Tuesday Morning Reading (39 Stories, June 29, 2010)

Skip to the next or previous story by clicking the small red arrows above.

Same format as usual.  I am placing all the links in comments below.  They are in no particular order.

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Click here to see the articles (50 total)  >>

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Weekend Reading:

Click HERE to see the articles (47 total)  >>



Update on Jun 29, 2010 at 1:28 PM by DailyBail

Updated to include more stories.  Stopping at 50 for this morning.

Comments

[DailyBail]

(Reuters) - Senator Russell Feingold said on Monday that he will not vote to advance the financial-reform bill, denying his fellow Democrats the 60th vote they need to clear a final hurdle in Congress.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65R5SI20100628

[DailyBail]

Submitted by Cann Hoe Of Hoe Brothers Management

Are We Approaching An Epic FED Failure?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33685130/Hoe-Brothers-Investment-Management-On-the-Road-to-Epic-Fail-2010-06-27

[DailyBail]

Key members of the North Korean Workers Party meet in September for the first time in 44 years, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday. The meeting was called by the Politburo and has raised expectations that leader Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un will be officially named as his father's successor.

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/06/28/2010062801266.html

[DailyBail]

Depressing Details Emerge About Frustrated Gulf Cleanup Worker Who Killed Himself

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/28/96665/a-suicide-reminds-gulf-coast-of.html

[DailyBail]

OF COURSE Fannie Mae Is Cracking Down On Strategic Defaulters -- Why Is Anyone Surprised?

http://www.businessinsider.com/of-course-fannie-mae-is-cracking-down-on-strategic-defaulters-why-is-anyone-surprised-2010-6#ixzz0sDlVSaiU

[DailyBail]

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) joined Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) this evening, putting herself back into the undecided column on Wall Street reform legislation, after House and Senate negotiators added new fees on banks to the final bill late last week.

"It was not part of either the House or Senate bill and was added in the wee hours of the morning. So I'm taking a look at the specifics of that and other provisions as well," Collins told reporters this evening outside the Senate chamber.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/collins-pulls-back-support-for-wall-street-bill-over-bank-tax.php

[DailyBail]

WSJ/NBC Poll: Voters Support GOP Takeover of Congress

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/06/23/wsjnbc-poll-gop-controlled-congress-gains-support/?mod=rss_Politics_And_Policy

[DailyBail]

Alleged Russian secret agents held in US

http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-06-29/alleged-russian-secret-us.html?fullstory

[DailyBail]

US Senator Scott Brown, who only months ago was a little-known figure even within the tiny band of Republicans in the state Senate, not only catapulted to national stature with his upset US Senate victory, but is today the most popular officeholder in Massachusetts, according to a Boston Globe poll.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/06/28/brown_outpolls_kerry_obama/

[DailyBail]

In 2008 and 2009 it was obvious that powerful fiscal and monetary stimulus was necessary everywhere. When everybody wants the same thing, co-operation is easy. How easy? You would have got the same result without it. Last year, co-operation cost nothing and, as compared with the alternative, achieved nothing. In 2010 circumstances have changed. Some countries still have room for fiscal manoeuvre. Others have less and some have none. Co-operation is therefore more difficult – and, you could argue, more necessary.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b786743a-8214-11df-938f-00144feabdc0.html

[DailyBail]

A Senator's Shame

Byrd, in His New Book, Again Confronts Early Ties to KKK

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801105_pf.html

[DailyBail]

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Sunday he would follow through on a pledge to rein in soaring U.S. budget deficits and said that would involve presenting Americans with "some very difficult choices" next year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65R0ON20100628

[DailyBail]

The small southern California city of Maywood has hit on a unique solution to its budget crisis. Crushed by the recession and falling tax revenues, the city is disbanding its police force and firing all public sector employees.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/403eb4de-8212-11df-938f-00144feabdc0.html

[DailyBail]

Robert C. Byrd, Senate's Longest Serving Member, Dead at 92

Powerful Senator, Reformed KKK Member, Cast More Than 18,600 Votes in Nine Senate Terms

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/robert-byrd-dead-92-senates-longest-serving-senator/story?id=6692830&page=1

Despite his successful political track record, the Senate's senior Democrat was no stranger to controversy, and was once a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Byrd said he joined the white supremacist group in 1942 because it "offered excitement." He claimed the Klan was an "effective force" in "promoting traditional American values" and "was strongly opposed to communism."

Byrd reportedly ended his ties with the group in 1943, telling the Washington Post in June 1993 that his stint in the KKK was the mistake in his life that he most regretted.

"Just as a lot of young people these days join organizations they regret joining, I joined as a youth and regretted it later," he said. "I made a mistake."

But West Virginia Republicans uncovered a letter Byrd had written to the imperial wizard of the KKK three years after he said he abandoned the group. In the letter, he wrote: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."

[DailyBail]

A senior Hamas figure said Friday that official and unofficial US sources have asked the Islamist group to refrain from making any statements regarding contacts with Washington, this following reports that a senior American official is due to arrive in an Arab country in the coming days to relay a telegram from the Obama Administration.


The Hamas figure told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that the Americans fear discussing the talks publicly would "rouse the Jewish lobby and other pressure groups in the US and cause them to pressure the administration to suspend all talks with Hamas."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3910714,00.html

[DailyBail]

The Second Amendment provides Americans a fundamental right to bear arms that cannot be violated by state and local governments, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in a long-sought victory for gun rights advocates.

The 5 to 4 decision does not strike down any gun-control laws, nor does it elaborate on what kind of laws would offend the Constitution. One justice predicted that an "avalanche" of lawsuits would be filed across the country asking federal judges to define the boundaries of gun ownership and government regulation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062802134_pf.html

[DailyBail]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703615104575328993006115992.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion

Triumph of the Regulators

The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill doubles down on the same system that failed.

[DailyBail]

When Capitalism Meets Cannabis

ANYONE who thinks it would be easy to get rich selling marijuana in a state where it’s legal should spend an hour with Ravi Respeto, manager of the Farmacy, an upscale dispensary here that offers Strawberry Haze, Hawaiian Skunk and other strains of Cannabis sativa at up to $16 a gram.

She will harsh your mellow.

“No M.B.A. program could have prepared me for this experience,” she says, wearing a cream-colored smock made of hemp. “People have this misconception that you just jump into it and start making money hand over fist, and that is not the case.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/business/27pot.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

[DailyBail]

A Closer Look at the Second Leg Down in Housing

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/06/2nd-leg-down-in-housing/

[DailyBail]

States of Crisis for 46 Governments Facing Greek-Style Deficits

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-25/states-of-crisis-widen-as-46-governments-in-u-s-face-greek-style-deficits.html

[DailyBail]

MAP OF THE DAY: Are Israel and The U.S. About To Launch A Strike Against Iran?

http://www.businessinsider.com/iran-war-buildup-us-israel-2010-6

[DailyBail]

Here's Some Great Close-Up Footage Of Police And G20 Protesters Clashing In Toronto

http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-some-great-footage-of-police-roughing-up-g20-protesters-in-toronto-2010-6

[DailyBail]

Yet Another Keynesian Clown Steps Up to the Plate: Leo Kolivakis at Pension Pulse

I am sick of Keynesian clowns who do not know the cart from the horse, who think debt is a free lunch, who think spending and debt are the ways to get out of debt problems and most of all never say how this debt is going to get paid back.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/06/yet-another-keynesian-clown-steps-up-to.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29

[DailyBail]

No Sex Please, We’re Middle Class

By CAMILLE PAGLIA
Published: June 25, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/opinion/27Paglia.html

[DailyBail]

G20

Anarchists leave trail of destruction

http://www.torontosun.com/news/g20/2010/06/26/14529141.html

[DailyBail]

Ponzi Schemer Who Used Money To Fly To The Super Bowl Shuts Down "Fund," Commits Suicide

http://www.businessinsider.com/fund-manager-who-used-money-to-fly-to-the-super-bowl-shuts-down-fund-writes-cryptic-goodbye-note-kills-self-2010-6

[DailyBail]

REMINDER: Even The Government Admits The US Is Completely Bankrupt Over The Long Haul

http://www.businessinsider.com/usa-bankrupt-2010-6

[DailyBail]

RBS tells clients to prepare for 'monster' money-printing by the Federal Reserve

As recovery starts to stall in the US and Europe with echoes of mid-1931, bond experts are once again dusting off a speech by Ben Bernanke given eight years ago as a freshman governor at the Federal Reserve.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7857595/RBS-tells-clients-to-prepare-for-monster-money-printing-by-the-Federal-Reserve.html

[DailyBail]

Here is the grim paradox of America’s involvement in Afghanistan: The darker things get and the more setbacks we suffer, the better the odds that we’ll be staying there indefinitely.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opinion/28douthat.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp

[DailyBail]

China Has Basically Purchased Its Own Latin American Country

http://www.businessinsider.com/coca-codo-sinclair-ecuador-china-2010-6

[DailyBail]

Oiled dolphin's rescue ends in death (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/saw-30310-dolphin-fort.html

[DailyBail]

McChrystal’s Revenge: Everyone Hates Karl Eikenberry

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/56522

[DailyBail]

Labor leader, chief executive team up to reduce the U.S. deficit

Until two months ago, Andy Stern and David Cote seemed to embody the Beltway view that the bipartisan commission President Obama created to tackle the nation's budget deficit was doomed to fail.

They seemed an unlikely duo, after all: Stern was the firebrand labor leader who had channeled millions of dollars into Democratic election campaigns. Cote was a Fortune 500 chief executive, and a Republican, who made more than $12 million last year.

Today, though, they have teamed up and are working closely together toward what they hope will be a politically viable, long-term plan for reducing the deficit, which last year totaled $1.4 trillion. They talk and e-mail at least once a week, swapping ideas and information. They sit together at commission meetings and arranged a field trip for a tutorial with experts on the tax code. Cote tries to soften his peers on the Business Roundtable. Stern is pressing union officials about ways to tinker with Social Security.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/19/AR2010061900156_pf.html

[DailyBail]

New NBC/WSJ Poll: Sarah Palin and George W. Bush Liked By Same Percentage of Americans

http://firedoglake.com/2010/06/25/new-nbcwsj-poll-sarah-palin-and-george-w-bush-liked-by-same-percentage-of-americans/

[DailyBail]

West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D) has announced that there will not be an election for the Senate seat formerly held by the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd until 2012 -- with Gov. Joe Manchin (D) set to make an appointment to serve until that time.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/west-virginia-sec-of-state-no-election-for-byrds-seat-until-2012.php?ref=dcblt

[DailyBail]

As the final Wall Street negotiations came to a close last week, the Obama administration quietly sided with Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) against most Democrats in support of a loophole in one of the key provisions of the financial reform bill.

Several Democratic Hill aides tell TPMDC that the Treasury Department, which wielded tremendous influence over the shape of the legislation, changed its position on the Volcker rule during the final deliberations, endorsing an exemption that will allow banks to invest in outside hedge funds.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/obama-administration-sided-with-brown-o.php?ref=dcblt

[DailyBail]

The pieces of the Florida Tea Party puzzle are all a bit strange, and none fit together quite right. Republicans and activists say voters are being duped by former Democrats, an anti-tax radio host and college students who took an odd alliance and made it into an official third party -- the Florida Tea Party -- to put "TEA" on the ballot for the first time this fall. State Democrats were amused by the whole thing until several links between the Florida Tea Party group and Rep. Alan Grayson surfaced, complicating everything.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/down-the-rabbit-hole-is-the-florida-tea-party-tied-to-alan-grayson.php

[DailyBail]

Econ Gangs of New York

http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2010/06/24/econ-gangs-of-new-york/

[DailyBail]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65L3Z120100622

Special Report: In the White House, economics is a contact sport

[DailyBail]

http://drawfortruth.wordpress.com/

AWESOME political cartoons...

[DailyBail]

Greece's Best Option Is To Come Clean And Go Bust

By Nouriel Roubini

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a3874e80-82e8-11df-8b15-00144feabdc0.html

[DailyBail]

ATHENS, Greece — Public services shut down across Greece Tuesday as workers walked off the job in a new nationwide general strike that disrupted public transport, left hospitals operating on emergency staff and pulled all news broadcasts off the air.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iXUJvBknZVGqsBenIusBgBvWj5WQD9GKQ4OO1

[DailyBail]

Spanish banks have been lobbying the European Central Bank to act to ease the systemic fallout from the expiry of a €442bn ($542bn) funding programme this week, accusing the central bank of “absurd” behaviour in not renewing the scheme.

On Thursday, the clock runs out on the ECB financing programme – the largest amount ever lent in a single liquidity operation by the central bank – under the terms of the one-year special liquidity facility launched last summer.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/aea96aa6-82e2-11df-b7ad-00144feabdc0.html

[DailyBail]

Hello, We've Got A New High On The 10-Year And Yields Below 3%

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/hello-weve-got-a-new-high-on-the-10-year-and-yields-below-3-2010-6#ixzz0sGF26TNF

[DailyBail]

Here's Why Everyone Freaked Out About China Today

http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-everyone-freaked-out-about-china-today-2010-6#ixzz0sGFcUt6l

[DailyBail]

A rogue trader was banned from working in finance today after he manipulated the world oil market following a weekend of golf and alcohol.

Steve Perkins drank so much he was “not capable of assessing the consequences of his actions”, the Financial Services Authority ruled.

He made thousands of trades worth a total of $520 million (£345 million). The price of Brent crude oil soared by $1.50 to $73.50 — the highest so far that year.

The deals ended up costing his company, PVM Oil Futures, £6 million — equivalent to a year's profits. He was sacked immediately.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23850614-drunken-weekend-rogue-oil-trader-gets-five-year-ban.do

[DailyBail]

Russian Expert Mocks US Justice: "Does The USA Really Think That Russian Special Services Are So Outdated?"

http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-expert-does-the-usa-really-think-that-russian-special-services-are-so-outdated-2010-6#ixzz0sGKgiLvS

[DailyBail]

Consumer Confidence Collapses Massively In June

http://www.conference-board.org/data/consumerconfidence.cfm

[DailyBail]

Hypnotized Bank Employees Give Away Thousands To Gypsies

http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/114050-0/

[DailyBail]

What Ever Happens With Financial Reform, Obama Got Seriously PLAYED By Scott Brown

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/06/28/obama-wh-catered-to-scott-brown-on-finreg-now-he-opposes-the-bill/