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Monday 09.26.2011
Virginia bank 72nd in U.S. to close in 2011
By Drew FitzGerald - MarketWatch.com
Virginia regulators on Friday closed another bank, bringing the nationwide tally of bank failures up to 72 for the year.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Norfolk, Va.-based Bank of the Commonwealth was closed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Southern Bank and Trust Co. of Mount Olive, N.C., agreed to take over the failed bank as part of a purchase-and-assumption deal with the FDIC.
Bank of the Commonwealth had about $985.1 million in total assets and $901.8 million in total deposits with 21 branches as of June 30.
Geithner Plan for Europe
is last chance to avoid global catastrophe
Europe, the G20, and the global authorities have one last chance to contain the EMU debt crisis with a nuclear solution or abdicate responsibility and watch as the world slides into depression, endangering the benign but fragile order that has taken shape over the last three decades.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
The threat of cascading default, bank runs, and catastrophic risk must be taken off the table," said US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner over the weekend.
"Sovereign and banking stresses in Europe are the most serious risk now confronting the world economy. Decisions cannot wait until the crisis gets more severe."
Euroland's dysfunctional arrangements are no longer a local affair. As the European Central Bank's Jean-Claude Trichet said in Washington, EMU is at the epicentre of a global sovereign debt crisis that risks engulfing all, and is more intractable than 2008 because governments themselves are now crippled.
Geithner sounds alarm on Europe
By Ben Rooney - Money.CNN.com
WASHINGTON D.C. (CNNMoney) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner warned Saturday that the sovereign debt and banking crisisin Europe represents "the most serious risk now confronting the world economy."
In an official statement to the International Monetary Fund, Geithner also discussed the need to both support the U.S. economy in the short term and take steps to lower the nation's long-term deficits.
But his strongest comments were directed at Europe, where the specter of a default by the Greekgovernment has upset financial markets around the world. The nation's long-standing debt problems are threatening to spill over into the European banking system, with possible repercussions for the fragile U.S. economy.
Multi-trillion plan to save the eurozone being prepared
European officials are working on a grand plan to restore confidence in the single currency area that would involve a massive bank recapitalisation, giving the bail-out fund several trillion euros of firepower, and a possible Greek default.
By Philip Aldrick, and Jeremy Warner in Washington - Telegraph.co.uk
German and French authorities have begun work on a three-pronged strategy behind the scenes amid escalating fears that the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis is spiralling out of control.
Their aim is to build a "firebreak" around Greece, Portugal and Ireland to prevent the crisis spreading to Italy and Spain, countries considered “too big to bail”.
According to sources, progress has been made at the G20 meeting in Washington, where global leaders piled pressure on the eurozone to fix its problems before plunging the world back into recession. In a G20 communique issued on Friday, the world's leading economies set themselves a six-week deadline to resolve the crisis – to unveil a solution by the G20 summit in Cannes on November 4.
Europe Stews on Greece, and Markets Sweat Out the Wait
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ - NYTimes.com
European leaders headed home from a weekend of meetings in Washington vowing bolder steps to address widening anxiety about the Continent’s debt burden. But it will most likely be weeks or even months before any new action comes to pass.
It’s not clear whether the global markets will give them that much time. Investors will be watching a series of crucial votes by European parliaments due this week on an earlier package aimed at preventing a default byGreece, Ireland and Portugal.
EU given six weeks to protect itself
against 'inevitable Greek default'
IMF tells eurozone EFSF may need to be boosted five-fold to £1.7tn to convince markets that default could be contained
By Heather Stewart and Larry Elliott in Washington - Guardian.co.uk
European Union governments will spend the next six weeks building a financial firewall to protect their fragile banking systems against what is now seen as an inevitable Greek default.
G20 sources said that up to 50% was likely to be wiped from the face value of Greece's €350bn debt – but not until Europe had put into place a war chest to prevent the contagion spreading.
More money will be disbursed by the International Monetary Fund and the EU next month to keep the Greek government afloat, but this is seen as a short-term fix while Europe's leaders beef up the eurozone bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility.
IMF tries to coax markets off ledge
Soros says crisis worse than post-Lehman in 2008
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Global economic policy-makers, gathered Saturday for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, tried to sound united and engaged in their latest effort to assuage financial market concerns about European sovereign debt and the region’s fragile banks.
"Today we agreed to act decisively to tackle the dangers confronting the global economy," the leaders said in their latest effort, a communique from the IMFC, the IMF’s governing body.
The leaders said that Europe would do "whatever is necessary" to resolve the crisis.
The G-20's Words Shouldn't Sooth the Market
The nations' actions speak louder, and they don't show a real commitment to global economic stability
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
After a two-day freefall, the U.S. stock market appeared to stabilize on Friday. We can debate about what's got the market resting a little easier, as we always do. Maybe investors have come to decide that the Federal Reserve's new action will help. Maybe they think the situation in Europe isn't as dire as they did yesterday. Or maybe they're just covering their short positions. But one reason they shouldn't feel some relief is the G-20 communiqué: it's just words with no clear indication that action will actually follow.
In the communiqué (.pdf), the twenty member nations pledged their commitment to global financial stability and economic recovery. But the measures actually referred to provide little assurance of real follow through.
MARC FABER INTERVIEW 23 SEP 2011
Plan B: Flood the markets
Meeting halls A and B in HQ1 of the International Monetary Fund’s concrete plaza of buildings in Washington are a drab affair. Bare walls, muted browns and hovering interpreters’ booths perfectly capture the characterless functionality of the world’s economic watchdog.
By Philip Aldrick and Angela Monaghan - Telegraph.co.uk
For the finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s leading 20 countries who were dining in the hall that night, however, the 1970s minimalism was wholly appropriate. Talk could turn to austerity without the jarring distraction of vaulting chandeliers and priceless art.
For George Osborne and Charlie Bean, the Bank of England deputy Governor who was standing in for Sir Mervyn King, there was an added poignancy. The construction of meeting hall A and B was reputedly financed by the interest payments Britain made on the £3.9bn IMF loan the country took in the dark days of 1976 – the era of the three day week and 25pc inflation.
Five Banks Account For 96% Of The $250 Trillion
In Outstanding US Derivative Exposure;
Is Morgan Stanley Sitting On An FX Derivative Time Bomb?
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
The latest quarterly report from the Office Of the Currency Comptroller is out and as usual it presents in a crisp, clear and very much glaring format the fact that the top 4 banks in the US now account for a massively disproportionate amount of the derivative risk in the financial system. Specifically, of the $250 trillion in gross notional amount of derivative contracts outstanding (consisting of Interest Rate, FX, Equity Contracts, Commodity and CDS) among the Top 25 commercial banks (a number that swells to $333 trillion when looking at the Top 25 Bank Holding Companies), a mere 5 banks (and really 4) account for 95.9% of all derivative exposure (HSBC replaced Wells as the Top 5th bank, which at $3.9 trillion in derivative exposure is a distant place from #4 Goldman with $47.7 trillion). The top 4 banks: JPM with $78.1 trillion in exposure, Citi with $56 trillion, Bank of America with $53 trillion and Goldman with $48 trillion, account for 94.4% of total exposure. As historically has been the case, the bulk of consolidated exposure is in Interest Rate swaps ($204.6 trillion), followed by FX ($26.5TR), CDS ($15.2 trillion), and Equity and Commodity with $1.6 and $1.4 trillion, respectively. And that's your definition of Too Big To Fail right there: the biggest banks are not only getting bigger, but their risk exposure is now at a new all time high and up $5.3 trillion from Q1 as they have to risk ever more in the derivatives market to generate that incremental penny of return.
IMF Releases Steering Commttee Communique On Greece
Full Text Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Communique of the Twenty-Fourth Meeting of the IMFC: Collective Action for Global Recovery Chaired by Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and Minister for Finance
The global economy has entered a dangerous phase, calling for exceptional vigilance, coordination and readiness to take bold action from members and the IMF alike. We are encouraged by the determination of our euro-area colleagues to do what is needed to resolve the euro-area crisis. We welcome that the IMF stands ready to strongly support this effort as part of its global role.
Today we agreed to act decisively to tackle the dangers confronting the global economy. These include sovereign debt risks, financial system fragility, weakening economic growth and high unemployment. Our circumstances vary, but our economies and financial systems are closely interlinked. We will therefore act collectively to restore confidence and financial stability, and rekindle global growth.
Jim Rogers on CNBC 22 September 2011
Fears Over 'Shockwave' Of Greek Debt Crisis
By Ed Conway, economics editor, in Washington DC, News.SKY.com
No longer a question of if, but when - that is the tone of discussions over Greece which has dominated the summit of finance ministers in Washington over the weekend.
According to senior G20 sources, the assumption now is that the country will have to default on its debt by as much as 50% – on top of the 20% voluntary restructuring already agreed in July.
And so whereas efforts some months ago were aimed at preventing Greece defaulting, the Eurozone, and its G20 colleagues from the world's biggest economies, are instead making secret plans to build a firewall protecting European economies such as Spain and Italy from the prospect of a buyers' strike.
Marc Faber: On Operation Twist,
The Dollar, Gold, And The Greeks
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
In his inimitable manner, Marc Faber describes to ThomsonReuters why it is time for Greece to leave the common currency, claim bankruptcy, and allow its citizens to live decently even if European leaders (and bankers) have to suffer. Furthermore, he reflects on how the stock market sell-off indicates real concerns about the global economy and in an unusual moment for the author of the Gloom, Boom, and Doom report, believes the Fed was right (but only in so much as they limited the scope of Operation Twist).
Part 1. Choice Quotes include:
You don't need the Fed to tell you that something is wrong.
- ...at least this time around, Mr. Bernanke did the right thing [...and...] what they said yesterday is better than what they've said for the last 12 years.
- ...if the S&P drops to around 900-950, we'll get QE3 for sure...
I'm not selling my gold because I think in the long run, they will print money.
Operation Dumber
By Chris Mayer - DailyReckoning.com
09/23/11 Gaithersburg, Maryland – It’s a plan so dumb you have to have to Ph.D. to believe it will do any good. Quantitative easing was dumb. This is dumber.
They are calling it Operation Twist. The Federal Reserve will buy $400 billion of long-dated Treasuries, financed by selling bonds with three years to go or less. The idea is to try to drive long-term rates lower, which the Fed thinks will help the mortgage market.
The Fed unveiled its crackpot scheme on Wednesday and the market quickly registered a firm opinion, as you see in the daily chart of the S&P500:
Keiser Report: Cultural Fragging! (E188)
The Greek tragedy: no money, no hope
Despairing middle classes could be the biggest threat to Greece's future, writes Paul Mason in Athens.
By Paul Mason, BBC Newsnight's Economics Editor, Athens - Telegraph.co.uk
Dmitris Andreou made the last sale out of his small estate agents business in June. His wife Mary, makes her living preparing high-school students for English exams.
But her living has dried up. Their savings are exhausted, their disposable income has dropped by about 50 per cent in two years, and they are angry.
"Some days we only buy the basics and a few days lately we were not able to buy even those. We have to count our cents to decide between buying bread, milk or butter," says Mary.
"Some days are better, but some are difficult. We don't buy clothes any more. People don't go out. There is simply no money around out there."
Shutdown looms: Spotlight now on Senate
after Boehner wrangled House GOP votes
By Rosalind S. Helderman and Paul Kane - WashingtonPost.com
With time running out, Congress returns Monday to try to pass a short-term funding measure to avert a government shutdown and avoid yet another market-rattling showdown over the federal budget.
The Democratic-led Senate, which on Friday blocked a GOP House measure to fund the government through Nov. 18, will vote late Monday on its own version of the bill.
The Senate bill includes dollars for disaster relief without an offsetting spending cut elsewhere that the House GOP demands.
Reid to GOP: Work Through Weekend on Budget
CME again raises trade margins for gold, silver futures
CHICAGO (Commodity Online): The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group announced hikes in margin requirements for some gold, Silver and Copper futures contracts.
In a statement, CME said initial requirements for gold's benchmark contract rose 21% to $11,475 per contract, from $9,450 and maintenance margins climbed to $8,500 from $7,000 per contract.
Margins are money investors must put up to be able to trade and hold futures contracts.
In silver, speculative traders must put up $24,875 to trade a 5,000-ounce contract. The cost to hold a contract overnight was lifted to $18,500.
Gold Liquidations Open Thread
Submitted by Tyler Durden- ZeroHedge.com
Update: Yep - it was a leak of a margin hike as just confirmed. Which may very well mean nobody actually had to liquidate, just the herd thundered, as it always does, in the wrong diraction. Expect gold to actually rise on this news.
Everyone knew they were coming... Just not when. Now that the gold liquidation frenzy has struck we still don't know much if anything: who was it, why, and where did the money go? Some rumors have it as a bank in Central, Eastern Europe unwinding massive PM positions, which if true is paradoxically bullish for gold and silver as reported previously, as it means the already tight liquidity situation in Europe is about to come to a head, possibly as soon as this weekend. Others speculate it was a plain vanilla satisfaction of collateral requirements by a big funds who may or may not be liquidating and who have sizable gold positions. Or, the simplest explanation, was it simply an expectation (and leak) of a gold margin hike? For all these questions and more, as well as to vent over anything and everything, use the following open thread.
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts -
Liquidation Panic - Martian Gold - Comex Hikes Margins
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
"Yesterday, the textbook was thrown out the window. All asset classes saw sudden and sharp moves far in excess of normal volatility patterns. To an old timer, that points to one conclusion. Liquidation. Wide-spread liquidation across asset classes. Currencies, bonds, commodities and stocks all moved swiftly and sharply in a direction that screamed - Seek safety! Raise cash! Get liquid...
All of that had a quick and discernible negative impact on markets. But, the selling was far more pervasive and dramatic than simply a conscious adjustment of positions based upon new data. Thursday’s action screamed liquidation - and not all of it voluntary." -- Art Cashin, 22 September 2011
"That day the U.S. announced that the dollar would be devalued by 10 percent. By switching the yen to a floating exchange rate, the Japanese currency appreciated, and a sufficient realignment in exchange rates was realized. Joint intervention in gold sales to prevent a steep rise in the price of gold, however, was not undertaken. That was a mistake."
-- Paul Volcker, Nikkei Weekly 2004
There was a major sell off in gold and silver today that was due in part to the liquidation of assets coming out of Europe. That is the basis of the quotation from Art Cashin, and he is right in what he says.
But while stocks and the dollar all paused today, gold and silver were hammered, and the selling looked to be more calculated than incidental as it has been throughout the week.
SILVER Manipulation Case Against JP Morgan:
Ned Naylor-Leyland: Keiser Report
Desperation on G-20 Island
RANTING ANDY – BabyBullTwits Blog
In many ways, I have to thank TPTB for their past decade of stupidity, although I’m quite irritated to not be at the gym again.
It is very hard to get ahead in the business world, and very rarely (in any aspect of life) can so few be privy to the "investment of a lifetime" before the masses arbitrage the opportunity away. I learned about gold and silver in May 2002, when I purchased my first shares of Newmont Mining at roughly $12/share (don’t own them anymore). It took just a few months of analysis to realize Precious Metals would be the greatest bull market of my lifetime, but I had to search long and hard to find the type of data I required, given that essentially NO ONE was writing about it.
Is Gold No Longer A Safe Haven?
Not According To Capital Economics:
"Gold Will Surge When Euro Crisis Escalates"
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/23/2011
Ben Bernanke Debt Ceiling default Greece Precious Metals Quantitative Easing Swiss National Bank Yen
With gold dropping $200 in the past several weeks on ongoing much anticipated liquidations to cover margin calls, there are those who have wondered if the precious metals have lost their safe haven luster? Well, no. All they have lost is some value against the dollar even as all other global currencies have fallen faster than even gold as was pointed out yesterday by Mike Krieger. In other words all that is happening is a relative devaluation of the DM currencies relative to the one absolute, and to the dollar as well. However, as the Swiss National Bank so aptly demonstrated, all it takes for a central bank to intervene drastically is for its currency to appreciate beyond reasonable parameters. Which is what is happening to the dollar, not due to some intrinsic value in the currency, because it is just a matter of months if not weeks before Bernanke is forced to print all over again. The only reason the USD is soaring is due to to a multi-trillion dollar funding shortage around the world but mostly in Europe, which the Fed hopes to satisfy with a massive expansion in FX swap lines which become activated on October 12 but not before. Either way, some of the more timid elements may be explainably rushing for cover to paraphrase Norville Barnes. Which is why we present the following report from Capital Economics which explains why "Gold still deserves "safe haven" status."
With Shades of 2008, Is This How the Gold Bull Market Ends
By Adrian Ash - BabyBullTwits Blog
LONDON (BullionVault) - PEOPLE THINK the gold price always goes up in a crisis, right until they find out it doesn’t. And the reason that this now feels so much like the Lehmans collapse of three years ago is that, looking at the numbers alone, you’d think it was autumn 2008.
Put silver to one side. Because with 60% of annual demand going to industry, the restless metal remains very exposed to the global economic downturn. Whereas gold, long term, tends to rise when other investments – shares, bonds, cash, real estate – fail to deliver.
Market Havoc & Denver Live Drills: Bob Chapman Reports 1/3
Market Havoc & Denver Live Drills: Bob Chapman Reports 2/3
Market Havoc & Denver Live Drills: Bob Chapman Reports 3/3
Here Comes FIATtackWatch:
Ben "Big Brother" Bernanke Goes Watergate,
Prepares To Eavesdrop On Everything Mentioning The Fed
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Two weeks ago, the media's heart went aflutter when it learned that the president had borrowed a page right out of ole' Joe McCarthy's communist witch hunt book with the launch of Attack Watch. The response by everyone, even fans of Obama, was immediate and brutal. Yet where Obama took about 24 hours to crash and burn, someone else has stepped in with a far stealthier method of ferreting out the traitors amongst us: none other than our old friends, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, which in a Request for Proposals filed to companies that are Fed vendors, is requesting the creation of a "Social Listening Platform" whose function is to "gather data from various social media outlets and news sources." It will "monitor billions of conversations and generate text analytics based on predefined criteria." The Fed's desired product should be able to "determine the sentiment [ED:LOL] of a speaker or writer with respect to some topic or document"... "The solution must be able to gather data from the primary social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums and YouTube. It should also be able to aggregate data from various media outlets such as: CNN, WSJ, Factiva etc." Most importantly, the "Listening Platform" should be able to "Handle crisis situations, Continuously monitor conversations, and Identify and reach out to key bloggers and influencers." Said otherwise, the Fed has just entered the counterespionage era and will be monitoring everything written about it anywhere in the world.
Commodities crash on dollar gains,
Jim Rogers says US dollar no safe haven
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): The commodities complex has crashed in the weekend as policy makers run out of options to avert another global recession and US dollar gained strength folliwng the US Fed announcing an Operation Twist. This $400 bn program will sell short-term notes to fund purchase of longer-dated Treasury's.
Investment wizard Jim Rogers pointed out that US dollar is going higher against major currencies but it cannot be called a safe haven. For some reasons, investors are rushing into the dollar.
Fiat Currency Crisis Commenced this Month
By Ranting Andy - BabyBullTwits Blog
RANTING ANDY – This week’s stock market collapse, set off by THE FEDERAL RESERVE’s ongoing reckless actions, is proof positive the TITANIC MOMENT I referenced this morning has been reached. No longer will OFFICIAL policy responses work AT ALL, and each day that passes the collective bankruptcy of the ENTIRE WESTERN BANKING SYSTEM will be exposed further to the light. Central Banks and politicians alike will propose exponentially more dangerous “solutions” to the problem, all of which will have the opposite effect, and NO LONGER will the unemployed and starving keep quiet while the welfare system melts down in front of them.
The system is not DYING, it is DEAD.
Markets React to the Fed's Newest Form of Intervention
By Joel Bowman - DailyReckoning.com
09/23/11 Buenos Aires, Argentina – Confidence down. Stocks downer. Gold downest.
Gold, as Fellow Reckoners have no doubt observed, is off big time today. The Midas metal has tumbled almost $100 in the past 24 hours. As of this writing, an ounce trades for about $1,638… although that figure is likely to be outdated by the time you read this. For perspective, the $1,650 mark was celebrated as an all-time nominal high just a month and a half ago. What a change six weeks can make.
Stocks, similarly, are suffering. The Dow has shed almost 800 points this week; 650 of them since B.S. Bernanke and the Fed announced its Operation Twist program a couple of days ago.
So, what’s happened? It’s more of the same from the Fed, right? Why the long face? Was it because it wasn’t enough of more of the same?
California Democratic Party among Solyndra's creditors
By Jim McElhatton-The Washington Times
Out of the hundreds of out-of-work employees, vendors, investors and other creditors in the bankruptcy of government-backed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, one name stands out: the California Democratic Party.
Why California Democrats would be creditor to a company that received more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans to build a solar-panel plant isn't clear. Even party officials say they’re not sure.
The California Democratic Party’s communications director, Tenoch Flores, said the organization was not owed "any funds in any form" by the California-based company. He said he was unclear why the partywould be listed as a creditor in Solyndra’s bankruptcy filing.
80 arrested as 'Occupy Wall Street'
protest of bank bailouts, mortgage crisis marches in NYC
By AP - WashingtonPost.com
NEW YORK — About 80 people were arrested Saturday as demonstrators who were camped out near the New York Stock Exchange marched through lower Manhattan, police said.
The "Occupy Wall Street" protest is entering its second week. Demonstrators said Saturday they were protesting against bank bailouts and the mortgage crisis; some also held signs decrying Georgia's execution of Troy Davis, who was put to death Wednesday for the 1989 slaying of an off-duty Savannah police officer.
At Manhattan’s Union Square, police tried to corral the demonstrators using orange plastic netting. Some of the arrests were filmed and activists posted the videos online. One video appears to show officers using pepper spray on women who already were cordoned off; another shows officers handcuffing a man after pulling him up off the ground, blood trickling down his face.
Will the Fed's New Policies Revitalize the Housing Market?
New refinancing activity and additional sales could help to strengthen the economic recovery
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
Congress is gridlocked, consumers are pessimistic, and firms are barely hiring. To speed this recovery up -- or to prevent a double dip -- it might be up to the Federal Reserve. Last week it announced its latest attemptto revitalize the economy. Its chief target appears to be the still anemic housing market. Will the new policies work?
The Fed's Plan
The central bank will take two different actions meant to jumpstart the economy. First, there's "Operation Twist." The Fed will attempt to push down long-term interest rates by purchasing $400 billion in Treasury securities with six to 30 year terms. The program will last for nine months -- through June 2012.
Mortgage refinancing? Not for these 2.3 million homeowners.
Mortgage refinancing would have benefited them last year, Fed study says. But 2.3 million either were 'underwater' or didn't have credit scores to qualify for mortgage refinancing.
By Derek Kravitz, AP - CSMonitor.com
WASHINGTON
About 2.3 million homeowners could have refinanced their mortgages last year if they didn't owe more than their homes were worth or if lending standards weren't so strict, according to a Federal Reserve study released Thursday.
Long-term mortgage rates are near record lows and have been below 5 percent for all but two weeks this year. The average rate on a 30-year fixed loan is now 4.09 percent.
But lenders typically require homeowners to have equity in their homes to refinance. And many lenders are approving only borrowers with high credit scores.
Recession’s aftershocks take toll on middle class
Families give in to government aid
By Luke Rosiak-The Washington Times
Years after the recession’s peak, its effects caught up to middle-class residents initially insulated from its wrath. More people who still have jobs, even full time, are toiling without health insurance, and families whose savings carried them through months of hard times have been reluctantly applying for food stamps.
Year-over-year census figures released Thursday detail a population being pulled apart by opposing forces during the aftershocks of a recession. Rent is higher while homes are worth less. Household income decreased in 35 states last year and increased in none, yet many expenses have gone up.
The 10 States Losing the Most Jobs to China
Douglas A. McIntyre, Ashley C. Allen, Michael B. Sauter, and Charles B. Stockdale, editors of 24/7 Wall St. - TheAtlantic.com
China is stealing American jobs. Labor unions, politicians and economists have used this accusation for some time. The logic is simple. While a manufacturing job in the U.S. may pay $50 an hour, when salary and benefits are factored in, Chinese factory laborers make little more than a few hundred dollars a month.
With American companies moving operations to China and international companies preferring the cheaper Chinese-made goods, the Economic Policy Institute found the U.S. lost 2.8 million jobs to China in the past decade. While all states have been affected, 24/7 Wall St. looked at the ten states that lost the most jobs to China.
1 CALIFORNIA
2 TEXAS
3 NEW YORK
4 ILLINOIS
5 FLORIDA
6 NORTH CAROLINA
7 PENNSYLVANIA
8 OHIO
9 MASSACHUSETTS
10 GEORGIA
Obama Medicare reforms on margins
Plan limits provider reimbursements, but falls short of necessary overhaul
By Paige Winfield Cunningham - The Washington Times
President Obama proposed enough health care savings in his debt plan last week to delay Medicare’s looming insolvency by three years, but stopped short of the major reforms all sides say are needed to shore up the program for the long term - and mostly ignored the changes his own deficit commission suggested last year.
Instead, he proposed limits to reimbursements for drug companies and long-term-care providers as a way of sweating more savings out of the bureaucracy, while hinting at the outlines of a broader deal to cut benefits themselves if Republicans in exchange would embrace tax increases.
Obamacare HHS rule
would give government everybody’s health records
By: Rep. Tim Huelskamp - WashingtonExaminer.com
It’s been said a thousand times: Congress had to pass President Obama’s health care law in order to find out what’s in it. But, despite the repetitiveness, the level of shock from each new discovery never seems to recede.
This time, America is learning about the federal government’s plan to collect and aggregate confidential patient records for every one of us.
In a proposed rule from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal government is demanding insurance companies submit detailed health care information about their patients.
Is the Window Closing on Israel?
by Patrick J. Buchanan - LewRockwell.com
In June 1967, with ex-Vice President Richard Nixon, this writer toured an Israeli military hospital full of wounded Egyptian soldiers.
An Israeli officer told us that in the hospital was an Egyptian officer he had captured in the 1956 Sinai campaign, and that he had asked the Egyptian: "We have fought three times now, and three times you have been defeated. Why do you keep fighting us?"
The Egyptian replied, "You may have defeated us three times, and you may defeat us 11 times. But the 12th time we win."
From that Six-Day War, wise Israelis took away two lessons.
First, they had to remain alert and strong enough to defeat all their neighbors at once. Second, the more important struggle was that they must win the acceptance of the Arab peoples to survive in an Arab sea.
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