It's spring training.

However, the robins seemed to have parked here for a few days. They're ususally here for a couple of days, before they head up north. Thousands of them.

They've been hanging around about a week now. Have about a thousand of them in the trees in my back yard right now.

When I was a teenager we had a couple years of robins that walked slowly out of the street kinda like punk kids. Never did come up with a plausible reason for that and then they were back to flying away when you approached.

MIGHT BE?

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/why-your-workplace-might-be-killing-you

Stanford scholars identify 10 work stressors that are destroying your health:






Rethinking the Workplace

Improving the work environment is not a Herculean feat, and many companies are already thinking beyond programs such as smoking cessation to those that address these stressors, Pfeffer says. Companies need to get serious about creating a workplace where people feel valued, trusted, and respected, where they are engaged in their work, don’t worry about losing their jobs, and where they can get home in time for family dinner, he says.

“My meta point is that we have lost focus on human well-being. It’s all about costs now. Can we afford this, can we afford that? Does it lead to better or worse financial performance for the company?” Pfeffer says. “We’re talking about human beings and the quality of their lives. To me, that ought to get some attention."

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-06/ukraine-s-economy-is-worse-than-it-looks

The world's worst-performing currency this year, the Ukrainian hryvnia, has bounced back 47 percent since last week's precipitous plunge. It's tempting to conclude Ukraine has pulled back from the brink of financial disaster. In reality, the Ukrainian central bank and government are just sweeping their problems under the rug to make them less obvious to the International Monetary Fund as it prepares a decision on a rescue package for the country on March 11. After the IMF money arrives, Ukraine will probably resume its previous monetary policy -- the most disastrous and Soviet-like pursued anywhere in Europe since the early 1990s. This chart of the hryvnia's exchange rate to the U.S. dollar may look depressingly like a dead bird lying on its back, but, in theory, it shows progress in recent days:



The hryvnia has now approached the 21.7 per U.S. dollar level stipulated by the IMF program. That would be great if it weren't just the meaningless official exchange rate. Though the hryvna was officially floated last month, it is propped up by Wednesday's refinancing rate hike to 30 percent from 19.5 percent and by currency controls. These include a ban on foreign exchange sales of more than 3,000 hryvnias to individuals and on foreign currency deposit payouts of more than 15,000 hryvnias, limits on currency purchases by banks for their own accounts, a requirement that exporters sell 75 percent of their foreign receipts for hryvnias and the ceaseless harassment of importers trying to make payments outside Ukraine. These draconian measures might seem reasonable given that Ukraine's international reserves at the end of February were down to $5.6 billion, the lowest level since June 2003. There's also the fact that the National Bank of Ukraine spends about $1 billion per month despite all the present restrictions, half on debt servicing and half on interventions to prop up the hryvna's official rate. With the coffers running empty, National Bank governor Valeria Gontareva had to do something to convince the IMF that Ukraine would be able to repay it.

The problem is that the harsh foreign exchange regulation, which makes it nearly impossible to travel abroad or conduct cross-border business, and the interest rate, which pretty much precludes domestic investment through bank funding, are driving much of the economy into the shadow sector. Ukraine has long had one of the biggest shadow economies in the world. Before last year's "revolution of dignity," the IMF estimated it at about 50 percent of output, and it is probably bigger now, because private citizens' foreign exchange transactions have moved almost entirely to the black market, and the corporate ones have gone offshore.

At the same time, the National Bank is not independent by any measure. It is printing money to finance public spending: Last year, according to Gontareva, the National Bank funded 40 percent of the country's consolidated budget. This is being done through the direct -- non open-market -- purchase of domestic bonds issued by the government. The National Bank has promised the IMF to stanch this flood, limiting the direct funding of public expenditures to 90 billion hryvnias this year. But between Jan. 1 and Feb. 26, 2015, it has already bought 20.3 billion hryvnias of government bonds. Gontareva insisted in a speech to parliament today that the country's monetary base has actually shrunk in the last two months, but that's hardly what people believe. The black market exchange rate (this being tech-savvy Ukraine, you can follow it on the Internet) is now more than 27 hryvnias to the dollar, about 25 percent lower than the official one. More than half of the Ukrainian economy likely runs on this basis, outside the regulators' reach. As Gontareva spoke today, parliament deputies, led by radical populist Oleh Lyashko, shouted her down until it was impossible for her to finish the speech. The National Bank eventually published her full remarks on its site, which is the only reason I know what she planned to say. The legislators never heard the central bank governor announce that she expected a rate of 20-22 hryvnias to the dollar would eliminate Ukraine's current account deficit and that new IMF loans would be used to replenish the country's international reserves to $17 billion by the end of this year. But this is no panacea. If the planned increase in foreign reserves prompts the National Bank to relax its currency controls, the hryvnia will inevitably sink at least to the current black market level unless the National Bank intervenes and depletes the reserves again.

Ukraine today faces a rare paradox. Its citizens are fervidly patriotic and energized by the need to resist Russian aggression, but they are so deeply mistrustful of the authorities they elected by a landslide last year that they do everything to escape their watch. They are drawing down their bank deposits and moving most of their economic activity to the shadow sector: Last year, banks lost 126 billion hryvnias in deposits, and in the last two months, another 18 billion hryvnias. The enormous volunteer infrastructure supporting Ukraine's ragtag military also exists off the government's radar...Strictly speaking, the IMF shouldn't approve the bailout package next week. Recent events have shown that the government and the national bank are losing control of the economy. Yet the Fund will probably make a political decision to fund Ukraine anyway. Any other decision will ruin the country and hand Russian President Vladimir Putin an easy victory. There are indications that once the bailout is all set, Kiev will see a massive government reshuffle, in which Gontareva and a number of ministers may lose their jobs. This game of musical chairs, however, is unlikely to increase trust in President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. As long as there's no significant decrease in corruption levels and scant evidence that the government knows what it's doing, the possibility of a coup by the battered, angry military will grow. Ukraine has wasted time, and now not even the IMF may be able to help.

http://www.businessinsider.com/oil-storage-is-americas-hot-new-commodity-2015-3

More and more investors and traders are betting on a rebound in oil prices, and many effectively are hoarding oil.

But when you hoard oil, you have to store it somewhere. In fact, spare storage capacity is getting so tight that the cost of storage is surging, sending the oil futures market into super contango, which is where the futures contract price is higher than the expected price.

All of this has inspired a lot of creativity from the industry. Storage itself is becoming as big a commodity as the oil.

In the case of producers, Bloomberg reports that some are taking advantage of this situation by relying on nature's storage space: the ground.

From Bloomberg:



And on the traders' side, there's a new derivative in town: the oil storage futures contract.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/oil-storage-is-americas-hot-new-commodity-2015-3#ixzz3U4W4B1Kn

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/06/us-usa-weather-consumers-idUSKBN0M20EI20150306

U.S. consumers battered by the wretched winter weather still afflicting much of the eastern half of the country have responded by ordering in rather than eating out, flying more frequently to Florida and cutting out trips to the mall, according to a Reuters review of company data.

Cities ranging from Chicago to Bangor, Maine, set all time records for the lowest February temperatures. Boston got more than 100 inches of snow, crippling mass transit and prompting the system's head to quit. Lexington, Kentucky, is covered in more than 20 inches of snow, the result of the biggest snowstorm since 1943...The decline could have been worse if more of the storms occurred on the weekends because that’s when shoppers restock groceries and visit the malls, analysts said.

http://www.governing.com/topics/finance/gov-chicago-paying-millions-bad-swap-deals.html

Chicago is the latest example of the many local and state governments that are haunted by interest rate swap agreements they made before the Great Recession. When the Great Recession delivered the biggest blow to government budgets this side of World War II, it wasn’t just slashing revenue streams -- it also made certain financing agreements more costly in the long run.

The agreements are called interest rate swaps, a holdover from the years leading up to 2008 when the booming market made even risky investments seem like a good idea. But in reality, these financing agreements with banks have come back to haunt governments following the financial markets crash and severe drop in interest rates. Last week, Chicago became the latest example when a credit rating downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service triggered a potential $58 million penalty for the fiscally beleaguered city.

Penalties related to ratings downgrades are common in swaps, says Municipal Market Analytics Partner Matt Fabian. But typically, the ratings floor is well below the government’s rating at the time of the deal. “Remember, Chicago was super-downgraded back in 2013 -- that kind of rating action is almost never expected,” Fabian says. “This latest downgrade is a result of the city’s huge pension liability, the complete lack of momentum in coming up with any sort of solution and a shifting [emphasis] by Moody’s on outstanding liabilities.”

Still, Chicago is not alone. Dozens of cities and states across the country still have swaps deals on the books. These deals were meant to save taxpayer money but are in fact doing just the opposite....

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/09/us-autos-gm-shares-idUSKBN0M50VR20150309

General Motors Co. said Monday it would launch a $5 billion share buyback in an effort to avert a proxy war with dissident investors, and detailed a plan that could allocate investors even more cash. GM said it had reached a deal with an investor group that averts a proxy fight over its balance sheet and governance. As part of the agreement, investment-group-leader Harry Wilson will drop his effort to get a seat on GM's board.

Wilson, a former member of the Obama administration auto task force, was instrumental in GM's federally financed bankruptcy restructuring in 2009. On Monday he praised the company's capital plan, which offers investors a more transparent view of GM's cash investment proposals than previously disclosed.

GM also confirmed Monday it will boost its quarterly dividend to 36 cents a share from 30 cents previously. It had disclosed plans to raise its dividend last month. In all, the actions should return about $10 billion to shareholders through 2016.

The auto maker outlined its plans for managing cash as part of a deal that averts a battle with an investor group that last month challenged its hoarding of cash in what the company called a “fortress balance sheet.” Some investors had expressed frustration with that approach as GM shares traded in a range near $33 a share, the price set at its post-bankruptcy initial public offering in 2010. In premarket trading Monday, shares were up 2.6 percent at $37.78. GM had built up roughly $25 billion in cash as its sales and profits rebounded following its 2009 government-led bankruptcy. But from now on, GM said it would aim to keep $20 billion in cash on its balance sheet and return free cash flow beyond that to shareholders. The framework depends on GM maintaining an investment grade balance sheet.

AND YES, THERE'S STILL MORE TO THIS SORDID TALE...

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/03/09/uk-markets-europe-activist-idINKBN0M51TK20150309

Activist funds are running out of patience with European companies which carry on building warchests with no clear spending strategy in place. The funds - which take a stake in a firm before seeking governance, strategy or capital allocation changes - are insisting on higher payouts.

"Shareholders are getting increasingly frustrated with some management teams, pushing for change," said Joseph Oughourlian, CEO of London-based Amber Capital, which has $1.5 billion under management. "Managers can't just blame tough economic conditions any more."

Amber Capital, which sees boardroom reshuffles as a good way to boost the value of struggling companies, was instrumental in forcing a management shake-up at French cable maker Nexans last year, following two years of stock price underperformance versus its Italian rival Prysmian. In mid-February, Nexans' new CEO promised more cost cuts as the group reported a narrower loss for 2014, boosting its shares by 13 percent.

High-profile activist funds in Europe include GO Investment Partners, Cevian Capital, Elliott Associates and Knight Vinke. Besides seeking boardroom and strategic changes to boost returns, funds are also urging share buybacks and bigger shareholder payouts from companies that have been slashing investments in a sluggish economy.

Data from Thomson Reuters shows euro zone companies are sitting on 1.4 trillion euros ($1.6 trillion) in cash and cash equivalents. Excluding banks, euro zone firms have a warchest of about 900 billion euros. Volkswagen, Siemens, Airbus and Telefonica have some of the biggest cashpiles, data shows. Siemens is among those already running buyback programmes. After Airbus lifted its dividend last month, UBS analysts saw potential for it to pay out a further 4 to 5 billion euros to shareholders.

A NEW FAD? MORE AT LINK

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-09/ecb-said-to-begin-buying-german-government-bonds-under-qe-plan-i71mqdno

With the first purchases of government bonds under a broader stimulus plan, the European Central Bank showed willingness to be patient in its efforts to reignite the euro area’s economy.

The ECB and national central banks started buying sovereign debt on Monday under the 19-month plan to inject 1.1 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) into the economy. While purchases included bonds from at least five countries, the size of individual trades -- at between 15 million euros and 50 million euros -- was small relative to the program’s goals, according to people with knowledge of the transactions.

“The amount bought may be small to start with, but this will be like a pressure cooker,” said Ciaran O’Hagan, head of European rates strategy at Societe Generale SA in Paris. “They have just switched on the heat and we will need some time for the pressure to mount.”

Euro-area bonds extended a 14-month rally fueled by speculation that buying 60 billion euros of debt a month will create a scarcity of government bonds among buyers of the securities. Yields already fell to record lows across the region as the Frankfurt-based bank follows in the quantitative-easing footsteps of the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and Bank of Japan.

Germany’s 10-year yield fell the most in six weeks, dropping eight basis points, or 0.08 percentage point, to 0.31 percent at 5 p.m. London time, approaching the record-low 0.283 percent set on Feb. 26.

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If the sun ever comes up, I'll go look....