$FB Quietly Moves to Siphon TV Ad Sales

“Facebook’s management has recently adopted a new mantra: that Facebook’s audience is the equivalent of three Super Bowls every day. COO Sheryl Sandberg said it on the Q3 2012 earnings call. And vp/global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson said it at our Ignition 2012 conference in New York recently.

It turns out that this mantra is a clue to how Facebook intends to start stealing the advertising dollars that currently go to television. Facebook has made three recent moves that all point to an attack on the ad dollars that previously went to TV:

• Facebook is now the second biggest server of online video, behind YouTube. Although Facebook is a distant second to YouTube, that’s still huge progress. Facebook now shows more video than Yahoo!, Vevo, Microsoft, AOL and everyone else.
• Facebook has a partnership with Nielsen, “

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“Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) have joined forces to offer more than $500 million to buy Eastman Kodak Co. (EKDKQ)’s patents out of bankruptcy, said people familiar with the situation.

The two companies, competing for dominance of the smartphone market, have partnered after leading two separate groups this summer to buy some of Kodak’s 1,100 imaging patents, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private.”

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“…Shapiro sees monetary policy, with the Federal Reserve benchmark interest rate at almost zero, as having a limited near-term impact on growth. And he considers the $1 trillion U.S. fiscal deficit an important drag on future expansion.

“There is an element of repetitiveness in being an economist these days, because adjustments that affect the economy are all very long-term and are not going to change anytime soon,” he says.

Shapiro has absorbed his firm’s reluctance to “get drawn into the ‘rah, rah, rah’ of the moment,” says his boss, Maria Fiorini Ramirez, founder and chief executive officer of her eponymous firm. A native of San Giuseppe Vesuviano, Italy, she says she emphasizes the importance of building relationships with an array of economic players, including state and municipal treasurers, in order to gauge risks for clients….”

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“Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) will pay $1.5 million to settle U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission claims the firm failed to supervise a trader who hid an $8.3 billion position. One CFTC commissioner dissented, saying the penalty is far too small.

Goldman Sachs inadequately policed trades made by Matthew Marshall Taylor on seven days in late 2007, ultimately suffering more than $118 million in losses as his bets were unwound, according to the CFTC. Later, Goldman Sachs didn’t send the regulator “important information” on the incident that was provided to another industry watchdog, the CFTC said…”

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Kill those fucking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives
Kill those fucking Yankees who ordered them to torture

Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers

Kill them all slowly and painfully

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In light of the presidents comments on bankruptcy, debt ceilings, and the trade action in gold this week; i thought it would be interesting to learn more about money itself and the situation our country faces.

Cheers on your weekend!

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2J5QZpVdg8 450 300] [youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOw90samRVo 450 300]

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“The major development in yesterday’s European Central Bank policy meeting was a significant downgrade to the ECB’s staff projections for GDP growth and inflation in the euro area over the course of 2013.

Since the ECB introduced it’s “Outright Monetary Transactions” (OMT) bond market intervention program in August, market volatility has been almost completely muted, and sovereign bond yields have fallen steadily throughout the course of the second half of the year. Concurrently, European stocks have been on a tear.

These two developments have put the euro crisis conversation squarely in the growth arena. The common line is that the ECB’s OMT pledge has sufficiently removed tail risks from financial markets for the foreseeable future. This, then, should allow policymakers to focus their full attention on measures aimed at reviving economic growth in the euro area.

Pursuant to this worldview, most strategists are calling for even higher stocks and even lower yields in the eurozone in 2013 as current trends continue and the currency bloc “muddles through” a mild recession.

In his 2013 outlook, titled In Authorities We (have to) Trust, Deutsche Bank credit strategist Jim Reid highlights a small problem with that narrative: the growth crisis and the market crisis are inextricably linked, and the ECB has actually done little to change that.

In fact, Reid argues that disappointing economic data – the one thing seemingly out of the ECB’s control – are what have driven the last two major selloffs in European markets:..”

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“Most of America is focused on the fiscal cliff and the over $600 billion in tax and spending provisions set to expire at the end of 2012.

But Gillian Tett at the Financial Times warns of another ‘cliffhanger’ that Americans should pay attention to.

This cliffhanger she writes is the expiration of the Transaction Account Guarantee (TAG) program, introduced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2008.

Bank of America’s Priya Misra and Brian Smedley warned about this in September.

The TAG program allowed companies and individual put any amount of money into a non-interest account, and the entire amount would be guaranteed by the FDIC in the event that the bank went under. Prior to the TAG program the FDIC only guaranteed $250,000.

In the past two years, Tett points out that TAG accounts doubled to $1.5 trillion with over 50 percent of this coming from corporate accounts.

There is a chance that corporates are comfortable with American banks, and they’ll be happy to leave their deposits in place or withdraw them at a slow pace.

But some estimate that about $600 billion could be withdrawn, and with that end of month deadline fast approaching, Tett points out the worst case scenario: ”

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[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuET0kpHoyM 450 300]

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“Al Gore justifies his extravagant lifestyle by purchasing carbon credits to offset his CO2 emissions in an attempt to appear to be living “carbon neutral”. Gore owns a corporation called Generation Investment Management, LLP (GIM) that is chaired and partially owned by Gore. However, Gore simply invests in his own carbon tax investment firm to maintain profits and claim carbon credits purchased.

GIM states that they are “dedicated to long-term investing, integrated sustainability research and client alignment.”

Gore and David Blood created GIM, which represents 16 nations and influences sustainable research through employed “investment analysts and leaders.” By pushing sustainable development, GIM uses studies to assess a corporation’s value based on summations of long-term performance as determined by GIM. The challenges of sustainability are devised by international factors, costs and externalities that are “interlinked with climate change crisis and poverty, pandemics and demographics, water scarcity and migration/urbanization.”

In order to hock their fear-mongering on greenhouse emissions, GIM asserts that capital markets and capitalism must “transition from a high-carbon to low-carbon economy” so that eco-fascists are assured the power in a premeditated new Industrial Revolution. Stressing this “fact”, the GIM believes that “sustainable solutions will be the primary driver of industrial and economic development for the coming decades.”

Gore says that “integrating issues such as climate change into investment analysis is simply common sense.” There is an expectation that within the next 25 years “sustainable development will be a primary driver of industrial and economic change.” Gore affirms that investing with GIM will maximize corporation’s “financial return by strategically managing their performance in this new economic, social, environmental and ethical context.”

The GIM sees “long term environmental, socioeconomic and governance challenges” can be quelled with the control of a corporation’s ability to contribute to the profitability of sustainability. GIM can focus attention to global markets through the allocation of corporations that support their schemes.

According to the GIM’s report entitled “Thematic Research Highlights”, published in 2007 outlines how by claiming that man-made climate change is real, and carbon markets are the answer to staving off the effects of this hoax, sustainability can be implanted into the psyche of governmental leaders, corporate heads and individual citizens to create viable investment opportunities for profitability for the GIM and aligned corporations.

The GIM is furthered by the efforts of The Generation Foundation who is supported by:

• World Resources Institute
• Natural Resource Defense Council
• The Climate Reality Project
• Global Impact Investing Network

The Generation Foundation also works with:

• The Carbon Disclosure Project who “provides a secretariat for the world’s largest institutional investor collaboration on the business implications of climate change, now representing $31 trillion of assets under management.”
• The European Social Investment Forum that endeavors to “encourage and develop sustainable and responsible investment and better corporate governance.”
• The International Corporate Governance Network that is investor-driven and who demands that they be an authority on “corporate governance” and issues that affect international control.
• The UN Global Compact who is comprised of international corporations that have “citizenship” as a network of private sector corporations and social actors to “advance corporate citizenship and universal social and environmental principles to meet the challenges of globalization.”…”
• Full article and video

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“Today the twin fake memes of a “Fiscal Cliff” and “Austerity” are combining to create a contrived excuse to tax and steal far more of your wealth and income, including your retirement benefits. The press is filled with articles and editorials like one recently atCNBC entitled “Amid Tax Talks, a cry of ‘Save My 401(k)’.”

Many retirement, offshore and political experts including Jeff Berwick, Larry Grossman and others are now warning how government revenue needs and austerity measures by the Obama Administration today threaten the private retirement system and benefits of millions of successful Americans. Back on January 28, 2010 I wrote a report entitled “The Coming Obama Retirement Trap Has Started,” published at LewRockwell.com, republished in its entirety below, for your review.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been inundated with emails similar to this one:

Ron,

In early 2010 you wrote an article called “Are you ready for the coming Obama retirement trap?”

Now, I find an article from National Seniors Council that there was a recent hearing sponsored by the Treasury and the Labor Department that marked the beginning of the Obama Administration’s effort to nationalize the nation’s pension system and to eliminate private retirement accounts including IRA’s and 401k plans.

What is your thinking on this? Should one, even with a large IRA, consider cashing it in or doing something to keep it out of harm’s way? Your response is appreciated.

In the 8,000-word report, I basically explored what Washington and the Obama Administration (note Romney would have followed the same actions) had in store for retirement plans and your benefits at the time of some real or fabricated crisis in the future. I wrote about how it would likely happen and what you could do to defend your pension, IRA or other retirement vehicle.

The final section of that report began, “Delay Could Be Fatal… The bottom line on all the strategies I’ve discussed above is they must be started and in place before the next major economic crisis and threat to your retirement assets occurs.”

Now three years later in email after email readers want to know my opinion and advice on the news of the coming pension grab. They ask, “What will the government do?” Many are desperate for solutions, concerned they might have waited until it’s too late.

My answer is, yes, you have probably waited too long to protect and defend your retirement plan. I wrote that “Delay Could Be Fatal” nearly three years ago, in January of 2010. In 2013 the government will do anything it damned well wants in order to generate tax revenue and cut your benefits and there is little you can do to prevent that now, at this late date.
The Coming Obama Retirement Trap has Started///”

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“Remember when Chris Christie was hugging Barack Obama as they posed for photo-ops after Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey? He might have spent his time more profitably by making sure officials in the devastated areas were prepared to assist FEMA workers who were rushed to the scene and then told to go sightseeing for four days. A FEMA worker stated:

They told us to hurry, hurry, hurry. We rushed to Fort Dix, only to find out that our liaison didn’t even know we were coming.

He added that when he and his fellow emergency workers arrived at Fort Dix, officials brushed them off:

The regional coordinator even said to us, “I don’t know why you were rushed here because we don’t need you.” They told us to go to the Walmart nearby or to check out the area but told us to stay out of the areas affected by the storm. If our boss back at headquarters had not been alerted and didn’t make a push to get us assignments, the people running the show on the ground level would have just kept us sitting in the barracks….”

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I touched on this subject a month or so ago and it appears the consumer economy is in for real trouble….

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Even as the state Treasury prepares to begin another financial review of Detroit’s books, a plan is being solidified in the governor’s office that would guide Michigan’s largest city through what is being called a managed bankruptcy.

The working concept, still evolving, assumes that the state’s financial review would find severe financial distress in Detroit, that Mayor Dave Bing and City Council would be unable to push through overdue restructuring, and that the process would culminate in appointment of an emergency financial manager under Public Act 72.

The case would be filed under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy code, according to two ranking sources familiar with the situation, following efforts to reach prenegotiated settlements with as many key creditors — unions, vendors and pension funds among them — as possible before any filing.

“Clearly, we will always try to do that,” one source familiar with the situation said in an interview Thursday. “You can move on a much more expedited basis if you can demonstrate that your cash is running out” — as Detroit clearly is with each passing week.

The evolving bankruptcy scenario is a clear signal that Gov. Rick Snyder and Treasurer Andy Dillon have lost confidence in the ability of the mayor, his management team and council to honor their commitments under the eight-month-old consent agreement with the state, or to make any meaningful progress on restructuring.

Contingency planning in Lansing for a possible Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing is not likely to be popular inside council chambers or the Mayor’s Office. But it’s the responsible and necessary thing to do, whatever the protests from the elected officials whose denial and self-delusion are hastening the arrival of a reckoning they can no longer avoid.

From The Detroit News

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“John Rolls Submits, Michael Snyder writes: When financial markets in the United States crash, so does the U.S. economy.  Just remember what happened back in 2008.  The financial markets crashed, the credit markets froze up, and suddenly the economy went into cardiac arrest.  Well, there are very few things that could cause the financial markets to crash harder or farther than a derivatives panic.  Sadly, most Americans don’t even understand what derivatives are.  Unlike stocks and bonds, a derivative is not an investment in anything real.  Rather, a derivative is a legal bet on the future value or performance of something else.  Just like you can go to Las Vegas and bet on who will win the football games this weekend, bankers on Wall Street make trillions of dollars of bets about how interest rates will perform in the future and about what credit instruments are likely to default.  Wall Street has been transformed into a gigantic casino where people are betting on just about anything that you can imagine.  This works fine as long as there are not any wild swings in the economy and risk is managed with strict discipline, but as we have seen, there have been times.

For example, do you know why the largest insurance company in the world, AIG, crashed back in 2008 and required a government bailout?  It was because of derivatives.  Bad derivatives trades also caused the failure of MF Global, and the 6 billion dollar loss that JPMorgan Chase recently suffered because of derivatives made headlines all over the globe.  But all of those incidents were just warm up acts for the coming derivatives panic that will destroy global financial markets.  The largest casino in the history of the world is going to go “bust” and the economic fallout from the financial crash that will happen as a result will be absolutely horrific.

There is a reason why Warren Buffett once referred to derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction”.  Nobody really knows the total value of all the derivatives that are floating around out there, but estimates place the notional value of the global derivatives market anywhere from 600 trillion dollars all the way up to 1.5 quadrillion dollars.

Keep in mind that global GDP is somewhere around 70 trillion dollars for an entire year.  So we are talking about an amount of money that is absolutely mind blowing.

So who is buying and selling all of these derivatives?

Well, would it surprise you to learn that it is mostly the biggest banks?….”

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“A key figure involved in designing the president’s signature health insurance mandate referred to as Obamacare has left her role at the White House to work for one of the very companies profiting off the bill she helped create.

Elizabeth Fowler will be leaving her role as the special assistant to the president for healthcare and economic policy at the National Economic Council and joining pharmaceutical giants Jonson & Johnson. The Washington, DC newspaper POLITICO confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that Fowler is leaving her position on Pennsylvania Avenue for “a senior-level position leading ‘global health policy’” at the pharma company’s government affairs and policy group.

While Fowler’s exit from the White House is but one more entry on the list of Obama staffers that have traded in their executive office access for a lobbying role, her use of the every-spinning revolving door is of particular significance since she is likely to benefit directly from the very legislation she helped create.

“If you drew an organizational chart of major players in the Senate health care negotiations, Fowler would be the chief operating officer,” POLITICO’s Carrie Budoff Brown wrote in 2009.

When Fowler was profiled by the paper at the time, she was described as a key player in health care discussions, and not just under President Barack Obama either. POLITICO notes she worked from 2001 through 2005 with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) while he negotiated the Medicare Part D prescription drug program in Washington. During the second George W Bush administration, she left politics to pursue a position in the private sector, only to rejoin Baucus in 2008 to construct what became known as Obamacare.

“People know when Liz is speaking, she is speaking for Baucus,” Dean Rosen, health policy adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), told POLITICO at the time.

As the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald reports this week, Baucus was the “key legislator” involved in drafting the bill, which he himself went on the record to thank Fowler for….”

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“Volunteers and workers cleaning up the devastated regions flooded by Hurricane Sandy are facing dangerous mold and asbestos contamination, which could cause illness and litigation if they do not properly protect themselves.

Similar to the post-9/11 cleanup, unprotected workers may be subjecting themselves to crippling illnesses that could result in future lawsuits against those organizing the cleanup.

Greg Floyd, president of the Teamsters Local 237, said his nightmare had come true: mold is spreading rapidly through the homes and damaged buildings devastated by Hurricane Sandy, he told the Huffington Post. A month and a half after the storm struck New York City, the fungus has spread so rapidly that Floyd has held back thousands of public employees from helping in the cleanup process. His workers don’t have the training and protective equipment necessary to battle the fast-growing mold, which can cause severe respiratory health complications. Floyd fears that his organization will suffer the consequences of a legal battle if he sends untrained workers to battle the mold.

But the situation is dire and in need of assistance. Many hurricane victims whose homes are infested with the fungus do not have alternate living options and must therefore take the risk to remain in their contaminated homes. Those in the Rockaways are hardest hit by mold, but the US Health Department has no guidelines as to how severe the contamination must be before considering an evacuation….”

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“In a tracking survey that estimates the percentage of the U.S. population employed at least 30 hours a week, Gallup reports that the payroll-to-population (P2P) employment rate fell from 45.7% in October to 43.7% in November….”

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“One trend I am seeing consistently in these 2013 annual strategy reports is the risky environment that is building in corporate credits.  In this summary, Credit Suisse provides a rationale for being overweight equities relative to credit in 2013:

1) Credit has outperformed strongly, leaving equities appearing cheap on a number of valuation scores….”

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“To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.” – Isaac Newton

The last few days have seen a pick up in demand for downside protection on the S and P500, when it seems no one at the moment has nothing left to protect against in Europe, which explains somewhat the recent convergence move between the VIX and its European equivalent V2X – source Bloomberg: ”

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