3-D printing is cool technology, but it never occurred to me that it could be used for malicious ends.
Comments »Monthly Archives: August 2012
A Tale of Two Economic Data Points
Rail traffic continues to expand suggesting the economy is still chugging along.
Air traffic cargo shows weak and falling industrial production.
Comments »New Rules Aimed at Helping Homeowners
“WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — Giving homeowners more information on outstanding balances and pending interest rate changes is the aim of new rules for mortgage servicers proposed Friday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The rules, a first for the entire mortgage servicing industry, would also require servicers to respond to homeowners’ calls for information or complaints within 5 days. No such rules exist now.”
Former Biden Adviser Bernstein: All Americans Must Pay More Taxes
“Americans don’t pay enough in taxes and need to pay more for the good of the country’s fiscal health, said Jared Bernstein, former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, and a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Congressional Budget Office data show that U.S. households pay less taxes now than they did 30 years ago.
In 1979, the typical household paid 19 percent of their income in federal taxes, down from 11 percent today, Bernstein wrote in a Financial Times opinion piece.”
Comments »USA Today: Companies Slash Training, Add to Jobless Woes
“Companies across the country are cutting training programs for new employees, broadening the divide between workers with skills needed to compete in today’s economy and those left out, pushing up unemployment rates in the process.
A recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 38 percent of companies said they cross-train employees to develop skills not directly related to their job, down from 43 percent in 2011 and 55 percent in 2008, USA Today reports.”
Comments »Lawsuit: Janet Napolitano-run Homeland Security Hated Men, Banished Them to Bathrooms
Looks like the Department of Homeland Security could be renamed the Department of Hyper Sexuality.
A blistering federal discrimination suit accuses agency honcho Janet Napolitano of turning the department into a female-run “frat house” where male staffers were banished to the bathrooms and routinely humiliated.
James Hayes Jr., who now is New York’s top Homeland Security cop, claims Napolitano filled top spots in Washington, D.C., with two of her gal pals who were bent on tormenting male employees.
Read the rest here.
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U.S. Banks Told to Make Plans for Preventing Collapse
“(Reuters) – U.S. regulators directed five of the country’s biggest banks, including Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, to develop plans for staving off collapse if they faced serious problems, emphasizing that the banks could not count on government help.
The two-year-old program, which has been largely secret until now, is in addition to the “living wills” the banks crafted to help regulators dismantle them if they actually do fail. It shows how hard regulators are working to ensure that banks have plans for worst-case scenarios and can act rationally in times of distress.”
Comments »School Bonds Could Trigger Fiscal Shock
“A decade ago, San Diego county in California was at the cutting edge of some dangerous financial games.
As the housing boom got under way, bankers and mortgage brokers became adept at flogging subprime loans to households across the area using “innovative” structures. That episode, of course, ended in tears, not just in San Diego but elsewhere in America.
Now, some new financial games have come to light involving a dangerous cocktail of innovation and debt. This time, it is not private households involved but public sector bodies – specifically, schools.”
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BAROFSKY: No Criminal Charges Against Goldman Tells Us Something About The ‘So-Called’ Financial Task Force
GOLDMAN: The Economic Data Is Crap — So Why Aren’t Markets Freaking Out?
Weisenthal is out with some interesting comments from Andrew Tilton.
Read the article here.
Comments »Implications of 10-yr Bond Rates Hitting New 50-day Highs Along With SPX
Rob Hanna from Quantifiable Edges is out with an interesting study that examines what happens when 10 year bond rates hit a new 50 day high at the same time the S&P 500 is making a new 50 day high. Well worth a read.
Read the article here.
Comments »Gapping Up and Down This Morning
Gapping up
FIO +24.2%, BONE +11.8%, AONE +11.5%, SMTX +6.7%, NVDA +5.4%,
RICK +5.1%, BYI +2.9%, BCS +2.2%, JWN +1.9%, GLUU +2.3%, JIVE +2.3%,
JDSU +2.1%, JNS +11.8%, AONE +11.5%, SPPI +4% , BCS +2.2%
Gapping down
UBNT -34%, PEGA -11.2%, DGIT -9.8%, SMG -8.8%, SPRD -8.6%, WAVX -6.5%,
JCP -6.1%, MNST -6%, BRKS -6%, OTEX -5.8%, YHOO -3.8%, MITT -3.4%,
LGF -3.2%, ARNA -1.8%, ELX -1.4%, OCZ -1.3%, GNC -1.1%, DNKN -1%,
MTL -2.7% , SSNC -2.2%, NVO -0.7%, NQ -5%, MNST -4.7%,
Comments »Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning
In Play and On the Wires
On the Matter of the Domino Effect
“Slip… Crunch… Crash… And repeat.
Do you hear that, Fellow Reckoner? It’s the sound of the gears slipping. Metal on metal. In the US…in Europe…and in some parts of the Asian world…the planners’ worst fears are coming true…as their economies begin to come apart.”
Comments »USDA Crop Production Report and Why You Should Be Concerned
Surprise: DOJ Will Not Prosecute $GS for Their Role in the Financial Crisis
“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department said it will not pursue criminal charges against Goldman Sachs Group Inc or its employees related to accusations that the firm bet against the same subprime mortgage securities it was selling to clients.”
Comments »JC Loses 67 Pennies, A Wider Loss Than Expected
“J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) posted a wider loss than analysts estimated and said it won’t meet its annual profit forecast as Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson’s overhaul of the fourth-largest U.S. department-store company falters.
The fiscal second-quarter net loss of $147 million, or 67 cents a share, compares with net income of $14 million, or 7 cents, a year earlier, the Plano, Texas-based company said today in a statement. Excluding some items, the loss was 37 cents a share. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 14-cent loss.”
Comments »Corn Continue to Climb Higher on Expectations the USDA Will Cut Harvest Estimates
“Corn rose to a record in Chicago on speculation the U.S. Department of Agriculture will cut its harvest estimates as the worst U.S. drought since 1956 scorches crops, driving global food costs higher.
U.S. corn output may slide to 10.929 billion bushels, 16 percent smaller than the government estimated in July, according to a Bloomberg News survey before the USDA releases predictions later today. Corn has surged 64 percent since mid-June, leading gains in soybeans and wheat, as drought conditions cover more than 60 percent of the lower 48 states. The past month’s jump in crop prices spurred the biggest increase in world food costs since November 2009, theUnited Nations said yesterday.”
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