Italy Leads Surge in Sovereign Debt Risk to Record on Contagion
July 11th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
The cost of insuring against default on Italian government debt surged to a record, leading an increase in a gauge of European sovereign debt risk to an all- time high on concern the region’s crisis is spreading.
Credit-default swaps on Italy surged 32 basis points to 283, according to CMA prices at 12:30 p.m. in London. The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of swaps on 15 governments climbed 33 basis points to a record 289. An increase signals deteriorating perceptions of credit quality.
Investors are betting that Italy may be engulfed by the crisis that forced international bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal. European finance ministers are meeting today in Brussels to seek ways to shore up Greece and defend the region’s other heavily indebted nations.
“It’s a very nervous market and there’s a big fear out there that this crisis could spread from the stressed periphery to the rest of periphery,” said Padhraic Garvey, head of developed-market debt at ING Groep NV in Amsterdam. “Until we get a plan in place, financial markets will speculate and extrapolate the worst-case scenario.”
Large Banks Responsible for Mortgage Disaster Might Be Able to Buy Immunity for $30 Billion
July 11th, 2011*meh* Pocket lint.
Hell, why bother spending any money on a settlement? If nobody from Lehman went down—fuggetaboutit.
Although, it might be worth it since I doubt anyone actually knows how that fraud soaked debt might metastasize in the future.
Via: Huffington Post:
State and federal prosecutors are pressing to complete a proposed settlement with the nation’s five largest home loan companies over alleged mortgage abuses, even though they’ve only initiated a limited investigation that hasn’t examined the full extent of the alleged wrongdoing, according to interviews with more than two dozen officials and others familiar with the state and federal probes.
The deal with the mortgage companies would broadly absolve the firms of wrongdoing in exchange for penalties reaching $30 billion and assurances that the firms will adhere to better practices going forward, these sources told The Huffington Post. Negotiators met in Washington last week to hash out the settlement.
For federal and some state officials, expedience now appears to be trumping other considerations in settlement talks with major mortgage servicers. Despite failing to marshal a strong case proving misconduct during the foreclosure crisis, the government is seeking to craft a settlement quickly, in the hopes that this will inject greater certainty into the financial system, stabilize home prices and add vigor to a flagging economy.
But some officials with experience sitting across the negotiating table with major banks say the government is making a critical miscalculation that jeopardizes the public interest by seeking a deal before amassing a credible threat of successful prosecution: In essence, they say, the government would give servicers a blanket pass for widespread alleged acts of fraud while extracting too little in return and operating from a relative position of weakness.
Research Credit: ms
Automatic Butcherbot Debones 1,500 Whole Chickens Per Hour
July 11th, 2011Via: Popular Science:
The fastest human butchers can fully debone about 150 chickens per hour. That’s a lot of chickens! But the new Mayekawa Automatic Chicken Deboner easily bests it, masterfully breaking down a whopping 1,500 chickens in the same amount of time–which, if our math is correct, is ten times faster than a flesh-and-blood butcher.
Automatic chicken deboners are often faster than humans, but often do a poor job of butchering, as they have difficulty adjusting to the different sizes and shapes of poultry. You can’t simply cut every chicken in the same place, to the same depth, in the same way–you’ll end up with some good birds and some mangled birds. The Mayekawa addresses that problem with a custom-built camera setup that analyzes each chicken and then adjusts the butchering so as to cut to the right depth and in the right place.
More / Don’t Miss: Automatic Ham Boning Robot – Mayekawa HAMDAS-R
Research Credit: Neo
Blackwater’s New Director: Bill Clinton’s Lawyer
July 11th, 2011Via: Wired:
Blackwater’s rebranding continues at a torrid pace. Danger Room has learned the latest Washington greybeard hired to spruce up the image of the world’s most infamous private security firm is Jack Quinn, a top Washington lobbyist and former White House counsel to President Bill Clinton.
Now renamed Xe and owned by an investor consortium called USTC Holdings, the company is bringing Quinn — pictured left, with Rep. Joe Crowley — onto its board as an “independent director.” He’ll focus on “governance and oversight,” keeping the company out of trouble, especially with the government. USTC Holdings’ Jason DeYonker says that Quinn’s reputation for “commitment to the highest ethical standards of conduct in both the public and private sectors” makes him a great fit.
To be cynical about it, a man who gave legal advice to Clinton knows a whole lot about crisis management. Which is important, since Xe intends to keep providing security to U.S. diplomats in dangerous places – activities that, under its old leadership, led its guards into a shooting debacle that killed 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
Cryptogon Reader Signs Up for Hosting with BlueHost
July 11th, 2011Thanks to the owner of macrochan.us for signing up for hosting with BlueHost. Cryptogon received $90.
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions in July
July 11th, 2011Pookie sent $75 and Global Governance Archive sent $25. Thank you.
June Earnings
July 11th, 2011During the first half of June, I was nearly certain that I was headed for a wide and worrying earnings miss for the month. I thought that people were tapped out, due to the widening economic collapse, sick of Cryptogon or both.
But then you guys came through full throttle in the second half of the month and gave me a great result of $1667.44. There were some very generous cash contributions, a couple of BlueHost signups, and the U.S. Amazon commission total was one of the largest ever.
(With the record high NZ$, I just look away at the exchange rate when I go to bring US$ over here. The high NZ$ just sucks. Stuff doesn’t cost any less, as it should, in theory. Retailers are just pocketing the difference on the favorable exchange rate and not passing the savings on. The price of gasoline is flat, which is a bit of a consolation prize.)
Thank you very much to everyone who sent money and/or conducted business via affiliate links.
EU Calls Emergency Meeting Over Italian Debt
July 10th, 2011Via: Reuters:
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has called an emergency meeting of top officials dealing with the euro zone debt crisis for Monday morning, reflecting concern that the crisis could spread to Italy, the region’s third largest economy.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will attend the meeting along with Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the region’s finance ministers, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Olli Rehn, the economic and monetary affairs commissioner, three official sources told Reuters.
Van Rompuy’s spokesman Dirk De Backer said: “It’s a coordination, not a crisis meeting.” He added that Italy would not be on the agenda and declined to say what would be discussed.
However, two official sources told Reuters that the situation in Italy would be discussed. The talks were organized after a sharp sell-off in Italian assets on Friday, which has increased fears that Italy, with the highest sovereign debt ratio relative to its economy in the euro zone after Greece, could be next to suffer in the crisis. A second international bailout of Greece will also be discussed, the sources said.
Upcoming 405 Closure Could Trigger a Domino Effect of Gridlock
July 10th, 2011Here’s one for your It’s A Good Thing That The Terrorists Are Too Stupid To Think Of This file folder.
Via: Los Angeles Times:
Officials encourage drivers to stay home, warning of possible cascading logjams on alternative routes.
Marcella and Richard Tyler may be in the path of a traffic hurricane many fear will whip around next weekend’s shutdown of the 405 Freeway, one of the most heavily traveled interstates in the nation.
The couple’s Sherman Oaks neighborhood, near Sepulveda Boulevard, sits in an extended corridor between the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles most at risk of becoming clogged with motorists trying to skirt the 53-hour closure of the 405 for construction work.
“We believe the streets will be totally gridlocked. We don’t think we will be able to get out,” said Richard Tyler, who plans to hunker down at home during the disruption. “We even wonder how the mailman will get around.”
Whether “Carmageddon” will paralyze the Los Angeles Basin or turn into a Y2K-style bust as motorists heed warnings to stay off the road is anybody’s guess.
But under worst-case scenarios, transportation officials fear the closure could trigger a domino effect of gridlocked surface streets. Sepulveda Boulevard, which roughly parallels the 405, and other major thoroughfares on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley, Malibu and Santa Monica could become cascading logjams.
The best options are to stick to other freeways or stay home, said Bruce Gillman, a Los Angeles Department of Transportation spokesman. “If people want to go out and drive, they could be putting themselves into a very frustrating situation.”
Former CIA Director: Build a New Internet to Improve Cybersecurity
July 10th, 2011So, here are some guesses as to what voluntary will mean:
Do you want to login to your bank? You’ll need your trusted credentials for that.
Online trading account? You’ll need your trusted credentials for that.
Book an airline ticket? You’ll need your trusted credentials for that.
Sign up for Internet service? You’ll need your trusted credentials for that.
It’s voluntary. Trust us.
—White House Calls for ‘Trusted’ Internet Identities for Americans
This article makes ridiculous assumptions; first, that users of the current implementation of the Internet are somehow ‘anonymous’, and second, that the U.S. doesn’t conduct deep packet inspection of Internet traffic because it’s illegal.
On this anonymity that we supposedly enjoy, see the ancient but sill relevant: Ugly Truth About Online Anonymity.
As for the U.S. not conducting deep packet inspection, see any of the several Cryptogon posts about Mark Klein and the Narus Insight system.
Via: NextGov:
The United States may seriously want to consider creating a new Internet infrastructure to reduce the threat of cyberattacks, said Michael Hayden, President George W. Bush’s CIA director.
Several current federal officials, including U.S. Cyber Command chief Gen. Keith Alexander, also have floated the concept of a “.secure” network for critical services such as banking that would be walled off from the public Web. Unlike .com, .xxx and other new domains now proliferating the Internet, .secure would require visitors to use certified credentials for entry and would do away with users’ Fourth Amendment rights to privacy. Network operators in the financial sector, for example, would be authorized to scan account holders’ traffic content for signs of trouble. The current Internet setup would remain intact for people who prefer to stay anonymous on the Web.
Research Credit: G
