Here's what we're following this morning: (via Twitter) The Swiss National Bank is in a pickle - Bruce Krasting | The single largest economic threat the globe faces today is the funding market in the European Union...and the SNB is only adding to that problem. Angry homeowners cannot be expected to act rationally when confronted by burglars - The Telegraph | Boy, when a judge in the UK comes out and says this, you know we're turning a corner.  "If you burgle a house in the country where the householder owns a legally-held shotgun, that is the chance you take."  Splendid, no? Fiscal cliff dims business mood - Financial Times | WHAT?  New tax rates and the lack of a national budget make it difficult for businesses to plan and make investment decisions?  Who could have EVER guessed? Replace this greed - Truthdig | "You've never paid for an NFL ticket to watch somebody officiate a game."  Thanks, Mr. NFL executive VP of football operations!  Let's put this in perspective: some players earn almost $30 million a season.  16 games in a season = $1,875,000 per game.  65 average total plays per side, per game = $28,845 per play.  Here's ... Read more...

Here's what we're following this morning: (via Her Majesty's Thunder) Next steps for Spain - RanSquawk via Zero Hedge | Remember: Spanish yields are north of 6.00% again.  Time was, that was a line in the sand.  Now?  Meh. West miscalculated the potential of Arab World anger - Russia Today | Remember this famous question: "How could this happen in a country we helped liberate?"  Sounds like someone at State needs a thesaurus. Corporate hemlock will be shoved down our throats, one way or another - Chris Hedges on Truthdig | Neither candidate will stop what's coming in January, 2013. On the effects of war versus the effects of fiat money - Plata | You pick: bullets, or paper.  Both are extremely destructive. The US Senate: a dysfunctional day in the life - Washington Post | My kids fight.  But they're 4 and 3.  What are these bozos' excuses? Is there really a global bacon shortage? - The Atlantic | What a great word, "aporkalypse."  What a horrible world, though, without bacon. Krugman refuses to debate Austrian economist for charity - Breitbart | So...public circus when you're held accountable in real-time, bad; public circus when you write your clap-trap in ... Read more...

Here's what we're following this morning:  (via Dangerous Minds) We don't owe $16 trillion, and you don't owe $50,000 - Corrente | While I understand the author's point, it remains a pie-in-the-sky dream for any entity to issue those platinum coins. Shhh: here's what the European Stability Mechanism just *might* be doing - Bloomberg | Do Italy and Spain know that they've just been shut out of funding?  Nevermind: we just have to wait for the next draft. Bernanke is King of the Data Hill - NJB Deflator | If Bernanke took action, there's a reason.  Let's all hope the markets continue to have faith. Raising the retirement age to 69 will lower monthly beneft by... - Naked Capitalism | Live longer?  Work longer!  Success! 4 years later, and what have we learned? - The Atlantic | If he still believes that you can't change Washington from the inside, does that mean that all those Prius bumper stickers can be torn off, now? Why QE3 is bound to backfire - Counterpunch | If the banks are choosing not to reduce mortgage rates further, then why is Bernanke purchasing $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities each month? The problem with Americans: too ... Read more...

Here's what we're following this morning: (via Boing Boing) The Congressional Budget Office thinks that you shouldn't buy an electric car - Bruce Krasting | So...the government provided billions of dollars to companies to jump-start the electric car industry, but the CBO has determined that the cost to consumers is much too great than compared to conventional vehicles?  Well done, DC. Fed pushing large-money investors into becoming landlords - Dr Housing Bubble | This is what happens in a chase for yield. Washington versus America - New York Times | Why are we running deficits?  Because too many interest groups have a stake in making sure the party never stops. Bank of America says it will modify your mortgage...but you have to stop ragging on them in public - Naked Capitalism | It appears as though BofA has such serious customer service problems that it prefers to bribe angry borrowers rather than fix their messes. QE3 is just another Fed give-away to the banks - Michael Hudson on Real News Network | Hudson talks about why the Fed's claim that QE3 will help unemployment needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  Chris Whalen chimes in, too: "The core ... Read more...

Here's what we're following this morning: (via Boing Boing) Incomes fell or stagnated in most states last year - Wall Street Journal | Good thing, too, considering the fate of the rally now rests in the hands of the US consumer. Seven of the nation's 10 most affluent counties are in Washington DC area - Washington Post | This is where you act surprised, America. Gut instincts will decide the election - Breitbart | Well, now...doesn't that make everyone feel better?  People put more work into looking for a car or thinking about where they want to have dinner on the weekend than they do researching their "elected" leaders. The Great American Tax Debate misses the point - Counterpunch, cross-posted from Economic Intelligence | Can I file for Andrew Smith, Inc.?  Really?  Then can I deduct the interest paid on debt from my earnings? NYSE pays a paltry $5 million fine for giving private customers a trading head-start - IEEE Spectrum | Just what "message" does this send?  That callous indifference is okay? Half of Morgan Stanley didn't do as well on Facebook as the other half - Dealbreaker | Better to upset your in-house clients than any prospect who ... Read more...

Here's what we're following this morning: (via Geeks of Doom) Leaders want Germany (i.e. Weidmann) to tone-down its (i.e. his) criticism of the ECB - The Telegraph | You had me at "If a central bank can potentially create unlimited money from nothing...." The American consumer is putting the screws to healthcare expenses - Testosterone Pit | GE's healthcare division generates $18 billion in revenues.  GE's health insurance program for its employees costs $2.5 billion.  Do the math. The trouble with printing money - Chris Martenson | Put it this way: if you earn $50k/year, you would have to work for 800,000 years to earn the same amount of money that the Fed will print each month.  By the way?  The Fed has provided no end date to their easing. The "secret" revolution that could set the Middle East aflame - TomDispatch | Bahrain.  Bahrain.  Bahrain. Follow the dark money - Mother Jones | A story about the 4-decade fight over the only political capital that matters. Bank of Japan follows QE3 with fresh stimulus - Financial Times | You can just hear the BOJ's mother now: "Listen!  If every other central bank does it, do you think YOU have ... Read more...

Here's what we're following this morning: (via Dangerous Minds) The American election's global reach - The Washington Post | So...an unfettered economy is not a good thing?  Rejoice, ye downtrodden victims of controlled markets!  You are the Chosen People! Making sense of mortgage rates and regulations - Sense on Cents | Remember: more regulations do not necessarily mean better regulations. How central banking has evolved markets through monetary policy - NJB Deflator | If the latest round of easing "works," prepare for higher costs. Let's help Treasury get out of GM - Dealbreaker | What Treasury wants is the political benefit of being able to say that it "made money," or at least it didn't "lose too much money," on the bailout...which is not at all the same thing as wanting to maximize its economics NOW. Two American companies lay off hundreds of workers; military uniform contracts awarded to prison inmates - The Inquisitr | Charge more, get the business.  What's not to like...other than the "convict worker" thing? "Britons must work harder if the country is to compete with China and India." - The Guardian | No comment.  You'll see why. States seek middle ground on Medicaid - Wall ... Read more...

Here's what we're following this morning: (via Naked Capitalism) An Athenian perspective on the US presidential election - Yanis Varoufakis via CNN | "From this and other sad incidents, Greeks have surmised that the US no longer holds sway over our European destiny; at least not the way it used to." EU ministers at odds over banking union - Financial Times | Imagine that: France, Germany, and non-eurozone countries NOT agreeing upon a blueprint for a single eurozone bank supervisor in 3 months' time? Is QE3 yet another stealth bank bailout - Naked Capitalism | Banks don't have the staffing to originate loans any faster?  How about lenders don't WANT to originate loans any faster. Thousands demand referendum be held to determine austerity drive - El Pais | A country can monetize, or a country can impose austerity.  Guess what won't be welcomed by the public. In prosecutors, debt collectors find a partner - New York Times | DAs seem to be renting out their letterhead and receiving a cut of whatever is collected.  Wonder if they're chomping at the bit for the student loan messes. The changing dollar and the purchasing power of various currencies - Now and Futures, ... Read more...

Here's what we're following this morning: (via Dangerous Minds) California workers to shoulder more pension costs - Wall Street Journal | Come to California!  Work for the State!  Find higher retirement ages and smaller pensions!  Rejoice! Britons are increasingly skeptical of EU benefits - The Telegraph | 40% believe that EU membership is good for them.  Wonder how that percentage rate is doing for other countries hearing the din of IMF liaisons in their local cafes. A Truthdig two-fer: the high cost of high blood pressure and the lowdown on nursing home deficiencies - Truthdig | 67 million Americans have high blood pressure, and about half don't control it.  How many people haven't identified what they're going to do when that deficiency catches up with them? Psychoanalyzing the Fed - Charles Hugh Smith | The more the Fed appears to meekly comply to the demands of the market, the greater the pressure will be on them to continue giving the market what it now needs to continue rising: QE. Breaking the public monopoly on K-12 - Hoover Institution | Given our long history of successful capitalism, for-profit competition among schools seems likely to work just as well in capitalistic America ... Read more...

Here's what we're following this morning: (via io9) German court rules in favor of bailout fund...with conditions - Washington Post | The "unlimited" ECB action now seems to be capped at EUR190bn from Germany. UK banks could be shut down or forced into bail-outs by Brussels - The Telegraph | Ah..."full decision-making powers."  From an external country, no less. In which countries is Coca-Cola not sold? - BBC | I love the line about how Coke is "capitalism in a bottle." How much did the government make on AIG, anyway? - Dealbreaker | It doesn't appear as though the feds got such a sweet deal on the plan. Why early sovereign default could save the euro - VoxEU | It's like ripping off a Band-Aid: do it quickly. Confessions of a former Republican - TomDispatch | I'm not sure that either party in a two-party system is the solution to the other party's foibles.  Until there is a viable third-party option, here, we seem to be forced into butting our heads against the same dented walls. UK Treasury prepares to abandon chief fiscal target - The Guardian | If you can't win the game, just change the rules.  My kids ... Read more...