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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (117038)	7/17/2012 8:49:45 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

I don't believe in voting for the lesser of two evils. So you're not voting?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (117038)	7/17/2012 10:32:18 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Cheer up... ========= New York Man Catches Girl Falling From Window A 7-year-old New York City girl escaped injury after she fell from a third-story window when she was caught by a neighbor. Cell phone video taken by a resident in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn shows Keyla McCree standing on an air conditioning unit moments before she fell and landed in the bushes. Her dramatic fall was broken by the arms of Steven St. Bernard, who rushed to the scene and caught the girl. "Please let me catch her, please let me catch her, that's all I could say. Let me catch the little baby, that's all," said St. Bernard. The 52-year-old bus driver and father of four told ABC News affiliate WABC that he was just in the right place at the right time. "It feels good now to know that I did something," said St. Bernard, who lives in the apartment complex. Keyla, who is autistic, managed to perch herself on the air conditioner by pushing through one of the accordion pieces that holds the unit to the window while her mother was in the next room. Moments before she fell, McCree was seen dancing on the air conditioning unit. Police tell WABC they do not believe McCree's parents did anything criminal. "She did hit the bushes and the ground a little, but not straight on because of his arms," said witness Latasha Marcus. St. Bernard tore a tendon in his left shoulder and was sporting a sling after the incident. As for Keyla, she's doing just fine thanks to the man who certainly lived up to his name. "I saw her in the hospital. She doesn't have a scratch on her," said St. Bernard. This morning, friends and neighbors are calling St. Bernard a hero. "No. A hero is a sandwich. I just saw a kid, that's it," said St. Bernard.

To: RetiredNow who wrote (117038)	7/17/2012 4:01:05 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

" In such circumstances, the BIS explains, *it is necessary to write down the debt to the amount that can be paid* – and to undertake structural reforms to prevent the Bubble Economy from recurring**." This would have the bondholders taking the hit, not the little people. The people that HOLD the Greek debt, not the Greeks. I'm fine with that notion.

To: RetiredNow who wrote (117038)	7/17/2012 9:23:38 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Earnings Surprises Buoy Markets By REUTERS Published: July 17, 2012 Stocks rose on Tuesday after Coca-Cola and Goldman Sachs joined the growing roster of companies that exceeded analysts’ profit forecasts and as the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, seemed to leave the door open to the possibility of more monetary stimulus if needed to revive the economy. Fears of a collapse in earnings have not been borne out thus far. Though the earnings season has been under way a short time, some 72 percent of the big companies that have reported have beaten estimates, albeit from a significantly lowered bar. Goldman Sachs shares ended up 0.3 percent at $97.98 even as its quarterly profit fell 12 percent. Coca-Cola, whose earnings were little changed, rose 1.6 percent to $77.69. Early on, traders were frustrated when Mr. Bernanke provided few clues about whether the Fed was planning any stimulative quantitative easing measures, known as QE3, in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, and stocks moved lower. But equities rebounded after Mr. Bernanke said the Fed’s policy makers would consider a range of tools to further stimulate growth if it became clear unemployment was not falling or if deflation risks mounted. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 78.33 points, or 0.62 percent, at 12,805.54. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index added 10.03 points, or 0.74 percent, at 1,363.67. The Nasdaq composite index gained 13.10 points, or 0.45 percent, at 2,910.04. “We do expect the Fed to launch QE3, possibly by as early as August,” said Oliver Pursche, president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services. “The only game in town to revive or raise G.D.P. growth is the Fed.” Mr. Pursche cautioned against reading too much into earnings that beat lowered expectations. Analysts sharply cut their estimates over the last year. Second-quarter earnings from S.& P. 500 companies are expected to rise 6 percent from a year earlier, less than an estimate of 9.2 percent on April 1, according to Thomson Reuters data. “When you look at Coke, when you look at Goldman, when you look at some of the reports last week, the beats were there but they’re based on pretty low expectations,” Mr. Pursche said. In the last month, most gains on the S.& P. 500 have come from the telecommunications services, consumer staples and health care sectors, which are considered defensive, safer plays. Industrials, technology and materials have posted losses in that period. Johnson & Johnson cut its full-year profit forecast on Tuesday. But the company’s shares, which have risen 12 percent since the start of June, climbed 0.8 percent to $69, hitting their highest level in more than three years. The basic materials sector was among gainers on the S.& P. 500, with a 5.1 percent jump in shares of Mosaic, a fertilizer company, after it reported better-than-expected quarterly results. The relatively slight losses in the stock market recently during a worsening economic picture has been credited in part to record low bond yields and a vigilant Fed. In the bond market, the price of the Treasury’s 10-year note fell 11/32, to 102 7/32, while its yield rose to 1.51 percent, from 1.47 percent late Monday.

To: RetiredNow who wrote (117038)

7/18/2012 1:03:58 PM

From: bentway

Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 149317

Follow the money! Here's Mitt Romney's top contributors:

Goldman Sachs	$593,080
JPMorgan Chase & Co	$467,089
Bank of America	$425,100
Morgan Stanley	$399,850
Credit Suisse Group	$390,360
Citigroup Inc	$312,800
Kirkland & Ellis	$264,302
Wells Fargo	$237,550
Barclays	$234,650
PricewaterhouseCoopers	$227,250
Deloitte LLP	$222,250
HIG Capital	$216,995
UBS AG	$207,750
Blackstone Group	$198,800
Bain Capital	$156,500
Elliott Management	$146,275
Marriott International	$137,827
General Electric	$135,450
Bain & Co	$130,550
EMC Corp	$129,450

opensecrets.org

..and here are Obama's top contributors:

Microsoft Corp	$387,395
University of California	$330,258
DLA Piper	$306,727
Google Inc	$271,300
Sidley Austin LLP	$257,296
Harvard University	$232,158
Comcast Corp	$201,606
Stanford University	$188,290
Time Warner	$183,614
Skadden, Arps et al	$169,753
US Government	$149,458
US Dept of State	$147,917
Kaiser Permanente	$139,507
National Amusements Inc	$138,955
Morgan & Morgan	$135,145
Columbia University	$134,497
Wells Fargo	$127,807
University of Chicago	$127,507
Wilmerhale Llp	$117,661
Kirkland & Ellis	$113,770

opensecrets.org

Note the banksters in Romney's list vs. Obama's, please!

To: RetiredNow who wrote (117038)	7/19/2012 12:27:21 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

Austerity is not working in the EU........the fear is deflation. I.M.F. Warns of ‘Sizable Risk’ of Deflation in Euro Zone By JACK EWING Published: July 18, 2012 FRANKFURT — The International Monetary Fund, warning of “a sizable risk” that some euro zone countries could suffer a debilitating decline in prices, called on Wednesday for the European Central Bank to pump money into the region’s economy by buying huge volumes of government bonds. Such bond buying, which the Federal Reserve has undertaken in recent years to stimulate the United States economy, is a move the central bank has resisted, one that would probably outrage the fiscal disciplinarians of Germany. And it is unclear whether the I.M.F.’s public push for big spending by the central bank will make it more or less likely for the bank’s president, Mario Draghi, to act. He, like any central banker, wants to appear immune to outside pressure. But the I.M.F. is well respected, and its warning of deflation, a destructive plunge in prices, could help give the central bank the economic rationale to use the stimulus of buying billions of euros in government bonds. In a report critical of euro zone policy, the I.M.F. said that there was a 25 percent risk of consumer price deflation before 2014 and that the danger was greatest in countries, like Italy, where growth was slow and the government was counting on tax increases to reduce its huge debt. “A deeper euro area crisis would have substantial global implications,” the I.M.F. said in its report, which also warned of other possible shocks to the euro currency bloc, including the failure of a big bank. The central bank did not comment on the fund’s report. Deflation is typically a feature of severe economic decline and soaring joblessness that far outweighs any benefit to consumers from falling prices. A downward price spiral would make it harder for countries like Greece, Italy and Spain to control government debt, the fund said, because falling prices and wages would further depress tax receipts. Prime Minister Mario Monti of Italy has been a leading proponent of government bond buying by the central bank. Spanish leaders have been pleading with the bank to buy their bonds and hold down borrowing costs. The central bank has spent 212 billion euros, or $260 billion, at the current exchange rate, buying government bonds since 2010, but has resisted calls for it to mimic the much larger purchases by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. Since the financial crisis of 2008, the Fed has made two rounds of purchases, totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. Many economists say this quantitative easing is a reason the United States economy recovered from the crisis faster than most of its European counterparts. Richard Barwell, an economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland, doubted that the central bank would follow the monetary fund’s advice without evidence of deflation throughout the euro zone. “I think they would view it as being counterproductive,” he said. “It would be alleviating all pressure on policy makers to solve the underlying cause of the problem.” But fund officials framed their call for big bond purchases as a way for the central bank to maintain its control over interest rates and contain borrowing costs for troubled countries. “It is an essential part of the E.C.B. fulfilling its mandate,” Helge Berger, an adviser in the fund’s European department, said during a conference call Wednesday with reporters. Quantitative easing is how central banks stimulate the economy when they have already pushed interest rates as low as they can go. This month, the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate below 1 percent for the first time, to 0.75 percent. But quantitative easing is opposed by Germany, the biggest contributor to the bank, because it would amount to the use of the central bank to finance governments. And German sentiment carries weight with the bank, which is reluctant to further divide the euro zone. Mr. Draghi has given no clear signals that the bank is seriously considering quantitative easing or other measures. But on Tuesday, at a meeting here with Michael Noonan, the Irish finance minister, Mr. Draghi tentatively addressed a widespread concern that central bank bond buying hurts more than it helps. For instance, it could make the central bank a senior creditor over other bond buyers, who would then be at greater risk if a government defaulted on its bonds. 1 Next Page » nytimes.com 2