May 14 2012
The Atrios school of blogging.
JPMorgan Unit’s London Staff May Go as Loss Prompts Exits
By Dawn Kopecki, Bloomberg News
May 13, 2012 8:45 PM ET
The entire London staff of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s chief investment office is at risk of dismissal as a $2 billion trading loss prompts the first executive departures as soon as this week, a person familiar with the situation said.
May 14 2012
Maybe it’s time to go to another bar.
No more bets for Greek euro exit
Athens News
10 May 2012
Want a flutter on Greece leaving the euro zone? It may already be too late. A surge in bets has forced Britain’s biggest bookmakers William Hill Plc and Ladbrokes Plc to suspend betting on the odds of Greece dropping out.
…
“It is safer for us to suspend betting than to keep cutting the odds,” a spokesman for Ladbrokes said. “We have been slashing the odds repeatedly over the last few days.”Ladbrokes is still taking bets on the Greek stock market losing more than 25 percent of its value in a single day’s trading by the end of 2012.
And if you fear Greece is just the beginning of the end for the European single currency, Ladbrokes is offering odds on the euro ceasing to exist by the end of 2012, which would make punters 33 times their original stake.
Ladbrokes is offering odds of 5/6 that the euro will cease to exist by the end of 2015 and 4/1 on two or more states to leave the euro by the end of the year.
William Hill, however, has closed betting on the euro still being in existence by the end of 2015 – a possibility it sees as closely linked to what is happening in Greece – with the latest odds before suspension at 4/6 in favour and 11/10 against.
(h/t Calculated Risk)
(h/t Matt Taibbi, 991 views)
Jamie’s Cryin: Dimon, J.P. Morgan Chase Lose $2 Billion
Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
POSTED: May 11, 10:48 AM ET
This incident is certain to reignite the debate about Dodd-Frank and may undermine the broad effort to roll back the bill, which we wrote about in the latest issue of the magazine. Staffers on the Hill started mobilizing the instant the Chase news hit the airwaves yesterday, and you can bet we’ll hear more debate in the next few months about not only the Volcker Rule but the Lincoln Rule, which was designed to wall off risky swaps from the federally-insured side of these banks. I’ve heard from all sides today, with some thinking the Chase trade was Dodd-Frank compliant, and others saying it probably violated both the Volcker and the Lincoln rules.
Either way, the incident underscored the basic problem. If J.P. Morgan Chase wants to act like a crazed cowboy hedge fund and make wild exacta bets on the derivatives market, they should be welcome to do so. But they shouldn’t get to do it with cheap cash from the Fed’s discount window, and they shouldn’t get to do it with money from the federally-insured bank accounts of teachers, firemen and other such real people. It’s a simple concept: you either get to be a bank, or you get to be a casino. But you can’t be both. If we don’t have rules to enforce that concept, we ought to get some.
212 views.
China’s Big Banks Look More Like Paper Tigers
By Jonathan Weil, Bloomberg News
May 10, 2012 7:00 PM ET
After spending time combing through the financial reports of China’s biggest publicly traded, state- owned banks, I now understand what Jim Chanos, the famous short- seller, means when he keeps saying they are “built on quicksand.” He’s definitely on to something.
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In a Bloomberg Television interview last week, Chanos said “the Chinese banks ought to be sending a thank-you note to Greece and Spain every month for keeping them out of the limelight.” It’s anyone’s guess how long they will stay this way.
May 14 2012
Before we get started, please allow me to wish all of the mums, grandmums, greatgrandmums, greatgreatgrandmums, and, often neglected, adoptive and foster mums out there a very HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! I just got off of the telephone with the former Mrs. Translator after wishing her the same. I would have wished my mum and grandmum that as well, but they are no longer in the temporal plane. I did give a card to my special friend since she has a little girl.
Like my current series about The Moody Blues on Popular Culture, this topic was suggested by my very dear high school buddy Steve Ahlert. (He approved of me using his name.) Steve and I sort of lost contact for a while, but now we speak almost every day. I LOVE my Straight Talk unlimited everything, $45 per month plan and my Samsung T528G!
Steve uses melatonin to help him sleep, and it is very effective for him. Now, Steve is not some new age trend follower. Actually he is a professional pharmacist, and is the best pharmacist insofar as knowing his area of expertise that I have ever known. Equally important, the way that he deals with his patients is outstanding. He has a knack for translating highly technical information to whatever level is necessary for people to understand what they need to do.
Melatonin is interesting because what has turned out to be sort of an incidental effect gave it its name. It is also interesting from a molecular structure/activity standpoint because it is chemically related to a whole host of psychologically active agents. Let us examine this interesting substance.
May 14 2012
Practically since the modern social safety net was created wealthy, powerful right-wingers and organizations have been trying to kill it. In recent years, those right wing forces have had a lot of help from Democrats in making their twisted dreams a reality. Organizations like the billionaire Koch family created and funded Cato Institute and hedge fund billionaire Peter Peterson’s namesake foundation have led the fight against Social Security.
The extreme right wing’s attacks and deceptive campaigns over the course of decades are now close to fruition with the help of neoliberal Democrats.
President Obama has come very close to helping right-wingers realize their long-desired goal; only the incredible intransigence of congressional Republicans has saved the social safety net thus far.
May 14 2012
May 14 2012
Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
Back in the 29 Nov 2009 Sunday Train, Frequency and Waiting on a Train, I reacted to a point made in John McCommon’s book, Waiting on a Train:
“Once those intermodal trains can go through Stampede Pass, it will take some traffic off the main line and free up more room for additional passenger trains,” said Uznanski.
By bringing the number of trains up to eight a day between Vancouver and Portland, ridership and ticket revenue will increase significantly. Currently ticket sales – what is known as farebox – cover 43% of the Amtrak Cascades’ operating expenses; the state subsidizes the remainder. Run eight trains daily, however, the farebox recovery goes up to 70%.
It’s all about frequency. When trains are frequency and convenient, ridership – particularly business travel – grows dramatically, said Uznanski.
It was a mantra I was to hear from experts all across the country – frequency builds ridership and only frequency significantly builds farebox recovery. Sure its great to have trains running more than 100mph in a corridor, but if there are only a couple of trains a day, they just aren’t convenient enough to move people off the highway or away from the airport.
– John McCommons, Waiting on a Train, Chelsea Green Publishing: Vermont, p. 51
This came back to mind when I was thinking last week about the “Cornhusker Rocket” proposal to reintroduce regular corridor service between Omaha and Chicago via Des Moines, Iowa City and the Quad Cities. Often times, a substantial benefit in getting train speeds up is that ability to operate more services per day with the same number of trains.
May 13 2012
Minorities use black hole time travel for revenge, strokes suddenly turn people gay, and a zoo is nothing but monkey prison.
Whatever you do Do Not Google “Gay Tail Spin“.
May 13 2012
This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.
Find the past “On This Day in History” here.
Click on images to enlarge
May 13 is the 133rd day of the year (134th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 232 days remaining until the end of the year.
On this day in 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico in a dispute over Texas. The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly votes in favor of President James K. Polk‘s request.
The Mexican-American War (or Mexican War) was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution.
The Mexican government had long warned the United States that annexation would mean war. Because the Mexican congress had refused to recognize Texan independence, Mexico saw Texas as a rebellious territory that would be retaken. Britain and France, which recognized the independence of Texas, repeatedly tried to dissuade Mexico from declaring war. When Texas joined the U.S. as a state in 1845, the Mexican government broke diplomatic relations with the U.S.
The Texan claim to the Rio Grande boundary had been omitted from the annexation resolution to help secure passage after the annexation treaty failed in the Senate. President Polk claimed the Rio Grande boundary, and this provoked a dispute with Mexico. In June 1845, Polk sent General Zachary Taylor to Texas, and by October 3,500 Americans were on the Nueces River, prepared to defend Texas from a Mexican invasion. Polk wanted to protect the border and also coveted the continent clear to the Pacific Ocean. Polk had instructed the Pacific naval squadron to seize the California ports if Mexico declared war while staying on good terms with the inhabitants. At the same time he wrote to Thomas Larkin, the American consul in Monterey, disclaiming American ambitions but offering to support independence from Mexico or voluntary accession to the U.S., and warning that a British or French takeover would be opposed.
To end another war-scare (Fifty-Four Forty or Fight) with Britain over Oregon Country, Polk signed the Oregon Treaty dividing the territory, angering northern Democrats who felt he was prioritizing Southern expansion over Northern expansion.
In the winter of 1845-46, the federally commissioned explorer John C. Fremont and a group of armed men appeared in California. After telling the Mexican governor and Larkin he was merely buying supplies on the way to Oregon, he instead entered the populated area of California and visited Santa Cruz and the Salinas Valley, explaining he had been looking for a seaside home for his mother. The Mexican authorities became alarmed and ordered him to leave. Fremont responded by building a fort on Gavilan Peak and raising the American flag. Larkin sent word that his actions were counterproductive. Fremont left California in March but returned to California and assisted the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma, where many American immigrants stated that they were playing “the Texas game” and declared California’s independence from Mexico.
On November 10, 1845, Polk sent John Slidell, a secret representative, to Mexico City with an offer of $25 million ($632,500,000 today) for the Rio Grande border in Texas and Mexico’s provinces of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico. U.S. expansionists wanted California to thwart British ambitions in the area and to gain a port on the Pacific Ocean. Polk authorized Slidell to forgive the $3 million ($76 million today) owed to U.S. citizens for damages caused by the Mexican War of Independence and pay another $25 to $30 million ($633 million to $759 million today) in exchange for the two territories.
Mexico was not inclined nor able to negotiate. In 1846 alone, the presidency changed hands four times, the war ministry six times, and the finance ministry sixteen times. However, Mexican public opinion and all political factions agreed that selling the territories to the United States would tarnish the national honor. Mexicans who opposed direct conflict with the United States, including President José Joaquin de Herrera, were viewed as traitors. Military opponents of de Herrera, supported by populist newspapers, considered Slidell’s presence in Mexico City an insult. When de Herrera considered receiving Slidell to settle the problem of Texas annexation peacefully, he was accused of treason and deposed. After a more nationalistic government under General Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga came to power, it publicly reaffirmed Mexico’s claim to Texas; Slidell, convinced that Mexico should be “chastised”, returned to the U.S.
May 13 2012
Ok, on the Irony Board (like that? I just made it up) this doesn’t sir pass (look, another punny) Colin Powell, Village Liar defending his UN/WMD speech, but Schumacher didn’t even bother to go out in Q3 so he could save tires.
Or you could call it the courage of his convictions.
Does it sound early to you? I actually kind of hate the European starts more because I have to get up instead of going to bed late and it interrupts my nightmares about people behaving in un-professional manners.
Like you’ve never had one.
Any who today’s grid is full of surprises and it’s likely to end the same way because Circuit de Catalunya is not renowned for passing opportunity which is good for Lewis except for Team McLaren’s history of abject failure when in positions of advantage.
Remind you of anybody?
Oh man, more coffee- let’s bury the lede not praise it. Hamilton starts from the back because of a fueling violation.
Formula One: Hamilton stripped of pole for Spanish Grand Prix
Daily Times, A New Voice For A New Pakistan
Sunday, May 13, 2012
“A team member had put an insufficient quantity of fuel into the car thereby resulting in the car having to be stopped on the circuit in order to be able to provide the required amount for sampling purposes,” a statement said. “As the amount of fuel put into the car is under the complete control of the competitor the stewards cannot accept this as a case of force majeure. “The stewards determined this is a breach of article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One technical regulations and the competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the qualifying session,” the FIA statement read. “The competitor is however allowed to start the race from the back of the grid.” No driver has won in 21 years of the Spanish Grand Prix being held in Barcelona from lower than third place on the grid. A McLaren spokesman said the team accepted “the stewards did not agree with our interpretation of force majeure. Our aim is now to maximise the points we can score tomorrow.”
Scrambled tables below-
May 13 2012
U.S. May Scrap Costly Efforts to Train Iraqi Police
By TIM ARANGO
Published: May 13, 2012BAGHDAD – In the face of spiraling costs and Iraqi officials who say they never wanted it in the first place, the State Department has slashed – and may jettison entirely by the end of the year – a multibillion-dollar police training program that was to have been the centerpiece of a hugely expanded civilian mission here.
What was originally envisioned as a training cadre of about 350 American law enforcement officers was quickly scaled back to 190 and then to 100. The latest restructuring calls for 50 advisers, but most experts and even some State Department officials say even they may be withdrawn by the end of this year.The training effort, which began in October and has already cost $500 million, was conceived of as the largest component of a mission billed as the most ambitious American aid effort since the Marshall Plan.
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