rec on this edition of SMW.

And a big muah to the Leader of the Pack, Tansy Gold.

http://mitchoconnell.blogspot.com/2012/02/top-100-most-strange-odd-perplexing-and.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/12/963637/the-source-of-americas-discontent.html

This Dave Barry column was originally published May 2, 2004

Before we get to today's column, I have an important announcement regarding outsourcing.

''Outsourcing'' is a business expression that means, in layperson's terms, ''sourcing out.'' It's a trend that started years ago in manufacturing, which is a business term that means ''making things.'' You youngsters won't believe this, but there was a time when Americans actually made physical things called ''products'' right here in America. Workers would go to large grimy buildings called ''factories'' where they would take a raw material such as iron ore and perform industrial acts on it, such as ''forging'' and ''smelting.'' By the end of the day, as you can imagine, they smelt terrible (rim shot), but they had turned the ore into something useful, such as a locomotive, or a toaster, or (this was not a big seller) a toaster-locomotive.

The making of things was outsourced decades ago to foreign nations such as Asia. Today, we Americans are dimly aware that our TVs, computers, cell phones, underwear, dentures, cartoons, etc., must come from SOMEWHERE, but we have no real clue who is making them, or how. We have enough trouble figuring out how to remove the packaging.

After we stopped making things, America became a ''service economy,'' which is a business term meaning ''an economy where it is virtually impossible to get service.'' But now even our service industries are being outsourced. Take, for example, ''technical support,'' which is the department you call when you are having a technical problem and need to be placed on hold. Today, when you finally get through to a human, he or she is often in a different country. This is good news and bad news:

THE GOOD NEWS IS: The foreign tech support people are smart, educated and eager to help, and they speak English.

THE BAD NEWS IS: They speak it in such a way that you understand only about every fifth word.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/12/963637/the-source-of-americas-discontent.html#storylink=cpy

DAVE BARRY IS THE HUMORIST WHO STARTED THE LATEST TREND OF FINDING HUMOR IN REALITY; HIS TECHNIQUE HAS SPAWNED THE CAREERS OF JON STEWART, STEPHEN COLBERT, & SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, AMONG OTHERS...HE'S ALSO WRITTEN SOME SCREAMINGLY FUNNY THRILLERS....

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/890101-full-scale-tank-built-from-more-than-5-000-egg-cartons-and-26-litres-of-glue

THANK YOU DAVE BARRY FOR THE LINK!

but don't people have better things to do with their time, and money

France is determined to press ahead with a financial transaction tax inspired by the UK’s stamp duty and supported by at least eight other eurozone countries, the country’s finance minister François Baroin has said

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/B5NCJN/HI3M9/AMIW4Y/629H48/50/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=13

Let us not be swayed by the smokescreen of lobbyists dedicated to protecting the interests of some highly compensated traders and their risk-prone banks. writes former Fed chief and White House economic adviser in the FT

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/IOCBMM/AMFOU5/OFBYP/PFHF1J/2OYUA4/LE/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=13

http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/02/institute-index-time-of-trials-for-bp.html

Date on which the Gulf oil spill trial is scheduled to begin in New Orleans unless a settlement is reached: 2/27/2012

Percent chance that BP will settle with the federal government before then, according to the former head of the U.S. Justice Department's Environmental Crimes Section: 70 to 80

Anticipated settlement: $20 billion to $25 billion

Rank of the BP case among the biggest private litigations in U.S. history: 1

Number of individual lawsuits that have been consolidated into the suit: 535

Number of witnesses expected to take the stand in the trial, which will determine how to apportion blame among BP and the other companies involved in the disaster: 303

Pages of documents that have been produced by parties to the litigation: 72 million

Settlement already paid to BP by Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum, one of the partners in the ill-fated Macondo well, for its role in the disaster: $4 billion

BP's settlement with Macondo partner MOEX, a Houston-based subsidiary of Japanese oil and gas exploration firm Mitsui & Co: $1.065 billion

With Cameron International, Houston-based manufacturer of the failed blowout preventer: $250 million

With Weatherford International, Houston-based manufacturer of a key piece of equipment used in cementing the failed well: $75 million

BP's estimate of total damages from the Gulf disaster: $43 billion

Amount BP has set aside to pay for damages from the spill: $20 billion

Portion paid out to date: $7.8 billion

Net earnings BP reported in 2011: $23.9 billion

Rank of BP among best-performing Big Oil stocks: 1

Percent by which BP raised stockholders' dividend this week, the first upgrade since the Gulf disaster: 14

Number of oil rigs BP expects to be operating in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico by the end of this year: 8

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/opinion/sunday/the-foreclosure-deal-unanswered-questions-and-little-relief.html?_r=1

NYTimes catches up with Yves Smith and Co.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-10/florida-homeowners-find-little-to-cheer-in-deal-with-gangsters-.html

Florida, the U.S. state with the highest percentage of troubled mortgages, may collect almost one-quarter of the national $25 billion foreclosure settlement. For Cheryl Alexander, who had a court halt the forced sale of her home, that’s not enough.

“We’re not sheep that can be led to the slaughter,” said Alexander, a 61-year-old who has been fighting to keep her Cape Coral house for four years. “These are fraudulent bankers and Wall Street gangsters who have to pay for what they’ve done.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rothschild-loses-libel-case-and-reveals-secret-world-of-money-and-politics-6720015.html

Thanks to billionaire's legal battle, we now know a lot more about how the super-rich work...

http://nymag.com/news/features/wall-street-2012-2/index5.html

And as the world becomes deleveraged, money has been pouring out. In October 2011 alone, hedge funds saw $9 billion go out the door. The London-based Man Group, the largest publicly traded hedge fund in the world, saw its stock dive 25 percent over the course of one day in September, when it shocked the market by announcing that $2.6 billion had been redeemed by clients over a three-month span. “We used to rely on the public making dumb investing decisions,” one well-known Manhattan hedge-fund manager told me. “but with the advent of the public leaving the market, it’s just hedge funds trading against hedge funds. At the end of the day, it’s a zero-sum game.” Based on these numbers—too many funds with fewer dollars chasing too few trades—many have predicted a hedge-fund shakeout, and it seems to have started. Over 1,000 funds have closed in the past year and a half.

In October, a thousand protesters stood outside John Paulson’s Upper East Side townhouse and offered the hedge-fund billionaire a mock $5 billion check, the amount he earned from his 2010 investments. Later that day, Paulson released a statement attacking the protesters and their movement. “The top one percent of New Yorkers pay over 40 percent of all income taxes, providing huge benefits to everyone in our city and state,” he said. “Paulson & Co. and its employees have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in New York City and New York State taxes in recent years and have created over 100 high-paying jobs in New York City since its formation.” The truth was, Paulson was furious that the protesters had singled him out. Last year, he lost billions of dollars on bad bets on gold and the banking sector. One of his funds posted a 52 percent loss. “The ironic thing is John lost a lot of money this year,” a person close to Paulson told me. “The fact that John got roped into this debate highlights their misunderstanding.”

It’s certainly true that Wall Street’s money played an important part in New York’s comeback, helping to transform the city from a symbol of urban decay into a gleaming leisure theme park. Consciously or not, as a city, New York made a bargain: It would tolerate the one percent’s excessive pay as long as the rising tax base funded the schools, subways, and parks for the 99 percent. “Without Wall Street, New York becomes Philadelphia” is how a friend of mine in finance explains it.

In this view, deleveraging Wall Street means killing the goose. The next decade or so will answer the question of whether a Wall Street that’s built on a more stable foundation—and with smaller bonuses—can sustain the city the way the last one did. But as banks cast about for a new business model, the city’s economy will need to find new sources of growth (this is why the Bloomberg administration has aggressively courted the tech and science industries).

MUCH MORE AT LINK

Translates too, who they can fuck over next time

Beware the re-birth of debtors prisons...And if I thought of it, you can be certain the scum suckers in Lower Manhatten already have the plan in the works.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/14/private-prisons-buying-state-prisons_n_1272143.html

of debtors prisons.
And I somehow expect a way will be found to bill the inmates for their incarceration.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
hamerfan

Xi Jinping, China’s designated next leader, visits the US this week. He will face protests over unfair competition and currency manipulation, and tense discussions about human rights and security. But more worrying is the likelihood of a war over technology transfer, as as complaints mount from US companies forced to cede intellectual property rights as a condition for operating in China.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/WDI4RR/EXUMK6/T10SH/YB20HQ/B5NV85/82/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=14

Proposals to double levy on dividends amplify White House’s intensifying policy pitch that the wealthy should pay higher taxes

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/J0VG55/JEBWPE/IEP5S/QNB1LT/16DPJB/KI/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=14

Year so far has seen some of the strongest performance numbers from equity-focused managers since 2009

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/TWK799/JEBWLZ/MJTKN/08ZCVA/MS6WA1/ID/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=14

US regulators are facing complaints about the rule aimed at banning proprietary trading at banks, increasing the chances the measure may be watered down

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/TWK799/JEBWLZ/MJTKN/08ZCVA/XH4RE7/ID/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=14

Some 1,300 clients, with claims of $19m, are to be repaid at the rate of 26 cents on the dollar next week

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/TWK799/JEBWLZ/MJTKN/08ZCVA/GDLA6K/ID/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=14

that comes out to $2,000.00 USD per $150,000.00 mortgage loan note.

I think we have price discovery in the market place. We get 2K per America for the total destruction of our country and our economy. So slaves...."Row well, and you will live. Of course, the bad news is that the Captian wants to go waterskiing after lunch."

Happy Valentine's Day all.

Tech group’s shares have risen 23% this year after reporting blockbuster fourth-quarter results and record sales of iPads, iPhones and MacBooks

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/TWK799/JEBWLZ/MJTKN/08ZCVA/ZGXN9R/ID/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=14

Woke up at 2, got sleepy at 4, just woke up again, thanks to the Kid.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is to give a presentation today at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.
Starts at 3:30PM EST and Apple is streaming the audio:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1323576

While I like Apple computers, I own no iToys. Steve Jobs was a bastard to people. My link is with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. A kindred spirit and a gifted engineer. I only hope he has held onto some of his Apple stock.

Special Valentine treat!



edit to add link!
works best for me using IE

http://www.google.com/

I actually have the original of that. . . . . .

which will most likely go right over their heads...

on you like I have to do with Fudd.....

I have a 45 and I know where you keep your computer.

When I think of how the ancients celebrated, I think of the run that all the men in Ceciely Alaska did. I will have to look for that episode.

Wonder if Demeter will use this in the enumeration of the wealth of nations...well, it was a thought. They jokes write themselves somedays.

That's a hint. You can put in an answer, or PM me.

wear da telefisssion ceerees "Norden Expose" tuk playce.

Me tinks shee trin to chit hon peepholes dat kan liv in da norn an knot ssshrinc.

or Sadie Hawkins Day?

of course...

Been thinking about getting my conceal carry also. Part of me wants too and part of me doesn't cause I'll end up on a list with the Feds.

Happy Valentine's to you and to your sweet wife, for putting up with you!

Got 2 dozen tulips for my wife yesterday.

Today will be the perfume she's been wanting

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9071704/Having-an-easy-to-say-name-will-help-you-get-promoted.html

I'M DOOMED, EITHER WAY. EVEN THE NATIVES CAN'T PRONOUNCE ONE, AND THE OTHER IS OKAY, IF YOU DON'T MIND BEING LINKED TO THE LAST KING OF POLAND, WHO LOST THE COUNTRY IN THE PARTITIONS OF THE 18TH CENTURY BECAUSE HE WAS ENAMORED OF CATHERINE THE GREAT....

..MAYBE SMITH. THAT'S A GOOD ONE...

And yet you would be AMAZED at how many people get it wrong.


Tansy Gold, who has never made a movie with aaahhhnold.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-14/italy-spain-portugal-ratings-lowered-by-moody-s-as-u-k-outlook-negative.html

Moody’s Investors Service cut the debt ratings of six European countries including Italy, Spain and Portugal and said it may strip France and the U.K. of their top Aaa ratings, citing Europe’s debt crisis.

Spain was downgraded to A3 from A1 yesterday, Italy to A3 from A2 and Portugal to Ba3 from Ba2, all with negative outlooks. Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta also had their ratings lowered.

“Policy makers have made steps forward but we do not think they have done enough to reassure the market that we are on a stable path,” said Alistair Wilson, chief credit officer for Europe at Moody’s in London. “What will guide long-term ratings is the clarity and the performance of policy makers and the macro picture.”

The euro reversed losses after a report showed German investor confidence rose more than economists forecast in February. Moody’s decision highlighted the risk that the European debt crisis will deepen even as the region’s finance ministers prepare to meet tomorrow to discuss a second aid package for Greece, following the country’s approval of austerity measures.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/02/2012213232512451974.html

Credit ratings agency Moody's has downgraded the debt ratings of six European countries including Italy, Portugal and Spain, and revised outlooks on the triple-A ratings of France, the United Kingdom and Austria to negative over eurozone debt fears.

The rating agency said on Monday it was making the changes "in order to reflect their susceptibility to the growing financial and macroeconomic risks emanating from the euro area crisis."

The rating outlook of the nine countries was set to negative "given the continuing uncertainty over financing conditions over the next few quarters and its corresponding impact on creditworthiness", New York-based Moody's said in a statement.

The credit ratings of Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta were also downgraded. With the exception of the UK, all of the countries listed use the euro single currency.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-14/schaeuble-pressures-greece-with-view-europe-better-prepared-for-a-default.html

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Europe is better prepared for a Greek default than two years ago, jacking up pressure on Greece to hold to its pledges and find the savings needed to win a second bailout.

Euro-area finance ministers are due to convene in Brussels tomorrow for their second extraordinary meeting in a week after telling Greek officials to identify additional cuts of 325 million euros ($428 million). The measures are among conditions that must be met by tomorrow for Greece to secure a 130 billion- euro rescue needed to avert financial collapse.

“We want to do everything to help Greece master this crisis,” Schaeuble said in an interview with ZDF television late yesterday. “What we’re experiencing at the moment is much less bad than what may happen to Greece if the attempts to keep Greece in the euro zone failed.” Yet if everything fails, “we’re better prepared than two years ago,” he said.

Germany, the largest contributor to euro-area bailouts, is losing patience with Greece as Europe’s most indebted country threatens to drag the region’s economy into recession more than two years after the sovereign debt crisis first emerged.

http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/7617

Spreads on public debts in the Eurozone – with the exception of Greece – are falling hard and fast. This column argues that this is in large part because the ECB is now effectively guaranteeing Eurozone government debts. But it cautions that in doing so, the central bank is taking enormous risks...

...In fact, the LTROs make things massively more dangerous. Banks borrow cash from the ECB to acquire sovereign bonds. A plausible wave of sovereign defaults will turn these bonds into toxic assets. The more that banks accumulate these bonds, the riskier the situation is becoming. The ECB seems to be making a trillion euro bet. To see that, we should recognise that the sovereign debt crisis is a case of multiple equilibria (Blanchard 2011, Wyplosz 2010). With a bit of luck, markets could be swayed by the ECB action; most public debts will be once again seen as safe and the ECB will have saved the euro at virtually no cost. But a reversion to a good equilibrium is by no mean guaranteed. Should markets conclude that crucial public policy actions are missing, as argued above, a bad equilibrium will prevail, debt defaults will spread and Eurozone banks will fold, imposing such a massive cost to taxpayers that the euro might collapse. The nature of multiple equilibria is that they are truly un-forecastable. So no one can assess whether this is a bet worth taking, especially since other central banks like the Fed or the Bank of England have directly bought sovereign bonds, taking the risk of default upon themselves rather than pushing it into bank balance sheets.

But maybe, given German intransigence, there was no other politically possible choice for the ECB. If the bet fails, we will blame the German authorities, not the ECB. That, too, is smart, but maybe a tad too smart.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/5-lessons-of-the-rise-of-the-brics/253045/

n 2001, Jim O'Neill, the chairman of Goldman Sachs asset management, famously predicted the four fastest-growing emerging markets for the decade. We know that foursome by the acronym BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. That the economic world remembers his prediction owes as much to the handiness of the acronym as it does to the accuracy of his forecast. China, India, and Brazil are among the most dynamic and exciting emerging powers in the world. Indeed, to call them "emerging" feels like a slight. India is the world's largest county, China the world's largest manufacturer, and Brazil the Western Hemisphere's most vibrant expanding consumer economy. (Russia, the runt of the group, is beset by awful demographics and a weak private sector outside of its natural resources.)



(1) THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

Perhaps the broadest lesson from the emergence of the BRICs is that no rise is complete without the triumph of the middle class. The record across these four countries is exceptional, but there is still considerable room for growth. In Brazil, credit card balances grew by a whopping 30 percent in 2008, the worst year of the Great Recession, reflecting the country's considerable appetite for consumer credit. Even in Russia, real incomes rose 142 per cent between 1999-2009. In China and India, the middle class has been buoyed by a kind of 21st-century Industrial Revolution. By 2050, half of the global middle class as defined by OECD will live in those two countries. But there are still considerable risks. Food inflation in India and a precarious housing market in China threaten to destabilize both country's fantastic ascents.

OF COURSE, PUBLIC INDIGNATION DID NOTHING...

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/297794/20120213/apple-foxconn-investigation-tim-cook-credit.htm

Apple issued a press release on Monday announcing that the Fair Labor Association (FLA) has begun inspecting factories owned by Foxconn -- one of Apple's major supply chain partners -- upon Apple's request. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said that Auret van Heerden, the president of the FLA, is leading a group of labor rights experts in the first round of inspections at the sprawling plant in Shenzhen, China, more informally known as "Foxconn City."

"We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we've asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports."

The FLA's independent assessment -- completely supplementary to Apple's own auditing practices -- will involve interviewing thousands out of the 230,000 Foxconn employees about the working and living conditions, including working hours, compensation, managerial issues, and health and safety conditions...

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/what-to-do-about-apple-and-fraud-friendly-manufacturing-in-china.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

&feature=player_embedded

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/02/mortgage-servicer-settlement-by-state.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CalculatedRisk+%28Calculated+Risk%29

http://www.nationalreview.com/exchequer/290140/armageddon-strip-mall

COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE-GATE....

http://tyillc.blogspot.com/2012/02/swedish-model-for-stopping-financial.html

The time has come to finally stop the financial crisis.

Clearly the policies that have been pursued since the financial crisis began on August 9, 2007 have not stopped the crisis, but rather have seen the crisis morph from a bank "solvency" crisis to a sovereign debt and bank solvency crisis to a government, sovereign debt and bank solvency crisis.

Today, Greece represents what happens when the financial crisis is not stopped. Rather than have the global banking system absorb the losses on debt that Greece will never be able to repay, policymakers have thrown out a democratically elected government and installed technocrats who have chosen to force the losses into the real economy and as a consequence Greece into an economic depression. The last time this occurred under similar circumstances, Germany was trying to pay reparations for World War I. It is ironic that it is Germany leading the charge to have Greece suffer a depression rather than write-down the loans. If Greece suffering a depression ended the financial crisis, then perhaps this policy could be accepted.

However, this policy does nothing to halt the ongoing financial crisis as there is significantly more debt outstanding globally than the borrowers can afford to pay. Until this fact is addressed, the financial crisis will continue...

I looked at that headline and thought Swedish bikini models and maybe they were doing a fundraiser for Greece.

And then I cleaned the lenses....

I think this is the Nordic versus the English economic system that we talked about on this thread before. And the irony of Germany's stance is not lost on us history buffs.

http://blog.rivast.com/?p=5538

...macroeconomic models. Volker Wieland and Maik Wolters has a nice post on VoxEU where they look at the performance of a goodly number of the leading macroeconomic models...of the models studied, none – zero, nada, niente – predicted anything like the recession we got, and all the models predicted a materially stronger and swifter recovery than we got. Honestly given this performance shouldn’t there be rather more wailing and knashing of teeth from the economics profession than (with a few honourable exceptions) we have seen?

http://www.businessinsider.com/study-businesses-who-employ-undocumented-workers-do-better-2012-2?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+clusterstock+%28ClusterStock%29

WHOODA THUNKIT?

Employers suffer a distinct economic disadvantage if they choose not to employ undocumented workers, especially when their competitors continue to do so, according to researchers at the Atlanta Federal Reserve.

Examining a sample of Georgia-based firms, they found that the ones initially employing undocumented workers in their first years of existence showed greater initial volatility.

But the move pays off in the long-run if the firm survives, they found, as it cuts its "exit hazard" — the likelihood it fails — by half.

Overall, these firms were 1.5 times more likely to survive than firms that did not employ undocumented workers.

The underlying reason the researchers found for this phenomenon is fairly obvious: undocumented workers keep wages low and allow firms to be more competitive...

The future of the dollar is more likely to be determined in the shale gas and oil fields of Dakota and Texas than in the sovereign wealth funds of Asia and the Middle East. This is because striking new technological developments are set to transform America’s energy supplies, significantly improving the US balance of payments and the long-term outlook for the greenback, argues Mansoor Mohi-Uddin.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/NA70KK/KQGY95/6ADGM/QNBTL8/AMFV7X/JY/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=14

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/my-application-for-head-of-public-relations-goldman-sachs/

READ IT AND WINCE

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/201221310145785503.html

New York, NY - Follow the money used to be the mantra of modern journalism until investigative reporting largely went on a hiatus. Now it's the partnership of money and power that demands our attention.

The case in point, the latest object lesson de jure, is another one of those deals that seems on the surface something we never thought we would see: a deal between five big banks and victims of mortgage frauds that will finally put some money in the pockets of homeowners who became homeless through fraudulent foreclosures.

Never mind that this problem has been known about, and worried about, since at least 2004 when the FBI denounced "pervasive fraud" in the housing market, while admitting they lacked the white collar crime fighting resources to combat it.

Both the Bush and Obama administrations came up with largely ineffectual "relief" programmes, while local courts in collusion with real estate interests rubber-stamped tens of thousands of foreclosures to uphold mortgage contracts in the name of property rights.

2/11/12
From Jesse...

Francine McKenna is an ex-auditor from Price, Waterhouse Coopers.

McKenna has a blog called re: The Auditors, and also writes for Forbes.

MF Global is a slowly boiling scandal. It is always the cover up that brings the most damage, rather than the initial criminal acts that are committed by a few.

She provides a very plausible description of what really happened at MF Global, and I find it to be entirely consistent with my own thoughts and extensive reading on the subject.

She does not address the actual cause of the MF Global bankuptcy but that is another matter.

It is a dirty business. And Francine is a highly credible source.

This will start viewing at 13:00 to hear McKenna's thoughts.

video at link...
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/02/mf-global-francine-mckenna-of-re.html

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12731/migrants_struggle_in_the_shadows_of_asias_rising_tide_of_inequality/


Bangladeshi migrants receive food in Tunisia after seeking refuge from the violence in Libya last year. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The much-hyped “emerging economies” of Asia are supposed to be moving up on the world stage, but the labor migration they’ve set in motion has put the poorest workers on a downward spiral. Wherever migrants clamor for jobs in "more developed" countries, social crisis often follows.

A recent protest in Singapore suggests that inequality and unrest simmer even in Asia's most prosperous enclaves. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Bangladeshi construction workers organized an eight-hour sit-in to demand justice for an all-but-invisible workforce:

'The low-wage migrant workers, who, like the much of the city-state’s construction force are from Bangladesh, gathered in a vacant field near their dormitories Monday in Tampines, a part of east Singapore. They were protesting against their employers, Singapore-based Sunway Concrete Products Pte. Ltd and Techcom Construction & Trading Pte. Ltd. Both companies are contracted by the government Housing Development Board to build homes across the island.

The workers said their employers had not paid their salaries for four months, since November last year, despite repeated requests for payment. Initial investigations carried out by officials from Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower confirmed that they had not been paid.

The workers also took issue with the food they were being served, which they said was inedible though paid from their own salaries, which are between S$2 – 2.50 (US$1.60 – $2) an hour, according to the workers.'

Immigrants being cheated out of wages is a common story everywhere in the world (the U.S. included, of course), and lawmakers have little incentive to clamp down on unscrupulous employers when their economic growth figures are at stake. But Singapore might be more pressured to respond in this case because the labor dispute involves government contractors.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/02/14/inenglish/1329234808_469550.html

The Spanish government on Tuesday categorically denied it had deliberately inflated the public deficit last year in order to make its target for this year look better.

The administration was reacting to a report by Reuters, which quoted sources familiar with the situation, that the European Union is also likely to take action against the Popular Party government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy for delaying taking further austerity action to reduce the deficit ahead of the regional elections next month in Andalusia, in which the opinion polls point to a first ever victory for the PP over the Socialist Party in that region.

Reuters quoted one official as saying it is “likely” that Brussels will adopt sanctions against Madrid. “It is not that we want to. But if there is a deviation, and it’s almost inevitable, then we have to,” the source said.

“It’s speculation. It’s misleading information,” Reuters quoted a government spokeswoman as saying.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/02/13/inenglish/1329156689_992226.html

Germany on Monday praised the Spanish government’s far-reaching labor reform, which makes it easier and cheaper to fire workers, a development that has understandably raised the hackles of the unions.

The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted the overhaul of the job market as an example of the measures Europe needs to seize upon to overcome the economic crisis.

The new rules cut severance pay for employees on open-ended contracts from 45 days per year worked up to a maximum of 42 months to 33 days and a cap of two years’ salary.

However, under so-called “objective reasons” employers can sack workers with compensation of only 20 days wages per year of service up to a maximum of one year. Objective reasons include, for example, three consecutive quarters of falling sales. The reform also leaves the way open for companies to cut salaries in times of economic downturn.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/NB15Df02.html

An explosion on Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi damaged an Israeli embassy car, and injured its occupants.Tal Yehoshua Koren, the wife of the defense attache at the Israeli embassy was seriously wounded. She is in critical care. She was on her way to pick up her children from their school. It is unusual for a diplomatic vehicle to be attacked on the streets of New Delhi. The Delhi police went into action. The international media wanted to know who had done the attack minutes after it was reported.

The police was wary. Let us conduct our investigation, they said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went before his parliament and accused Iran of a terrorist act. "The elements behind these attacks were Iran and its protege, Hezbollah." Iran, he said, is "the largest terror exporter in the world" and Israel "would act with a strong hand." This was all the confirmation that



BBC needed. It began to report the attack as an Iranian act against an Israeli diplomat on Indian soil.

Why would Iran conduct an attack on an Israeli diplomat in India, particularly as India is in the midst of trying to negotiate a delicate arrangement with Tehran to pay for Iranian oil? The question mystifies.

Iran is responsible for 12% of India's imported oil (see my India pivots, and pivots again, Asia Times, February 9, 2012). Over the past two years India has struggled to find a mechanism to pay Iran for this oil. Sanctions by the United States and the European Union as well as by the United Nations Security Council against Iran have complicated the market for Iranian oil. Until 2010, India used the facilities offered by the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), founded in 1974 as an outgrowth of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0214/breaking26.html

German analyst and investor sentiment leapt to its highest level since April 2011 in February, smashing expectations and sending the euro to a session high, in a sign that Europe's bulwark economy is picking up pace again.

The Mannheim-based ZEW economic think tank's monthly poll of economic sentiment jumped for the third month in a row, rising to 5.4 from -21.6 in January. This was the first time the index turned positive since May, and compared with a consensus forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts for a gain to -12.0.

"The economic weakness at the turn of the year is starting to look more and more like it was just a mere dent," said Rainer Sartoris at HSBC Trinkaus. "The economy is stabilising."

The ZEW data sent the euro to a session high against the dollar and German Bund futures to a session low.

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1510261-patient-still-fragile

With its political consensus, labour agreements and reforms in progress, Portugal appears to be better off than Greece. But the threat of bankruptcy remains and a fresh turn of the screw is still possible, warns Expresso.

In Portugal, anyone who has watched the footage of pitched battles between demonstrators and police in Syntagma Square and heard the reports of political party disputes over the latest austerity package will have no trouble distinguishing between the respective situations of the two countries.

In Portugal, we have a political consensus backed by 80% of MPs, and a social agreement [between political parties and unions] on the implementation of labour market reforms demanded by the troika [the European Commission, European Central Bank, and the IMF], which include more flexible rules on individual lay-offs.

The government and its social partners have reached agreement on plans to reduce the number of public holidays and leave days. Unemployment benefit has been cut. The law on rents has been changed [to facilitate the eviction of non-paying tenants and put an end to rent ceilings], while the government stake in Energias de Portugal (EDP) and Rede Eléctrica Nacional (REN) has been sold to Chinese funds. And all of this (and more) has been done without agitation or trouble, and certainly without any violence.

Finance ministers of the eurozone will not be meeting face to face to discuss Greece on Wednesday, but will hold a conference call instead, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/WDI4RR/NJOQOM/EKRAI/5VW5TJ/YBWU8G/82/t?a1=2012&a2=2&a3=14

Aries

Your health continues to decline as your skin becomes too sensitive to endure sunlight and your soul remains too sensitive to endure dark, smoky bars.

Taurus

While you admire his technical execution and admit he had a nice gimmick going, you have no idea who Michelangelo's target market was supposed to be.

Gemini

You can't shake the feeling there has to be more to life than "seductively unzip the jacket, primly zip up the jacket" all week long.

Cancer

You've read the instructions on how it's made, talked to people who claim to have made it, even seen videos of people making it, but you can't shake the feeling that when it comes to toast the toaster does all the work.

Leo

You'll be shunned at work when you go from indifference toward Whitney Houston's death to bursting into tears over her in a disturbingly short time.

Virgo

You'll receive hundreds of unsolicited estimates from eager housepainters when you mention your love of Jackson Pollock while walking past a Home Depot.

Libra

Your short but remarkable career as the Serge Gainsbourg of country music will end Thursday as disgustingly as it began.

Scorpio

You're as envious of the moneyed classes as you are disgusted by their distance from and disregard for everyday life, but you're still no F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Sagittarius

Just as you're coming to terms with the challenges and rewards of living alone, you begin to suspect someone else is still alive out there in the radio­active rubble.

Capricorn

Sometimes you feel like the whole world is spinning, spinning, spinning at a dizzying rate, causing the passage of day and night as well as fearsome Coriolis winds in the tropical regions.

Aquarius

When future biographers address your astoundingly large body of poetic work they'll just skip right past it, partly because it's fairly complex stuff but mostly because they're writing your biography as punishment.

Pisces

You're the kind of boring person doomed to be alone while trying to solve all the problems instead of hanging out with the cool people while assigning blame.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/market-spike-driven-latest-bout-idiocy-out-greece

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/end-day-market-surge-inducing-rumor-now-refuted