I apologize for the heart wrenching photo, but BP must know that we will not hide their ugliness from view, despite their attempts at censorship.
Stories inside.
---
National Debt Crosses $13 Trillion
So just how big is the U.S. national debt in 2010? Well, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, on June 1st the U.S. National Debt was
$13,050,826,460,886.97. For those not used to seeing such big numbers, that is over 13 trillion dollars. To give you an idea of just how much a trillion dollars is, if you had started spending one million dollars every single day when Christ was born, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now. And yet somehow the U.S. government has accumulated a debt of over 13 trillion dollars. This is a debt that we have callously placed on the backs of future generations of Americans. Somehow we have the gall to expect our progeny to pay off the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. What we have done to future generations is beyond sickening.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/u-s-national-debt-2010
---
Fed Prez Thomas Hoenig Thinks The Fed Should Raise Rates NOW
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The drumbeat from some Federal Reserve officials for the central bank to raise interest rates grew louder on Thursday.
The Fed's most visible rate hawk, Thomas Hoenig, the president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve bank, used a speech to lay out his preferred upward path for short-term interest rates that would have the federal funds rate rise from near-zero to 1% by the end of summer.
But Hoenig didn't stop there, detailing the next phases to get the funds rate to 4.5% in an orderly manner.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/drumbeat-for-fed-rate-hike-gets-louder-2010-06-03
---
Eastern Europe Contagion Fears
Many of Western Europe's largest banks have significant exposure to Eastern Europe (emerging or converging Europe, as they often brand it). That exposure can be quite obvious, like Societe Generale's massive presence in Romania, where under the name BRD the company acts as both a savings bank and a commercial lender. Just yesterday, Romania experienced a failed sovereign bond auction. That presence can often be more hidden, like Societe Generale's Asset Management (SGAM) Fund Bonds Converging Europe, which has implied investments in both Hungarian and Romanian debt.
http://www.businessinsider.com/soc-gen-eastern-europe-2010-6#ixzz0ptgatfpH
---
Quiet...The ECB Is Running Low On Capital
So the ECB's Greek exposure is bigger, by some margin, than its own capital and reserves.
So far the ECB has yet to make a call for more capital to support its lending operations to distressed European financial systems. But if a run on banks, as witnessed recently in Greece, is repeated in countries such as Italy, Portugal and Spain because confidence in institutions wavers further, this situation will change as a full scale banking bail out gathers.
---
Robert Reich Says Recession Is Back
We’re falling into a double-dip recession.
The Labor Department reports this morning that the private sector added a measly 41,000 net new jobs in May. (The vast bulk of new jobs in May were temporary government Census workers.) But at least 100,000 new jobs are needed every month just to keep up with population growth. In other words, the labor market continues to deteriorate.
http://robertreich.org/post/663417196/why-were-falling-into-a-double-dip-recession
---
The Latest From BP
HOUSTON, June 4 (Reuters) - BP Plc.'s containment cap over its stricken Gulf of Mexico well is collecting about 1,000 barrels per day, the top U.S. official overseeing the cleanup effort said on Friday.
A top BP (BP.L) (BP.N) executive overseeing containment efforts told CNN earlier that as that collection rate increases, it could corral "90-plus percent" of the oil.
One thousand barrels is a small fraction of the 19,000 barrels per day that the U.S. government has estimated could be gushing from the well, but the amount should increase as BP closes vents at the bottom of the cap to trap more oil, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen told reporters in a conference call.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0410922820100604?type=marketsNews
---
Slideshow of BP Spill Pictures
http://www.examiner.com/ExaminerSlideshow.html?entryid=1317422&slide=12
---
Never Fear, Cuz Obama Is Here
Still, in an interview, Gibbs said Obama doesn’t see the need for a theatrical display of concern.
“If the president thought getting mad and yelling would plug the hole, he’d do it on top of the White House,” he said. “He understands we’ll all be judged by our response and our recovery efforts, not on whether he’s been a good method actor.”
---
Birds Are Dying, And Newspapers Are Showing It
Once the terribly sad photos of sick animals in the Gulf emerged yesterday, it wasn't a hard choice for editors to determine their A1 art:
More Photos:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0610/1000_word_pictures.html?showall
---
Fidel Castro Claims Obama Lives In Fantasy World
HAVANA — Fidel Castro speculated Wednesday that a nuclear strike on Iran might help President Barack Obama win a second term in the White House and also suggested the United States could attack North Korea.
The former leader of Cuba, who has not been seen in public for nearly four years, also portrayed the U.S. president as a victim of fantasies planted in his mind by sinister advisers.
The column published by Cuban state media floated the idea that a nuclear attack on Iran — perhaps even without U.S. authorization — might help Obama win re-election in 2012.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ghGthxqnYMWcICCnEkjH5ayqPamQD9G38G8O0
---
North Korean Power Struggle
A powerful North Korean official has suddenly died in mysterious circumstances. North Korea on Wednesday evening announced the death in a car accident of Ri Je-gang (80), the first deputy director of the Workers Party's Organization and Guidance Department.
Ri worked at the powerful department directly supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il for 37 years. He was apparently deeply involved in establishing the succession for Kim's son Jong-un. Kim Jong-un's mother, the late Ko Yong-hee, reportedly asked him to make sure that one of her sons, Jong-chol or Jong-un, succeeds their father.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/06/04/2010060400549.html
---
Why Aren't They Blowing Up The Well...?
My father, who has worked in the petrochemical industry for decades, tells me that there is a well-established method for dealing with a problem like this: blowing up the well. It's been done before, successfully. So why isn't this option being actively considered, despite the failure of every method tried so far? Because when a well is blown up, it can't ever be used again. As a result, BP stands to lose a lot from doing so. And they probably won't have to pay for all the harm done by the oil spill. (Did you know the Exxon Valdez legal case just ended recently, after Exxon fought to keep every penny it could for years on end?)
So in a case like this, it seems like there's a good argument for the president stepping in. BP has a poor incentive to do the right thing here. Now, it might be true -- as Obama has said -- that the government lacks the expertise and equipment to cap a well. But (a) capping a well and blowing it up aren't the same thing, and (b) if blowing it up requires expertise the government lacks, they could just hire the experts from (say) other oil companies.
---
Obama Starts Spinning The HORRIBLE Job Numbers
Today’s employment situation report shows continued signs of labor market recovery. Payroll employment rose for the fifth month in a row, and the unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point to 9.7 percent. While these are encouraging developments, we clearly have a very long way to go until the labor market is fully recovered. It is essential that we continue our efforts to move in the right direction and generate steady, strong job gains and continuing declines in unemployment.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/04/employment-situation-may
---