[Marxism] Yesterday's News

["S. Artesian" <sartesian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I follow,  besides the offical websites for economic performance and 
statistics-- OECD, FRB, BEA, Dept. of Commerce, EU, WB, IMF, FAO, UN-ECLAC, 
ADB, IABRD  ad nauseum, the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times daily, 
keeping notebooks on interesting, important, humorous, unbelievable items 
there reported.  Usually it takes me 3 months to fill a 96 page, 21X29 
centimeter French Calligraphe or Clairefontaine notebook.  Since July 2007, 
I can barely make it through a month before starting a new book.  The news 
is just that --thick-- and juicy.

So... I though I might share some of the things I think are of importance 
with the list-- with a 1 or 2 day time lag.

Hopefully of some interest:

Financial Times:

1.Public sector employment pension funds lost 9% of their value in the first 
2 months of 2009 on top of a 30% loss for all of 2008 [total decline is 
about 37%].  There is no federal coverage, through the PBGC, of these 
pensions for state and city employees.  "There is a massive underfunding 
problem."-- chairman, NJ pension fund.

2. A US investment fund, Elliott Associates, has successfully frozen 
Argentina's assets in France, claiming it is owed more than $1 billion by 
the govt. as a result of the sovereign debt default in 2001.    Nestor, I'm 
with you [on this and the Malvinas, at least].  Release these funds 
immediately.

3. The reporter who threw his shoes at Bush in Iraq had his sentence reduced 
to 1 year.  Release this reporter in Iraq and Argentina's funds in France 
immediately.   This man is the only journalist to strike a blow for the 
integrity of the vocation in years.

4. Germany-- the euro 2500 bonus the govt. promised purchasers of new cars 
is presenting a budget problem for the govt. as it appears to be more 
successful than ever imagined.  Particpation is 2 to 3 times the expected 
level and threatens to create a funding gap in the budget.  Car sales were 
up 11.9% in Germany in February.  Prompting-- NOW GET THIS, and ECONOMIST, 
but not just any economist, an ECONOMIST from CITIGROUP, and not just from 
any Citigroup, but an ECONOMIST from CITIGROUP in LONDON to question the 
"rationality" of the German car buying public:  "It seems Germans are so 
obsessed with tax advantages, they are no longer acting rationally."  You 
cannot make this up.

WSJ 4/8:

1. Treasury extends TARP coverage to life insurance companies.  Life 
Insurance companies had previously purchased Savings & Loans so they could 
use them as cover to enter the TARP program.  Treasury now is proposing TARP 
coverage to life insurers with or without S &L  beards.   Why not?  Life 
insurers own 18% of all US corporate bonds, and are in a bit of trouble 
meeting annuity obligations.  Next?  Hell, why not just have the Treasury by 
the S&P 500 index, all the time, on upticks only?

2. Cash balances on bank balance sheets have tripled year-over-year 
[actually if you look at the amounts the FRB is reporting as reserves, the 
figure is closer to 10X since mid 2007].  Indicates that banks aren't 
exactly out there lending.  In Feb 2009, bank loans and leases grew at 2.86% 
annual rate, the lowest rate since September 2002-- near the low point of 
the last recession.

3. Swiss bankers avoid international travel-- fear of indictment and arrest 
in the US.

4. Maritime shipping companies are in the "go slow" mode.  Maersk, world's 
largest, is making the return trip from Asia via rounding the Cape of Good 
Hope, adding 5500 miles to the route, but avoiding $600,000 in tolls for 
using the Suez Canal.  Oil costs would have to rise to more than $100/barrel 
to jusify the Suez route.   Maersk also has slowed avg speeds to 10 knots, 
reducing fuel consumption by 60% saving $5000 day.

And... after receiving 87 new vessels in the last 2 years, Maersk still has 
49 ships on order-- can you say "overproduction"?  It's new flag ship, the 
Eugen Maersk, has a capacity of 11,000 20 feet containers [known in the 
business as TEUs] but is operating usually at less than half capacity.

5. Bankruptcy filings for US corporations climb in March, 23% above February 
filings.  1Quarter filings were 20,251, 52% greater than 1 Q 2008.  Most of 
the large publicly traded companies seeking protection are 
in....manufacturing.



 


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