Mish with some analysis about the socialists in France getting ready to go full Greek:
If socialists take control of both houses in French parliament as expected, president François Hollande would have free rein to carry out his stated policies such as hire more public workers, raise taxes on the rich, and Wreck France With Economically Insane Proposal: “Make Layoffs So Expensive For Companies That It’s Not Worth It”
Read the article here.
Comments »* Upstart leftist and establishment heir neck-and-neck
* Election amounts to referendum on punishing bailout
* Anti-bailout victory could tip Greece towards euro exit
* Central banks readying arsenals for post-election turmoil
Read the article here.
Comments »(Reuters) – Developing nations must be ready for a severe global financial crisis should the euro zone fail to cope with its current problems, outgoing World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said in an interview published online on Saturday.
Read the article here.
Comments »Miller is out with an excellent post on this topic. He links to some research and graphs which illustrate his point.
Simply, accepted theory is that higher volatility stocks (ie riskier) should perform better than lower volatility ones over time. You know, the old risk-return tradeoff.
The thing is that in practice, they don’t.
There’s been a growing body of research and interest into this phenomenon and I thought it would be worthwhile to make some order out of this.
Read the article here.
Comments »With Greek elections about to take place in the next 24 hours the world waits to see what will happen. Deustche Banks says Spain is the real concern as
OANDA is also recommending that clients reduce positions into the Greek election.
Comments »Everyone’s first pick is Apple Inc., but Q2 may see a new behemoth help to drive earnings growth this quarter.
Comments »“As Italian and Spanish sovereign borrowing costs shoot higher, corporate credit default swaps (CDS) have remained remarkably high.
CDS is essentially insurance on a security that pays in the event of a default.
Business Insider analyzed CDS prices on more than 100 publicly traded banks across the U.S., Europe, Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.
What we found: for at least 14 banks, the cost to insure debt remains above 500 basis points..”
Full article
David Rosenberg is a well know bear. He has been bullish on equities as of late due to the never ending central bank put, but has 51 signs that show how bad things are for the global economy.
Comments »While a woman was eating squid, the squid injected a sperm bag into the woman’s mouth! The squid turned out to be only partially cooked!
Read the article here.
Comments »After decades of misguided hysteria, the War on Drugs may have an epidemic worth freaking out about, and it’s spreading across state and demographic lines at the speed of the Internet. NATASHA VARGAS-COOPER travels the country to uncover the way-less-glamorous-than-it-sounds world of bath salts, which has already come to a strip mall near you.
Read the article here.
Comments »The Dr. of Doom nails it:
Compared to 2008-2009, when policymakers had ample space to act, monetary and fiscal authorities are running out of policy bullets (or, more cynically, policy rabbits to pull out of their hats). Monetary policy is constrained by the proximity to zero interest rates and repeated rounds of quantitative easing. Indeed, economies and markets no longer face liquidity problems, but rather credit and insolvency crises. Meanwhile, unsustainable budget deficits and public debt in most advanced economies have severely limited the scope for further fiscal stimulus.
Read the rest here.
Comments »They’ve been talking about this for some time. It’s been sheer lunacy, as proponents of the bridge have assured us that its construction will bring millions of new jobs, zillions in revenue, cure cancer, and fulfill the prophesies.
In reality, their main goal seems to be bankrupting the current bridge’s owner, Matty Maroun (who is, uncontestedly, a real dick). The Detroit/Windsor span is the only privately held bridge in the US; a fact that infuriates liberal Democrats to no end. Thus, they MUST construct a second bridge downriver, with the purpose of sending Maroun into bankruptcy.
I’m skeptical the bridge brings much added good at all, short of alleviating some traffic congestation. If fixing economies was as simple as building bridges, we could just spend the next thousand years backfilling Lake St. Clair. However, the real selling point of this bridge was that Canada was willing to pay for Michigan’s half of its construction, while still giving Michigan an equal say in construction and a half share of all toll revenue.
Um, okay…?
Leaders from both sides of the U.S.-Canada border today announced “a visionary project” to build a second bridge between Detroit and Windsor.
“This is quite a large project, even for countries as big as the United States and Canada,” said Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper in Windsor in the first of two appearances today to announce the deal. “It’s an investment in the future … of the North American economy,” and “a celebration of the deep friendship that exists between Canada and the United States.”
“This is a glorious day. It’s a magnificent day.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called the project “a particularly big deal for people who want to go to work…for people who need a job.”
Gov. Rick Snyder thanked the Canadians for fronting Michigan its $550 million share of the project costs.
“This is more than a traditional partnership,” said Snyder.
Read more here.
Comments »(CNN) — In 2008, President Obama campaigned on a message of “Hope and Change.” Thursday, speaking in Ohio, the president announced his re-election campaign message of “Divide and Blame.”
The president had to give another economic speech, nearly an hour long, because he has not given us economic results. America does not need excuses; we need leadership.
The president’s speech was a speech of excuses, basically blaming President Bush and tax cuts for all that ails the American economy. The president announced his intention to run against George Bush, but he is a little late — he missed that election by eight years. By the way, even that is not a campaign he can win; I recommend that he should try to run against Nixon instead.
President Obama cannot ask Americans if they are better off than they were four years ago, and so is trying to blame others for his record. Over half a million fewer Americans have jobs today than when he took office.
After his advisers projected that his $800 billion stimulus bill would keep unemployment below 8%, it has remained above that benchmark for a record 40 months and counting. Median family net worth has hit a two-decade low, median household income has declined, more than 30% of borrowers are underwater on their mortgage, 23 million Americans remain unemployed or underemployed, and half of college graduates this year come out of school unemployed or underemployed.
Being president is a hard job. One of the hardest parts is that you can’t just make excuses. Harry Truman understood this. It’s just not allowed from the president of the United States. Excuses make the president look small and weak. It is frankly a little embarrassing.
Read more here.
Comments »KEY FINDINGS
Cairo (CNN) — On the eve of a presidential runoff election, Egypt’s military council formally dissolved parliament Friday, in line with a ruling from the nation’s top court that declared the legislative body invalid.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces — the military rulers in control of the country since the fall of Hosni Mubarak — officially informed parliament that it was dissolved, said Maj. Mohamed Askar, a spokesman for the council.
He said there was no notice to lawmakers denying them access but a report posted on the English website of Al-Ahram newspaper said entry was barred.
The military council, known by its acronym SCAF, claimed full legislative power after the High Constitutional Court’s ruling Thursday that the constitutional articles that regulated parliamentary elections were invalid.
Gen. Hussein Tantawi, the head of SCAF and Egypt’s de facto ruler, was in an emergency meeting with the council Friday to discuss the drafting of a new constitution. The council is widely expected to issue its own interim constitutional charter.
The court’s ruling triggered fears that Egypt’s revolution will unravel and Cairo braced for angry protests Friday night. By evening, however, the capital was surprisingly quiet though a few protesters chanted in the streets calling for a boycott of the voting that begins Saturday.
Read more here:
Comments »The GOP’s all-important social conservatives may be getting more comfortable with Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith — but liberals are increasingly wary about the candidate’s religion in the run-up to November, according to a new study.
The study found anti-Mormon attitudes have increased since Romney’s 2008 presidential bid and are highest among liberal and non-religious voters. Their discomfort could pose a problem for the Republican candidate in November.
“The victory of Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican primary has convinced many observers that Romney’s Mormon religion is now irrelevant to his electoral chances,” wrote study author David Smith. But “aversion to Mormons is still an important force in American public opinion, and one that seriously affects Romney’s chances even if he ultimately overcomes it.”
The study found attitudes about Mormonism among Evangelicals has largely remained unchanged since 2007 — when 37 percent said they were “less likely to vote for a Mormon candidate for president,” compared with 33 percent this year.
However, that sentiment among non-religious voters increased from 21 percent to 41 percent over roughly the same period.
Among liberal voters, 43 percent said they were less likely to vote for a Mormon presidential candidate in 2012, compared with 28 percent in 2007.
Political strategist Elliott Curson said Thursday that Romney’s religion becomes less of concern “as each day goes by.”
“Still, some people will not vote for Romney because he’s not of their religion, and some people will not vote for Obama because he’s not like them,” said Curson, a media consultant for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
Read more here:
Comments »In a Europe where the outcome of most elections is predicted weeks before votes are cast, the triumph of left-wing Syriza in May’s Greek elections was one of the few shocks of recent years.
The party often described as near-Communist in its rhetoric is neck-and-neck with right-wing New Democracy in the polls ahead of Sunday. Talking to people in Athens, it’s not difficult to see why foreign analysts and officials are afraid that Syriza will win most of the votes this weekend.
“What are the old parties doing? They’ve had their chance and look where we are,” Angelis, a waiter in a café opposite Greece’s parliament building, told CNBC. He’s planning to vote for Syriza on Sunday.
Syriza’s very newness is one of its advantages. The Greek people are increasingly fed up with corruption, which is one of many drags on their economy, and the older parties have all had their corruption scandals over the years.
They also have the advantage of never having backed the bailout – or the “memorandum” as it is known in Greece – which is the focus of much discontent in the country.
Measures which have been enacted by the technocratic government to try and meet the terms of the bailout often appear to have created more problems than they have solved. For example, electricity bills were raised by a controversial new property tax, but consumers were allowed to put off paying those bills.
Now, an estimated 500,000 households haven’t paid their electricity bills for more than three months and the state-run energy company needs to pay $657.2 million which it doesn’t have to its banks by June 22.
Read more here:
Comments »In 2011, a record 46 million people – or 1 in 7 Americans — participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as Food Stamps.
The increased use of Food Stamps is a huge social and political issue for America, and it’s also big business. In 2011, the U.S. government spent $72 billion on Food Stamps.
Among the beneficiaries, food producers such as Cargill, PepsiCo. (PEP), Coca-Cola (KO) and Kraft (KFT), as well as retailers like Wal-Mart. Of course, Wall Street gets a cut too, led by JPMorgan Chase (JPM), which administers the SNAP benefits in 24 states.
In the accompanying video, I discuss the (big) business of Food Stamps with Marion Nestle, professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of several books, most recently Why Calories Count.
Generally speaking, Nestle is a supporter of the program, calling it “the only safety net we have left for the poor.”
However, with obesity rates rising among the poor — and obesity a huge factor in rising health-care costs — Nestle and other health experts wonder whether there should be restrictions on what kind of foods can be purchased with Food Stamps.
Currently, there are few restrictions on what can be purchased with Food Stamps, other than alcohol and prepared foods.
Read more here:
Comments »You can see a list of the actions on their website, here: http://www.moodys.com/Pages/BankRatings.aspx
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