"In the Summertime" by the band Mungo Jerry (turns out they're British). At a couple of points they sing, "If her daddy's rich, take her out for a meal/If her daddy's poor just do what you feel." That different attitude toward rich and poor--respect/no respect, consequences/no consequences, and dividing people into just the two categories--it just seemed too much like today. Yet the song came out in 1970. It left me feeling like we're not making any damn progress.

For what it's worth (but that's a different song).

I get them from contemplating the Crazy, and wondering if it will ever be cured. Or even if it Can be.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-private-equity-industry-looting-middle-class

***SNIP

Private equity shenanigans can also hurt the middle class by encouraging looting. For instance, as Crain's New York recently reported, in the last decade, private equity firms have collected $2 billion in so-called "transaction fees," which the business publication says "are bonuses the firms take for conducting their business of buying, managing and selling companies." This scheme has been called the "crack cocaine of the private equity industry."

As just one example of how it works, the New York Times recently examined a merger of two orthopedic implant manufacturers and how that merger resulted in a Wall Street jackpot. Indeed, according to the Times, the financial firms involved in the deal ended up extracted "a 20 percent share of gains from the sale, as well as management fees of 1.5 percent to 2 percent charged to investors" and "a share in an estimated $30 million in 'monitoring fees.'" The Times noted that "this deal will be a gift that keeps giving" to the private equity firms involved because "they will be paid millions more in fees for work that they are never going to do."

In other words, millions of dollars are taken out of companies creating tangible economic value and jobs. The money instead is sent to the speculators.

The good news, of course, is that we know how to curtail some of the worst effects of private equity's expansion. For one thing, the SEC can follow up its evaluation with fines and prosecutions. Additionally, states can pass laws mandating at least some modicum of transparency in their pension funds' dealings with the private equity industry. And, as Eileen Appelbaum of the Center for Economic and Policy Research has written, the tax code can be changed to make sure that the fees claimed by private equity managers are no longer treated as capital gains and therefore taxed at a discounted rate.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/09/watch-venture-capitalists-clash-over-social-inequality-in-san-francisco/


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Ongoing tensions over how to handle social inequality in San Francisco sparked an a rare outburst among venture capitalists Monday.

Facebook Inc executive-turned-venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya called for San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee to resign due to a “very stupid city government,” spurring fellow venture capitalist Ron Conway to jump to his feet and start yelling.

“How dare you!” shouted Conway from the rear of the auditorium at the end of a discussion on inequality at Bloomberg’s Next Big Thing conference, held at an exclusive resort just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.

The city’s role in bolstering technology, including giving tax breaks to Twitter Inc and other companies, has come under fire in recent months as complaints rise about income inequality. Many city residents blame a growing wealth gap on large technology industry salaries.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WORLD_MARKETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-06-10-05-32-27

TOKYO (AP) -- Renewed optimism about the global economy helped push global stock markets higher Tuesday.

Since late last week, investors have digested a raft of positive news from major economies: additional monetary stimulus in Europe, a solid U.S. jobs report for May, stronger first quarter growth in Japan and an improvement in China's exports.

Indications that the U.S. economy is on a roll this quarter after a bumpy start to the year have helped push American stock benchmarks higher for the past month.

European shares were mostly higher in early trading. Germany's DAX advanced 0.2 percent to 10,030.93, after a record close the previous day. The CAC-40 in France added 0.2 percent to 4,596.63. But Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.4 percent to 6,845.84.

http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-june-10th-2014-6

Good morning, and welcome to another day in the world of low volatility.
Today markets are actually in the red. Not much, mind you, but they're slightly down across the board.

US futures are off over 0.1%.

Japan actually fell 0.85%.

Germany is down about 0.1%.

See, we told you these aren't huge moves or anything.

Today in the US we get the latest look at small business optimism, which should be interesting.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-june-10th-2014-6#ixzz34EQAZdvS

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-asia-stocks-reach-three-year-high-on-promising-economic-signs-wall-street-2014-10

TOKYO, June 10 (Reuters) - Asia stocks rose to three-year highs on Tuesday on optimism over global growth prospects and a record run on Wall Street, which helped lift Treasury yields and the dollar.
Monetary easing by the European Central Bank last week also has whetted the appetite for riskier assets globally, with an upbeat U.S. nonfarm payrolls report on Friday giving further impetus to investors.

On Wall Street overnight the S&P 500 .SPX ended at a fourth straight record closing high and the Dow .DJI at its third.

Spreadbetters expected the European equities to take a breather from their recent advances, forecasting Britain's FTSE .FTSE to open as much as 0.3 percent lower, Germany's DAX .GDAXI down 0.2 percent and France's CAC .FCHI almost flat.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-asia-stocks-reach-three-year-high-on-promising-economic-signs-wall-street-2014-10#ixzz34EQcR17C

http://www.businessinsider.com/may-china-inflation-2014-6

Chinese consumer prices climbed 2.5% year-over-year in May.
This modestly beat expectations for a 2.4% rise and compares with a 1.8% rise in April.

Meanwhile, producer prices fell 1.4% YoY. This was slightly less than expectations for a 1.5% fall, and compares to a 2% fall the previous month.

Ahead of the release, Jian Chang and Serena Zhou at Barclays wrote that CPI will likely be driven higher by rising food, especially pork prices.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/may-china-inflation-2014-6#ixzz34ERROd2Q

http://www.businessinsider.com/wealthy-austrians-are-demanding-to-be-taxed-more-2014-6

Wealthy Austrians have gotten together to demand their government tax them more.

In a cover story in the Austrian weekly magazine Profil, a dozen or so bankers, CEOs, real estate moguls and inheritors say they have a civic duty to give back to a country that's allowed 70% of its wealth to concentrate in the hands of the top 10%, according to France's Libération.fr.

"A wealth tax is not only a question of morality, but also of pragmatism," says Christian Köck, a health economist and businessman who also inherited a large sum. "I don't want to be rich in a society that can't pay to invest in a fair education system."

Austria lacks an inheritance tax, and wealth brackets are not scaled. Property and rent taxes are practically non-existent.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/wealthy-austrians-are-demanding-to-be-taxed-more-2014-6#ixzz34ERxc9WD

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/06/the-mental-health-consequences-of-unemployment/372449/

“Your whole life your job defines who you are,” Yundra Thomas told The New York Times two summers ago. “All of the sudden that’s gone, and you don’t know what to take pride in anymore.”

Unemployment is commonly understood as an economic problem, and inquiries into its nature tend to come from that perspective. Why do people struggle to find work even when jobs are available? What are the job prospects for those who have been unemployed for a long time? What policies, if anything, can Washington enact to help?

But, as Thomas is saying, unemployment often exacts a toll that goes beyond economic concerns to psychological ones. Humans, after all, are not robots, and the loss of a job is not merely the loss of a paycheck but the loss of a routine, security, and connection to other people.

A new poll from Gallup attempts to gauge the consequences of those losses and finds that "unemployed Americans are more than twice as likely as those with full-time jobs to say they currently have or are being treated for depression—12.4 percent vs. 5.6 percent, respectively." Moreover, for those who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more (the "long-term unemployed," currently numbering 3.4 million people), the depression rate is 18 percent, nearly one in five.

6/10/14 A $1,000 blanket that could save your kid from a crazed shooter




This must look absolutely insane to people from other countries.

But when measuring crazy against laws allowing psychopaths to arm themselves with automatic weapons, a $1,000 bulletproof blanket seems almost reasonable. So, as we drift into numb acceptance that gun violence is part of U.S. culture, ProTecht offers us the Bodyguard Blanket, an orange shroud designed to stop a 9mm bullet. And, seeing as its based in Oklahoma, tornado debris, too.

Podiatrist Steve Walker developed the idea after last year’s storms devastated the area. He gave a sketch to an inventor named Stan Schone. Together with two others, they formed ProTecht and just recently started marketing the product. While the blankets were born out of the idea of sheltering kids from tornadoes, their push is coinciding with the aftermath of the Santa Barbara massacre. And as ridiculous as it may seem, people are probably willing to entertain any form of protection.

Schone told the Oklahoman that the blankets aren’t a better choice for tornadoes than a shelter, but they are better for school shootings. “They can lock the door and put these on in a matter of seconds,” he said. Schonne added that the blanket passed a National Institute of Justice Class 3A test, which is used to determine the efficacy of body armor for police units.

Still not convinced? Check out this video, which would be kind of unintentionally funny if the subject wasn’t so depressing. The deadpan gun-cocking of the “crazed gunman” is a real highlight at the 1-minute mark.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/themargin/2014/06/10/a-1000-blanket-that-could-save-your-kid-from-a-crazed-shooter/

Ban the ammo, and then buy back the useless guns?

So here I am at the doctor's office, being subjected to Faux News.

"Hillary is out-of-touch".....

It depends on what they think she's out of touch with....

Here is a video:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/3616116812001/dead-broke-is-hillary-clinton-out-of-touch/#sp=show-clips

It was an absolutely stupid thing to say and Faux lost no time in jumping on it.