very strange...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/09/french-public-debt-audit-illegitimate-working-class-internationalim

... the committee for a citizen's audit on the public debt issued a 30-page report on French public debt, its origins and evolution in the past decades. The report was written by a group of experts in public finances under the coordination of Michel Husson, one of France's finest critical economists. Its conclusion is straightforward: 60% of French public debt is illegitimate....If it were shown that public debts were somehow illegitimate, that citizens had a right to demand a moratorium – and even the cancellation of part of these debts – the political implications would be huge. It is hard to think of an event that would transform social life as profoundly and rapidly as the emancipation of societies from the constraints of debt. And yet this is precisely what the French report aims to do.

The audit is part of a wider movement of popular debt audits in more than 18 countries. Ecuador and Brazil have had theirs, the former at the initiative of Rafael Correa's government, the latter organised by civil society. European social movements have also put in place debt audits, especially in countries harder hit by the sovereign debt crisis, such as Greece and Spain. In Tunisia, the post-revolutionary government declared the debt taken out during Ben Ali's dictatorship an "odious" debt: one that served to enrich the clique in power, rather than improving the living conditions of the people.

The report on French debt contains several key findings. Primarily, the rise in the state's debt in the past decades cannot be explained by an increase in public spending. The neoliberal argument in favour of austerity policies claims that debt is due to unreasonable public spending levels; that societies in general, and popular classes in particular, live above their means. This is plain false. In the past 30 years, from 1978 to 2012 more precisely, French public spending has in fact decreased by two GDP points. What, then, explains the rise in public debt? First, a fall in the tax revenues of the state. Massive tax reductions for the wealthy and big corporations have been carried out since 1980. In line with the neoliberal mantra, the purpose of these reductions was to favour investment and employment. Well, unemployment is at its highest today, whereas tax revenues have decreased by five points of GDP.

The second factor is the increase in interest rates, especially in the 1990s. This increase favoured creditors and speculators, to the detriment of debtors. Instead of borrowing on financial markets at prohibitive interest rates, had the state financed itself by appealing to household savings and banks, and borrowed at historically normal rates, the public debt would be inferior to current levels by 29 GDP points.

Tax reductions for the wealthy and interest rates increases are political decisions. What the audit shows is that public deficits do not just grow naturally out of the normal course of social life. They are deliberately inflicted on society by the dominant classes, to legitimise austerity policies that will allow the transfer of value from the working classes to the wealthy ones.

MORE AT LINK: WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO FIX THIS INEQUITY--A MUST READ!

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/5-signs-america-has-gone-bonkers-and-glimmer-hope?akid=11859.227380.TG9Ecd&rd=1&src=newsletter997451&t=3

-- it's plain to see that America is suffering a pestilence of nuts and narcissists in high places. These "leaders" are hell bent to enthrone themselves and their ilk as the potentates of our economic, governmental and social systems, and they are aggressively trying to snuff out the light of egalitarianism that historically has been our society's unifying force.

... Most people know that things are screwy, that this is not the America that's supposed to be. And therein lies the good news: The USA hasn't gone crazy -- its leaders have, and they can be changed:

• In opinion polls, tea party Republicans are becoming less popular than swine flu, while solid progressives are on the rise. Such undiluted populist voices as Elizabeth Warren's and Bernie Sanders' in the Senate, Alan Grayson's in the House and Mayor Bill de Blasio's in New York City are shifting the debate from the corporate agenda to the people's.
  
  
• The anthem by rocker Patti Smith sums up where we Americans are -- and where I think we're going: "People have the power -- to dream, to rule, to wrestle the world from fools." Ordinary folks are awakening to the realization that the fools have seized power, and the folks are now making moves (and movements) to seize the fools by their short hairs and reclaim our dreams.
  
  
  

I want some proof. I've been burned before.

voting for his opponent in an open primary...Michigan outlawed open primaries, I believe, just to prevent such eventualities...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/10/koch-brothers-politics-billionaire-dark-money?CMP=ema_565

... Citizens United isn't good for one party and bad for another; it's good for rich people and bad for everyone else.

The Koch brothers' place in American politics as the big-spending bogeymen changing electoral outcomes with gobs of cash will find some help this week with the release of the documentary Citizen Koch and the book Big Money (by Politico reporter Ken Vogel), a good portion of which narrates the battle between the Koch brothers and Karl Rove for the soul of the Republican Party, such as it is.

There is a delicious irony in the the fracturing of the GOP coalition: it was made possible by the death of meaningful campaign finance reform – an agenda that Republicans have fought with increasing vehemence as the party morphed into the most reliable ally of big business. Conservatives may have celebrated the Citizens United decision that unleashed the torrent of unregulated outside spending, but they wouldn't be facing a possible Democratic upset in the Mississippi Senate race without it.

Democrats, meanwhile, have been mostly gleeful about that ongoing GOP civil war, and Citizen Koch in particular cements the notion that the brothers are responsible for the drift of the GOP rightward on all fronts (and the mortal enemies of all Democrats). And it's true that the Kochs have no real counterpart on the left (or at least they didn't in 2012). But the singularity of their influence is not a permanent condition – liberal dark money outpaced conservative spending in 2013 – nor really the point. Big money is big money, and the distinction between right and left, or Democrat and Republican, will matter less and less as billionaires become the only real voters in the democratic process. In that sense, unregulated campaign spending is bad for both Republicans and Democrats, because it likely means the end of the two-party system in general...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/10/bipartisan-senate-group-considers-tax-holiday-to-help-fund-highway-repairs/


WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top Senate Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday said they were considering offering American companies a one-time tax break if they repatriate profits stashed abroad.

The senators anticipate the proposal would generate a windfall in revenue that would be used to fund federal transportation projects.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in the Capitol that Republicans had discussed a corporate tax repatriation “holiday” idea and “it enjoys a good deal of support in our conference.”

Republican Senator Rand Paul has talked with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about legislation for a repatriation holiday, a spokesman for Paul said.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/merkel-likely-to-seek-eu-compromise-with-london-a-973962.html

The mood was not a good one when Christian Democratic parliamentarians from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia met in Berlin last Monday evening. Normally, such gatherings focus on agreeing on a common line ahead of votes in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. But this time, the deputies needed to vent. Angela Merkel's grand coalition, which pairs her CDU with the Social Democrats, has been in office since last autumn. And many lawmakers within the chancellor's party are tired of the SPD presenting itself as the driving force in the government.

"We have to avoid the impression that the SPD is governing and that we, as election victor, are happy to be a part of the government," complained Wolfgang Bosback, a senior CDU member well known for his temper. A fellow parliamentarian, Jens Spahn, complained that two more issues -- pension reform and minimum wage -- could soon give the SPD even more opportunity to take center stage. "The only thing missing is if the German European Commission representative were to come from their party," Spahn says, referring to demands that SPD member Martin Schulz, outgoing president of European Parliament, become a member of the Commission. "If Schulz becomes commissioner, it would contradict two election results -- those in Germany and those in Europe."

The fight over who will become the next Commission president has reached Berlin. And that means that an issue that was already one of the most complicated that Merkel has ever faced has become even more so. The number of contradictory interests is unusually large. She wants to keep Britain in the European Union, she doesn't want to antagonize the SPD, she doesn't want to anger people within her own party and she doesn't want to be seen as the one who ignored the election result and prevented election victor Jean-Claude Juncker from taking what many see as his rightful position as Commission president. Economists call such a situation "lose-lose." Novelist Joseph Heller called it a "catch-22." For Merkel, it is a serious political problem.

During the depth of the euro crisis, Merkel was able to rely on the SPD. But this time, she can't. The SPD, together with other Social Democratic parties in Europe, are intent on installing their lead candidate Schulz as deputy head of the Commission, meaning he would have to become Germany's representative on the EU's executive body. Juncker, who needs SPD support in European Parliament to become Commission president, has agreed to the move. Should Merkel decline to support Schulz as Germany's Commission representative, the SPD would withdraw its support for Juncker and the entire deal would fall apart.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-10/barbarians-at-gate-for-swiss-boards-as-activist-investors-rule.html

Swiss directors beware: that role now comes with an ejector seat.

As part of the “fat-cats” referendum last year that gave investors a greater say in executive salaries, shareholders can fire all the board members of Swiss companies in one fell swoop. At recent annual meetings, companies such as Nestle SA (NESN) and Syngenta AG (SYNN) implemented new rules they say tip the balance of power toward foreign activist shareholders who may place their own interests ahead of the long-term good of the company.

“We have given away a lot of decision power to people outside of the country,” Syngenta Chairman Michel Demare said at a May 26 conference in Bern. “They have many more tools now in the toolbox to try to influence how a company is managed. There’s much more risk of deadlocks.”

Foreign agitators now have a weapon to provoke change at some of Europe’s largest companies, including Novartis AG and UBS (UBSN) AG. Although directors of Swiss benchmark companies receive $100,000 more per year than U.S. peers on average, Switzerland has been largely untouched by shareholder revolts. In contrast, hundreds of U.S. companies were targets of activist-investor campaigns last year, among them Apple Inc. and PepsiCo Inc.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-10/germany-needs-big-brains-to-navigate-demographic-cliff.html

With Europe’s lowest birth rate and its oldest population, Germany needs immigrants, and not just any immigrants. It needs Xiaoqun Clever.

Disillusioned by her prospects in Deng Xiaoping’s China, the computer scientist abandoned her studies there to come to Germany in 1991. In the beginning, it wasn’t easy.

“I said to my dad ‘God, I am lost here, it’s a boring country, I am wasting my youth here,” Clever recalled of those early days in the university town of Goettingen in northern Germany. “I was shocked that the shops were all closed from Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. And then on Sunday, it’s dead.”

She persevered, spent two decades rising up the ranks of software giant SAP AG and, in January, landed the plum job of chief technology officer at private broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG.

With economists estimating that Germany stands to lose more than a million qualified engineers, mathematicians, computer technicians and scientists by the end of the decade, the country is facing a looming talent crisis. Without a fresh influx of highly educated, highly skilled newcomers like Clever, demographic trends stand to endanger the industrial and engineering future of a country whose economy is built not only on national icons such as Volkswagen AG and Siemens AG but also on thousands of small and medium-sized businesses responsible for much of Germany’s technical innovation.

Like the ones that mean public safety. Not the ones that mean public repression.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-10/china-using-dubai-style-fake-islands-to-reshape-south-china-sea.html

Sand, cement, wood and steel are the latest tools in China’s territorial arsenal as it seeks to literally reshape the South China Sea.

Chinese ships carrying construction materials regularly ply the waters near the disputed Spratly Islands, carrying out work that will see new islands rise from the sea, according to Philippine fishermen and officials in the area. China’s efforts are reminiscent of Dubai’s Palm resort-style land reclamation, they say.

“They are creating artificial islands that never existed since the creation of the world, like the ones in Dubai,” said Eugenio Bito-onon, 58, mayor of a sparsely populated stretch of the Spratlys called Kalayaan, or “freedom” in Filipino. “The construction is massive and nonstop. That would lead to total control of the South China Sea,” Bito-onon said May 28, citing fishermen.

Artificial islands could help China anchor its claims and potentially develop bases to control waters that contain some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. China, which says the area falls within its 1940s-era “nine-dash line” map, successfully assumed control of the Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines in 2012 and has pressured Vietnam in the past month with an exploration oil rig in waters claimed by its neighbor.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-10/world-bank-cuts-global-growth-forecast-after-bumpy-2014-start.html

The World Bank cut its global growth forecast amid weaker outlooks for the U.S., Russia and China, while calling on emerging markets to strengthen their economies before the Federal Reserve raises interest rates.

The Washington-based lender predicts the world economy will expand 2.8 percent this year, compared with a January projection of 3.2 percent. The U.S. forecast was reduced to 2.1 percent from 2.8 percent while outlooks for Brazil, Russia, India and China were also lowered. The setbacks may be temporary: the 2015 estimate for world economic growth was unchanged at 3.4 percent.

“The global economy got off to a bumpy start this year buffeted by poor weather in the United States, financial market turbulence and the conflict in” Ukraine, the World Bank said in its Global Economic Prospects report yesterday. “Despite the early weakness, growth is expected to pick up speed as the year progresses.”

Developed economies, where domestic demand is improving as fiscal pressure eases and labor markets recover, are providing the global expansion with momentum just as their developing counterparts fail to accelerate. The bank is projecting growth in China and Brazil will slow this year from 2013.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-11/european-stock-futures-little-changed-amid-world-bank-cut.html


European stocks fell from a six-year high as the World Bank cut its global growth forecast, and investors awaited a report on U.K. unemployment. U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, while Asian shares rose.

Airbus NV declined 3.6 percent after saying Emirates canceled its entire order for A350 wide-body aircraft. Vallourec SA slid 12 percent after saying 2014 earnings may drop 10 percent from a year earlier. Inditex SA gained 1.6 percent after posting first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates, and saying it plans a share split.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.3 percent to 348.74 at 8:40 a.m. in London. The equity benchmark rose for a fifth day yesterday amid optimism that stimulus measures announced by the European Central Bank last week to increase inflation will send equities higher. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures dropped 0.2 percent today, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.3 percent.

Nine Stoxx 600 companies including Vodafone Group Plc and Cie. de Saint-Gobain are trading without the right to dividends today, shaving 0.2 point off the index.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-11/fed-prepares-to-keep-super-sized-balance-sheet-for-years-to-come.html

Federal Reserve officials, concerned that selling bonds from their $4.3 trillion portfolio could crush the U.S. recovery, are preparing to keep their balance sheet close to record levels for years.

Central bankers are stepping back from a three-year-old strategy for an exit from the unprecedented easing they deployed to battle the worst recession since the Great Depression. Minutes of their last meeting in April made no mention of asset sales.

Officials worry that such sales would spark an abrupt increase in long-term interest rates, making it more expensive for consumers to buy goods on credit and companies to invest, according to James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

That “is a widespread view in parts of the Fed, I think, and in financial markets,” Bullard said in an interview last week. While he disagrees with that perspective, it “won the day.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-11/ross-s-678-million-profit-leaves-irish-banks-needing-to.html


As U.S. billionaire Wilbur Ross exits Bank of Ireland Plc with a 500 million-euro ($678 million) profit, he leaves a financial industry struggling to grow.

Ross, part of a group of investors that helped rescue Ireland’s biggest bank in 2011, sold his remaining shares at 26.5 euro cents each this week. While that compares favorably with the 10 cents he paid three years ago, it’s 20 percent below the price at which he began selling his stake in March.

“The sale of Ross’s remaining stake, giving up a board seat which he held for just under three years, reinforces our view that there remains little in the way of incremental positive catalysts on the horizon,” said Scott Sheridan, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in London, who yesterday cut his price target on the stock to 28 cents from 30 cents.

Ireland’s troubled recent economic history is bound up with 76-year-old Ross. His investment started as Moody’s Investors Service cut the country’s credit rating to junk following a bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and ends six months after it completed the rescue program.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-11/norway-blasts-through-lagarde-s-lowflation-cycle-nordic-credit.html

The cycle of disinflation gripping much of the developed world has bypassed Scandinavia’s richest economy.

While Sweden grapples with deflation and euro-area price growth hovers at well below half the European Central Bank’s target, inflation in Norway is outpacing forecasts. Consumer prices grew 1.8 percent in May from a year earlier, the statistics office said yesterday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted a 1.7 percent gain. Adjusting for the effect of energy and taxes, prices rose 2.3 percent.

“Most countries are struggling with too-low inflation and negative interest rates, that’s a problem in Europe,” Erik Bruce, senior economist at Nordea Bank AB in Oslo, said by phone. “In Norway we have at least higher inflation than expected and no reason to change monetary policy.” He says yesterday’s inflation data may even prompt the central bank to consider a “slightly earlier hike.”

Since the term “lowflation” was coined by International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde in April, there has been no shortage of data to show the phenomenon is spreading across much of the rich world. Yet in Norway, there’s little to indicate the country will follow. Western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer boasts an unemployment rate of about 3 percent, while the government can draw on its $880 billion sovereign wealth fund to boost spending.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-09/oil-lobby-in-norway-told-age-of-zero-state-interference-is-over.html

Producers in western Europe’s biggest oil and gas exporter must brace themselves for a new legislative age that will disrupt the status quo, according to Norway’s Green Party.

After entering parliament last year, the Greens are now seeing evidence that lawmaking affecting the energy industry is changing to allow greater debate around processes that until now have been taken for granted. The oil lobby says that allowing the political debate to delay decision making will hurt Norway’s biggest export industry.

“People have gotten used to not having government interference in oil projects in Norway,” Rasmus Hansson, who fills the one seat the Greens won last year, said in an interview. “Now the bigger parties see an acute need of getting out of a position of being totally attached to the oil business.”

Parliament’s latest move forcing producers to rely on a more costly form of energy to power their operations is a case in point. Instead of using on-site power, parliament last week pushed companies to rely on so-called electrification, requiring them to build electric cables to the mainland for key new oilfield developments.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-11/china-s-record-oil-hoarding-seen-keeping-crude-above-100.html

China is hoarding crude at the fastest pace in at least a decade, shielding itself from supply disruptions and helping keep prices above $100 a barrel.

The country imported a record volume in April as it emulates steps taken by the U.S. in the 1970s to create a strategic petroleum reserve, government data show. Chinese President Xi Jinping is building stockpiles as his nation clashes with Vietnam over resources in the South China Sea and faces potential risks to oil sales from Russia, Africa and the Middle East because of sanctions and violence.

The purchases are helping drive oil prices higher, according to Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. As China’s thirst for crude grows with the expansion of its emergency stockpiles and refining, the International Energy Agency estimates that the Asian nation is poised to surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest oil consumer by 2030.

“This panicked stockpiling is one of the ways that geopolitical tensions can actually tighten physical oil markets,” Seth Kleinman, a London-based analyst at Citigroup, said yesterday by e-mail. “This buying spree is partly driven by the infrastructure needs of China’s ongoing refinery expansion, but also reflects the rise in geopolitical tensions.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-10/ukraine-crisis-chokes-east-europe-growth-world-bank-says.html

Economic growth in eastern Europe will slow “sharply” this year because of dwindling demand from Russia, which may face wider sanctions from the U.S. and the European Union if it fails to help end violence in Ukraine.

Expansion will slow to 1.7 percent this year in the post-communist east from 2.2 percent last year, the Washington-based lender said on its website. The forecast includes the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia, which are considered high income by the World Bank.

The threat of additional retaliatory measures against Russia for President Vladimir Putin’s actions in neighboring Ukraine is endangering the region’s recovery from the impact of the euro area’s recession and debt crisis. U.S. President Barack Obama said last week Putin has weeks to stop supporting pro-Russian insurgents in Ukraine or face stiffer penalties.

“Should tensions further escalate, more intrusive sanctions, possibly interrupting trade and banking flows, cannot be ruled out,” the World Bank said in the report.

http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-june-11-2014-6

Good morning. Markets are in the red.
The selling isn't too dramatic — nothing's too dramatic these days — but it is noticeable.

Germany's DAX is off 0.46%.

UK stocks are off 0.33% (meanwhile UK unemployment has just fallen to a 5-year low of 6.6%).

US futures are down over 0.1%.

In Asia, Japanese stocks gained 0.5%.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/morning-markets-june-11-2014-6#ixzz34K30yQfc

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-what-if-the-caution-of-the-super-rich-ebbs-2014-11

LONDON (Reuters) - Canny caution or bumbling oversight, the world's richest people have retained huge stockpiles of zero-yielding cash throughout the recent surge in financial asset prices.
Their persistence may have, counter-intuitively, prolonged the buoyancy of those very assets in the process - helping to inflate the outsize wealth of the super-rich further.

With the debate about rising inequality re-invigorated this year by French economist Thomas Piketty's best-selling book on ballooning wealth gaps, the spending and savings behavior of the so-called "plutonomists" has rarely seen more scrutiny or had more influence on the economy and markets.

Political clamor for redress through greater taxation of asset incomes, rents, gifts and inheritances may well build. But few expect much change in the rising wealth of the richest 1 percent of households or the 0.1 percent deemed 'high net-worth individuals.'



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-what-if-the-caution-of-the-super-rich-ebbs-2014-11#ixzz34K3bKjZI

http://www.businessinsider.com/student-debt-crisis-needs-radical-reaction-2014-6

***SNIP

Strike Debt, a debt resistance collective, is pushing for a spread of actions to banish student debt entirely, including urging a mass debt strike movement and asking that the government invest $13 billion to offer free public education. The sum, Ross noted, is just a “a fraction of 1 percent of yearly spending.”

Strike Debt's logic is solid, working on the assumption that the government has a vested interest in ending the student debt crisis. But, alas, we can't help ourselves to this assumption. While struggling borrowers certainly stymie economic growth, it remains the case that student borrowers are a boon for the federal government. Fiddles and small fixes, like those of the latest executive order, serve to maintain, not end, a society of debtors.

Student debt is a bubble with no promise of burst. Most student loan debt is government backed and can never be discharged. So, as New Inquiry editor Malcolm Harris has rightly pointed out: "There’s no escape from student debt, and the government and markets both know it. This is, then, the real plan for the education bubble: student debtors will be forced, in one way or another, to fill it in. Not only are student loans not a burden on the federal government, they’re a good investment."



Read more: https://news.vice.com/article/the-student-debt-crisis-needs-a-more-radical-reaction-than-obamas-weak-politics#ixzz34K7KMAY0

http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-children-financial-well-being-survey-2014-6

Parents in developed markets overwhelmingly believe their children will be worse off financially than they were, according to a recent chart from Citi.

France is the gloomiest by a wide margin, with 90% of adults saying their children will face greater hardships than they did. Israel and Australia were the least pessimistic. In the U.S., 62% said their children's fortunes will have deteriorated.

Fewer emerging market parents are as glum about their kids' future — though here the lowest "worse off" ratings are in places, like China and Russia, that barely made it out of the 20th century alive.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-children-financial-well-being-survey-2014-6#ixzz34K96zZ6v

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_AUSTRIA_OPEC_MEETING_?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-06-11-04-54-24

VIENNA (AP) -- OPEC oil ministers are heading into a meeting with apparent agreement to keep unchanged their output target of 30 million barrels a day.

Venezuelan oil minister Rafael Ramirez says there is "consensus" to keep the status quo. He spoke to reporters Wednesday as the ministers of the 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries began their mid-year session on how much crude to pump in the coming months.

The decision was expected. The International Energy Agency, oil consultant to major consuming countries, sees short-term demand rising. But many OPEC members are at their production capacity limits, and there are other problems. Iran's exports are crimped by sanctions, for instance, while domestic turmoil is crippling Libyan output.

But OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia has the ability to make up for any shortage.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_AUSTRALIA_SUBMARINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-06-11-05-44-46

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan and Australia discussed plans Wednesday to jointly develop stealth submarine technology, as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushes his country toward a more assertive global military role.

The submarine technology is a top item at "2+2" talks among the nations' foreign and defense ministers in Tokyo.

The research aims to develop faster submarines with reduced water resistance and quieter propellers, Japanese defense officials said earlier this week.

The technology would be applicable to any vessel, and would not necessarily lead to the sale of Japanese submarines to Australia, which is exploring purchasing submarines from Germany and France as well.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/eu-investigates-apple-starbucks-fiat-tax-deals

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Union's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it is launching an investigation into tax deals that Apple, Starbucks and Fiat struck with several European countries to see whether they violate competition law.

EU antitrust commissioner Joaquin Almunia said it appears the arrangements are not proper, though the companies and countries involved — Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg — must be given a chance to respond.

"In the current context of tight public budgets, it is particularly important that large multinationals pay their fair share of taxes," he said in a statement.

Apple has a deal with tax authorities in Ireland, Starbucks in the Netherlands and Fiat's financing arm in Luxembourg as part of their strategy to minimize the taxes they pay.

AFTER 6 YEARS (13 FOR MICHIGAN) THEY HAVE TO ASK? DONE ANYTHING ABOUT JOBS AND CONSUMER DEMAND, CONGRESS?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/06/10/will-we-ever-fully-recover-from-the-great-recession

The Great Recession was bad enough, but the not-so-great recovery might be even worse. It's been so weak that the long-term unemployed might become unemployable, that too little investment today might create bottlenecks tomorrow and that, taken together, we might never get back to growing like we did before the crisis. In other words, we might be permanently poorer.

But just how much poorer? Well, economist Larry Ball has gone back and compared how much the OECD believed that developed economies could grow in 2007 with how much they think those countries can grow today. The depressing answer is that, on an economy-weighted average, they think rich countries have lost 8.4 percent of their potential output. Now, "potential output" is a commonly misunderstood idea. It doesn't refer to how much the economy can produce without a bubble. It means how much the economy can produce without accelerating inflation, a sign of overcapacity. The OECD is worried that countries don't have as much capacity as we thought they would because the weak recovery might never undo all the harm from the recession. And that damage hasn't been evenly spread. The OECD thinks countries like Switzerland and Australia — which, not so coincidentally, have had some of the most aggressive monetary policy — have barely lost any potential, if at all. But it thinks the euro zone's crisis countries have been maimed: Greece and Ireland, according to the OECD's estimates, have lost almost 35 percent of their potential output.

Here's the good and bad news. As you can see in Ball's chart below, the countries that have had the biggest declines in actual output have also had the biggest declines in potential output. Now, the pessimistic explanation is that hysteresis is real, and it's spectacularly terrifying — that deeper recessions cause deeper long-term damage. But there's an optimistic explanation, which is that the way we calculate potential output interprets long slumps as never-ending ones — so, therefore, we're overestimating the harm here. As Paul Krugman points out, this method would have told us that the United States had recovered from the Great Depression by 1935, when unemployment was still in the mid-double digits...



Remember, potential output tells us the most we can make while keeping inflation low and stable. So, falling inflation should tell us when we're falling below potential. The only problem is what economists call "nominal downward rigidity," and what everyone else calls common sense: People don't like taking pay cuts, so, even in a depression, wages and prices don't tend to fall outright. They stay flat, at — our second — zero. That means inflation stays low and stable in a slump, so our models don't think we're still in that slump. They think it's a new normal.

We don't know if it is, but we do know that it will become the new normal if we don't start trying more. The worst that could happen is a little more inflation. That's a price worth paying for a real recovery.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/06/10/a-i-g-names-successor-to-robert-benmosche-as-c-e-o/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

...A.I.G. said that its board had picked Peter D. Hancock, the head of its property casualty business, who will take over as chief executive on Sept. 1. He will also become a director.

Mr. Benmosche will also resign from the board, though he will become an adviser to Mr. Hancock and stay involved in leadership development programs within the insurer.

The appointment signals the end of Mr. Benmosche’s tenure atop A.I.G., a five-year rebuilding period during which the company came back from its near-death experience in the fall of 2008.

Once the chief executive of MetLife, Mr. Benmosche, 70, came out of retirement in 2009 to turn around A.I.G. and repay the federal government’s $182 billion bailout. Among his first steps was calling off a plan to essentially break up the insurer in what he called a fire sale. Instead, he focused on reviving and streamlining its main property casualty and life insurance businesses, while selling off noncore operations from a position of strength...

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FOR ALL OF US SEARCHERS, BUT ESPECIALLY OUR HOST, THE DIVINE MISS T.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michaelprice/8-signs-youve-chosen-the-career_b_5472564.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

...80 percent of employees report job dissatisfaction. Do you fit in this category? Here are 8 signs that you've chosen the wrong job or career.

1. You Daydream About Doing Something Else

Do you ever catch yourself daydreaming about a different job or career? Do you oftentimes sit back and wonder what life would be like had you changed your major in college and chosen a different career path? Thinking about this on occasion and then laughing about it later is one thing, but if you think about this often and find yourself upset afterwards you may have chosen the wrong job or career.

2. Your Resume' Downplays Your Accomplishments

When you accomplish things in life you enjoy, you typically brag and boast. You may even embellish the truth to make it sound like what you've accomplished is more noteworthy than it actually is. If you've done the complete opposite on your resume' in regards to your current job position, this is a sign that you may have chosen the wrong job or career.

3. You're Depressed

Depression can be caused by numerous factors. Job related dissatisfaction can be one of them. You should seek the advice of a medical expert to diagnose you with depression if you feel that your job is contributing to your depression. One sign to look for is a compare and contrast of your outlook on life and your attitude prior to your job and the rate at which this has been negatively impacted throughout the course of your job.

4. Problems at Home

Many people who report severe job dissatisfaction also report an unstable household. They feel disconnected with their spouse/significant other and they lose interest in their children and their children's activities.

5. Promotions and Raises No Longer Excite You

A job promotion and a raise is typically the quintessential sign of job success. It's what most people strive for. However, people who are highly dissatisfied with their job or career only see a promotion and a raise as more responsibility and stress.

6. You'd Rather Be Anywhere Else But Here

Does the thought, "I'd rather be anyplace but here right now," frequently cross your mind? If you could imagine enjoying your least favorite activity over being at your job, you may have chosen the wrong job or career.

7. You Make a Big Deal About Everything

Are you that person in meetings that see's the glass as half empty in every scenario? Are you constantly finding a reason why everything about your job is wrong? Perhaps you even think the high-pitched tone of the office admin is causing a serious disturbance in your ability to enjoy and perform your job properly. If so, you may have chosen the wrong job or career.

8. You're Always Looking for a New Job

Last but not least, the biggest tell tale sign that you've chosen the wrong job or career is if you find yourself frequently updating your resume' and browsing job posting sites. Shockingly, most people who go through these motions don't actually take the action and apply for new jobs. Just the endorphin rush of going through the motions makes people feel like they've taken control. This immediately makes them feel better. If you've reached this point and you truly feel like you've chosen the wrong job and there's nothing you can do to change your perspective, today may be the day to actually take action and apply for some of the jobs you're simply browsing.

--

Michael Price is an entrepreneur and author of What Next? The Millennial's Guide To Surviving and Thriving in the Real World. An advocate of ideas for radical change, he has received critical acclaim for his lessons in education, career, entrepreneurship and personal finance.


IN MY OWN LIFE, MY FIRST FORAY INTO ADULTHOOD....IT WASN'T THE WORK, BUT THE WORKING CONDITIONS THAT MADE ME ILL. AFTER TRYING MULTIPLE VARIATIONS ON THE THEME, I DECIDED IT WASN'T TO BE. I COULDN'T MOLD MYSELF INTO A DILBERT.

I know the Tea Party nominee isn't much better and maybe even worse but, at least for one shinny moment there is a little bit of joy because Cantor was a huge shit stain.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/04/why-hedge-funds-love-charter-schools/

Article mentions this blog post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/why-hedge-funds-love-char_b_5357486.html