Recent comments by Rajesh
Currency War Update:
Czech Inflation Stays Below Target Amid Currency-Sales Debate - Bloomberg
The $217 billion economy has contracted for five consecutive quarters, the longest streak since records began in 1996, as households and businesses spend less because of government austerity measures and Europe’s debt crisis. Policy makers are in uncharted territory after cutting interest rates to effectively zero last year and the bank board is debating whether currency sales are needed to meet its inflation goal.
...
The Ceska Narodni Banka left the benchmark two-week repurchase rate at 0.05 percent for a fourth meeting on May 2. After three rate cuts last year exhausted the scope for further reductions, the koruna is at the center of policy makers’ deliberations as a weaker exchange rate boosts exports that account for about 80 percent of economic output, increases import prices and limits deflation risks.The Czech currency has lost 4.9 percent to the euro since Sept. 17, the day before central bank Governor Miroslav Singer first said policy makers may sell the currency to meet their inflation goal. It was the third-worst performer in that period among major emerging-market peers tracked by Bloomberg.
Schaeuble Signals Support for Easier European Austerity - Bloomberg
On the eve of a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers in the U.K., Schaeuble told a conference in London there’s “enough room to maneuver” for euro-area governments to respond to the currency bloc’s recession.
Such comments reflect the recent shift in stance from Europe’s powerhouse economy, which had previously hailed austerity as the main route to prosperity for the debt-strapped region. Forcing the rethink are signs the continent’s slump is outlasting forecasts, driving unemployment to record levels and prompting calls for more action to foster economic expansion from both within and outside Europe.
“We reject an austerity track, this dogma which slows growth,” French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio today. “We have to reduce the deficit, but the pace of it has to be in line with national economic growth. I think that this thought is currently winning the upper hand in Europe and the entire world.”
Mike in Long Island wrote:
At least we have something tangible
Jobs in Two shipyards. Plus all the bribes campaign contributions that brings.
Japanese Pro-Inflation Policies Show Signs of Hurting Korean Economy. 
BarleyReturns wrote:
how many do you need pollinate an orange grove?
How many oranges do you want?
Analysis: To hedge inflation, property trusts are the new gold
| Reuters
The trend is most visible in the frenzy around real estate investment trusts (REITs) in Asia, where issuance ex-Japan more than quadrupled to $4.33 billion through early May from the same period last year and valuations are at their highest since before the 2008 financial crisis.
"I have been saying for the last two years that REITs are a good inflation hedge," said Charlie Chan, one of the best-known hedge fund managers in Asia, who made a killing by betting on them in 2012.
"They are easier to value, you get what you see and you own the building and if there is inflation, the building price will just go up," added Chan.
We need an :office building: icon for CRE bubbles.
Comrade Kristina wrote:
Monsanto will provide them for you.
Patented single use bees, in their own individually wrapped containers.
We have a breach in sector Yen. Code red. We have a breach in sector Yen.
Yen Breach of 100 Per U.S. Dollar Foreshadows More Weakness - Bloomberg
The yen dropped 1.6 percent to 100.59 per dollar as of 5 p.m. in New York after falling as much as 1.8 percent, the biggest drop since April 2009. It earlier appreciated as much as 0.4 percent. Japan’s currency fell 0.8 percent to 131.21 per euro.
The 100-per-dollar level was a key bearish point because it represented a so-called 50 percent Fibonacci retracement between its high of 75.35 in November 2011 and a decade-low of 124.14 in 2007.
lawyerliz wrote:
the congress had nothing to bicker about. . .
Throw da bums out!
The federal government is spending too much. We should remove the troops from Korea, mothball two aircraft carriers and end the F-22 program.
Time to socialize the losses.
Paulson hedge fund puts hotel unit in bankruptcy to escape lawsuit
| Reuters
According to filings late Wednesday in Manhattan bankruptcy court, MSR Hotels & Resorts Inc. sought Chapter 11 protection from creditors to sell its remaining assets and wind down.
A bankruptcy filing often halts litigation against a debtor.
Daniel Kamensky, MSR's treasurer and a partner at a Paulson & Co. affiliate, said in an affidavit that protection was necessary because of the "baseless" lawsuit filed last month by Five Mile Capital Partners against MSR's directors, which he said reflects the lender's "scorched-earth" tactics.
"The REIT now seeks to end Five Mile's continued terrorization of directors that the court has previously found acted in good faith," he wrote.
MSR in February won court approval to sell four resorts to the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. sovereign wealth fund for $1.5 billion, including assumed debt, court papers show.
REBear wrote:
same people retiring en masse
Why work when you can day trade flip houses collect disability?
black dog wrote:
china exports booming
There was a dock worker strike in Hong Kong. Ships were diverted to the near by port in China. Cargo was presumably transferred to Hong Kong. Exports to Hong Kong in April reported up by 57%. I'm sure that's a sustainable trend.
light bulb jokes from Lightbulbjokes.com
Q: How many University Graduates does it take to change a light bulb ?
A: One, but it may take up to seven years !
Same-store sales continue modest recovery in April
| Reuters
Twelve major U.S. retailers reported a 3.7 percent increase in April sales at stores open at least a year, according to Thomson Reuters same-store sales index. That was less than the 4.3 percent increase Wall Street expected.
Wall Street got ahead of itself with upbeat expectations, said AlixPartners' Managing Director Steve Nevill, noting that unemployment remained high and consumers were still worried about their prospects.
"I still don't see us breaking out of this average performance until something big happens to lift consumer confidence," Nevill said.
ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:
And you misquoted me.
Legislation can not address this issue. Markets are more powerful than governments.
ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:
Any system that tries to operate in the interests of consumers will be out-competed (or flat out put out of business) by one that operates on behalf of capital
What is true now is not always true. You mistake the temporary for the universal.
Existential economics: #Soren Kierkegaard | The Economist
For Mr Phelps, Kierkegaard has lots of useful insights for economists about the “dynamics of the individual and the importance of choices and decisions in human life.” In particular, he argued that since the knowledge human beings have is limited, every true decision “represents a leap of faith that must be made without any clear understanding of the consequences. This is why true decisions provoke anxiety,” summarises Mr Phelps.
Over the years, economists have explored many aspects of decision making in conditions of uncertainty, none more so than Frank Knight in his 1921 masterpiece about the life of an entrepreneur, “Risk, Uncertainty and Profit.” It would be interesting to compare how Kierkegaard understood the leap of faith with Knight’s view of the motivation of entrepreneurs, as well as Joseph Schumpeter’s “psychological” theory of innovative entrepreneurship and the “animal spirits” described by John Maynard Keynes as “a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, and not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities.”
Jackdawracy wrote:
why is the stock currently a princely 93 cents per share?
It's a bubble. 100% of the profits go the the Treasury. The remainder is shared between the preferred stock and the common.
GDD9000 wrote:
one big accounting fraud
So how is that different from the rest of corporate America?
Cyprus Central Bank says no haste to lift capital controls, must restore trust in banks first
Panicos Demetriades said the Central Bank wants to eliminate these controls as soon as possible, but it has to first make sure that trust in the banks has recovered sufficiently.
He said a rush of withdrawals would put additional strain on the banks that they can hardly afford right now.
"We have to keep in mind the dangers of easing (restrictions) overly quickly," Demetriades told a press conference. "We have to be careful with these relaxations. It's more important to see how trust can be restored in the banking system."
Cyprus introduced strict limits, such as a 300-euro ($400) daily withdrawal limit, in March to forestall a run on its banks after it agreed on a 23 billion euro ($30 billion) rescue package with its euro partners and the International Monetary Fund. The rescue deal's terms demand that depositors in the country's two biggest banks take major losses on their savings over 100,000 euros.
The Central Bank had always refused to estimate how long the controls would last, though government officials have said they would last several weeks. Some of the controls, such as bank money transfers, have been eased to help local companies do business. But many others — such as the daily withdrawal limit — remain in place.
lawyerliz wrote:
F and F paying the govt
That money is an implicit tax on homeownership.
From Jan 2011:
MortgageOrb: WSJ: Treasury Likely To Push Back Release Of GSE Proposal
Any delay in proposing models for the federal government's role in housing finance will likely stoke the ire of Republican lawmakers, who spent much of 2010 pressing the Treasury to act quickly on the GSEs.
Last week, Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a member of the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and GSEs, told reporters that he will soon re-introduce legislation that would wind down the two companies. According to a Reuters report, Hensarling's legislation would give the GSEs five years to close down.
RayOnTheFarm wrote:
How is Cerberus is going to be so much smarter than these failed local banks were?
They hire the smartest people, like Dan Quayle and John Snow.
Fannie Mae to send $59.4 billion to U.S. Treasury
| Reuters
Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB), the nation's biggest mortgage finance company, on Thursday said it will pay $59.4 billion in dividends to the U.S. Treasury after a record profit in the first quarter that reflected a multibillion dollar tax-related gain.
The government-controlled company reported pretax income of $8.1 billion for the quarter and booked an additional gain of $50.6 billion by reversing a write-down on certain tax assets, resulting in net income of $58.7 billion. That compared to a $2.7 billion profit in the same three months a year earlier.
Both its pretax income and net income were records.
The massive payment to the Treasury will reduce the net cost of Fannie Mae's taxpayer bailout to $21.1 billion.
RealtyTrac: US Home Repossessions Fell in April - ABC News
Nationally, home repossessions fell 20 percent in April from the previous month and were down 32 percent from a year earlier, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.
Foreclosure starts, the initial step in the process that can eventually lead to a home being foreclosed upon, dipped 4 percent last month from March and tumble 28 percent from April last year, the firm said.
Even so, homes scheduled for auction in states where the courts play a role in the foreclosure process hit the highest level in more than two years.
arthur_dent wrote:
To the best of our knowledge no new energy is being added we are just running down the moment of creation.
Ask a cosmologist about dark energy.
Bubblisimo Gerkinov wrote:
Money supply?
I've been trying to develop fractal money but I haven't quite gotten it figured out yet.
arthur_dent wrote:
the universe is at maximum entropy
The universe keeps expanding so there is always room for more entropy. It is finite but unbounded.
Tom Stone wrote:
suing agents is a popular sport
ESPN? ESPN3? Or do I need to call my cable operator?
arthur_dent wrote:
where time stops eventually
Even if the state of something stays the same, the state is different because the rest of the universe has changed.
Einhorn's advice to investors: don't take my advice
| Reuters
Einhorn, this year's star attraction at the Sohn Investment Conference, an annual confab where the industry's top investors share their favorite trade ideas, wrapped up his presentation by offering some words of warning about his public comments.
"It doesn't make sense to blindly follow me or anyone else into a stock," said Einhorn, president and co-founder of the $8.8 billion hedge fund Greenlight Capital. "Do your own work."
He may have been talking to the converted. Einhorn's limited impact on Apple Inc shares after he implored the technology giant earlier this year to better use its cashpile has been noted by industry analysts. A cover piece in March by Bloomberg Businessweek, "When David Einhorn Talks, Markets Listen -- Usually," highlighted the failure of the "Einhorn effect" to work its magic on Apple.
Don't try this at home, folks. This man is a Professional Investor.
ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:
So it's like housing prices
Once you understand that event that don't occur influence events that do occur, it all becomes clear.
ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:
What if each of those worlds has its own "calculable probability of becoming an actuality"?
No each world is an actuality in itself. The "calculable probability" is the transition weight between world states. Think of the different channels of a river delta that divide and rejoin. The distribution of the water between the channels can be calculated but each channel that has water contributes to the total movement of water.
aleister perdurabo wrote:
each with a calculable probability of becoming an actuality
That's only one interpretation. I prefer the many worlds interpretation.
Many-worlds interpretation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 
ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:
I put myself on ignore once.
That doesn't work for me. I still get my annoying posts.
arthur_dent wrote:
you do not exist unless observed
I post and am not ignored, therefore I am?
ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:
With perfect information we would have no need or use for moral judgment.
But humans don't have perfect information so evolution has driven the creation of moral judgement to compensate for dealing with a partial information set.
sportsfan wrote:
Descartes was off 180 degrees.
cogito cogito ergo cogito sum.
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:
But something went wrong.
From time to time, society must renew itself, either through revolution or evolution.
Time to make the donuts. 
ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:
Amorality is the default condition of man in the state of nature and unenlightened.
That's not what the fMRIs indicate.
Vonbek777 wrote:
But why stop there!
We can remember it for you wholesale.
We Can Remember It for You Wholesale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brazilian Roberto Azevedo to lead WTO amid stalled global trade talks - The Washington Post
World Trade Organization members announced in Geneva on Wednesday that they had chosen Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo to be the next director general, turning to a longtime trade diplomat from a prominent developing country to run an organization fighting to restore its clout.
The 12-year-old world trade talks known as the Doha Round are stalled, and top economic powers such as the United States and Europe have as an alternative struck out on their own in negotiations with different sets of nations. Some have warned that the WTO is losing significance as the global economy undergoes rapid change.
Currency War Update
South Korea Joins Australia-to-Europe Rate Cuts for Growth - Bloomberg
The Bank of Korea joined central banks in Australia, Europe and India in cutting interest rates this month, as a weak yen dims the outlook for the nation’s exports and record household debt weighs on consumption.
Governor Kim Choong Soo and his board lowered the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate to 2.5 percent from 2.75 percent, the central bank said in a statement in Seoul today. Six of 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted the move while the remainder forecast no change.
Today’s decision came after a four-to-three vote by the board against a cut last month, which showed the deepest division among policy makers since 2006, and as data give a mixed picture of Asia’s fourth-largest economy. Ruling New Frontier Party floor leader Lee Hahn Koo yesterday urged a “more active role” for the BOK, adding to political pressure for a cut.
“What we’re seeing is another round of global easing from Japan to Europe and South Korea needs similar action,” Lee Sang Jae, a Seoul-based economist at Hyundai Securities Co., said before the announcement.“The rate cut will help the nation’s fight against a weak yen.”
REBear wrote:
what a commander called "rot" in the force.
Purity of Essence!
Vonbek777 wrote:
Robot Revolution of 2033
Transistors good! Neurons bad!
Whining Sock Puppet wrote:
wanna see my List of Solutions?
Not particularly.
Comrade Kristina wrote:
She said she wouldn't come in if I was working.
That's might considerate of her.
Outsider wrote:
she gets her own drinks?
But she still has to leave a tip, right?
Hagia Sophia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia