Big banks in the U.S. say they’re on the mend. The five largest were profitable in the first quarter, rebounding from record losses for the industry in the fourth quarter. Share prices have jumped, with the KBW Bank Index doubling since March 6.Wait, it still might get worse? I was fucking leading the diminished expectations of happiness parade in the previous post! Thanks for the heads up, now I look like a jackass.
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The revival may be short-lived. Analysts who have examined the quarterly profits and government tests say that accounting rule changes and rosy assumptions are making the institutions look healthier than they are.
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Citigroup’s $1.6 billion in first-quarter profit would vanish if accounting were more stringent, says Martin Weiss of Weiss Research Inc. in Jupiter, Florida. “The big banks’ profits were totally bogus,” says Weiss, whose 38-year-old firm rates financial companies. “The new accounting rules, the stress tests: They’re all part of a major effort to put lipstick on a pig.”
Further deterioration of loans will eventually force banks to recognize losses that their bookkeeping lets them ignore for now, says David Sherman, an accounting professor at Northeastern University in Boston. Janet Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance Inc. in Chicago, says the government stress scenarios underestimate how bad the economy may get.
Some 345,000 jobs were lost last month, a stark figure, but one that represented the smallest number of monthly job losses since last September, the Labor Department reported. Economists said the figures showed the government’s efforts to prop up the economy were beginning to have an effect.Whoa whoa, whoa Mr. Chief Economist in Charge of Parade Raining and Punchbowl Turdification, you take that negative attitude and cram it where the sun don't shine. I'm not expecting you to get overly excited or throw a parade, but let's get real here: we have seemingly avoided total ruin, will not have to choose which one of our loved ones to eat and which one to burn for warmth, and we will not have to do battle in Thunderdome or any dome of any kind. How about a little recognition. Geez, who knew that economists weren't the life of a party?
But in a sign of the recession’s worsening toll, the unemployment rate climbed to 9.4 percent, its highest point in 26 years. The rate — a measure of jobless people looking for work — rose more than expected, partly because more people were resuming the hunt for a job.
Economists were encouraged that businesses were cutting fewer jobs, but six million jobs have now disappeared since the recession began in December 2007, and 14.5 million people are now unemployed. They warned that job losses were likely to pile up through the rest of the year as the country’s labor market bottomed out.
“These are still terrible numbers,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief United States economist at High Frequency Economics. “We’re a million miles away from a recovery.”
AKIN: This whole thing strikes me, if it weren’t so serious, as being a comedy, you know. I mean, we just went from winter to spring. In Missouri when we go from winter to spring, that’s a good climate change. I don’t want to stop that climate change you know. Who in the world want to put politicians in charge of the weather anyways? What a dumb idea.For the Coup de grace he laid out the crack science squad he's put together for the expressed purpose of stopping Nancy Pelosi from eradicating Autumn.
We’ve been joined by another doctor, a medical doctor but also a guy who graduated from high school science as well, from Georgia, my good friend, Congressman Gingrey. … So to have actually a guy who’s passed high school science is tremendously helpful.A guy who passed high school science in Georgia. Take that scientists, what with your fancy doctorates and Bunsen burners. I bet you didn't even go to school in Georgia!
Activists Stunned At Pat Buchanan's Racial TiradesReally? I know we all marveled at how Crazy Uncle Pat was able to tamp down his desire to start dropping the N-Bomb so he could provide cogent political analysis of John McCain's imminent electoral death during the election, but did we all really think he was going to be able to resist the siren call of "Latin woman on the Supreme Court" and not immediately revert back to the Classic Buchanan America fell in love with?
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell for a third straight week last week, government data showed on Thursday, indicating some loss of force in the pace of the labor market's deterioration.Productivity even rose 1.6%. Seems like this horrific financial apocalypse is going to avoid that whole apocalypse. Which is a little disappointing as I have all these canned goods, bullets, and just finished armoring up a Daewoo Lanos for raiding purposes. But it is good news for the country...as long as you squint your eyes a bit and try not to focus your mind on the fact that over half a million people still lost their jobs last month. Sure, these are still horrifying figures, but they need to be put in context. Soon we'll be into the heady territory of "only 300,000 people lost their jobs this month" and maybe even within six months we'll be down to a point where the Obama Administration can give us the individual names of the dozen or so people who lost their jobs. Then we can start the task of rebuilding our shattered society and taking down all the razor wire and road barriers we put up, "just in case."
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 621,000 in the week ended May 30, the Labor Department said. The week covered the Memorial Day holiday, which could have had an impact on the data.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new claims slipping to 620,000 from a previously reported count of 623,000.
The number of people staying on the benefit rolls after collecting an initial week of aid fell 15,000 to 6.74 million in the week ended May 23, the latest week for which the data is available.
This was the first time that so-called continued claims have declined since the week of January 3 and was also the first time in 17 weeks that they did not set a record. That held the insured unemployment rate at 5.0 percent.
I am become Ghost Slug, Destroyer of Wales"Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth's species is," Quentin Wheeler, an entomologist and director of the International Institute of Species Exploration (IISE) at Arizona State University in Tempe, said in a statement. "We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted," he continued.Scientific American is running photos and descriptions of their top 10, including Selenochlamys ysbryda (pictured above), a white slug native to Wales that uses rows of long, bladelike teeth to devour earthworms. That's right -- we're wiping out hippos and lions like there's a fucking prize at the finish but we haven't found a way to eradicate carnivorous Welsh snails.
My initial reaction was strong and direct -- perhaps too strong and too direct. The sentiment struck me as racist and I said so. Since then, some who want to have an open and honest consideration of Judge Sotomayor's fitness to serve on the nation's highest court have been critical of my word choice.Yeah, I guess when your comments find you echoing the words of Tom Tancredo and allowing David Duke to re-enter the stage and throw his two cents into the political debate probably caused Newt to reassess some things. Like how far he's sunk and whether he's too old to get married for a fourth time. But only after he stopped crying and took the gun out of his mouth.
With these critics who want to have an honest conversation, I agree. The word "racist" should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person, even if her words themselves are unacceptable.
Bin Laden is heard on the tape warning Americans that they will reap the consequences of Mr Obama's anti-Muslim policies.Doesn't sound like his heart is in it. Plus he's blaming Obama for stuff he hasn't even had a chance to do yet. I mean I'm starting to think that his criticisms of America aren't empirically or factually based and might just be knee jerk analysis in an attempt to fear monger/hold on to power. I don't know where he's going with that crop reference though. True, like corn, the Government has over-subsidized and over-spent on making Muslim hatred of the West widely available and cheap. But we have not yet found a way to use up all that Muslim hatred by feeding it to our livestock and using it to sweeten our sodas.
"Obama and his administration have planted seeds for hatred and revenge against America," says the fugitive leader of the al-Qaeda terror movement.
He condemned America's support for the Pakistan army campaign against the Taliban in the Swat region, which has displaced 2.4 million people.
“He has followed the steps of his predecessor in antagonising Muslims... and laying the foundation for long wars. Let the American people prepare to harvest the crops of what the leaders of the White House plant in the next years and decades."
"Skeptics say that despite the government's pledge to stay out of the way, the process is going to get messy.That's right, with GM set to shutter 12 to 20 factories, Lamar is already worried about where the next factory is going to be built. Not only that, but he's worried that where to place this fictional new factory in some far flung future has already been irrevocably politicized by the Obama Administration. That son of a bitch Barack might not even want to build plants in Lamar's home state of Tennessee. He'll probably politicize things further by building these fictional plants in places like Michigan or even Detroit.
'I think where GM builds its next plant is going to be more of a political decision than a business decision," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Republican from western Michigan. "For the foreseeable future, these car companies will be run by the Obama administration, and it will not be arm's length.'"
"On the question of whether or not Iraq was involved in 9-11, there was never any evidence to prove that," he told the "On The Record" host in a joint interview with his daughter Liz. "There was "some reporting early on ... but that was never borne out," Cheney said.You know,that would have been a nice thing to mention when you were mentioning there was solid evidence to prove Iraq and al-Qaeda were working together. That "reporting early on" was you. What tipped you off? Was it the complete lack of evidence or the fact that you spent all that time waterboarding prisoners to find out what the connection was and they never gave you anything good? Thanks for finally coming to the conclusion six years, two wars, thousands of lives, and a couple hundred billion dollars later.
CHENEY: You know, Dick Clarke. Dick Clarke, who was the head of the counterrorism program in the run-up to 9/11. He obviously missed it. The fact is that we did what we felt we had to do, and if I had to do it all over again, I would do exactly the same thing.That's right, he's blaming Richard Clarke for 9/11. That's the same Richard Clarke who was trying to convince them to focus on terrorism while they were focused on missile defense. The same Richard Clarke who couldn't get a meeting with the Bush Administration. The same Richard Clarke who sent countless memos and e-mails to Cheney and guys like Cheney with titles like “Bin Laden and Associates Making Near-Term Threats”. The same Clarke whose 2000-01 terrorism plan languished inside the Bush bureaucracy. The same 9/11 that happened 8 months into the Bush Administration's reign. Clearly Richard Clarke's fault and not the guys who wouldn't listen to him.
Asked if “some form of legalized marriage” was “inevitable in the United States,” Cheney said that “freedom means freedom for everyone.” “I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish,” said Cheney, adding that believes marriage should be regulated at the state level.See...wait. He just said something I agreed with. Getting dizzy...head spinning....world collapsing....urge to vomit increasing....
Having sent the Iranian people a video greeting on their New Year, President Obama is now inviting them to help celebrate a quintessentially American holiday, the Fourth of July.This ought to really help. I see something like...the Iranian representative taking a bite into a hot dog (with all the fixins) when the Israeli rep sneaks up and says "You know those are Kosher", before they both share a laugh. Then the Iranian rep playfully drives the Israeli rep into the sea salt flavored kettle chips, then they embrace. Then we join the embrace. Then the party runs out of beer, but it's OK because someones goes out to get more. Then peace.
Last Friday, the State Department sent a cable to its embassies and consulates around the world notifying them that “they may invite representatives from the government of Iran” to their Independence Day celebrations — annual receptions that typically feature hot dogs, red-white-and-blue bunting and some perfunctory remarks about the founding fathers.
“Limbaugh, a recent addict to illegal drugs, has no business making personal attacks against me for my past,” Duke said. “I have consistently supported true equal rights, stating again and again that I support the best-qualified person regardless of race in hiring and promotions.”Ouch, cheap shotted by a KKK Grand Wizard. Nice sentiment though, Dave. Strike that, it would have been nice had you not then immediately parroted Tom Tancredo's lies about Sotomayor and La Raza before claiming that affirmative action is racist. Or that whole part where you claimed Sotomayor was part of a Jewish conspiracy to "control any person who is influential or who may at some point in the future become influential.”
In front of a packed audience tonight at the Times Center in New York City, General Ricardo Sanchez, the former commander of all coalition forces in Iraq, called for a truth commission to investigate the abuses and torture which occurred there.As if we need another reason to fully explore to what extent we defecated on the founding fathers, our Constitution, and the Geneva Conventions, there is one added bonus to having a Truth Commission: irony will finally be killed for good when guys like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld go to something called a "Truth Commission", where there are no repercussions/prosecutions for telling the truth, and will proceed to lie their asses off. Sure, sure, wiretapping, torture, rendition, blah blah blah. But also: world record attempts at bullshitting and obfuscation. The Scumbag Liar Olympics. We need this for truth, but mostly for comedy.
The General described the failures at all levels of civilian and military command that led to the abuses in Iraq, "and that is why I support the formation of a truth commission."
The General went on to say that, "during my time in Iraq there was not one instance of actionable intelligence that came out of these interrogation techniques."..."If we do not find out what happened," continued the General, "then we are doomed to repeat it."
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Senator Patrick Leahy has called for a truth commission on the abuses in Iraq and set up a website to collect online signatures in support of the framework -- www.BushTruthCommission.com. More than 113,000 people have signed so far since the site's launch in February of this year.
President Obama will push General Motors into bankruptcy protection on Monday, making a risky bet that by temporarily nationalizing the onetime icon of American capitalism, he can save at least a diminished automaker that is competitive.But that's only the beginning, what's next? Well first the government is going to buy 60% of GM, then they're going to engage in the complex procedure of moving the company five miles down the road to hide from the creditors. No, seriously. They're going to create a new GM which will buy all the assets it needs to run from the old GM. As for the assets they don't need, those will be taken out to sea on a barge and sunk. Old GM is so poorly structured that they aren't even going to bother trying to change things, they have to invent a new company.
The bankruptcy is a moment of reckoning for an industry that was once at the heart of the American economy. The process began early Monday with a bankruptcy filing by a G.M. affiliate, a dealership in New York City, which described the automaker as “a debtor in possession under Chapter 11.”
The move by a New York affiliate will enable G.M. itself to file its own bankruptcy petition in New York. It was expected to do so shortly, along with dozens of related companies.
