Perhaps the title does not match the article, but it certainly implies this could be the case.
Comments »Monthly Archives: November 2011
Surprise: Americans’ Incomes Have Dropped 6.7 Percent During the ‘Recovery’
New evidence suggests there’s a reason why this economic “recovery” hasn’t felt much like a recovery. Figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the “recovery” has actually been harder on most Americans than the recession from which they’ve allegedly been recovering.
According to Sentier’s report, the median American household income has actually fallen during the “recovery.” Not only that, but it has fallen even more than it did during the recession. Gordon Green, former chief of the Governments Division at the U.S. Census Bureau and co-author of the report (with fellow Census veteran John Coder), says, “Real income fell by 3.2 percent during [the recession]. And during the recovery it went down by 6.7 percent.” So “income [has] declined twice as much in the recovery as in the recession itself.”
According to the report — which has been referenced by both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times — in early 2000, Americans’ median annual household income was $55,836, in real (inflation-adjusted, June 2011) dollars. By the start of the recession (in December 2007), Americans’ real incomes had fallen 0.9 percent, to $55,309 — a decline of $527. During the recession (which ended in June 2009), their incomes fell an additional 3.2 percent, to $53,518 — a decline of another $1,791. During the first two years of the “recovery” (from June 2009 to June 2011), they fell an additional 6.7 percent, to $49,909 — a decline of another $3,609.
So, from the start of 2000 to mid-2011, the typical American household’s real income dropped nearly $6,000 — and more than 60 percent of that drop (over $3,600) came after the start of the “recovery” and thus squarely on Obama’s watch.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Tepco Is Using Boric Acid on Reactor #2 to Prevent Nuclear Fission
The Grecian Formula For Referendum Is Still On
Sarkozy, Merkel to Meet Greeks on Wednesday
By Yann Le Guernigou and John Irish
PARIS | Tue Nov 1, 2011 4:47pm EDT
(Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold an emergency meeting with Greece on Wednesday to push for a quick implementation of Athens’ bailout deal, the “only solution” to its debt crisis, Sarkozy said on Tuesday.
Markets tumbled across Europe in response to the announcement by the Greek government to hold a referendum on the agreement which is expected to take place in a few weeks.
Last week’s 130 billion-euro ($180 billion) bailout package had raised hopes a line could be drawn under banks’ Greek losses and euro zone bonds could be sold to China and other investors.
“This announcement took the whole of Europe by surprise,” Sarkozy said in a rare televised address on the steps of the Elysee palace in Paris.
“The plan … is the only way to solve Greece’s debt problem,” he said after a lengthy meeting with his top ministers and the central bank governor to discuss the referendum decision.
Sarkozy said a hastily arranged meeting for Wednesday in the Riviera resort of Cannes with his German counterpart Angela Merkel, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, European Union and IMF officials would “examine the conditions under which the commitments made could be maintained.”
Sarkozy, Merkel, Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, IMF chief Christine Lagarde and an ECB representative will first meet at 1730 local time (12:30 p.m. ET). They will then meet Papandreou and his finance minister at 2030 local time.
The meeting comes just before a Nov 3-4 gathering of G20 heads of states in Cannes and will attempt to reassure world powers that the euro zone can resolve its crisis.
After an earlier call with Merkel, Sarkozy’s office said the two countries were “determined” to ensure, the full implementation of the October 27 deal in the quickest time frame.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Asian Markets Gap Down With Shanghai Trying to Buck the Trend
Herman Cain: The Attacks on Me are Racially Motivated
On FOX News’ “Special Report” tonight presidential candidate Herman Cain told the panel, after being asked, that he believes the charge of sexual harassment against him has to do with his race.
Charles Krauthammer: “Mr. Cain, when Clarence Thomas was near to achieving position of high authority, he was hit with a sexual harassment charge. You contending for presidency, the office of highest authority, leading in the polls for the Republican nomination, all of the sudden get hit with a sexual harassment charge. Do you think that race, being a strong black conservative, has anything to do with the fact you’ve been so charged? And if so, do you have any evidence to support that?”
Herman Cain: “I believe the answer is yes, but we do not have any evidence to support it. But because I am an unconventional candidate running an unconventional campaign and achieving some unexpected unconventional results in terms of my — the poll. We believe that yes, there are some people who are Democrats, liberals who do not want to see me win the nomination. And there could be some people on the right who don’t want to see me — because I’m not the
‘establishment candidate.’ No evidence.”
Read the rest and watch the video here.
Comments »Sorry, Income Inequality Really Is Way Overblown
By James Pethokoukis
October 31, 2011, 3:36 pm
Over at the Columbia Journalism Review blog, Ryan Chittum takes issue with everything I wrote about income inequality in a recent post. (I don’t think he cared much for the font, either.) My piece merely pointed to several studies — ones rarely mentioned by the mainstream media — that suggest a) income inequality is hardly “exploding,” and b) the past 30 years have hardly been a lost three decades for the American middle class. My response:
1. Chittum thinks I have misused a study by Northwestern University economist Robert Gordon. Does Gordon believe inequality has increased? He does, indeed. The first sentence of the study, which Chittum highlights in his post: “The evidence is incontrovertible that American income inequality has increased in the United States since the 1970s.”
But lots of studies make that claim. It is the next part that I found interesting:
This paper shows that the rise in American inequality has been exaggerated in at least three senses. First, the conventional measure showing a large gap between growth of median real household income and of productivity greatly overstates the increase compared to a conceptually consistent alternative gap concept, which increases at only one‐tenth the rate of the conventional gap between 1979 and 2007. … Second, the increase of inequality is not a steady ongoing process; after widening most rapidly between 1981 and 1993, the growth of inequality reversed itself and became negative during 2000‐2007.
Chittum, nor other liberal economic pundits such as Ezra Klein, Jonathan Chait, Kevin Drum, Ryan Avent, have made an effort to dispute Gordon, hardly a conservative economist. Liberals don’t even like quoting that above bit.
2. Chittum really likes studies from the union-backed EPI. But when I looked at the issue of middle-class stagnation, I went with analysis from the Federal Reserve, more likely free of political influence. And here is what a Minneapolis Fed researcher found:
I calculate that median Census income per person rose by 50 percent. … The claim that the standard of living of middle Americans has stagnated over the past generation is common. An accompanying assertion is that virtually all income growth over the past three decades bypassed middle America and accrued almost entirely to the rich. The findings reported here … refute those claims. Careful analysis shows that the incomes of most types of middle American households have increased substantially over the past three decades.
Maybe Gordon and the Fed and many other academics are just “deniers,” unworthy of serious debate. But to me that sound like a clumsy effort to silence debate rather than encourage a competitive marketplace of ideas.
Comments »Smoking-Gun Document Ties Policy to Housing Crisis
By PAUL SPERRY, FOR INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 10/31/2011 08:05 AM ET
President Obama says the Occupy Wall Street protests show a “broad-based frustration” among Americans with the financial sector, which continues to kick against regulatory reforms three years after the financial crisis.
“You’re seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on the abusive practices that got us into this in the first place,” he complained earlier this month.
But what if government encouraged, even invented, those “abusive practices”?
Rewind to 1994. That year, the federal government declared war on an enemy — the racist lender — who officials claimed was to blame for differences in homeownership rate, and launched what would prove the costliest social crusade in U.S. history.
At President Clinton’s direction, no fewer than 10 federal agencies issued a chilling ultimatum to banks and mortgage lenders to ease credit for lower-income minorities or face investigations for lending discrimination and suffer the related adverse publicity. They also were threatened with denial of access to the all-important secondary mortgage market and stiff fines, along with other penalties.
Bubble? Regulators Blew It
The threat was codified in a 20-page “Policy Statement on Discrimination in Lending” and entered into the Federal Register on April 15, 1994, by the Interagency Task Force on Fair Lending. Clinton set up the little-known body to coordinate an unprecedented crackdown on alleged bank redlining.
The edict — completely overlooked by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and the mainstream media — was signed by then-HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, Attorney General Janet Reno, Comptroller of the Currency Eugene Ludwig and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, along with the heads of six other financial regulatory agencies.
“The agencies will not tolerate lending discrimination in any form,” the document warned financial institutions.
Ludwig at the time stated the ruling would be used by the agen cies as a fair-lending enforcement “tool,” and would apply to “all lenders” — including banks and thrifts, credit unions, mortgage brokers and finance companies.
The unusual full-court press was predicated on a Boston Fed study showing mortgage lenders rejecting blacks and Hispanics in greater proportion than whites. The author of the 1992 study, hired by the Clinton White House, claimed it was racial “discrimination.” But it was simply good underwriting.
It took private analysts, as well as at least one FDIC economist, little time to determine the Boston Fed study was terminally flawed. In addition to finding embarrassing mistakes in the data, they concluded that more relevant measures of a borrower’s credit history — such as past delinquencies and whether the borrower met lenders credit standards — explained the gap in lending between whites and blacks, who on average had poorer credit and higher defaults.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Bears Smoke the Bulls Like Child’s Play
DOW OFF 295
S&P OFF 34
NASDAQ OFF 77
FLASH: Another Rumor of a Rumor Sends Markets Back to Fresh Lows
It is now being reported that the referendum still has merit and may not be a dead issue….
Comments »Today’s Money Flow
MONEY FLOW - UPTICK/DOWNTICK TRADING DOLLAR VOLUME Nov 01,2011 03:05 PM
MARKET MONEY FLOW (in millions) RATIO
TODAY PREV DAY
DJIA -166.1 -701.5 0.95
Blocks -185.2 -636.6 0.62
Russell 2000 -120.5 -871.7 0.96
Blocks -75.3 -474.3 0.70
S & P 500 -445.1 -95.2 0.98
Blocks -455.9 +32.6 0.74
DJ U.S. Total Stock Market -616.2 -1719.5 0.99
Blocks -527.7 -573.4 0.87
ISSUE GAINERS SYMBOL EXCH LAST PRICE MONEY FLOW RATIO
(in millions)
Telefonos de Mexcio TMX NYSE 15.38 +40.7 23.98
Vanguard Short-Term Bond BSV ARCA 81.38 +36.0 3.82
iShrs Russell 1000 Value IWD ARCA 61.48 +35.7 2.34
Amazoncom AMZN NASD 216.04 +31.2 1.08
Broadcom BRCM NASD 34.76 +30.1 1.83
iShrs MSCI Hong Kong EWH ARCA 16.39 +28.7 2.59
Vanguard Total Bond Mkt BND ARCA 83.92 +27.8 2.17
SPDR DJIA Tr DIA ARCA 117.01 +26.6 1.13
Freeport McMoran FCX NYSE 39.21 +23.7 1.12
ProShrs UltraShort S&P500 SDS ARCA 21.12 +22.2 1.16
Schlumberger SLB NYSE 71.90 +20.9 1.12
iShrs DJ Intl Sel Div Inc IDV ARCA 30.75 +20.1 7.84
SPDR S&P Retail XRT ARCA 52.33 +20.1 1.29
Las Vegas Sands LVS NYSE 47.59 +19.3 1.14
iShrs Tr MSCI EAFE EFA ARCA 50.98 +18.9 1.20
Kinetic Concepts KCI NYSE 68.39 +17.9 2.20
Verizon Communications VZ NYSE 36.66 +17.5 1.43
Sel Sec SPDRCnsmr Stples XLP ARCA 30.62 +16.2 1.78
Boeing BA NYSE 63.17 +15.5 1.20
Williams Cos WMB NYSE 29.74 +14.9 1.35
ISSUE DECLINERS SYMBOL EXCH LAST PRICE MONEY FLOW RATIO
(in millions)
Apple AAPL NASD 397.29 -151.0 0.92
St Jude Medical STJ NYSE 37.74 -63.5 0.28
SPDR S&P MidCap 400 ETF MDY ARCA 156.60 -53.6 0.75
SPDR S&P 500 SPY ARCA 122.74 -41.2 0.99
Ford Motor F NYSE 11.19 -29.1 0.76
Emdeon EM NYSE 18.97 -28.4 0.02
AT&T T NYSE 28.83 -27.5 0.69
iShrs Barclays TIPS Bond TIP ARCA 117.19 -25.5 0.55
Microsoft MSFT NASD 26.09 -24.6 0.78
ExxonMobil XOM NYSE 76.33 -24.1 0.92
Select Sector SPDR-Finl XLF ARCA 13.02 -23.9 0.82
Rydex S&P Equal Weight RSP ARCA 45.67 -22.8 0.60
Google GOOG NASD 582.70 -21.7 0.95
Chevron CVX NYSE 102.73 -21.6 0.92
WisdomTree Tr DIEFA DWM ARCA 42.08 -21.5 0.04
iShrs Russell 2000 IWM ARCA 71.77 -21.4 0.96
UnitedHealth Group UNH NYSE 46.12 -20.4 0.72
Direxion Daily Sm Bull 3x TNA ARCA 43.24 -19.1 0.94
pricelinecom PCLN NASD 489.37 -18.9 0.91
Juniper Networks JNPR NYSE 23.50 -18.8 0.67
Comments »
New 52 Week Highs and Lows
New Highs
COMPANY SYMBOL HIGH VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ Akorn AKRX 10.19 4,383,961 AmerElecTech AETI 3.85 1,000 Appliance Recycling Ctrs ARCI 5.99 30,275 BBC Capital Trust II 8.5% BBXT 23.00 134,951 Commercial National Fincl CNAF 21.74 10,900 INX INXI 8.61 1,454,290 interCLICK ICLK 8.99 24,161,054 Lumos Networks LMOS 16.13 50,190 Multimedia Games Holding MGAM 6.80 189,896 RTI Biologics RTIX 4.63 554,606 Spreadtrum Comm SPRD 27.40 1,860,384 Vanguard Long-Trm Crp Bd VCLT 87.98 47,111 New Lows 52 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ Active Power ACPW 0.84 678,438 Ambassadors Grp EPAX 4.71 352,241 Amedisys AMED 9.83 2,529,916 Amicus Therapeutics FOLD 3.10 23,453 Atrinsic Inc ATRN 1.35 108,882 AutoNavi Holdings Ltd ADS AMAP 12.06 45,321 Avid Technology AVID 5.90 716,627 Beacon Power BCON 0.09 2,873,812 BioDelivery Sciences BDSI 0.90 186,888 Broadvision Inc BVSN 8.14 1,613 Burcon Nutrascience BUR 7.65 118,115 Carver Bancorp CARVD 3.05 613 Central European Distr CEDC 4.89 1,858,018 Champion Industries CHMP 0.99 35,428 China Auto Logistics Inc CALI 0.80 44,959 Chyron CHYR 1.51 14,653 Concurrent Computer CCUR 4.00 18,702 DARA Biosciences Inc DARA 1.22 192,994 DepoMed DEPO 4.20 375,625 Ditech Networks DITC 0.85 25,899 FBR FBRC 2.00 154,055 FNB United FNBND 20.05 968 FormFactor FORM 5.77 403,687 G Willi Food Intl Ltd WILC 5.30 103,583 Globus Maritime GLBS 4.02 16,777 Hollywood Media HOLL 1.14 1,263 Integra LifeSci Hldgs IART 30.02 468,703 Meru Networks MERU 4.97 457,353 Nutraceutical Intl NUTR 12.13 11,536 NuVasive NUVA 14.20 1,069,993 Opnext OPXT 0.96 655,244 Overstockcom OSTK 7.91 176,011 Pinnacle Airlines PNCL 2.48 25,091 PokerTek PTEK 0.74 4,099 Powerwave Techs PWAVD 3.02 456,526 QKL Stores Inc QKLS 0.85 34,013 RPX RPXC 14.46 217,359 Radisys RSYS 5.39 157,841 Research in Motion RIMM 19.00 18,974,903 Rodman & Renshaw RODM 0.49 239,486 Rosetta Genomics ROSG 0.68 76,336 RRSat Global Comm Network RRST 4.87 46,956 SMART Technologies SMT 3.31 247,256 SemiLEDS LEDS 3.04 72,094 Shiloh Industries SHLO 7.11 24,450 Tecumseh Products B TECUB 5.94 3,400 Tecumseh Products A TECUA 6.06 23,983 TranS1 TSON 1.60 194,225 21Vianet Group ADS VNET 8.38 132,438 Utd Natural Foods UNFI 34.75 384,300 Vascular Solutions VASC 10.02 71,121 Volcano VOLC 21.74 1,272,058Comments »
Will Markets Reactive Positively to a IMF Credit Line ?
Later this week the G20 and the IMF may approve a credit line to ease sovereign debt problems.
Comments »Deaths from prescription drug abuse on the rise
Comments »More people die in America every year from prescription drug abuse than die from heroin and cocaine combined. That stunning finding comes in a new report Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC found a fourfold increase in deaths from prescription narcotics over the past decade. Not surprisingly, it coincides with a fourfold increase in the number of prescriptions written for the powerful painkillers.
More and more kids are showing up in the emergency room after accidental poisoning from prescription drugs. One reason could be that children have a hard time telling the difference between medicine and candy. See how a 12-year-old proved this theory
In 2008, the most recent year for which there are statistics, there were 20,044 overdose deaths from prescription drugs. Of those, 14,800 were from narcotic painkillers.
“Prescription overdoses are epidemic in the U.S.”, says Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC. Most people who die from prescription drug overdose are taking someone else’s medicines, he says. “Medicines that were left in the medicine cabinet. Medicines that were given to a friend or a relative. Maybe innocently, maybe maliciously.”
Prescription narcotics are being handed out almost like candy by doctors – some of whom are genuinely interested in patient care – others who run so-called “pill mills”, where narcotic prescriptions are traded for cash to feed addictions. The CDC study found that enough narcotics are prescribed every year to medicate each and every person in America every day for a month.
“It’s astonishing”, says Frieden. He adds that many addictions begin innocently, when patients are given narcotics for a minor injury that could be treated with less addictive medication. “When I went to medical school, we were incorrectly assured – don’t worry – if patients have short-term pain, they won’t get hooked. That was completely wrong, and a generation of doctors, patients and families have learned that’s a tragic mistake.”
Cosa Nostra Mobsters Charged in Mortgage Fraud Scheme
CAMDEN, NJ — The FBI says a financial fraud case shows that mobsters are moving “from the back alleys to the boardrooms.”
Reputed mobsters, including the son former Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo D. “Little Nicky” Scarfo, were charged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Five lawyers and an accountant were charged along with Nicodemo S. Scarfo.
Federal authorities say the group took over FirstPlus Financial Group, an Irving, Texas mortgage company, had it buy shell companies they ran and took the money out.
Authorities say the scheme brought them $12 million between 2007 and 2008.
One of the reputed mobsters’ purchases with the money: A yacht named “Priceless.”
FBI Special Agent Michael Ward says the allegations show organized crime has evolved.
Scarfo Jr. is due in a Camden federal court Tuesday afternoon.
Read more: http://trade.cc/azh
Comments »Coffee Break: Everybody Loves…
I’d love to say fuck the banks, Europe, MF Global, and all the politicians who are inept! but they provide for good headlines…
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46bBWBG9r2o 450 300] Comments »BREAKING: MF Global admitted to using clients’ money as its financial troubles mounted: AP
U = 
LIBOR Manipulation May Be Throwing Markets Off
How is it there is so much manipulation claims when it comes to Wall St. and the banking industry in general ?
Comments »
