Senate Democrats Propose Letting All Tax Cuts Expire

Do they have the balls?

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats — holding firm against extending tax cuts for the rich — are proposing a novel way to circumvent the Republican pledge not to vote for any tax increase: Allow all the tax cuts to expire Jan. 1, then vote on a tax cut for the middle class shortly thereafter.

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Are treasuries at bubble levels?

Since Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US last August, raising the prospect of higher interest rates, Treasury bonds have enjoyed an impressive rally. Investor demand for America’s sovereign debt is running at record levels.

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Nice graphs and analysis of the effect of the drought on the U.S. corn crop.

Read the article here.

Ritholtz is out with some charts and analysis showing that the recovery from losses is not symmetrical.

See the charts and analysis here.

* NY lawsuit says funds overpriced, underperforming

* Says brokers got incentives to sell JPM funds

* Case seeks class action status, damages

The case is Alan H. Tralins v. JPMorgan Chase & Co, New York state Supreme Court, No. 652448/2012, New York County.

Read the article here.

(Reuters) – A disgraced former McKinsey & Co partner whose testimony helped convict Wall Street giants Raj Rajaratnam and Rajat Gupta on insider trading charges deserves leniency at sentencing because his cooperation was exceptional, federal prosecutors said

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More bad news for California’s future retirees: Their pension fund is not growing fast enough to honor its future obligations. And who will make up for the low growth? The Californian tax payer.

The return for the 12 months through June 30 marks the third time in the past five years that it has failed to reach the 7.5 percent threshold needed to meet projected obligations. When Calpers underperforms, the state and its municipalities must make up make up the difference. The state will see its costs rise next year and local governments the following year, the fund said in statement.

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Got corn?  Corn futures are again surging Sunday evening. See the charts and some brief analysis here.

Milk the farmer!

In a monthly report to be released Monday, the National Climatic Data Center is expected to announce that this year’s drought now ranks among the ten largest drought areas in the past century.

Read the article and view the graphs here.

These charts may explain the shift from stocks to treasuries as well as showing why stocks may languish for years to come.

Read the article/see the charts here.

China will cut taxes on the profits that foreign companies take out of the country by up to 50 per cent after rules on withholding taxes were relaxed to encourage more overseas investment.

Read the article here.

I, and others, have given the Obama administration a lot of flack for its early 2009 prediction that its $800 billion stimulus plan would drive the unemployment rate to under 6% by 2012. The fact that unemployment is over 8% might lead one to conclude that those fancy economic models with their Keynesian multipliers were wrong.

But Obama supporters defend the forecast by arguing that White House economists were basing that prediction on incomplete numbers that didn’t reflect the true severity of the downturn. Once the data were revised, White House economists seemingly made more accurate predictions.

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NEW YORK CITY — Is Anthony Weiner still considering running for mayor?

The disgraced Congressman, who was forced to step down following an online sex scandal, appears to be quietly ramping up campaign activity, new campaign filings submitted Friday show.

Offshoring continues to be a controversial issue in many developed countries. This column provides evidence from Japan and argues that policymakers should not worry too much about the loss of jobs; while unskilled jobs are offshored, they are replaced with skilled jobs, leading to a more productive use of the domestic labour force.

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For the good of both universities and athletes, we should end the NCAA cartel and get high-level football and basketball off all college campuses, not just Penn State…. What the NCAA does is fundamentally abusive: it holds the wage for minor league football and basketball players down to zero, under the pretense that its workers are students.

Read the article here.

Want some painful burning upon urination? Pick up some E. coli from your chicken dinner.

Continuing to treat urinary tract infections as a short-term, routine ailment rather than a long-term food safety issue risks turning the responsible bacteria into a major health crisis.

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(Reuters) – Russell Wasendorf Sr, arrested on Friday, confessed to a 20-year fraud at his now-bankrupt Iowa brokerage, saying business troubles and his “big” ego left him no choice: “So I cheated.”

Read the article here.

Outsource much?

Lawmakers were livid to discover that the United States’ Olympic team uniforms were made in China. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) even suggested “they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again.”

Read the article here.

Whew…It seriously might be time to look at some bottom feeding…

European stock strategists are backing away from their most-pessimistic forecasts as policy makers agree on measures to tackle the region’s debt crisis.

While sticking to predictions for losses of as much as 16 percent, Morgan Stanley’s Ronan Carr raised his recommendation on European equities to neutral on July 2 and Alain Bokobza of Societe Generale SA said he has started to reduce the underweight call he’s had for at least two years. Exane BNP Paribas said investors can find bargains among companies most reliant on economic growth.

Read the article here.

Will it be enough to keep Turbo Tim out of the fray?

According to a June 2008 memo obtained by FOX Business, Geithner, who was then president of the New York Federal Reserve, listed six changes aimed at making it more difficult for banks to distort Libor.

The disclosure comes as lawmakers step up the heat on bankers and regulators in the wake of Barclays (BCS: 10.16, +0.03, +0.30%) reaching a $452 million settlement for allegedly intentionally manipulating its Libor rates. More than a dozen banks are being probed for their handling of Libor.

It’s not clear if the memo will be enough to demonstrate Geithner and other U.S. regulators did enough to prevent the deliberate under reporting of Libor rates.