Germany's Schaeuble Says Markets Out of Control

He admits that the greatest problem affecting the markets is one of trust in the ability of the EU, and especially the 16 members of the common currency area at its heart, to bring their debt and deficits under control as they have promised. “That is the task we must perform,” he tells the Financial Times aboard his Luftwaffe Challenger jet bound for Berlin. “But that doesn’t alter the fact that financial market regulation is also necessary.  “I’m convinced the markets are really out of control. That is why we need really effective regulation, in the sense of creating a properly functioning market mechanism.”

New Claims Shoot Higher as Jobless Problem Persists

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 471,000 in the week ended May 15, the highest level since the week ended April 10, the Labor Department said.

North Korea warns of war if punished for ship sinking

Tensions deepened Thursday on the Korean peninsula as South Korea accused North Korea of firing a torpedo that sank a naval warship, killing 46 sailors in the country's worst military disaster since the Korean War.  President Lee Myung-bak vowed "stern action" for the provocation following the release of long-awaited results from a multinational investigation into the March 26 sinking near the Koreas' tense maritime border. North Korea, reacting swiftly, called the results a fabrication, and warned that any retaliation would trigger war. It continued to deny involvement in the sinking of the warship Cheonan.  "If the (South Korean) enemies try to deal any retaliation or punishment, or if they try sanctions or a strike on us .... we will answer to this with all-out war," Col. Pak In Ho of North Korea's navy told broadcaster APTN in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang.

Greek strikers march on parliament against cuts

The strike was called by unions representing 2.5 million workers, half the country's workforce, who want the government to withdraw austerity measures agreed with the EU and IMF in return for a 110 billion-euro ($137 billion) emergency loan.  Schools and government offices were shut and hospitals were operating on skeleton staff. Tourist sites such as Athens' ancient Acropolis were also closed, ships were kept in port or prevented from docking, and domestic flights were disrupted.

One in 7 US Homeowners Late Paying or In Foreclosure

One out of seven U.S. households with a mortgage ended the first quarter late on mortgage payments or in the foreclosure process...

The delinquency rate for one-to-four-unit residential loans in the first quarter rose to a seasonally adjusted rate of 10.06 percent of loans outstanding from 9.47 percent the prior quarter and from 9.12 percent a year earlier.

County to charge 50-cent-per-ride fee for school-bus...

Parents in Colorado's third-largest school district are being asked to pay if their kids want to ride the bus to school.  The Douglas County school board voted 5-0 Tuesday night to approve a 50-cent-per-ride transportation fee starting next school year. The decision will affect about 17,000 students who ride the bus this year. The district hopes to raise $2 million with the program.

The fight over Arizona's illegal immigrant law escalates to the power grid

Well, as our beloved buddy Ed Morrissey points out over at HotAir, it seems that Arizona's power plants generate about 25% of the electricity that runs what Briton Eddie Izzard calls the City of Angles.  In a delightfully stern letter written for the desert home front, possibly indicating Mr. Pierce's higher political ambitions, the commissioner warns Villaraigosa of the retaliation consequences of an LA city boycott.  Pierce writes:  If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation. I am confident that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands. If, however, you find that the City Council lacks the strength of its convictions to turn off the lights in Los Angeles and boycott Arizona power, please reconsider the wisdom of attempting to harm Arizona’s economy. People of goodwill can disagree over the merits of SB 1070. A statewide economic boycott of Arizona is not a message sent in goodwill.

BAILOUT OF BANK WITH OBAMA TIES RAISES EYEBROWS; CITI, GE, TAXPAYERS TO RESCUE...

Some of the nation's largest banks have agreed to contribute enough money to save Chicago-based ShoreBank, the community lender with strong ties to the Obama administration, FOX Business has learned 

The banks have agreed to contribute $140 million to bail out the bank, while the federal government will donate tens of millions more, according to people close to the talks. In addition to major Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs (GS: 139.307, 1.897, 1.38%), which agreed to contribute $20 million to the bailout effort, as well as Citigroup (C: 3.7101, -0.0099, -0.27%) and JPMorgan (JPM: 38.75, -0.27, -0.69%), General Electric's (GE: 17.0716, -0.1584, -0.92%) GE Capital will also contribute $20 million to the rescue effort. All the firms have either received massive government assistance during the financial crisis or, in the case of Goldman Sachs, are facing multiple regulatory investigations into their business practices.  The bailout has been controversial. Senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett served on a Chicago civic organization with a director of the bank, and President Obama himself has singled out the bank for praise in lending to low-income communities.  But the bank has made its share of bad bets, and some of the Wall Street firms that have given money have said they've received political pressure to contribute to the bailout of a business that under normal circumstances would have been left to fail.

Bangkok in Flames

BANGKOK (AP) - Downtown Bangkok turned into a flaming battleground Wednesday as an army assault toppled the Red Shirt protest leadership, enraging followers who fired grenades and set numerous fires that cloaked the skyline in a black haze.  Using live ammunition, troops dispersed thousands of anti-government protesters who had been camped in the capital's premier shopping and residential district for weeks. Four protesters and an Italian news photographer were killed in the ensuing gunbattles and about 60 wounded.  After Red Shirt leaders gave themselves up to police, rioters set fires at the Stock Exchange, several banks, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Electricity Authority, the high-end Central World shopping mall and a cinema complex that collapsed. Thick smoke drifted across the sky of this city of 10 million people.

"That is our historic task; if the euro fails, then Europe fails,"

BERLIN (AP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for tougher regulation aimed a stock and bond traders along with a crackdown on government debt to contain the continent's financial crisis, warning the future of the euro itself was at stake.  As she urged lawmakers to pass Germany's share of a new euro750 billion ($1 trillion) eurozone rescue package, Merkel said that defending the shared European currency is "about no more and no less than the preservation of the European idea."  "That is our historic task; if the euro fails, then Europe fails," she told the lower house of parliament on Wednesday. "The euro is in danger - if we do not avert this danger, then the consequences for Europe are incalculable, and then the consequences beyond Europe are incalculable."  Merkel's warning follows Germany's decision Tuesday to ban so-called naked short-selling of eurozone government debt and shares of major financial companies in an attempt to ward off steep market drops.  Naked short-selling involves traders selling shares or investments they don't hold in hopes of buying them cheaper later; it's a way of betting a financial asset will fall in price and profiting from the fall.  Germany's roiled financial markets, in part because it suggested to traders that policymakers were grasping at straws to stem the crisis of confidence over the ability of European governments to pay off their heavy debt loads amid slow growth.  Fears that some governments may eventually fail to pay all they owe, or will have to cut back so severely that they sink their economies into prolonged recessions, have weighed on stocks and led to discussions that the 11-year-old eurozone will someday break up. The $1 trillion backstop is an attempt to calm those fears by removing the possibilty of immiment default, though it does little to address the underlying debt issue.  Politicians have also roundly condemned "speculators" for selling off government bonds, which drives up their borrowing costs and makes it even harder to keep their finances under control. But many analysts say the real problem is simply too much debt.

Senators load financial overhaul with irrelevancies

SOME OF THE PROPOSED MEASURES

Here are some of the proposed amendments that lawmakers have added to the financial regulation bill, with their original sponsors in parentheses:

- Require construction of the U.S.-Mexico border security fence within a year (Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.)

- Strip health insurers of their antitrust exemption (Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.)

- Make it easier to train lead paint removal contractors (Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.)

- Call on the U.S. to back multilateral efforts to probe and stop activities involving natural resources that "contribute to illegally armed groups and human rights violations in eastern Congo" (Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kans.)

- Require publicly traded companies to disclose occupational health and safety conditions at coal mines and oil rigs (Sens. Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.)

- Prevent senators from secretly blocking legislation from floor consideration (Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.)

- Require companies to disclose payments to foreign countries for oil, natural gas and mineral rights (Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.)

- End the practice of "secret spending" by requiring most spending proposals to be available on a public website well in advance of final congressional action (Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.)

Forget Europe, Worry About China: Hugh Hendry

“Some of these businesses will not survive; others will have to be radically restructured and my investors will make money," Hendry said.  Following Europe’s debt crisis it is “now commonly accepted that the magnitude of the financial problems confronting the world economy are so great that in all likelihood we will be confronted by a hyperinflation allowing sovereign debts to be paid off in worthless flat currency," he said.  China is at the mercy of its own credit bubble, Hendry said and he predicts it will explode as it fuels instability within the Chinese economy and political system.

Investors Should Avoid Banks 'At All Costs': Meredith Whitney

Investors should "avoid financials at all costs, particularly in the banking sector" because the Senate's financial reform bill will end up restricting credit and hurt bank earnings, well-known banking analyst Meredith Whitney told CNBC.  "Politicians have proven far worse than our worst expectations," she said in an interview. "It could be very bad for banks."

Sell it All, Risk of 'Major Crash': Dow Theory’s Russell

The author of the closely-watched Dow Theory Letters newsletter warned investors to get out of US stocks now in a report published Tuesday.  Richard Russell wrote that there is a risk of a “major crash” if the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls below the May 7 closing price of 10,380.43, according to several media reports.

Land-grab continues: Homeland Security threatens to seize farmland at US-Canada border...

It intends to acquire 4.9 acres of border land on a dairy farm owned for three generations by the Rainville family. Last month, the Rainvilles learned that if they refuse to sell the land for $39,500, the government intends to seize it by eminent domain.  The Rainvilles call this an unjustified land-grab by federal bullies.  “They are trying to steamroll us,’’ said Brian Rainville, 36, a high school government and civics teacher whose grandfather bought the farm in 1946 and whose parents and two brothers run it now. “We have a buyer holding a gun to our head saying you have to sell or else.’’

Iran vows more enrichment

Iran will continue its uranium enrichment activities, including production of 20 percent enriched uranium, even after signing a nuclear fuel swap deal with Turkey and Brazil on Monday, a senior official told Reuters.

Israel wargame assuming Iran has nuclear bomb

Sunday's event at a campus north of Tel Aviv followed other high-profile Iran simulations in Israel and the United States in recent months. But it broke new ground by assuming the existence of what both countries have pledged to prevent: an Iranian bomb.

Obama administration gave rig 'safety award' last year

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by AP, the agency has released copies of only three inspection reports — those conducted in January, February and April. According to the documents, inspectors spent two hours or less each time they visited the massive rig. Some information appeared to be "whited out," without explanation.

Euro Falls to Lowest Since Lehman as Breakup Concern Increases

The euro fell to its lowest level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. on concern that the 16-nation currency may be headed for disintegration.  The shared currency fell for a fourth week versus the dollar and a third week versus the yen, the longest losing streaks since February, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Europe is in a “very, very serious situation” despite a rescue package for the region’s most indebted nations.

New al-Qaida in Iraq chief warns of "dark days soaked in blood"

"Wait for the long gloomy nights and dark days soaked with blood," said Abu Suleiman, addressing Iraq's "polytheistic rejecters," an insulting term for Shiites common among extremist Sunnis. "What is happening to you nowadays is just a drizzle." The written message was posted on militant websites Friday.  One of the major doctrinal disputes between Sunnis and Shiites can be traced back to the first three rulers of the Muslim community after the Prophet Muhammad. Shiites reject those first three successors as illegitimate.  Al-Qaida attacks on Shiite shrines in 2006 plunged the country into a bloody cycle of mutual sectarian attacks. A measure of fragile calm, however, has returned to Iraq in the past two years.  There are fears that with the new round of attacks, mostly targeting Shiites, al-Qaida is hoping to provoke a backlash against Sunnis and re-ignite the sectarian warfare that brought the country to the brink of civil war.

Iranian cleric urges creation of 'Greater Iran'; caliphate would rule Middle East, central Asia...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A radical cleric called Saturday for the creation of a "Greater Iran" that would rule over the entire Middle East and Central Asia, in an event that he said would herald the coming of Islam's expected messiah.

US faces one of biggest budget crunches in world – IMF

U.S. Gross Debt As Percentage of GDP

But the really interesting stuff is the detail, and what leaps out again and again is how much of a hill the US has to climb. Exhibit a is the fact that under the Obama administration’s current fiscal plans, the national debt in the US (on a gross basis) will climb to above 100pc of GDP by 2015 – a far steeper increase than almost any other country.

HORROR: Teacher's brutal attack on boy, 13, at U.S. school posted on YouTube

VIDEO

Two Reasons Kagan Should NOT Be on the Supreme Court

FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

“Once again, there is no question, after Heller, that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to keep and bear arms and that this right, like others in the Constitution, provides strong although not unlimited protection against governmental regulation.”

SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS

The man’s “sole contention is that the District of Columbia’s firearms statutes violate his constitutional right to ‘keep and bear arms,’” Kagan wrote. “I’m not sympathetic.”

Russia Lectures Obama on Iran "Sanctions"

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the United States and other Western nations on Thursday against imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, Interfax news agency reported.

Big Brother is Watching... New Supersnooping Agencies Set Up in Senate Bank Bill

"If you can link the data to courthouse records of housing sales," he said, then anyone can find data on others. "Much of this goes beyond what banks do now" to keep data. Under the new law, the government would detail "your charges at Macy's and car payments. It would be fairly detailed information."

Gold hits all-time high as investors seek haven

Netanyahu turns to Bible in tussle over Jerusalem

Beset by questions about the future of Jerusalem in talks with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin reached for the Bible on Wednesday to stake out the Jewish state's disputed claim on the city.  Netanyahu told a parliamentary session commemorating Israel's capture of East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war that "Jerusalem" and its alternative Hebrew name "Zion" appear 850 times in the Old Testament, Judaism's core canon.  "As to how many times Jerusalem is mentioned in the holy scriptures of other faiths, I recommend you check," he said.

"We Are One Again the Schmucks of Europe"

Did a Big Bet Help Trigger 'Black Swan' Stock Swoon?

“ The regulatory authorities and those running the exchanges have still do not have a handle on this problem. Little wonder the small investor is so cynical, jaded & mistrustful. ”

Democrats poised to move measures with high price tags

Congress faces a crush of votes on big-ticket items before the Memorial Day recess, setting up a debate on deficits less than six months before the November elections.  Democratic leaders are looking in the next three weeks to send President Barack Obama a slew of measures that cost more than $200 billion, including a multiyear extension of unemployment benefits, an extension of expiring tax provisions and Medicare doctor payments totaling $180 billion and a $33 billion Afghanistan war supplemental bill.

Israel primed for war on Iran - Netanyahu deputy

Israel is primed for a war on Iran, a deputy to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, in a rare break with his government's reticence as world powers try to talk Tehran into curbing its nuclear plans.  By spearheading assaults on guerrillas in neighbouring Lebanon and Palestinian territories, the Israeli air force had gained the techniques necessary for any future strikes on Iranian sites, Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said.

Iran Could Fire Nuclear Missile in Two Years

Iran will be able to deploy a missile capable of carrying a one-tonne nuclear warhead within two years, according to a report from a leading security think tank.

Home-schooling popularity rising at dramatic rates

While home-schooling's popularity has increased, the rate of growth concentrated in Texas' high school population is off the chart: It's nearly tripled in the last decade, including a 24 percent jump in a single year.

Workers prefer pay for not working...

In a state with the nation's highest jobless rate, landscaping companies are finding some job applicants are rejecting work offers so they can continue collecting unemployment benefits. It is unclear whether this trend is affecting other seasonal industries. But the fact that some seasonal landscaping workers choose to stay home and collect a check from the state, rather than work outside for a full week and spend money for gas, taxes and other expenses, raises questions about whether extended unemployment benefits give the jobless an incentive to avoid work.  Members of the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association "have told me that they have a lot of people applying but that when they actually talk to them, it turns out that they're on unemployment and not looking for work," said Amy Frankmann, the group's executive director. "It is starting to make things difficult."

Obama goes off on information... iPods, iPads, Xboxes and Playstations...

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," Obama said.  He bemoaned the fact that "some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction," in the clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets.

New scale of disaster looms in Gulf...

Admiral Thad Allen, head of the US Coast Guard, suggested they were considering what he called a "junk shot" to plug the main leak.  "They're actually going to take a bunch of debris, shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that and under very high pressure shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak," Allen, who is leading the US government's response, told CBS's "Face the Nation."  This could be risky as experts have warned that excessive tinkering with the blowout preventer -- a huge 450-ton valve system that should have shut off the oil -- could see crude shoot out unchecked at 12 times the current rate.

Moodys: U.S. Debt Shock May Hit In 2018, Maybe As Soon As 2013

"While we see limited risk of a U.S. sovereign debt downgrade in the next 2-3 years, beyond that we cannot be so certain," wrote Societe Generale's economics team in a recent report.  The Moody's ratings framework is one that could have a significant influence on policy — particularly in a crisis.

There is a time to worry...

Farrakhan’s Obama Revelation: ‘Before He Was Elected He Was Selected’

VIDEO

Georgia Seniors Told They Can't Pray Before Meals

"Like one lady said, 'You can stop me from speaking, but you can't stop me from praying what's in my heart,"' he said. "But the best answer right now is that we're trying to get the best information possible and legal council is looking at what would happen if we continued to pray.  "Blackwelder said the center's already fragile visitors have been rattled.  "This is, in my view, an unnecessary intrusion into the private lives of individuals. It's a bad place to draw a line in the sand.

Ready To Ride?

Stocks Tumble Worldwide on Debt Fears

Wall Street endured a dizzying plunge Thursday, sending the Dow Jones industrials to a loss of nearly 1,000 points in less than half an hour. A computerized selloff possibly caused by a trader's mistake may have been responsible for the late-session plunge, and the Dow recovered two-thirds of the loss before the closing bell.  But the jitters over Europe remained and the selling spread to Asia on Friday. Markets in Japan, South Korea and China all posted steep losses, with Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average closing down 3.1 percent.

Unemplotment Up to 9.9%

British election ends in hung parliment

Athens or Washington, It's the Size of Government

This is more than a financial crisis. This is a national meltdown. And while facile comparisons to the U.S. must be avoided, there are nonetheless lessons for us --particularly in light of the direction the Democratic Party wants to travel.

Not-Dead-Yet Newsweek Asks a Good Question: Where’s the Coverage Of the Nashville Flood?

As you may have heard, torrential downpours in the southeast flooded the Tennessee capital of Nashville over the weekend, lifting the Cumberland River 13 feet above flood stage, causing an estimated $1 billion in damage, and killing more than 30 people. It could wind up being one of the most expensive natural disasters in U.S. history.  Or, on second thought, maybe you didn’t hear. With two other “disasters” dominating the headlines—the Times Square bombing attempt and the Gulf oil spill—the national media seems to largely to have ignored the plight of Music City since the flood waters began inundating its streets on Sunday.

Students Wearing American Flag Shirts Sent Home on Cinco de Mayo...

Rep. Andre Carson: Tea Party Protesters Are ‘One of the Largest Threats to our Internal Security’

KERRY PICKET (Wash. Times): Do you think the people outside are generally dangerous or no?

REP. CARSON: Oh absolutely. I worked in homeland security. I’m from intelligence, and I’ll tell you, one of the largest threats to our internal security…I mean terrorism has an Islamic face, but it really comes from racial supremacist groups. (inaudible) Its the kind of thing we keep a threat assessment on record [for].
PICKET: From groups like this?
REP. CARSON: Oh absolutely.

Holy Dow!!!

At the height of the panic, one trader, on the condition of anonymity, said he heard fixed-income desks in Europe shut down early because there was no liquidity — basically European banks are halting lending right now.  "This is similar to what took place pre-Lehman Brothers," the trader said.

Stocks slide worldwide over DEBT

“We are in an era where governments are no longer considered risk free,” said Gary Jenkins, head of credit strategy at London-based broker Evolution Securities Ltd. “The capital markets could soon be in the midst of the largest financial crisis of the last 100 years.”

Israel says Hezbollah missile buildup accelerating

Stocks, Euro Slide on Government Debt Concern; Commodities Sink

SCENARIOS-Can Greece cut its deficit by 11 points by 2014?

Greek State Workers Escalate Protests at Budget Cuts

Greek government workers shut down schools and hospitals and disrupted flights as demonstrators occupied the Acropolis in an escalation of protests against 30 billion euros ($40 billion) of additional wage cuts and tax increases unveiled this week.

Federal Government Outpaces Private Sector in Job Creation

Franklin TN Flooding, Emergency...Curfew...

Mayor John Schroer has issued a State of Emergency for the City of Franklin. A curfew has also been issued from Dusk until Dawn 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. The City's drinking water is adequate and of good quality. Please limit your wastewater usage as much as possible. The Red Cross has set up shelter at The Peoples Church located at 96E and Mack Hatcher. If you need emergency help call 911. Go here for a current list of road closures. See the news section for more details. For non-emergencies call 794-2513.