-09 07:28 PM #53
(Currencies watch) (1:) EU Wants Trichet, Almunia, Juncker Mtg With China Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 05:16 PM #42
(2:) Sterling surges on talk QE may not be extended Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 05:21 PM #43
(3:) U.S. Dollar Woes Boost China's Global Resource Investments Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 05:37 PM #45
(4:) Greenspan worries about U.S. debt, not dollar slide Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 06:21 PM #46
(5:) (Willie) Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 06:35 PM #47
Ross Perot's Sucking Sound Demeter Oct-15-09 06:43 PM #49
Fellow Marketeers, I Am reaching a Burnout Demeter Oct-15-09 06:42 PM #48
Disney! Of course... Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 07:23 PM #52
Disney is a good idea Demeter Oct-15-09 08:06 PM #56
Let's do Hawaii... AnneD Oct-15-09 07:50 PM #54
I Can Relate to That Demeter Oct-15-09 08:05 PM #55
That's unforgiveable. You were right. Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 08:22 PM #58
And a MUCH Shorter Flight! Demeter Oct-15-09 10:39 PM #62
Sure. Just don't fly via Madrid (Barajas) Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 11:08 PM #64
(Or Lisboa, naturaly: Ghost Dog Oct-16-09 01:34 AM #67
What a tragic tale. Hugin Oct-15-09 10:44 PM #63
It's pumpkin pie and apple cider season! tclambert Oct-15-09 08:12 PM #57
Or... Go with Dylan: Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 08:52 PM #59
Play this brief hymn sung by Andrea Bocelli. Allow yourself to wallow in sadness for a while. Joe Chi Minh Oct-15-09 09:47 PM #60
Yes. Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 10:10 PM #61
Thanks for those beautiful arias. And what prophetic insight Huxley showed! Joe Chi Minh Oct-15-09 11:29 PM #65
Yes indeed. Aldous Huxley, Ghost Dog Oct-15-09 11:50 PM #66
Gotta do Springsteen sometime... MattSh Oct-16-09 04:52 AM #68
ozymandius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 09:35 AM
Response to Original message
1. Market Observation
Decision Time
BY CHRIS PUPLAVA


It’s been a year since the fallout from the Lehman Brothers collapse that rocked the markets, pushing market volatility to an extreme. The market volatility that was witnessed last fall is not something many of today’s current market participants have ever experienced, a generational type collapse that one would have to turn back the clock to the Great Depression to find a similar environment. We’ve come a long way since then, in no small part due to the steroids the Fed has injected into the financial markets to bring down credit spreads, but how long will the Fed administer its steroidal cocktail, and can the financial markets stand on their own two feet? Is this a new bull market, or perhaps one of the greatest bear market rallies in history? We shall know soon enough.

Key Test Coming in FSO Financial Stress Index

Last year I developed a financial stress index based on the methodology developed by Bloomberg in which the health of the bond market, money market, and equity markets were all inputted into a composite. I recreated their stress index and made some of my own adjustments and calculations. For example, given the importance of global currency flows and the role of the government in the economy, I have added a currency stress component as well as US Treasury component to my composite, which I feel is a fuller snapshot of the overall health in the financial markets.

So where are we today and what are my stress indexes showing? The non-smoothed FSO Financial Stress Index (FSI) without the UST or currency component moved into positive territory for the first time since the market peaked in 2007. This is quite the feat given the record low seen in late 2008, but it is still too early to begin to celebrate given that the major bear market rallies in the 2000-2003 bear market were stopped dead in their tracks when the FSO FSI reached neutral to slightly neutral territory. The all-clear signal was not given until the FSO FSI breached into positive territory and then stayed in positive territory in 2003. If the FSO FSI can remain in positive territory and build on its recent gains this would have bullish implications for the equity markets. That is, so long as the Fed maintains its liquidity programs that have done the heavy lifting in improving credit and liquidity conditions captured by the FSO FSI.

http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 11:13 AM
Response to Reply #1
12. Only / Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself...
...

Most DJIA companies receive at least half of their revenues from abroad. Coca Cola (KO), McDonald's (MCD), Procter and Gamble (PG) have been expanding overseas for decades. Even Wal-Mart (WMT)--unfairly stereotyped as a rural, "red state" store--has been expanding aggressively in Mexico, the U.K., and the EU.

Why are these international forays relevant? Over the past year, the American dollar has collapsed. The Canadian dollar, once the laughingstock of the world, is almost at parity (again) with the American dollar. Almost every major currency, except for the Mexican peso (FXM), has increased approximately 30% against the greenback. Thus, as a result of international sales, most DJIA companies will receive an artificial boost in earnings per share due to the dollar's decline. For example, let's say GE sold 1,000 widgets in Germany in February 2008 and made 1,000 dollars. If GE sells 1,000 widgets at the same price one year later, it will record approximately 1,300 dollars. On paper, GE appears to be making 30% more money; in reality, nothing has changed except currency values.

While the dollar's weakness has caused an artificial boost to earnings per share, the DJIA has also increased because other countries' currencies are strong or artificially depressed. For example, despite some barbed words between China and America, China continues to depress the value of its currency. China is smart to do so--its manufacturing sector is still booming (while America's is declining), and a weaker currency gives Chinese companies an advantage in exporting their products. In the meantime, the euro and yen continue to be strong. The ECB, unlike the Federal Reserve, has a singular mandate to maintain a stable/strong currency, and Japan's Finance Minister doesn't seem interested in devaluing the yen.

...

Why should American investors care about these currency-based developments? The DJIA has increased because companies and investors expect the weak American dollar to boost spending by Europeans, British and Japanese consumers. If the foreign consumers fail to buy, the market's gains may perish.

...

Why do I lack faith in the Chinese and Indian consumer? Currently, Chinese and Indian culture tend to focus on family and tradition, not individualism, which dampens unreasonable materialism. Of course, this is changing, but for now, I believe my hypothesis holds true. If I am correct, that means Mr. Market expects Europeans, Russians, and Japanese to spend enough to boost the world economy, and this expectation is already priced in the DJIA. God help the DJIA if this increased spending fails to occur.

...

Mr. Market's recent euphoria--caused by currency fluctuations, expectations of foreign spending, and stimulus money--should subside in time. While everyone else seems happy to party like it's 2006, I will be ready to take advantage of opportunities in 2010. As the DJIA rises day by day, I am reminded of Shakespeare: "Only / Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, And falls on th'other..."

/... http://seekingalpha.com/article/166629-dow-10k-the-high...
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Tansy_Gold Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 12:07 PM
Response to Reply #12
17. Didn't I ask about this just last week or so?
Seriously -- how much of the operations and/or revenue of the DJIA companies and therefore their stock value is represented by non-US business? Sales is one thing if it's exports, since that is US operations and therefore US jobs. And we need to know that, too. But if a company is "strong" only because 80% of its operations are in Mexico and Bangladesh, shouldn't we know that, too?

Is there a way we can find out, other than actually buying a share of stock and getting the annual reports?



Tansy Gold, curiouser and curiouser
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Demeter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 03:49 PM
Response to Reply #17
32. And You Can Bet They Don't Pay US Tax on THose Profits, Either

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Demeter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 02:08 PM
Response to Reply #12
24. You Said It
Some of The speculation may have been wrung out of the market, but the delusion persists...
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ozymandius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 09:39 AM
Response to Original message
2. Today's Reports
08:30 Initial Claims 10/10
Briefing.com 540K
Consensus 520K
Prior 521K

08:30 Continuing Claims 10/03
Briefing.com 6000K
Consensus 6060K
Prior 6040K

08:30 Core CPI Sep
Briefing.com 0.1%
Consensus 0.1%
Prior 0.1%

08:30 CPI Sep
Briefing.com 0.2%
Consensus 0.2%
Prior 0.4%

08:30 Empire Manufacturing Oct
Briefing.com 17.5
Consensus 17.25
Prior 18.88

10:00 Philadelphia Fed Oct
Briefing.com 13.5
Consensus 12.0
Prior 14.1

13:00 Crude Inventories 10/09
Briefing.com NA
Consensus NA
Prior -0.98M

http://www.briefing.com/Investor/Public/Calendars/Econo...
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ozymandius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 09:41 AM
Response to Original message
3. Oil jumps to fresh 1-year high above $75 a barrel
SINGAPORE – Oil prices reached a fresh one-year high above $75 a barrel Thursday in Asia on a weaker U.S. dollar and growing investor optimism about an economic recovery.

Benchmark crude for November delivery was up 50 cents to $75.68 by late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Earlier it reached $75.96, the highest since October 2008. The contract added $1.03 to settle at $75.18 on Wednesday.

.....
U.S. oil inventories fell unexpectedly last week, the American Petroleum Institute said late Wednesday. Crude stocks dropped 172,000 barrels while analysts had expected a jump of 2.2 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

.....
In other Nymex trading, heating oil rose 1.79 cents to $1.9606 a gallon. Gasoline for November delivery gained 2.25 cents to $1.88 a gallon. Natural gas for November delivery jumped 3.9 cents to $4.475 per 1,000 cubic feet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices
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ozymandius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 09:43 AM
Response to Original message
4. Foreclosures rise 5 percent from summer to fall
WASHINGTON – The number of households caught up in the foreclosure crisis rose more than 5 percent from summer to fall as a federal effort to assist struggling borrowers was overwhelmed by a flood of defaults among people who lost their jobs.

The foreclosure crisis affected nearly 938,000 properties in the July-September quarter, compared with about 890,000 in the prior three months, according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc. That puts foreclosure-related filings on a pace to hit about 3.5 million this year, up from more than 2.3 million last year.

Unemployment is the main reason homeowners are falling into trouble. While the economy is likely out of recession, the unemployment rate — now at a 26-year high of 9.8 percent — isn't expected to peak until the middle of next year.

.....
Last week, the Obama administration hailed a milestone in its mortgage relief effort, reporting that 500,000 homeowners have received help since the program was launched in March. But new defaults are still exceeding the number of borrowers getting help.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091015/ap_on_bi_ge/us_fore...
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Roland99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 10:58 AM
Response to Reply #4
8. Subprime and the Banks: Guilty as Charged
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


But, hey, come on. It's not unemployment nor predatory practices. We all know it's ACORN!
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tclambert Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 11:10 AM
Response to Reply #4
11. Dear Mr. President, IT'S ALL ABOUT JOBS!!
Clinton's staffers used to have a banner in the office that said, "It's about the economy, stupid!" But they changed it after awhile to: "It's about JOBS, stupid!"

Business types think the economy is about consumer spending. But consumer spending depends on the income of the mass of people. And that income depends on jobs. Decent paying jobs.
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Tansy_Gold Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 12:10 PM
Response to Reply #11
19. that goes back to the question I asked upthread
If the DJIA is based on "foreign" operations, it's no wonder at all that the stock market is not reflective of the "real" economy.

Am I -- and the rest of us -- so far out in left field that no economist recognizes this?

And if not, if in fact we're correct, when will someone start broadcasting this on the TV?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:




TG
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janedum (188 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 12:47 PM
Response to Reply #11
20. Mr. President LOVES Wall Street. DOW $10,000 for Wall St., $0.00 for Main Street.
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 12:47 PM by janedum
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DemReadingDU Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 03:14 PM
Response to Reply #20
31. NPR 10/15/09 business segments
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 03:15 PM by DemReadingDU
10/15/09 Joblessness Peaks Amid Gains For Wall Street, Banks
Steve Inskeep talks with David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, about the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program and taxpayers' big losses.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11...
Bernanke said he had to save Wall Street first to be able to save Main Street.
:puke:



10/15/09 Small Businesses Squeezed As Banks Limit Lending
With U.S. unemployment near 10 percent, small businesses — which the government says created 64 percent of new jobs in the past 15 years — will need to play a major role in the recovery. But, as they try to gear up for the holidays, some owners say banks and credit card companies are squeezing them and stunting their growth.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11...

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ozymandius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 09:52 AM
Response to Original message
5. Asian markets extend rise after Dow passes 10,000
HONG KONG – Asian stocks extended their rise Thursday after better-than-expected earnings reports from U.S. companies helped push the Dow Jones industrial average pass the 10,000 mark for the first time in a year. European shares were mixed.

Thailand bucked Asia's advance as worries about the health of the country's 81-year-old king sent the stock market plunging over 8 percent at one point.

.....
In early trade in Europe, Britain's FTSE-100 was lower by 0.3 percent, while benchmarks in Germany and France rose 0.1 percent.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock average gained 178.44 points, or 1.8 percent, to 10,238.65, and Hong Kong's benchmark added 112.60, or 0.5 percent, to 21,999.08, hitting a new high for the year during trade.

South Korea's Kospi edged up 0.6 percent, while markets in mainland China and Taiwan also were higher.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091015/ap_on_bi_ge/world_m...
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ozymandius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 09:58 AM
Response to Original message
6. New Light on Emails by BofA Directors
New documents shed light on a widely disseminated comment by Bank of America Corp. director Charles Gifford, who wrote in a January email that a U.S.-required dividend cut meant "unfortunately it's screw the shareholders."

The aside was one of several attempts at dark humor in a brief Jan. 15 exchange between Mr. Gifford and fellow director Thomas May as the men dashed messages back and forth during a private conference call.

The subject of the call was the next day's unveiling of a $20 billion U.S. assistance package as the bank struggled to digest Merrill Lynch & Co. Among the bailout requirements was a dividend reduction, viewed as an overly punitive measure by bank insiders.

.....
The case is set for trial in March after the judge rejected a proposed $33 million settlement last month.

Bank of America's board voted to waive its attorney-client privilege regarding certain aspects of the merger in the SEC case and in some other state and federal probes Friday. As part of the agreement, Bank of America will share information with the Justice Department, inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and attorneys general of New York and North Carolina.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125557854279586785.html...
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truthisfreedom (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 10:45 AM
Response to Original message
7. Weird cartoon. Someone want to explain it to me?
Maybe I have Alzheimer's or something.
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Roland99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 10:59 AM
Response to Reply #7
9. I take it to mean we're screwed without real reform.

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DemReadingDU Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 11:04 AM
Response to Reply #7
10. Insurance is going to raise rates

whether or not there is any reform

:shrug:

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Dr.Phool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 11:17 AM
Response to Reply #7
13. Kinda like this.
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Tansy_Gold Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 11:46 AM
Response to Reply #7
15. I think the second balloon should've been. . . .
"And if we DO kill reform?"


But what do I know?




Tansy Gold, not a cartoonist
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Demeter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 03:52 PM
Response to Reply #7
33. Health Insurance Companies Have a "Captive" Market
and they like it that way, and want to round up the strays.
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wordpix (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 06:49 PM
Response to Reply #33
50. and said captives are screwed one way or the other, since the insurance lobby is one big monopoly
each major company controlling a territory that no one else can compete in
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AnneD (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 07:17 PM
Response to Reply #7
51. Remember how the Banks and WS types said ........
basically that the economic world would come to the end at the start of the crash if they didn't get the tarp bailout ASAP. They basically held a gun to Congress' head and demanded the money (our money). They portrayed it as we would suffer even though we bail them (it was their fault) and now we will suffer even more if we try to correct the problem (them) at the source.

Real world...You kid threatens to hold their breath until they get their way. Parents get scared because the think their kids might die if they stop breathing. Well yes they might pass out but once they lose consciousness-they will start breathing. My brother actually did this once (and only once) as an toddler. Once he figured that Mom wouldn't fall for it -he never did it again. We need to stand up to this.
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rfranklin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
14. Futures drop after Goldman announces $3.19 billion quarter...
I don't get it.
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Po_d Mainiac Donating Member (532 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 11:49 AM
Response to Reply #14
16. I suspect it has more to do with the "unexpected/surprise" loss at NOK

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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 04:43 PM
Response to Reply #14
40. (For the record) Goldman profit quadruples
Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:12pm BST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group quarterly earnings nearly quadrupled, topping expectations, but its shares fell on disappointment that so much of the profit came from trading gains that might not be sustainable.

The firm, which was already Wall Street's largest investment bank before the financial crisis and has become even more dominant as some rivals have fallen by the wayside, stayed on pace to hand out more than $20 billion (12 billion pounds) in year-end bonuses. That would be equivalent to more than $630,000 per employee and could beat a record set for compensation in 2007.

But in a sign of weakness, Goldman's investment banking and asset management revenues were lower. The bank fell to No. 2, behind Morgan Stanley, in merger and acquisition adviser rankings for deals announced globally through the third quarter, according to Thomson Reuters. It also dropped a spot to No. 7 in global capital markets.

...

Goldman, which has been under fire from some quarters over gold-plated pay so soon after taking government bailout funds, allocated 43 percent of net revenue in the third quarter to compensation and benefits, compared with 49 percent in the first half.

...

Goldman shares fell 1.7 percent to $188.94 in morning trading, matching a decline in the Amex Securities Broker dealer index. The shares are up more than 124 percent this year.

...

Net revenue in Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities (FICC) was $5.99 billion in the third quarter, up from $1.59 billion a year earlier. The increase reflects strong performances in credit products and mortgages, which were significantly higher compared to a difficult third quarter of 2008.

Net revenue in equities was up 78 percent to $2.78 billion, helped by a strong performance in derivatives and shares.

Principal Investments posted net revenue of $1.26 billion after a $453 million loss in the year-ago quarter.

Net revenue in investment banking and financial advisory fell during the quarter, reflecting the decline in mergers and acquisitions.

Investment banking net revenue was $899 million, down 31 percent from the third quarter of 2008. Results in financial advisory were $325 million, down 47 percent.

Net revenue in Asset Management and Securities Services was down 29 percent to $1.45 billion.

/... http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE59E2BT20091015?sp=...

Um, strangely, I seem to recall that Goldman Sachs Group and/or some major part thereof was reclassified as a commercial bank, rather than, as previously, an investment bank, literally 'overnight' in order to 'qualify' for a lifesaving taxpayers' bailout. So, can anyone tell me:

i). where this bank's main street branches for 'ordinary' customers are to be found?

ii). how come other commercial banks are not supposed to speculate in stocks and other markets on their own account (or did I get that wrong, and all are free to so speculate now)?
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DemReadingDU Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 12:08 PM
Response to Original message
18. Bubble graph
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 12:13 PM by DemReadingDU



Looking at this graph, I think that we have left the bull trap and are returning to 'normal', with fear, capitulation, and despair looming in the future.

Edit: For the link, right-click on the graph, and view properties.



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Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 01:26 PM
Response to Reply #18
22. I'm leery of a market where the biggest talking point on Bubble Vision is PILs.
Leading up to yesterday that's all there was...

I place it in the same category as getting stock advice from a Shoeshine or Elevator Operator.

Ah, well... As TheWatcher would say, "Anything to get the Rubes to buy at the top."
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DemReadingDU Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 01:32 PM
Response to Reply #22
23. What is PILs? n/t


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Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 02:36 PM
Response to Reply #22
26. PIL = Psychologically Important (Support) Level.
Somehow, it's always a power of 10. :crazy:
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DemReadingDU Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 03:00 PM
Response to Reply #26
29. ah, yeh.

:eyes:

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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 04:08 PM
Response to Reply #22
35. Well, you did see this at zerohedge?
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/dow-10000-oh-wait-make...


(Dow rebased to 1999 USD index value terms)
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Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 05:13 PM
Response to Reply #35
41. Why are you intent on harshing my buzz, man?
:rofl:

I assume you checked out the gold chart below the one cited. 8|

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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 05:31 PM
Response to Reply #41
44. Hell, didn't want to harsh that much...
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 05:43 PM by Ghost Dog
(Hint: Huuughh!!1h1¡ Dow buying opportunity: it's so cheap in these (international) terms!)

:(

Edit: Hmmm. What happened there to cause that big spring 2002 real-terms drop?

... Oh yeah. Apple Pie, Ma 'n Paw, Shock 'n Awe.
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Festivito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 12:57 PM
Response to Original message
21. Debt: 10/13/2009 11,907,608,545,823.24 (UP 11,809,253,614.78) (Tue, yet a '10 surplus.)
(The Obama SURPLUS continues for the long weekend. In 13 days of fiscal year 2010 we have now only paid back two billion more than we borrowed. Can we get one more day out of it. Tune in tomorrow past 3PM. Long past, I've a job across the state tomorrow afternoon, evening and then morning.)

= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 7,489,508,528,359.81 + 4,418,100,017,463.43
UP 10,339,703,734.17 + UP 1,469,549,880.61

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

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 308-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.25 each THAT'S 1B$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.75, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 10 seconds we net gain a another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 307,700,061 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 09/27/2009 07:13 -> 307,558,299
Currently, each of these Americans owe $38,698.75.
A family of three owes $116,096.26. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 to 32 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 5,132,420,038.25.
The average for the last 30 days would be 3,763,774,694.72.
The average for the last 32 days would be 3,528,538,776.30.
There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 9 reports in 13 days of FY2010 averaging -0.25B$ per report, -0.17B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 1,195 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 11.7 and 18.1T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
10/13/2009 11,907,608,545,823.24 BHO (UP 1,280,731,496,910.16 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 -0,002,220,457,688.50 -----------BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
09/22/2009 -000,005,688,069.16 -----
09/23/2009 -000,186,100,874.04 ---
09/24/2009 -043,516,809,626.65 -
09/25/2009 -000,256,514,563.16 ---
09/28/2009 -000,773,265,151.59 --- Mon
09/29/2009 +000,473,982,417.68 ------------********
09/30/2009 +091,724,705,747.96 ------------**********
10/01/2009 -045,967,461,558.95 -
10/02/2009 +000,166,120,250.33 ------------********
10/05/2009 -000,035,707,866.46 ---- Mon
10/06/2009 +000,640,950,413.48 ------------********
10/07/2009 +000,015,260,219.44 ------------*******
10/08/2009 -027,497,592,311.52 -
10/09/2009 -000,014,303,257.45 ----
10/13/2009 +010,339,703,734.17 ------------********** Tue

-14,892,720,495.92 Total of 15 above reports.

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

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

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
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Festivito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Fri Oct-16-09 06:07 AM
Response to Reply #21
69. Debt: 10/14/2009 11,903,588,660,952.03 (DOWN 4,019,884,871.21) (Wed, yet in surplus.)
(The Obama SURPLUS continues for the first fourteen days of fiscal year 2010 we have now paid back six billion more than we borrowed. If this continues I'll think about automating a message for this each day. No, I don't expect it to last; however, Obama has called for those pesky overseas account people to pay up. Is it working?)

= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 7,489,758,664,164.96 + 4,413,829,996,787.07
UP 250,135,805.15 + DOWN 4,270,020,676.36

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

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 308-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.25 each THAT'S 1B$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.75, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 10 seconds we net gain a another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 307,708,701 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 09/27/2009 07:13 -> 307,558,299
Currently, each of these Americans owe $38,684.6.
A family of three owes $116,053.81. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 5,044,235,803.65.
The average for the last 30 days would be 3,699,106,256.01.

There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 10 reports in 14 days of FY2010 averaging -0.62B$ per report, -0.45B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 1,194 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 11.4 and 18.1T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
10/14/2009 11,903,588,660,952.03 BHO (UP 1,276,711,612,038.95 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 -0,006,240,342,559.70 -----------BHO

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
09/23/2009 -000,186,100,874.04 ---
09/24/2009 -043,516,809,626.65 -
09/25/2009 -000,256,514,563.16 ---
09/28/2009 -000,773,265,151.59 --- Mon
09/29/2009 +000,473,982,417.68 ------------********
09/30/2009 +091,724,705,747.96 ------------**********
10/01/2009 -045,967,461,558.95 -
10/02/2009 +000,166,120,250.33 ------------********
10/05/2009 -000,035,707,866.46 ---- Mon
10/06/2009 +000,640,950,413.48 ------------********
10/07/2009 +000,015,260,219.44 ------------*******
10/08/2009 -027,497,592,311.52 -
10/09/2009 -000,014,303,257.45 ----
10/13/2009 +010,339,703,734.17 ------------********** Tue
10/14/2009 +000,250,135,805.15 ------------********

-14,636,896,621.61 Total of 15 above reports.

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

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

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
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spotbird Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 02:08 PM
Response to Original message
25. Let me see if I have this straight
The banks lost in speculative investments, but are too big to fail, so the government gives them limitless money so they can continue. The banks in turn use that money speculatively in the stock market, driving it up artificially. The new speculation is also guaranteed by the government, so when someone blinks and the stock market declines, the government will give the even too much bigger to fail banks even more money to make more speculative investments....Meanwhile, the government uses the results of the banks speculation on the stock market to prove the economy is improving.

If something can't continue, it won't, but how do the people who perpetuate this mess think it will end?

Why do I want to cry?



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Dr.Phool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 02:40 PM
Response to Reply #25
27. Because it's not as painful as pulling your hair out?
Or beating your head into a wall?
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 04:26 PM
Response to Reply #25
36. It will end the way these things always end:

"You know it makes sense®"
(No, really. Not just like Detroit).
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Roland99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 02:46 PM
Response to Original message
28. House Banking Panel Votes to Regulate Derivatives
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 02:52 PM by Roland99
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...


Took them over a year and it wasn't unanimous??

:banghead:


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mullard12ax7 (213 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 04:32 PM
Response to Reply #28
38. Where are the idiots saying there's no difference in parties?
26 repukes (oh I'm sorry, did I say "repukes", I meant lying stinking repig criminals) voted for corrupt and failed capitalistic crimes and ZERO dems voted for it.

It's good news for America.
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Dr.Phool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 03:09 PM
Response to Original message
30. Recession ends in 79 metro areas!
No, it's not from the Onion. But, it looks like everyone wants to be a comedian.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33312701/ns/business-eye_on... /

The recession finally ended in August in one out of every five metro areas in the United States, especially in the Midwest and Great Plains, according to the latest Adversity Index from Moody's Economy.com and msnbc.com.

This is the first month this year when any metro area has moved from recession into the "recovery" category, indicating that the economy grew from six months earlier. Out of 384 metro areas in the nation, 79 are in recovery, according to the August data on jobs, manufacturing and housing. Another 270 areas have a "moderating recession," meaning their economies were not contracting as severely as earlier. That leaves 35 metro areas in a full-blown recession.

"The initial recovery is going to be slow," said economist Andrew Gledhill of Moody's Economy.com. Jobs are still being lost, but in terms of manufacturing production, "the economy is finally beginning to emerge from the cellar."

(snip)--------------------------------------------------------------

And there was no inflation either.
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Demeter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 03:54 PM
Response to Reply #30
34. And Oddly Enough, No People!

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neverforget Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 04:30 PM
Response to Reply #30
37. all you have to do it browse GD and GDP to see that there are many
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 04:36 PM by neverforget
DUers that believe everything is on the mend. The next crash is going to be very painful.
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Dr.Phool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 04:34 PM
Response to Reply #37
39. Yeah, I just left a thread in LBN about SS COLA adjustments.
Some people really think prices went down

I guess they didn't want to read this, from last year.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/article473596.ece

Hard numbers: The economy is worse than you know

Kevin Phillips, Harper's Magazine
In Print: Sunday, April 27, 2008

Ever since the 1960s, Washington has gulled its citizens and creditors by debasing official statistics, the vital instruments with which the vigor and muscle of the American economy are measured.

The effect has been to create a false sense of economic achievement and rectitude, allowing us to maintain artificially low interest rates, massive government borrowing, and a dangerous reliance on mortgage and financial debt even as real economic growth has been slower than claimed.

The corruption has tainted the very measures that most shape public perception of the economy:

• The monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI), which serves as the chief bellwether of inflation;

• The quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which tracks the U.S. economy's overall growth;

• The monthly unemployment figure, which for the general public is perhaps the most vivid indicator of economic health or infirmity.

Not only do governments, businesses and individuals use these yardsticks in their decisionmaking, but minor revisions in the data can mean major changes in household circumstances — inflation measurements help determine interest rates, federal interest payments on the national debt, and cost-of-living increases for wages, pensions and Social Security benefits.

And, of course, our statistics have political consequences too. An administration is helped when it can mouth banalities about price levels being "anchored" as food and energy costs begin to soar.

The truth, though it would not exactly set Americans free, would at least open a window to wider economic and political understanding. Readers should ask themselves how much angrier the electorate might be if the media, over the past five years, had been citing 8 percent unemployment (instead of 5 percent), 5 percent inflation (instead of 2 percent), and average annual growth in the 1 percent range (instead of the 3-4 percent range).

snip (more)
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AnneD (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 07:28 PM
Response to Reply #39
53. Doing away with COLA...
is a clever way to get Boomers on a cat food diet in the future
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 05:16 PM
Response to Original message
42. (Currencies watch) (1:) EU Wants Trichet, Almunia, Juncker Mtg With China
BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--European Union governments want the bloc's chief economic officials to travel to China before the end of the year to press for a more flexible yuan exchange rate, an E.U. official and an E.U. diplomat said Thursday.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia and Luxembourg Prime Minister and Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the meetings of E.U. finance ministers, went to Beijing in November 2007 to discuss concerns about the country's currency.

Senior economic officials from E.U. countries suggested a repeat trip at a meeting in Brussels last week, the E.U. diplomat said. E.U. countries, particularly the 16 states that share the euro, say a stronger yuan is needed to slow Chinese exports and encourage a balanced global economic recovery.

China let the yuan, which had long-traded in a narrow band around 8.28 to the U.S. dollar, appreciate about 17.5% between July 2005 and July 2008. Since then, it has kept the currency trading close to 6.83 to the dollar.

The yuan-euro exchange rate has moved in the opposite direction in recent months, rising to a recent high of CNY10.18 Wednesday from a low around CNY8.57 in February, a depreciation of almost 19%.

A weaker yuan gives Chinese manufacturers a sharp advantage over euro-zone rivals, creating a particularly painful problem for Germany, the region's largest economy and the world's largest exporter.

Similar conditions existed two years ago, when Trichet, Almunia and Juncker traveled to Beijing to meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Finance Minister Xie Xuren and People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan.

On that trip, Juncker, who also chairs monthly meetings of euro-zone finance ministers, told Chinese officials that "the fact that the Chinese currency is depreciating against the euro, and by contrast is appreciating against the U.S. dollar is creating a lot of problems for the European economy."

/... http://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-news/article.aspx?St...

(Meanwhile...)

Tony Blair's bid for the presidency of Europe may have been struggling to make headway, but today it hit a rock when he won the endorsement he must secretly have been dreading.

In a letter published in an Italian newspaper, Silvio Berlusconi threw his less than colossal moral authority behind his old friend's candidacy. The man who promised to put Britain "at the heart of Europe", but chose to stay out of the euro and maintain border controls, had "all his papers in order to become the first president of the European council under the terms of the Lisbon treaty", the Italian prime minister declared.

/... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/14/silvio-berl...
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 05:21 PM
Response to Reply #42
43. (2:) Sterling surges on talk QE may not be extended
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 05:23 PM by Ghost Dog
Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:36pm BST LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Sterling racked up its biggest one-day gain against a basket of currencies in nearly a year on Thursday after a UK policymaker's comments prompted speculation the Bank of England may not extend quantitative easing.

...

The pound has come under heavy pressure in recent weeks, battered across the board on the view that UK interest rates will stay low and public finances will deteriorate further.

But big gains against the currencies of the UK's major trading partners on Thursday lifted sterling's trade-weighted index as high as 79.1 =GBP, a gain of 1.6 points compared with Wednesday's close and the biggest one-day gain since late October 2008.

The pound rose more than 2 percent at one stage against the dollar and the euro and more than 3 percent versus the yen, taking it to its highest in three weeks against the U.S. and Japanese currencies and to a 10-day high versus the euro.

"Fisher was implying that he thinks quantitative easing is working fairly well, which has led to talk that the policy may be withdrawn sooner than previously thought," said Neil Mellor, currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon. "But much of this move is about positioning as people were caught so drastically short (of sterling)," he added.

...

Sterling hit its highest level in three weeks against the dollar of $1.6299 GBP=D4, well above a five-month low just above $1.57 only two days ago.

The euro meanwhile tumbled more than 2 percent to a low of 91.43 pence EURGBP=D4 to leave it on track for its biggest drop in seven months.

This fall takes it well below the six-and-a-half month high of 94.13 pence hit on Tuesday, when weak UK inflation data reminded investors that UK interest rates are set to remain at very low levels for some time.

Some traders said sterling was also helped by talk that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund was planning a renewed offer for British supermarket chain J Sainsbury (SBRY.L), which caused shares in the company to jump as much as 20 percent.

/... http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLF61078120091015?rpc=...

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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 05:37 PM
Response to Reply #42
45. (3:) U.S. Dollar Woes Boost China's Global Resource Investments
Washington continues to believe that the U.S. dollar is a weapon and most of the G8 is playing along. They simply can’t see – or won’t acknowledge – where the dollar is actually headed, even though the evidence is right before their eyes.

On the other side of the world, however, China is refusing to drink the U.S. Kool-Aid. It sees what’s really happening with the greenback, and understands the implications for its own finances and economic growth.

That’s why Beijing has taken matters into its own hands.

As Beijing breaks with the West, Western investors need to take notice – China is now a serious player on the global financial stage. It’s only going to grow in power and stature.

And it has a powerful hand to play.

Not only does the Red Dragon have a $2.3 trillion cache of reserves to work with, it also has the world’s most powerful growth engine: An economy that’s advancing at an 8% clip, 1.3 billion consumers who save an average of 35% of their incomes, and a government that’s spending money in an effort to propel them into the 21st century.

What makes this especially poignant is that China understands its role – past, present and future. Most of its leaders are exceptionally well versed in Western history, meaning there’s a profound understanding of the problems and potential obstacles the West faces as it attempts to bounce back from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. There’s an irony here, since China may understand our problems even better than we do.

/Read on... http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article14239.html
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 06:21 PM
Response to Reply #42
46. (4:) Greenspan worries about U.S. debt, not dollar slide
NEW YORK, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he is more worried about the increasing U.S. debt than the weakening dollar during a meeting here on Thursday.

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Greenspan said he is "not overly concerned" about the most recent decline in the dollar, which has hit a 14-month low against the euro and other major currencies.

"Remember, the dollar surged when the crisis began as we still conceive dollar as safe heaven. We are now back to the levels just prior to the crisis," he said.

Meanwhile, Greenspan expressed grave concern about the long-term costs to the United States from the increasing national debt, which according to him is the "most worrisome aspect of the economic agenda in the United States."

In long term, government budget deficits would likely be even bigger than current record estimates, and the deficits would continue to put downward pressure on the currency and upward pressure on borrowing costs, Greenspan said.

"It will begin to affect the yield on long-term interest rates," he said.

Greenspan said it is difficult to determine whether what happened in the past few years is a once-in-a-century type of event or just a repeat of periodical breakdown in the system.

"Remember that when you are dealing with a market-based system, you have innovations occurring all the time. And indeed few people realized that Edison had more failures than successes," he said. "And the issue of our system, which is centrally created instruction system, has many failures, and one of the purposes of our market system is to clean them out."

Greenspan said the system needs to be repaired, rather than to be replaced. And the critical problem is the "too-big-to-fail" issue. "If they are too big to fail, they're too big," Greenspan told the audience.

"That is to me the major issue. If we do not get it right, we are going to be in terrible shape," he said. "We no longer have the capability of having a credible government response, which says hence forth, no institutions will be supported because it is too big to fail."

Greenspan said too-big-to-fail is a bad policy anywhere, because it is whole contrary to the very structure of what markets work. "Failure is an integral part and necessary part of a market system," he said.

/... http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/16/content_12...

Gold dragon heaven smile: ;)
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 06:35 PM
Response to Reply #42
47. (5:) (Willie)
End of U.S. Dollar Global Reserve Currency
Currencies / US Dollar Oct 15, 2009 - 10:46 AM

By: Jim_Willie_CB

Currencies

Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleThe heralded end to the Petro-Dollar defacto standard completes the loop, the vicious cycle that will work to destroy the USDollar. In a sense, the US$ had to face an end, its sunset guaranteed when Nixon defaulted on its redemption value. The United States served as custodian for the global reserve currency. Naturally, the most damage will be to the US as a consequence of its twilight, especially after the recent era of fraud & counterfeit. Few look back to that date in 1971 as prophetic for declaring the USDollar’s days as limited and finite.

The world will continue to trade the US$ in future years, but it must stand on its own value, based upon its own merit, the result of balancing its supply & demand, from the integrity of its fundamentals. Some climax events have come, or at least are previewed on an unfortunate path. Never in my memory has USGovt leadership been so disrespected. Never has Wall Street been so culpable for financial ruin, yet still in power running the USGovt finance ministries. The global revolt against the United States has many sides, but the financial aspect is most profound. It is hardly even covered in the US press. The US citizens have little comprehension of the enormity of a lost global reserve currency, with all its privileges, abused for constructing financial engineering towers and funding foreign wars. The direct effects will be felt in higher costs and assured supply, including credit.

No need to enter details, but the nation with each passing year resembles even more a very large Third World nation. Empty foreclosed homes, empty shopping malls, millions of jobless, discouraged business formation, nationalized failed firms, vanishing Middle Class, trillion$ federal deficits, monetized debt, reduced liberties, selective elite law enforcement, syndicate stronghold, huge prison population, controlled press networks, distrust of leaders, aggressive military, these are the characteristics that most people agree are unsavory. But when one takes them as a cornucopeia table display, they are described as Third World. This article will be shorter than most, since the more complete analysis is provided for Hat Trick Letter members. We are not fooled by the banter, the propaganda. We have been preparing for the surge in gold & silver, the powerful erosion in the USDollar, the ruin of the banks, the universal bust in bonds, the insolvency of the homeowners, and the army of jobless. Personal fortunes have by and large not been ruined. Some have thrived.



COMPLETED LOOP: FINANCIAL & COMMERCIAL

The swirling motion of the above loop is powerful. With the crude oil sales no longer taking US$ payments, the loop is completed. The financial engine in the Dollar Carry Trade now will have a commercial engine to further its momentum, to add power to the cycle, and force powerful lethal feedback reactions. Only when the financial and commercial sides fit like two giant interlocking pieces does the power take hold, much like a toilet assembled. The Fisk report on a 2018 timeframe for the phase out of US$ petro sales is more politically massaged information. The timetable will be just a couple years, doubtful more. The reactions from systems will force the timing to be much sooner, out of desire, out of necessity, due to broken systems that accelerate the breakdown process due to the announcement itself in feedback loops. By the way, the swirling motion in the vicious loop should remind people of a toilet being flushed. In the Northern Hemisphere, the motion is clockwise. Thus my representation, since my entire life has been spent roaming the north. To people reading from the Southern Hemisphere, imagine the elements of the graph in mirror image format. Thanks for the cooperation.

/... http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article14243.html
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Demeter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 06:43 PM
Response to Reply #47
49. Ross Perot's Sucking Sound
It's all over these days.
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Demeter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 06:42 PM
Response to Original message
48. Fellow Marketeers, I Am reaching a Burnout
All summer I was pretty cranky, and you all graciously ignored or tolerated my mood. I've been trying to find my happy spots--but it's so much like November outside, which has always been my least favorite month, and I don't think I can stand 60 or 90 days of November this year...

Part of it has to do with the Kid being housebound due to her surgery, and now due to the fact that her alternate caregiver is in bankruptcy and moving out of the house they are walking away from...Kid is bored and continually underfoot. Her Mother doesn't find any relief in work, either.

So, tomorrow is Friday, again. I need a real high-dose, good-feeling theme for it, and I suspect I'm not the only one. Any suggestions?

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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 07:23 PM
Response to Reply #48
52. Disney! Of course...
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 07:34 PM by Ghost Dog
Wally, Eva... No, scratch that. Um, how about, Clint Eastwood (was impressed by his, what's it called, "Gran Torino" the other day... )

... Or, Ken Kesey's "Sometimes a Great Notion" (literary &/or hollywood)...

... "American Beauty"?...


I'm sorry, Demeter. Did you read the whole Willie piece above, for example?

I'd advise you to step back a little for a little while,

And concentrate on the life that's worth living.

If it's any consolation, Spain is in deeper shit economically than most

(but we have social solidarity).



:grouphug:

Refs: (Sometimes a Great Notion) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKdF-IP7rE0

(Leadbelly) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmQXmqbZ3Pc
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Demeter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 08:06 PM
Response to Reply #52
56. Disney is a good idea
Just not what I'm looking for right now...but it's in the hopper. Maybe a New Year's spectacular?
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AnneD (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 07:50 PM
Response to Reply #48
54. Let's do Hawaii...
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 07:51 PM by AnneD
Elvis Blue Hawaii and Paradise, Hawaiian Style , Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Donovan's Reef with the Duke, The Hardy Boys - Wipe Out, Ma & Pa Kettle at Waikiki, Hawaii with Julie Andrews, Diamond Head with Heston, and my favs Hawaii 5-0 or Hawaiian Eye.

Every time I am on my last nerve, I go to the Islands. I get a full blown case of the Tahiti Syndrome as Leonard McCoy would say. I have been known to come in and tell folks that even though I was at work I was mentally on the Islands and pop in a CD with Island music. Once during a procedure I found my self swaying and my friend giggling.

Works for me.
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Demeter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 08:05 PM
Response to Reply #54
55. I Can Relate to That
In fact, one of the things that forced me into divorce court was when the soon-to-be ex told me he'd sold all the airline points which we were saving for a trip to Hawaii.

Actually, he went to Hawaii--with whom, I do not know. But the old Visa bill at a drugstore in Hawaii doesn't lie. Thus ended the bicoastal marriage experiment, badly.

God, I was so young and optimistic and stupid...and I really wanted to go to Hawaii!
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 08:22 PM
Response to Reply #55
58. That's unforgiveable. You were right.
BTW, the Canary Islands here in the African Atlantic have the same oceanic volcanic structure as the Hawaiian archipielago (and all the depth and height, bioclimes, surf, etc...)

And are imho much cooler.

(Both are "occupied territories", of course).

Although the Great Notion (and what followed), above, has always been very important to me, since the '60s.

Don't worry, be happy.
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Demeter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 10:39 PM
Response to Reply #58
62. And a MUCH Shorter Flight!
Hablo espan~ol, tambien! I shall have to make plans for someday in the next decade....
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 11:08 PM
Response to Reply #62
64. Sure. Just don't fly via Madrid (Barajas)
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 11:09 PM by Ghost Dog
Everyone gets lost there, your luggage included.

There are flights via Cuba,

Or Barcelona,

Or Geneva...

Edit: Or Marrakech...
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Fri Oct-16-09 01:34 AM
Response to Reply #64
67. (Or Lisboa, naturaly:
Edited on Fri Oct-16-09 02:13 AM by Ghost Dog
Or Gades (Cadiz): take the boat).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3yfRNrPRiA (Cesaria Evora - Angola).

(Sodade): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbY7DBLw010
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Hugin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 10:44 PM
Response to Reply #55
63. What a tragic tale.
;(

It's becoming clear to me why I've put off marriage until a ripened old age... There's just no energy for those types of things. :/

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tclambert Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 08:12 PM
Response to Reply #48
57. It's pumpkin pie and apple cider season!
Always look on the bright side of life . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo

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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 08:52 PM
Response to Reply #57
59. Or... Go with Dylan:
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 09:48 PM by Ghost Dog
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Joe Chi Minh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 09:47 PM
Response to Reply #48
60. Play this brief hymn sung by Andrea Bocelli. Allow yourself to wallow in sadness for a while.
Lacrima rerum. But God cares about you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHKQYFgkcB8&feature=rela...
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 10:10 PM
Response to Reply #60
61. Yes.
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 10:13 PM by Ghost Dog
Aldous Huxley interview (one of many, high on youtube list): Aldous Huxley interview (1958?)

Alfredo Kraus:

i). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OTlvKzgQ-I
ii). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G87TW-7B_S4 :cry:
...

Wake up, guys. American (Workers', Intellectuals' Decent Peoples') Revolution required.

Help available.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Miwejo0mgok (Caruso).
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Joe Chi Minh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 11:29 PM
Response to Reply #61
65. Thanks for those beautiful arias. And what prophetic insight Huxley showed!
Edited on Thu Oct-15-09 11:31 PM by Joe Chi Minh
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Ghost Dog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Oct-15-09 11:50 PM
Response to Reply #65
66. Yes indeed. Aldous Huxley,
perhaps one of the last truly (European) illustrious (illuminated, in every sense) Men and/or Women.

RiP
DeP

(John Coltrane): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_n-gRS_wdI
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MattSh Donating Member (741 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Fri Oct-16-09 04:52 AM
Response to Reply #48
68. Gotta do Springsteen sometime...

So, tomorrow is Friday, again. I need a real high-dose, good-feeling theme for it, and I suspect I'm not the only one. Any suggestions?


He fits the bill...sometimes. Besides, we missed his birthday last month. Turned 60. Now I know why I feel old as hell sometimes. Because I am.
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