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sâmbătă, 18 iunie 2011

Weekly Address: Celebrating Fathers

Your Daily Snapshot for
Saturday, June 18, 2011

Weekly Address: Celebrating Fathers

On Father's Day weekend, President Obama reflects on his experience as a parent and discusses the challenges and necessity of being a good father.

Watch the video.

Weekly Wrap Up

Cutting Government Waste: This week the President announced a new effort to eliminate government waste and help improve government accountability.

West Wing Week: The President meets with his Jobs Council in North Carolina, tours a high-tech manufacturing facility, travels to Puerto Rico and much much more.

Happy Early Father's Day: Take a look at the revamped Fatherhood.gov, as well as the President's message of Strong Fathers, Strong Families.

There's an app for that: The EPA challenges developers to manipulate public data into a useable form - winners will be publicized on the EPA website. More info here.

Puerto Rico Trip: The President traveled to Puerto Rico, check out the video and pictures of this historic visit.

How to Make Change: This new summer series, announced by the President, delivers tangible ways that youth can be engaged on issues that matter to them. Contact the Young American Outreach Team.

Toomanywebsites.gov: With almost 2,000 separate websites across the Federal Government, Americans often don't know where to turn for information. One of the first steps of the Campaign to Cut Waste which will target duplication and waste among federal websites.

#YoungAfrica: The First Lady travels to Africa countries in her continued effort to engage youth, particularly young women, at home and abroad. Start following the trip using the hash tag #YoungAfrica!

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Seth's Blog : Excuses are easy to find (but worthless)

Excuses are easy to find (but worthless)

Even good excuses, really good ones, don't help very much.

Explanations, on the other hand, are both scarce and useful.

And accurate forecasts and insightful intuition are priceless.

• Email to a friend •

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Everyone at Kmart Now an Appliance Expert as Company Fires 700 Dedicated Specialists
Bond Market Rejects Greek Solution Already
Merkel Wimps Out, Agrees to Laughable "Voluntary" Solution to Mess in Greece; Four Things to Expect Shortly

Everyone at Kmart Now an Appliance Expert as Company Fires 700 Dedicated Specialists

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 11:56 AM PDT

As part of the ongoing service reduction in retail stores in general, Kmart is firing 700 dedicated appliance department workers.

There is of course "good news" as well.

Every cashier and salesperson will now be "trained" to answer appliance questions. If that fails, customers can dial an 800 number, likely answered by a "trained" expert in India.

Please consider Kmart lays off 700 appliance workers

The parent of Kmart stores is laying off 700 employees working in Kmart's appliance departments as it changes how the stores sell refrigerators, ovens and other appliances.

Kmart spokesman Chris Brathwaite says the move will allow customers to check out appliances at any register rather than going to a dedicated register for appliances. But there also won't be any specialized appliance-only staff people on hand near appliances. Instead, all Kmart staffers are being trained to answer questions about appliances.

There will also be a 1-800 number customers can call for help.

I have a better idea. Kmart should get out of the appliance business altogether.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Bond Market Rejects Greek Solution Already

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 11:01 AM PDT

If the "Vienna-Style" Agreement between Trichet, Sarkozy, and Merkel was a genuine solution to the crisis in Greece, sovereign debt yields would be falling sharply across Europe.

Instead, yields in Portugal are up, and yields in Spain, Italy, and Ireland are only slightly lower.

Spain 10-Year Government Bond Yield Down .08 to 5.57%

Portugal 10-Year Government Bond Yield Up .04 to 10.91%

Italy 10-Year Government Bond Yield Down .03 to 4.82%

Ireland 10-Year Government Bond Yield Down .17 to 11.39%

Action in Greek 2-Year Bonds

After falling as "low" as 27.52% 2-year Greek bonds closed at 28.79%.

Market Laughs at "Solution"

The bond market laughs at the proposed solution to the Greek crisis, and so do I.

Please see Merkel Wimps Out, Agrees to Laughable "Voluntary" Solution to Mess in Greece; Four Things to Expect Shortly for details of the alleged "solution".

Four Things to Expect

Expect the market to call another can-kicking bluff as early as next week.
Expect more pompous foolery from Trichet and Sarkozy.
Expect Merkel to take another well-deserved election pounding in September.
The main thing to expect is for the market to start demanding involuntary haircuts on the debt of Portugal, Ireland, then Spain and Italy.

In the next phase of the crisis (which can happen as soon as Monday), expect to see yields shoot up in Spain and Italy.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Merkel Wimps Out, Agrees to Laughable "Voluntary" Solution to Mess in Greece; Four Things to Expect Shortly

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 09:00 AM PDT

The Euro is up sharply today on news of a "solution" that allegedly involves "voluntary" rollover of Greek bonds by private investors.

The whole world knows there is nothing voluntary about it. Moody's has even stated it will not be considered voluntary. However, such details do not stop stubborn fools like ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet and French president Nicolas Sarkozy from insisting they can dictate solutions to the market.

On the "news" which everyone knew was coming, 2-year Greek bonds fell to 27.52% from 29.69% but are now trading at 28.03%.

Merkel Wimps Out

As we all knew she would Merkel caved in to demands from Sarkozy and the ECB. Whether or not the German parliament will go along remains to be seen.

Bets are also off if Greek Prime minister George Papandreou does not survive an upcoming "vote of confidence". If Papandreou hangs on, it will be by 1-3 votes out of 300, hardly confidence inspiring.

One way or another, Papandreou will not survive this fiasco. The only question is whether he is booted out sooner rather than later.

Please consider Merkel Agrees to Voluntary Greece Bondholder Role

Chancellor Angela Merkel retreated from German demands that bondholders be forced to shoulder a "substantial" share of a Greek rescue, saying she'll work with the European Central Bank to avoid disrupting markets.

"We would like to have a participation of private creditors on a voluntary basis," Merkel told reporters in Berlin today at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. This "should be worked out jointly with the ECB and there shouldn't be any dispute with the ECB on this."

Merkel declined to give a date for the package to be worked out, saying the matter must be resolved "as quickly as possible." European finance ministers next meet on Greece in Luxembourg on June 19-20, followed by a Brussels summit of European Union leaders on June 23-24.

"The aim is involvement of the private sector on a voluntary basis and for that the Vienna Initiative, as it's called, is a good basis," Merkel said. "I think we can achieve something on this basis." A rollover involves reinvesting the proceeds from maturing bonds in new securities.

Echoing the Vienna plan, used during the financial crisis of 2009 for eastern European units of banks to maintain their exposure, would involve encouraging creditors to roll over expiring bonds, buying time for Greece until its austerity program shows results or until a permanent ESM rescue fund kicks in from mid-2013.

"This is a breakthrough," Sarkozy said. "Finally we have found a solution for an involvement of the private sector on a voluntary basis," he said. "What we decided just now is precisely in the spirit of what was decided in Vienna."

Merkel now faces the task of convincing her own coalition and the public that private investors can be swayed to share the burden in Greece with taxpayers. After a pounding in five state elections this year and facing another two votes in September, ruling lawmakers have shown little appetite for backing down.

Four Things to Expect

Expect the market to call another can-kicking bluff as early as next week.
Expect more pompous foolery from Trichet and Sarkozy.
Expect Merkel to take another well-deserved election pounding in September.
The main thing to expect is for the market to start demanding involuntary haircuts on the debt of Portugal, Ireland, then Spain and Italy.

Nothing Solved by Pompous Foolery

It is amazing to watch German chancellor Merkel wimp out time and time again to French president Sarkozy.

Not a damn thing has been solved by this exercise in pompous foolery by Trichet and Sarkozy. The structural problems all remain.

Running Greek Recap

IMF Commits More Money: IMF "Ready and Willing" to Throw Away More Money; 10 Point Summary of Sorry State of Affairs; Market Repeatedly Calls Foolish Bluffs by IMF, ECB

Investors Bet on Accident: 2-Year Greek Bond Yield Hits 28.15%; Investors Bet on Prospect of 'Greek Accident'

Papandreou's Days Numbered: Riots Images from Greece; Prime Minister to Reshuffle Greek Cabinet, Seek Vote of Confidence on New Government

Papandreou Offers to Resign: Opposition Tells Greek Prime Minister to Step Down; Papandreou Offers to Resign With Strings Attached

Emergency Session Fails: ECB Divorced From Reality; What is US Exposure to EU Mess?

Irish Finance Minister Flip-Flop: Yesterday Noonan Vowed to Screw Irish Taxpayers; Today Seeks Haircuts on Senior Irish Bonds; Lessons From Iceland

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Anti-Gravity Dancing

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 10:12 PM PDT

Whee! Four skydivers do a choreographed dance in the Skydive Arena wind tunnel in Prague, Czech Republic. The music is "Fot i Hose" by Casiokids.

Photographs Of Old America

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 09:21 PM PDT

Charles W. Cushman is an American amateur photographer who graduated on Indiana University. His photo galleries included more than 14.5 million color negatives made by Kodak camera, in which he documented the life around him from year 1938 to year 1969. He photographed everything: cities, landscapes, houses, people, cars, animals, trees, toys.

The Greatest Mullets Ever

Posted: 16 Jun 2011 08:04 PM PDT

The Mullet A.K.A. ape drape, beaver paddle, bi-level, Camaro cut, business in the front party in the back, Canadian passport, al-camino, hockey hair, Kentucky waterfall, Missouri compromise, mudflap, neck warmer, ranchero, shlong (short+long), achy-breaky-big-mistakey, soccer rocker, squirrel pelt, Tennessee tophat, and a yep-nope, call it whatever you like, but IT became popular somewhere around 80s' and even then it was terrible. Even Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing barely manages to pull that look off and not look completely ridiculous. But, apparently, there are people who find this extremely attractive. Meet them!