News & Views For Week Of April 7 - 13, 2013

Note: I will be adding the freshest news and opinion pieces to the top of this list, refreshing it daily, sometimes at night, somtimes (shudder) during daylight hours. - Rock

• PC Company Stocks Hammered On Thursday
• Front Running The Fed With TBTF Insider Trades
• Australia: Hits 3 Year High In Unemployment
• Takata Air Bag Recall Affects 3.4 Million Late Model Honda, Nissan & Toyota Cars
• Charles Hugh-Smith explains, with charts, which European small depositors will be shaken down next
• Goldman Sachs Takes The Opposite Trade Of What It Is Selling It's Clients (Muppets)  . . . Again: Buys Gold, Sells Bonds, Tells Clients To Do The Opposite
• First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) Blows Away Analyst's Expectations, Sees Very Bright 2013 through 2015, causing stock to jump 31.28% yesterday
• 4.2 Million Borrowers To Receiving Payments This Friday of $300 to $125,000 From 13 Firms Who Botched Foreclosures
• Student Loan Rates Boost Government Profit As Debt Damps Economy 
• Kyle Bass takes way out of the money bets against Japanese Government Bonds: "The investors ran the other way from the central bank, they didn’t run with it. I find that to be fascinating.”
• Natural Gas Reserve Estimates Upped Again For The USA
• The Big Picture: Ugly Chart Contest
• Matt Taibbi: The Growing Sentiment on the Hill For Ending 'Too Big To Fail'
• Auto sales for March highest since 2007

Gordon T. Long Interviews Charles Hugh-Smith: Why Things Fall Apart

Mark to fantasy model of real estate accounting. California property assessments down only 4 percent from peak but home values are down by 37 percent. FHA default rates surge - Dr. Housing Bubble Blog

Europe Stocks Extend Drop on Spain Bond Sale

Charles Hugh Smith: Why Isn't Anyone Talking About Writing Off 3 Trillion Euros of Bad Debt?

A Look at the Troubling Trend in French Bond Yields

5 Banks Account For $250 Trillion (96%) Of US Derivatives Exposure

Moody's Downgrades British Banks

James Kunstler: "Going Apeshit"

Charles Hugh Smith: "Debt-Serfdom Is Now The American Norm"

Paul Krugman: "Panic Of The Plutocrats"

Mish: A "Must See" Heart Wrenching Video of Moral Deterioration in China

Zero Hedge: "Bernankenstein's Monster"

A. Gary Shilling: "Why China Is Heading For A Hard Landing, Pt. 1"

Dr. Housing Bubble: "The end of Ponzi financing era in the United States and the World – When income, revenues, and swindles no longer support servicing debt. From California home owners, Greek bondholders, and Japanese zombie banks."

Mother Jones - "All Work And No Pay: The Great Speedup"

Golman Sachs 666: "Goldman Sach's Favored Status"

Charles Hugh Smith: "What If The Consensus Is Wrong?"

Jim Kunstler: "Suspended Agitation"

Financial Armageddon: "Looking Worse"

Weekend Roundup - June 18, 2011

Corporate America Really Really Cares About Its Employees (Really)

Unofficial Problem Bank list at 996 Institutions

Reasons Why Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Is Not A Member Of The Dow Industrials Index

U.S. Consumer Confidence Drops as Rising Prices Squeeze Household Budgets

Bubble Blowing? China Home Prices Rise in 67 Cities, Defying Curbs

Is the stock market tapped out?

Hot IPOs, LinkedIn and Pandora Turn Cold

Merkel blinks: private bondholders of Greek debt protected from their bad choice of investment

Everything we're doing now was planned before 9/11

Death of the American Dream Part II

Chutzpah: Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Presses Ben Bernanke To Lighten Up On Regulations

Exxon reports finding biggest oil field in Gulf of Mexico since 1999

Bill Fleckenstein: Greek debt tragedy is good for gold

Charles Hugh Smith: "Can We Stop Pretending GDP Is Growing?"

Business/Economic News for July 13, 2010

Homeowners vs. Home-Loan Buyers

Treat reckless corporate behavior like DUI

The New Economy: Death By Savings

Dynasty Trusts Game No Taxed Pass Downs For The Rich: America Builds An Aristocracy

The Disappearing Intellectual in the Age of Economic Darwinism

James Howard Kunstler: "Where Have We Been? Where Are We Going?"

Charles Hugh Smith - "Con Of The Decade, Part 2"

U.K. Stocks Extend Drop After U.S. Housing Data Trails Forecast



Copper falls to lowest price in a week as US Housing starts lowest in a year

San Diego developers of giant condo project have yet to sell one of their 679 units, so they are renting them out, adding to San Diego's huge "Shadow Inventory"

Bush's Treasury Secretary, Henry "Golden Slacks" Paulson, Pays $24.5 Million For Aspen Mansion

The rich do it too – Los Angeles County and million dollar distressed properties. 1,947 homes in L.A. County valued at $1 million or more are three payments behind or in foreclosure. Beverly Hills prices down 31 percent from one year ago. 14 out 100 homes on the MLS are priced at $1 million and up

Disappearing Middle Class: 60 year old Florida Keys couple lose jobs and Islamorada home

Moody's expects debt levels for housing to stay at high levels for another 12 to 18 months, says foreclosures will not slow down any time soon

Revolving Door Sweetheart Deal: Ex-Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) Named New Head Of Chase Bank's Florida Market

Hugh Hefner Wants To Buy Back Playboy And Take It Private

FDIC sues former Executives at Indymac's homebuilding loan division

Municipal broadband haters in NC dealt a blow

Take Two: US Issues Revised Offshore Drilling Band

Florida Keys Wake Up Call: Cuba Allows Spanish Company To Drill For Oil In Area Only 60 Miles Off Key West's Doorstep

Business/Economic News for July 12, 2010

Oil falls to near $75 ahead of US company earnings

Bill Fleckenstein's latest podcast interview worth hearing in which he makes a case for a flat tax

The Chinese Coal Monster

Robert Reich: "We're In A Recession Because The Rich Are Raking In An Absurd Portion Of The Wealth"

Pfizer: The Drug Giant That Makes Bank from Drugs That Can Kill You

Small investors flee stocks, changing market dynamics

Gold ticks lower but holds above $1,200

More Americans' credit scores sink to new lows

Global Housing Bubble - Based on Ratio of Price to Rent, Which Countries are the Bubbliest?

Paul Krugman: "Trending Toward Deflation"

Charles Hugh Smith: The Con of the Decade Part I

The Daily Bail: "On the camapagin trail, TARP support means big trouble for incumbents - - especially John McCain



Chinese company Datang to build 500 MW of wind energy in Pakistan

Tide turning against dirty coal for energy production

Japan, Russia to build LPG plant in Vladivostok

Japan’s Stocks Advance as Commodity Prices Gain, Yen Weakens

Housing Gets Sick on Keynesian Roller Coaster: Kevin Hassett

Hawaiian homeowners in Loan Modification Program are foreclosing more and more

As Census ends, many census workers lose jobs

Iraq oil exports hit 2 million barrels per day

Louisiana Pushes BP for Fisherman Aid

BP reportedly in talks to sell Alaska oil stake

Atlantic City to lay off additional 93 city workers, possibly many more

Avid’s Brain Dye Can Spot Alzheimer’s, Study Says

Richard Metzger Interviews Charles Hugh Smith from "Of Two Minds Blog"

metzger/smith from DANGEROUS MINDS on Vimeo.