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That’s it for me. Have a great couple of weeks, and I’ll see you on the flip side.
• UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon admits that Syria has not complied with the UN-prescribed peace plan or the cease-fire.
• Yves Smith rounds up George Zornick’s Nation report on the securitization fraud task force, and how it confirmed what he was trying to rebut. I think RJ Eskow is on the right track here.
• Here’s a beat sweetener with Joseph Smith, the foreclosure fraud settlement enforcement monitor, who’s in just an impossible position, given the terms of the deal.
• Bank of America earnings fell relative to last month. Matt Taibbi has more on the dark clouds for the banking industry.
• The other show may be dropping for the recovery. First-time unemployment claims hit a four-month high, and existing home sales actually fell. Recovery winter is turning into a stalled spring.
• More on the shareholder activism surge, which is really a hopeful sign. I love that they’re calling on Evan Bayh’s wife to resign from WellPoint.
• Competitive bidding is working on Medicare equipment, at least, lowering prices without a loss in quality.
• I actually have a lot to say on this story from Kevin Drum but I’ve run out of time. Let me just sum up by saying that, whenever I hear the implication from Democratic establishmentarians that public attitudes are simply fixed, static and immutable, and that Democrats should just cede the playing field on those policies, I wonder how small the patch of grass Democrats actually bother to defend will be in the future.
• ALEC “sharpening its focus” on economic issues is bad news for anyone not rich enough to, for example, pay 750% more for high speed Internet. So good for the liberal coalition to continue forcing the underwriting corporations out. The latest is the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.
• DiFi’s always been decent on gun control. Good for her for putting a hold on these NRA bills.
• At least Florida Republicans got to humiliate the unemployed for a while, so the drug testing wasn’t a total loss.
• Good piece from Jared Bernstein on how slashing the corporate tax rate would add approximately no net gain in economic growth.
• Maneuvering in California to get some decent foreclosure mitigation bills past a right-wing Democrat on the banking committee in the state legislature.
• Perhaps there’s an explanation, but this looks like straight-up shilling for the Massachusetts medical device industry from Elizabeth Warren.
• China tantalizes with some modest currency shifts. They do this every time they feel pressured.
• The drone campaign in Yemen is a huge story I hope will play out over the weeks I’m away. The Administration isn’t even bothering with minimizing collateral damage anymore.
• Soledad O’Brien’s going to take some blowback for this interview with Allen West, but I have to hand it to her for not letting go.
• Anti-Semitism in the House GOP? Someone give Eric Cantor a wire.
• Paul Ryan likes to claim that anyone criticizing him or his policies must be lying. They can’t actually mean it.
• What if the hunt for Joseph Kony ends up imperiling a bunch of Ugandans?
• Months later, we finally have a casualty in the UC Davis pepper spray incident.
• Let me just say on Cookie-gate that my wife is from Bethel Park, and our wedding cake came from Bethel Bakery. Romney must have no actual taste buds if he thinks those aren’t good cookies; Bethel Bakery is amazing. Of course, cyborgs are often built without the sense of taste.
• RIP Greg Ham, the flautist from Men at Work, found dead in his home in Australia…. and Levon Helm, who finally passed today. He was one of the greats.
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Ban Ki-moon reads his Washington-written lines well. Lots of criticism of Syria’s noncompliance and no mention of the Free Syria Army’s noncompliance, in fact no mention of the FSA whatsoever. Has the FSA laid down its arms and ceased its armed rebellion against the government?
Mar 2011
Civilian noninstitutional population 239,000
Civilian labor force 153,392
Participation rate 64.2
Mar 2012
Civilian noninstitutional population 242,604
Civilian labor force 154,707
Participation rate 63.7
Spain Is Doomed: Why Austerity Is Destroying Europe
… but the beatings will continue until bond yields improve!
LINK.
The Next Global Crash: Why You Should Fear the Commodities Bubble
“Oil, wheat, and platinum used to be sold primarily as raw materials, and now they are sold largely as speculative investments. Copper is piling up in bonded warehouses not because the owners plan to use it to make wire, but because speculators are sitting on it, like gold, figuring that they can sell it one day for a huge profit. Daily trading in oil now dwarfs daily consumption of oil, running up prices. While rising prices for stocks–tech ones included–generally boost the economy, high prices for staples like oil impose unavoidable costs on businesses and consumers and act as a profound drag on the economy.
. . .
The strongest common thread connecting the dotcom and commodity.com eras is the fundamental driver of all manias: the invention of “new paradigms” to justify irrationally high prices. We heard all sorts of exotic rationales at the height of the dotcom boom, when analysts offered gushy explanations for why a company with no profits, a sketchy business plan, and a cute name should trade at astronomical prices. [ . . . ] When the rapture is over, the nations and companies that have been living high off commodities will also share the sinking feeling that followed the dotcom boom.”
LINK.
Nausea meters are exploding as the dog-on-the-roof “explanations” continue.
Looks like I might be banished from the ‘news’ fatster as I’ve now posted a ‘reply’ about the Elizabeth Warren news item 4 times that has yet to see the ‘light of day’; maybe because I said that the ACA is a ‘shill’ pushed by a corporate whore.
Well, preview works but submit comment disappears.
Maybe there’s some glitch with the link button; anyway look up HIFU ; it’s a device for treatment of prostate cancer made by a company in Indiana that can’t get the FDA to license it here in the U.S. because of the FDA ‘procedures’; addresses the impotence and incontinence associated with traditional treatment.
Am I on the right track here, ubetchaiam? Sounds promising–surely hope so.
Just one more shameful chapter in the Bush-Cheney Middle East invasion:
“Two men [Uighurs] from western China who have been held for nearly a decade without charge at the Guantanamo Bay prison amid a diplomatic struggle to find them homes, have been resettled in El Salvador, the U.S. military and lawyers for the men said Thursday.”
And this isn’t over yet, because three Uighurs still remain at Guantanamo.
More.
This is becoming quite an international concern. They’ve even got Hillary Clinton involved in it now.
YPF oil: Spain prepares response to Argentina
Spain says it is rallying international support against Argentina’s nationalisation of the oil firm, YPF.
LINK.
have you heard Webster Tarpley on this?
very interesting.
http://tarpley.net/world-crisis-radio/
Yup; friend of mine -after hocking his future- just got back from having the procedure done in Bermuda to the cost of $25K. He felt that was preferable to dying from the cancer which had progressed significantly and his research with others who went the traditional route and ended up impotent or incontinent or both made the decision for him.
look for the website international HIFU for more info.
clearing the deck by Obama, cause they have offered to send a young Canadian that they have held since 2002 home. His lordship wants to empty out guantanamo I think.
Omar Khadr.
And China had expressed interest in buying YPF before the nationalization.
Difi good on gun control issues?
You mean hypocrite on gun control, right?
This is a lady who:
a) Has a concealed weapons carry permit for herself but wants to deny them to others;
b) Once made a great show of turning in her personal gun to the SF police chief at a news conference. Only problems? She retained her carry permit, AND at the time had a police officer armed with a fuly authomatic Uzi submachine gun assinged to her 24/7 as her bodyguard.
she appears to be the secretary of state for oil.
“Clearly the Obama Administration is not at all neutral about the new Greek oil and gas discoveries. Three days after Hillary left Athens the Greek government proposed creation of a new government agency to run tenders for oil and gas surveys and ultimate drilling bids.”
and much more, by F. William Engdahl
http://www.voltairenet.org/Rising-energy-tensions-in-the
And, of course, we’re all flabbergasted to learn the GOP is way over-represented on those Sunday morning teevee shows.
“Single-source interviews are the showcase segments on the Sunday shows, which tend to compete for access to guests they consider the top newsmakers—which, in the world of Beltway media, usually means politicians. In the eight-month study period, partisan-affiliated one-on-one interviews were 70 percent Republican—166 guests to Democrats’ 70.
. . .
“Men overwhelmingly dominated one-on-one interviews, at 86 percent: 228 male guests compared to 36 women. Meet the Press featured the fewest women, with just six female interviewees—three of whom were Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.), the presidential candidate. ”
More.
The idiots are doing this because they didn’t realize there was a difference between an embryo and a fetus when they passed the earlier measure in their on-going War on Women.
TN House votes to allow criminal prosecution for harming embryos
House bill would extend last year’s fetus-protection law to earlier stages of development More.
As David pointed out, Yum! Brand, the owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, has pulled out of ALEC, too. I’ve been trying to keep count. Please correct me if there are any omissions: Yum! Brands, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, McDonald’s, Intuit, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft Foods, Mars Inc., Arizona Public Service, Wendy’s, Reed Elsevier, American Traffic Solutions. Thnx.
DDay, have a great vacation. You earned it. Look forward to your return.
Congresscritters are supposed to “grill” Napolitano next week about the Secret Service imbroglio in Colombia. Meanwhile, the prostitute/escort involved has claimed they promised to pay her $800, but then offered only $30. And one of the SS supervisors who is no longer with the service, bragged on Facebook about “protecting” Sarah Palin and “really checking her out”.
Sheesh.
FDA is pretty careful. I usually give FDA the benefit of doubt when they are slow approving new stuff.
I’m 64 and recall the Thalidomide sedative disaster in the1960s. The Feds were roundly criticized then for not allowing it in the US. Europe enjoyed having it for about nine months until the severe birth defects began appearing. It was awful.
Nationalization is a traditional cottage industry in Argentina. So be it, if it works. I’d bet it doesn’t this time, and Kirchner will find out after a lot of damage has occurred. WSJ has had good coverage of this for quite awhile. Odd that Hillary’s in it now.
True enough, but big deal. None of the Sunday talking heads ever says anything revealing, new, or interesting. It always seems the same scripted pap from before.
I’m 65 and also remember thalidomide but this -the Warren link David thought was a shill- is about medical devices, not drugs. And while the FDA approved a trial of the device for men with recurring prostate cancer -meaning traditional treatment was unsuccessful- it won’t approve a trial for those who haven’t recurrent prostate cancer. And any treatment that minimizes the impotence and incontinence associated with traditional treatment of prostate cancer OUGHT to be given a priority. Especially when the maker of the device is a U.S. company.
And the real issue is what Repsol thinks YPF is worth,e.g. $18B. Look for this to be settled at a lower amount.
According to the WSJ. Spain’s bank and construction sectors will be particularly affected by Argentina’s action, and Mexico is involved, too, compounding concern about this. Couldn’t access more info due to the paywall.
Seniors get the TSA runaround, lose $300
Both in wheelchairs, both subjected to “extreme pat-downs”, both required to put their cash in a bin–and, then, their $300 disappeared.
LINK.