because the GOP are babies at heart..stuck in the two-year-old teething and tantrum, just say "NO!" phase.

I'm still recovering from Sunday, and Tuesday is board meeting...

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/meet-ceo-who-cut-worker-pay-half-while-pulling-21-million


March 25, 2013 |


This article orignially appeared in Too Much , the inequality weekly. Sign up to receive free via email.

The founder of modern management science, Peter Drucker, considered excessive executive pay an assault on good enterprise management practice.

Peter Drucker, the analyst who founded modern management science, died in 2005 at age 95. At his death, business leaders worldwide hailed this Austrian-born American for his enormous contribution to enterprise efficiency.

But Peter Drucker also cared deeply about enterprise morality. In his later years, he watched — and despaired — as downsizing became an accepted corporate gameplan for pumping up executive paychecks. Drucker could find “no justification” for letting CEOs benefit financially from worker layoffs.

“This is morally and socially,” he would write, “unforgivable.”

If Drucker were still writing today, he’d likely be even more unforgiving. CEOs these days aren’t just slashing worker jobs to add on to their own rewards. They’re slashing worker pay as well — and no CEO may be benefiting more from shrinking paychecks than Ford chief executive Alan Mulally.

Mulally has restored Ford to profitability, his many business and political admirers never tire of pointing out, without having to take any taxpayer bailout. But Mulally has indeed enjoyed a hefty bailout — from his workers.

Entry-level workers at Ford used to make $28 an hour. That rate fell by half when the auto industry financial crunch first hit five years ago and now sits a bit above $19. And since the crunch all Ford workers, not just entry-level workers, have given up cost-of-living wage adjustments and health benefits.

(sniperoo) more at link.

http://www.businessinsider.com/european-markets-falling-banks-weak-2013-3

Europe is creaking again.
European banks are particularly weak.
And Italy is leading the way down again. The Milan stock market is down 1.1%.
Greece is off 4.7%.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-25/saving-cyprus-means-nobody-safe-as-europe-breaks-more-taboos.html

The devil lies in the detail of Cyprus’s salvation.

The island nation’s rescue sets precedents for the euro zone that may stick in the memory of depositors and bondholders alike as investors debate who will next fall victim to the debt crisis. Under the terms of the agreement struck yesterday in Brussels, senior Cypriot bank bond holders will take losses and uninsured depositors will be largely wiped out.

The message that stakeholders of all stripes can be coerced into helping a cash-strapped nation may make investors more skittish they’ll be targeted if Slovenia, Italy, Spain or even Greece again is next in line to need help. The risk is that bank runs and bond market selloffs become more likely the moment a country applies for a new rescue, said economists and academics from Nicosia to New York.

“We now have a new type of rule and everyone within the euro zone has to sit down and see what that implies for their own finances,” Nobel laureate Christopher Pissarides, an adviser to the Cypriot government, told “The Pulse” on Bloomberg Television.

Headed.

Straight to speculation. Aw, it was going down, too. :/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-25/brics-nations-plan-new-bank-to-bypass-world-bank-imf.html

The biggest emerging markets are uniting to tackle under-development and currency volatility with plans to set up institutions that encroach on the roles of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

The leaders of the so-called BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are set to approve the establishment of a new development bank during an annual summit that starts today in the eastern South African city of Durban, officials from all five nations say. They will also discuss pooling foreign-currency reserves to ward off balance of payments or currency crises.

“The deepest rationale for the BRICS is almost certainly the creation of new Bretton Woods-type institutions that are inclined toward the developing world,” Martyn Davies, chief executive officer of Johannesburg-based Frontier Advisory, which provides research on emerging markets, said in a phone interview. “There’s a shift in power from the traditional to the emerging world. There is a lot of geo-political concern about this shift in the western world.”

The BRICS nations, which have combined foreign-currency reserves of $4.4 trillion and account for 43 percent of the world’s population, are seeking greater sway in global finance to match their rising economic power. They have called for an overhaul of management of the World Bank and IMF, which were created in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944, and oppose the practice of their respective presidents being drawn from the U.S. and Europe.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-26/home-value-highest-since-07-as-u-s-houses-make-cash-mortgages.html

More American homeowners will be able to use their properties as cash machines again after real estate equity jumped last year by the most in 65 years.

Property owners recaptured $1.6 trillion as home values climbed to the highest levels since 2007. The amount by which the value of the houses exceeds their underlying mortgages rose to $8.2 trillion last year, a gain of 25 percent, according to Federal Reserve data.

An expanding group of homeowners is able to get cash from their properties as banks show more willingness to make home equity loans with the market’s recovery. Originations for so- called junior, or second, mortgages should rise 10 percent to almost $83 billion this year, from about $75 billion in 2012, said Shaun Richardson, a vice president at Icon Advisory Group, a mortgage analytics firm in Greensboro, North Carolina. About 6 percent of lenders eased equity-mortgage standards at the end of 2012, the most in 18 months, according to the Fed.

“Lenders are starting to come back into the marketplace,” said Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate Inc. “We’re not going back to the wild, Wild West we saw during the real estate boom, but we are going to see more people spending their equity.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-26/orders-for-durable-goods-in-u-s-increase-more-than-forecast.html

Orders for U.S. durable goods climbed more than forecast in February, propelled by automobiles and a rebound in commercial aircraft.

Bookings for goods meant to last at least three years rose 5.7 percent, the most since September, after a 3.8 percent drop the prior month, a Commerce Department report showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 80 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 3.9 percent advance. Figures on capital goods pointed to a pickup in business spending this quarter.

Gains in auto and home purchases may keep benefiting manufacturers from 3M Co. (MMM) to United Technologies Corp. (UTX), leading to increases in output that are giving the economy a lift. Additionally, business investment in new equipment is picking up as companies look past the budget negotiations in Washington and focus on expanding capacity as demand improves.

“We expect a decent acceleration in business spending,” Bricklin Dwyer, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York, said before the report. “The underlying momentum in the U.S. economy is looking fairly resilient. That’s a good reason for companies to put their money to work.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/consumer-spending/2013-03-21/the-real-cost-of-celebrating-easter.html

Eggstravaganza
To the irreligious eye, Easter is a pastel-colored, sugar-fueled, flowery-bonneted consumer extravaganza. There's Easter candy, Easter hats, Easter dresses, Easter cards, Easter baskets. It's a hugely popular holiday: Four out of five Americans will celebrate it this year, and they will spend a total of $17.2 billion, according to BigInsight, which tracks consumer spending. That's an average of $145.13 per consumer. Celebrating in the way that really matters for Christians -- in worship -- is, of course, free.


Bunnies and Peeps
Every year in the U.S., some 90 million chocolate Easter bunnies, 700 million Marshmallow Peeps and about 16 billion jellybeans -- enough to circle the earth three times -- are sold at Easter, according to the National Confectioners Association. That makes Easter the second-biggest-selling confectionary holiday after Halloween. According to BigInsight, Americans will spend about $20 per person on candy for Easter, or $1.9 billion in total.

****those are rather sinister looking bunnies.

Basket Full of Loot
While scores of kids race around outside looking for Easter eggs, few know where the tradition originated. The Easter basket, brought to the U.S. by Germans in the 18th century, was used centuries ago in Europe to take seedlings to temples to increase the chance of a good harvest. The modern Easter basket can be cheap, such as $8 for two Pink and Purple Round Bamboo Easter Baskets at Party City. Or egg hunters can opt for a fancier option, such as Longaberger's 2012 Easter basket, which sells for $72 in either brown or a mix of tan and pink and blue.

I have to confess it every Easter....

I love Peeps, but not just any Peeps. I love to buy them on sale...and I mean like 4 for $0.25. I then poke hole in the cello pane and let them dry out until they are chewy. My daughter always called it the aging of the Peeps-much like aging fine wines (paired with a dry sweet wine of course). I can buy enough to last as a snack for months for under $2-3.

I submit for your enjoyment, a site for those scientifically inclined.

www.peepsresearch.org

I love that!

I am a Peep Freak-love hanging with my Peeps.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21936554

Cyprus finance ministers are planning to impose a weekly limit on cash withdrawals, the BBC has learned.

The country's draft capital controls include export limits on euros and a ban on cashing cheques, says Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason.

In addition, fixed-term deposits will have to be held until maturity.

Cyprus's finance minister earlier confirmed that depositors with more than 100,000 euros could see 40% of their funds converted into bank shares.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21935059


China has said one of its patrol boats acted reasonably in a confrontation with a Vietnamese fishing boat last week in disputed waters in the South China Sea.

The foreign ministry said it was "legitimate" for China to take action.

Vietnam accuses the Chinese vessel of firing on the fishing boat near the Paracel islands, setting it alight.

Both countries claim the islands, which have been controlled by China since a short war with South Vietnam in 1974.

If we get in very much, it has the possibility to really blow up.

I would expect a trade war and a low-level shooting war.

Shipping in the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca would become dodgy, so we here in the U.S. cannot rely on receiving imports of military or naval supplies from countries other than China that might pass through bodies of water.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21923775

New President Xi Jinping has hailed the strength of China's ties with African nations.

Mr Xi described Africa as "a continent of hope and promise".

He was speaking in Tanzania - the second country he has visited since taking power 11 days ago.

Addressing leaders at a conference hall built by China in Dar es Salaam, he said trade between China and Africa topped $200bn (£130bn) last year.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/03/26/business/veteran-of-labor-negotiation-battles-helping-myanmar-workers-unionize/#.UVGlLu1qP8s

YANGON – Shigeru Nakajima is helping Myanmar’s burgeoning democracy by encouraging laborers in the country to unionize and helping the groups take root there.

Upon taking up his post as head of the newly opened Myanmar office of the International Trade Union Confederation in December last year, the 68-year-old Kanagawa Prefecture native kicked off his three-year tenure without pay.

“The advantage of not getting paid is being able to say whatever you want without hesitation,” Nakajima said.

In Myanmar, under the rule of the military junta, when people used to hold back from giving advice to their elders or superiors, legislation was enacted in 2011 to permit the organization of labor unions. With Nakajima’s help, union activities are becoming more enlivened.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/26/cyprus-banks-closed-prevent-run-deposits

Banks in Cyprus will remain closed at least until Thursday and will then be subject to strict controls to prevent a bank run in the wake of the island's €10bn (£8.5bn) bailout.

All but the country's two biggest banks were slated to open on Tuesday, but the central bank now says all lenders will remain closed to ensure the banking system functions "smoothly". Asked whether Cyprus's banks will reopen on Thursday, Cyprus's finance minister Michalis Sarris said: "Yes, I think they will."

Speaking on Radio 4's Today Programme, Sarris said capital controls will be imposed on Cyprus "for several weeks", restricting the flow of money around the system.

The freezing of the Cypriot banking system follows an international rescue deal that involves restructuring the country's two largest lenders, with heavy losses for wealthy savers. President Nicos Anastasiades acknowledged on Monday that the country had come "a breath away from economic collapse" before its last-minute bailout.

why do we have banks?

We keep our money in them for safety. Short of a bank robber, your money was safe. But taking 10% of your deposit against your will is theft, no matter what you call it.

You use to get some bit of interest for keeping your money there to entice you to keep your money at a particular bank. Now, with quantitative easing, your money just gathers dust and it is exposed to the risk of sanctioned theft.

Banks use to loan you money. You expected them to charge you interest because banks only source of money to operate was in loans. Now banks get their money from other sources, mainly the Fed. Your checking, savings accounts, and home or car loans are merely an annoyance to them.

What happened in Cyprus is just as much a red flag as MF Global.

And if banks have lost the societies trust...why do we have banks.

Nature abhors a vacuum. I look for bit-coin and people to people lending to evolve in the near term, but banks have evolved to the point of making themselves extinct. Like T-Rex's they have evolved beyond the capacity for society to support them.

You know it's coming.

They've not only lost trust, but they're pissing off their customers to boot.

to credit unions. Even so, in something like a Bank Holiday, I am sure it would apply to CU's too.

My suggestion is a safe and a gun, but I have gotten adept at hiding it in plain site-TP rolls, false electrical wall sockets, etc,etc,etc. I take great delight in crafting decoy safes form everyday items. I guess I could make a business out of it but I like to keep my secrets. Of course, I have some money in the kitchen for an easy grab decoy and junk jewelry up for grads in the bedroom.

My daughter dreads my passing because she know she will have to go though everything with a fine tooth comb. Hopefully I have a bit of notice and can gather it up for her.

But why would they be any different in a money crunch than a bank? I fear we would not be allowed access to our money, unless we could touch it in the bank of sealy.

Banks have definitely become convenient with electronic deposits and payment of bills electronically. But as we've seen in Cyprus, when there is a bank holiday, there are no electronic transfers until the banks re-open.

Could it be that the gov is pushing everyone for electronic deposits so that in a money crunch, access to our money is quickly taken away?

I am thinking we would still get regular mail during an extended bank holiday. Maybe I will start having my bills sent via the mailman again and manually write the checks.

And one of the negative side effects of direct deposit is the easy access to your account by thieves-government or otherwise. And as I learned from SWT the other day, co-mingling of funds like SS and say dividend checks and garage sale money can open up your account to garnishment by creditors, even though SS is not suppose to be garnished.

I like to pay my bills the old fashioned way-by mail. I keep as little money in my account as I need to do household business and I always pay in cash on everything but fixed expenditures. I always have enough cash on hand for monthly expenditures. If there is ever a bank holiday...it would just be an inconvenience-something I learned from an Iranian immigrant and his wife.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/mar/24/cyprus-bailout-lehman-demise

One Sunday in September 2008, the world waited for the expected rescue of Lehman Brothers by the US Treasury. It didn't happen. When no buyer could be found, the plug was pulled on the investment bank. The assumption that Lehman was too small to matter proved wrong – disastrously wrong.

Unless Europe wishes to compound the follies of the past week, the Lehman precedent will surely be borne in mind at the talks on Sunday to piece together a bailout for Cyprus – the fifth in the eurozone in less than three years. Those who say the monetary union has been a success must have an interesting definition of failure.

The Cypriot storm came as a shock to Europe's policy elite. The assumption has been growing for the past few months that the crisis was over, which was true to the extent that the existential threat to the euro has greatly diminished. Financial markets were soothed by the pledge by Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), to do "whatever it takes" to safeguard the euro, but life was not really returning to normal.

The rest of the eurozone knew Cyprus was festering away, but considered the country too inconsequential to worry much about. Meanwhile, complacency set in and there was no longer the urgency to make rapid progress on the economic and political integration necessary to underpin monetary union. Europe lapsed back into its default mode: muddling through. That was a mistake, because the problems of a country that accounts for just 0.2% of eurozone GDP have highlighted two structural weaknesses of the monetary union.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/mar/26/pay-freezes-inflation-retail-sales-cbi

Spending on Britain's high streets in March is at its weakest since last summer as pay freezes and rising inflation curb consumer spending power.

The monthly retail health check by the CBI found that as many shops said business was down year on year as reported an increase.

Barry Williams, Asda's chief merchandising officer for food, and chairman of the CBI distributive trades survey panel, said: "This month we've seen a glimmer of hope for retailers fade away, with the news that six months of sales growth has come to an end. All eyes are now on April when retailers expect sales to return to form.

"However, pay freezes and the rising cost of living are hitting households hard and, added to a challenging economic picture, there may well be more tough trading conditions ahead."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/german-press-reaction-to-cyprus-bailout-a-891018.html

Banks in Cyprus will remain closed until Thursday to prevent a run on deposits in the wake of the bailout deal reached on Sunday night that imposes a major levy on big depositors, many of them Russian, and shuts down the second-largest bank, Cyprus Popular, also known as Laiki.

Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris told the BBC that the government was still hammering out details of capital controls on the size and amount of money people will be allowed to withdraw. He said the controls would "probably be a bit stricter" on the two largest banks, Bank of Cyprus and Laiki. He also said people with deposits of more than €100,000 ($129,000) could see about 40 percent of their deposits converted into bank shares.

Meanwhile, even though the banks have been closed since March 16, large amounts of money have been withdrawn from them, according to Reuters. The news agency quoted an EU source saying the Central Bank of Cyprus had requested more banknotes from the European Central Bank than were warranted in terms of the withdrawals it was reporting to the ECB.

The scale of the outflow isn't known. Money has been moved out in various ways. Transfers for trade in humanitarian products, medicines and jet fuel remain allowed, for example. In addition, Laiki and Bank of Cyprus have units in London which remained open throughout last week and they placed no limits on withdrawals, according to Reuters. Bank of Cyprus also owns 80 percent of Russia's Uniastrum Bank, which put no restrictions on withdrawals in Russia.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/russian-authorities-raid-german-foundations-and-ngos-a-890969.html

Russia's recent large-scale crackdown against organizations designated as "foreign agents" has now been extended to German political foundations. Russian state prosecutors have launched investigations of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), a political think tank aligned with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union party, and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), the think tank of the center-left Social Democratic Party, according to German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.

At the Moscow headquarters of the FES, officials from the public prosecutor's office and tax authority reportedly demanded various documents for several hours. The KAS St. Petersburg office received a questionaire with more than 20 inquiries about its staff and events. Lars Peter Schmidt, the head of the KAS, confirmed on Tuesday to SPIEGEL ONLINE that Russian investigators also seized a computer without a court order or explanation. Representatives of both foundations were reportedly asked to appear before the public prosecutor.

Reinhard Krumm, the FES's head of operations for Central and Eastern Europe, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that the company viewed the investigation as "a routine check." "It's an investigation without an accusation," Krumm continued. "We are assuming that we can proceed with our work."

Nevertheless, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called the recent actions of Russian authorites against German organizations unacceptable. A spokesman from his ministry told the Süddeutsche Zeitung: "Hindrance of the activities of German foundations could have a sustained effect on bilateral relations."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/opinion-german-euro-leadership-stubborn-and-egotistical-a-890848.html

Throughout Cyprus's financial crisis, German power has been on display. But Germany is pursuing the wrong ojectives, showing how it's incapable of wielding its power correctly. Cypriot leaders came up with the idea to make their own small-scale savers liable for the bankruptcy of the banks -- with the approval of Germany -- because they wanted to hold true to their principles of crime and punishment.

All of Europe, indeed the entire world, took notice. Despite deposit insurance and Chancellor Angela Merkel's own promises, in the end it's the common people who suffer? The plan was withdrawn, and now the burden is falling mostly on wealthy Russians. But the damage is done, confidence undermined. What is the chancellor's word actually worth? Cyprus has shown once again that Europe can't rely on the Germans.

Fortunately the Euro Group has now made the right move. Those with smaller deposits are safe, one bank goes bankrupt and another is downsized. But the theatrics of the past week fit well into the image Europe is projecting right now: Irresponsible bankers gamble away the money of even richer money-launderers, and the politicians help both groups to save themselves as best they can -- at the expense of the common people, who have neither the resources nor the influence to bring themselves to safety. And all of that takes place under German domination.

That was a sign. The chancellor indulges herself and the Germans in the luxury of navel-gazing. Historical memory is essentially wiped away, good for little more than cozy evenings when we wrap ourselves in blankets and ogle at the moral failures depicted in World War II TV dramas, like the recent German miniseries "Our Mothers, Our Fathers."

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/03/26/inenglish/1364303502_670654.html


Telefónica has reached an agreement with treasury officials to pay the some 135 million euros in back taxes inspectors determined that the telecoms giant owed after audits were taken covering the tax years from 2005 to 2007, according to a statement filed with the national stock market regulator CNMV.

Telefónica told the CNMV that there are other areas that are still in dispute, but it hasn't received documents pertaining to these controversies.

The telecoms giant said that last year the Supreme Court partially ruled in its favor in a long-running case Telefónica had filed against the Treasury over audits on revenue generated from 1998 to 2000. Another case before the High Court was resolved last December in favor of Telefónica over tax disputes from revenue coming from its overseas affiliates, the company said.

Telefónica also announced Monday that it mandated Goldman Sachs to sell just under two percent of its capital, which it holds as treasury stock.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/03/24/inenglish/1364132011_984614.html


Antonio Luque, an unemployed electrician, stands in line at a soup kitchen in Jaén. / JOSÉ MANUEL PEDROSA (EL PAÍS

A combination of the economic crisis and government spending cuts is hitting Spanish society so hard that family incomes have fallen to the levels of 10 years ago, putting three million people in extreme poverty. At the same time, spending power, 18,500 euros per capita in 2012, is lower than it was in 2001. The details of this reversal were presented on Wednesday by Catholic charity Cáritas in a report that talks of a "lost decade."

The presentation, entitled Inequality and Social Rights: Analysis and Perspectives 2013, prepared by the FOESSA Foundation (Promotion of Social Studies and Applied Sociology) and other official statistical data groups, outlines the unprecedented hardships within modern Spain. The decline in living standards is due to the combined effect of the fall in income (four percent) and the rise in prices (10 percent). This combination translates into poverty that is "advancing very quickly," says Carlos Susías of the Network Against Poverty and Social Exclusion in Spain (EAPN). Referring particularly to the more marginalized sectors of society, he says: "The progression of recent years is dreadful."

Declining income is especially affecting those who already have low standards of living, with more people joining the ranks of the poor every day. Some 21.8 percent of Spaniards, or around 10 million people, now live in relative poverty - a figure that is 2.2 percent higher than that of 2008. This poverty index corresponds to 60 percent of the average national income, according to data from the EU's statistics office, Eurostat. In other words, a person is poor if they live on under 7,300 euros a year. For every adult that is added to a family unit, half of this amount would have to be included, and 30 percent for each child. According to this, a couple with two children is living below the poverty line if they have less than 15,330 euros to live on each year.

The number of people living in extreme poverty (estimated at 30 percent of the average income, 3,650 euros a year) is also growing and has already reached 6.4 percent of the population. This is up four percent from 2008 - totaling around three million people.

It's a good thing X is here to save the day. Thanks for the posts, X!