EES: Currency Markets Continue To Baffle Traders, Except The Yen

Keynes said markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. This is especially true for currency traders. For the last 3 months, data indicates the majority of traders have been on the wrong side of the market.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1123431-currency-markets-continue-to-baffle-traders-except-the-yen

Yen Gains as BOJ Meets; Most Europe Stock Rise, Oil Falls

The yen rebounded from its lowest level since June 2010 against the dollar as the Bank of Japan (8301) began a two-day policy meeting. Most European stocks rose as finance chiefs gathered for the first time this year.

Japan’s currency strengthened 0.5 percent to 89.65 per dollar at 9:45 a.m. in New York. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.2 percent, with the volume of shares changing hands 31 percent less than the 30-day average. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures gained 0.1 percent. In Canada, the S&P/TSX increased 0.1 percent. Oil dropped from a four-month high. U.S. natural gas climbed to its highest level since Dec. 7.

Yen Gains as BOJ Meets; Most Europe Stock Rise, Oil Falls - Bloomberg

EES: Boeing Reaches Endgame, Culmination Of Decade Of Problems With 'Nightmareliner'

The Dreamliner has become the Nightmareliner for Boeing (BA), a company struggling to regain its top place as the world's leading airplane manufacturer since the days of the 747.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1120681-boeing-reaches-endgame-culmination-of-decade-of-problems-with-nightmareliner 

Europe fires shot in new currency war

The alert from the country that chairs the Group of 20 came as Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker complained of a “dangerously high” euro and officials in Norway and Sweden expressed exchange-rate concern.

The push for weaker currencies is being driven by a need to find new sources of economic growth as monetary and fiscal policies run out of room. The risk is as each country tries to boost exports, it hurts the competitiveness of other economies and provokes retaliation.

Yesterday “will go down as the first day European policy makers fired a shot in the 2013 currency war,” said Chris Turner, head of foreign-exchange strategy at ING Groep NV in London.

Ben Bernanke: Get rid of the debt ceiling, it has no practical value

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke criticized the debt ceiling as an unusual device that can be used to prevent the United States from paying it’s bills, as he suggested that the country would be better off if the debt limit did not exist.

“I think it would be a good thing if we didn’t have [the debt ceiling],” Bernanke told students at the University of Michigan today. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think it’s going to be around.” Those remarks put Bernanke in agreement with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who has said that Congress should eliminate the debt ceiling.

The conversation began when Bernanke was asked if the debt ceiling had any “practical value” as a matter of fiscal policy. “No, it doesn’t really have — it’s got symbolic value,  I guess, but . . . no other countries in the world have this particular institution,” he said.

“If the Congress is approving spending and it’s approving taxing, and those two things are not equal,” Bernanke continued, “the way to addres it is by having a sensible plan for spending and a sensible plan for revenue and make decisions about how big the government should be or how small it should be.”

Ben Bernanke: Get rid of the debt ceiling, it has no practical value | WashingtonExaminer.com

Hitting the debt limit: What bills would be paid?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the summer of 2011, when a debt crisis like the current one loomed, President Barack Obama warned Republicans that older Americans might not get their Social Security checks unless there was a deal to raise the nation's borrowing limit.

After weeks of brinkmanship, Republicans consented and Obama agreed to a deficit-reduction plan the GOP wanted. Crisis averted, for a time.

Now that there's a fresh showdown, the possibility of Social Security cuts -and more - is back on the table.

The government could run out of cash to pay all its bills in full as early as Feb. 15, according to one authoritative estimate, and congressional Republicans want significant spending cuts in exchange for raising the borrowing limit. Obama, forced to negotiate an increase in 2011, has pledged not to negotiate again. Inside Bay Area - Associated Press content

UBS Retreat Plotted at Castle as Credit Suisse Cuts Costs

In September, UBS AG Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti gathered the bank’s top executives at Switzerland's Wolfsberg castle.

Switzerland’s 437-year-old Wolfsberg castle has welcomed the likes of Alexandre Dumas and Franz Liszt. In September, UBS AG (UBSN) Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti gathered the bank’s top executives there for dinner.

UBS had been under pressure since losing more than $57 billion during the financial crisis. So had its main competitor, Credit Suisse Group AG. In 2011, Swiss lawmakers approved some of the strictest capital and liquidity rules in the world, forcing the banks to cut risk taking and boost equity at the expense of profit in their securities units.

The end of banking secrecy, which had helped the firms attract funds from rich clients around the world, was challenging a century-old wealth-management model. A 32-year-old former UBS employee, Kweku Adoboli, would go on trial in London the next week in connection with a $2.3 billion loss, the largest from unauthorized trading in British history.

“For banks domiciled in Switzerland, doing business and making money has become more difficult,” central bank President Thomas Jordan told financiers at a conference in Zurich two days before UBS’s Wolfsberg meeting. “Pressure on the Swiss financial center has been intensifying.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-09/ubs-retreat-plotted-at-castle-as-credit-suisse-cuts-costs.html

EES: Windows 8 and Microsoft

Microsoft (MSFT) has not changed much since 2000, since Steve Ballmer replaced Bill Gates. But the same could be said for a lot of stocks during the 2000 - 2010 era. The Dow is only slightly higher during the same time, peaking near 12,000 in 2000 and now being at 13,350.

Operating Systems ((OS)) are the core business of Microsoft, although they have now expanded into hundreds of niche industries from making keyboards, video games and business applications.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1100991-windows-8-not-good-for-microsoft 

Banks Win 4-Year Delay as Basel Liquidity Rule Loosened

Global central bank chiefs gave lenders four more years to meet international liquidity requirements and watered down the measures in a bid to stave off another credit crunch.

Banks won the delay to fully meet the so-called liquidity coverage ratio, or LCR, following a deal struck by regulatory chiefs meeting yesterday in Basel, Switzerland. They’ll be able to pick from a longer list of approved assets including equities and securitized mortgage debt as they seek to build up buffers of liquidity for use in a financial crisis.

Banks Win 4-Year Delay as Basel Liquidity Rule Loosened - Bloomberg

10 Banks Agree to Pay $8.5B for Foreclosure Abuse

(WASHINGTON) — Ten major banks and mortgage companies agreed Monday to pay $8.5 billion to settle federal complaints that they wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners who should have been allowed to stay in their homes.

The banks, which include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, will pay billions to homeowners to end a review process of foreclosure files that was required under a 2011 enforcement action. The review was ordered because banks mishandled people’s paperwork and skipped required steps in the foreclosure process.

10 Banks Agree to Pay $8.5B for Foreclosure Abuse | TIME.com

Fannie Deal Resolves a Bank of America Mortgage Headache

Bank of America Corp. BAC -0.50% reached an $11.6 billion settlement with mortgage-finance giant Fannie Mae FNMA +8.37% to settle a long-running standoff over nearly a decade's worth of home loans, the bank's latest bid to resolve its biggest hangover from the acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. five years ago.

Fannie Deal Resolves a Bank of America Mortgage Headache - WSJ.com

Swiss bank Wegelin to close after US tax evasion fine

Switzerland's oldest bank is to close permanently after pleading guilty in a New York court to helping Americans evade their taxes.

Wegelin, which was established in 1741, has also agreed to pay $57.8m (£36m; 44m euros) in fines to US authorities.

It said that once this was completed, it "will cease to operate as a bank".

The bank had admitted to allowing more than 100 American citizens to hide $1.2bn from the Internal Revenue Service for almost 10 years.

Wegelin, based in the small Swiss town of St Gallen, started in business 35 years before the US declaration of independence.

It becomes the first foreign bank to plead guilty to tax evasion charges in the US.

Other Swiss banks have in recent years moved to prevent US citizens from opening offshore accounts.

US Attorney Preet Bharara said: "The bank wilfully and aggressively jumped in to fill a void that was left when other Swiss banks abandoned the practice due to pressure from US law enforcement."

He added that it was a "watershed moment in our efforts to hold to account both the individuals and the banks - wherever they may be in the world - who are engaging in unlawful conduct that deprives the US Treasury of billions of dollars of tax revenue".

Otto Bruderer, a managing partner at the bank, admitted that Wegelin had sheltered US clients from tax between 2002 and 2010, and said it was aware that its conduct had been "wrong".

Mr Burderer's further admission that assisting tax evasion was common practice in Switzerland has caused huge concern among the Swiss banking community, according to the BBC's Switzerland correspondent, Imogen Foulkes.

"Some Swiss financial analysts are already speculating that Wegelin's $58m fine, which many had expected to be higher, was kept low by the US authorities in return for Wegelin clearly implicating the rest of the Swiss banking community in tax evasion," she said.

Inevitable demise

Wegelin effectively ceased to function as a Swiss bank almost a year ago.

US criminal accusations against three of its executives prompted the bank to sell off its core Swiss and other non-US businesses in January 2011.

The rushed sale protected Wegelin's non-US clients from the fall-out of any legal battle, and reflected fears that few clients would want to continue doing business with a bank being pursued by the US anyway.

The businesses were bought by Raiffeisen Bank, Switzerland's co-operative bank, which has since severed the few business ties that it had with the US.

The sale left Wegelin responsible only for its American clients, including those at the centre of the US authorities' probe.

Wegelin as an institution was then itself indicted by US authorities in February last year, and later declared a fugitive from justice when the bank's executives failed to appear in a US court.

The bank had vowed to fight the charges, claiming that because it only had branches in Switzerland, it was bound only by its home country's relaxed banking laws.

Its decision to cave in, and wind down its one remaining business, has made the bank's demise inevitable.

"Usually when you cave in to the USA, you do it because you just want to get rid of it," said Dr Peter V Kunz, an economic law professor at the University of Bern.

Having sold off all its non-US businesses, Mr Kunz believes the bank's partners would have been keen to end a potentially interminable legal dispute with the US in order to recover as much of the sale proceeds as possible from what had in effect become a shell company.

The desire to end the legal battle would have been given added pique by the fact that Wegelin's partners have personal financial liability for the bank.

'Aggressively pursuing'

Jeffrey Neiman, a former US federal prosecutor who was involved in a previous investigation into Swiss banks, said: "It is unclear whether the bank was required to turn over American client names who held secret Swiss bank accounts.

"What is clear is that the Justice Department is aggressively pursuing foreign banks who have helped Americans commit overseas tax evasion."

It remains to be seen whether US authorities will continue with, or drop, parallel charges against three Wegelin bankers, Michael Berlinka, Urs Frei and Roger Keller.

The decision to throw in the towel also marks a turnaround for Konrad Hummler, Wegelin's managing director since 1991, and one of the partners whose own personal finances were potentially at stake.

Mr Hummler, who is also chairman of the Swiss daily newspaper Neuer Zuercher Zeitung, has previously been unusually outspoken among Swiss bankers in calling for the country's authorities to block any disclosure of banking client details to the US authorities.

The Wegelin case comes four years after a far larger Swiss bank, UBS, agreed to pay a $780m fine to US authorities related to tax evasion charges. UBS also agreed to reveal the details of US account holders.

However, UBS neither pleaded nor was found guilty. Instead it and US prosecutors came to what is called a deferred prosecution agreement, with the fine being paid in exchange for the charges being dropped.

Switzerland's other major bank, Credit Suisse - with over a trillion dollars in total assets and another trillion in clients' money - remains under investigation by the US authorities, as does another high profile bank, Julius Baer, which is about a fifth of the size of Credit Suisse, as well as 11 other mainly local, cantonal banks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20907359?print=true

Barter Currency "Tem" used in Greece to beat economic crisis

It's been a busy day at the market in downtown Volos. Angeliki Ioanitou has sold a decent quantity of olive oil and soap, while her friend Maria has done good business with her fresh pies.

But not a single euro has changed hands – none of the customers on this drizzly Saturday morning has bothered carrying money at all. For many, browsing through the racks of second-hand clothes, electrical appliances and homemade jams, the need to survive means money has been usurped.

"It's all about exchange and solidarity, helping one another out in these very hard times," enthused Ioanitou, her hair tucked under a floppy felt cap. "You could say a lot of us have dreams of a utopia without the euro."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/02/euro-greece-barter-poverty-crisis

Where The Jobs Are: "55 And Older"

A good jobs report? Sure, if one is 55 and over. In December the American jobs gerontocracy continued its relentless course, and as the two charts below summarize since Obama's first term, some 2.7 million jobs in the 16-55 year old category have been lost. The "offset": 4 million jobs for Americansbetween 55 and 69. For all those young people graduating from college (with $150,000 in student loans) who are unable to get a job, here is our advice: tell your parents, and grandparents, to retire already. Oh wait, they can't because Bernanke destroyed their savings. Oops - better luck next time.

Job "gains" for all Americans 54 and younger vs those 55 and older:

And the same broken down by segment:

Source: BLS

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-04/where-jobs-are-55-and-older 

Busy January For Europe - Complete Monthly Event Calendar

 

Investor relief that the US fiscal cliff has been averted and optimism that the political compromise will make a small positive contribution to 2013 GDP are, for now at least, making investors forget about longer-term implications for debt sustainability and (temporarily) relax on euro matters. The Italian general election is over seven weeks away and until then the focus will probably remain on US fiscal developments (or FOMC expectations). However, European debt repayments are expected to top EUR40 billion in January and following today's German auction the onslaught of European auctions begins along with the ECB meeting next week (no rate change expected) followed soon after by the Eurogroup finance minister meetings. Plenty of headline-risk worthy dates here...

 [4]

 [5]

EES: Currency Markets mixed ahead of NFP

Data was released indicating that applications for jobless benefits increased 10,000 to 372,000 in the week ended Dec. 29, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The Euro (FXE) was down on this news. It comes ahead of tomorrow's Non-Farm Payroll release, notably the most significant economic data release in currency markets (not including central bank or interest rate announcements).

The Euro and Yen (FXY) traded off their highs. The Yen has been on a downward spiral since a new government in Japan announced plans to strategically debase the currency.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1092991-currency-markets-mixed-ahead-of-nfp

2013 brings in new laws, new regulations

Some new laws in 2013:

• Same-sex couples in Maryland will be able to marry.
• California clergy members will not have to perform same-sex marriages if they object.
• Partial birth abortion by physicians and non-physicians will not be performed in New Hampshire except to save the life of the mother.
• Sex offenders in Illinois will not be able to dress up as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or give out candy during Halloween.
• Employers in Oregon will not be allowed to advertise a job opening if they won't consider applicants who are unemployed.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100335341

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/12/31/California-Rings-In-New-Year-With-800-New-Laws

Homeowners behind on their mortgage payments and negotiating with their banks to find a way to work things out won't have to worry about getting a surprise foreclosure notice.

Women will have expanded access to birth control, as registered nurses will be able to dispense contraceptives such as the pill.

Apartment dwellers concerned about the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning will be able to breathe easier.

Employers will not be allowed to require workers or job applicants to divulge their social media accounts or provide passwords to them.

Those are among the legal changes in California that will kick in Tuesday as a result of some of the 876 laws signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2012. By historic standards it was a somewhat low number but was the most new laws put on the books in the state since 2006.

The following is a list of some new laws. More information on them is available by searching the bill number under "Bill information" at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov.

- Bankruptcy protection: AB 929 permits debtors to keep items such as tools of their trade and an automobile so that they will be better positioned to engage in work or seek employment after going through a bankruptcy.

- Bear hunting: SB 1221 bars hunters from using trained dogs to track bears, chase them into trees and bay to summon hunters to shoot the bears.

- Birth control: AB 2348 authorizes registered nurses to dispense hormonal contraceptives such as the pill, patch and ring. Women will not have to see a doctor but will have to undergo a routine health assessment.

- Boat registration fee: AB 2443 requires owners of boats used in freshwater bodies to pay an additional registration fee of up to $10 — the precise amount is not yet set — to pay for inspection and infestation control programs to prevent the spread of invasive mussels in state waterways.

- Carbon monoxide: The final phase of a 2010 law, SB 183, starts Tuesday when owners of apartment complexes will have to have installed carbon monoxide detectors in every dwelling unit with a fossil-fuel-burning furnace or appliance, fireplace or attached garage.

- Drug overdose reporting: AB 472 allows any person to report a drug-related overdose to authorities or seek medical assistance for a drug overdose without being subject to arrest on suspicion of possession of or being under the influence of illegal drugs. People would not have immunity from prosecution for laws involving illegal sales or forcible administration of drugs.

- Electronic proof of insurance: AB 1708 allows drivers to use electronic proof-of-insurance documents displayed on mobile devices when asked for that information by a police officer responding to an auto accident or issuing a traffic citation. Motorists will continue to get paper proof-of-insurance forms from their insurance companies unless they request otherwise.

- Homeowners' bill of rights: SB 900 institutes new protections for homeowners seeking to avoid losing their homes to foreclosure. Among other provisions, it prohibits lenders from initiating the foreclosure process during the time an application for loan modification is being reviewed and requires lenders to provide homeowners with a single point of contact as they navigate their request for a loan modification.

- Legacy license plates: Under AB 1658, the Department of Motor Vehicles will start accepting applications for specialized licenses plates that replicate plates from the past. Styles from the 1950s, '60s and '70s will be available. The DMV will not begin production unless at least 7,500 are ordered.

- Off-road vehicles: Clarifying a previous law that goes into effect Tuesday and mandates that passengers in off-road vehicles must sit only in places designed by the manufacturer to be seats, AB 1266 removes a previous requirement that passengers in such seats have both feet on the floorboard.

- Pickets at funerals: SB 661 makes it a misdemeanor to engage in picketing targeted at a funeral from one hour before the services begin to one hour after they end.

- Religious attire: AB 1964 adds religious dress and grooming practices to categories protected by fair housing and employment laws.

- Same-sex marriage: SB1140 specifies that if same-sex marriages become legal in California, no priest, minister, rabbi or authorized person of any religious denomination could be required to solemnize a marriage that is contrary to the tenets of his or her faith.

- Social media: AB 1844 prohibits employers from requiring or requesting an employee or job applicant to disclose a user name or password for the purpose of accessing personal social media accounts, or to access his or her accounts in the presence of the employer. Employees cannot be discharged, disciplined or retaliated against for failing to comply with such requests.

- Sporting events: AB 2464 requires the owner of any professional sports facility, such as baseball stadiums or basketball arenas, to post written notices with a text message and telephone number that spectators may use to contact security to report disturbances or a violent act.

Read more: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/dec/30/new-year-to-bring-876-new-laws-to-california/#ixzz2Gk2gnXMD
- vcstar.com 

EES: While The World Watches Fiscal Cliff, Shinzo Abe Creates Fiscal Disaster In Japan

The Yen is down 12% against the U.S. Dollar since September. While most are watching the fiscal cliff situation win Washington, Shinzo Abe is creating a fiscal canyon in Japan. Shinzo Abe has been elected with an effective platform of devaluing the Yen.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1087451-while-the-world-watches-fiscal-cliff-shinzo-abe-creates-fiscal-disaster-in-japan

Shinzo Abe fuels fire of Currency War in Japan

What has been a building theme for some time, central bank intervention in the markets, is going to go into overdrive in 2013, with the brewing currency war among the major central banks as each tries to devalue its way to prosperity. But don’t blame central bankers (at least not completely). Political leaders deserve a big dollop of the blame as well.

The unappreciated spark to this currency-war trend is something noted today by Opinion page columnist Dan Henniger: “A reality has become too obvious for the world’s dazed inhabitants not to notice: The greatest threat to the upward arc of human progress is the collapse of public policy making. That is the biggest cliff of all.”

In Japan, they’ve elected the seventh prime minister in six years. In Europe, they’ve raised kicking the can to an art form. In the U.S., the fiscal cliff debate shows how deadlocked, and ineffective, the government has become. In the wake of this, central bankers are stepping into the breach.

Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing — for equities. Indeed, stocks have had quite a nice run since Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke launched his big quantitative easing program in March 2009. So long as the whole intricate Rube Goldberg machine doesn’t collapse, all this central bank pumping should be good for stocks. Indeed Wells Capital’s Jim Paulsen, one of the biggest bulls out there, sees the S&P 500 hitting a lofty, and record, 1700 in 2013.

In Japan, the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was put into office on a platform that was primarily based upon forcing the Bank of Japan to ramp up its stimulus efforts, indeed to run what amounts to unlimited easing until inflation hits a certain point (2%, in this case).

Not only is Abe pressing his thumb down on the BofJ, he’s also appointed a finance minister, former prime minister Taro Aso, who will be ready to spend all those freshly printed yen, as Dennis Gartman noted this morning:

With Mr. Abe pushing for aggressive fiscal spending and an aggressive Bank of Japan and with Mr. Aso at the helm of the Ministry of Finance…to which the Bank of Japan must report…it is certain the the bank will be forced to create yen that shall be spent aggressively and perhaps even shockingly over the course of the next several months.
It isn’t very different in Europe, where the Byzantine eurocrats seem able only to keep the euro crisis from spiraling out of control. In a long newspaper interview, Germany’s Jens Weidmann, president of the Deutsche Bundesbank, said “I find it strange that politicians, who should be leading the way and making the decisions, wish to file in behind us and be guided by us.”

Henninger gave a quick “no comment” to the fiscal cliff drama, but that is the best illustration of the failure of public policy: the United States, the world’s largest economy, is being brought to the brink because its political class can’t do two basic things: pass a budget and set tax tables. In the wake of that, the central bank is acting despite the misgivings of its leadership.

Bernanke has been cajoling, imploring, and warning D.C. about the dangers of inaction all year. He has been adamant about the fact that Fed policy can’t make up for political failures. But with D.C. unable to get past itself, the Fed is filling the vacuum as best it can.

As the world’s most important central bank, the Fed is leading the way on this one, and with Bernanke adopting an essentially unlimited stimulus program, other banks are following. Until the political class, however, gets its act together, it’s hard to see how or why the emphasis on monetary policy will wane.

Writing “come together” on the side of coffee cups is a nice gesture, but it’s going to take a lot more from voters to prod the squabbling politicians across the continents, and until then, central banks are going to be very active.

http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/12/27/a-story-about-central-banks-currency-wars-and-politicians/

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French court rejects 75 percent millionaires' tax

France's Constitutional Council on Saturday rejected a 75 percent upper income tax rate to be introduced in 2013 in a setback to Socialist President Francois Hollande's push to make the rich contribute more to cutting the public deficit.

The Council ruled that the planned 75 percent tax on annual income above 1 million euros ($1.32 million) - a flagship measure of Hollande's election campaign - was unfair in the way it would be applied to different households.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/29/us-france-tax-idUSBRE8BS05M20121229 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-29/french-court-says-75-tax-rate-on-wealthy-is-unconstitutional.html 

Will 'Fiscal Cliff' Accelerate Millionaire Deaths?

Because the "fiscal cliff" will not stop for death, it looks as if death's carriage may make a "kindly" stop to pick up some American millionaires this year, to paraphrase Emily Dickinson.

In 2010, after a year in which the estate tax was zeroed out altogether, Congress passed a law that set the estate tax at 35 percent and exempted all estates under $5 million, adjusted for inflation. That law expires in January 2013 when the exemption will fall to $1 million and the tax will rise to 55 percent.

Many families are faced with a stark proposition. If the life of an elderly wealthy family member extends into 2013, the tax bills will be substantially higher. An estate that could bequest $3 million this year will leave just $1.9 million after taxes next year. Shifting a death from January to December could produce $1.1 million in tax savings.

It may seem incredible to contemplate pulling the plug on grandma to save tax dollars. While we know that investors will sell stocks to avoid rising capital gains taxes, accelerating the death of a loved one seems at least a bit morbid—perhaps even evil. Will people really make life and death decisions based on taxes? Do we don our green eye shades when it comes to something this serious?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100341727 

Marijuana Industry Support Grows - 2 Stocks To Own If It Hits

The news regarding the legalization of marijuana in several states hit usjust before the 2012 holiday season. While it is true that the focus of Washington, and much of the markets has been on the fiscal cliff, the legalization movement has been growing steadily.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1084571-marijuana-industry-support-grows-2-stocks-to-own-if-it-hits

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EES: Euro Overvalued at current levels

Europe's demand for steel fell 8% in the last year, according to the world's largest steelmaker by volume.

Steelmaker ArcelorMittal (MT) on Friday took a $4.3 billion write-down on the value of its flailing European division and said it sees little prospect for an improvement in the region's sluggish economy any time soon.

Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker by volume, said the goodwill-impairment charge will be included in its fourth-quarter earnings. The news resulted in a downgrade by Fitch Ratings, the third by a ratings firm since August.

The significance of this information is that it shows that real demand for steel in the 'real' economy (manufacturing, shipping, etc.) is down, whereas in the U.S. it's up. For Europe, this is a bad economic sign. Similar to the Baltic Dry Index, a decline in steel indicates a decline in the real economy.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1081561-euro-overvalued-at-current-levels-and-due-for-a-sell-off

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Fiscal Cliff's Dirty Secret: It's Not About Taxes At All, But Too Much Spending

There's a lot of talk right now about an impending fiscal cliff. But we already went over a cliff economically in this country a long time ago.

The current debate over tax hikes is an empty one built upon a false premise. The debate is whether raising tax rates will address our current crisis. The premise is that it is a lack of taxation that has led to the crisis. Both are hopelessly wrong.

President Obama's proposed tax increases on the top 2% of earners would fund the federal government for about eight days. Even if we taxed Americans earning over $1 million on 100% of their income, we would raise only about $600 billion in revenue.

Taxing citizens at this level is a tyranny even Europe hasn't reached, and still it would only address about one-third of our deficit.

If one actually does the math, "taxing the rich" turns out to be no real solution at all, only fantasyland rhetoric.

Every dollar the government takes is another dollar used unproductively. Every dollar removed from the private sector and wasted in the hands of bureaucrats is a dollar that will not be used to purchase goods, to pay for services or to meet a payroll.

Every dollar the government ever takes — today, tomorrow and forever — is an attack on jobs and the economy.

Instead of sitting around trying to think of new ways to vote away someone else's money, Washington leaders should finally begin to address the real crisis that has threatened us long before the current handwringing: spending.

With a $16 trillion national debt and well over $1 trillion annually in deficits, we barreled over the edge of fiscal insolvency long before this month.

http://news.investors.com/print/ibd-editorials-perspective/121812-637557-fiscal-cliff-tax-debate-skirts-real-issue-too-much-spending.aspx 

Breaking: NYSE sold to ICE for 8.2 Billion

NYSE-Euronext is a 220 year old icon of global finance, but its 12 year-old Atlanta-based rival, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) will buy it for $8.2 billion, according to a deal that has just been announced.

This revelation surprised a lot of people on the Street who thought all the exchange horse trading of 2010-2011 was over. In 2011, for example, the Justice Department blocked ICE and Nasdaq's attempt to buy the NYSE. NYSE was also stopped from merging with Germany's Deutsche Borse.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-stock-exchange-acquired-2012-12#ixzz2FbY1vfFi

EES: Marijuana May Be The Next Big Growth Sector

We've all seen in the news US states such as Colorado legalizing and making marijuana smoking legal.

Public support for further legalization is building. There is also talk thatmore states could soon legalize. Since this is a new growth industry, we can only speculate in what direction it will grow. But what's clear, plans to keep Marijuana illegal have gone up in smoke.

Read More: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1067361-marijuana-may-be-the-next-big-growth-sector-in-the-u-s-stock-market 

US Dollar Long Term Chart

Fed Targets Foreign Banks With Stricter Capital Rules

More than two dozen foreign banks with at least $50 billion of global assets would face stricter U.S. capital rules under a Federal Reserve plan that’s aimed at lowering risks to the financial system.

The Fed staff proposed that most of the banks also be forced to comply with more stringent liquidity rules and pass stress tests analyzing how they would fare in a severe economic downturn, the central bank said today in an outline of the proposal. The board will vote today on whether to seek public comment on the plan, which would take effect in July 2015.

Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), based in Frankfurt, and London-based Barclays Plc (BARC) would be among the institutions that would have to keep more easy-to-sell assets in the U.S. and face restrictions on distributing capital to parent companies. The Fed provided $538 billion of emergency loans to the U.S. units of European banks during the financial crisis, almost as much as it did to domestic firms. That increased political pressure on lawmakers and regulators to tighten rules for all lenders.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-14/fed-targets-foreign-banks-with-stricter-capital-rules.html

New FX Trade Repository Launch on Track

Testing is well under way for a long-awaited repository service that will store trade data for the $4-trillion-a-day global foreign exchange market, says the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which expects to go live with the new system on schedule in December.

DTCC has been working with the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, to build the trade repository as part of a looming regulatory overhaul of global financial markets.

In the wake of the global financial crisis, the Group of 20 leading economies pledged three years ago to bring trading of over-the-counter derivatives onto exchanges or approved electronic platforms before the end of 2012. They also agreed to improve overall market transparency by reporting trade data to a global trade repository.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, David Thomas, who is managing the project for DTCC, said it remains on course to meet this deadline.

"We've had around 22 firms in doing some form of testing and the majority of submissions are now successful," he said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444180004578015843366922464.html