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Dear Newly,
Changing the subject from politics, how was your stay in RMNP? I fear you got somewhat wet with all the rain last night. Still, better than becoming a human torch with all those dead trees about!
Fare well in your travels.
Montrose
A small number of posters, to my mind, have gone round the bend. I ask you respectfully to take it private. It's distracting.
I don't care - just remove Zeev's name from the header. Better yet, close the board to new posts. Some of the old posts when Zeev was monitoring have historic value.
I hope the current board moderators will consider this
Alex, to have Zeev's name on this board amounts to fraudulent advertising. I request the board be renamed or - better - closed.
Who is on the Wrong Side of History?
by Anthony Wile
The Daily Bell
Saturday, July 07, 2012 –
Anthony Wile
Because of the Internet's success, numerous attempts have been made to weaken it and make it less of a problem for the power elite that it is inconveniencing and exposing.
We call the process the Internet Reformation and we're creating a society to formalize support for a free and open Internet among other things. The Internet itself is only one part of a larger inevitable freedom movement that has been stimulated by the Internet Reformation – just as the Reformation itself eventually shifted the parameters of power and authority throughout Europe.
This is surely what the power elite fears today, even though many on the Internet writing for the alternative media maintain that the top elites are implacable and even all-powerful in certain ways.
Our position has never been that this is the case. For a decade now we've been spreading the word about how the Internet and the information it offers will continue to change the power equation between those want to run the world and those who are their targets (us).
Granted, the wars, economic chaos and regulatory authority wielded by the elites are fairly imposing – and discouraging. But even within the context of so much organized chaos, we can discern various victories of all sorts.
We've often made the point that it is hard to control new technologies and that they tend to be exploited to the maximum simply as a matter of instinct. You might say humans are "programmed" to maximize the latest available technology. In any event, the anti-Internet crowd is having a rough go of it recently when it comes to formal measures that would retard 'Net expression.
The most recent news comes from Europe where the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was defeated by the European Parliament. Supporters maintained ACTA was merely intended to standardize copyright penalties throughout the West (and beyond). Those who opposed the treaty were able to make the case successfully that the potential for censorship and snooping outweighed what proponents characterized as benefits.
The bill did not simply fail by a little bit. It was overwhelmingly defeated because of opposition. Street protests blazed throughout Europe along with email campaigns and high-profile media coverage. When the dust settled, the vote was 478 against to 39 in favor, with 165 abstentions.
The result probably spells the end of the EU's formal participation in a treaty it had supported and initially helped compose. While countries can still move forward on their own with the treaty, that's probably doubtful without EU participation.
ACTA took direct aim at the Internet and its content by seeking to standardize different national laws. Some of the activities that the bill would have allowed were fairly Draconian – allowing spying on Internet users by private companies that could then request that third parties be cut off from the Internet, without any legal process, for copyright violations.
The ACTA defeat comes on the heels of other legislative defeats – at least two of which have taken place in the United States. One was the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that was intended to fight online trafficking in various criminal manifestations. It was introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) to expand the abilities of US law enforcement on several fronts.
One of the main provisions of SOPA was forbidding the use of copyrighted intellectual property on the Internet deemed illegal by various entertainment industry representatives. A number of methods of attacking the supposed illegality were suggested, including formal court orders. SOPA even included language attacking search engines. Penalties of up to five years in prison were contemplated. Library associations were especially disturbed by SOPA's copyright enforcement measures.
Senator Patrick Leahy's (D-VT) PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA) was another bill introduced in 2011 purportedly to strengthen enforcement of copyright infringements that attracted similar outrage.
In response to PIPA and SOPA Google generated a petition drive in which seven million signatures were collected, boycotts of companies that supported the legislation were carried out and a rally was held in New York City. On January 18, 2012, such large websites as Wikipedia and Reddit and about 7,000 other smaller websites participated in a daylong blackout. Ultimately, Smith shelved SOPA – radical and punitive – and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indefinitely postponed consideration of the PIPA bill immediately following the protests.
Additional challenges remain, of course, and no doubt they will keep on coming. For instance, CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, was introduced shortly thereafter as an amendment to the National Security Act of 1947. The House of "Representatives" passed the bill in April 2012 and it is pending in the Senate.
Yes, vigilance is certainly required to fend off additional Internet attacks, for surely some will no doubt seem successful. But as we have pointed out before, leading technologies have a way of continuing to be used regardless of legislation.
At a time when the Internet is surely under attack in numerous ways, it's important to recognize that there have been victories. Those who oppose the free flow of information (information that is surely undermining the progress of a "new world order") are not superhuman, nor even magical.
Perhaps they are even on the wrong side of history.
Censorship by itself doesn't work ... But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word – even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper. – Guardian, Ai Weiwei, April 2012
http://www.thedailybell.com/4063/Anthony-Wile-Wrong-Side-of-History
If this wasn't the busy season for me I would start deleting and let the chips fall where they may. Maybe in 4 months or so; until then the inmates run the asylum.
Quite so, gtober, but since no one ever posts any trades here anymore, the thread would be DOA if they weren't fighting over political questions. A sad end indeed to Zeev's once mighty thread. . .
I wonder which came first, the chicken or the egg, to cause its demise? No matter, the end result is the same.
Newly
DISMANTLE THE TBTF BANKS
By Barry Ritholtz
July 7th, 2012, 5:17PM
DISMANTLE THE TBTF BANKS, AND GOVERNMENTS TOO
William Dunkelberg
July 7, 2012
If we ever needed a better reason to dismantle the TBTF banks, certainly “LIBOR-GATE” is it. Fraud, deceit, profiteering, greed all of which put millions of investors at risk to benefit a few, it is tragic. Not that smaller banks have no “crooks”, I am sure they do, but those crooks don’t have the leverage of the Diamonds and Corzines, the power in their greed and arrogance to damage millions of people and impair the operation of our financial system, to make bets with billions, trillions of dollars which can go wrong and do. Their behavior forces central banks to pursue policies (“rates too low for too long”) which set us up for problems in the future, it’s not a “one and done” deal, we have to unwind Diamond’s bets and the Fed’s!
Big government poses the same threats to us, often in league with the big financial institutions. History makes it pretty clear, the larger the share of resources the government controls, the worse off the citizens. More government spending and regulation does not create more wealth and output for citizens. Most of our Federal budget involves taking money from one citizen and giving it to another, not creating anything but political constituencies. It’s hard to find meaningful exceptions other than in a few countries that have “city size” populations. And there are plenty of “crooks” in the government where, once again, the leverage over the quality our future is immense. And it’s for sale. Politicians buy our votes with promises they cannot pay for and use that power to their benefit. It’s a fraud, just like the financial institution frauds.
Our strength lies in numbers – lots of competitors, none of which have the power to move or manipulate markets. Always has been the strength of our economy and will be if it is not crippled by taxes and regulations. And lots of voters to reign in the size of government and its intrusion into the private sector’s management of its resources, not just at the Federal level, but state and local as well.
~~~
William C. Dunkelberg is co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Liberty Bell Bank, Cherry Hill, N.J., and Professor of Economics at Temple University
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/07/dismantle-the-tbtf-banks/
It's a shame too.
As I warned 2 years ago when the politics 'restrictions' were relaxed. We reap what we sow. So, since its all politics all the time, so be it. Zeev would be proud.
arilau: The "Monsanto Rider." Great phrase, gotta send it to the Committee for consideration as Phrase of the Week.
I'm not pushing for a war in the mid-East Yank. Heck, I've never started a rumble a tumble or a food fight. But if there is a war I suspect it'll be in Iran, and if so the price of oil will drop lower, maybe a lot lower. Gotta let it play out. We'll see.
The Monsanto Curse:
The 'Monsanto Rider': Are Biotech Companies About to Gain Immunity from Federal Law?
The Secretary of Agriculture would be required to grant a permit for the planting or cultivation of a genetically engineered crop, regardless of environmental impact.
July 6, 2012 |
While many Americans were firing up barbecues and breaking out the sparklers to celebrate Independence Day, biotech industry executives were more likely chilling champagne to celebrate another kind of independence: immunity from federal law.
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=152746
Hi Yank. I may be wrong about the price of oil and a war in Iran. I trade mostly futures and close out each day in cash. I never owned GURE and Fabian may have been wrong about GURE, I don't know the price. The last stock I traded was LGF after I saw the Island Reversal after a large up-move.
But I have a great deal of respect for Fabian and his analysis of things, even when wrong. If he liked the stock it wasn't to pump it; that's not his style.
Skono- not certain about state wide here either...I'm just speaking about what I know (and mine was a very specific market at that). We built in the highest of the high-end North Scottsdale golf communities (Troon, Troon North, Desert Mountain, Desert Highlands, DC Ranch) not tract stuff. Avg. selling price 3-5 million. Funny how things have changed.
I understand your frustration with the rhetoric. It's a complicated world we live in now. For a hoot, Google "construction labor shortage Arizona." Can't find anyone to work now.
pants
Link please. I went back to all my recent posts and never said that. I believe you have me confused with someone else or you just manufactured that quote. If it is accurate, link please.
Newly
The tax man cometh to police you on health care
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press
Jul 7, 8:09 AM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court's decision to uphold most of President Barack Obama's health care law will come home to roost for most taxpayers in about 2 1/2 years, when they'll have to start providing proof on their tax returns that they have health insurance.
That scenario puts the Internal Revenue Service at the center of the debate, renewing questions about whether the agency is capable of policing the health care decisions of millions of people in the United States while also collecting the taxes needed to run the federal government.
Under the law, the IRS will provide tax breaks and incentives to help pay for health insurance and impose penalties on some people who don't buy coverage and on some businesses that don't offer it to employees.
The changes will require new regulations, forms and publications, new computer programs and a big new outreach program to explain it all to taxpayers and tax professionals. Businesses that don't claim an exemption will have to prove they offer health insurance to employees.
The health care law "includes the largest set of tax law changes in more than 20 years," according to the Treasury inspector general who oversees the IRS. The agency will have to hire thousands of workers to manage it, requiring significant budget increases that already are being targeted by congressional Republicans determined to dismantle the president's signature initiative.
"Knowing the complexity of the health law, there's no question that the IRS is going to struggle with this," said Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee. "The IRS wants more resources. Well, we need to start digging down into what are they doing with the resources and personnel."
Treasury spokeswoman Sabrina Siddiqui said, "The overwhelming majority of funds used by the agency to implement the Affordable Care Act go to administer the premium tax credits, which will be a tax cut averaging about $4,000 for more than 20 million middle-class people and families."
The Supreme Court, in its 5-4 ruling, upheld the mandate that most Americans get health insurance. The majority said Congress has the power to enforce the mandate under its taxing authority. The decision labeled the penalties a tax, noting that they will be collected by the IRS.
Those who don't get qualified health insurance will be required to pay the penalty - or tax - starting for the 2014 tax year, unless they are exempt because of low income, religious beliefs, or because they are members of American Indian tribes.
The penalty will be fully phased in by 2016, when it will be $695 for each uninsured adult or 2.5 percent of family income, whichever is greater, up to $12,500. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 4 million people will pay the penalty that year.
The law, however, severely limits the ability of the IRS to collect the penalties. There are no civil or criminal penalties for refusing to pay it and the IRS cannot seize bank accounts or dock wages to collect it. No interest accumulates for unpaid penalties.
So how can the IRS enforce the mandate? Scary letters and threats to withhold tax refunds.
The law allows the IRS to withhold tax refunds to collect the penalty, and most filers get refunds. This year, 77 percent of the 135 million individual income tax returns processed by the IRS qualified for a refund. The average refund: $2,707.
For those who don't qualify for a refund, a stern letter from the IRS can be effective, even if it doesn't come with the threat of civil or criminal penalties, said Elizabeth Maresca, a former IRS trial attorney who supervises the Tax & Consumer Litigation Clinic at the Fordham University law school.
"Most people pay because they're scared, and I don't think that's going to change," Maresca said.
The IRS has not yet issued procedures for taxpayers to prove they have insurance. But IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, in a 2010 speech, said he envisioned a process similar to the one used by taxpayers to report interest or investment income.
Under this scenario, an insurance company would send the taxpayer and the IRS forms each year verifying that the taxpayer has qualified insurance. Taxpayers would file the forms with the IRS along with their returns, and the IRS would check them to make sure they match the information supplied by the insurance companies.
The IRS says it is well on its way to gearing up for the new law but has offered little information about its long-term budget and staffing needs, generating complaints from Republican lawmakers and concern from government watchdogs.
The IRS is expected to spend $881 million on the law from 2010 through 2013, hiring more than 2,700 new workers and upgrading its computer systems. But the IRS has not made public information about its spending plans in the following years, when the bulk of the health care law takes effect.
The lack of information makes it impossible to determine whether the IRS will have adequate workers to enforce the health care law, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration said in a report three weeks ago. The report, however, concluded that "appropriate plans had been developed to implement tax-related provisions" of the law.
In 2010, House Ways and Means Committee Republicans issued a report saying the IRS may need as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees "to investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans."
That assessment has been widely cited by opponents of the law. The IRS disputes the jobs number but hasn't offered another one.
"That is a made-up number with no basis in fact," IRS spokesman Dean Patterson said in an email. "The 2012 budget calls for about 1,200 employees for the IRS to implement the (Affordable Care Act), and the vast majority of those employees are needed to build technology infrastructure to support payments like the new tax credits for individuals and small businesses."
Republicans on the House committee have accused the IRS of obscuring its cost of putting in place the health care law by absorbing it into in other parts of the agency's budget. They cite a June report by the Government Accountability Office that said the IRS has not always accurately identified spending related to the new health care law.
"The agency's repeated lack of transparency to Congress and its failure to provide accountability to the American taxpayers raises fundamental concerns about implementation authorities vested to the IRS," the top four Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee wrote in a June 27 letter to the IRS commissioner.
The committee chairman, Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., has scheduled a hearing on the tax implications of the Supreme Court's ruling for Tuesday.
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/07/3694421/the-tax-man-cometh-to-police-you.html#storylink=rss
About the path this thread is taking:
A story.
Starting 1998 I was a part of about 100 avid Hearts players,we had tournaments etc.
We also had our own thread on Yahoo msg boards.It was fun.
It was fun until the WTC collapsed.This is when we started with Politics.
A lot of virtual friendships were destroyed,many have abandoned the thread.
We keep up with the politics in here,same future is awaiting this thread.
Lee (and all) the following link, according to my guru, goes to an FBI site and checks your computer for the virus
If green -- OK
If red -- get help
http://www.dns-ok.us/.
Dear Lolita: If anyone gets knocked off the internet Monday who's gonna be first? Me. Right Plugger?
Right or wrong,this reminds me of all the articles ,from 5 years ago,telling us how the world is running out of oil,articles that brought the price to $120-$140 a barrel and GS and others talking about $200...
Malware may knock thousands off Internet on Monday
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
July 5, 3:14 AM (ET)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The warnings about the Internet problem have been splashed across Facebook and Google. Internet service providers have sent notices, and the FBI set up a special website.
But tens of thousands of Americans may still lose their Internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers for malware that could have taken over their machines more than a year ago.
Despite repeated alerts, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April. Of those still infected, the FBI believes that about 64,000 are in the United States.
Users whose computers are still infected Monday will lose their ability to go online, and they will have to call their service providers for help deleting the malware and reconnecting to the Internet.
The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.
In a highly unusual move, the FBI set up a safety net. They brought in a private company to install two clean Internet servers to take over for the malicious servers so that people would not suddenly lose their Internet.
But that temporary system will be shut down at 12:01 a.m. EDT Monday, July 9.
Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their Web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.
But popular social networking sites and Internet providers have gotten more involved, reaching out to computer users to warn of the problem.
According to Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent, many Internet providers are ready for the problem and have plans to try to help their customers. Some, such as Comcast, already have reached out.
The company sent out notices and posted information on its website. Because the company can tell whether there is a problem with a customer's Internet server, Comcast sent an email, letter or Internet notice to customers whose computers appeared to be affected.
Grasso said other Internet providers may come up with technical solutions that they will put in place Monday that will either correct the problem or provide information to customers when they call to say their Internet isn't working. If the Internet providers correct the server problem, the Internet will work, but the malware will remain on victims' computers and could pose future problems.
In addition to individual computer owners, about 50 Fortune 500 companies are still infected, Grasso said.
Both Facebook and Google created their own warning messages that showed up if someone using either site appeared to have an infected computer. Facebook users would get a message that says, "Your computer or network might be infected," along with a link that users can click for more information.
Google users got a similar message, displayed at the top of a Google search results page. It also provides information on correcting the problem.
To check whether a computer is infected, users can visit a website run by the group brought in by the FBI: http://www.dcwg.org
The site includes links to respected commercial sites that will run a quick check on the computer, and it also lays out detailed instructions if users want to actually check the computer themselves.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120705/D9VQJTNO0.html
The War Between Manipulation and Buying
by Jim Sinclair
July 6, 2012, at 6:06 pm
My Dear Extended Family,
Next week is the war between manipulation of gold by the West, and appetite for buying gold in the East, both from friendlies and enemies. Anyone that does not see today’s gold market as a rig is blind or brain dead. There is a full blown crisis in Western world banking today, right here and now. There is a full blown crisis in sovereign debt of some weaker nations as in a very short while certain government will be out of money. The Eurosnobs hate each other which does not make for a fast reconciliation of a crisis.
It is a myth that Western banks are strong enough to weather the storm of a full blown banking crisis in Europe.
It is a myth that the Federal Reserve will stand as the one hawk in the Western world and fiddle while it’s Rome burns.
It is a myth that Obama could be re-elected if the Fed remains intransigent.
It is a myth that Finland or Germany will strike a match to the euro that totally wipes out the largest part of their exports.
It is a myth that governments are ready to face the economic, social and political fallout standing austere as their economies implode, which they will.
It is myth that there is any recovery in the USA. By falling more we will be in a depression.
It is a myth that because thousands of bears email me that somehow they can convince me of the opposite when I know I am correct.
Next week will be the time the cartel tries to break the gold price again. They have failed seven times, and will fail on the 8th. Gold is going to $3500 and above. All the lying and conniving only means the price will go higher. Just as Morgan’s whale could not fight the market, the cartel cannot fight gold as we have a flight away from all fiat currencies.
How can anyone in Europe sleep tonight with cash in the bank, even amongst the stronger nations whose banks are loaded with weak nation’s paper. The house of cards is coming down right now. Trying to manipulate the price of gold to hide the crisis at hand is futile.
If you have your positions on margin you are crazy and I cannot do anything for you. All others stand tall because gold will trade above $3500 and not in some LaLa Land future of Armstrong’s imagination.
Respectfully,
Jim
http://www.jsmineset.com/2012/07/06/the-war-between-manipulation-and-buying/
How Wall Street Scams Counties Into Bankruptcy
By William D. Cohan
Jul 1, 2012 6:30 PM ET
Lord knows we’ve had more than enough scandals ginned up by Wall Street over the years, and the message that banking executives proclaim after each is: “Don’t worry, we’ve learned that lesson, and it will never happen again.”
Which is how we got to the recent spectacle of Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), testifying twice before Congress that although the bank’s chief investment office was taking huge proprietary risks with some $350 billion of its depositors' money -- and lost $3 billion (and counting) by making a bunch of risky bets on an obscure, thinly traded derivatives contract -- everything is now fine and dandy because the unjustifiable gambling has been stopped dead in its tracks.
We were, of course, told pretty much the same thing after the collapse of the junk-bond market in the 1980s, the collapse of the Internet initial-public-offering market in the 1990s, the collapse of the telecom debt market in the early 2000s, not to mention the scandals over IPO spinning and laddering and the ones involving the trading of favorable corporate research for investment-banking fees.
We are told repeatedly that when Wall Street’s deeply flawed incentive system leads to one bad outcome after another, year after year, it will never happen again. Yet it does. And you can add this vital business to the list: The way state and local government officials hire Wall Street firms to raise the billions of dollars their municipalities need to build schools, hospitals, airports and sewers, and provide other essential services.
Minor Penalties
For some reason, Wall Street never seems to get the message that bribing government officials -- and paying each other off - - to get access to lucrative municipal-bond underwriting business is illegal. Wall Street has never learned this lesson because the miniscule price it ends up having to pay for misbehaving has absolutely no deterrent value whatsoever.
Indeed, what the cartel of the major banks does over and over again to win underwriting business from local government officials, and the way the cartel then sorts out among itself who gets what fees, is a microcosm of a much wider problem of the increasing power that the Wall Street survivors of the financial crisis have over the rest of us.
As I described in my book “The Last Tycoons,” about Lazard Freres & Co., the firm in the early 1990s surprisingly became a force in the underwriting of bond sales for state and local governments, even though Lazard was basically a mergers- and-acquisitions shop. Lazard’s prowess came after it hired two senior bankers: Mark Ferber and Richard Poirier.
Over time, the how and why of the firm’s success revealed itself. Poirier seduced state officials where he did business -- New Jersey, Kentucky, Louisiana and Georgia -- while Ferber did the same with government officials in Massachusetts. Ferber also took more than $1 million in payoffs from Merrill Lynch in order that Ferber would recommend Merrill as the underwriter to Massachusetts state officials. Eventually, Lazard and Merrill settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges against the firms for $12 million each -- without admitting or denying responsibility, of course -- and Ferber and Poirier left Lazard.
In August 1996, Ferber was convicted on 58 counts of fraud and then was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison and fined $1 million. The nub of the problem, according to the Boston Globe, was that the arrangement between Lazard and Merrill was “a symptom of an under-regulated municipal finance industry, where political connections can often bring more dividends than the substance of an underwriter’s proposal and where hidden conflicts often abound.”
Fraud Charges
As for Poirier, he was later convicted on fraud charges in Fulton County, Georgia, for paying a bribe to an intermediary at a regional investment bank in exchange for underwriting business. “This crime involved significant planning from both defendants,” an appellate court wrote of Poirier’s actions. In 1995, Lazard got out of the municipal-finance business.
So, what lessons did Wall Street learn from Lazard, Ferber and Poirier about bribery, conspiracy and back-room dealing in municipal finance? Unsurprisingly, none. In 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged that two bankers at JPMorgan, Charles LeCroy and Douglas MacFaddin, had in 2002 and 2003 privately agreed with “certain” county commissioners in Jefferson County, Alabama, to pay more than $8.2 million to “close friends of the commissioners who either owned or worked at local broker-dealers” that had been hired to advise the county commissioners on awarding underwriting business.
The purpose of the payments, the SEC alleged, was to make sure the commissioners hired JPMorgan as the underwriter of municipal-bond sales and swaps contracts. The SEC caught LeCroy and MacFaddin on tape saying the payments were “payoffs,” “giving away free money” and “the price of doing business.” (Attorneys for LeCroy and MacFaddin disputed the SEC charges, which they are still fighting.)
The best part, according to a suit filed by the county, was that JPMorgan even agreed to pay Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $3 million if it wouldn’t compete for a $1.1 billion interest-rate swap that JPMorgan entered into with Jefferson County. The payments were all undisclosed -- the Goldman money, the suit claimed, was shuffled through a separate derivatives contract created just to make the payment -- and decreased the proceeds the county received from the offerings.
To settle the charges with the SEC, JPMorgan neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing -- of course -- but paid $722 million, including forgiving $647 million in fees that the county would have had to pay to unwind the swap deals. Last November, Jefferson County filed for bankruptcy protection, largely a result of the deals JPMorgan Chase put together.
Taking Bribes
But still the lesson has not been learned. Just read the latest shocking investigation by Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, which recounts a just-concluded case in a Manhattan federal court, U.S. v. Carollo. In a nutshell, it explains how three bankers at General Electric Co. (GE)’s finance arm, GE Capital -- as well as a bunch of ne’er-do-wells at an intermediary brokerage, which supposedly vetted potential underwriting firms -- were doing the exact same things bankers at Lazard, JPMorgan and Merrill did in years past: paying and taking bribes in exchange for business “in a breathtakingly broad scheme to skim billions of dollars from the coffers of cities and small towns across America,” according to Taibbi.
The details are nauseating -- Taibbi aptly compares the whole scam to the Mafia. It leads one to believe that Wall Street big shots are like scorpions, which sting because that’s what they are on Earth to do, they just can’t help themselves.
“One of the biggest lies in capitalism,” former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who made his name prosecuting Wall Street misdeeds, told Taibbi, “is that companies like competition. They don’t. Nobody likes competition.” Spitzer could have added that this hatred of competition is ever-keener on Wall Street, which today, with its ranks thinned by the financial collapse, operates more like a cartel than ever.
The three GE bankers -- Dominick Carollo, Steven Goldberg and Peter Grimm -- were convicted on May 11 of conspiracy to commit fraud. Will Wall Street finally learn its lesson? It would certainly help if the federal judge in the case, Harold Baer, throws away the keys to the cells the three men are set to inhabit.
(William D. Cohan, a former investment banker and the author of “Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World,” is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this article: William D. Cohan at wdcohan@yahoo.com.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-01/how-wall-street-scams-counties-into-bankruptcy.html
Hathaway - The Lengthy 10 Month Correction In Gold Is Over
Four-decade veteran John Hathaway gave King World News exclusive distribution rights to the following piece. The prolific manager of the Tocqueville Gold Fund had extremely important news for holders of gold and silver around the world: “The good news is that the lengthy ten month correction in the metal and the shares appears to have reached a conclusion.” This is a fantastic piece by the man who leads the five-star MorningStar rated fund.
By John Hathaway
Tocqueville Asset Management L.P.
July 6, 2012
During the second quarter, the gold price declined 4.3% from $1,668 to $1,597. On a year to date basis, gold has appreciated 2.2%. Gold mining shares as measured by the XAU Index (PHLX Gold/Silver Sector Index) declined 9.7% in the second quarter and 11.9% on a year to date basis. That is the bad news. The good news is that the lengthy ten month correction in the metal and the shares appears to have reached a conclusion. On Friday June 29th, gold rose $45/oz. and the XAU jumped 3.4%. While it might be premature to declare an end to the correction based on the action of one day, we believe that the weight of all evidence as discussed in the following paragraphs provides a substantial basis to suggest the stage has been set for a resumption of gold’s multi year advance.
The immediate catalyst for Friday’s rally was the conclusion of the summit of European leaders which signaled that Germany had relaxed its rigid stance against direct lending by the European Central Bank to recapitalize the European banking system. As noted by David Zervos of Jeffries in his 6/29/12 commentary, “The ESM, with access to the ECB balance sheet for leverage, is now a fiscal backstop (with a printing press) for the resolution of bad European banks…This is a huge step in the right direction for the global reflation trade.” In short, when push comes to shove, political leadership in all Western democracies lean towards inflationary policies and back away from fiscal austerity.
Gold and precious metals mining shares are in strong hands. As we have noted elsewhere (Gold, Gold Mining Shares, and QE), gold has held above its December 29, 2011 low of $1523/oz. despite several attempts to break below that level. In all cases, sharp but brief declines in the gold price during the first half of this year were closely linked to statements by the Fed that no further quantitative easing would take place past the scheduled expiration of Operation Twist on June 30, 2012. Despite those previous denials, the FOMC statement of June – indicated that (surprise!) Operation Twist will be extended through the end of 2012. It appears that cessation of QE turns out to be far more difficult than previously imagined by Fed policy makers. The exit strategy from unprecedented financial liquidity is at best an academic exercise for the PhD’s at the Fed. In the real world, chaos theory suggests that scale and risk are positively correlated. What works on the lab bench doesn’t necessarily translate to large systemic issues. The credibility of the Fed, in our opinion, has sunk to all- time lows and currency debasement is in full bloom on both sides of the Atlantic.
To this observer, it appears that any market which has been given multiple chances to trade lower but still holds its ground is signaling exhaustion of selling pressure. This certainly seems to be the case for gold. We will not be surprised if gold revisits the high of last year ($1,900) or pushes through to new all- time highs by year end. As we stated in our March 31 quarterly letter, gold stocks should respond very favorably to the perception of a directional change in bullion. We believe that the ten month decline in the gold price has been the major headwind for gold mining stocks. Why would anyone own them other than for the possibility of a higher gold price? While we do not wish to minimize such issues as capital spending cost pressures, resource nationalism, or competition from GLD and similar instruments, we believe those concerns will fall by the wayside with the resumption of the bull market in the metal. If gold were to trade at $2000/oz. later this year, and should the ratio of gold mining shares (XAU basis) return to the mid -point of its range since the launch of GLD in 2004, or roughly 15% versus the current level roughly 10%, mining stocks could double on a 25% increase in the gold price.
The data contained in the appendix continues to paint a picture of an important low in the precious metals complex. The data speaks to the rock bottom valuation of mining shares, dispirited sentiment, and compelling macroeconomic fundaments supportive of the gold price. It portrays a landscape of opportunity for the contrarian minded investor. The past ten months, and especially the most recent six months have been an incredibly difficult test of investor fortitude and steadfastness. It is in the nature of all bull markets, and (perversely) especially so for precious metals, to shake out as many as possible along the way to minimize participation to the fewest possible stalwarts. Turns from such a lengthy and important bottom are not designed for instant gratification. Their length is designed to produce maximum demoralization as investors ruminate on the paradox of stellar fundamentals that go unrewarded by market action.
What might the headlines be when gold trades at new highs? The list is long and by its very nature speculative. The key indisputable fact is persistent negative real interest rates which is the swamp which motivates investment capital to seek out gold. Negative real interest rates or financial repression means distortion of markets in such a way as to create the potential for financial accidents. The overhang of bad baggage from ten years of predominantly negative real interest rates is in our opinion weightier than anything in history. The policy challenges facing the Volcker Fed and the Reagan administration that ultimately capped the previous bull market in gold seem mild by comparison to those of today.
We believe that gold remains under owned and misunderstood notwithstanding a thirteen year bull market. It is considered a fringe strategy to most, a little bit exotic and slightly risqué to the mainstream investor. While policy makers attempt to buy time by inventing solutions that are incomprehensible to most, the dream of mainstream investors for robust growth amidst stable economic conditions remains alive. Faith in half-baked policy improvisations that are nothing more than repackaging bad debt in the envelope of sovereign credit, along with hope that ever increasing quantities of sovereign debt will generate growth is, in our opinion, delusional. It is a smoke screen that obscures reality and will most likely result in further misdirection of capital. When adverse outcomes become obvious, gold will seem pricey. In the current confusion of misplaced faith, it seems to us downright reasonable.
John Hathaway
Portfolio Manager and Senior Managing Director
© Tocqueville Asset Management L.P.
July 6, 2012
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/7/6_Hathaway_-_The_Lengthy_10_Month_Correction_In_Gold_Is_Over.html
The weather lady said it's gonna be in the 90's today. That's kinda warm. We have two air conditioners downstairs, one upstairs in my office. They'll do the job. Instead, we close all the windows, cause if it's 95' outside it'll soon be 95' inside; that's according to Coles Law, or as we say, coleslaw.
..."PIPPIN" with Ben Vereen just started on FOXMC...
With the windows closed I turn on my off a/c upstairs. And because cold air descends it cools off downstairs. And if necessary we turn on a fan for the puppy.
It works.
Right Gent. No, wrong. Well, maybe.
I must needs disagree brightness. Real-time cameras in phone poles, high trees, [I once saw a bright chimp clicking away sitting on a high branch munching on a loverly bunch of bananas, intersections, millions walking around with cell phones clicking, clicking, clicking.
You can't hardly scratch nose, crotch, kneecap or toochas without the world watching and laughing.
Yea Belgie, Suzy and I did the "Dance of Joy" when the Salt man took his mighty cut, sending the pup into next week with our rauc whooping and hollering.
We became fans of the Salt Man last year when we saw his offensive and defensive abilities.
Did you know that the poor fellow has the most syllables, 6, to his last name than any other ballplayer? Hence "Salty" which would have been tagged on him anyway.
Or should it have been Celine- these question plague me !
Hey guys, ladies, let me know-did I make the right choice last week selecting Heather Hedley over Sarah Brightman in their duets with the great Andrea Bochelli. I was totally enchanted with Sarah Brightman and her warm rapport with Andrea but I just felt Heather sublimated her ego to blend so well with Andrea- in sports parlance, she was a total team player, a Boston Celtic!
Compare:
Wall Street Week Ahead: Stimulus moves, profits to be focus
BY Reuters Equity 7:01 PM ET 07/06/2012
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street has been running in circles for the past two months, and the pattern may continue despite the upcoming start of the earnings season.
Quarterly report cards from blue-chips Alcoa and JPMorgan next week could fade into the background as traders jockey for position before key data from China and more central bank headlines next week.
After three major central banks eased monetary policy this week, investors will comb through the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting, which will be released on Wednesday, to see what officials said about a further round of asset purchases.
U.S. stocks face headwinds from a slowing global economy. Europe's debt crisis has drawn much of the attention, but little clarity has emerged about how the euro zone's debt and banking problems will be fixed despite numerous meetings.
The uncertainty has left the market in the hands of traders, who look for opportunities for quick returns, while investors, who are in the market for the long haul, watch from the sidelines.
The S&P 500 flirted with going negative for the year shortly before posting its best week since December. The benchmark index is less than 0.1 percent above where it was two months ago.
"Traders are happy going in and out of the market within a range, but for the average investor it's a market in which the path is still unclear," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.
On Friday, the S&P 500 closed down 0.55 percent for the week. The index has posted four weeks of gains and four of losses in the last eight.
CENTRAL BANKS TO THE RESCUE?
Weak U.S. labor market data on Friday raised the chances in favor of the Fed launching a new round of monetary stimulus to boost growth, according to a Reuters poll.
The Fed's minutes midweek will be followed Thursday by the Japanese central bank's views on the health of its economy after a two-day meeting.
"If we do see additional asset purchases from the Bank of Japan that would depreciate the yen and would be a short-term positive for global equities," said Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
The recent central bank actions are seen as precautionary moves as the global economy stalls. Next week's gross domestic product data out of China will help give the market important clues about the world's second-biggest economy.
"Some of the negative news is built in, and I'm anticipating a positive surprise coming out of China," Jacobsen said.
Economists expect China to report year-on-year GDP growth of 7.6 percent, compared to an 8.1 percent yearly gain in the first quarter.
Other Chinese data next week include inflation, loan growth, trade balance and retail sales.
Europe remains on traders' minds despite an agreement last week that opens the door for troubled banks to receive rescue funds. However, Italian and Spanish borrowing costs have resumed their rise in a bearish sign for markets.
Testimony by ECB President Mario Draghi to Europe's parliament on Monday will be followed by a meeting of euro zone finance ministers.
EARNINGS, OUTLOOKS ... AND A BIG TRADING LOSS
Aluminum company Alcoa reports second-quarter results on Monday. Alcoa surprised Wall Street last quarter with a positive outlook, but the global slowdown could make it harder for the aluminum maker to keep its bullish stance.
JPMorgan Chase & Co will also report earnings next week, with investors eager to know how big the bank's losses will be following a botched trade. The initial estimated loss at the bank was $2 billion but later reports indicated it could balloon to more than four times that.
"The idea is that analysts have been marking down not only earnings estimates but revenue estimates, and the reason is because of weakness in Europe, which is spilling over to weakness in global operations for many companies," said Brian Gendreau, market strategist with Cetera Financial Group in Gainesville, Florida.
The U.S. economic calendar for next week includes import prices and trade, plus producer prices and the preliminary reading on July consumer sentiment from the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan surveys.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
In California there are a few rackets that are NEAR 80-90% illegal alien labor in isolated markets (regions) but certainly not statewide and certainly not anything resembling a SKILLED construction trade. I think you are picking from a very unrepresentative sample of tradesmen and projecting your personal experience well beyond the narrow scope from which your data is drawn.
Here in Mexifornia esidential landscaping, roofing those trades have the highest percentage of illegals-------has to be VERY small contractors though as the paperwork to shield the parent firms requires some sophistication. So they just can't be safe for long competing on larger jobs unless they have "protection" from some corrupt politicians or union bosses.
Outside construction there's small manufacturing like cabinetry, upholstery shops, car washes, transient agricultural labor (picking cotton) domestic help (The Nanny and the cleaning lady)------pretty much saturated and overwhelmed with illegal aliens but I seriously doubt we're talking 80-90% statewide.
All of these jobs still have many, MANY Americans beat down by the low wages, lack of respect, lack of benefits and TOTAL lack of bargaining power in their labor market due to the COUNTLESS MILLIONS of invaders from Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and whatevers left from there. But the harsh reality is they don't have the aptitude, education, initiative or resources to up and move away to better ground or move up the ladder economically to more competitive job opportunities. America ABANDONS these folks legally and culturally when we tell them------MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of them that they are doing work that American's wont do. Honestly pantmaker this horse shit rhetoric boils my blood.
None of the principles of fair, honest, quality competition apply when the referee is blind, crippled and crazy------meaning he's a political appointee.
OT Lee Kramer's head just hit the living room ceiling, when Salty jacked that 3 run homer to tie it at 5-5 in the bottom of the 1st against the Yanks.
Seek medical attention immediately, Lee. Probably a lot more to come with 26 or more innings to go! LOL
Should be a great weekend for all concerned.
Make it a great weekend all you little Zeevers out there. Plugger, stay out of the sand traps. Sox-Yankees, three games starting tonight.
Nq's got to just beyond 2610. Time to go but that was the trade.
Most Actives..
Symbol Price Change Volume
SPY -1.49 (-1.09%) 104.1M
BAC -0.16 (-1.98%) 86.3M
GE -0.34 (-1.65%) 41.4M
RIMM +0.38 (+4.94%) 38.1M
EEM -0.74 (-1.86%) 34.6M
XLF -0.11 (-0.75%) 33.3M
NOK -0.09 (-4.46%) 31.4M
QQQ -1.05 (-1.61%) 31.1M
ARNA -0.23 (-2.03%) 31.0M
MSFT -0.58 (-1.89%) 28.0M
Nq's 2707.25; may want to take half here, enter stop, smile.
Nq's 2604.50 last.
Nq's are talking to me, [yea, charts often talk] they're saying "buy me boobeleh, I look higher."
Nq 2603 could get you 2610; it's a trade.
Taibbi: Talking LIBOR Banking Scandal with Eliot Spitzer
By Matt Taibbi
POSTED: July 6, 2:09 PM ET
And I spy a bit of volume coming in. We'll see.
Nq's just under 2601 now; doesn't have to happen, but I got a "feel."
They both have good jobs, bought a modest home, no children, just pets, enjoy the ocean and the mountains, I could just go on, besides there mild weather of 70 degrees is envious.
Right now we are over 100 degrees agin, and we get wicked wind storms of late, had one last night, lost another tree, came real close to the house. Getting tired of the heat and bad storms, this place never had this kind of heat, or tornadoes, now it seems we are getting them all the time.
Nq's, if you see 2603 mit some volume you might want to play.
Portland is great, son, DL and grand daughter there. I am up the road about 400 mi. Spokane.
Like the fellow said, "There's always another girl coming 'round the corner."{
You must be dying with all these moves lately.
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