Some morning reads:
• Ben Bernanke is just doing his job, folks (Fortune) see also Bernanke, as Professor, Tries to Buff Fed’s Image (NYT)
• Greece on the breadline: cashless currency takes off (Guardian)
• Vital Signs: Home Construction (WSJ) see also Surprise — we might actually begin meaningful housing reform this year (Reuters)
• Best & Worst Corporate Cash Managers: Unstashing the Cash (Institutional Investor)
• Banks Seek Delay on ‘Volcker Rule’ (WSJ) see also Insider-Trading Curbs on Congress Advancing (WSJ)
• Greece’s Disgraceful Debt Default Amidst Calls to “Euthanize” Bondholders (Forbes)
• Competing with Apple: ‘Great products may not even be necessary’ (Fortune) see also Seeking Apple Hints In Microsoft’s Past (WSJ)
• Of Muppets and Manhattan (City Journal)
• EMC gets it: big data needs apps, too (Gigaom) see also Amazon Wrings Profit From Fulfillment as Spending Soars (Bloomberg)
• The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs (Harvard Business Review)
What are you reading?
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BofA Can’t Shake the Capital Question
Source: WSJ
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.
good piece on the composition of foreclosures at the beginning of the financial crisis and now…
http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2012/03/the-changing-face-of-foreclosures.html
Reading fascinating discussion of Japanese Model vs. Swedish Model for handling financial crisis:
http://www.tyillc.blogspot.com/2012/03/under-japanese-model-repealing.html
Executive order – National defense resources preparedness
“Last Friday, with little publicity, President Obama signed a national preparedness executive order that gives USG cabinet agencies the ability to exercise total control over what are essentially all the resources of the USA. Most attributed this order to preparations with possible conflict with Iran, or creeping dictatorship — the order specifies wartime “or other emergency”.
“In my humble opinion, though, this could also be the USG’s way of telling us that it knows Peak Oil has arrived, and that the age of energy and resource scarcity has officially begun. It would be great to have some commentary by one of your community of writers put something up on the Energy Bulletin about this.”
http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-03-21/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness
Are we “Muppets” or Mushrooms ?????
I keep forgetting which.
John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil (almost) says “Peak oil”
Saudi Oil Supply Claim Unlikely, Hofmeister Says
“the real problem we are facing right now is that global demand is growing and yet the major oil producers are not able to increase production…”
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/88714670/
this
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/5-worst-things-customer-181726583.html
is the main reason people think that customer service is dead
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/the-road-weve-traveled-a-misleading-account-of-obamas-mother-and-her-insurance-dispute/2012/03/18/gIQAdDd4KS_blog.html
in general, i am not a big fan of the ‘fact checker’ genre, but this one claims that obama’s characterizations of his mom’s experiences with health insurance – used often in his 2008 campaign and the healthcare debate – were at best misleading.
February Architecture Index for New Project Inquires Reaches the Highest Level Since July 2007
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/03/february-architecture-index-for-new.html
Barry – lots of recent press about Bernanke’s Fed doing a great job managing the aftermath – what about the Fed’s malfeasance with respect to their regulatory oversight responsbilities? I know you championed that position in blog posts and in Bailout Nation, but the mainstream media has a much shorter memory. Thoughts?
new GOP budget plan requires a miracle to occur
There’s an important disclaimer in the very first paragraph of the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of Paul Ryan’s budget plan.
The calculations presented here represent CBO’s assessment of how the specified paths would alter the trajectories of federal debt, revenues, spending, and economic output relative to the trajectories under two scenarios that CBO has analyzed previously. Those calculations do not represent a cost estimate for legislation or an analysis of the effects of any given policies. In particular, CBO has not considered whether the specified paths are consistent with the policy proposals or budget figures released today by Chairman Ryan as part of his proposed budget resolution.
and what are those rules?
Ryan tells CBO to assume his tax plan will raise revenues to 19 percent of GDP and then hold them there. He tells them to assume his Medicare plan will hold cost growth in Medicare to GDP+0.5 percentage points. He tells them to assume that spending on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program won’t grow any faster than inflation. He tells them to assume that all federal spending aside from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will fall from 12.5 percent of GDP in 2011 to 3.75 percent of GDP in 2050.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-unrealistic-assumptions-behind-paul-ryans-budget-numbers/2011/08/25/gIQAEZrePS_blog.html
Dallas Fed – Why We Must End Too Big To Fail — Now
http://dallasfed.org/assets/documents/fed/annual/2011/ar11.pdf
Why they can’t boot Greece out of Europe -
http://blogs.ft.com/the-a-list/2012/03/21/greece-could-replace-syria-as-russias-mediterranean-friend/#axzz1plva0X00
Jeb Bush Backs Romney and Urges End to G.O.P. Battle
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/jeb-bush-endorses-romney
Tea Partiers, Right-to-Lifers, Small-Gov’t types etc… Thank you for your loud, raucous, less-that-factual rabble-rousing… now shut up and follow the rich elites of Wall Street or we won’t let you be Republicans any more.
“Greece’s Disgraceful Debt Default Amidst Calls to “Euthanize” Bondholders” left me holding my sides with laughter.
Thanks for that.
Stocks Offer Best Opportunity in a Lifetime: Goldman Sachs
http://www.cnbc.com/id/46808343
They must have a lot of inventory on Sesame Street.
Afghan Shooter Was Penny-Stock Cold-Caller for Mob-Linked Firm
By Gary WeissColumnist | TheStreet.com
March 21, 2012
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Robert Bales, accused killer of 16 Afghan civilians, at one time had ambitions to become a Wall Street Master of the Universe the old-fashioned way: by ripping off the public, working alongside Mob-linked stockbrokers.
It’s not clear to what extent Bales’ life was influenced by his days as a stockbroker for marginal-to-sleazy brokerages in Florida and Ohio. But it must have been significant, because he spent four years in the armpit of the securities industry.
…
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/afghan-shooter-penny-stock-cold-105247653.html?l=1
more on that anti investor bill
http://baselinescenario.com/2012/03/21/jobs-disaster-looms/
drill,baby,drill won’t lower gas prices. and the history of gas prices show that to be true
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2017801703_apusdrillnowfactcheck.html?syndication=rss
Romney Aid says the entire Republican primary season they can Etch-A-Sketch and redo
There is no reason to doubt Romney’s clearly-articulated philosophy, the Tea Partiers, Libertarians, Rock-Ribbed Conservatives should give Mitt their 100% support.
This was simply a comment about a toy, a children’s toy… and where do you find children? In FAMILIES! Some might say we don’t need families in this once-great nation. Mitt Romney’s here to tell you that when he’s in the White House Families will come first, …yes, even ahead of Key-stone-hating contraception users.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/romney-aide-cites-etch-a-sketch-pivot
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/romney-aide-cites-etch-a-sketch-pivot/?partner=rss&emc=rss
seems like high oil (gas) prices aren’t even covered right in the media
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/316899/20120320/media-coverage-gas-prices-bias.htm