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- FSN News Hour
- Catherine Austin Fits with Max Keiser
- G7 Finance Ministers Dine Near Arctic Circle
- The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever
- U.S. Wage Growth: The Downward Spiral
- ‘Don’t Be Evil,’ Meet ‘Spy on Everyone’: How the NSA Deal Could Kill Google
- Contagion
- Greek Ouzo Crisis Escalates Into Global Margin Call As Confidence Ebbs
- Wyoming Governor Talks Energy In D.C.
- Rawlins WY Endorses Uranium Facility
- Cost An Obstacle To Building Nuclear Reactors
- Mining The Grid's Middle Mile
- Junin 6 Oil Field To Become a Russian–Venezuelan Joint Venture
- PetroChina To Particiate In Developing Halfaya Oil Field In Iraq
- Selection Trials Loom For $1.4bn Solar Flagships Program
- Palmer Secures Australia's "Biggest" Export Deal With China
Economy
FSN News Hour (Davos)
Greece, accounts for <2% of the Euro. Super interview with John from Sprott, a lot on gold. Jim Puplava's take on Soros "gold bubble" on the Q&A lines. An interview with an author on Greenspan, funny dialog where Greenspan worked under Faber and Faber would translate his mumbo jumbo take on the news to "What Alan wrote about the news can be better understood by reading the Headlines of the Wall St. Journal". Lots more, this is a great listen!
Catherine Austin Fits with Max Keiser (Davos)
Max goes a little bit over the edge, but Catherine is pretty lucid as she always is.
G7 Finance Ministers Dine Near Arctic Circle (mooselick7)
Hosting the informal talks, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Friday that they would cover the shaky global economic recovery, soaring public debts, banking regulations, exchange rates and Haiti debt relief.
The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever (mooselick7)
To date in this recession, we've lost 8.4 million jobs. The decline as a percentage of the workforce is the worst since the Great Depression, matching the sharp but short drop in 1948, as the war machine wound down.
U.S. Wage Growth: The Downward Spiral (mooselick7)
What is disturbing is that the outlook for wages and incomes over the short and long term looks bleak even when the recovery is in full swing. The pay rewards for work have been severely lacking for a majority of workers over the past three decades. Whether the measure is wages, earnings, or total compensation, the inflation-adjusted pay narrative remains the same: Workers have seen their inflation-adjusted pay go up only a little during the past four business cycle expansions while most of the gains have been captured by the top 10% to 15% of workers.
‘Don’t Be Evil,’ Meet ‘Spy on Everyone’: How the NSA Deal Could Kill Google (mooselick7)
The National Security Agency is widely understood to have the government’s biggest and smartest collection of geeks — the guys that are more skilled at network warfare than just about anyone on the planet. So, in a sense, it’s only natural that Google would turn to the NSA after the company was hit by an ultrasophisticated hack attack. After all, the military has basically done the same thing, putting the NSA in charge of its new “Cyber Command.” The Department of Homeland Security is leaning heavily on the NSA to secure .gov networks.
Contagion (pinecarr)
The key lesson from the ERM crisis of 1992 and the Asian crisis of 1997 is that contagion can emerge quickly and often in unpredictable ways. Unwinding of leveraged positions by distressed market participants, herding behaviour among investors, and loss of liquidity that gives way to general flight to quality can all lead to heightened correlations between markets and, in extremely circumstances, set off a self-filling crisis on a regional/global scale.
Greek Ouzo Crisis Escalates Into Global Margin Call As Confidence Ebbs (pinecarr)
For the third time in 18 months the global financial system risks spinning out of control unless political leaders take immediate and radical action.
Energy
Wyoming Governor Talks Energy In D.C. (mooselick7)
During a White House meeting on Wednesday, Gov. Dave Freudenthal advocated erasing federal requirements that power companies seeking to build transmission lines on public land must first examine alternate routes on private land.
Rawlins WY Endorses Uranium Facility (mooselick7)
Ur-Energy is slated to open a uranium mining facility, called the Lost Creek ISR Project, just outside of Bairoil, in Sweetwater County. Boberg said he expects construction of the facility to begin toward the end of June.
“We’re just waiting for final licenses and permits to come through,” he said. “It’ll take about six months to construct.” The site, Boberg said, was active in uranium exploration in the 1950s and 1970s.
Cost An Obstacle To Building Nuclear Reactors (mooselick7)
Nuclear reactors' hefty price tag is the biggest obstacle to building more, the nation's top nuclear regulator said Monday.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said that permitting new reactors could take four years or more, and that storing the waste is not a pressing concern, but that paying for the new reactors remains a significant concern for most utilities.
Mining The Grid's Middle Mile (mooselick7)
Here's an odd possibility: parts of the so-called "smart grid" could actually make the nation's electricity infrastructure less reliable.
As the grid has evolved in recent years, much attention has been focused on its "edges," where power companies generate electricity and where people consume it. The result: Early deployments of advanced power meters and home-operated energy management systems, and an increasing number of wind and solar power sources, which often need to be backed up by coal and natural gas plants.
Junin 6 Oil Field To Become a Russian–Venezuelan Joint Venture (pinecarr)
On Monday, Russia and Venezuela signed a multimillion deal to develop the huge Junin 6 oil field in the South American nation's Orinoco River region – a territory twice as rich as other reserves, such as Saudi Arabia’s.
PetroChina To Participate In Developing Halfaya Oil Field In Iraq (pinecarr)
A consortium led by the China National Petroleum Corp.(CNPC), China's largest oil company, won a bid to develop Halfaya oilfield in Iraq, CNPC said on Wednesday.
Under the 20-year deal, CNPC, Total, Petroleum Nasional Berhad (Petronas), and Iraq's state-owned South Oil Co. will jointly develop the 4.1 billion barrel Halfaya field.
Selection Trials Loom For $1.4bn Solar Flagships Program (pinecarr)
Solar energy developers of all shape, sizes and systems are converging on Canberra this week to lodge their applications - they must be hand-delivered - for the first round of selection trials for the federal government's $1.4 billion Solar Flagships program.
Palmer Secures Australia's "Biggest" Export Deal With China (pinecarr)
Mining magnate Clive Palmer says his company has secured Australia's biggest export deal with a $A69.39 billion agreement to sell coal to China.
The Resourcehouse chairman on Saturday said the company's proposed China First coal mine and infrastructure project in central Queensland had reached a 20-year agreement with one of China's largest power companies, China Power International Development, the flagship company of China Power Investment Corporation (CPI).
Please send article submissions to: dd@chrismartenson.com
- DailyDigest's blog
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"Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Corporate borrowing costs are rising at the fastest pace in more than two months on concern that worsening government finances will slow the global economy and make it harder for companies to meet debt payments.
The extra yield investors demand to own corporate bonds instead of government securities widened 4 basis points last week to 169 basis points, the most since the period ended Nov. 27, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Broad Market Corporate Index. Spreads widened for three weeks, the longest stretch in about a year, while those for U.S. high- yield, high-risk companies expanded by the most since August.
Optimism over the recovering economy that made January the best start to a year since 2001 for the corporate bond market is fading as finances in Greece, Spain and Portugal deteriorate, Japan struggles to emerge from recession and concerns grow that emerging-market valuations are too high. "
"Measured against a basket of currencies from the Group of 10 nations proportioned by how they trade against each other, the greenback is up about 3 percent since 1975, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes."
.....................2A) Price of gold in 1975 (Kitco chart)
"Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Small businesses are becoming the Achilles heel of the U.S. recovery by limiting growth and job creation.
Companies with fewer than 500 employees, such as Phoenix Technologies Ltd. and Sonic Corp., helped lead the economy out of the four recessions since 1980. This time, they continue to cut capital spending and dismiss workers, eliminating 3,000 jobs in January, according to Roseland, New Jersey-based Automatic Data Processing Inc., the world’s largest payroll processor. "
"The escalating debt crisis in Europe, particularly that latest news on Portugal and Spain following down the path of Greece to possible national bankruptcy, has spooked global markets, including obviously Asian equity and global currency markets," said Martin Hennecke, an associate director at Tyche Group Ltd. in Hong Kong.
"While currency movements in the short term are hard to predict, the medium- to long-term prospects of the major Western currencies of the euro, USD [U.S. dollar], and GBP {British pound] are all very dire, since the respective countries behind these currencies have basically lost control of their budget deficits to the point where printing money ... will be their only option to escape the debt trap and national bankruptcy," he said.
Given that, Hennecke said Tyche Group generally prefers Asian currencies over the euro, U.S. dollar and British pound - "or, even better, gold and silver." "
"Tuition at state colleges is jumping another 14 percent. At the University of Washington, tuition and fees are expected to pass $9,000 by the 2010-11 school year.
In our state, the tuition increases may also be combined with cuts in available financial aid.
The College Board, a not-for-profit membership association that oversees the SATs and Advanced Placement tests, says families nationwide are paying from $172 to $1,096 more in tuition and fees this school year.
That brings the national average for tuition for 2009-10 to $7,020, not including room and board.
In Pullman last week, more than 100 students attended a rally to protest tuition increases and budget cuts. In California, tuition increases of more than 30 percent have sparked protests said to be reminiscent of the 1960s.
Average tuition at private colleges rose 4.4 percent, up $1,096 to $26,273, according to the board."
"Assets drop back to 2006 levels, which works out to zero growth over 4 years
By NEIL BEHRMANN
IN LONDON
GLOBAL pensions have lost an estimated US$1 trillion to US$1.5 trillion since global equity markets peaked in early January.
The downturn, following the pension management crowd's bullish outlook in early January, has jolted pension trustees and investment managers."
(If the above link doesn't work try this one)
"Voters in Los Angeles, which faces a $212 million deficit this fiscal year, have authorized the sale of $20 billion of school bonds since 1997, half of which have already been issued, according to a preliminary statement for the securities dated Feb. 3. That, coupled with $8 billion of state matching funds, brings the total size of the district’s construction and remodeling plans, involving 131 new schools, to $28 billion.
The bonds will be priced Feb. 17 and 18, according to Jean Marie Buckley, whose Sausalito, California-based Tamalpais Advisors Inc. is the district’s financial adviser."
"Federal stimulus money has helped avoid drastic cuts at public schools in most parts of the nation, at least so far. But with the federal money running out, many of the nation’s schools are approaching what officials are calling a “funding cliff.”
Congress included about $100 billion for education in the stimulus law last year to cushion the recession’s impact on schools and to help fuel an economic recovery. New studies show that many states will spend all or nearly all that is left between now and the end of this school term.
With state and local tax revenues still in decline, the end of the federal money will leave big holes in education budgets from Massachusetts and Florida to California and Washington, experts said.
“States are going to face a huge problem because they’ll have to find some way to replace these billions, either with cuts to their K-12 systems or by finding alternative revenues,” said Bruce Baker, an education professor at Rutgers University. "
"Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- India’s drive to sell a record 250 billion rupees ($5.4 billion) of shares in state-owned companies to plug a deficit in government revenue may fall short after foreign investors shunned the year’s biggest offering amid a stock market slump.
Investors overseas accounted for only 4.1 percent of the bids by funds for NTPC Ltd., India’s biggest utility, in a sale that closed Feb. 5. "
"PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc <C.N> has held talks with private equity groups and hedge funds over the sale of $3 billion in car loans in a move to clear troubled assets from its balance sheet, according to a report by the Financial Times. "
"HARRISBURG -- State officials have been talking for months about a huge, looming financial problem regarding how to pay for increased pensions of retired state employees and public school teachers.
The unfunded pension costs will likely be in the range of $3 billion to $5 billion once the crisis hits in 2012, Gov. Ed Rendell has estimated.
Now the governor, even though he leaves office in January 2011, is developing a plan to try to resolve the pension funding crisis, a plan that involves major changes in the state's sales tax, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has learned.
Mr. Rendell is expected to mention the pension crisis and his proposed solution on Tuesday, when he proposes a fiscal 2010-11 budget. But the sales tax changes, which would have to be approved by the Legislature, wouldn't be used to pay for the next budget but to fund the looming pension costs, the newspaper has learned."
"CANBERRA, Australia—Resourcehouse Ltd. said it signed a US$60 billion, 20-year export contract with one of China's largest power companies in a deal that brings a massive coal mine proposed by Australian billionaire Clive Palmer a step closer to reality and underscores the growing commercial relationship between Australia and China. "
"China is the world's largest producer and user of coal, and last year became a net importer of the fuel, which provides two-thirds of its energy needs.
Australia already is the largest supplier of coal to China. Of the 125.8 million tons of coal imported by China last year, 43.9 million came from Australia. "
"CARSON CITY (AP) — Nevada's budget is so far out of balance that by one account the state could lay off every worker paid from the general fund and still be $300 million in the red. The economic downturn has hit so hard that prisons may be closed, entire colleges shuttered and thousands left without jobs.
Against the backdrop of an imploding economy and an $881 million shortage, Gov. Jim Gibbons will try in an emergency "State of the State" address Monday to explain the depth of the state's financial crisis and how fixing the gaping hole in the budget.
It won't be pretty."
"Nevada is on track to borrow $1 billion from the federal government to meet jobless claims because its unemployment insurance trust fund has gone broke.
"When we lay somebody off, it doesn't save us very much money," Hettrick said. "Between that and taking the money out of the economy, it really doesn't make sense for Nevada to lay off people."
Still, budget cuts could result in thousands of layoffs with the shock waves reverberating for years."
"On Friday, CoStar Group Inc., a provider of commercial real estate data, said it had agreed to buy the MBA's 10-story headquarters building in Washington, D.C., for $41.3 million. That is well below the $79 million the trade group agreed to pay for the glass-walled building in 2007, near the top of the property bubble, while it was still under construction. "
"WASHINGTON — Social Security's annual surplus nearly evaporated in 2009 for the first time in 25 years as the recession led hundreds of thousands of workers to retire or claim disability.
The impact of the recession is likely to hit the giant retirement system even harder this year and next. The Congressional Budget Office had projected it would operate in the red in 2010 and 2011, but a deeper economic slump could make those losses larger than anticipated."
"Connolly said that conflict played out recently when Retirement Director Russell Crosby urged pension trustees to lower the funds' assumed rates of return, as many other funds have done. Police and fire trustees stuck to their projected 8 percent return, despite objections from the city finance director and council members Sam Liccardo and Rose Herrera, who serve on the board."
"Employee costs, chiefly for pay and benefits, make up almost three-fourths of the city's operating expenses and have risen 64 percent since 2000 — more than twice the rate of inflation.
Pension costs alone — particularly for police and firefighters, whose more generous benefits allow them to retire as early as age 50 with up to 90 percent of their pay — have soared 131 percent during that time.
During the recent market crash, the pension funds lost around $1 billion, about a quarter of their total value.
To guarantee it can pay out benefits to current and future retirees, the city most likely will have to boost its $138 million annual contribution to the funds by more than $38 million in the budget year that starts in July."
"GRANDVILLE — Over the past few months, Grandville city officials have braced for the arrival of an “unprecedented” fiscal-year budget with “the biggest deficit we’ve ever faced.” Now, sure enough, the grim reaper is at the door.
About two-thirds of the city’s revenue comes from property taxes and, for the first time in decades, those values are falling.
Grandville is not alone. Kent County’s equalization department reports a 4 percent decline in the tax base this year, a collective loss of $889 million. In Grandville, property assessments will be reduced 5 percent on average to match sale prices."
"The recession is driving some state governments to raid workers compensation funds to combat budget deficits, but employers, risk-sharing pools and insurers are fighting back."
"The knock-on effects of the financial crisis and the deepest global recession in decades continue to be felt across the world, causing political risks to increase in 2010.
That’s the message from Aon at the launch of this year’s edition of its Political Risk Map, which offers a snapshot of the political risk climate across the globe."
"2010 is likely to witness an increasing risk of non-payment of sovereign debt, exchange transfer restrictions and rising political interference as a result of the growing fallout from the economic crisis, said Aon. "
Check out the graph that he posts of Federal Net Outlays.
"TrimTabs employment analysis, which uses real-time daily income tax deposits from all U.S. taxpayers to compute employment growth, estimated that the U.S. economy shed 104,000 jobs in January. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the U.S. economy lost 20,000 jobs. We believe the BLS has underestimated January’s results due to problems inherent in their survey techniques."
(Info was posted by Mish here)
22) Back To Normal: Insider Selling Outpaces Buying By 58 To 1 (zerohedge)
(Here's the link to where he got the info)
"Today, it is the opposite. The American people must get permission from the government for their every move, whether it is the use of their own property or spending their own money. Even the most serious decisions, such as going to war, are done while ignoring the Constitution and without a vote of the people's representatives in the Congress. Members of the global government have more to say about when American troops are put in harm's way than the U.S. Congress. The Constitution no longer restrains
the government. The government restrains the people in all they do. This destroys individual creative energy, and the ``mainspring of human progress'' is lost. The consequences are less progress, less prosperity, and less personal fulfillment."
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/congress/?q=node/77531&appid=596101578
If you have taken an oath to the Constitution of the United States I would highly recommend you take a look at this website, http://www.oath-keepers.blogspot.com/ Near Redding CA USA
Is it just me, or did that late-day rally at the NYSE on Friday look a little suspicious to anyone else?
Helix6
Branson warns that oil crunch is coming within five years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/07/branson-warns-peak-oil-close
"On Friday, CoStar Group Inc., a provider of commercial real estate data, said it had agreed to buy the MBA's 10-story headquarters building in Washington, D.C., for $41.3 million. That is well below the $79 million the trade group agreed to pay for the glass-walled building in 2007, near the top of the property bubble, while it was still under construction. "
That's some sweet irony!
Helix
It always looks suspicious to me especially when its down all day but works it way up the last 15 min.
But that's just me. I'm a craaazzzyyy conspirasy nut!
"Even if we are occupied with important things and even if we attain honor or fall into misfortune, still let us remember how good it once was here, when we were all together, united by a good and kind feeling which made us perhaps better than we are." - Fyodor Dostovevsky
Just in case you missed the Super Bowl ad from DefeatTheDebt.com last night...
Is it just me, or did that late-day rally at the NYSE on Friday look a little suspicious to anyone else?
didn't work today
Is it just me, or did that late-day rally at the NYSE on Friday look a little suspicious to anyone else?
It looked suspicious to me. But what do I know? I still think 9/11 looks like an inside job.
The Illusion of U.S. Dollar Safety
The Numbers Tell the Story
U.S. safety is a state of mind, and a state of necessity in regard to the amount of U.S. based reserves that will realistically be impossible to easily challenge. Once the world realizes that Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland are actually in no worse of a condition than the top ten fiscally challenged individual U.S. states, the USD love-fest may run out of legs. The U.S. administration got a near-term strong-dollar policy boost that they continually back. It will be interesting now to see how they actually deal with the impact of a stronger dollar as they try to off-load more expensive U.S. debt.
Our fickle mistress that is the globally traded market may just use this time to re-visit USD values that were built on the flight to safety.
4 of the top 8 safest banks are German
9 of the top 10 are European
13 of the top 20 are European
5 of the top 20 are Australian or New Zealand
2 of the top 20 are Canadian
26 of the top 50 are European
France has as many top 50 banks as the U.S. and a far higher overall ranking with 3 of the top French banks within the top 20, and one, CDC, in at number 2 on the list.
The five U.S. banks in the top 50 were Wells Fargo (WFC) (21), US Bancorp (USB) (26), Bank of New York Mellon (BK) (34), JP Morgan Chase (JPM) (45), and tied for 50th with three overseas banks is BB&T (BBT).
http://seekingalpha.com/article/187143-the-illusion-of-u-s-dollar-safety?source=email