My early morning reads:
• Big Long Is New ‘Big Short’ as Bass Joins Subprime Bet (Bloomberg)
• The Letter: Hedgies’ tool of choice (Alphaville) see also Hedge fund managers looked to tech in 4th quarter (Reuters)
• The low number of new highs: Fewer stocks hit 52-week highs (Marketwatch)
• The Secret Meeting That Launched the Federal Reserve (Echos)
• Sentiment Survey (American Association of Individual Investor)
• Paul Volcker vs. the Bank of Canada (Economix) see also JPMorgan, HSBC Among Firms Accused by Informant Bank in Canada Libor Case (Bloomberg)
• Number crunchers are dead set on figuring out how long you will live. For those saving for retirement, it’s the $27 trillion question. (Smart Money)
• The Mystery of the Millionaire Metaphysician (Slate) see also Does the rebound effect matter for policy? (Grist)
• The Prophets of Linsanity (Businessweek)
• Your address book is mine: Many iPhone apps take your data (Ventrue Beat) see also Mobile Apps Take Data Without Permission (Bits)
What are you reading?
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Too Much Optimism Points to U.S. Stock Losses
Source: Bianco/Bloomberg
Category: Financial Press
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EARNS_GENERAL_MOTORS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
GM has record profit, gives $332m to employees in profit sharing checks:
GM said 47,500 blue-collar workers in the U.S. will get $7,000 profit-sharing checks in March. The checks are based on North American performance and are a record for the company.
US still waiting for price to rise before cashing in stock (needs to get to $53 bux/sh…currently half that)
Whistleblower says Citibank lied to FHA, hid defective mortgages
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-16/citigroup-whistle-blower-says-bank-s-brute-force-hid-bad-loans.html
Romer initially pushed for $1.8m crisis stimulus
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/14/escape-artist-noam-scheiber_n_1276998.html
Yuan appreciation goes unremarked
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/business/global/appreciation-in-chinas-currency-goes-largely-unnoted.html
Cognitive bias, like certain people thinking Obama raised taxes or banned oil drilling
Speaking of cognitive bias… leaked emails show payoffs to global warming ‘skeptics’ (propagandists)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/feb/15/leaked-heartland-institute-documents-climate-scepticism
oops, should be $1.8 Trillion crisis stimulus
Number crunchers are dead set on figuring out how long you will live.
While Average Lifespans Increase, 114 Remains A Stubborn And Mysterious Upper Bound. Why?
Ray Kurzweil predicts that in the coming decades the term “life expectancy” will become irrelevant. By then medical advances and nanotechnology will be such effective tools with which to repair our bodies as they break down with age it will be as simple as car repair, changing out old parts for new and getting us back on the road again. Indefinitely. Even without the breakthrough technologies that allow us to regrow organs or reprogram faulty genes technological advances are making their imprint on our longevity. But a puzzling part to the equation has emerged. While humans are in fact living longer lives on average, the oldest age that the oldest people reach seems to be stubbornly and oddly precisely cemented right at 114….
U.S., Afghans in Taliban Talks
Karzai Says Secret Three-Way Negotiations Over Peace Settlement Have Begun
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204792404577225593694847990.html
More “secrets talks” on the cover of the New York Times.
SUPREME IRONY – to comment on Venture Beat article about iPhone apps taking contact info – you have to use DISQUS – which requires you to agree to let it take your contacts from Yahoo etc.
Streeteye – thanks for whistleblower Citigroup link.
Why don’t they bar Citigroup from any federal housing or loan program for 3 years – as part of punishment. Cut ‘em off!
streeteye:
the guardian article has an update at the bottom noting that heartland claims the ’2012 Heartland Climate Strategy’ memo is a fake. There is considerable evidence that they are correct. They are not disputing the rest of the documents.
I am reserving judgment until that gets cleared up.
andrew revkin of the NYT has emailed them an apology for his premature posting:
http://blog.heartland.org/2012/02/andrew-revkin-finds-journalism-religion-after-posting-fraudulent-document/
Here come the banks again, selling derivatives in the cloke of CDs, all insured by our friendly FDIC. Is this the next big thing (to take the system down)??????
Derivative CDs Tempt Savers as Banks Reap Fees
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-15/derivative-based-cds-tempting-savers-as-fdic-backed-banks-garner-8-fees.html
My local bank tried to sell me some of this stuff. They had no idea what they were selling to widows and old people. Couldn’t answer the most basic questions about this stuff. Disgusting as far as I’m concerned. FDIC shouldn’t be insuring this kind of fee generating wild risk betting (not to worry the FDIC insures this stuff) , but the banksters are getting rich, so what do they care.
Iran handing out death sentences to web developers…
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/irans-deadly-cyber-police-indefinite-detention-and-execution-for-netizens/981?tag=nl.e539
Regarding the Jekyll Island link: is there anybody out there who can give me a concise and unbiased treatment for why the Central Bank of the United States must be a private institution?
One a side note, is there any relationship between the founding of the Fed and the most severe financial downturn in US history which happened less than 2 decades after this ‘solution’ was implemented?
Just asking…
uh-oh, check this out:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Feb-16/163449-beirut-river-mysteriously-runs-blood-red.ashx#ixzz1mZ2ISPOY
okay the last one was spoofy, but what about this (it’s all too real):
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/cradle-to-grave-commercialization-of-childhood_02162012
If you are gullible enuff to believe this, I’ve got some swamp land in illinois…
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-secret-service-chicago-cops-answer-g8-security-questions-at-business-forum-20120216,0,1908023.story
farmera1: WTF?
“A separate disclosure states that they also may earn zero, getting just their original principal back after the CD matures,” …courtesy of the FDIC, no doubt, should the asset underlying the CD go below par value.
Given the recent no-fault financial crash, is anyone surprised that the drivers would get behind the wheel again, this time setting their sights on the Middle Class’s remaining pools of assets?
Where, pray tell, can one buy tar, feathers, and a rail in this modern day and age?
So how do retail investors profit from news such as the ‘The Big Long’ (your 1st link) at Bloomberg? The article notes banks will not profit much and the same might go for home builders as well.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-16/u-s-house-panel-clears-bill-allowing-banks-insured-units-to-keep-swaps.html
if this bipartizan gutting of the Volcker Rule keeps up, Paul may ask it be renamed
I’ve been trying to find the reason for Colbert’s abrupt suspension of his show for at least the remainder of this week. Speculation among the posters on stories regarding the news are quite entertaining: one person said it was a conspiracy b/c CR was doing a 2-night story on the Maine caucus voter fraud.
WSJ says it’s a family issue.
Further on the Heartland brouhaha:
————-
Leak Offers Glimpse of Campaign Against Climate Science
….
In a statement, the Heartland Institute acknowledged that some of its internal documents had been stolen. But it said its president had not had time to read the versions being circulated on the Internet on Tuesday and Wednesday and was therefore not in a position to say whether they had been altered.
Heartland did declare one two-page document to be a forgery, although its tone and content closely matched that of other documents that the group did not dispute. In an apparent confirmation that much of the material, more than 100 pages, was authentic, the group apologized to donors whose names became public as a result of the leak.
…
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/science/earth/in-heartland-institute-leak-a-plan-to-discredit-climate-teaching.html
Banks could face MASSIVE penalties as Charles Schwab alleges violations of the RICO Act.
http://financeaddict.com/2012/02/banks-face-the-rico-act-in-libor-probe/
This is a factor worth considering in the longer-term housing market recovery. Pair this with deleveraging, Boomers retiring and stagnant median incomes and the American real estate market may be looking more Japanese than many are willing to consider:
Student Loans Near $1 Trillion Hurt Young U.S. Buyers: Mortgages
Bloomberg
By Bob Willis
Feb 15, 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-16/student-loans-approaching-1-trillion-hurting-first-time-buyers-mortgages.html
See Bill Black’s chat on the Foreclosure Settlement over at FireDogLake:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/did-felons-get-a-free-pass-in-the-financial-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-610554