Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, January 3, 2012


Christmas is not just for December!

And now... off to the kitchen for breakfast: 2 hard-boiled eggs.

Next up...

11:00 a.m. - Two dill pickle "wraps"; each pickle wrapped with one slice of turkey, one slice of ham, and one slice of swiss cheese. (No bread; no mayo.)

Next up...

Went to the gym; did six miles on the stationary bike (in a half hour) and then a few minute pause to give my aching ass a rest, followed immediately by another five miles on the "low bike" (twenty-five minutes).

Took a shower... visited a few local libraries... picked up a few books...

3:30 p.m. - One grilled "thin and trim" chicken sausage on on slice of toasted whole grain oat bread with mustard and maybe an ounce of cheddar cheese. (And a zero-calorie flavored seltzer.)

Next up...

7:30 p.m. - Homemade chicken salad on a bed of lettuce and a bowl of Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle Soup. (Yep... mayo in the chicken salad... and some fried up pepperoni... but also bulked up with as much chopped broccoli as chicken - probably more broccoli in fact! Yeah... a few ounces of cheese added as well... but we're talking less than an ounce per serving. Oh... and finally... I "cut" the mayo with lite sour cream!)

And finally...

9:00 p.m. - Two pieces of fruit & nut candy (90 calories total) and a glass of chocolate milk.

10:00 p.m. - A small grapefruit.

4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-03/world-s-biggest-economies-face-7-6-trillion-bond-tab-as-rally-seen-fading.html

Governments of the world’s leading economies have more than $7.6 trillion of debt maturing this year, with most facing a rise in borrowing costs.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

Led by Japan’s $3 trillion and the U.S.’s $2.8 trillion, the amount coming due for the Group of Seven nations and Brazil, Russia, India and China is up from $7.4 trillion at this time last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Ten-year bond yields will be higher by year-end for at least seven of the countries, forecasts show.

* BORROWING ACCELERATING... INTEREST RATES INCREASING... DOES ANY OF THIS SOUND GOOD TO YOU FOLKS?

(*SHRUG*)

* YOU CAN PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT MATTERS... OR LET THE MEDIA LEAD YOU BY THE NOSE TO FOLLOW THE HORSE RACE ASPECTS OF THE GOP PRIMARIES.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/01/03/010312-news-immigration-strife-1-3/

Higher-ups within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are pressuring rank-and-file officers to rubber-stamp immigrants’ visa applications, sometimes against the officers’ will, according to a Homeland Security report and internal documents exclusively obtained by The Daily.

A 40-page report, drafted by the Office of Inspector General in September but not publicly released, details the immense pressure immigration service officers are under to approve visa applications quickly, sometimes while overlooking concerns about fraud, eligibility or security.

One-quarter of the 254 officers surveyed said they have been pressured to approve questionable cases, sometimes “against their will.”

At least five agency veterans seen as being too tough on applicants were either demoted, or given the choice between a demotion or a relocation from Southern California - where their families were - to San Francisco and Nebraska, according to sources and letters of reassignment provided to The Daily.

Those kind of threats have caused lower-level employees to fall in line, sources said.

“People are afraid,” said one longtime manager, who requested anonymity for fear of being fired. “Integrity only carries people so far because they’ve got to pay the rent.”

William R. Barker said...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-closes-2011-record-1522-trillion-debt-officially-1003-debtgdp

While not news to Zero Hedge readers who knew about the final debt settlement of U.S. debt about 10 days ahead of schedule, it is now official: according to the US Treasury: America has closed the books on 2011 with debt at an all time record $15,222,940,045,451.09.

And, as was observed here first in all of the press, U.S. debt to GDP is now officially over 100%, or 100.3% to be specific, a fact which the U.S. government decided to delay exposing until the very end of the calendar year.

(We wonder, rhetorically, just how prominent of a talking point this historic event will be in any upcoming GOP primary debates.)

And yes, technically this number is greater than the debt ceiling but it excludes various accounting gimmicks. When accounting for those, the U.S. has a debt ceiling buffer of $14 billion, or one third the size of a typical bond auction.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

* AND THE DJIA WAS UP 179.82 TODAY.

* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!

William R. Barker said...

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/202151-report-regulators-missing-a-slew-of-dodd-frank-deadlines

Regulators have missed roughly three-quarters of the deadlines for implementing the Dodd-Frank financial reform law through 2011, according to a new report.

* BY "REGULATORS" WE'RE TALKING THE OBAMA EXECUTIVE BRANCH.

So far, 200 deadlines for drafting rules to implement the Wall Street overhaul have come and gone, and regulators have met only 51 of them, according to the law firm of Davis Polk.

Another 200 rulemaking requirements stemming from the law still await regulatory action.

* WHAT A FRIGG'N JOKE, HUH? YOU TRY "MISSING" A LEGAL DEADLINE OR OTHER LEGAL REQUIREMENT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!

All told, regulators have implemented less than a quarter of the sweeping law. Just 21.5% of the rulemaking requirements have resulted in finalized rules, while 38.75% currently have proposed rules.

Another 39.75% of rules that ultimately will have to be implemented to make the law a reality have yet to be proposed.

* THAT LAST DESERVES REPEATING, SO HERE YA GO:

Thirty-seven and three-quarters (39.75%) percent of rules that ultimately will have to be implemented to make the law a reality have yet to be proposed.

* NO, FOLKS... THIS IS NOT A JOKE... THIS IS HOW GOVERNMENT WORKS! (OR DOESN'T WORK!)

[T]he Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was handed new oversight over the financial derivatives market. ... So far, the CFTC has missed more than half of its deadlines - 31 out of 54 that have passed.

The Securities and Exchange Commission...has missed 81% of passed deadlines, according to the report.

(*JUST THROWING MY HANDS UP IN THE AIR*)