One More Reason to Question What You Consume

“Check the ingredients label on almost any food product and most likely there are substances never approved by the federal government.

Since the 1990s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has largely abdicated responsibility for testing new food ingredients. Instead of government scientists testing new flavorings or preservatives, manufacturers’ own labs or those they contract with perform the assessments.

The FDA acknowledges in writing that a company has certified an ingredient as safe, without affirming or denying this declaration.

This system has resulted in “the vast majority of new ingredients added to U.S. food” over the last 15 years never receiving a safety determination from the government,” according to the Chicago Tribune.”

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“The man who built what was possibly the first stock-trading robot now worries they have too much sway over the market. In other news, Victor Frankenstein is starting to rethink that whole reanimating-the-dead thing.

Starting in the 1970s, Thomas Peterffy, the billionaire founder of the Connecticut brokerage firm Interactive Brokers, was a pioneer in getting computers to perform the trading of stocks and options and whatsits, so that humans could spend the rest of eternity sipping drinks and collecting checks. In a fascinating interview with NPR, he tells how his efforts culminated in a rubber-fingered robot that typed rapid-fire orders on the Nasdaq electronic stock exchange in 1987.”

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The inflammable Taibbi comments of Mitt’s record….

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Putting spending into perspective….

Defense spending chart

“Despite expectations of a drop-off in home sales this fall, a forward-looking indicator shows a growing number of buyers are jumping back into the housing market.”

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Should we say the entire party is like this ? …similar to how #OWS or the tea party was depicted by a few nut jobs.

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“Household debt in the U.S. declined by 0.6 percent in the third quarter as mortgage balances shrank, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Consumer indebtedness fell by $60 billion from the end of June to $11.66 trillion on Sept. 30, according to a quarterly report on household debt and credit released today by the district bank. Mortgage balances declined by about $114 billion, or 1.3 percent.”

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Gapping up 

TOP PERCENTAGE GAINERS

TOP PERCENTAGE GAINERS

TOP PERCENTAGE GAINERS

Gapping down

TOP PERCENTAGE LOSERS

ANGI, BNS, BIDU, CYBX, IDXX, IBM, KIRK, MYL, PNRA, PBH, SCHN, TEAR, TEVA, WPI, RDC, ATW, NE, DO, ORIG, ESV, HERO, SDRL, RIG,

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In Play ,

On the Wires 

“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s loose monetary policies marked by rounds of liquidity injections act like a drug to which markets and the economy remain addicted, awaiting their next fix instead of embracing true reform, said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate banking committee.

Since the recession, Bernanke has cut interest rates and has rolled out two rounds of quantitative easing (QE), under which the Fed buys assets like Treasury holdings or mortgage-backed securities from banks, pumping the economy full of liquidity to push down borrowing costs and encourage investing, sending stock prices rising in the process.

QE1 injected $1.7 trillion worth of freshly printed money into the economy and then QE2 followed up with another $600 billion.”

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“Ben S. Bernanke probably won’t provide specific plans for further monetary action at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual Jackson Hole symposium this week, according to Pacific Investment Management Co. Chief Executive Officer Mohamed El-Erian.

The Fed signaled last week it’s ready to take further steps to spur the economic recovery. Many policy makers said additional stimulus probably will be needed soon unless the economy shows signs of a durable pickup, according to minutes released Aug. 22 of the central bank’s most recent meeting, on July 31-Aug. 1. Fed Chairman Bernanke is scheduled to speak on Friday at the economic-policy conference in Wyoming.

“The minutes were consequential, and we don’t expect Bernanke to take it further than what the minutes said,” El- Erian, also the co-chief investment officer of the world’s largest manager of bond funds, said on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” with Betty Liu. “It’s highly probably that he will outline the options that the Fed has available and the commitment to do more if needed.”

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“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will likely announce plans to stimulate the economy via a third round of asset purchases from banks in the near future, as it’s just a question of when and not if, said Pimco Managing Director Neel Kashkari.

Under quantitative easing (QE), the Fed buys assets like Treasury holdings or mortgage-backed securities from banks, pumping the economy full of liquidity to push down borrowing costs and encourage investing and hiring, sending stock prices rising in the process.

The Fed has rolled out two such rounds since the downturn, injecting $1.7 trillion into the economy in a first round and then $600 billion in a second round with freshly printed money. ”

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“If chart patterns from election years hold true to form this year, stocks are in for a decline between Labor Day and Columbus Day, says Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group.

“You don’t take this stuff as gospel, but you look for patterns, and you can use them as a guide for the market,” he tells Yahoo.

“This year the market has been following its typical election year pattern, with the peaks and troughs, almost to a T.”

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“Hurricane Isaac knocked out power, flooded Gulf-front roads and pushed water over the top of an 18-mile section of a rural Louisiana levee as it began a slow slog across the state with New Orleans in its path.”

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“(Reuters) – Energy investors have taken bets for years on what they thought was an important indicator of future energy production: the weekly rig count data provided by oil service firms.

They may want to be careful about how much money they put on the table.

A Reuters analysis of the data, and interviews with officials at companies involved in collecting and compiling it, shows that it may sometimes be an arbitrary and misleading gauge subject to revisions.”

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Louisiana should count their blessing that Isaac was just a cat 1 storm.

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Decades ? It can’t be.

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Personal consumption up 0.2%

“BANGKOK (AP) — Crude prices fell Wednesday after finance ministers from the world’s leading industrialized economies called on oil producers to increase output and said they stood ready to ask the International Energy Agency to release strategic reserves.

Benchmark oil for October delivery fell 72 cents by late afternoon Bangkok time to $95.61 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 86 cents to finish at $96.33 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.

Brent crude fell 80 cents to $111.78 in the ICE Futures exchange in London.”

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