Most of us are worried about job security, stagnant incomes, loss of pensions and benefits, lack of health insurance, home foreclosures. But the banksters are not most of us, and their worries are, well, on a different level. The big annual Versailles confab in Davos, Switzerland began this week, and some top banksters have told Bloomberg, "they think the biggest challenge for the industry is overcoming public anger about bonuses and compensation." Read more.
Leaders of some of the world’s biggest banks met today on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to plot ways to reassert their influence with regulators and governments.
Initial weekly unemployment claims, ending January 23rd are out.
In the week ending Jan. 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 470,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 478,000. The 4-week moving average was 456,250, an increase of 9,500 from the previous week's revised average of 446,750.
As usual last week's number of 482,000 was revised, but this time downward by 4,000.
Look at these graphs. First is just this recession period.
This is disgusting. Since Congress wouldn't back off of the Buy American clauses, weak as they were, in the first stimulus bill (ARRA), the Obama administration is going to destroy those requirements via executive order.
Since Mr. Obama cannot rely on Congress to pass legislation exempting Canada from Buy American provisions, the complicated deal will rely on the President using his executive power to treat sectors of the Canadian economy as American, by claiming supply chains are so integrated they cannot be separated.
Durable goods new orders is flat lined for yet another month, at a 0.3% increase since last month. The big news is the November new orders for durable goods was revised, now at a -0.4% decline, but when reported it was a 0.2% increase. So, this makes this months numbers look better but really this isn't a strong report.
I mean look at this graph since the start of the official recession:
Obama put forth some elements of a second jobs bill. With that, I strongly suggest all those who were disappointed, disgusted with the first Stimulus, start right now pushing for legislation we need.
Take $30 billion of the [TARP] money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit [Subsidized Small Business Loans].
Small Business tax credit - one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages
Eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment
Tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is holding a hearing today, The Federal Bail Out of AIG.
All prepared statements are at the above link. The hearing has testimony from:
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
Former Treasury Secretary Mr. Henry Paulson
SIGTARP Inspector General Mr. Neil Barofsky
Executive VP and NY Fed General Council Mr. Thomas Baxter
Senior VP and AIG CFO Mr. Elias Habayeb
Former NY Fed Chairman of Board of Governers Mr. Stephen Friedman
I'm still swimming through mountains of documents and tons of verbiage, but I will sum up what I do not know so far.
Firstly, it seems that when it comes to figuring out who precisely gave the go ahead for the 100% AIG counterparty payouts, magically top officials were not involved.
The flight to safety is reaching fever pitch again.
(Bloomberg) -- Treasury one-month bill rates turned negative for the first time in 10 months, as issuance declines while investors seek the most easily-traded securities amid a renewal of risk aversion.
The rate on the four-week security dropped to negative 0.0101 percent, the lowest since it reached negative 0.015 percent on March 26. The Treasury sold $10 billion of four-week bills on Jan. 26 at a rate of zero percent, the second auction of the securities in three weeks at zero percent. Winning bidders will receive no interest on their investment.
Why is this happening? What are the markets afraid of?
The Huffington Post is reporting there is a potential smoking gun on Bernanke.
Bernanke overruled his staff advising him to not bail out AIG.
A Republican senator said Tuesday that documents showing Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernake covered up the fact that his staff recommended he not bailout AIG are being kept from the public. And a House Republican charged that a whistleblower had alerted Congress to specific documents provide "troubling details" of Bernanke's role in the AIG bailout.
Below is the CNBC interview with Sen. Bunning (R-KY):
The actual Black Rock presentation which proves Goldman Sachs was willing to take a hair cut on AIG CDS payouts is online.
The document availability is by the good graces of Zero Hedge, who I also highly recommend reading their analysis and details on the ongoing AIG payout saga. Here are some of their BlackRock presentation document conclusions on Goldman Sachs:
Most people probably think of Social Security as a retirement system, which it is in part. But at the same time it is also a welfare system, which explains why the retirement part is so minimal as compared to actuarially based pension systems. That is, the welfare aspect costs money, to the detriment of the retirement aspect.
My aim is to flesh out the details of this a bit. My source of data is the official website of the Social Security Administration: www.socialsecurity.gov.
ELEMENTS OF THE WELFARE ASPECT
1. SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and Disability
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