"A source provides me with this internal advisory put out by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. Always be on your toes when 'simulations' are scheduled. Remember, simulation drills were on going at the time of 9-11 and also at the Boston Marathon bombing." Continue reading →
"It appears that the bulk of the bonds that Japanese investors sold in May were US Treasurys and the roughly $30 billion were a record amount. This follows the $15.5 billion sales in April. May was the fifth consecutive month Japanese investors have reduced their U.S. Treasury holdings and over this period sold about 8 trilion yen. The second-quarter selloff appears driven to a larger extent by worries about Fed tapering and its potential to push up global bond yields, they said. This is what is going to make it very difficult for the Fed to slow/stop buying Treasury securities. When they slow/stop, there will be even more upside pressure on rates, with very serious sellers." Continue reading →
"The US economy reached a turning point in the 1980s. Natural, healthy, sustainable growth gave way to credit-boosted phony growth. The 'growth' of the last 30 years was not like the growth of the 30 years before it. It was not based on rising productivity, increased wages and real capital formation. Wages stagnated. The only way people could increase their standards of living was by spending money they didn't have. That's where the credit came in, made possible by America's post-1971 flexible paper money system. Spending money you don't have is one of those things that economist Herb Stein had in mind when he said, 'When something can't go on forever, it will stop.'" Continue reading →
"David examines austerity and its effects on austerity and austerity austerity. Also, austerity is discussed briefly. A note on Reinhart-Rogoff: Who cares? The idea of fiscal responsibility wasn't created in a Harvard classroom three years ago. (a) we don't have austerity (b) two people messing up a spreadsheet doesn't somehow negate the laws of economics. Also, we've actually had deficit spending/stimulus. That's what demonstrably didn't work. But now that's seen as the solution once again because of a spreadsheet advocating a policy we don't follow? It's too insane to really think about." Continue reading →
"Lockheed Martin, Robert J. Stevens, $23.8 million; General Dynamics, Jay L. Johnson, $18.0 million; Northrop Grumman, Wesley G. Bush, $15.5 million; Alliant Techsystems, Mark W. DeYoung, $6.8 million; Exelis, David F. Melcher, $5.8 million; SAIC, John P. Jumper, $5.4 million." Continue reading →
"Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell (R) and his family received another unreported $120,000 from the head of a dietary supplement company he promoted, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. McDonnell and his family are already being investigated for allegedly accepting a $6,500 watch and $15,000 in catering costs for his daughter’s wedding from Star Scientific CEO Johnnie R. Williams, Sr. in exchange for his help urging state health officials to approve the company’s anti-inflammatory supplement as an option for Medicare recipients, despite not being federally approved. McDonnell has argued that the payment toward the catering expenses was a gift for his daughter." Continue reading →
"It was the competitive market that finally gave the product life, but first it had to struggle through an incredible array of barriers, from disincentives to monopoly grants to regulatory restrictions. What might have helped people at daily life since the 1940s took a half a century. Part of that time passage is inherent in the market process, but much of the rest of it was due to intervention. It was not science as such that made the difference. It was science given flight by market forces. At each stage of its development, the market was there, encouraging, prodding, guiding, and leading to the light, despite all odds." Continue reading →
"Lynne Stewart read a note to the press that was construed as exhorting Egyptian radicals to rise up and violently overthrow the Egyptian military dictatorship under Hosni Mubarak. She is now living the rest of her life in a federal penitentiary. Thus, the state of U.S. law is this: In principle, it’s okay to support the right of people to use force to resist tyranny. After all, that’s what the Declaration of Independence says, a document that Americans just celebrated on the Fourth of July. But in the minds of U.S. officials, by exhorting Egyptians to violently overthrow their tyrannical, U.S.-supported regime, Stewart was guilty of being a supporter of terrorism." Continue reading →
"Members of the Nuclear Regulation Authority voiced frustration at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), which has failed to identify the source and the cause of spiking readings of radioactive materials in groundwater. 'It is strongly suspected that highly concentrated contaminated waste water has leaked to the ground and has spread to the sea,' the authority said. The giant utility that services Tokyo and its surrounding regions has said groundwater samples taken at the battered Fukushima Daiichi plant on Tuesday showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134 were more than 110 times higher than they were on Friday." Continue reading →
"This week brought more bad news for Joshua Welch, the Baltimore-area second-grader who was suspended for two days because his teacher thought he shaped a breakfast pastry into something resembling a gun. School officials have denied an appeal to have the suspension expunged from the boy’s permanent record. Welch, who is now eight, was suspended from Park Elementary School for two days in March after he allegedly sculpted the pastry into something that maybe looked like a gun. At the time, Welch said that his goal was to turn the prefabricated delicacy into a mountain, but that didn’t really materialize." Continue reading →