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Monthly Archives: December 2012

$QCOM Invests $121 Million in Sharp

 

Sharp Corp. (6753), the Japanese TV maker that warned last month about its ability to survive, reached a two-month high after saying it plans to raise as much as 9.9 billion yen ($121 million) selling shares to Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM)

Sharp, the world’s second worst-performing major stock, rose 4 percent to 181 yen in Tokyo trading, its highest close since Oct. 4. The Osaka-based company will sell 30.12 million shares at 164 yen apiece to Qualcomm this month for a 2.6 percent stake, and may sell another 4.94 billion yen of stock if certain conditions are met, the TV maker said in a statement after the market closed yesterday.”

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China Sparks a Small Rally in Asia and Europe as Restrictions in Banking are Eased and Stimulus Spending Announced

Stocks (MXWD) advanced for the first time in three days and commodities rose as China eased restrictions on investing in banks and its new leaders backed urban development. The yen slid and Spain’s bonds extended losses after the government missed its maximum sales target at a debt sale.

China’s regulators abolished a rule limiting insurers’ investments in commercial banks and Xinhua news agency said yesterday after a meeting of top party leaders that China will actively promote urbanization and expand domestic demand. Spain sold 4.25 billion euros ($5.6 billion) of debt due between 2015 and 2022, less than the 4.5 billion-euro target.

“There’s a lot of talk about potential policy support for China’s economy,” said Tim Leung, a fund manager who helps manage about $1.5 billion at IG Investment Ltd. in Hong Kong. “While urbanization is not new, people will probably focusing on that trend. There’s a lot of positive benefit from urbanization, like infrastructure spending.”

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John McAfee Blogs About His WAR Against the Country of Belize

I have retained Telésforo Guerra, former Attorney General for the country of Guatemala, to assist in my fight against the Government of Belize. Mr. Guerra is one of most prominent attorneys in Guatemala and, as a shared border neighbor, is well versed in the intricate system of corruption with the Belizean Government. Mr. Guerra is Samantha’s uncle.

I have, in the past three weeks, had no contact with the American Embassy in Belize. Since many employees of the Embassy are Belizean nationals, I did not feel safe in communicating with them. Now that I am in Guatemala, and in a safe harbor, I will reach out to the Embassy here.

To the Prime Minister of Belize I make the following offer: I will agree to meet you in a neutral country to discuss our mutual issues. It is entirely possible that you have little or no knowledge of the level of corruption being propagated throughout every branch of your government. I will turn over to you thousands of hours of video and audio as proof, providing that we meet as gentlemen and are mutually convinced of our honesty.

To the family of Gregory Faul: I had nothing to do with his death. I have lost five close family members in my 67 years and I know your suffering.

To the Belizean Police: I will answer any questions that you may have over the phone. If I am indeed merely wanted for questioning, this should suffice.

To my supporters: I have posted many short posts over the past three days during the setup and execution of my exit from Belize. The information was intended for my pursuers. I regret that it may have confused or alarmed many of you. I hope you will consider the circumstances and forgive me.

To my freinds: I will be in touch soon. I have not slept for 24 hours. I am in non-stop meetings and strategizing our next steps. I will call and email you soon. I love you all.

His Blog

RELATED: TIGER RIP

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John Mcafee’s Bosshood Continues: His Body Double Arrested in Mexico

Mr McAfee’s arrival in Guatemala comes after days of confusion and secrecy about his whereabouts. His official blog initially claimed he had been captured at the border with Mexico, something the police denied.

But a later blog post by Mr McAfee claimed that the man arrested in Mexico was his ‘double’ who had deliberately been arrested in an attempt to fool the authorities into thinking they had arrested Mr McAfee and thus aiding his escape.

Mr McAfee’s new location was inadvertently revealed by journalists from Vice magazine who have spent five days with him. They posted a photograph of him online but failed to remove data which revealed he was in Guatemala.

Initially Mr McAfee claimed that he had doctored the information, again to fool the authorities, but later admitted he was in Guatemala.

 

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Markets Digest Another Day Waiting on the Cliffhanger in D.C.

The markets did nothing today. The VIX remains low and breadth remains narrow. Gold had some action to the downside trading off 1%+ breaking $1,700.

DOW OFF 13

S&P OFF 2

NASDAQ OFF 5

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

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$NFLX Melts Up 15% on a $DIS Deal

 

“Netflix’s stock jumped almost 10% after it announced a new deal with Disney.

Starting in 2016, Netflix will be streaming Disney movies in the “pay TV window.” That is industry-speak for the time after a movie is available for rent or sale. Typically, this is when HBO gets movies.

For a long time, movie companies had been stopping Netflix from getting movies so quickly. The idea is to create tiers of pricing. So, pay $15 to see the movie in the theatre. Then pay $5 to rent it months later. Then months after that, if you’re paying a subscription fee to HBO, you get to see it for “free.” ”

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EAT DRINK & BE MERRY !

Warning: reading the following article may put you back into reality and cause nightmares. Proceed with caution!

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FUGLY Statistic: U.S. is Only Developed County Where Younger Generation Will Receive Less Education than their Parents

Source

“The expectation that young Americans will always be better educated and more successful than their parents is no longer true.

A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says the United States is now the only major economy in the world where the younger generation will not surpass the preceding generation in terms of schooling.

Andreas Schleicher, special adviser on education at the OECD, told the BBC News: “It’s something of great significance because much of today’s economic power of the United States rests on a very high degree of adult skills—and that is now at risk.”

 

Today, only about 20% of young adults will reach a higher level of education than their parents, a rate that’s among the lowest rates in the developed world, according to the OECD. Schleicher says that a major problem in the U.S. is that the skyrocketing cost of going to college has created a barrier for many young Americans who do not come from wealthy families.”

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Fracking Companies Clash with Grain Shippers and Army Corps of Engineers over Use of Missouri River Water

“The continuing drought of 2012—which has created abnormally dry conditions over 80% of the contiguous U.S.—may soon prevent barge traffic from navigating the critical 180-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between the confluences of the Missouri River near St. Louis and the Ohio River at Cairo, Ill., along which river depth is 15 to 20 feet less than normal. At the same time, oil companies conducting fracking operations in North Dakota are demanding immense quantities of Missouri River water be diverted to them, further threatening levels on the Mississippi.

Experts predict the river could close to barges in mid-December and remain that way for two months, just as the harvest heads to market via river barges, and fertilizer shipments head north. According to the trade group American Waterways Operators, closing the Middle Mississippi for the next two months would impede the transport of $7 billion worth of products including 7 million tons of agricultural products worth $2.3 billion; 1.7 million tons of chemical products worth $1.8 billion; 1.3 million tons of petroleum products worth $1.3 billion; 700,000 tons of crude oil worth $534 million; and 3.8 million tons of coal worth $192 million. Finding alternative transportation will be costly, with consumers eventually footing the bill.”

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Study: At Most a Third of Us Show a Consistent Approach to Financial Risk

“Take a moment to consider some of the financial choices you’ve made in recent years. Do you have a consistent approach to your money, either by playing it safe or having a willingness to take risks? Or do you not have a set philosophy, and instead make your financial decisions independently of each other?

In economics, classical theory holds that we have consistent risk preferences, regardless of the precise decision, from investments to insurance programs and retirement plans. But studies in behavioral economics indicate that people’s choices can vary greatly depending on the subject matter and circumstances of each decision.

Now a new paper (PDF) co-authored by an MIT economist brings a large dose of empirical data to the problem, by looking at the way tens of thousands of Americans have handled risk in selecting health insurance and retirement plans. The study, just published in the American Economic Review, finds that at most 30 percent of us make consistent decisions about financial risk across a variety of areas.”

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CFTC: High-Speed Trades Hurt Investors

“A top government economist has concluded that the high-speed trading firms that have come to dominate the nation’s financial markets are taking significant profits from traditional investors.

The chief economist at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Andrei Kirilenko, reports in a coming study that high-frequency traders make an average profit of as much as $5.05 each time they go up against small traders buying and selling one of the most widely used financial contracts.

The agency has not endorsed Mr. Kirilenko’s findings, which are still being reviewed by peers, and they are already encountering some resistance from academics. But Bart Chilton, one of five C.F.T.C. commissioners, said on Monday that “what the study shows is that high-frequency traders are really the new middleman in exchange trading, and they’re taking some of the cream off the top.”

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Banks Fret as Elizabeth Warren is Picked to Be on the Senate Banking Committee

“WASHINGTON — Nearly two years after Wall Street waged a successful campaign to keep consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren from running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the incoming senator will be tapped to serve on the Banking Committee, according to four sources familiar with the situation. It’s a victory for progressives who battled to win her a seat on the panel that oversees the implementation of Dodd-Frank and other banking regulations.

Warren knocked out Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts in the most expensive Senate contest of 2012, with Wall Street spending heavily to beat Warren, a former Harvard law professor.”

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All I Want for Christmas is the Truth

 

“I consider myself a seeker of truth. It isn’t easy finding it in todays’ world. In an alternate version of the famous scene from A Few Good Men, I picture myself telling Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner that I want the truth and his angry truthful response:

“Son, we live in a world that has Wall Street banks, and those banks have to be guarded by puppet politicians in Washington D.C. with lobbyist written laws and Madison Avenue PR maggots with media propaganda. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Representative Paul? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for the average middle class American family, and you curse the ruling oligarchs. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That the death of the American middle class, while tragic, probably saved the bonuses of thousands of Wall Street bankers. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, increases the wealth of these same bankers who destroyed the worldwide economic system in 2008. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about in the food bank line, you want me on Wall Street, you need me on Wall Street. We use words like derivative, fiscal stimulus, quantitative easing. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent syphoning off the wealth of the nation. You use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very debt that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up 1000 shares of Apple, and hope our high frequency trading supercomputers can ramp the market for a while longer. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.”

I find myself more amazed than ever at the ability of those in power to lie, misinform and obfuscate the truth, while millions of Americans willfully choose to be ignorant of the truth and yearn to be misled. It’s a match made in heaven. Acknowledging the truth of our society’s descent from a country of hard working, self-reliant, charitable, civic minded citizens into the abyss of entitled, dependent, greedy, materialistic consumers is unacceptable to the slave owners and the slaves. We can’t handle the truth because that would require critical thought, hard choices, sacrifice, and dealing with the reality of an unsustainable economic and societal model. It’s much easier to believe the big lies that allow us to sleep at night. The concept of lying to the masses and using propaganda techniques to manipulate and form public opinion really took hold in the 1920s and have been perfected by the powerful ruling elite that control the reins of finance, government and mass media.”

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