no worries..we're just in the normal lull before the NFL season starts..

I'm confident that small business will not be hiring.

no one gives a green god dammit about small bidness

I checked Home depot, which I did not get rid of when I sold most of my shares. It's pretty high now. Any thoughts?,

one of todays inquisitors mentions Bob Diamond
for those not keeping score at home here's a refresher:
YouTube - Rare Footage of Banker on Hot Seat - MP Asks Barclay's Diamond: Are you Complicit or Incompetent
...
bottom line: our Congress sucks

Small business is just tired. Even the survivors have seen corporate predation and government grindstone wearing down. Addition ally when it comes to inflation the things small businesses purchase are through the roof.

OT, A homeless man who had a tantrum at a 7-11 and started throwing food after being asked to pay for what he had already eaten was arrested. Bail $40k. Last week a convicted felon with a machine gun, brass knuckles, a switchblade, etc got arrested. Bail $20k. Is there something wrong with this picture?

AMAZING drifting video from Oakland across bay bridge and through SF

YouTube - DC SHOES: KEN BLOCK'S GYMKHANA FIVE: ULTIMATE URBAN PLAYGROUND; SAN FRANCISCO

skk wrote:

Tom Stone wrote:

Bail $40k.

Then there's Jamie Dimon - steals several billion and get invited to the White House. O yeah Jeff Immelt too.

It scales nicely. I am still occasionally suffering the delusion that the rule of law still exists.

lawyerliz wrote:

I checked Home depot, which I did not get rid of when I sold most of my shares. It's pretty high now. Any thoughts?,

Pigged, but
"LL: Hcn slow, reading autobiog of Ben Franklin. He desired to be more virtuous so he listed the virtues & made a spreadsheet of his progress in same. It really was a spreadsheet! Ole Ben truly 3was a man for all seasons & would have done just fine, reborn in the here and now "

That's one of the great passages of autobiography, right up there with Augustine's Confessions. It was on ivory paper, so he could wipe off the marks on his "errors" and start all over every week.

Tom Stone wrote:

Is there something wrong with this picture?

Well, yeah, The homeless guy is economically irrational man, and the other guy is economically rational man.

YouTube - Soggy Bottom Boys - I'm A Man Of Constant Sorrow

Mike_PNW wrote:

no worries..we're just in the normal lull before the NFL season starts..

Which of course is the placeholder waiting for hockey to start.

Rob Dawg wrote:

Small business is just tired. Even the survivors have seen corporate predation and government grindstone wearing down.

Its fun being a mouse in the stables of giants. Don't let the 'oats' fall on you.

BBC News - Eurozone ministers agree 30bn euros for Spanish banks

In a news conference at the end of the marathon meeting, a number of appointments were also announced.

The ministers reappointed Mr Juncker as their chairman and picked German Klaus Regling to head the permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, due to come into force this month.

Reappointing Junker as chairman means they have reached the point of total paralysis.

Yeah, Ben sat himself down and just wrote what he felt like and it was wonderful. Can you imagine him with a blog? Almanac: a proto blog?

Business - Derek Thompson - America's Fastest-Dying Business? It's Mobile Homes - The Atlantic (APR 2 2011)

With a 70+% decline in revenue over the last ten years, the mobile home industry faced a descent on par with record stores and clothing mills.

==> I wonder how Warren's mobile home empire is doing lately?

• Buffett said the manufactured housing industry has "endured a veritable depression," with no recovery apparent.

Buffett singles out Clayton Homes in annual letter : Knoxville News Sentinel

YouTube - Sheryl Crow - "What i can do for you" Live

Mike_PNW wrote:

to be a small grocer

I sure small grocers are foaming at the mouth about all the money the Federal government is pouring into SNAP. It's stopping those people from being homeless and stealing food like they should.

if I drive less, will there be fewer solar storms?

The sun's solar flares keep on getting stronger - with latest hot spot the size of 15 Earths strung together | Mail Online

Rajesh wrote:

I'm confident that small business will not be hiring.

No reason to hire people. We're all contractors now.

Although it's going to be real interesting to see how newly minted self-employed contractors navigate the world of 1099s and quarterly tax payments. Go long IRS auditors.

I sure small grocers are foaming at the mouth about all the money the Federal government is pouring into SNAP. It's stopping those people from being homeless and stealing food like they should.

More likely scenario is they trade their SNAP card for drugs and then scrounge for food the best they can...just sayin

Must read article at FT Alphaville:

FT Alphaville » China and those dollar shorts

... Today, Economic observer reports that trading companies are now less willing to convert the US dollar into Chinese Yuan. In fact, they are now trying to accumulate as much US dollar as possible because the US dollar is now strengthening as we expected, and only bought just enough Chinese Yuan for their operation. This new trend emerged since late last year. Not only that, the report also confirms what Standard Chartered told us: many of these companies were short US dollar.

How the shorts arose? According to Economic observer, when Chinese Yuan was strengthening, instead of buying US dollar (while selling Chinese Yuan) to pay for imports, many companies simply borrow US dollar from banks to pay for imports, effectively shorting US dollar. This was good for them because US dollar was weakening, thus their US dollar-liabilities fell in CNY term. Of course, as the reverse is now happening, these companies have to cover the short position. ...

Rajesh wrote:

I sure small grocers are foaming at the mouth about all the money the Federal government is pouring into SNAP. It's stopping those people from being homeless and stealing food like they should.

The grocer's cartel must have some good lobbyists.... extended "Fresh'n'Easy" SNAP must be saving their bacon.

Is it night here?

RE wrote:

FT Alphaville » China and those dollar shorts

That's another thing certain to end well.

I kinda miss the Cold War.

Former Idealist wrote:

Is it Currently Smoking Cannibis night here?

No, JOLTS, not bong hits.

What's in your pipe?

sporkfed wrote:

I kinda miss the Cold War.

it seemed simple at the time. YouTube - Ralph Stanely - Oh Death

sm_landlord wrote:

That's another thing certain to end well.

Yep, it's got lots of potential. A can't fail proposition that is failing. Who knew?

sporkfed wrote:

I kinda miss the Cold War.

You don't know what you have until it's gone.

poic wrote:

YouTube - DC SHOES: KEN BLOCK'S GYMKHANA FIVE: ULTIMATE URBAN PLAYGROUND; SAN FRANCISCO

He was just looking for a parking place. Happens to me all the time.

Then they won't have to "twist." They'll just buy the long end. And mortgages.

They were available, made from animal intestines.

Like kielbasa?

robj wrote:

Won't you spare me over to another year?

YouTube - Ralph Stanley - Will The Circle Be Unbroken

Rajesh wrote:

BBC News - Eurozone ministers agree 30bn euros for Spanish banks

I liked this one: Euro Finance Ministers Agree on Bailout for Spain - NY Times

Euro area finance ministers agreed early Tuesday on the terms of a bailout for Spain's troubled banks, saying that €30 billion ($36.88 billion) can be ready by end of this month.
...
"We have a tentative deal on the bailout conditions for a bailout of Spanish banks," De Jager said. "The total will likely be 100 billion euros. Some countries like the Netherlands, Germany and Finland need to get parliamentary approval. We hope this can be wrapped up within a week."

The exact amount of the bailout will likely not be known until September...
...
However, he said a system of EU-wide banking supervision still needs to be worked out.

"There are still differences over this," he said. "The details will be worked out by the end of the year."

To summarize: 'by the end of the month... a tentative deal...likely be...hope this can be wrapped up...amount not known...details to be worked out by the end of the year.'

SOLID.

Rob Dawg wrote:

HP deserves to die for what they've done to work printers.

I had to donate my last two good HP printers because I could no longer buy parts, and they cut off the service centers. Hopefully some charity is squeezing a few more pages out of them before they become completely unworkable.

Doc Holiday wrote:

a 10 yr Treasruy stor

We should experiment with 50-yr Treasuries. There may be some suckers long term investors looking for some extra yield.

These are the people who actually sang in the movie. I think they are insanely great, as Stevie would say.

YouTube - Alison Krauss and Union Station - Man of Constant Sorrow [Live]

outside of mp with his graphs and Clock
or maybe Seb or energyecon
do any of you on here do anything other than
bullshit and link other peoples work?
...
seriously...
...

RATM wrote:

To summarize: 'by the end of the month... a tentative deal...likely be...hope this can be wrapped up...amount not known...details to be worked out by the end of the year.'

SOLID.

I think this decision was made at the summit meeting to end all summit meetings in Europe.

Duke of Con Dao wrote:

outside of mp with his graphs and Clock
or maybe Seb or energyecon
do any of you on here do anything other than
bullshit and link other peoples work?

No. It's a big tent that you're in.

sm_landlord wrote:

That's another thing certain to end well.

Just to add. We are going to see a hundred or more posts breathlessly posting about China selling treasuries and not getting why in the slightest.

But this again is missing the point. Which is that China’s short-term dollar liabilities are currently balanced by longer-term dollar assets. They represent a duration mismatch. That China can liquidate its holdings is obvious. It’s about how you interpret these liquidations if and when they happen.

That is to say, one should not regard them as dollar negative but rather as dollar positive.

Firing the HOA manager didn't happen.
By the time the police showed up the guy had left the property and gone to the bar.

So we will all meet again at 7am and try this again.

Glenn Greenwald: How America's Surveillance State Breeds Conformity and Fear | | AlterNet

Outsider wrote:

They were available, made from animal intestines.

Like kielbasa?

Be careful with those straight lines.

Rajesh wrote:

I think HCN has a pretty refined and literate unruly mob, not like those other web sites.

Made from animal intestines!

YouTube - PRIMUS * BucketHead * OZZFEST 1999

French president: zero growth so far this year - News - Boston.com

Among Hollande’s proposals is a special new job contract under which employers would get tax breaks if they hire a young person and keep an older employee at the same time, instead of choosing one or the other.

==> Toss the middle age bastards under zee bus, oui?

Let them eat F'ing cake...

Priceless!

Comment on New report shows foreclosed flatland homes being snapped up by outside investors | Oakland Local

"Interesting that my coucilmember predicts doom and gloom as investors buy property in her district. I am witnessing the exact opposite on my street! A year or so ago, seven of the 14 homes on my block were REOs. Since then, six of the seven have sold to investors; the seventh to a young single first-time homebuyer. The transformation has been dramatic and positive.

Foreclosed houses were that suffering from years of neglect are suddenly getting paint jobs, new kitchens, landscaping, and most importantly, happy and engaged tenants.

For the first time since I bought my house here in 2004, I know all my neighbors’ names, even though half have just recently moved. We have dinner, parties, we garden together, we watch each other’s kids, and connect in a way that says we are proud of our community. Only one new owner has proven to be a slumlord, but he is finally wising up to the fact he could make more money and have less hassle if he’d fix the place up.

While I do agree it is frustrating to be priced out of the market, and hope my new neighbors will live here long-term (I've heard rumors of rent-to-own deals - something I haven't heard of in a while.....maybe private lending is making a comeback?), I don't see a crisis here."

no, but maybe he's marc andreessen

Many contribute outside of a forum as public as HCN. I, for example, have sent CR precisely one e-mail offering my insight, insight that later turned out to be wrong. Apology accepted.

Citizen AllenM wrote:

So pardon me if I wonder at your comment. We used to provide a ton of fresh stuff, but quite simply, as we live during this period of financial repression, there will be nothing new for quite a while, as I pointed out YEARS ago.

We are still waiting for Europe to get around to solving their eurocrisis after what two plus years of serious imbroglio?

Go do something with culture, because economics will be moving at slow for years, trending into decades of this stagnation as we ever so slowly liquidate all that unproductive capital.

It seems like we're trapped in amber, particularly watching the Euros.

Citizen AllenM wrote:

trending into decades of this stagnation as we ever so slowly liquidate all that unproductive capital.

Speaking of liquidating capital, has anyone chimed in on this minnow? PFG Is Now MFG(lobal) Part 2 As $220 Million In Segregated Client Money Has Just Vaporized | ZeroHedge 

• On or about June 29, 2012 PFG reported to NFA that it had approximately $400 million in segregated funds, of which more than $225 million were purportedly on deposit at U.S. Bank
• On or about July 9, 2012, NFA received information indicating that PFG's Chairman may have falsified bank records
• On July 9, 2012, NFA made inquiry with US Bank and learned that rather than the $225 million that PFG had reported as being on deposit at US Bank just days earlier, PFG had only approximately $5 million on deposit at U.S. Bank.

It seems like we're trapped in amber, particularly watching the Euros.

I'm a Euro watcher; I'm a Euro watcher. Here comes one now...

YouTube - "I'm A Girl Watcher" The O'Kaysons 1960s

Citizen AllenM wrote:

Well, some liquidations are quicker than others.

I can see it now. Instead of Punk'd on MTV, you can watch Corzine'd

Outsider wrote:

trapped in amber

That's either my new band name or the title to my next book or painting ... maybe a news story?

Outsider wrote:

I saw that!

I almost revealed too much about myself:

a big tent,
guess I might take my tent pole elsewhere

Outsider wrote:

Only in the secret forum.

Which only the ultra cool, politically acceptable, diet-arilly pure, and music-o-lgically aware people are allowed to even know about. Which doesn't mean we are elite. Because that would, like, be conflictatory, and we are all about the e la ga- itar-ian.

YouTube - Buckethead - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass full performance 1080P/60 [1/2]

scone wrote:

Which only the ultra cool, politically acceptable, diet-arilly pure, and music-o-lgically aware people are allowed to even know about.

Damn, and I thought I belonged.

TJ and The Bear wrote:

I thought I belonged.

Crashing the club is much more fun than belonging.

And the reason that’s being done isn't difficult to see. American policymakers know that the financial unraveling that took place in 2008 that’s even more visible in European states like Spain and Portugal and Greece, has never really been rectified, and it can’t be rectified because there are structural problems. The way in which oligarchs in the United States monopolize wealth and then use that wealth to control our political processes, ensure that this is not going to change, it’s only going to worsen. Mass unemployment, mass foreclosure, all these income inequality pathologies are here to stay, and the future that America policymakers see is visible if you look at what happened in London for a weak period of time and what happens all the time in Athens, what is happening with increasing frequency in Spain: huge amounts of social unrest. And you see lots of that happening. I think that’s what the Occupy movement, in many ways, is.....
And the elites in the United States, both corporate and government, are petrified about that type of unrest, and what people in power always do when they fear unrest, is they start consolidating power in order to constrain it, in order to suppress it.

Glenn Greenwald: How America's Surveillance State Breeds Conformity and Fear | | AlterNet

The security state exists because they are afraid of being found out

YouTube - Lacy J Dalton ~ 16th Avenue (original version)

We'll hold your spot Whiskey.

Well, this is boring, so GODZILLA SMOKES THE SPLIFF: Yeah, baby.

YouTube - Buckethead - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass full performance 1080P/60 [1/2]

The guy hangs himself out to dry with his talk about resources that are "somehow not deployed..."

For a Spanish economist who lives with what level of unemployment, finding resources undeployed is "inexplicable"?

REALLY?

Only on zerohedge would this be considered great: He explicitly goes on about supplyside crowding out- which currently doesn't exist.

The mismatch between capital and labor is manifest, and yet he is totally blind to it.

He conflates expanding aggregate demand with low interest rate malinvestments.

Too much of this is just beyond reality.

Someday this war's gonna end...

tg wrote:

Glenn Greenwald: How America's Surveillance State Breeds Conformity and Fear | | AlterNet

The security state exists because they are afraid of being found out

The first time they might have missed, but now you've certainly got their attention. Be very, very afraid!

I'm not quite sure how I stumbled upon this... looks like it was just published today(not by me)

YouTube - Welcome to the Rest of Our Lives

Outsider wrote:

If that's a goodbye, see ya next time neighbor

Wow. I could interpret that many ways. YouTube - James Gang - Walk Away

"The guy hangs himself out to dry with his talk about resources that are "somehow not deployed..."

For a Spanish economist who lives with what level of unemployment, finding resources undeployed is "inexplicable"?

REALLY?

Only on zerohedge would this be considered great: He explicitly goes on about supplyside crowding out- which currently doesn't exist.

The mismatch between capital and labor is manifest, and yet he is totally blind to it.

He conflates expanding aggregate demand with low interest rate malinvestments.

Too much of this is just beyond reality.

Someday this war's gonna end..."

Other than those minor points, did you agree with the article?

OK, if everyone's listening to music anyway.....

Dream Theater takes on Dark Side of the Moon.....

YouTube - Dark Side Of The Moon-Dream Theater -LIVE

One of the few bands that could pull it off....

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

-Ben Franklin

Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?

Did down to 1:27 when the guy asks about unemployment.

That is the key point, the crisis is just like the 1930s, when capitalism nearly failed the last time.

Unemployment is becoming the most salient point, and not dealing with unemployment imperils the entire capitalist system. Failure points are already showing in eastern Europe- and people think that keeping the status quo is stable?

They are insane.

Someday this war's gonna end...

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

calls Krugman's thess - homeopathic - you use demand to fix lack of demand caused by ...

that's what I hate about how people use equilibrium ideas - its a mechanical equality you crazy fools.. start looking at dynamic time Fx(t+1) = Fx(t)..

QE(n) = (1/n)*( $ )

sm_landlord wrote:

A lot of economics seems to suffer from that static approach

People always screw up space too ...

creditcriminalslovetarp wrote:

love that area, grandfather had a home about 60 miles above in Antimony....great fishing, hunting and outdoors trekking...

Surely God's country. Can't imagine the wind whipping down from the north however. View from tonight's room. Idaho Falls.

Rob Dawg wrote:

Surely God's country.

My ancestors on my mom's side hail from there.

YouTube - Joe Walsh - Analog Man (Live) off to the marina

RevolutionWillNotBeTelevised wrote:

YouTube - Welcome to the Rest of Our Lives

So, last year Europe had similar summer weather. What's happening there this year?

Achtung:

France Joins Germany to Sell T-Bills At Negative Yield - WSJ.com

SPANISH GOVERNMENT GENERIC BONDS - 10 YR NOTE Analysis - GSPG10YR - Bloomberg 

France Joins Germany to Sell T-Bills At Negative Yield - WSJ.com 

talk about the race to the bottom.

picosec wrote:

So, last year Europe had similar summer weather. What's happening there this year?

The euro/dollar level right now is pretty obviously managed for stability, just not as explicitly as the swiss franc.

Quite frankly, China can sell all of the tbonds it wants to sell at premium prices right now. Most of them would just be bought by Chinese companies trying to escape the crash in China and be parked in Hong Kong.

Safe assets are at insane premiums right now, and people worry about more supply coming on market?

Insanity is worrying about inflation today, when deflation is at the door, and about to kick it in for a long visit.

Too many people here with the 70s and 80s experience hardwired into their brains, when we have managed to make this problem into a 1930s problem.

Inflation may not return for the rest of my life, which is another 30 years.

Stagnation is making me waaaaaaiiiit.

Someday this war's gonna end...

It didn't really scare me until you got to the part.

picosec wrote:

What's happening there this year?

Seems rather warm during spring, why? Have to wait until Sept. to see how summer turns out.

European Weather Chat - Spring 2012 -
Posted 13 March 2012 - 17:38
Hottest day of the year today with temperatures hitting the high 20`s across Southern Spain. Portugal very warm too with many places over 25C and a few around 27C

Posted 30 March 2012 - 11:39
Parts of Norway - south and east - have had their warmest March for 112 years, between 5 - 7 °C above the normal in places but nationally averaged at +4.5 °C

Back to the US now... since that is where you live, after all.

Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog : U.S. experiences warmest 12-month period on record--again | Weather Underground
Each of the 13 months from June 2011 through June 2012 ranked among the warmest third of their historical distribution for the first time in the 1895 - present record. According to NCDC, the odds of this occurring randomly during any particular month are 1 in 1,594,323. Thus, we should only see one more 13-month period so warm between now and 124,652 AD --assuming the climate is staying the same as it did during the past 118 years.

I'm thinking more like YouTube comments than the videos.

"Been to film school? I think not. Leave youtube to the pros ... yo."

How come you damn Albertan Mullah lover's don't get flamed when you make these comments?

And I end up getting not one, but a whole pack of Duke's goats?

Been to film school? I think not. Leave youtube to the pros ... yo....
...
you want to learn filmmaking old school style
like film geniuses like Eisenstein or Podovkin?
take a high quality copy of Citizen Kane, put it on an
editing board and then rip it apart and put it back
together 2 or 3 hundred times in various re-cuts and
permutations. (the Russian masters used a film by DW Griffith)

picosec wrote:

... one promoting tourism in Mexico and the other a documentary about the poor conditions that the peons there had to work under.

The Cruiseship Potemkin

Citizen AllenM wrote:

Someday this war's gonna end...

Someday the fallout of the banking fraud is going to end but when is the question...

"A quarter of Wall Street executives see wrongdoing as a key to success, according to a survey by whistleblower law firm Labaton Sucharow released on Tuesday.

In a survey of 500 senior executives in the United States and the UK, 26 percent of respondents said they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace, while 24 percent said they believed financial services professionals may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct to be successful."

Many Wall Street executives says wrongdoing is necessary: survey
| Reuters

TJ and The Bear wrote:

The Ultimate Krugman Take-Down | ZeroHedge

Well, Krugman wiped him out. All Schwartz had was platitudes and no evidence and facts.

Citizen AllenM wrote:

Insanity is worrying about inflation today, when deflation is at the door, and about to kick it in for a long visit.

Maybe not that insane. Deflation is definitely settling in, but if left unchecked there will be an inflection point where it starts to feed on itself. I think that's the though that keeps Bernanke up at night. Once that event horizon is crossed recession becomes depression over night. That's kind of axiomatic for a debt based monetary system. The inflation bet is the play to catch the wave of money printed to prevent that. Unfortunately, I think they'll wait too long then overreact, so we'll get hammered going both ways like a hurricane. Good luck trying to run out into the receding ocean to surf that Tsunami though. I'm content to have left the beach myself. Blec! Metaphor overload.

I actually agree with 99% of what you've been saying, I'm just trying to predict how the lemmings are going to behave.

Labour Pitbull John Mann (at 18:13) sets the tone, again:

Player

Too many people here with the 70s and 80s experience hardwired into their brains,

FRED Graph - FRED - St. Louis Fed

shows the economy gained 28 million jobs between 1970 and 1985, growing 40%.

Red line in that graph shows the Fed playing red-light/green-light trying to rein-in the resulting inflation of all these workers.

For 2000-2012, we're at around +500,000 jobs.

Graph: All Employees: Total nonfarm (PAYEMS) - FRED - St. Louis Fed

This is of course with ZIRP in place and $1.0T+/yr of deficit spending since 2009:

FRED Graph - FRED - St. Louis Fed

40% growth from 2000 requires 50 million jobs. We're only 1% there.

So yeah, this is not the 1970s.

Back then the Red Guard was still getting into running battles with the PLA.

Now, the Chinese own our asses.

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt 

MBW wrote:

Cliff notes, anyone?

• 
• I get more hits on my youtube mashups from zeros at zh.
• Global warming is real.
• No it isn't.
• Fk it's hot in (insert city here).
• Random that's too obscure and/or poorly delivered for anyone to get.
• 
  Edit ...
• 
• Kruggles blah blah blah

Late night treat: Get yer F'ing jammies on ...

Analysis: Euro zone fragmenting faster than EU can act
| Reuters

Covered Bond Roundtable 2012: Part 1 | Roundtables | IFRe

• Jens Tolckmitt, Chief Executive, VDP: Well from an investor’s perspective, certainly unsecured funding is getting riskier, and they will demand a higher risk premium for that. And for an issuer, at the end of the day, it’s always about the funding mix and the cost of the funding mix. It doesn’t help if a certain issuer can fund itself cheaply on, say, 50% of the balance sheet and the other 50% is expensive. The funding mix is decisive and investors will ask for higher premiums.

Re=POst #21876: Battery (electricity) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cell mismatch results more from limitations in process control and inspection than from variations inherent in the lithium ion chemistry.

Also see: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2012/shadow/registered-organisations/finance-watch_en.pdf

Regarding the risks they can cause, we agree that liquidity mismatches, collateralquality and management need to be monitored and regulated, as well as leverageusing a comprehensive definition of it.

Covered Bonds a mismatch made in Germany (See MEFO's)

MBW wrote:

thanks, Dawg. Anything else?

They roll up the streets in Idaho Falls around 10pm.
The US 10y at 1.51 tells me the Fed has been busy behind the scenes.

Bubblisimo Gerkinov wrote:

Random Snark that's too obscure and/or poorly delivered for anyone to get.

That would be me.

I have a friend doing that in the South. So far so good.

MBW wrote:

Funny, I was in Idaho Falls just five days ago.

Staying in that ugly yellow round hotel right across from the falls. Nice inside. Tetons early tomorrow.

UK Conservatives want to cut pensioners benefits, starting with "better off" retired folks, despite the fact they all paid in during their working lives. Means testing...coming soon to the US as well. The Ryan plan...just because you paid in for 40 years doesn't mean you're entitled to anything.

Tories plan to axe pensioners' benefits - UK Politics - UK - The Independent

fried wrote:

The Ryan plan...just because you paid in for 40 years doesn't mean you're entitled to anything.

Modeling SS after corporate pension plans.

fried wrote:

UK Conservatives want to cut pensioners benefits, starting with "better off" retired folks, despite the fact they all paid in during their working lives. Means testing...coming soon to the US as well. The Ryan plan...just because you paid in for 40 years doesn't mean you're entitled to anything.

Good think the pensioners can't vote..... Oh, wait...

Man the political calculus of a move like that... he who triggers a class war had best be prepared for the crossfire.

sm_landlord wrote:

he who triggers a class war had best be prepared for the crossfire.

. . . or be bulletproof. It's not easy to fight your way out of a crossfire from the center.

Well I watched the whole thing and you got the most intense 30 second bite, Duke.

I would like to have seen more questioning on his role as FSA Director while also at the BOE, but they grilled him fairly well.

Kruggles blah blah blah

Krugman talking to his loyal followers...

QE3 = queen elizabeth 3?

azurite linked:

I'm so bored with the U.S.A.

London 2012 Olympics - Schedule, Results, Medals, Tickets, Venues

sm_landlord wrote:

Rags to riches? That's Hollywood fiction, study finds - Economy Watch

If everyone could do it, it couldn't happen for anyone.

I'm thinking the other way. The fact that it happens at all shows that there is mobility. Why it's important to go from the bottom to the top in one generation is something I'm going to need help with.

Analysis: Euro zone fragmenting faster than EU can act

everything is under control

Clearly not their only game, but spates me attributing dark motives.

Jesus they can't just hand out free money to any banker. They have to maintain the illusion that they are useful to the system.

burnside wrote:

I think I 'buy it' in preference to thinking of them as motivated entirely by Wall Street's internal interest.

It's always easy to take the more cynical approach. Sometimes I think it becomes easier with each passing year. Yet there is often a purpose to their actions, whether we believe it, or even see it, or not. Perhaps Hussman is right, but, if so, why all the QE3 chatter, unless it's just wishful thinking from the interior of Wall Street after all?

I think it comes under 'jawboning', sportsfan. And it's useful, so why not indulge?

Hussman doesn't say they won't twist or whatever in August. Only that they usually haven't. If you can bouy markets by encouraging talk of impending QE, then you don't have to act. Unless and until they tumble.

Well I watched the whole thing and you got the most intense 30 second bite, Duke."
...
thanks... I was hoping to get something that caught him in the headlights, so to speak...
...
pity we don't have interrogators like this in the Congress...
we once did, not so much anymore unless say some washed up pitcher is on the stand...

Errrr, not that it matters, but I heard there was a swinging axe at Calloway Golf today. An acquaintance was one of the fallen.

Into what category do you put a song that has over 300,000,000 views on youtube?

YouTube - Adele - Rolling In The Deep

It's not like she is the first woman to sing about heartbreak.

sportsfan wrote:

Into what category do you put a song that has over 300,000,000 views on youtube?

Well promoted.

I think Grayson's running again. Pretty good in print, but no MP live and on his feet.

sportsfan wrote:

It's not like she is the first woman to sing about heartbreak.

I like mine a little dirtier. Here's an oldie.

YouTube - THE MOTELS - TOTAL CONTROL LIVE VERSION

1 currency now -yogi wrote:

you can show this how, . . .?

People rarely act out of happenstance. There is usually a motive. The game often evolves into trying to determine the motive of the actor (or speaker).

As for "Things suck, etc." okay, but the actor (or speaker) may or may not be addressing that subject. In the minds of many people in power, that simply does not matter.

Here another one of Martha's torch songs:

YouTube - The Motels - Only the Lonely

1 currency now -yogi wrote:

How about enabling a system that keeps me in power, and allows me to allocate wealth without democratic checks and balances. That's plenty of built-in motive.

That would be pretty close to the Total Control that sm_landlord linked, though probably without the need for felating an alto sax, if, indeed, that is what was portrayed during the break.

It can be, after all, just a matter of perception.

Take the concept of emotional triggers....before this modern age of preprogrammed 24/7 advertising matrix we had another model based on preprogrammed class structures with inherent rules of conduct also governed by emotional triggers....still a hive, colony, collective...

sm_landlord linked:

YouTube - The Motels - Only the Lonely

Good sound, nicely engineered and her backup bank had a little more interest in that number.

sm_landlord wrote:

Well, perhaps we did a bit too well. The aspirational target had to be kept out of reach. Perhaps that was not possible without the matrix.

The problem is my old chess analogy...the board has shrunk for most of the population. You have your free will deterministic principals operating in a tiny sphere of two squares Mr. Pawn. The powers that be consolidated, and are realizing a dream of unlimited power in size and scope...unless the hordes of pawns turn over the table so to speak...

sportsfan wrote:

Good sound, nicely engineered and her backup bank had a little more interest in that number.

It was a struggle getting a good band behind her. I had to fire one of her drummers, because he just couldn't get the beat for "Porn Reggae".

Yes, that was really in her repertoire.

John Carter (RIP) of Capitol Records was a big supporter.

sportsfan wrote:

It always had 64 squares, no more, no less. It still has 64 today, whether one plays them well or not.
If one could convince another that the board had shrunk, that one's movements were limited beyond the physical limitations of life, then one would have entered the realm of burnside's jawboning, and devised the power of influencing others just by verbal announcement.

Disagree, the world was the board, and great effort has been taken in the past decade to restrict movement around the world of the pawns. The world has shrunk and become virtual, while the reach of those with stars upon thars has grown like shadows cast by the sun. The board has changed in my opinion. Maybe that is part of the illusion, I don't know yet.

sm_landlord wrote:

Yes, that was in her repertoire.

She had/has a good voice, no doubt. Soulful, not a belter at all, but still someone who tries to connect with every male in the audience. I doubt the woman appreciated her.

sportsfan wrote:

Into what category do you put a song that has over 300,000,000 views on youtube?

Modern,...gramps. It's not really as astonishing as you might think, since youtube is a proxy for radio. Speaking of which, though I listen to current top ten because of my daughter, I'm hard pressed to name the songs or the artist--they don't mention them any more. My wife told me the name of a song and I asked how she knew. The title and artist show up on digital radio. Ohhhhhh, the light dawns.

Vonbek777 wrote:

The world has shrunk and become virtual, while the reach of those with stars upon thars has grown like shadows cast by the sun.

IMO the world is the same size and still physical, but then I don't do anywhere near the volume of drugs I did decades ago. I don't accept the proposition that the world has shrunk any more than I would accept Thomas Friedman's suggestion that the world is flat. It's just as round, more or less, as it's always been.

Forget the 'reach of the mighty.' What is it I can't do today that I could do 40 or 50 years ago?

sdtfs wrote:

youtube is a proxy for radio

Sort of. It's different because it's personal now. Radio used to be a shared experience, back when Tom and Rachel Donahue reigned. Now it's all personal and hit songs again, as in the 1960s, but personal with recommendations.

sportsfan wrote:

What is it I can't do today that I could do 40 or 50 years ago?

Whole micro realities have pretty much disappeared imho. I grew up in a family of mountain men and lowland farmers....neither has fared too well as the world has turned.

sm_landlord, I keep forgetting you had a background in music.
I do miss Laura Branigan, some real power in her singing.

YouTube - Laura Branigan - Gloria

sportsfan - Actually in some states that is still possible.

Yea, us dirty nasty smokers are a dying breed.
I actually prefer open air bars and never did like the smokey dirty ones, I can handle dirty, or smokey, just not together.

Vonbek777 wrote:

neither has fared too well as the world has turned.

Social evolution certainly outpaced biological evolution, but the world is not turning any faster now than it did a million (perhaps a billion) years ago. Well, maybe it's a couple seconds a day slower now.

For social evolution the command has always been the same: adapt or perish.

Kauai_Kahuna wrote:

Yea, us dirty nasty smokers are a dying breed.

Well, that's a fact, and here I thought it was just the old white men that populate the Republican Party that are dying off so much faster than the voting age population as a whole. (Fly me a snark, woodja?)

sportsfan wrote:

These days, it's those moldy oldies that I can relate to so very easily. It's been like that for every generation that i've seen age.

Yup. My problem is that I still want to play, and I want to play prog. If I ever get any spare time.... I still have a keyboard rack set up in one of my offices, just in case... my friends see it and laugh at me.

Dead Can Dance (Lisa Gerrard) (The Lotus Eaters)
http://youtu.be/-PzX1gmUKBY
YouTube - Yazoo - Goodbye 70's

Vonbek777 wrote:

Eldest just woke up throwing up with a nose bleed too, trying not to worry, no signs of fever but not a good combo.

Refresh my memory---where do you think you picked this bug up?

merchants of fear wrote:

Dead Can Dance (Lisa Gerrard) (The Lotus Eaters)

Damn you for quoting serious stuff just before I have to check out and get some sleep. Dead Can Dance is is a completely separate discussion, as you no doubt know.

sportsfan wrote:

All I get to do is try to sing and maybe have some fund with a tambourine.

Is that when you turn it over and pass it around for donations?

Vonbek777 wrote:

This goes back to my rise and fall meme on republics...as population increases systemic stress increases due to resource allocation...

No doubt things are very different than they were even a hundred years ago in human history. If we manage to make it another hundred years, that resource allocation thingy is going to kick in with a vengeance.

It probably won't be pretty to experience that neo-Hobbesian world. Most, though, will do exactly what you are doing now, that being trying to keep the next generation alive and healthy. The more things change, the more they stay the same, and all that jazz.

sm_landlord wrote:

Dead Can Dance is is a completely separate discussion, as you no doubt know.

yep

sm_landlord wrote:

I tuned out out thrash punk completely

YouTube - Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke - Shadow Magnet

Barclays Agrees Diamond Pay-Off Of 'About £2m'
40 minutes ago
The figure has yet to be confirmed by Barclays, but if the £1.5m-£2.5m range is accurate, it will represent one year's basic salary and pension contribution for Mr Diamond. It would mean that he has sacrificed as much as £18m in deferred share bonuses and long-term share awards awarded during recent years.
Part of that is likely to have been voluntary on Mr Diamond's part although some of these bonuses will have been subject to clawback and so-called malus clauses by Barclays' board.
I should caution that the talks over the severance deal have been ongoing throughout the last 24 hours and it's possible that the final number could yet change.
Barclays declined to comment.

ROUBINI: Next Year Could Be A Global Perfect Storm—Much Worse Than 2008

"So you're predicting a scenario that is much worse than 2008?"
ROUBINI: "Well, it's much worse, because like 2008 you have an economic and financial crisis, but unlike 2008, you're running out of policy bullets. In 2008, you could cut rates from 5%-6% down to zero, do QE1, QE2, QE3, you could do fiscal stimulus up to 10% of GDP, you could backstop a guarantee bailout of banks and everybody else. Today, more QEs are becoming less and less effective because the problems are of insolvency not illiquidity. Fiscal deficits are already so large that everybody has to cut them, not increase them. And you cannot bail out the banks because 1) there is political opposition to it, 2) governments are near insolvent and they cannot bail out themselves, let alone bail out the banking system.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/roubini-perfect-storm-2012-7-a#ixzz20D6vjXNb