The Ugliest Cars of 2010
(I vote for the green one, but the brown one was a close second)
Cat and Mouse Game Over the Euro
Iceland Emerges From Recession in 3Q
HSBC Overweight on Russia, Cautious on Other BRICS
(Turkey just isn't for Thanksgiving anymore)
The Irish Times: Severe Budget cutbacks will see drop in living standards
(Let them eat potatoes)
North Korea - South Korea Rules of Engagement
Real life "Jaws" terrorizes Egypt coast
(Thor, don't go in the water!)
Wanderlust: It's pronounced "fooking"
Allen Stanford Too Drugged in Prison for Trial, Lawyer Says in Bail Bid
(Insert your own insult here ______________ .)
Madoff Friend Agrees To A $625 million Forfeiture
The Rise of Holiday Me-tailers
(Best gift idea for 2010, M&M's emblazoned with your kid's photo)
Citi Looks Cheap as U.S. Exits Stake
US Education Rank Tumbles
Google’s Chrome OS: Ready to live your life on the Web?
Chicago-Declare Your Street Chair Free
(This is so "inside Chicago")
The Eight Most Annoying People You Will Meet On An Airplane
Mastercard, Swiss Bank and Lawyer hacked by Wikileaks supporters with DDOS attack
(21st century version of the Empire Strikes Back)
So HSBC got screwed by Madoff to a tune of 9 Billion. couldn't happen to a nicer company.
ReplyDeleteFacebook is valued at 40 billion.
ReplyDeleteHow can any company that does not make a profit, nor have they ever made a profit, be valued at 40 billion?
Maybe we should send the Bernank there to study that one instead of studying the depression....
Rock,
ReplyDeleteWould you like to do a post for Friday? Otherwise we will do a chart of the week, or something like that.
Sure, I'd love to.
ReplyDeleteI've been in comm with Minyanville to see if we can get their training posts back on line, and if I can get that completed, I'll post that. Otherwise, it'll have to be a view of the world by Rock.
@Thor
I want to develop a post of Singapore Christmas. It will have some pics that will blow your doors off. But I need to know how you stored my charts on the Blogger; I want to do that so it doesn't take space on my photo album, because there's not enough space there.
Thanks!
Rock,
ReplyDeleteFriday's are free from now on, you can post anything you would like if you want.
I get it.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to do a linkfest of reading and some gravel and sand reports. Weekly. Or weakly, not sure....
@Rock,
ReplyDeleteThanks! We are looking forward to it!
Morning all! Rock, absolutely, I'll type up directions for you tonight?
ReplyDelete@Rock,
ReplyDeleteI am not so much jealous of your food, as I am of your weather.
I don't like cold. Never like it India either when I go viist in winter. Right now we have -6C here and in Northwestern India, around 5C at night.
I Can
Bank of America Deal in Muni Case May Be `Tip of the Iceberg'
ReplyDeleteWhy am I not surprised? Why is this company still in business? Where are the indictments?
"Bank of America's agreement to pay $137 million in restitution for taking part in a nationwide bid-rigging conspiracy for municipal-investment contracts may soon be followed by more settlements to repay the scheme’s victims, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division head said.
“Stay tuned to this channel -- I think you will see a lot more activity in the coming weeks and months,” Christine Varney, the antitrust chief, told reporters yesterday. “We are committed to getting restitution, full restitution, to all the municipalities that were victims of this scheme.”
Bank of America, which has assisted the government probe of the $2.8 trillion municipal-bond market since at least 2007 in return for leniency, has provided documents, e-mails and recordings of phone calls, according to court records of civil suits. In September, Douglas Lee Campbell, formerly employed by the bank’s municipal derivatives group, pleaded guilty to taking part in a conspiracy to pay state and local governments below- market rates on investments purchased with bond proceeds."
Denise - just 137 million eh? I wonder how much they profited by this and whether 137 million is anywhere near fair compensation for the offense.
ReplyDelete"Bad day for Goldfinger, but worse for Mr. Bond". macro-man.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteAdd to that year-end tax issues and bonus issues and European and U.S. debt and China/India inflation.
CONFUSION!
I am glad I didn't buy Silver.
@Jeff, Your UUP trade was a good call.
I Can
As long as the government exchanges leniency for information for criminal banksters we all might as well give up hope of ever rooting out and punishing the corrupt in our society.
ReplyDeleteI cheat and I go to jail, forfeit my assets, and my reputation is forever blackened, while these banksters plead guilty while counting and keeping their millions.
"The government has identified more than a dozen firms, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., UBS AG, and Societe Generale as unindicted co-conspirators in a criminal case brought by the Justice Department against a Los Angeles investment broker."
ReplyDeleteNothing to see here, move along now.
That entire article makes my blood boil. Let's bail out more bankers so they can be charged with defrauding (stealing) from their customers, in HUNDREDS of deals.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-08/plunging-home-prices-fuel-property-tax-appeals-swamping-u-s-cities-towns.html
ReplyDeleteA fiscal flood that threatens to swamp local government budgets across the U.S. overflows from file cabinets in the office of Patty Halm, chair of the Michigan Tax Tribunal.
The backlog of cases from taxpayers seeking to lower property-tax bills of more than $100,000 shot up to 14,236 this year from an annual average of about 6,000 during the past decade. The backlog of smaller claims was at 28,558 at the end of September, eight times higher than a decade ago, according to records at the tribunal, a Lansing-based administrative court.
From Los Angeles to Atlantic City, the New Jersey gambling resort whose credit rating Moody’s Investors Service cut by three levels last month, property owners are demanding lower taxes after real-estate values plunged. The disputes over billions in dollars come as municipalities are already slashing services such as police and fire protection and may depress revenue further as communities try to recover from the longest recession since the 1930s. In Michigan, Governor-elect Rick Snyder has warned that hundreds of towns face financial crises.
Bonds are way up today - wonder what that's about
ReplyDeleteMorning all! Just back from Home Depot where the parking lot and store were both astonishingly empty. I know it's a weekday, but I was half expecting to see tumbleweeds in there.
ReplyDeleteGREAT post over at Naked Capitalism -
ReplyDeleteTrojan Horse in Tax Compromise: GOP Plan to Bankrupt States, Break Unions (Updated)
Manny - do you guys have day laborers at your Home Depots?
ReplyDeleteBonds are down today, rates are up.
ReplyDelete30 year bond
The ten year auction was at 1:00 et. today.
@Denise: Because apparently nothing is a crime if the banks are doing it. How else can we interpret it?
ReplyDelete@Thor: Not the one I hit but I imagine we must have some, although this time of year outside contracting work is DEAD. Too cold, as you can imagine.
ReplyDeleteI have to say as well, that I'm liking Yves and NC more and more all the time. This woman knows her stuff. Such detail and thought put into every post.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow is the 30 year auction.
ReplyDelete@Thor,
ReplyDeleteThat NC article is quite revealing but no surprise.
Good post by Taibbi:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rollingstone.com/politics/matt-taibbi/blogs/TaibbiData_May2010/239443/83512
I just got "Griftopia" from the library and so far it is really a good read.
ReplyDeleteI just bought it was well, Denise. Haven't started reading it yet though. Ditto "Econned" and "Death of the Liberal Class". Not exactly uplifting stuff but fascinating on many levels.
ReplyDeleteI think I need to buy a Kindle. Maybe I'll get one for the wife for Christmas as her gift, since we're only doing one gift this year. That way she can try it out and I'll get one for myself if I like it after trying it out.
ReplyDeleteAt some point, even we are going to have more debt than any growth in the economy is going to allow us to pay off. Especially for the city and the states. I don't understand this insistence on kicking the can. Do none of these people give a shit about our future?
ReplyDeleteManny - not an iPad?
ReplyDelete@Thor: Too expensive. You can get a Kindle for less than $200. I don't need an I-Pad or tablet computer. I have a cheap laptop that works fine, but a simple E-reader would be cool.
ReplyDeleteNo, of course not, Thor. They care about THEIR future. What's this "our" that you speak of? And, by the way, that's the whole goal of this is to get everyone thinking that way because that mindset destroys "the commons" so they can then go and privatize everything.
ReplyDeleteSeems as if UUP hanging in the balance. Which way will it break? Flip a coin?
ReplyDeleteCalifornia Deficit May Reach $28 Billion, Brown Says
ReplyDeleteCalifornia’s budget gap may widen to $28.1 billion in the next 18 months, according to an estimate from Governor-elect Jerry Brown, who takes charge of the most- populous U.S. state next month.
The estimate takes into account a $2.7 billion drop in projected estate-tax collections, and compares with the most recent estimate of a $25 billion gap for the period, Brown said.
Recently here in LA they had stopped mowing the grass in the median on some of the larger streets. A few city supervisors pooled their budget money to get the lawns mowed for the next couple of months but that money is going to run out in February. Pot holes in the roads, another huge problem here, are also not getting filled anywhere near as fast as usual.
2011 should be a very interesting year
I often wonder what all of these public employees are going to do when it's time to retire. The politicians (as well as the electorate in many cases) have promised so much to workers and not funded it. I wonder if these folks still believe that they're going to get all of their promised benefits without any cuts or reduction in services.
ReplyDeleteI'm telling you, the way we're headed is a complete dismantling of public pensions and gov't services that many people value but won't realize it until it's gone. The sheathing of the Sheeple so that the uber-rich can have even more at everyone else's expense is happening in such slow motion so that most of us barely even know it's happening and won't until it's too late.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they believe it, Thor, but wait until they realize it's not going to be there. It's a slow motion cut, cut, cut bonanza. One day the top will come off of everything though. Coudl take a while, so in the meantime, party on.
ReplyDeleteAnyone here have the Kindle or know anyone who does? If so, what's the verdict?
ReplyDeleteManny - yup yup, if they're smart they'll strike. Whether it will change anything in the end I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteThat article at NC I think was spot on - the R's are trying to bankrupt the states to destroy public unions once and for all. They may bring the entire country down in the process, but at least that particular thorn will be neutered.
My premise is the GOP will get one last crack at ruining the country once and for all before the lid comes off the joint and real "change" is ushered in, although it won't be the way most people would prefer it happening.
ReplyDeleteThis is REALLY well put over at Minyanville and kind of has been my premise all along. An "asymmetric (or "bifurcated", as I've put it) recover" where the haves do even better, while the have nots are slowly suffocating to death.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/economic-recovery-bernanke-quantitative-easing-qe2/12/8/2010/id/31575
Manny - yes, VERY good article.
ReplyDeleteThis especially
But if we have any chance of righting our asymmetric economy, we have to move the mask, and sooner rather than later. And, candidly, as I survey the world, I am increasingly afraid that if that doesn’t start to happen voluntarily pretty soon, someone without a mask is just going to reach over and rip it off the face of someone who has it.
I know that Denise and I disagree on the mechanics of what's coming, but I'm in the camp that the wealthy and their minions in Washington are going to push push push (or is it take take take) long and hard enough that the snap back, when it eventually comes, is going to be messy. As I've said, American's are a very violent people, we've had violence crammed down our throats since birth. When we fall off the rails, that anger is going to express itself in violence.
At least that's my theory :-)
I'm more with you on that one, Thor, although like I said, I think it's going to happen in such super-slow-mo so that it will be actually hard for most average people to notice until one turns around and looks at the effects in totality after the fact.
ReplyDeleteThor - I also agree and the longer this gets pushed out the worse it will be, although I am afraid Mannwich may be on to something with how slowly things will take to whined up and how slowly thinks will be to change.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is just Americans I think it is human nature - We look to someone or some entity to take care of us and once we get to the point of understanding that no one except us is looking out for our best interest, then we get angry and only after we get angry will we get violent.
Maybe something unexpected will happen that will cause things to change quickly, but sadly I don't see it happening for a long long time.
Mangy Mutt
Larry Summers still out making pronouncements on behalf of the WH. There's Obama's main problem right there. Larry Summers and the cadre of insiders who largely caused this mess. It's sheer absurdity and stupidity that we're still listening to these people in any sense whatsoever. I wouldn't let Summers give me advice on anything at this point.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/08/larry-summers-tax-cut-deal_n_793975.html
They REALLY cynical side of me believes the Dems merely just play the perfect foil to the GOP in the game that is "do anything to preserve the status quo for (and even enhance the position of) the elites. Remember, even most Dems are millionaires at this point, so tax cuts for the top bracket greatly benefit them personally too. I really think that it's mostly theater (or "Hollywood for ugly people") and the Dems are playing their role quite masterfully as the Washington Generals to the GOP's Harlem Globetrotters. That's why I honestly thought that Obama didn't mind it when the GOP spanked the Dems in the mid-terms. It gives him cover to cave to the GOP on their every whim, saying he "had no choice".
ReplyDeleteAnd on cue....super slow mo......of course this probably won't happen, nor will it likely play out this way. Fascinating that even quasi-mainstream publications and people are openly talking and writing about this though, no?
ReplyDeleteHow America will collapse (by 2025)
Four scenarios that could spell the end of the United States as we know it -- in the very near future
http://www.salon.com/news/us_economy/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/12/06/america_collapse_2025
Manny - ooooh, reading. . . .
ReplyDeleteGreg - Jobs made Marketwatch's CEO of The Decade - well deserved, love Apple or hate them, their turn around was one of the best successes of the decade
Manny - Finished, I got about half way though. The author makes the basic assumption that all statistics on economic growth will remain static for 40 years. China isn't going to grow at 10% a year indefinitely.
ReplyDeleteAlso for patents, The Chinese are catching up to us, but NPR did a piece on this not long ago. The Chinese are similar to the Japanese in that the vast majority of their patents are filled for novel uses of existing products. They have very few new or novel paten applications.
I'm not saying we're not going down, just that when we do, we're going to take the rest of the world with us - China and India as well.
Mannwich - Whether democrate or republic it doesn't much matter, if they are rich they should pay their fair share. However the democrates are the ones who mostly expouse they are "For the people" so they (IMO) are the most hypicrital.
ReplyDeleteI got into a conversation with a co-worker yesterday, he seems to feel the tax cuts should stay. But what he does not realize is the rich gained much of their wealth because of the original cuts and now we have a HUGE disperity be how much wealth the top 1% holds compared to the rest of us.
If the governement (And they will through propery and other taxes) raises taxes on the working class, it will go a long way to helping balance budgets, but 10% the working class will feel it pretty hard. If the government increase earned income on the wealthiest by 10% it will go just as far and wont take a meal or tank of gas from them.
It's is just like the bank bail outs, when they are making money, they are all for as many breaks as possible, but when things need to tighten up they cry "Not Us, Tax Them"
Mutt
Exactly Mutt, and as we've seen, such crazy wealth is often not exactly "earned" in an honest manner. Why not tax the shite out of questionable activities on Wall Street that we as a country would be better off without? I think you know the answer to the question though.
ReplyDelete@Thor: Yeah, those kinds of articles are usually way too "out there" for me, but I just think it's interesting they seem to be popping up everywhere these days and on the minds of more people than you would think. The whole "America in decline" theme is truly in the zeitgeist right now. Maybe (hopefully?) it's a contrarian indicator?
Good article - So much money being poured into technology for the health industry. I think I'll have to make a career move in the not too distant future.
ReplyDeleteIPads Are Latest Weapon in Medical Sales
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703493504576007723119984758.html
Medtronic, a Minneapolis-based maker of implantable heart devices and other products, recently bought 4,500 iPads for its sales and marketing team, making it one of the iPad's biggest corporate buyers. Mr. Hedges said the company could buy as many as 6,000 iPads.
Before making the purchases, Mr. Hedges said he had attended a dinner with several cardiologists when one asked about Medtronic's drug-eluting stent. Normally, the conversation would have shifted to another topic, but one of his salesmen quickly pulled out his iPad with the product information, which kicked off several hours of discussion.
Ooooh - Predictions for 2011 should be rolling in pretty soon. We should all keep track of our favorites this year and see how people did a year from now.
ReplyDeleteDavid Rosenberg
ReplyDeletehttp://ww.moneytalks.net/pdfs/DR1208.pdf
"It's Clear", Fed targeting Equity markets.
Also, what's happening with bonds and commodities. Short term not so bullish on commods due to China inflation.
Also, is U.S. Japan 2. Read what Mr. Yen thinks.
I Can
@Thor,
ReplyDeleteNo disagreements or dissent allowed on this blog, you know the drill. Repeat after me, we are all like minded zombies, we are all like minded zombies...
We are all like minded zombies
ReplyDelete:-)
. . .Meanwhile, down under . . .
ReplyDeleteAustralia Payrolls Rise 54,600, More Than Double Estimates
Thor...saw the news on Steve Jobs. Was anyone else even in the running? Oh yeah, one of the Bankers maybe.
ReplyDeleteHey wait a minute, I have been watching The Walking Dead and zombies don't think, heck they don't even have a mind.
ReplyDeleteMutt
Mutt - BEST show on TV
ReplyDeleteThor- It is all your fault that I am even watching it. Around Halloween you were saying how good it was, so when I saw that it was on again I watched it.
ReplyDeleteHad I known it was a stinking series, I would never have even turned it on, but you are correct it is one of the best tv shows and I am very glad to be hooked on it.
Mutt