STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday May 21

Source: du

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday May 21, 2010

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Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold

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Bush Administration Officials Convicted = 2
Names: David Safavian, James Fondren

Bush Administration Officials Charged = 1
Name(s): Richard Lopez Razo

Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 = 11

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This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.

Read more: du

That's weekly "WeAkly" for the uninitiated

So I wonder which ones will be 'pushing up daisies' this week.

The FDIC released the Q1 Quarterly Banking Profile today. The FDIC listed 775 banks with $431 billion in assets as “problem” banks in Q1, up from 702 banks with $403 billion in assets in Q4, and 305 banks and $220 billion in assets in Q1 of 2009.

Note: Not all problem banks will fail - and not all failures will be from the problem bank list - but this shows the problem is significant and still growing.

The Unofficial Problem Bank List shows 725 problem banks - and will continue to increase as more formal actions (or hints of pending actions) are released.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/05/fdic-q1-banking-profile-775-problem.html

Red Roof Inn rings a bell...

I can't see them digging out of this hole without government intervention.

http://www.fdic.gov/about/strategic/corporate/cfo_report_4thqtr_09/1209_CFO_Report.pdf

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell below $70 a barrel Friday in Asia on investor concern that a financial crisis in Europe could undermine the global economic recovery and crude demand.

Crude has fallen about 20 percent so far this month after touching an 18-month high of $87.15 on May 3 as investor confidence tumbled amid fears deep government spending cuts in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal to stave off a debt default will hurt European economic growth.

Capital Economics said it expects crude prices to fall to $60 a barrel at the end of the year.

In other Nymex trading in June contracts, heating oil fell 0.64 cent to $1.8955 a gallon, and gasoline dropped 0.54 cent to $1.9591 a gallon. Natural gas slid 1.1 cents to $4.095 per 1,000 cubic feet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices

Bring your own bucket.

HONG KONG (AFP) – The biggest drop in more than a year on Wall Street triggered fresh turmoil in Asian markets Friday, amid heightened anxiety over the eurozone debt crisis and doubts over the strength of the US economy.

Asian markets tumbled in response, with several markets hitting lows not seen for several months.

Tokyo dived 2.45 percent, or 245.77 points, to close at 9,784.54, its lowest level since December 2.

Sydney ended 0.26 percent, or 11.1 points, lower at 4,305.4 after slumping 2.9 percent to a 10-month low earlier. Singapore was 2.17 percent off.

Shanghai was 0.31 percent lower and Hong Kong was closed for a public holiday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100521/bs_afp/asiafinancestocksforex

NEW YORK (AFP) – US stocks slumped Thursday on European debt concerns and bearish US economic data, with the Dow index tumbling more than three percent for its biggest drop in more than a year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 376.36 points (3.60 percent) to 10,068.01, its third straight day of losses and biggest percentage fall since March 5 last year.

All 30 of the Dow's blue-chip components closed lower, with Bank of America and aluminum producer Alcoa recording the steepest daily drops.

Wall Street remain gripped by the eurozone debt crisis but local factors fueled the fresh stock plunge.

Fresh government data showed the largest number of Americans lining up for unemployment insurance claims in five weeks while a private survey indicated that the US economic recovery could stall.

A bill to overhaul financial rules and clean up Wall Street also passed a key hurdle Thursday in Congress, a victory for President Barack Obama but a blow to the corporate barons on Wall Street.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100520/ts_alt_afp/stocksus

In 2005, Raghuram Rajan stood before a room of prominent economic policy makers celebrating Alan Greenspan's legacy and presented a paper about how the world was headed for financial disaster. The University of Chicago economist was roundly scoffed at even though, as it turns out, he was right. Now that the crisis he predicted has abated, is he more optimistic? Not necessarily, because, as he argues in a new book, the real causes of the crisis aren't yet being addressed. TIME spoke with him about the conclusions he draws in Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy.

You write that growing income inequality in the U.S. fed the housing and financial crises. How so?

People at the 90th percentile of income distribution, typically your office managers, are pulling away in terms of income from people at the 50th percentile of the distribution, typically your grocery shop clerk or manufacturing worker. Much of this is because of education. People with high school degrees and those without high school degrees are falling behind those who have a bachelor's degree and those who have higher degrees. The educational system hasn't kept up with the demand for highly skilled workers, and housing credit was an easy solution to that problem. People looking at their rising house prices pay less attention to their stagnant paychecks. This wasn't Machiavellian, but it was the path of least resistance. Bush called it the ownership society, and Clinton called it affordable housing, but they both focused on making loans for housing.

So what's a better way of dealing with income inequality?

To tackle the problem at the source. A large part of the population doesn't have the skills to compete in the modern economy. It's partly that they haven't kept pace with the technological change that's happening, and it's partly that people in the rest of the world are competing with them now. Being unskilled in the United States is a recipe for a life of stagnant wages and lots of uncertainty; we need to provide better skills to the population. One of the numbers that I cite, which is frightening, is that the fraction of people graduating from high school hasn't increased over the past 30 years. But it's not just fixing the schools, it's about families and the communities kids grow up in. It's a very big social problem, and that's why politicians say, "It's going to take too long to tackle this, let's try something else."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1989916,00.html?xid=rss-biztech-yahoo#ixzz0oYWiIggP

Tax the Obscenely wealthy and their estates; forget the VAT or any other sales tax that impacts food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medical care, education, unless it applies solely to true luxury items; implement universal single payer; and make anyone with income less than 3 times the poverty level out of payroll taxes.

Or alternatively, put the poverty level and the minimum wage at something more like reality.

LONDON (AFP) – Leading shares fell on Friday, after steep losses elsewhere, as eurozone debt concerns, rising US jobless claims and the prospect of Wall Street financial reforms hit sentiment.

In morning trade, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top shares slid 0.77 percent to 5,033.13 points.

"Global equity markets remain in something of a torrid state," said IG Index analyst Ben Potter.

"Asia has followed Wall Street's lead lower and the expectation is that the major European indices will again take another hit."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100521/wl_uk_afp/stockseuropeopen

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – All U.S. stocks will probably be subject to so-called circuit breakers by the end of this year, Duncan Niederauer, chief executive officer of stock exchange operator NYSE Euronext, said on Thursday.

The circuit breakers, a mechanism to halt trading in a stock for five minutes if it falls more than 10 percent within five minutes, will initially apply to stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500 index under a proposal by the Securities and Exchange Commission as regulators try to avoid a repeat of the mysterious May 6 market slide that quickly spiralled out of control.

For example, some stocks need to fall 10 percent to trigger the circuit breaker mechanism while some others only need to fall 5 percent or 2 percent, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100520/bs_nm/us_nyse_circuit

The U.S. Senate, bringing Congress to the brink of passing the most comprehensive regulation of the financial industry since the Great Depression, approved a bill that imposes restrictions on proprietary trading by banks and creates a consumer protection agency designed to prevent lending abuses that triggered the housing collapse and the worst unemployment in almost three decades.

The legislation, approved by a 59-39 vote yesterday and requiring reconciliation with a bill passed by the House of Representatives in December, provides a mechanism for liquidating financial institutions, until recently considered too big to fail, a council of regulators monitoring threats to the economy and specific restraints on the trading of so-called derivatives, which spawned the toxic debts that seized up the credit markets in 2007 and 2008 and prompted the Federal Reserve to make trillions of dollars of loans to banks on the brink of insolvency.

Prohibiting financial institutions from trading derivatives -- contracts whose value is derived from stocks, bonds, loans, currencies and commodities, or linked to specific events such as changes in interest rates or the weather -- is especially controversial and opposed by Wall Street lobbyists and by some regulators, including Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. The proposed consumer protection bureau, which the Senate has placed inside the Fed, would have powers to write and enforce rules banning lending considered abusive.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said the bill is “hardly perfect” and will be improved in the House-Senate negotiations.

Dodd said he planned to consider strengthening language to ban proprietary trading by U.S. banks. The issue was raised in an amendment offered by Democrats Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Carl Levin of Michigan that wasn’t considered during debate of the bill on the Senate floor.

http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-21/u-s-senate-approves-wall-street-financial-overhaul-bill-after-59-39-vote.html

The Senate passed a financial "reform" bill Thursday by a 59-39 vote which won't fix any of the core problems in the financial system, and won't prevent the next financial crisis.

The bill doesn't include the Volcker Rule (it wasn't even debated), doesn't break up or even substantially rein in the too big to fails, and doesn't force transparency in the derivatives market.

Senator Feingold said:

The bill does not eliminate the risk to our economy posed by "too big to fail" financial firms, nor does it restore the proven safeguards established after the Great Depression, which separated Main Street banks from big Wall Street firms and are essential to preventing another economic meltdown. The recent financial crisis triggered the nation's worst recession since the Great Depression. The bill should have included reforms to prevent another such crisis. Regrettably, it did not.

Senator Cantwell agreed, saying:

It sets up a process for responding the next time we have a financial crisis, but it doesn't prevent this kind of thing from ever happening again.

Dodd's bill:

• Won't break up or reduce the size of too big to fail banks

• Won't remove the massive government guarantees to the giant banks

• And won't even increase liquidity requirements to prevent future meltdowns

http://seekingalpha.com/article/206301-the-senate-s-faux-financial-reform-bill?source=feed

The Senate passed a financial "reform" bill Thursday by a 59-39 vote which won't fix any of the core problems in the financial system, and won't prevent the next financial crisis.


What exactly does this bill, reform?
:shrug:

I am beginning to think it's time to eliminate the Senate. They have been falling down on the job for decades, and have no intention of even trying to do their job....they think their job is to collect bribes and protect corporations from consequences. I think they are complicit crooks, with a few lonely exceptions.

Initial public offerings from U.S. companies backed by private-equity firms are losing money for investors for the first time in at least a decade, making them the worst performers in 2010’s IPO market.

The 13 offerings by private-equity funds have fallen 2 percent in the first month of trading after averaging gains every year since at least 2001, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Greenwich, Connecticut-based Renaissance Capital LLC. The IPOs have also lagged behind the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, while companies without support from buyout firms have beaten the benchmark gauge for U.S. stocks by 5.8 percentage points after their initial sales.

The disparity indicates that investors are becoming less willing to purchase what private-equity firms are selling, even after funds from Blackstone Group LP to Apollo Global Management LLC offered the biggest IPO price cuts this year. The failure of buyers to profit from the share sales may hamper the funds as they try to offload some of the $2 trillion in leveraged buyouts made during the credit-market bubble, according to Rochdale Investment Management LLC and 1st Source Investment Advisors.

Money raised by LBO firms fell 78 percent to $35 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Preqin Ltd. of London, after the collapse of New York-based Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. a year earlier stymied deals and froze credit markets.

http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-19/private-equity-backed-u-s-ipos-leave-buyers-with-worst-returns-in-decade.html

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Maybe they are getting their investment advice from Goldman :puke: Sachs.

After the vultures have drained all the cash and saddled the company with as much debt load as a small nation, who would want to buy it? Especially if the capital raised by issuing stock goes to the vulture, and not the actual firm on offer.

Debt: 05/19/2010 12,975,292,327,567.97 (DOWN 9,374,337,542.60) (Wed)
(Up a little. Good morning.)

(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 8,466,739,480,001.79 + 4,508,552,847,566.18
UP 208,812,715.15 + DOWN 9,583,150,257.75

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 309-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.23 each THAT'S 1B$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.7, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 13 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 309,300,916 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 04/09/2010 15:49 -> 309,034,742
Currently, each of these Americans owe $41,950.38.
A family of three owes $125,851.15. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 5,101,950,561.44.
The average for the last 30 days would be 3,741,430,411.72.

There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 158 reports in 231 days of FY2010 averaging 6.74B$ per report, 4.61B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 977 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.3 and 18.0T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
05/19/2010 12,975,292,327,567.97 BHO (UP 2,348,415,278,654.89 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,065,463,324,056.20 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof10 +1,683,524,299,915.64 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Linear Projection

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
04/28/2010 -000,020,446,125.69 ----
04/29/2010 -019,519,315,418.04 -
04/30/2010 +098,427,087,705.17 ------------**********
05/03/2010 -004,329,381,263.93 -- Mon
05/04/2010 +000,043,170,775.25 ------------*******
05/05/2010 +000,598,834,211.91 ------------********
05/06/2010 -014,947,673,650.95 -
05/07/2010 +000,000,195,077.74 ------------*****
05/10/2010 +000,804,647,162.22 ------------******** Mon
05/11/2010 -000,148,047,510.67 ---
05/12/2010 +000,782,970,242.92 ------------********
05/13/2010 +003,301,759,550.17 ------------*********
05/14/2010 -000,440,383,687.55 ---
05/18/2010 +000,360,533,772.20 ------------******** Tue
05/19/2010 +000,208,812,715.15 ------------********

65,122,763,555.90 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4389734&mesg_id=4389922

(Up a lot. Good weekend to all.)

(Debt under Obama seems to jump up big then drop slowly maybe up a little and down a little for days--repeat.)
= Held by the Public + Intragovernmental(FICA)
= 8,476,842,609,085.10 + 4,510,980,063,343.92
UP 10,103,129,083.31 + UP 2,427,215,777.74

Source: Debt to the penny:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

THINKING IN BILLIONS: Think 3 or 4 dollars per billion in a 309-Million person America.
If every American, man, woman and child puts in $3.23 each THAT'S 1B$.
A family of three: Mom, Dad, Child: $9.7, ABOUT TEN BUCKS for a 1B$ federal program.
I hope that is clear. However, I'd suggest using $3 per 1B$ to underestimate it.
Use $4 per 1B$ to overestimate the cost when thinking: Is the federal program worth it?
Aid to Dependant Children: 2B$/yr =$8/yr(a movie a year) Family of 3: $24/yr(an hour of bowling)

PERSONALIZED DEBT:
Every 13 seconds we net gain another American, so at the end of the workday of the report, there should be 309,307,562 people in America.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html ON 04/09/2010 15:49 -> 309,034,742
Currently, each of these Americans owe $41,989.99.
A family of three owes $125,969.98. (And that is IN ADDITION to their mortgage.)

ANALYSIS:
There were 22 reports in the last 30 days.
The average for the last 22 reports is 5,298,500,312.37.
The average for the last 30 days would be 3,885,566,895.74.

There were 252 reports in 365 days of FY2007 averaging 1.99B$ per report, 1.37B$/day.
There were 253 reports in 366 days of FY2008 averaging 4.02B$ per report, 2.78B$/day.
There were 75 reports in 112 days of GWB's part of FY2009 averaging 8.03B$ per report, 5.38B$/day.
There were 174 reports in 253 days of Obama's part of FY2009 averaging 7.33B$ per report, 5.07B$/day so far.
There were 249 reports in 365 days of FY2009 averaging 7.57B$ per report, 5.16B$/day.
There were 159 reports in 232 days of FY2010 averaging 6.78B$ per report, 4.65B$/day.
Above line should be okay

PROJECTION:
There are 976 days remaining in this Obama 1st term.
By that time the debt could be between 14.3 and 18.0T$.
It could be higher. It could be lower.

HISTORICAL:
President's term begins and ends on Jan 20.
(Guess who might want to hide the Reagan Bush years. Jan 20 data is missing before 1993.)
01/20/1993 _4,188,092,107,183.60 WJC Inaugural
01/22/2001 _5,728,195,796,181.57 WJC (UP 1,540,103,688,997.97)
01/20/2009 10,626,877,048,913.08 GWB (UP 4,898,681,252,731.43)
05/20/2010 12,987,822,672,429.02 BHO (UP 2,360,945,623,515.94 so far since Obama took office.)

FISCAL YEAR DEBT CHANGE, Sep 30 prior year to Sep 30 named year:
(One "* " for each 40B$ reached)
FY1994 +0,281,261,026,873.94 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1995 +0,281,232,990,696.07 ------------* * * * * * * WJC
FY1996 +0,250,828,038,426.34 ------------* * * * * * WJC
FY1997 +0,188,335,072,261.61 ------------* * * * WJC
FY1998 +0,113,046,997,500.28 ------------* * WJC
FY1999 +0,130,077,892,735.81 ------------* * * WJC
FY2000 +0,017,907,308,253.43 ------------WJC
FY2001 +0,133,285,202,313.20 ------------* * * C&B
01-WJC +0,053,598,528,417.78 ------------* WJC 31% of FY, 40% of FY-Debt
01-GWB +0,079,686,673,895.42 ------------* GWB 69% of FY, 60% of FY-Debt
FY2002 +0,420,772,553,397.10 ------------* * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2003 +0,554,995,097,146.46 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2004 +0,595,821,633,586.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2005 +0,553,656,965,393.18 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2006 +0,574,264,237,491.73 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2007 +0,500,679,473,047.25 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2008 +1,017,071,524,649.92 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB
FY2009 +1,885,104,106,599.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * B&O
09GWB +0,602,152,152,000.60 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GWB 31% of FY, 32% of FY-Debt
09-BHO +1,282,951,954,598.70 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO 69% of FY, 68% of FY-Debt
FY2010 +1,077,993,668,917.30 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BHO
Endof10 +1,695,981,418,770.75 ------------* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Linear Projection

LAST FIFTEEN REPORTS OF ADDITIONS TO PUBLIC DEBT(NOT FICA):
04/29/2010 -019,519,315,418.04 -
04/30/2010 +098,427,087,705.17 ------------**********
05/03/2010 -004,329,381,263.93 -- Mon
05/04/2010 +000,043,170,775.25 ------------*******
05/05/2010 +000,598,834,211.91 ------------********
05/06/2010 -014,947,673,650.95 -
05/07/2010 +000,000,195,077.74 ------------*****
05/10/2010 +000,804,647,162.22 ------------******** Mon
05/11/2010 -000,148,047,510.67 ---
05/12/2010 +000,782,970,242.92 ------------********
05/13/2010 +003,301,759,550.17 ------------*********
05/14/2010 -000,440,383,687.55 ---
05/18/2010 +000,360,533,772.20 ------------******** Tue
05/19/2010 +000,208,812,715.15 ------------********
05/20/2010 +010,103,129,083.31 ------------**********

75,246,338,764.90 Total of 15 above reports.

Heavy borrowing seems to start after 09/18/2008 while Bush was in power JUST BEFORE fiscal year end.
Bush admin borrowed $962,245,245,654.01 in those last 124 days in office crossing two fiscal years.
$360,093,093,653.42 in last 12 days of FY2008, and $602,152,152,000.59 in subsequent 112 days before leaving office.

For a prettier and more explanatory view of our nation's debt:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
DUer primer on National debt

(Debt to the penny keeps changing. Stuff is missing. Best to keep our own history.) LAST REPORT:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4391525&mesg_id=4391549

Markets on both sides of the Atlantic dipped to fresh lows as fears surrounding the fate of the euro project transmuted into worries about the wider global economic system.

Bill Gross of bond fund Pimco said that hedge funds were starting to liquidate their positions in a bid to preserve their capital – a worrying "mini relapse" towards 2008 territory.

Andrew Roberts, head of European rates strategy at RBS, said "Great Depression II" could now be approaching, adding: "It now has potential to speed toward its conclusion; a European $1trn package which does little and political panic tells you we are about to reach the end of the road. The world should be discussing deflation, not inflation."

In the US there was a surprise 25,000 increase in jobless claims to 471,000 in the week ending May 15. The deterioration in the employment picture, coming hard on the heels of Wednesday's drop in inflation, underlined worries that the US is exposed to a possible global double-dip recession.

Mr Gross said investors were now being frightened off by worldwide "fiscal tightening momentum", adding that markets were facing "a mini-relapse of a flight to liquidity as hedge funds and other leveraged positions are liquidated to preserve capital".

One worry is that European leaders are not sufficiently behind the $1 trillion bail-out fund they announced, in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund, last week. A second fear is that other indebted countries could soon be exposed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/7746884/City-fears-of-Great-Depression-Mark-II.html

From Naked Capitalism:

OUCH!

That because the house was not cleaned up last time we are in for another round by not fixing all our mistakes.

:donut: :donut: :donut: It's time for me to leave - moving toward the final week of school. I will check back periodically and maybe post if the moment allows.

:hi:

:hi:

5/21/10 Hightower's "Icky" Awards -- Who Are the Greediest, Grossest Corporate Hogs?

This coveted corporate prize goes to the group of CEOs whose performances in the past 12 months exhibit the best combination of greediness, goofiness and grossness.

It's not nearly as well known as an Emmy or Grammy, but the annual awarding of the "Icky" often produces high drama, fierce competition and gasps of surprise.

This coveted corporate prize goes to the group of CEOs whose performances in the past 12 months exhibit the best combination of greediness, goofiness and grossness.

Of course, top Wall Street Bankers were heavily favored to win the 2010 Icky hands-down, having claimed the prize for two years running and continuing to perform at a breathtaking level of hubris and narcissism. Their assertion early this year that they "deserved" the $140 billion in executive bonuses they grabbed for themselves was a stunner, causing even some of Wall Street's former chieftains to gag at the excess. They looked like sure winners.

Last month, however -- from out of nowhere -- an upstart challenger for the Icky literally erupted onto the scene. On April 20, the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, and the top executives of BP, Halliburton and Transocean suddenly made themselves contenders.

For example, BP's dapper, boyish-looking chief executive, Tony Hayward, has shown a depth of cluelessness that is making him a star performer on Team Oil. On May 14, with the out-of-control well still barfing massive amounts of oil and gas from four miles deep under the Gulf floor, and with the billowing slick threatening the shores of four states, Tony stepped onstage to announce that this blowout is really not that big of a deal. Indeed, chirped the boss of the world's largest oil corporation, the blotch is "relatively tiny."

Tiny? Yes, he explained: "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersants we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume."

What a boffo performance! No wonder this guy was paid $4,595,453.31 last year.

But, in going for the Icky, BP and the whole Deepwater Horizon group are a team. On May 11, they were confronted with a U.S. Senate hearing into their oily mess, and the group played it like the pros they are. Tony Hayward couldn't make the gig, but BP America Chairman Lamar McKay slid effortless into the role. At the start of the hearing, he showed his stuff by candidly conceding blame for the catastrophe: Not BP's blame -- it was Transocean's fault, he said, pointing to the corporation that owned the drilling rig.

Then Transocean stepped forward to assure the senators that, in fact, the fault lay with Halliburton, pointing to the notoriously slipshod outfit that was supposed to cap the well a mile down on the Gulf floor. In turn, and not missing a beat, Halliburton professed that its work on the disastrous project had conformed precisely to specifications set by BP, which was drilling the well.

So there it was for the public to see -- a perfect circle of jerks pointing at each other. Bravo! This is the high standard of corporate ethics that the Icky celebrates.

But Team Oil did not quit with this bold triple play. Led by Transocean, the culprits have already begun the lobbying and legal ploys to avoid paying for what they did. Last week, Transocean lawyers filed a petition in a Houston federal court asserting that its financial liability -- for 11 dead workers, destruction of the livelihoods for countless fishing families and other businesses, and for the unfathomable ecological damage still occurring -- comes to (ka-ching!) $27 million.

http://www.alternet.org/story/146914/hightower%27s_%22icky%22_awards_--_who_are_the_greediest,_grossest_corporate_hogs_/

5/20/10
Rodent scurries by as Obama lauds Wall Street vote

In his battle with the titans of Wall Street, President Barack Obama almost got upstaged by a rat.

But he didn't even seem to notice. Assuming that's what it was, scurrying in front of his podium Thursday in a sun-drenched Rose Garden.

Obama had just begun an afternoon statement to reporters lauding the end of a Senate filibuster on his financial overhaul plan when some kind of rodent — opinions differ on which — dashed out of the bushes to his right, just outside the Oval Office.

As photographers snapped away, the critter trundled straight past the gray podium with the presidential seal and made a bee-line for another set of bushes to Obama's left.

It's not clear if the president could even see the streaker, but he didn't show any reaction. And he concluded his statement minutes later, returning to his office without answering a few shouted questions on other topics.

Once he was safely inside the Oval Office, a fierce debate erupted among the photographers and reporters who'd witnessed the dash. Was it a rat or a mouse? Or maybe a mole, or a vole, or some other kind of related creature.

In fact, this wasn't the first time a rodent's been spied in the White House, or even the Rose Garden.

Just last week, as camera crews set up for an Obama statement on the Gulf oil spill, what's believed to have been the same rodent made a dash across the famous garden.

The press work areas behind the White House briefing room have had at least one rat sighting, though that was before a multimillion-dollar rehab project finished by the Bush administration.

Moreover, rodents of all kinds are pretty common in Washington. From time to time, city officials issue alarms about surges in the rat population when residents put out extra-big summer piles of garbage.

Washington is, after all built, along a river, on what used to be a malarial swamp.

click link for picture
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100520/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_rodent

Dumb reporters. It's too big for a mouse, also.

:)

now we just get the unimproved pitbull.

Just a matter of time before the fool buyers chasing the dips got hosed. Nothing can keep rising in price day-after-day without fundamental supports. It happened in RE and now appears to be hitting stocks..

IMHO everything after SP850 has been dead cat bounce....Just a few computers playing house with each other.

The trading programs don't know what to do when volume actually enters into the calculations. By the time the range limits are put in place the carnage may be over

The rush to cash is is going to shred the IRA's for those that have been gulping the imitation fruit drink. This may get real ugly, real quick

:)

NASDAQ is just collapsing.

How did that happen?

you have NOT been "ReadingDU" at all.


:evilgrin:


Tansy Gold, who has been waiting almost forever to use that line!!

:rofl:

We're not worthy.

AnneD -wishing for a grovel smiley.

Someone here posted this great chart last week of the largest drops and rises in the last 90 years or so. Many of the largest drops had equally large or larger rises the day after, or in some cases on the same day, like the fat fingered day two weeks ago. Still no luck finding the guy with the fat fingers, because he doesn't exist. The markets bubbleheads never like to admit that it's driven by psychology, herd behavior, not fundamentals. It's full of hopeful and sometimes violent retraces all the way down. Alternating cycles of greed and fear, until there is no hope left. Then we will be at the bottom, maybe in five years.

cause I originally posted it, lol
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4378010&mesg_id=4378172
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/05/visualization-about-violent-market.html


P.S. When I made my previous comment today, I had forgotten to add the usual smileys

:crazy: :wtf: :wow: :sarcasm:

The source of so much wonderful info. I saw Stoneleigh last night. A very knowledgeable woman with some rather disturbing predictions. I hope some don't happen, but I think it's probably best to prepare for a deflationary depression.

I so hope to see Stoneleigh when she comes to Ohio, but that might not be until the fall. I see where she will be near Washington, DC next week and I've been thinking of going if spouse would go with me because it is an 8 hour drive. I have read The Automatic Earth for a couple years, and I have gained a lot of knowledge from both Stoneleigh and Ilargi. Unfortunately, I am unable to impart this knowledge to any of my circle of family and friends. Oh well, perhaps when we are in the deflationary depression, they will understand.

Optimism verging on euphoria could lead to a sudden surge of buying.

Regarding the "flash crash," it sounds like they are claiming their computer programs worked just like they were programmed to. In other words, they are programmed to panic.

Optimism seems to go with long term investing, hope for the future. But, we're in a volatile environment now, not so much long term hope. We see large swings up and down, but more to the downside.

Panic buying implies a certain intensity and suddenness that optimism doesn't convey. When the markets recovered from "flash crash", it occurred in about half an hour. There is no optimism there, but rather an intense rush to make a profit from it, not to miss out. The program trades appeared to have been executed exactly as they were programmed, to sell after stopping out, and the reverse on the way back up. We have programmed our panic buying and selling into the computers. :)

These are my siblings. They have excellent jobs, make lots of money, drive status cars, take exotic vacations, and have expensive hobbies. They also have professional financial planners who tell them the market goes up and down, but it always recovers. One sibling even told me that they would never get out of the markets now, because they would miss the gains when it recovers.

Those HFT computers scare the #@*&% out of me.

when the DOW is around 5,000 and dropping, social mood is grim, depression has started to set in. It is the same way with my extended family. It's been a long time coming, but I think we're getting close to the edge of the abyss.

Almost all financial advisors are of the type you describe. Buy and hold worked up until 2000, but as we both know, it's no longer that way.

Aren't you forgetting about dividends and periodic investments.

Sure DOW is lower today than at most points in 2000 but you are forgetting a decade in divideds.

Also most investors are periodic investors.

If you entered the market in January 2000 with $1,000 and make contribution of $1,000 more each month, every month and reinvested all dividends you are up for the decade.

We'll see if we get a little more towel-throwing-in later this pm.

Perhaps oil stabilizing around 70 is luring some folks into complacency.

Oops. Up only 89. Seems to be dropping as I type.

Dead Cat... I bet you were thinking I was referring to Washington. ;)

Dead cat is right, though.

Down to +60.

that might explain the rodent problem in DC.:spray:
Goodness, I crack myself up sometimes.

Those cats have been bathing in oil recently, too.

Suit on Behalf of BP Stockholders Filed in AK
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10705379


BP stockholders are suing top company officials, claiming in a lawsuit filed in Alaska that "gross mismanagement" has tarnished the company's reputation and hurt its value.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Superior Court in Anchorage, alleges officials did not take the necessary steps to ensure BP compliance with safety rules and environmental safeguards. It cites cases including last month's oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico and concerns that U.S. lawmakers raised earlier this year about BP operations on Alaska's North Slope.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and appointment of an "independent corporate monitor" to implement safety and environmental compliance measures.

Named defendants include BP chief executive Tony Hayward and members of BP's board of directors.

------

Ha!

What fun!

Breach that fiduciary duty!

Maybe there will be some RICO action before this is done. I loves me some RICO.

I heard they are de riguer this fashion season...A derivative suit with matching fiduciary breeches.

was prominent in the Paris and Milan shows for autumn.

I suggest that certain prominent gentlmen get one in black and one in white.

Mix and match wear for any penal occasion.

Orange will be a big color, as well.

It seems like that dead cat is about to find itself at ground level.

Nice time to have a day off and lay around the house watching the CNBC folks try to explain the recent distress in the financial markets.

It will take months or even years to find the true bottom. What's happening right now is that imaginary money is being shaken out of the system worldwide. That means we're entering a deflationary cycle.

The conservative government will apply bandaids and that might slow the dive but it won't stop it. When a system is unsustainable, it has to collapse, and our system was unsustainable.

You can't run a system on nothing but debt. Eventually people will start asking to be paid back.

(joke for the very old)

produce an immense unwinding.

The end of housing subsidies here could be a trigger as well.

There has simply been too much money chasing too few truly productive investments. One of the reasons for that I see is that so many of the world's workers simply do not make enough to buy the things that they are making, and the profits of the cheap labor are all going to the top couple of percentage points (if that) of humans by wealth and income.

For countries that can issue debt in their own currencies, devaluation by one means or another will probably happen.

For countries that borrowed in currencies other than their own, it will be hell, like it is now in some eastern and former soviet european countries. My housemate from Ukraine just got back and his stories are quite distressing.

now +73, rocket to the moon!

There were these wild hundred point swings, almost on a daily basis. And eventually...a crash.

desperation buys before Monday?

I have no idea what's going on, but I'm glad I don't play these markets.

saw a sliver of profit and all the program trading followed.

fuck the shorts.

Predicted it yesterday, of course it didn't occur then.

This looks like another PPT defense of the 10k line, a little overboard this time - their fingerprints are showing.

fucking joke. Except it's no longer very funny. It's up, it's down, the PPT to the rescue, fat fingers frolic on friday, ponies for everyone, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. The stinking filthy rich play their games with our money and we laugh right along with them. Except they're laughing all the way to the bank, and we're gonna be cryin' in our beer too damn soon.

Well, except me, because I can't stand beer.



Tansy Gold

It waters down the beer.


I'd rather cry on my shit sandwich.

. . . we're still laughing. Well, sometimes anyway. We're still able to come up with a sense of humor, even if it is a bit black at times. The derivative suits as fashion statement -- well, that's the reason I occasionally eat at the keyboard but NEVER drink.

I'm sure there have been studies -- including the late Norman Cousins' informal and personal one -- on the power of laughter. Maybe that's what will lead to the end of the teabaggers: They are too full of intense anger and hatred and fear and they can no longer laugh. To live is to laugh and vice versa, and when you can no longer laugh, it's all over.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

And by doing things like this today, they are completely exposing this for what it is.

This was a childish, desperate, bullying show of force that makes no difference in anything going on in the real world.

I suppose they are still trying to show everyone who runs things and that 1 trillion Dollars in Funny money really will solve the World's Problems, and that they are Gods that can pump and manipulate infinitely.

I'm sure GD-P will have a Kumbaya celebration over it, but this was criminal desperation at it's finest.

The Game is up.

The System has failed, and has been exposed as a complete manipulated Fraud.


Anyone with a functioning brain is not going to fall for this anymore.

And over the next few weeks and months, everyone had better get their focus on Main Street, because Wall Street has nothing to do with anything anymore.

Everything that is being done is just pure fraud and Economic Terrorism.

It's sad and pathetic

10,000 is not a psychological barrier...
10,000 is not a psychological barrier...
10,000 is not a psychological barrier...
10,000 is not a psychological barrier...
10,000 is not a psychological barrier..."

then whizzes you around to right side up.

:(



TG

Never a dull moment!

amanda:)