Clusterstock

Clusterstock http://www.businessinsider.com/clusterstock en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:06:04 -0500 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:06:04 -0500 The latest news from Clusterstock http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-real-reason-theres-a-whisper-campaign-to-poleaxe-larry-summers-2010-1 Here's The Real Reason There's A Whisper Campaign To Poleaxe Larry Summers http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/YedxFhoMu9E/heres-the-real-reason-theres-a-whisper-campaign-to-poleaxe-larry-summers-2010-1 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:02:08 -0500 James Pethokoukis <p>A quick exit for Larry Summers? That’s the goal of an incipient whispering campaign within segments of his own party. Detractors of the superstar White House  economic adviser blame his deficit-phobia for a skimpy stimulus and resulting jobless recovery in the United States.</p> <p>Many Democrats fret that a toxic tandem of so-so economic growth and stubbornly high unemployment could cause huge losses in November’s midterm elections, perhaps even a loss of the House of Representatives. So let the Blame Game begin. In particular, an amalgam of influential liberal bloggers, <em>New York Times</em> columnist Paul Krugman, and even nervous White House and congressional politicos have concluded that the Obama administration erred in not pushing for a 50 percent larger stimulus plan than the $800 billion effort in early 2009 — or for a massive second dose of steroids since.</p> <h3><a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2010/01/06/the-campaign-against-larry-summers/"><strong>Read the whole story at Reuters.com -- ></strong></a></h3><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-real-reason-theres-a-whisper-campaign-to-poleaxe-larry-summers-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-buzz-grows-that-larry-summers-is-toast-2010-1">The Buzz Grows That Larry Summers Is Toast</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-summers-us-job-growth-will-start-this-spring-2009-12">Larry Summers: Job Growth Coming This Spring</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-derivatives-whistleblower-larry-summers-got-me-fired-2009-11">Harvard Derivatives Whistleblower: Larry Summers Got Me Fired</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Do9Aaa9QSFgSxjbR8yLeuV8yB_U/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Do9Aaa9QSFgSxjbR8yLeuV8yB_U/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Do9Aaa9QSFgSxjbR8yLeuV8yB_U/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Do9Aaa9QSFgSxjbR8yLeuV8yB_U/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=YedxFhoMu9E:jcylZVIMc0Y:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=YedxFhoMu9E:jcylZVIMc0Y:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=YedxFhoMu9E:jcylZVIMc0Y:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=YedxFhoMu9E:jcylZVIMc0Y:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=YedxFhoMu9E:jcylZVIMc0Y:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=YedxFhoMu9E:jcylZVIMc0Y:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=YedxFhoMu9E:jcylZVIMc0Y:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=YedxFhoMu9E:jcylZVIMc0Y:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=YedxFhoMu9E:jcylZVIMc0Y:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/YedxFhoMu9E" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-real-reason-theres-a-whisper-campaign-to-poleaxe-larry-summers-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/hedgie-tries-to-sell-a-wax-gorilla-nailed-to-a-cross-2010-1 Hedge Funder Michael Platt Is Trying To Sell A Wax Gorilla Nailed To A Cross http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/Qu8f7hOrEwM/hedgie-tries-to-sell-a-wax-gorilla-nailed-to-a-cross-2010-1 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:43:57 -0500 Courtney Comstock <p><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b44751c0000000000a9cbe9" border="0" alt="paul-fryer-wax-gorilla-AFP" /></p><p>This wax gorilla sculpture is a new work by Paul Fryer, and hedgie Michael Platt plans to try and sell it.</p> <p>For the past three years, the founder of BlueCrest Capital says he has sponsored Fryer and sold his works to collectors "like a modern-day Medici."</p> <p><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-05/bluecrest-s-platt-turns-grandma-s-advice-into-hedge-fund-gold.html">Business Week:</a></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">As he gazes at the ape -- intended to represent the desecration of nature -- Platt, 41, says, “The point is not to make money out of it; it’s to have fun. I’m not trying to make the art business my ticket out of the hedge fund world.”</p> <p>So he wouldn't quit BlueCrest, which has $16.7 billion under management, for a wax gorilla.</p> <p>Maybe what's really bizarre is that <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2009/10/16/2715824.htm">the wax gorilla is hanging in a church</a>, at the former Holy Trinity Church in London.</p> <p><em>Image credit: AFP</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hedgie-tries-to-sell-a-wax-gorilla-nailed-to-a-cross-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/are-we-wrong-about-the-suckiness-of-goldmans-lobby-art-2009-12"> Are We Wrong About The Suckiness Of Goldman’s Lobby Art?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/more-bad-news-about-goldmans-new-art-2009-12">More Bad News About Goldman's New Art</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-huge-night-at-the-art-auctions-as-sothebys-hits-one-year-high-2009-11">A HUGE Night At The Art Auctions, As Sotheby's Hits One-Year High</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3bISTt0Kl9wl0QlOFQ3B-H9yU1k/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3bISTt0Kl9wl0QlOFQ3B-H9yU1k/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3bISTt0Kl9wl0QlOFQ3B-H9yU1k/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/3bISTt0Kl9wl0QlOFQ3B-H9yU1k/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=Qu8f7hOrEwM:KtKNZeS2CBE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=Qu8f7hOrEwM:KtKNZeS2CBE:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=Qu8f7hOrEwM:KtKNZeS2CBE:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=Qu8f7hOrEwM:KtKNZeS2CBE:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=Qu8f7hOrEwM:KtKNZeS2CBE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=Qu8f7hOrEwM:KtKNZeS2CBE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=Qu8f7hOrEwM:KtKNZeS2CBE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=Qu8f7hOrEwM:KtKNZeS2CBE:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=Qu8f7hOrEwM:KtKNZeS2CBE:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/Qu8f7hOrEwM" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/hedgie-tries-to-sell-a-wax-gorilla-nailed-to-a-cross-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/phew-were-doing-way-better-than-japan-2010-1 Phew, We're Doing WAY Better Than Japan http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/bQCcNwLprWE/phew-were-doing-way-better-than-japan-2010-1 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:38:06 -0500 Joe Weisenthal <p>Here's the latest US vs. Japan overlay from financial planner and chartmaster <a href="http://dshort.com/articles/2010/Japan-US-bubbles-and-deflation.html">Doug Short (dshort.com)</a>.</p> <p>Our current rebound is sharper than anything Japan ever saw, though if history repeats and we really are on their path, then you'd expect a return to deflation and a return of the bear very soon.</p> <p>This is Bernanke's nightmare, and he spends all day trying to make sure it doesn't come true.</p> <p><img src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b4475a200000000004f8731&maxX=567&maxY=413" border="0" alt="japan deflation" width="567" height="413" /></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://dshort.com/"><strong>Find more market charts at Dshort.com -- ></strong></a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/phew-were-doing-way-better-than-japan-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/four-reasons-why-japan-could-be-the-mother-of-all-contrarian-bets-in-2010-2010-1">Four Reasons Why Japan Could Be The Mother Of All Contrarian Bets In 2010</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-deflation-is-why-the-dollar-can-rally-2009-12">This Deflation Is Why The Dollar Can Rally A Lot</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rosenberg-deflation-is-reality-the-consensus-view-is-garbage-2009-12">Rosenberg: Deflation Is Reality, The Consensus View Is Garbage</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/a1TC5pK2j3YmtfxV8pS4MOAMAeY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/a1TC5pK2j3YmtfxV8pS4MOAMAeY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/a1TC5pK2j3YmtfxV8pS4MOAMAeY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/a1TC5pK2j3YmtfxV8pS4MOAMAeY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=bQCcNwLprWE:ZVNXKxzwHkE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=bQCcNwLprWE:ZVNXKxzwHkE:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=bQCcNwLprWE:ZVNXKxzwHkE:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=bQCcNwLprWE:ZVNXKxzwHkE:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=bQCcNwLprWE:ZVNXKxzwHkE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=bQCcNwLprWE:ZVNXKxzwHkE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=bQCcNwLprWE:ZVNXKxzwHkE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=bQCcNwLprWE:ZVNXKxzwHkE:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=bQCcNwLprWE:ZVNXKxzwHkE:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/bQCcNwLprWE" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/phew-were-doing-way-better-than-japan-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-meredith-whitney-effect-is-over-2010-1 Meredith Whitney Is Done http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/M5g5jWtmiDI/the-meredith-whitney-effect-is-over-2010-1 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:15:00 -0500 Joe Weisenthal <p>Yesterday Meredith Whitney whacked her estimates on Goldman Sachs (GS). But this chart from <a href="http://www.bespokeinvest.com/bespoke/2010/01/goldman-sachs-gs-breaks-free-of-the-whitney-effect.html">Bespoke</a> says it all. The Whitney effect is over. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/meredith-whitney-tries-and-fails-to-knock-down-jpmorgan-2009-12">The same happened</a> with JPMorgan last month.</p> <p><img src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b446fee0000000000e1c0a4" border="0" alt="null" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-meredith-whitney-effect-is-over-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/meredith-whitney-just-pulled-out-the-hatchet-on-goldman-sachs-2010-1">Meredith Whitney Just Pulled Out The Hatchet On Goldman Sachs</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/meredith-whitney-tries-and-fails-to-knock-down-jpmorgan-2009-12">Meredith Whitney Tries And Fails To Knock Down JPMorgan</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/meredith-whitney-whackes-estimates-on-goldman-and-morgan-stanley-sending-shares-lower-2009-12">Meredith Whitney Whacks Estimates On Goldman And Morgan Stanley Sending Shares Lower</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/J8z2kOdDTzMBv0eE-rXHl-TYAD0/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/J8z2kOdDTzMBv0eE-rXHl-TYAD0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/J8z2kOdDTzMBv0eE-rXHl-TYAD0/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/J8z2kOdDTzMBv0eE-rXHl-TYAD0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=M5g5jWtmiDI:OAh3122633U:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=M5g5jWtmiDI:OAh3122633U:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=M5g5jWtmiDI:OAh3122633U:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=M5g5jWtmiDI:OAh3122633U:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=M5g5jWtmiDI:OAh3122633U:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=M5g5jWtmiDI:OAh3122633U:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=M5g5jWtmiDI:OAh3122633U:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=M5g5jWtmiDI:OAh3122633U:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=M5g5jWtmiDI:OAh3122633U:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/M5g5jWtmiDI" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-meredith-whitney-effect-is-over-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/rajaratnam-allegedly-paid-tipster-amd-2010-1 The Case Against Rajaratnam Doubles In One Day http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/_w4iejMhA6w/rajaratnam-allegedly-paid-tipster-amd-2010-1 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:06:00 -0500 Courtney Comstock <p><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4adc829700000000005c0c96&maxX=348&maxY=261" border="0" alt="Raj Rajaratnam galleon" width="348" height="261" /></p><p>They haven't officially charged him yet, but the government apparently plans to file a "superseding indictment" that will include Rajaratnam receiving insider information about Advanced Micro Devices's acquiring ATI, and paying for it.</p> <p>The charge effectively doubles the amount that prosecutors say Raj made through insider trading (though if you believe this is the extent of his illegal gains, it's still a pittance).</p> <p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703436504574640793698891108.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories">The Wall Street Journal reports</a></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">"The $19 million in profit the U.S. alleges Mr. Rajaratnam made on the ATI tip eclipses the total of $17 million he allegedly reaped from the previous insider tips."</p> <p>One suspect for the alleged tipster is Anil Kumar, a former senior partner at McKinsey & Co., who prosecutors believe tipped Mr. Rajaratnam off about McKinsey clients, including AMD, later in 2008.</p> <p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703436504574640793698891108.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories">Read more in the Wall Street Journal ></a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rajaratnam-allegedly-paid-tipster-amd-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rajaratnam-hired-a-dwarf-as-an-april-fools-joke-2009-12">Raj Rajaratnam: Midget Wrangler</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/raj-rajaratnams-letter-to-clients-and-employees-2009-10">Raj Rajaratnam's Letter To Clients And Employees</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-tipster-in-galleon-case-identified-2009-10">Galleon's Google Tipster Identified As Active Stock Blogger</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AzrHRGWyu_R42H0QRuPU0cVI3l4/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AzrHRGWyu_R42H0QRuPU0cVI3l4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AzrHRGWyu_R42H0QRuPU0cVI3l4/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/AzrHRGWyu_R42H0QRuPU0cVI3l4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=_w4iejMhA6w:CQlLYJ6AqVo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=_w4iejMhA6w:CQlLYJ6AqVo:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=_w4iejMhA6w:CQlLYJ6AqVo:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=_w4iejMhA6w:CQlLYJ6AqVo:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=_w4iejMhA6w:CQlLYJ6AqVo:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=_w4iejMhA6w:CQlLYJ6AqVo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=_w4iejMhA6w:CQlLYJ6AqVo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=_w4iejMhA6w:CQlLYJ6AqVo:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=_w4iejMhA6w:CQlLYJ6AqVo:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/_w4iejMhA6w" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/rajaratnam-allegedly-paid-tipster-amd-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/will-new-york-elect-merrill-lynchs-harold-ford-jr-as-its-next-senator-2010-1 Will New York Elect Merrill Lynch's Harold Ford Jr. As Its Next Senator? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/sRcp4GaJ18U/will-new-york-elect-merrill-lynchs-harold-ford-jr-as-its-next-senator-2010-1 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:00:55 -0500 Joe Weisenthal <p><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b446d1800000000008c3906&maxX=316&maxY=237" border="0" alt="harold ford" width="316" height="237" /></p><p>Interesting trial balloon from the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/nyregion/06ford.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">New York Times</a>: Former Tennessee Rep. and current Merrill Lynch banker Harold Ford Jr. is weighing a run for Senate against Hillary Clinton substitute Kirsten E. Gillibrand.</p> <p>Ford had been a rising star among Democrats in DC. But in 2006, a very Democratic year, he tried to make the jump to Senate and failed against Republican Bob Corker.</p> <p>So he packed up, headed to New York, and landed a high-paying job as an executive at Merrill Lynch. But his interest is clearly poltics (his father was a politician), as evidenced by his frequent TV appearances and continued role in the Democratic party.</p> <p>Wall Street would like him to run, Bloomberg would consider endorssing him, as would several other prominent Democrats. However for the sake of party unity, the very top players like Chuck Schumer would not be keen on a pitched primary battle among Democrats.</p> <p>But between this, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-dodd-byron-dorgan-quitting-senate-2010-1">and the wave of Democratic retirements</a>, this is shaping up to be fascinating (and very bloody) midterm election.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/will-new-york-elect-merrill-lynchs-harold-ford-jr-as-its-next-senator-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-dodd-byron-dorgan-quitting-senate-2010-1">DEMOCRATIC NIGHTMARE: Chris Dodd, Byron Dorgan Quitting Senate</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/upset-in-massachusetts-special-senate-race-may-be-the-political-earthquake-of-2010-2010-1">Upset In Massachusetts Special Senate Race May Be The Political Earthquake Of 2010</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/cuomo-passed-over-patterson-picks-gillebrand-for-senate">Cuomo Passed Over, Patterson Picks Gillebrand For Senate</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/g1jqnLRstTzZWZyrNxdqyNYxiJw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/g1jqnLRstTzZWZyrNxdqyNYxiJw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/g1jqnLRstTzZWZyrNxdqyNYxiJw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/g1jqnLRstTzZWZyrNxdqyNYxiJw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=sRcp4GaJ18U:POXv4iXMCGg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=sRcp4GaJ18U:POXv4iXMCGg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=sRcp4GaJ18U:POXv4iXMCGg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=sRcp4GaJ18U:POXv4iXMCGg:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=sRcp4GaJ18U:POXv4iXMCGg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=sRcp4GaJ18U:POXv4iXMCGg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=sRcp4GaJ18U:POXv4iXMCGg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=sRcp4GaJ18U:POXv4iXMCGg:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=sRcp4GaJ18U:POXv4iXMCGg:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/sRcp4GaJ18U" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/will-new-york-elect-merrill-lynchs-harold-ford-jr-as-its-next-senator-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/four-reasons-why-japan-could-be-the-mother-of-all-contrarian-bets-in-2010-2010-1 Four Reasons Why Japan Could Be The Mother Of All Contrarian Bets In 2010 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/56bQwiyb4BY/four-reasons-why-japan-could-be-the-mother-of-all-contrarian-bets-in-2010-2010-1 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:43:00 -0500 The Pragmatic Capitalist <p><em>(This guest post originally appeared at the <a href="http://pragcap.com/4-reasons-why-japan-is-a-good-2010-contrarian-bet">author's blog</a>)</em></p> <p>No market has suffered more during the Fed’s boom bust cycle than Japan.  The timing of their own credit crisis in the early 90’s couldn’t have come at a worse time – just before the great innovative boom of the internet age.  To make matters worse, they didn’t begin to grasp the complexity of their problems until the U.S. and the rest of the world was slipping into a great recession of their own (<a href="http://pragcap.com/20-year-bear-market" target="_blank">please see here for our opinion on the current outlook for the U.S. deflationary battle</a>).  And then there is the great recession of 2008.   But after years of abysmal market returns Japan might be the contrarian of all contrarian bets.  Here’s why:</p> <ul> <li>Japan is hands down the most hated market in the globe.   <a href="http://pragcap.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-2010-investment-predictions-and-outlooks" target="_blank">The consensus in our 2010 investment guide was underweight Japan</a>.  If there is no one left to dislike Japan then there is a strong likelihood that Japan’s market will melt higher as the sellers have already positioned themselves accordingly.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>The Japanese market is cheap on a relative basis.  It now sells at just 1.4 times book value compared to 2.2 times emerging markets and 3.2 times China.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Contrary to popular opinion, the debt problems in Japan could continue to serve as a near-term positive catalyst.  Any potential problems funding their deficit is likely to result in further quantitative easing which would be highly beneficial to stocks in the short-term.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Perhaps most importantly, the Yen now looks overvalued compared to the dollar and the Euro.  In Japan’s export driven economy this could continue to benefit the Japanese economy.  The risk likely remains to the upside as we believe the Fed will be forced to act in H2 and could result in a much more robust dollar than many currently presume.  Any downside in the Yen would be positive for stocks.</li> </ul> <h3><a href="http://pragcap.com/"><strong>Read more market commentary at The Pragmatic Capitalist -- ></strong></a></h3><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/four-reasons-why-japan-could-be-the-mother-of-all-contrarian-bets-in-2010-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/marc-faber-avoid-the-us-disaster-buy-wheat-sugar-natural-gas-and-japan-in-2010-2009-12">Marc Faber: Avoid The US Disaster, Buy Wheat, Sugar, Natural Gas, And Japan In 2010</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-finally-lets-its-ill-finance-minister-resign-2010-1">Japan Finally Lets Its Sick Finance Minister Resign</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/global-bear-rally-of-2009-will-end-as-japans-hyperinflation-rips-economy-to-pieces-2010-1">Global Bear Rally Of 2009 Will End As Japan's Hyperinflation Rips Economy To Pieces</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9DnXnMzCsebRBusWP9Pu-H1uYTw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9DnXnMzCsebRBusWP9Pu-H1uYTw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9DnXnMzCsebRBusWP9Pu-H1uYTw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/9DnXnMzCsebRBusWP9Pu-H1uYTw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56bQwiyb4BY:iGy6ZlhgOc0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56bQwiyb4BY:iGy6ZlhgOc0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=56bQwiyb4BY:iGy6ZlhgOc0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56bQwiyb4BY:iGy6ZlhgOc0:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=56bQwiyb4BY:iGy6ZlhgOc0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56bQwiyb4BY:iGy6ZlhgOc0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=56bQwiyb4BY:iGy6ZlhgOc0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56bQwiyb4BY:iGy6ZlhgOc0:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56bQwiyb4BY:iGy6ZlhgOc0:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/56bQwiyb4BY" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/four-reasons-why-japan-could-be-the-mother-of-all-contrarian-bets-in-2010-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/housing-stable-in-the-first-half-of-2010-then-off-a-cliff-2010-1 Housing: Stable In The First Half Of 2010... Then Off A Cliff http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/lL8tK7A4IoQ/housing-stable-in-the-first-half-of-2010-then-off-a-cliff-2010-1 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:37:58 -0500 Jonathan Miller <p><img src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b44678f000000000086e85a&maxX=553&maxY=286" border="0" alt="pending" width="553" height="286" /></p><p></p> <p><em>(This guest post originally appeared at the <a href="http://matrix.millersamuel.com/?p=6760">author's blog, Matrix</a>)</em></p> <p>NAR released their <strong><a href="http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2010/01/pending_surge" target="_blank">November 2009 Pending Home Sales Index</a></strong> which ended a 9 month string of increases.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in November, fell 16.0 percent to 96.0 from an upwardly revised 114.3 in October, but is 15.5 percent higher than November 2008 when it was 83.1.</p> <blockquote></blockquote> <p>NAR attributes the drop as a pullback during November related to <strong><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pending-home-sales-index-plunges-16-2010-01-05" target="_blank">the uncertainty surrounding the extension of the first time home buyers tax credit</a></strong> which expired November 30th. However it was subsequently extended and expanded to include existing home buyers who have until the end of this April to sign a bonafide contract. We may trivialize the tax credit’s success in the NYC metro area because of the higher housing costs relative to $8,000 and $6,500 tax credits respectively but from my discussions with real estate agents around the country, it did appear to trigger a large portion of home sales in 2009.</p> <p>What does the 16% drop suggest? More weakness to come?</p> <p><em>Yes</em>, but not in the coming months (remember this is a seasonally adjusted stat).</p> <p>It signifies that the US Housing market doesn’t yet have its own set of legs. No credit = drop in sales.</p> <p>The credit extension ends in April, the Fed begins their pullout from the purchasing of Fannie Mae mortgage paper, perhaps influencing mortgage rates higher.</p> <p>The combination of high unemployment, rising mortgage rates and the expiring tax credit in the spring, combined with the elixir of rising foreclosures causes by sustained unemployment at high levels suggests housing sales <em>will fall</em> in second half 2009.</p> <p>Housing in 2010: Stability in the first half, with more concern for the second half.</p> <h3><a href="http://matrix.millersamuel.com/"><strong>Read more real estate analysis from Jonathan Miller at Matrix -- ></strong></a></h3><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/housing-stable-in-the-first-half-of-2010-then-off-a-cliff-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-pending-home-sales-are-a-bigger-disaster-than-you-realize-2010-1">Why Pending Home Sales Are A Bigger Disaster Than You Realize</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-housing-bubble-destroyed-green-and-tech-innovation-2010-1">How The Housing Bubble Destroyed Our Future</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rosenberg-heres-ten-trends-for-2010-2010-1">Rosenberg's Themes For 2010: The Consumer Is Still Toast, Housing Is Down, And Everyone Is Delinquent On Everything</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/esd5GSvHiH9IxwtsEb17ZsuG-QQ/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/esd5GSvHiH9IxwtsEb17ZsuG-QQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/esd5GSvHiH9IxwtsEb17ZsuG-QQ/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/esd5GSvHiH9IxwtsEb17ZsuG-QQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=lL8tK7A4IoQ:cthz-IYNBVw:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=lL8tK7A4IoQ:cthz-IYNBVw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=lL8tK7A4IoQ:cthz-IYNBVw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=lL8tK7A4IoQ:cthz-IYNBVw:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=lL8tK7A4IoQ:cthz-IYNBVw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=lL8tK7A4IoQ:cthz-IYNBVw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=lL8tK7A4IoQ:cthz-IYNBVw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=lL8tK7A4IoQ:cthz-IYNBVw:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=lL8tK7A4IoQ:cthz-IYNBVw:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/lL8tK7A4IoQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/housing-stable-in-the-first-half-of-2010-then-off-a-cliff-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-finally-lets-its-ill-finance-minister-resign-2010-1 Japan Finally Lets Its Sick Finance Minister Resign http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/DLQhdSSricE/japan-finally-lets-its-ill-finance-minister-resign-2010-1 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:29:00 -0500 Joe Weisenthal <p><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b3a6b770000000000bcfbdc&maxX=319&maxY=239" border="0" alt="Hirohisa Fujii Japan" width="319" height="239" /></p><p>Here's how not to signal strength and confidence to the rest of the world: Let your 77-year old finance minister fall ill, go to the hospital, ask to resign, and then reject his request, presumably because there's nobody who can step into fill his shoes.</p> <p>Up until late last night, that was the situation with Hirohisa Fujii.</p> <p><a href="http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=479109">Well, finally prime Minister Hatoyamai is letting him off the hook</a>. According to Kyodo newswire, he will be replaced by his deputy Naoto Kan.</p> <p>What a fiasco.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-finally-lets-its-ill-finance-minister-resign-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hirohisa-fujii-offers-to-quit-2010-1">Japan Is About Lose Another Finance Minister, As Exhausted Hirohisa Fujii Offers To Quit</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/is-global-economic-stress-taking-its-toll-on-the-worlds-finance-ministers-2009-12">Finance Ministers Of Japan And Ireland Reveal Health Problems In The Same Week</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/OWdw180sE3hT6mDVTPji0QzFi_8/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/OWdw180sE3hT6mDVTPji0QzFi_8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/OWdw180sE3hT6mDVTPji0QzFi_8/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/OWdw180sE3hT6mDVTPji0QzFi_8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DLQhdSSricE:rBmmiufWrSw:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DLQhdSSricE:rBmmiufWrSw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=DLQhdSSricE:rBmmiufWrSw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DLQhdSSricE:rBmmiufWrSw:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=DLQhdSSricE:rBmmiufWrSw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DLQhdSSricE:rBmmiufWrSw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=DLQhdSSricE:rBmmiufWrSw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DLQhdSSricE:rBmmiufWrSw:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DLQhdSSricE:rBmmiufWrSw:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/DLQhdSSricE" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-finally-lets-its-ill-finance-minister-resign-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-dodd-byron-dorgan-quitting-senate-2010-1 DEMOCRATIC NIGHTMARE: Chris Dodd, Byron Dorgan Quitting Senate http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/0yTIdvxk6yw/chris-dodd-byron-dorgan-quitting-senate-2010-1 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:17:00 -0500 Joe Weisenthal <p><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b0701b800000000001a042e" border="0" alt="chris dodd" /></p><p>Wow, this really is going to be the year of the elephant.</p> <p>Two key Senators will not be standing for re-election in November. The first is ND Senator Byron Dorgan, who announced his retirement plans late afternoon yesterday.</p> <p>The STUNNER though was Chris Dodd, the Connecticut Senator, who, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126273554977117099.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories">according to various news reports</a>, has decided to throw in the towel as well.</p> <p>Dodd's close ties to the financial industry made him vulnerable in this time when anti-Wall Street sentiment runs deep.</p> <p>The political winds, plus the depleting funds of his core base (hedge funds, insurance, etc.) has put him in a tought spot. A trio of eager Republicans -- Peter Schiff, Linda McMahon, and Rob Simmmons -- are vying for that seat.</p> <p>That seat could still be a hold for Democrats, though Dorgan, in deep-red North Dakota may be a lost cause.</p> <p>Anyway, there goes 60, and in reality, there goes a lot more, both in the House and Senate, because if there were any remaining doubt that it's a bad year to be a Democratic Candidate for Congress, this is just the icing.</p> <p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/upset-in-massachusetts-special-senate-race-may-be-the-political-earthquake-of-2010-2010-1">Throw in the tight Mass. Senate race</a>, and you have to figure that the Obama administration has, oh, about a week left to pursue its agenda.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-dodd-byron-dorgan-quitting-senate-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wait-maybe-those-ominous-poll-numbers-for-dems-are-because-rasmussen-is-a-secret-republican-polling-firm-2010-1">Wait, Maybe Those Ominous Poll Numbers For Dems Are Because Rasmussen Is A Secret Republican Polling Firm</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/another-blow-to-embattled-dodd-senator-caught-cutting-bomb-detection-funding-to-fund-a-pet-pork-project-2009-12">Another Blow To Embattled Dodd: Senator Caught Cutting Bomb-Detection Funding To Fund A Pet Pork Project</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/upset-in-massachusetts-special-senate-race-may-be-the-political-earthquake-of-2010-2010-1">Upset In Massachusetts Special Senate Race May Be The Political Earthquake Of 2010</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BnnqcpBW6xj5qP_rxw3VgMXsSJo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BnnqcpBW6xj5qP_rxw3VgMXsSJo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BnnqcpBW6xj5qP_rxw3VgMXsSJo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BnnqcpBW6xj5qP_rxw3VgMXsSJo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=0yTIdvxk6yw:cCMhXT9aqIw:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=0yTIdvxk6yw:cCMhXT9aqIw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=0yTIdvxk6yw:cCMhXT9aqIw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=0yTIdvxk6yw:cCMhXT9aqIw:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=0yTIdvxk6yw:cCMhXT9aqIw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=0yTIdvxk6yw:cCMhXT9aqIw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=0yTIdvxk6yw:cCMhXT9aqIw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=0yTIdvxk6yw:cCMhXT9aqIw:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=0yTIdvxk6yw:cCMhXT9aqIw:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/0yTIdvxk6yw" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-dodd-byron-dorgan-quitting-senate-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-holy-sh-check-out-video-from-the-top-of-burj-dubai-tower-2010-1 Holy Sh#$! Check Out Video From The Top Of Burj Dubai Tower http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/pX89igb88RQ/henry-blodget-holy-sh-check-out-video-from-the-top-of-burj-dubai-tower-2010-1 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:55:00 -0500 Henry Blodget <p> <object width="595" height="482"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VrGsS2IQqAg&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VrGsS2IQqAg&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed> </object> </p> <p>(via <a href="http://twitter.com/JohnBorthwick/statuses/7427977124">John Borthwick</a>)</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-holy-sh-check-out-video-from-the-top-of-burj-dubai-tower-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-the-opening-of-the-tallest-building-in-the-world-2010-1">Watch The Official Opening Of The Burj Dubai--The Tallest Building In The World!</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/PdsuS7_QSd7tVHnfUl5d1EubZNU/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/PdsuS7_QSd7tVHnfUl5d1EubZNU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/PdsuS7_QSd7tVHnfUl5d1EubZNU/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/PdsuS7_QSd7tVHnfUl5d1EubZNU/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=pX89igb88RQ:mo8tCXx3_Gc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=pX89igb88RQ:mo8tCXx3_Gc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=pX89igb88RQ:mo8tCXx3_Gc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=pX89igb88RQ:mo8tCXx3_Gc:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=pX89igb88RQ:mo8tCXx3_Gc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=pX89igb88RQ:mo8tCXx3_Gc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=pX89igb88RQ:mo8tCXx3_Gc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=pX89igb88RQ:mo8tCXx3_Gc:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=pX89igb88RQ:mo8tCXx3_Gc:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/pX89igb88RQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-holy-sh-check-out-video-from-the-top-of-burj-dubai-tower-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/how-keynesianism-gave-us-the-decade-of-zero-2010-1 How Keynesianism Gave Us The Decade Of Zero http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/XuoSh7hlqTI/how-keynesianism-gave-us-the-decade-of-zero-2010-1 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:27:03 -0500 Ron Paul <p><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=467a6c791180a5493d0b2400" border="0" alt="ronpaul tbi" /></p><p><em>(This guest post originally appeared at <a href="http://www.house.gov/htbin/blog_inc?BLOG,tx14_paul,blog,999,All,Item%20not%20found,ID=100104_3625,TEMPLATE=postingdetail.shtml">House.gov</a>)</em></p> <p>This past week we celebrated the end of what most people agree was a decade best forgotten.  New York Times columnist and leading Keynesian economist Paul Krugman called it the Big Zero in a recent column.  He wrote that “there was a whole lot of nothing going on in measures of economic progress or success” which is true.  However, Krugman continues to misleadingly blame the free market and supposed lack of regulation for the economic chaos.<br /><br />It was encouraging that he admitted that blowing economic bubbles is a mistake, especially considering he himself advocated creating a housing bubble as a way to alleviate the hangover from the dotcom bust.  But we can no longer afford to give prominent economists like Krugman a pass when they completely ignore the burden of taxation, monetary policy, and excessive regulation.<br /><br />Afterall, Krugman is still scratching his head as to why “no” economists saw the housing bust coming.  How in the world did they miss it?  Actually many economists saw it coming a mile away, understood it perfectly, and explained it many times.  Policy makers would have been wise to heed the warnings of the Austrian economists, and must start listening to their teachings if they want solid progress in the future.  If not, the necessary correction is going to take a very long time. <br /><br />The Austrian free-market economists use common sense principles.  You cannot spend your way out of a recession.  You cannot regulate the economy into oblivion and expect it to function.  You cannot tax people and businesses to the point of near slavery and expect them to keep producing.  You cannot create an abundance of money out of thin air without making all that paper worthless.  The government cannot make up for rising unemployment by just hiring all the out of work people to be bureaucrats or send them unemployment checks forever.  You cannot live beyond your means indefinitely.  The economy must actually produce something others are willing to buy.   Government growth is the opposite of all these things.<br /><br />Bureaucrats are loathe to face these unpleasant, but obvious realities.  It is much more appealing to wave their magic wand of regulation and public spending and divert blame elsewhere.  It is time to be honest about our problems.<br /><br />The tragic reality is that this fatally flawed, but widely accepted, economic school of thought called Keynesianism has made our country more socialist than capitalist.  While the private sector in the last ten years has experienced a roller coaster of booms and busts and ended up, nominally, about where we started in 2000, government has been steadily growing, because Keynesians told politicians they could get away with a tax, spend and inflate policy.  They even encouraged it!  But we cannot survive much longer if government is our only growth industry.<br /><br />As for a lack of regulation, the last decade saw the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the largest piece of financial regulatory legislation in years.  This act failed to prevent abuses like those perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, and it is widely acknowledged that the new regulations contributed heavily not only to the lack of real growth, but also to many businesses going overseas.<br /><br />Americans have been working hard, and Krugman rightly points out that they are getting nowhere.  Government is expanding steadily and keeping us at less than zero growth when inflation is factored in.  Krugman seems pretty disappointed with zero, but if we continue to listen to Keynesians in the next decade instead of those who tell us the truth, zero will start to look pretty good.  The end result of destroying the currency is the wiping out of the middle class.  Preventing that from happening should be our top economic priority.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-keynesianism-gave-us-the-decade-of-zero-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/krugmans-china-hit-job-is-more-blame-the-victim-nonsense-2010-1">Krugman's China Hit-Job Is More Blame-The-Victim Nonsense</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/forget-that-lost-decade-nonsense-the-growth-of-emerging-markets-and-technological-disruption-made-it-awesome-2010-1">Forget That "Lost Decade" Nonsense, The Growth Of Emerging Markets And Technological Disruption Made It Awesome</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-reasonaly-high-chance-of-double-dip-coming-next-year-2009-12">Paul Krugman: "Reasonably High Chance" Of Double Dip Coming Next Year</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hIeCNLGFDzX5r2ktOrlX0-EtgNU/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hIeCNLGFDzX5r2ktOrlX0-EtgNU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hIeCNLGFDzX5r2ktOrlX0-EtgNU/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/hIeCNLGFDzX5r2ktOrlX0-EtgNU/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=XuoSh7hlqTI:d2dDnVTjPrc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=XuoSh7hlqTI:d2dDnVTjPrc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=XuoSh7hlqTI:d2dDnVTjPrc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=XuoSh7hlqTI:d2dDnVTjPrc:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=XuoSh7hlqTI:d2dDnVTjPrc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=XuoSh7hlqTI:d2dDnVTjPrc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=XuoSh7hlqTI:d2dDnVTjPrc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=XuoSh7hlqTI:d2dDnVTjPrc:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=XuoSh7hlqTI:d2dDnVTjPrc:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/XuoSh7hlqTI" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/how-keynesianism-gave-us-the-decade-of-zero-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/patricia-cohen-refuses-to-call-lawyer-paul-batista Patricia Cohen Treated Her Ex-Lawyer Like Crap Before Eventually Dumping Him http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/56DdCtwHm-E/patricia-cohen-refuses-to-call-lawyer-paul-batista Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:23:00 -0500 Courtney Comstock <p><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b0983f00000000000f629b2" border="0" alt="steve_cohenSAC" /></p><p>Yesterday, news broke that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-cohens-ex-wife-hires-high-profile-attorney-who-represented-harry-markopolos-2010-1">Patricia Cohen replaced her lawyer, Paul Batista, with Gaytri Kachroo </a>in the case against her ex-husband, Steve Cohen.</p> <p>Batista was just as surprised as anyone; he had actually been trying to get in touch Ms. Cohen.</p> <p>She had suddenly cut off all contact with him after months of what sounds like a ton of phone calls to Batista.</p> <p>"Over the last several months - indeed, until she stopped communicating with me - I had conversations with Ms. Cohen virtually every day."</p> <p>Usually lawyers know they're off the case when their clients tell them, you're off the case. Then they file to change counsel.</p> <p>But in Batista's case, he says, Cohen has just ignored him, so she's left him no choice but to "reluctantly" file for withdrawl. It's only the second time in his 30 year long career he's had to do this, he says, stunned.</p> <p>So yesterday, Batista filed a motion to be withdrawn as counsel from Ms. Cohen's lawsuit, because he hasn't heard from her.</p> <p>He seems pretty upset about the way shes <em>not</em> handling the situation. And frankly, we'd be pretty upset too.</p> <p>Batista includes the email he immediately sent to Ms. Cohen after, out of the blue one day, a random lawyer told him he's no longer on the case:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">I just received a telephone call from a lawyer in Boston who said that you had asked her to represent you in your claims against Steve Cohen.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Needless to say, this is a complete surprise to me...</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">On a personal note, I wish you and your family well. We have always had a completely respectful relationship. I would have thought that you would have called me - and you certainly have called me many times on issues relating to your case - to articulate any questions or concerns you may have had, rather than let a lawyer whom I'm not familiar with call me literally out of the blue.</p> <p>Batista says he still hasn't heard directly from Ms. Cohen.</p> <p><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/24831500/Filing-by-Paul-Batista-in-Patricia-Cohen-Suit" title="View Filing by Paul Batista in Patricia Cohen Suit on Scribd">Filing by Paul Batista in Patricia Cohen Suit</a> <object id="doc_908617376800877" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="100%" height="500" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" name="doc_908617376800877" align="middle"> <param name="movie" value="http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=24831500&access_key=key-j9ehrzizsjjpody2jys&page=1&version=1&viewMode=slideshow" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="play" value="true" /> <param name="loop" value="true" /> <param name="scale" value="showall" /> <param name="wmode" value="opaque" /> <param name="devicefont" value="false" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /> <param name="menu" value="true" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /> <param name="salign" /> <param name="mode" value="slideshow" /> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%" height="500" src="http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=24831500&access_key=key-j9ehrzizsjjpody2jys&page=1&version=1&viewMode=slideshow" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" play="true" loop="true" scale="showall" wmode="opaque" devicefont="false" bgcolor="#ffffff" name="doc_908617376800877_object" menu="true" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" mode="slideshow" align="middle"></embed> </object> </p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/patricia-cohen-refuses-to-call-lawyer-paul-batista#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/patricia-cohen-probably-hired-the-new-lawyer-to-scare-steve-cohen-2010-1">Patricia Cohen Probably Hired The New Lawyer To Scare Steve Cohen</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stevie-cohens-ex-wife-hires-madoff-busters-lawyer-2010-1">Stevie Cohen’s Ex-Wife Hires Madoff Buster’s Lawyer</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-cohens-ex-wife-hires-high-profile-attorney-who-represented-harry-markopolos-2010-1">Steve Cohen's Ex-Wife Hires High Profile Attorney Who Represented Harry Markopolos</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wUlE4JdgtuND8pmLvV7_h0SBKjQ/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wUlE4JdgtuND8pmLvV7_h0SBKjQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wUlE4JdgtuND8pmLvV7_h0SBKjQ/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/wUlE4JdgtuND8pmLvV7_h0SBKjQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56DdCtwHm-E:sybuVsd0FxM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56DdCtwHm-E:sybuVsd0FxM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=56DdCtwHm-E:sybuVsd0FxM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56DdCtwHm-E:sybuVsd0FxM:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=56DdCtwHm-E:sybuVsd0FxM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56DdCtwHm-E:sybuVsd0FxM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=56DdCtwHm-E:sybuVsd0FxM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56DdCtwHm-E:sybuVsd0FxM:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=56DdCtwHm-E:sybuVsd0FxM:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/56DdCtwHm-E" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/patricia-cohen-refuses-to-call-lawyer-paul-batista http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-rubin-is-back-noooooo-2010-1 Robert Rubin Is Back: Noooooo!!! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/NuxxvsklfdY/robert-rubin-is-back-noooooo-2010-1 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:55:23 -0500 Marshall Auerback <p><em><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b267e8d0000000000699814" border="0" alt="robert rubin" />(This guest post originally appeared at <a href="http://www.newdeal20.org/?p=7270">NewDeal2.0</a>)</em></p> <p>I confess that whenever I hear Robert Rubin, what Oliver Cromwell once said to Parliament springs to mind: “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately … Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”</p> <p>The urge came upon me when I read Mr. Rubin’s latest attempt to vindicate himself in <em>Newsweek</em> (”<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/225623" target="_blank">Getting the Economy Back on Track</a>)”.</p> <p>As one of the people whose policies threw the global economy off the rails, Rubin may be uniquely qualified to provide solutions as to how to get the economy back on track. But that would presuppose that the man actually acknowledged mistakes (as some of his other Goldman Sachs/Clinton Administration colleagues, such as Gary Gensler, have done) and displayed at least a marginal understanding of where he went wrong.</p> <p>No such luck. We get the usual self-serving “nobody could have possibly predicted a crisis of this magnitude” right at the start:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>While some people saw one or more of these factors, virtually no one involved in the financial system — whether institutions, investors, regulators, analysts, or commentators — recognized the breadth of forces at work or the possibility of a megacrisis, and this included the most experienced among us. More personally, I regret that I, too, didn’t see the potential for such extreme conditions despite my many years involved in financial matters and my concern for market excesses.</em></p> <p>Actually there were ample numbers of people who recognized the makings of a mega-crisis. But they were generally ignored, marginalized, and shunted to the sidelines. Ask former CFTC head Brooksley Born if Mr. Rubin manifested any concern for market excesses when he was Treasury Secretary. In a Treasury Department meeting of a presidential working group that included Born, Greenspan, Larry Summers and Rubin, each took turns attempting to change her mind. Rubin took the lead, she recalls. “I was told by the secretary of the treasury that the CFTC had no jurisdiction, and for that reason and that reason alone, we should not go forward,” Born says. “I told him . . . that I had never heard anyone assert that we didn’t have statutory jurisdiction . . . and I would be happy to see the legal analysis he was basing his position on.”</p> <p>She says, according to an <a href="http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2009/marapr/features/born.html" target="_blank">account </a>in the Stanford Alumni Review, that she was never supplied one. “They didn’t have one because it was not a legitimate legal position,” she says.</p> <p>Of course Rubin now suggests that Born’s problem was one of style, rather than substance: she, being “too confrontational”, risked aborting any politically feasible reform of OTC derivatives. That’s certainly an interesting reinterpretation of Rubin’s actual role as Treasury Secretary, during which he laid the groundwork for today’s crisis through an aggressive championing of financial deregulation. It’s hard to think of one instance where the former Goldman Sachs CEO actually came down hard on his former Wall Street colleagues. Had he at least acknowledged some remorse or recognition of error, he would be more appropriately suited for an advisory role on how to fix the global economy, much as a reformed criminal often has useful insights on penal reform.</p> <p>No such luck here. If being one of the worst Treasury Secretaries ever wasn’t enough, Rubin left another unfortunate legacy at Citigroup, where he was a senior advisor after he quit the Treasury. He left Citi just before its near collapse amidst criticism of his performance. A distinguishing moment of his tenure was when Rubin got hold of Peter Fisher in the US Treasury Department to try to put pressure on the bond-rating agencies to avoid downgrading Enron’ debt which was a debtor of Citigroup.</p> <p>In January 2009, he was <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-10-most-unethical-people-in-business" target="_blank">named</a> by Marketwatch as one of the “10 most unethical people in business”.</p> <p>Letting him publicly expound on getting the global economy back on track is akin to providing Kim Il Jong-il a public platform on human rights. Unlike Greenspan, who at least admitted mistakes, Rubin expects to be taken seriously as a policy maker despite acknowledging zero responsibility for the debacle that threw millions of Americans into unemployment. People around the world have lost their jobs, savings, and more largely thanks to the policies championed by this misguided deficit warrior.</p> <p>And the <em>Newsweek</em> article clearly establishes that for all of his alleged expertise in markets, Rubin understands nothing about reserve accounting, government spending and the true role of bonds. The following passage is a classic illustration of his deficient understanding:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>The United States faces projected 10-year federal budget deficits that seriously threaten its bond market, exchange rate, economy, and the economic future of every American worker and family. Those risks are exacerbated by the context of those deficits: a low household-savings rate, even after recent increases; large funding requirements for federal debt maturities every year; heavy overweighting of dollar-denominated assets in foreign portfolios; worsened fiscal prospects in the decades after the current 10-year budget period; and competing claims for capital to fund deficits in other countries.</em></p> <p>Bonds don’t “fund” anything and certainly don’t create competition for “funding requirements” on the basis of a silly “crowding out” theory. Rubin assumes that government deficits increase the claim on saving and reduce the “loanable funds” available for investors. Does the competition for saving push up the interest rates? No, for two reasons: First, budget deficits build productive infrastructure which exerts a positive influence on economic growth. Second, budget deficits typically help <a href="http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=4656" target="_blank">stimulate investment</a> because they keep aggregate demand from plummeting.</p> <p>Bond sales do play an important role in managing aggregate bank reserves and in the administration of overnight interbank interest rates, but Rubin clearly does not understand this, despite years on Wall Street. When government spends, recipients of Treasury checks deposit them into banks, WHICH ADDS RESERVES TO THE BANKING SYSTEM. In effect, government spending actually LOWERS interest rates. The issuance of debt is just an offer to provide an interest-bearing asset in place of non-interest bearing (or low bearing) bank reserves. Exactly the same outcome would occur if the government just paid a return on overnight (excess reserves) which, ironically, the Federal Reserve has just announced that it will do. Unfortunately, the argument offered by the Fed to justify this “innovation” is that it needs to start mopping up reserves in order to prevent inflation which is nonsensical (see L. Randall Wray to understand why <a href="http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2009/12/fed-offers-new-cd.html" target="_blank">here</a>).</p> <p>By contrast, budget surpluses are not even remotely like private saving. They actually destroy liquidity in the non-government sector (by destroying net financial assets held by that sector). They squeeze the capacity of the non-government sector to spend and save. If there are no other behavioral changes in the economy to accompany the pursuit of budget surpluses, then the private sector is forced to increase its PRIVATE debt levels to sustain demand and then when this option is exhausted, aggregate demand falls and consequently wipes out non-government saving.</p> <p>Yet Rubin speaks approvingly of the growing calls to reign in deficit spending:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>The American people are growing increasingly concerned about deficits, creating a public environment more conducive to political action. And the Obama administration, in my view, has a deep understanding of the critical importance of addressing this issue. But the substance and the politics of returning over time to a sound fiscal position are very difficult, and the timing is even more complicated because of the current economic circumstances.</em></p> <p>The American people are concerned, first and foremost with joblessness, a condition largely exacerbated by neo-liberals of Rubin’s ilk. Cutting the deficit in the manner that Mr. Rubin (and other deficit hawks) suggests will have several negative effects for the private sector as Bill Mitchell has <a href="http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=332" target="_blank">noted</a>:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>• the stock of financial assets (money or bonds) held by the private sector, which represents its wealth, falls; and<br /> • private disposable income also falls in line with the net taxation impost. Some may retort that government bond purchases provide the private wealth-holder with cash. That is true but the liquidation of wealth is driven by the shortage of cash in the private sector arising from tax demands exceeding income. The cash from the bond sales pays the Government’s net tax bill. The result is exactly the same when expanding this example by allowing for private income generation and a banking sector.</em></p> <p>The widely lauded budget surpluses during Rubin’s tenure at Treasury also coincided with a huge increase in private debt accumulation for precisely the reasons laid out by Mitchell.</p> <p>Pro-active fiscal policy which champions deficit spending allows the private sector to have healthier finances by providing spending stimulus over time to generate income growth (and private saving) when it is targeted toward creating full employment, not bank bailouts. Bad fiscal policy, by contrast, simply reflects a collapse in private spending and correspondingly lower tax revenues, and the concomitant failure of government s to act so as to prevent increased social welfare payments (such as unemployment insurance or food stamps) from coming into play as a result of this declining economic activity. Rubin has no understanding of these arguments.</p> <p>It is clear that if resources are fully utilized then choices have to be made on appropriate use. These choices will be political in nature. That is the only constraint which exists. Rubin clearly doesn’t understand this, so he is in no way suited to offer any kind of advice (other than how to blow up an economy via reckless financial practices).</p> <p>People like Robert Rubin are never shamed by their actions. Fortunately, society was spared their advice for several months. But now they are back, giving us the bad aftertaste of greasy pizza belchesd out after a particularly gruesome serving. I’m just waiting for the day when Bernie Madoff will be writing an article for <em>Newsweek</em>, expounding on how we can improve financial regulation. If policy makers are genuinely interested in getting the economy back on track, and preventing a recurrence of the financial depredations of the last few decades, they could do worse than listen to the<a href="http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/01/spitzer-on-governments-and-markets/" target="_blank"> analysis </a>of former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer, rather than self-serving Wall Street apologists like Robert Rubin.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-rubin-is-back-noooooo-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-id-save-the-world-again-2010-1">How I'd Save The World... Again</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-warning-brooksley-borns-battle-with-alan-greenspan-robert-rubin-and-larry-summers-2009-10">The Warning: Brooksley Born's Battle With Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin And Larry Summers</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/1/bob-rubin-were-screwed">Bob Rubin: We're Screwed</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/fgEQKEku1M3_mER3kdJnPyDGPcs/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/fgEQKEku1M3_mER3kdJnPyDGPcs/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/fgEQKEku1M3_mER3kdJnPyDGPcs/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/fgEQKEku1M3_mER3kdJnPyDGPcs/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=NuxxvsklfdY:LHUq_B_eGQ8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=NuxxvsklfdY:LHUq_B_eGQ8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=NuxxvsklfdY:LHUq_B_eGQ8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=NuxxvsklfdY:LHUq_B_eGQ8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=NuxxvsklfdY:LHUq_B_eGQ8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=NuxxvsklfdY:LHUq_B_eGQ8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=NuxxvsklfdY:LHUq_B_eGQ8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=NuxxvsklfdY:LHUq_B_eGQ8:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=NuxxvsklfdY:LHUq_B_eGQ8:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/NuxxvsklfdY" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-rubin-is-back-noooooo-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/ubs-whistleblower-goes-after-doj-2010-1 Before Reporting To Jail This Friday, UBS Whistleblower Goes After DOJ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/KtMjANQFGw8/ubs-whistleblower-goes-after-doj-2010-1 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:54:00 -0500 Erin Geiger Smith <p><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4acf7a94000000000049c9de" border="0" alt="Bradley Birkenfeld UBS whistleblower" style="float: right;" /></p><p>He wants millions. He tried to keep himself out of lock up.</p> <p>Now <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/no-delay-ubs-whistleblower-must-report-to-jail-on-friday-2010-1">officially required</a> to report to prison on Friday, Bradley Birkenfeld is officially going after the government lawyers.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6045NY20100105?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews">Reuters</a>:  Lawyers for the whistleblower who helped in the U.S. tax probe of Swiss bank UBS AG asked the government on Tuesday to probe Justice Department lawyers for allegedly making false statements about his case.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>The National Whistleblowers Center, representing former UBS banker [Birkenfeld] as he fights the government over his role in helping a billionaire evade taxes, filed a complaint with the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, seeking an internal investigation and correction of the court's records related to the case.</span></p> <p>Birkenfeld's main contention is that he was prevented from providing information about his main client, Igor Olenicoff, because he was living in Switzerland at the time and could not give the information without violating Swiss law. He needed, he said, for the U.S. to issue a subpoena for the information, but the DOJ did not do so.</p> <p>Olenicoff eventually plead guity for pled guilty for tax evasion.</p> <p>Though, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ubs-snitch-wants-prison-sentence-postponed-says-he-will-tell-all-2009-12">but all parties' admissions</a>, the government's case against UBS would not have existed without Birkenfeld, he was sentenced to 40-months in jail because proseutors said he was complicit in UBS's scheme to aid U.S. tax evaders and withheld information, including about Olenicoff.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ubs-whistleblower-goes-after-doj-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/no-delay-ubs-whistleblower-must-report-to-jail-on-friday-2010-1">No Delay! UBS Whistleblower Must Report To Jail On Friday </a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-ubs-tax-cheat-to-demand-billions-in-whistleblower-rewards-2009-11">UBS Tax Cheat To Demand Billions In Whistleblower Rewards</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ubs-snitch-wants-prison-sentence-postponed-says-he-will-tell-all-2009-12">UBS Snitch Wants Prison Sentence Postponed, Says He Will Tell All</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/whwtJsgAqSm0kzGk312T5nACnlc/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/whwtJsgAqSm0kzGk312T5nACnlc/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/whwtJsgAqSm0kzGk312T5nACnlc/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/whwtJsgAqSm0kzGk312T5nACnlc/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=KtMjANQFGw8:ICxjDr8syHA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=KtMjANQFGw8:ICxjDr8syHA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=KtMjANQFGw8:ICxjDr8syHA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=KtMjANQFGw8:ICxjDr8syHA:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=KtMjANQFGw8:ICxjDr8syHA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=KtMjANQFGw8:ICxjDr8syHA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=KtMjANQFGw8:ICxjDr8syHA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=KtMjANQFGw8:ICxjDr8syHA:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=KtMjANQFGw8:ICxjDr8syHA:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/KtMjANQFGw8" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/ubs-whistleblower-goes-after-doj-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/whitney-tilson-cadbury-will-still-get-a-good-deal-2010-1 Whitney Tilson: Relax, Warren Buffett Didn't Screw Up The Kraft-Cadbury Deal http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/DBcB54IyjBA/whitney-tilson-cadbury-will-still-get-a-good-deal-2010-1 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:31:00 -0500 William Wei <p>Whitney Tilson doesn't think Warren Buffett interfered at all when he voted against Kraft's proposal to acquire Cadbury. Instead, Tilson thinks that Cadbury will still get a good offer from Kraft while Buffett is essentially negotiating for a lower price. Watch Tilson on CNBC below:</p> <p> <object width="560" height="340"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mvm2eR8j4HQ&hl=en&fs=1" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="340" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mvm2eR8j4HQ&hl=en&fs=1" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed> </object> </p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whitney-tilson-cadbury-will-still-get-a-good-deal-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-just-delivered-a-death-blow-to-cadbury-2010-1">Warren Buffett Just Delivered A Death Blow To Cadbury</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nestle-and-kraft-on-the-brink-of-a-cadbury-bidding-war-2010-1">Kraft And Nestle's Cadbury Bidding War Has John Paulson Laughing All The Way To The Bank</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cadbury-factory-workers-are-protesting-a-kraft-take-over-2009-12">UK Cadbury Factory Workers Protest Against Any US Take-Over</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/X8-MdkEOaPsJviILNgxAg4v-vcw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/X8-MdkEOaPsJviILNgxAg4v-vcw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/X8-MdkEOaPsJviILNgxAg4v-vcw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/X8-MdkEOaPsJviILNgxAg4v-vcw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DBcB54IyjBA:4YJ_gfryioI:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DBcB54IyjBA:4YJ_gfryioI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=DBcB54IyjBA:4YJ_gfryioI:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DBcB54IyjBA:4YJ_gfryioI:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=DBcB54IyjBA:4YJ_gfryioI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DBcB54IyjBA:4YJ_gfryioI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=DBcB54IyjBA:4YJ_gfryioI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DBcB54IyjBA:4YJ_gfryioI:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=DBcB54IyjBA:4YJ_gfryioI:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/DBcB54IyjBA" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/whitney-tilson-cadbury-will-still-get-a-good-deal-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-amazing-corporate-anthem-of-russian-gas-giant-gazprom-2010-1 The AMAZING Corporate Anthem Of Russian Gas Giant Gazprom http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/vKffMzsm0m0/the-amazing-corporate-anthem-of-russian-gas-giant-gazprom-2010-1 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:27:00 -0500 Joe Weisenthal <p><strong>Update:</strong> A commenter reminds us we've <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lets-drink-to-all-this-russian-gas-2009-6">posted this before</a>, but you know what, we don't mind. If we had forgotten about it, then surely several readers have, too, and it's just that good.</p> <p><strong>Original post</strong>: Russian gas giant Gazprom has an amazing corporate anthem which starts with the lyrics "Don't bother trying, you'll never find a surer friend than Gazprom." It's not new, but it never gets old, and you will enjoy watching it immensely.</p> <p> <object width="425" height="344"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xGbI87tyr_4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xGbI87tyr_4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed> </object> </p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-amazing-corporate-anthem-of-russian-gas-giant-gazprom-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cramer-booyah-on-natural-gas-2010-1">You Know Natural Gas Has Gone Big Time When Cramer is All Over It</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cera-analyst-jim-osten-theres-a-permanent-oversupply-of-natural-gas-2009-12">CERA Analyst Jim Osten: There's A Permanent Oversupply Of Natural Gas</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/americas-shale-gas-revolution-threatened-by-fracking-environmentalists-2009-12">American Shale Gas Revolution Threatened By Fracking Environmentalists</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/QDtHnELFIrk_wFfnmDQbVvo34Hs/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/QDtHnELFIrk_wFfnmDQbVvo34Hs/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/QDtHnELFIrk_wFfnmDQbVvo34Hs/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/QDtHnELFIrk_wFfnmDQbVvo34Hs/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=vKffMzsm0m0:JG-CEq0E5M0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=vKffMzsm0m0:JG-CEq0E5M0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=vKffMzsm0m0:JG-CEq0E5M0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=vKffMzsm0m0:JG-CEq0E5M0:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=vKffMzsm0m0:JG-CEq0E5M0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=vKffMzsm0m0:JG-CEq0E5M0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=vKffMzsm0m0:JG-CEq0E5M0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=vKffMzsm0m0:JG-CEq0E5M0:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=vKffMzsm0m0:JG-CEq0E5M0:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/vKffMzsm0m0" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-amazing-corporate-anthem-of-russian-gas-giant-gazprom-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-goods-producing-wrokers-vs-government-payroll-2010-1 CHART OF THE DAY: How The Government Payroll Replaced Goods-Producing Jobs http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/RlEsmmLNSOI/chart-of-the-day-goods-producing-wrokers-vs-government-payroll-2010-1 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:03:00 -0500 John Carney and Kamelia Angelova <div style="float: right; margin: 15px 0 20px 20px;"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="2"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day"><img src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4a32b8394b543722009a9671" border="0" alt="button more charts" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day"><img src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4a32b8424b543722009a967a" border="0" alt="button chart prev" /></a></td> <td><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-10-year-treasury-note-2009-2009-12"><img src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4a32b84d4b543722009a9685" border="0" alt="button chart next" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p>In the just-so story of the evolution of our economy, our old manufacturing based economy has been replaced by an innovative knowledge economy. That's not quite true.</p> <p>In fact, the decline of the jobs in goods producing sectors of the economy--construction, manufacturing, mining and agriculture--has largely been met with an increase in jobs on the government payroll. We've gone from providing jobs in profit-making private industry to providing jobs in profit-eating government work. Toward the end of 2007, the total number of government jobs exceeded the total number of goods producing jobs. Welcome to the government payroll economy.</p> <p><img class="chartofTheDay" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b43aad900000000006afad2" border="0" alt="chart of the day, goods-producing workers vs. government payroll" /></p> <hr /> <h3>Get This Delivered To Your Inbox</h3> <p>You can get this dropped in your inbox every afternoon as <strong>The Chart Of The Day</strong>. It's simple. It's convenient. It's free. All we need is your email address (though we'd love your name and state, too, if you're willing to share it).  Sign up below!</p> <div style="clear: both; padding-top: 1em;"><form style="display: inline;" action="http://alleyinsider.puresendmail.com/cast/list/ListUser" method="post"> <input name="command" type="hidden" value="sub" /> <input name="lid" type="hidden" value="2226" /> <input name="vc" type="hidden" value="1144274571" /> <input name="pwv" type="hidden" value="alleysubscribe1!" /> <input name="ok" type="hidden" value="http://clusterstock.alleyinsider.com/thank-you.html" /> <input name="error" type="hidden" value="http://clusterstock.alleyinsider.com/clusterstock-newsletter-sign-up-error" /> <input name="appmsg" type="hidden" value="Message_Parameter_Name" /> <input name="this" type="hidden" value="http://clusterstock.alleyinsider.com/clusterstock-newsletter" /> <table style="width: 610px; height: 80px;" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><label style="width: 6em; float: left;">Email</label></strong><input name="email" size="30" type="text" /></td> <td><label style="width: 6em; float: left;">State</label><input name="state" size="3" type="text" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><label style="width: 6em; float: left;">First Name</label><input name="first" size="30" type="text" /></td> <td><label style="width: 6em; float: left;">Last Name</label><input name="last" size="30" type="text" /></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><input name="optin" type="hidden" value="on" /><input class="enewsbutton" type="submit" value="Sign Up" /></p> </form></div><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-goods-producing-wrokers-vs-government-payroll-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/qSEMhUCRwH9q80walXt0GzgKPNE/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/qSEMhUCRwH9q80walXt0GzgKPNE/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/qSEMhUCRwH9q80walXt0GzgKPNE/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/qSEMhUCRwH9q80walXt0GzgKPNE/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=RlEsmmLNSOI:wtuKRhv5ugY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=RlEsmmLNSOI:wtuKRhv5ugY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=RlEsmmLNSOI:wtuKRhv5ugY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=RlEsmmLNSOI:wtuKRhv5ugY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=RlEsmmLNSOI:wtuKRhv5ugY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=RlEsmmLNSOI:wtuKRhv5ugY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=RlEsmmLNSOI:wtuKRhv5ugY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=RlEsmmLNSOI:wtuKRhv5ugY:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=RlEsmmLNSOI:wtuKRhv5ugY:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/RlEsmmLNSOI" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-goods-producing-wrokers-vs-government-payroll-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/peak-oil-believers-wonder-why-every-government-ignores-them-conclude-its-due-to-a-giant-cover-up-2010-1 Peak Oil Believers Wonder Why Every Government Ignores Them, Conclude It's Due To A Giant Cover Up http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/UXv5xrrlyeo/peak-oil-believers-wonder-why-every-government-ignores-them-conclude-its-due-to-a-giant-cover-up-2010-1 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:45:00 -0500 Vincent Fernando <p><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=4b382f9f0000000000b2ae5a&maxX=400" border="0" alt="AP Sinking Oil Tanker" width="400" /></p><p>The Oil Drum hosts a research piece that wonders why peak oil isn't even discussed or worried about by energy experts in governments all around the world.</p> <p>We'd add that peak oil isn't really discussed by most energy companies around the world either when they host analyst calls or talk about their strategy.</p> <p>At least nowhere near the degree that peak oil disaster scenario believers do.</p> <p>Yet, interestingly, rather than confront their own assumption that peak oil is the global disaster they make it to be, this article at The Oil Drum ignores this and concludes that non-believers around the world are either A) suffering from psychological 'cognitive biases' or B) in it together in a giant global cover up (combining many enemy governments at odds with each other, plus competing corporations we might add).</p> <p>It seems the peak oil disaster boat is sinking. You be the judge, emphasis added:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><a href="http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6100?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theoildrum+%28The+Oil+Drum%29&utm_content=Google+Reader">The Oil Drum:</a> Anyone aware of peak oil has had to wonder (at least briefly) why the world's governments seem to be ignoring the issue.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>...</strong></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>“The growing popular debate on ‘peak oil’ has had relatively little influence on conventional policy discourse.</strong> For example, the UK government rarely mentions the issue in official publications and …..'does not feel the need to hold contingency plans specifically for the eventuality of crude oil supplies peaking between now and 2020'.”3 The report notes that “the UK is one of many countries that are failing to give serious consideration to this risk.”</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">...</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Nate Hagens has argued here “that despite facts, we exhibit certain cognitive biases that prevent us from acting on complex or frightening subjects outside of our day to day realities.”9 <strong>This category would include the notion of “cognitive dissonance” and other psychological factors that save us the trouble of facing difficult facts or “truths”, including that of our own mortality.</strong> The sheer difficulty of believing, or grasping, as consequential a figure as Hubbert's Peak, is well supported by anecdotal evidence among peak oilers who commonly report a “glazed-over” response to their efforts</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">...</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">What if the silence on peak oil is not a betrayal of national interests, but a policy choice informed by national interests? What if, with Mike Ruppert, <strong>we accept that there are “conspiracy facts”, and that the silence on peak oil is one of them? </strong></p> <p style="padding-left: 60px;">“Most people have... a serious misconception: That misconception is a belief that there is an urgent need to somehow make key decision makers and leaders of American and global life aware of the immediate problems of Peak Oil <strong>and Natural Gas</strong>. Nothing could be more off base. <strong>The world's key decision makers have been aware of and planning for this crisis for years.”</strong></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><a href="http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6100?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theoildrum+%28The+Oil+Drum%29&utm_content=Google+Reader">Read the full article at the Oil Drum and tell us if we're wrong >></a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/peak-oil-believers-wonder-why-every-government-ignores-them-conclude-its-due-to-a-giant-cover-up-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rising-oil-will-force-us-into-post-industrial-wasteland-2010-1">How Rising Oil Prices Will Force U.S. Into A Post-Industrial Wasteland</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-picks-another-fight-over-crude-oil-puts-european-supply-in-jeopardy-for-second-straight-year-2010-1">New Russian Oil Dispute With Belarus Puts European Supply In Jeopardy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-jim-oneil-easy-money-and-high-oil-prices-make-russia-the-1-bric-for-2010-2010-1">Goldman's Jim O'Neill: Easy Money And High Oil Prices Make Russia The #1 BRIC For 2010</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zqEXWhBfQoyVHVTQuK5FvxzqAJM/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zqEXWhBfQoyVHVTQuK5FvxzqAJM/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zqEXWhBfQoyVHVTQuK5FvxzqAJM/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zqEXWhBfQoyVHVTQuK5FvxzqAJM/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=UXv5xrrlyeo:BQJDsG2BKsI:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=UXv5xrrlyeo:BQJDsG2BKsI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=UXv5xrrlyeo:BQJDsG2BKsI:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=UXv5xrrlyeo:BQJDsG2BKsI:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=UXv5xrrlyeo:BQJDsG2BKsI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=UXv5xrrlyeo:BQJDsG2BKsI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=UXv5xrrlyeo:BQJDsG2BKsI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=UXv5xrrlyeo:BQJDsG2BKsI:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=UXv5xrrlyeo:BQJDsG2BKsI:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/UXv5xrrlyeo" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/peak-oil-believers-wonder-why-every-government-ignores-them-conclude-its-due-to-a-giant-cover-up-2010-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-housing-bubble-destroyed-green-and-tech-innovation-2010-1 How The Housing Bubble Destroyed Our Future http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clusterstock/~3/tGRtCk1oxQ4/how-the-housing-bubble-destroyed-green-and-tech-innovation-2010-1 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:33:00 -0500 John Carney <p><img class="float_right" src="http://static.businessinsider.com/~~/f?id=2e7a6c79e686ae4971e0dd00" border="0" alt="bubble green tbi" /></p><p>Let’s face it.<br /><br />We are in something of an innovation rut. <br /><br />We’ve been hearing about the promises of everything from mapping the human genome to nanotechnology to clean-green tech for the better part of a decade, without seeing very much by way of results.<br /><br />The venture capital community seems torn between the feeling that there are not enough truly innovative ideas to fund and the idea that there aren’t enough funds available for innovative ideas.  In a sense both are probably true since hard to come by funding discourages innovation.<br /><br />Even some of the hottest ideas in the last couple of years seem like retreads. Or, at best, old ideas that have been improved. From Dodgeball to Foursquare, from Friendster to Facebook: these aren’t so much innovations as improvements on existing models.<br /><br />What’s gone wrong? Much of the lack of innovation can probably be blamed on the malinvestment that resulted from the housing boom. It’s not just that too much funding got directed into housing—too much human capital got directed into housing and finance during the boom. <br /><br />This is all too obvious on Wall Street these days. Most financial firms, stung by the tech bust and investor fears of tech companies, shrank their operations in this sector while pouring talent and funds into housing related sectors. Many of the big names who might have mentored the next generation of tech oriented financial professionals were driven out by legal troubles stemming from the dot com bust or by the fact that their firm’s just weren’t interested in keeping them around.<br /><br />The result is that most financial firms lack the in-house expertise to invest in innovative business ventures on any meaningful scale. The credit departments don’t know how to evaluate loans to these companies, the special executions groups don’t know how to make private equity investments, investment bankers stink at pitching acquisitions, and the capital markets desks do not know how to take companies public.<br /> <br />What’s more, there was so much money to be made in derivatives and credit—largely arising from the underlying housing boom—that many of the smartest people got drawn into these areas rather than tech innovation. Basically, we got lots of questionable financial innovation instead of technological, medical, or environmental innovation.<br /><br />If all of this had worked out to make us fabulously wealthy, there might not be much to complain about. The tech, green and bio-tech communities would just sound like special interests complaining their favored projects weren’t capturing as much attention and wealth as the enthusiasts think is deserved.<br /><br />But that’s not what happened. The dearth of technological innovation is largely attributable to government regulations and a loose money policy that led to massive malinvestment. Sectors of the economy unrelated to housing were deprived of needed capital and talent, while the great quicksand of the housing boom sucked down everything.<br /><br />None of this is easily reversed. Economists point out that our economy is afflicted with what they call an “output gap”—a gap between the economic output we would be producing if growth was at normal levels and what the economy is actually producing. But this output gap isn’t only caused by “animal spirits” or temporary economic dislocations—it is the direct result of the prior “investment gap”—the gap between what we should have been investing our fortunes and time and what we actually invested in. In short, we can’t produce what we should be able to because we invested in the abilities to produce what we don’t need.<br /><br />Is there a way out? Of course.  The bursting of the housing bubble created a great opportunity to set the economy back on course. Unfortunately, our government engaged what amounted to Shock-and-Awe war against the liquidation of past errors, locking up even more capital in the errant bubble businesses. The greatest fortune of 2009 was made by a hedge fund manager who bet that all the old failures would rise again thanks to government support. <br /><br />Another couple of years like 2009 will guarantee that we keep talent and funding out of technological innovation for another generation.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-housing-bubble-destroyed-green-and-tech-innovation-2010-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p><p><b>See Also:</b></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vc-investment-in-green-tech-down-in-2009-2009-12">Green Tech VC Activity Down Big In 2009</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/friedman-lets-turn-the-government-in-to-a-vc-firm-2009-2">Friedman: Let's Turn The Government In To A VC Firm</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/clean-tech-investment-falls-off-a-cliff-in-q1-2009-4">Clean Tech VC Investment Falls Off A Cliff In Q1</a></li></ul> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/aXaV7Fx1k3Oxm08ccewMhlitqvo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/aXaV7Fx1k3Oxm08ccewMhlitqvo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/aXaV7Fx1k3Oxm08ccewMhlitqvo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/aXaV7Fx1k3Oxm08ccewMhlitqvo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=tGRtCk1oxQ4:Ff31qGCQVng:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=tGRtCk1oxQ4:Ff31qGCQVng:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=tGRtCk1oxQ4:Ff31qGCQVng:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=tGRtCk1oxQ4:Ff31qGCQVng:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=tGRtCk1oxQ4:Ff31qGCQVng:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=tGRtCk1oxQ4:Ff31qGCQVng:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?i=tGRtCk1oxQ4:Ff31qGCQVng:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=tGRtCk1oxQ4:Ff31qGCQVng:cGdyc7Q-1BI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=cGdyc7Q-1BI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?a=tGRtCk1oxQ4:Ff31qGCQVng:QXVau8BzmBE"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/clusterstock?d=QXVau8BzmBE" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/clusterstock/~4/tGRtCk1oxQ4" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-housing-bubble-destroyed-green-and-tech-innovation-2010-1