text:
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Obama Presidential Address - 2/14/09
Obama Presidential Address - 2/14/09
Oh, here's the link to Recovery.gov that he mentions - check it out:
Amazing how they can draft 1,000+ page spending documents in hours, isn't it?
Friday, February 13, 2009
Stimulus Bill Headed to Obama for Signature…
Stimulis: Because all economies have performance issues:
- certain side effects, including lack of response to stimulis may occur if economy over stimulated for periods exceeding 8 years. Should displacia lasting longer than a decade occur, please consult an economist who understands math and ignore everyone trained in the ways of Freidman or Keynes.
Stimulis – "Because central bankers can't get enough of your money!"
It's a sad, sad day for America and for her future. Congress made a decision that when compounded upon prior decisions virtually destroys America as we knew her. No, that is not being over dramatic, that is fact.
Add the numbers up. Here's how they worked (didn't work) PRIOR to this bill and the additional trillions Geithner is talking about for bank bailouts. Our deficits are expanding at a dramatic clip and this article, written using the most conservative numbers I could find, is already outdated. The math didn't work then, and it really doesn't work now… Death by Numbers.
$787 billion is equal to $2,580 for each 305 million people in America. It represents $4,828 for each of the 163 million tax filers. It is more than an additional $10,000 for my family of four. The numbers are growing exponentially such that the incomes in America can in no way, shape, or fashion even consider paying all the money back. Sorry to keep bringing up reality, but that will not end well – we have past the tipping point quite some time ago. Sad.
All about jobs? Riiight. Notice how there wasn't such an uproar over this $800 billion as there was over the TARP money? The psychology of America is changing. People are becoming resigned to the fact that we are going to self-destruct over the numbers.
U.S. Congress Gives Final Approval to $787 Billion Stimulus
By Brian Faler
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Congress gave final approval to President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package in hopes of wresting the economy out of recession through a mix of tax cuts and federal spending.
The Senate approved the package 60 to 38 with three Republicans joining Democrats in voting "yes." Earlier today, the House passed the measure 246 to 183 with no Republicans in favor and seven Democrats opposed. The bill, Obama's first major victory on Capitol Hill, now heads to his desk to be signed into law.
"After all the debate, this legislation can be summed up in one word: Jobs," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, during today's floor debate. "The American people need action and they need action now."
Because of paperwork that needs to be done, the legislation will reach the president's desk "no earlier than Monday," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
Democrats predict the plan would save or create 3.5 million jobs. Its biggest item is a $400 payroll tax cut for individuals and $800 for couples. Retirees, disabled veterans and others who don't pay payroll taxes would get a $250 payment.
Republicans argued that the bill contained too much government spending and, because of that, wouldn't do enough to boost the economy.
'Spending, Spending'
"I think everyone in this chamber on both sides of the aisle understands we need to act," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. "But a bill that's supposed to be about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that's all about spending, spending and spending."
Businesses won several tax breaks, including faster write- offs for equipment purchased in 2009 and incentives for companies that produce and invest in renewable resources such as solar and wind power. A business tax break pushed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would ease near-term tax burdens on companies and buyout firms that restructure debt without entering bankruptcy. The bill also includes an alternative minimum tax cut.
Democratic congressional leaders negotiated the final version of the bill this week after the House and Senate passed their own proposals.
When the House voted on its version last month, it passed 244-188 with no Republicans in support and 11 Democrats in opposition.
60 Votes
The measure needed 60 votes to pass the Senate. The three Republicans voting for the bill in that chamber were Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine. Senator Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrats who is battling brain cancer, didn't vote and one of Minnesota's Senate seats remains vacant.
Representative Allen Boyd of Florida was one of the Democrats who voted for the plan today after opposing the original House proposal. He said lawmakers "have worked hard to make this a better product," in part by reducing some of the spending the House version had included.
Senator Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who withdrew yesterday as Obama's commerce secretary nominee, voted against the plan. In a statement, he called it a "so-called stimulus plan" that "has become sidetracked by misplaced spending and a lack of attention to the true problems facing the nation."
The stimulus plan would provide a half-trillion dollars for jobless benefits, renewable energy projects, highway construction, food stamps, broadband, Pell college tuition grants, high-speed rail projects and scores of other programs. It would raise the nation's debt limit to about $12 trillion.
Executive Compensation
The package would restrict executive compensation at all companies receiving assistance from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, not just those receiving "exceptional" aid as the Obama administration announced last week. The legislation limits bonuses and other incentive pay at those companies on a sliding scale according to how much federal aid they take.
Bonus restrictions would be imposed on senior executive officers and the next 20 highest paid employees at companies that receive more than $500 million from TARP.
Companies receiving between $250 million and $500 million would face restrictions on bonuses to their senior executive officers and their next 10 highest-paid workers. The limits would apply to the top five employees at companies receiving between $25 million and $250 million.
Other details of what provisions survived negotiations between the House and Senate were still emerging even as the plan headed for congressional passage.
Museums, Theaters
Lawmakers dropped provisions barring funds from going to museums, arts centers and theaters. A ban on money to casinos, golf courses, zoos and swimming pools was retained. Lawmakers deleted provisions requiring businesses receiving stimulus funding to use E-Verify, a government program used to ensure workers are in the country legally.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said today the stimulus package would cost $787 billion, rather than $789 billion lawmakers estimated earlier this week. The plan would pump $185 billion into the economy this year and $399 billion next year, the agency said.
"This country faces the greatest crisis that we've seen in terms of the economy since the '30s," House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, said as he urged passage of the bill. "The other tool normally available to us is monetary policy in the form of low interest rates through actions of the Federal Reserve. We've already fired that bullet - - the only bullet left is fiscal policy."
Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican, said "you cannot borrow and spend your way to prosperity" and that Democrats were aiming to "stimulate big government."
Democrats released the text of the plan late yesterday, prompting complaints from Republicans they didn't have enough time to review the legislation before voting on it.
"It is over a thousand pages," said Representative Tom Price, a Georgia Republican. "It is physically impossible for any member to have read this bill."
Collectively we won't actually "do something" until it all unravels.
Stock up on the popcorn, it's going to be quite a show!
Dire Straits – The Man's Too Strong:
Bank Failure Friday – A Quadruple, Making 13 Total on Friday the 13th!
Bank failures: 13 in 2009Now the FDIC has a snowball that's growing larger and larger on their hands. Anybody else see where this is heading?
Closures in Nebraska, Florida, Illinois and Oregon bring the number of bank failures to 13 this year as the financial crisis continues to roll.
By Kenneth Musante, CNNMoney.com staff writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Four banks folded Friday, bringing the total number of banks to fail this year to 13.
Deposits at Sherman County Bank, based in Loup City, Neb., the first bank in the state to fail since 1990, will be taken over by Heritage Bank, based in Wood River, Neb., according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Meanwhile, accounts held by Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast based in Cape Coral, Fla., will be assumed by TIB Bank based in Naples, Fla., the FDIC said. It is the second bank to fail in Florida this year and the fourth to go under in that state since the economic crisis unfurled.
Corn Belt Bank and Trust Company, based in Pittsfield, Ill., the third bank to fail in the state since January 2008, was also shuttered by state regulators, and its deposits were turned over to The Carlinville National Bank out of Carlinville, Ill.
Pinnacle Bank, Beaverton, Oregon, was closed by the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities. The FDIC entered into an agreement with Washington Trust Bank, Spokane, Washington, to assume all of the deposits of Pinnacle Bank.
Customers who banked with Sherman County Bank, Riverside, Corn Belt Bank, or Pinnacle Bank will automatically become customers of the new owners, and will retain their account protection under the FDIC, which insures single accounts up to $250,000, and joint accounts up to $500,000, the government agency said.
Due to the Presidents Day holiday on Monday, Sherman County Bank's four branches, Riverside's nine branches, and Corn Belt Bank's two, will reopen on Tuesday as branches of the new deposit holders, the agency said.
Over the three-day weekend, those customers will be able to use checks, ATMs and debit cards as normal. Customers who have taken out loans from a failed bank should continue to make regular payments, the FDIC said.
Sherman County Bank held assets worth about $129.8 million, and held deposits worth about $85.1 million, as of Feb. 12, the FDIC said. Heritage Bank has agreed to purchase about $21.8 million of Sherman County Bank's assets.
Riverside Bank held assets worth about $539 million, and held deposits worth about $424 million, as of December last year, the FDIC said. TIB Bank will not assume $142.6 million worth of brokered deposits held by Riverside Bank, but agreed to buy $125 million of Riverside's assets.
Corn Belt Bank carried assets worth about $271.8 million, with deposits of $234.4 million, according to the agency. Carlinville National will not take on $92 million of Corn Belt's brokered deposits, but would buy $60.7 million of Corn Belt's assets, the FDIC said.
Pinnacle Bank had total assets of approximately $73 million and total deposits of $64 million. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, including those from brokers, Washington Trust Bank agreed to purchase approximately $72 million in assets at a discount of $7.6 million, the FDIC announced late Friday.
Altogether, the bank failures announced Friday will cost the FDIC about $341.6 million.
The unfolding financial crisis continues to take a toll on banks. If banks continue to fail at a rate of at least one per week, on average, then 2009 could see twice as many failures as in 2008. Last year, 25 banks were closed nationwide, which was the highest annual total since 1993, when 42 banks went under.
Economists expect the number of failed banks to continue rising this year, as the financial crisis plays out and the economic outlook remains dark.
Disposing of Assets of Failed Banks Tests F.D.I.C.Perhaps a moment of silence is fitting for the fallen? Or should we just place "naked" bets on the number of bank failures there will be this year?
By ERIC LIPTON
Published: February 13, 2009
WASHINGTON — When regulators took over the First National Bank of Nevada last year, they faced a showdown with the Terrible Herbst, the mustachioed cowboy who boasts of being the "best bad man in the West."
This was no real gunslinger, but the name and logo of a chain of gas stations and convenience stores in Nevada that feature slot machines next to candy and beer.
The family-owned Herbst chain, auditors at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation concluded, did not generate enough sales at its Reno-area gas stations to support the repayment of a loan, leaving auditors with three bad choices: Move to take over those stations and put the government in the gambling business. Cut off any flow of additional loan money. Or sell the loan at a steep loss.
The F.D.I.C. faces tough choices like this every day as it struggles to manage $15 billion worth of loans and property left from failed banks. If still-to-be-sold assets from IndyMac Bancorp of California, whose demise last year was the fourth-largest bank failure, are included, the number jumps to $40 billion.
The F.D.I.C. inherited the collection of loans and property after the failure of 25 banks in 2008, compared to just three in 2007. Thirteen more have failed this year, including four on Friday night, and no one doubts that more are on the way.
The F.D.I.C., which insures bank deposits and ultimately has responsibility for liquidating failed banks, is selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of loans through eBay-like auction sites.
DebtX of Boston and First Financial Network of Oklahoma City, for instance, sell loans at auction to investors who typically pay 5 cents to 85 cents for each dollar of outstanding principal, according to Bliss A, Morris, First Financial's president. It is unloading hundreds of houses across the country at bargain basement prices.
In November, Lula Smith, 86, of Kansas City, Mo., bought a two-bedroom house across the street from her home for $4,000, one-tenth of its value two years ago.
"I am real satisfied with that price, yes sir," she said, adding that after about $1,000 in additional costs to repair the house, and some new carpet, her son and daughter-in-law will move in. "It was a nice little deal, indeed."
And — in the most closely watched tactic — the F.D.I.C. is negotiating a series of billion-dollar deals with private equity partners who will take over huge batches of loans in exchange for a chunk of the sale proceeds.
Even as the solutions to the financial crisis are debated in Congress and among economists, the F.D.I.C., one of the agencies that deals most closely with the nation's banks, has already been transformed.
The rising tide of foreclosed real estate is so overwhelming that the agency, which had shrunk to a relatively tiny 4,800 employees from as many as 15,000 in the last period of bank meltdowns in the 1990s, is in the midst of a military-scale buildup as it undertakes one of the greatest fire sales of all time.
The agency is frantically calling in retirees and holding job fairs, looking to hire as many as 1,500 people. It has rented a high-rise office building in Irvine, Calif., the new headquarters for a West Coast branch of 450 employees who are wrestling with a real estate crisis in one of the hardest-hit regions. It is also budgeted to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a small army of contractors to augment its staff. "We are trying to be ready for the inevitable," said Mitchell L. Glassman, director of the F.D.I.C.'s division of resolutions and receiverships.
Well, we got tired of "Another one Bites the Dust" and last week we had "Dust in the Wind," perhaps it's time for these banks and their fiat money to "Ride Across the River to the Other Side?"
Dire Straits – Ride Across the River:
Michael Greenberger – Testimony to the House Agriculture Committee...
I agree with Mr. Greenberger 100% and would take the derivatives ban a lot further than just "naked" Credit Default Swaps (CDS).
Notice how the banker defends derivatives as providing liquidity. Bull. The only liquidity they provide is in the form of massive fees to him and his fellow bankers. Their comeback is that companies use them to hedge against possible default of the companies they are doing business with. I would say that you shouldn't be doing business with companies you can't trust, and you should perform due diligence before you do business with them in the first place. Think of the distortions in the economy that would remove. AND, while I don't know the ratio (can't know because no one's keeping track), I would BET that the number of CDS that are used to speculate far outweigh those even with semi-legitimate reasons. There's just no need for them whatsoever.
Michael Greenberger - House Agriculture Committee on Derivatives Legislation:
End of Day/Week 2/13 – EconoTune Packed Edition!
Tim Geithner is reminding me of Whimpy, from Popeye. You know, "I'll gladly pay you Wednesday for some stimulus today!" Are Americans really, I mean really that gullible? I know… there's absolutely no need to answer that. Mass psychosis… watching what people believe on CNBS is like watching a live unrehearsed skit from the lives of Alice in Wonderland. To bad they don't teach math there.
Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick:
(the first couple of minutes will get the idea across)
The Dow finished the day down 82 points, the S&P lost 1%, the NDX gave up .5%, and the RUT also lost .5%. The XLF still couldn't find any traction and slipped 3.8%, the VIX gained 4.1%, and IYR lost 6% - it's been getting killed ever since I wrote Real Estate, Bubbles, & the CMBX Index – Still Showing Severe Stress…
Internally the declining issues outnumbered advancing on the NYSE by 9 to 5, but on the Nasdaq there was a slight positive divergence with advancers outnumbering decliners by a slight margin. However, on a volume basis, declining volume was significantly greater than advancing.
Thursday's action produced a small movement on the McClelland Oscillator and thus we would have expected a large directional movement within the next two days. I don't think I'd consider that fulfilled after today and thus I would expect that a large movement on Tuesday is probable. Direction? Let's look at the charts…
Inside the SPX 20 day, 30 minute, busy working man chart, you can see that we closed beneath the red pennant bottom and the fast stochastic on this timeframe is heading down approaching oversold, but the slow is just exiting from the top. The 60 minute timeframe is overbought and has just rolled over and is about to issue a sell signal (hint for Tuesday), while the 10 minute is mid-range:
When we zoom out to the daily we see that yesterday's hammer was NOT confirmed and we are beneath that pennant bottom. Any further significant movement to the downside and I'm going to have to call the break confirmed. Note that my stochastic indicators here are not oversold and the lower Bollinger is starting to curl down:
The DOW daily also did not confirm yesterday's Dragon Fly doji. In fact, that just looks bearish. That was the fourth day in a row with a close beneath 8,000, and is the second lowest close of the bear market with the only support beneath this level the November pin lows which are down around 7,449, about 400 points down there. Again we can see the lower Bollinger turning down, and we're far enough beneath the pennant that we really can't fool ourselves, that pennant target is now in play (do you really want to know?):
Okay, let's look at the DOW pennant… While this one looks confirmed, keep in mind that the other indices have not broken down enough to confirm yet. The SPX, and RUT and just beneath their pennant bottoms and the Major market is actually far enough below its pennant to consider it confirmed to. These targets are tragic if they play out, so I'd really like to see all the indices including the NDX break beneath to call it a done deal, and I'd also like to see the Industrials and Transports make new lows together. If all that happens (could happen soon), then those targets are staring us right in the face. On the DOW that pennant target is approximately 3,650:
That's a scary number, you and I both don't want to know what that represents, but that's what that technical pattern is saying unless it turns around NOW. That target area matches my predictions made at the beginning of the year, before this pennant was formed. Why do they match? Because the 4,000 area on the DOW is where the long term uptrend line currently resides - Predictions for 2009... Riders on the Storm! Funny the way the math on technical patterns target support areas. When you see math relationships like that, they are talkin' to you – are you listening? Don't shoot the messenger just because I can do simple math!
Now let's zoom out to a 9 month DOW weekly chart. Again, excuse the working man charts… it's a little difficult to see there, but this week basically engulfed last week's positive candle, and makes the past 4 weeks look like a bear flag. The lower Bollinger has curled up, so we'll be running into that PRIOR to reaching the November lows. Note that the weekly fast stochastic is entering oversold:
Now let's go to the NDX daily. The rising red lines are the boundaries of a rising wedge that's been manufactured over the past 3 months and doesn't have too much farther to go before it is likely to break. This was entered from above and is upsloping, thus I would expect it to normally break in the downward direction:
Next I want to show you the Major Market Index, one of the most inclusive indexes there is. Yesterday it also produced a Dragon Fly doji and today's candle is just bearish, pushing down the lower Bollinger. The green line is the 50dma and you can see that although we have been in a sideways pattern, the motion of the market is still down:
Here's a shot of IYR. Note the two hammers in row, and neither one confirmed a reversal. The candle closed beneath the lower Bollinger, that is something to keep an eye on, but it is obviously bending it downward:
Your weekend bonus chart to ponder is the immigration adjusted birth index spanning most of the entire 20th century. I'm in process of writing a demographics article, so I won't spoil that and just let you draw any conclusions that you can from it:
Trying to come up with some fitting EconoTunes was a little difficult just because I found so much that I liked. I can't include it all, as I realize that having too much can bog the site down and overwhelm the senses. But, hey, it's Friday, so let's rock in the tradition of my working man charts…
Styx - Blue Collar Man:
Excellent tunes, I went looking for Suite Madame Blue and found this arrangement someone put together that is sure to strike you emotionally – one way or the other… I see this both ways, that's why it's interesting.
Styx – Madame Blue/America:
Have a great weekend,
Obama to Announce Another Plan on Wednesday…
Have we figured out the game yet?
Does anyone feel as if they are staring at a carrot that is always just out of reach?
That's what I thought.
How does this game end?
Not in a pleasant manner, I'm sure. But they must try. They must "do something,"
Hey, don't hate the player, hate the game!
Stimulus Aims Two-Phase Jolt at Fading U.S. Economy
Stimulis: Because all economies have performance issues:
- certain side effects, including lack of response to stimulis may occur if economy over stimulated for periods exceeding 8 years. Should displacia lasting longer than a decade occur, please consult an economist who understands math and ignore everyone trained in the ways of Freidman or Keynes.
Stimulis – "Because central bankers can't get enough of your money!"
Annoying, isn't it?
Stimulus Aims Two-Phase Jolt at Fading U.S. EconomyWe're cooked alright. This entire article leaves me shaking my head in disbelief. This "stimulus" is going to save jobs? How? Unemployment is going to stop rising by the end of the year? Why?
By Matthew Benjamin
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The stimulus plan emerging from Congress may jolt the U.S. economy in successive waves: relief to cash-strapped consumers, businesses and states, then a job- creating lift from spending on roads, utilities and public transit.
While the package will take time to have an impact, and unemployment is likely to keep rising for months, it will start returning the U.S. toward growth by the end of the year, economists said.
Jobs Turnaround
"The hope is, with the stimulus, that we actually stop losing jobs by the end of this year," said Josh Bivens, of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington research group aligned with labor unions.
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote today on the $789 billion stimulus plan that President Barack Obama has said he wants to sign by Feb. 16.
The bill contains a $400 tax reduction for individuals and $800 for families for this year and next, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. Workers will see the relief in the form of a smaller amount of income taxes withheld from their paychecks.
"We can basically change those withholding tables very quickly so people will immediately see some more money going into their bank accounts," Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview yesterday on Bloomberg Television.
New Method
Many economists argue that such a delivery method, untested in previous stimulus packages, will be more effective at increasing demand because consumers will be less inclined to save the money or use it to pay debt.
"There is an argument from behavioral economics that people react differently to big lump sums versus these smaller increases in take-home pay they'll get every paycheck," said Joel Slemrod, an economist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and an expert on tax policy.
Some economists argue that temporary tax cuts do little to help growth because consumers only alter spending habits based on income changes they believe are permanent. To get them to spend more, the argument goes, tax rates must be lowered for good.
"Temporary tax cuts don't make people work any harder or get businesses to hire extra workers," said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the free-market Cato Institute in Washington. "They don't change marginal incentives for productive activities."
Aid to States
Still, other provisions in the bill will have larger, more measurable effects.
One is money for states, most of which are facing budget deficits. Forty-two states and the District of Columbia have mid- year shortfalls totaling $51 billion this year and projected shortfalls of $94 billion for fiscal 2010, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
Because most states have balanced-budget requirements and plunging tax revenue because of the recession, "they're in terrible shape," said Iris Lav, who studies state budget issues at the CBPP. Since the crisis began, 38 states have made or planned workforce cuts, Lav said.
"It's dire; the things they were going to cut is unbelievable," she said.
The stimulus bill contains about $54 billion to help states with expenses. That may keep layoffs from happening, Bivens said. "Even if money doesn't get to a state right away, the promise of it can allow them to avoid some job cuts," he said.
Jobless Benefits
The plan has more than $60 billion to increase unemployment benefits and a boost to food-stamp programs, housing assistance programs and other aid for the hardest-hit Americans.
Funding such programs is particularly effective, said Alan Blinder, a Princeton economist and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve. "These are hand-to-mouth consumers. If you put cash in their hands they're going to spend it right away," he said.
The legislation includes $29 billion for highway construction projects; $16 billion for investments in public transit; $7 billion to expand access to broadband; and $11 billion to renovate the nation's electrical grid. The measure also would provide $5 billion to weatherize low-income homes and $4.5 billion to make federal buildings more energy efficient.
If the aid to states and consumers and the government spending all have the desired effect, there could be 3.5 million additional jobs in the U.S. economy by the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Fair's model.
All bets are off if credit markets stay frozen, the economists said.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner outlined a plan earlier this week to help remove illiquid assets clogging banks' balance sheets and restart lending. It's far from clear that the plan, which investors criticized as short on details, will work.
"We're fighting a two-front war," Blinder said. The economy and the financial system need help in tandem because "if we don't do both, we're cooked," he said.
Are these the same people who didn't see the underlying math and the resultant effects? You bet they are. And Obama is now the biggest cheerleader of further wasteful deficit spending there is. I've been embarrassed by the bad math for quite some time. Now Obama is embarrassing all Americans and himself by talking about creating 3 or 4 million jobs. What nonsense.
D'oh! Caterpillar CEO Contradicts President on Whether Stimulus Will Allow Him to Re-Hire Laid Off Workers
February 12, 2009 6:16 PM
EAST PEORIA, ILL. -- President Obama today repeated the claim we asked about yesterday at the press briefing that Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., "said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off."
Caterpillar announced 22,000 layoffs last month.
But after the president left the event, Owens said the exact opposite.
Asked if the stimulus package would be able to stop the 22,000 layoffs or not, Owens said, "I think realistically no. The truth is we're going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again"
"It is going to take some time before that stimulus bill" means re-hiring, he said.
DOH! Obama says one thing, and the CEO of Caterpillar says the exact opposite – that's quite a show…
You can HOPE all you want that huge deficit spending will create or save jobs, but I would contend that's only possible in a closed system that is not already debt saturated. In a debt saturated economy, money is hoarded or used to pay down debt, not to assume more debt.
The ultimate result of government deficit spending will be a further loss of jobs as the burdens of debt, taxes, and ultimately higher future interest rates will kill future growth.
All future income has already been pulled from the future into the here and now. Once that happens, there's no pleasant way out – math demands that something give.
I know that everyone doesn't want to hear that and you want a way out.
There are two ways out: If you wish to keep the present system, which I certainly don't, then you must force the people/bankers who assumed the risk to default on their debts. Clearing the current debt will allow the system to add more debt in the future so that we can do it all again. Does that sound terrific? I thought not.
How about the other way out? We change the entire system into something more sustainable? That's completely possible, but people just aren't desperate enough to act… YET. They will be, when we're at the Bottom of the 'C'...
The ultimate solution will involve dispensing with central bankers, revisiting the Constitution of the United States, setting goals for society that move it towards a common goal, downsizing government/military, and removing the corporate influence from the system. In other words, we're not even close, but it's coming… sooner than most people believe.
Morning Update/ Market Thread 2/13
Welcome to Friday the 13th! Futures are fading a little just prior to the open, although there is no economic data except for consumer sentiment readings that come out later this morning.
As I look around the news I must have seen the word STIMULUS at least a hundred times. I've seen it so much lately that it truly has become like the erectile dysfunction drug ads that are so annoying on the teevee. And since it is so annoying and we see it all the time, here's the Stimulis ad again!
Stimulis: Because all economies have performance issues:
Supposedly the latest stimulus bill will be voted on today, oh yea! The logic of lowering taxes and spending more when having too much debt is already your problem completely escapes me. That bad math and all those illogical assumptions will one day soon result in the inability to service our debts. When that bomb goes off, I hope you have shelter.
Tech might be under a little pressure today as RIMM was downgraded. The Euro is under pressure too, so keep an eye on the currencies again.
The 5 and 10 minute stochastic oscillators will start the day from overbought territory. I wouldn't be surprised to see us trade a little lower, but possibly come back up later in the day to complete some type of abc move. The spike yesterday is hard to count from an EW perspective, so I think we have to give it a little time to see.
Some of the technicians were calling yesterday a "key reversal." NO, it wasn't a key reversal until it is confirmed. And right now it isn't. It looked like pure manipulation off of support to me. Real reversals come from deep oversold conditions when the internals are just ugly. That was most certainly NOT the case yesterday.
I wish that I could say that once the latest stimulus bill gets signed that the markets can then move on to do what they are going to do. But the truth is that since this bear market began it has been a constant and never ending bombardment of stimulus and money that we don't have is just wasted. These actions are piling debt on top of debt in a most wasteful manner. And it's going to the least deserving people in society.
On that upbeat note, have a good day with your trading; hopefully the game won't be so wicked today!
PS - Don't forget markets are closed on Monday.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Obama to Subsidize Mortgage Debt - Reason for a Rocket Shot?
No, it's long on ideas, but short on specifics as well as understanding how debt and math work. This is another attempt to socialize the losses. While it sounds as if it will help homeowners, its real goal is to help the banks – they're the ones who will again benefit.
I can think of many ways to help the PEOPLE more effectively than this. And no, doing a ton of little things will not help, it only makes the math worse. Doing nothing is indeed better than making your debt burden so large that it's mathematically impossible to recover without national default. Newsflash: the math is already that bad (Death by Numbers).
Obama may subsidize mortgage debt
A program would help struggling borrowers before they default. Feds would use government money to make payments more affordable.
By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com senior writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Obama administration is looking at subsidizing the mortgage payments of struggling borrowers before they default, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
If it comes to pass, the program would blaze a new trail in the federal government's foreclosure prevention initiatives. Until now, the efforts have focused on helping those already behind in their payments through interest-rate reductions and other loan modifications. The Bush administration had not committed any money to helping borrowers.
Obama, however, has pledged to spend at least $50 billion to help borrowers in trouble. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Tuesday that the administration would release its plan within a few weeks. He and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan have been meeting with banks, housing advocates and trade organizations this week to listen to their foreclosure prevention proposals.
Details remain scarce, but at this point the subsidy plan entails having struggling homeowners take an affordability test and undergo a re-appraisal to see if they are eligible. The subsidy would allow servicers to adjust the loan terms without having the mortgage's investors take a loss, which should make them more open to the loan modification.
Assisting borrowers before they default would help stop the wave of foreclosures, which are estimated to top two million this year. That, in turn, will help stabilize home prices.
"This will help put a floor on home values," said one person familiar with the negotiations.
Obama's plan is also likely to include ramping up the streamlining of modifications for borrowers already in default. Already, several banks and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are working with homeowners to make their monthly payments more affordable by reducing interest rates, lengthening loan terms and deferring principal to the end of the loan.
Stocks on Wall Street reversed early losses after reports of the plan began to surface.
Meanwhile, lawmakers and regulators are asking financial institutions to halt foreclosures until Geithner unveils his plan. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said that 95% of banks should put a temporary moratorium in place.
Foreclosure filings - default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions - continued to climb in January, though at a slower pace than the month before, according to RealtyTrac. That was still 18% higher than in January 2008.
Lenders repossessed 66,777 homes in January. A total of 1,081,395 homes have been lost to foreclosure since the housing crisis hit back in August 2007.
Barney Frank (and for that matter 99% of government) understands nothing about the current economic situation and how to solve it.
There is no free lunch, economics is underpinned with math. While you can use taxpayer money to fund a buy down of someone else's mortgage, you still have the obligation, it has just become a socialized obligation. Too many socialized obligations will eventually lead to national default.
Inflating debt away does not work either - you simply deflate away your future purchasing power, thus paying back the debt in other ways. All debts get repaid with interest in one way or the other, or they are defaulted upon. The bankers who issued and leveraged up the debt should be forced to default themselves for the good of our country before our country is forced to default entirely.
Bankruptcy laws need to be changed back so that individuals can default on debts too, just like companies who are able to do so through chapter 7 proceedings.
Home prices need to come down, and the misplaced debt needs to be defaulted by those who hold it. There has been no proposal that I'm aware of that begins to chisel down the debt via a default process. That has to happen to keep the present system going and to have any chance at future growth.
DoctorMad – The Maginot Line & a Trojan Horse
If you're like me and it's been awhile since you've studied your early Twentieth Century French war history, then here's a link to Wikipedia with a fascinating description of exactly what the Maginot Line was. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom and look at the maps and historic pics.
Give the bulls their credit. They stepped up and defended 800 once again by initiating a high volume straight up charge into the close. The short term momentum the bears had off the Monday high was broken and I've projected out what could be the micro degree wave 2 for this move. After 2 more precise pins off the bottom of my wave 3 channel I now see those set of trenchlines as being even more important going forward. I am going to look to redeploy bear troops I covered near the top of the yellow channel if I get the chance.
Despite the bulls valiant end of day charge I think it could all have been part of the master plan Trojan Horse trap the bears have been laying down for over 2 years. I included a couple of charts of the VIX demonstrating the count and pattern I think may be in play there and I'll be damned if that doesn't look like a stick figure horse. The key to pay attention to is the VIX triangle. Until the bulls manage to push the VIX back under 38 you need to be very cautious and short-term with any bull positions. The breakout from the horse (wave 4 triangle) and bull slaughter could happen at anytime. If we are set to break 800 my guess is it will happen suddenly with no warning on a gap down type of action as that is usually how major breaks occur. Expect the bears to spring out of the VIX horse at the same time making it expensive to buy any protection for the next leg down.
In order for the bulls to prove this is more than just a minor correction off of the Monday high, they will need to first get back above the 848 pivot and 2nd take out new highs. Being that this is a 2 it is possible and some would say likely it will be a powerful retrace that at some point tests the bears resolve that the first move was real.
- DoctorMad
End of Day 2/12
So many song choices to describe this day… let's see, there was Gasbagarino on CNBS breaking the story of how Goldman Sachs held secret meetings over what to "do about" Geithner. Now that inspires a little Rush music, "Fly By Night" comes to mind! Ha, it seems that Geithner wasn't born and raised in the Goldman fold, that's too bad. They're going to have to do something to see if they can't get another one of their boys in the Secretary Treasurer spot – hey, even though Geithner is a near clone, he's not acting fast enough to protect their interests.
No, Goldman is still pulling all the strings. Just look at that market action. Ran right into the WALL that is the 805 support area while looking bearish as can be… and within just 5 minutes of hitting that critical support level, BAM, out comes word that more billions are going to be spent to prevent foreclosures! Ha, ha – those who were caught shorting into the abyss without a hedge were once again sent to SCHOOL courtesy of the boys pulling the strings. The currency markets were giving clues, and again the retail investor gets to donate his fiat to the Crime of the Century.
So there you are, in the shoes of a retail investor when this news breaks… one hour prior to the close, never after hours for news like this: Is it for real? How big of a program? Will it be effective?
Of course the big money string pullers are the ones who have written the documents and pushed for their passage. Thus, at just the right moment (805 support on the SPX and 1 hour to the close), they are cocked, loaded, and KNOW just what to do. Am I making that seem too much like a conspiracy game? Well, it's the truth, ignore it or go watch Cramer if you so choose, but that's the game. And if you don't know the house rules, then you shouldn't be playing in this Wicked Game (another appropriate song title).
But if you were following our market thread then you know that a breakdown of the last flag of the day was calling for us to reach 807. And if you could have been listening (you can) to Doc and I call the shots on instant messenger, then you would know that we began taking profits and covering our positions right then and there. We've played this wicked game before.
And on this day where strings were pulled, the DOW was down 240 points but recovered all of it to close the day down 6 points. The S&P was up .2%, the NDX was up, down, up and finished up 1.3%, while the RUT finished up .55%. Despite the ramp, the XLF finished down 1.3%.
It was another strange day internally. Declining issues narrowly outnumbered advancing issues on the NYSE, but it was the other way around on the Nasdaq. Share volume was slightly negative on the NYSE but nearly 2 to 1 on the Nasdaq. The number of new lows expanded while the SPX and NDX finished green. No, they are NOT anywhere near capitulation low numbers, keep that in mind when I show you what look like potential capitulation bottom candlesticks. No, I don't think the world was saved with this latest announcement, but I don't have all the details yet. The government trying to catch homeowners before they're in trouble sure sounds terrific, but how about not letting home prices get so out of control to begin with? Oh, and how about letting them correct back to levels that are affordable with current incomes, and forcing those who pushed the bad debt out there to eat it?
Okay, on to the charts…
Let's start with the VIX. Here's a 3 month chart, the red lines are the wedge boundaries, with the upper red line the trendline from the highs. You can see that we jumped the 50dma and pinned that downtrend line but rejected hard off it on that perfectly timed announcement. Got to laugh over that one… it sent the VIX plummeting down more than 7% in minutes, and once again it failed to stay above the 46 level:
Next, let's look inside the SPX at a 10 minute, 10 day chart. Overall, it looks like there's a Head & Shoulder pattern with a broken neckline and a retest. That neckline just happens to be the pennant bottom, and yes, we were sticking our toe into the abyss. Now they come out with a "detail" and the market quickly pulled its toe back in at the last minute as you can see. That created a W formation which may or may not be bullish. Note that the 10 minute stochastic is overbought. The 30 minute is nearly overbought and the 60 is mid-range:
Now let's look at the SPX daily. Nice, perfect touch of the lower Bollinger band and rocket shot back up to create a hammer. Note that the head of the hammer is occluded and is just above the pennant bottom. Still showing a sell signal on the daily stochastic with room:
Now let's look at the DOW daily. We spent most of the day beneath the bottom Bollinger and then jumped back up to where we opened and created that Dragon Fly candlestick.
What do you call that candlestick? It's a doji that is referred to as a "dragon fly." Here's what StockCharts.com says about Dragon Flys:
Dragon Fly doji:
Dragon fly doji form when the open, high and close are equal and the low creates a long lower shadow. The resulting candlestick looks like a "T" with a long lower shadow and no upper shadow. Dragon fly doji indicate that sellers dominated trading and drove prices lower during the session. By the end of the session, buyers resurfaced and pushed prices back to the opening level and the session high.
The reversal implications of a dragon fly doji depend on previous price action and future confirmation. The long lower shadow provides evidence of buying pressure, but the low indicates that plenty of sellers still loom. After a long downtrend, long black candlestick, or at support, a dragon fly doji could signal a potential bullish reversal or bottom. After a long uptrend, long white candlestick or at resistance, the long lower shadow could foreshadow a potential bearish reversal or top. Bearish or bullish confirmation is required for both situations.
So, because it is at the end of a decline, it could be a bottom reversal, but we need to have follow through tomorrow to confirm the reversal.
And when I look at the DIA, I don't see the same Dragon Fly, I see a large headed hammer on top of the lower Bollinger. It too, however, can be a reversal indicator, but needs confirmation:
And here's IYR. I showed this chart last night and pointed out the shadowed hammer that is highlighted. Today we got a big red hammer, again, right on the lower Bollinger. Another potential reversal indicator that needs confirmation:
Yet another hammer belongs to the Transports – same deal:
And, to follow up on the put/call ratio, you can see that it's in neutral ground, NOT in the territory of major bottoms, or tops:
Finally, here is a series of Point & Figure charts that tripped bearish targets today because of the earlier technical breakdown. Once triggered, these targets remain valid unless an upside breakout triggers a reversal. Note that we have received numerous reversals since being in this sideways pattern – that's what they do:
If you could write a script on how to frustrate the largest number of investors in a market place, I'm sure it would follow the sequence that's been created by the market puppeteers and government incompetents. If you're being whipsawed by their actions, keep in mind that's the market's goal – to separate you from your money. It's all a truly wicked game…
Chris Isaak – Wicked Game:
And for you younger guys, here's the HIM version…
HIM – Wicked Game:
Vote for your favorite Wicked Game version below:
HIM = "Interesting"
Chris Isaak = "Cool"
Bet you can't guess my bias (lol)! I'll take "funny" to mean that Nate's just full of it! It's okay, take out your frustrations on Somebody Like Me…
Fed to add Primary Dealers… Why, and Who Benefits?
Fed in Talks to Add Primary Dealers as Sales Surge
By Daniel Kruger
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is in talks with at least four firms to expand the network of dealers that underwrite government-bond auctions as the U.S. prepares to sell more than $2 trillion in debt this year.
MF Global Ltd. and Nomura Securities International Inc. are in discussions to join the 16 so-called primary dealers that trade directly with the central bank and are required to bid at auctions, officials at the companies said. RBC Capital Markets, the investment-banking arm of Canada's biggest bank, and Jefferies & Co., a brokerage for institutional investors, are in negotiations, according to people familiar with the process.
Treasury Department and Fed officials want to ensure there are enough firms bidding at auctions to keep borrowing costs low after the total number of dealers dropped last year to the lowest amount since the network was formalized in 1960. The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, a market group that works with the central bank, wrote in a memo released Feb. 4 that more dealers would reduce "the possibility of an undersubscribed auction."
"With the contraction in primary dealers in the marketplace over the past year, clearly there's a need to replace some of them, especially with the increased issuance coming out of the Treasury," said Donald Galante, a senior vice president in New York at MF Global, which he said is in talks with the central bank about a dealership position.
Auction Tails
Nomura, a unit of Japan's largest securities firm, has applied to the Fed, said Ralph Piscitelli, a New York-based spokesman for the firm.
Christopher Bury, co-head of fixed-income rates at Jefferies, RBC spokesman Kevin Foster and New York Fed spokesman Calvin Mitchell declined to comment.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the disappearance of Bear Stearns Cos. and Countrywide Securities Corp. in mergers in the past year has reduced liquidity and removed bidders as some auctions have doubled in size. The Fed said yesterday that Merrill Lynch & Co. was no longer a dealer.
Data from Stone & McCarthy Research Associates in Skillman, New Jersey, show that yields on 10-year notes sold in 2008 through August averaged 1 basis point higher than in pre-auction trading, compared with no difference in 2007. In the three years before 2007, such sales drew a yield just below the pre-auction rate. One basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, spread over $2.5 trillion represents $250 million in annual interest.
Open Market Operations
An economic stimulus bill is headed for passage in Congress by the end of this week after lawmakers agreed on a $789 billion plan that aims to stem the recession through a mix of government spending and tax cuts.
To help pay for the plan the Treasury will likely borrow a record $2.5 trillion this fiscal year ending Sept. 30, almost triple the $892 billion in notes and bonds sold in fiscal 2008, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The New York-based firm is one of the 16 primary dealers.
This week, the Treasury is selling $187 billion of bills, notes and bonds.
Primary dealers serve as counterparties in open market operations, the central bank's mechanism for maintaining its target rate for overnight loans between banks. Primary dealers also are expected to bid when the Treasury sells bills, notes and bonds. The designation is coveted by some firms because central banks and certain pension and endowment funds will only do business with operations that have it.
Dealer Departures
Firms exited the dealership business beginning in the 1990s as the large number of dealers and the increased transparency of electronic trading reduced the spread between offers to buy and sell debt, curtailing the profitability of trading. The number of dealers peaked at 46 in 1988.
Nomura was a primary dealer from 1986 through November 2007, when it cut 400 jobs in the U.S. after its first quarterly pretax loss in four years, following a $656 million loss on U.S. home loans.
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15, and shareholders of Bear Stearns were nearly wiped out when the firm agreed to be acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. on March 16 after the Fed committed $29 billion in financing to facilitate the transaction.
With the departure of those firms, and Merrill Lynch's purchase by Bank of America Corp. on Sept. 14, the Treasury market began to suffer from more frequent and persistent episodes of illiquidity, traders and investors said.
Widening Spreads
That has produced "a wider bid-offer" spread, said Tom di Galoma, managing director of U.S. government bonds at Jefferies. "There's money to be made in Treasuries. There's dislocations in the government bond market that we probably haven't seen since probably the early 1980s."
The last time the government added more than one firm to its roster of primary dealers was 1988, when three firms joined. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. was the last new dealer in August 2006.
From 1970 through 1988, as the U.S. budget deficit increased to $155.2 billion from $2.8 billion, the number of primary dealers also rose, to 46 from 20. Obama has projected a deficit of more than $1 trillion this fiscal year.
This is hilarious. To think that adding primary dealers will increase demand for treasuries is ridiculous. So you have more outlets to flood the world with your debt, how does that accomplish anything besides ENRICHENING your pals?
The central banker's plan is clear. They want to reinflate all bubbles and continue to issue as much debt as they can. That's how they make their money. But making money is EASY, and requires NO EFFORT. What no one in Washington is acknowledging is the simple fact that more debt cannot be pressed into the economy unless there is more ability to service that debt.
The central bankers are adding NO VALUE to society, they are simply creating misallocated resources and profiting from it. I'll restate that the central bankers do not care who defaults on the debt as long as it's not them.
It's time.
Time to break up the cartel and send them packing. If we don't, then they are going to have more debt based solutions for us, thus enslaving future generations and controlling the world's natural, labor, and mental resources.
Here's a link to a short article that explains the primary bond market…
Below is a chart from that article showing the distribution of bonds… gee, if that looks like a pyramid, that's because it is one. More and more investors are required to keep the payments flowing to the old investors. Pyramid schemes collapse when new money stops coming in. If you run a pyramid scheme, btw, you will be thrown in jail – same thing as a Ponzi scheme that requires never ending "investments."


text:
Liberty's Anderson rewarded for sportsmanlike act with win
September 21, 2013 | Lynchburg, Va.
When Liberty University junior triathlete Joseph Anderson witnessed a Naval Academy cyclist take a wrong turn soon after transitioning out of the pool during Saturday morning's inaugural Liberty University Collegiate Triathlon, he didn't hesitate to flag the Midshipman down and steer him back on course.
"He turned up the hill and I was right behind him because he was the No. 1 swimmer in the pool," Anderson said. "I yelled but he didn't hear me so I pushed really hard to catch up to him."
As co-race director with assistant director of Club Sports Dave Semenyna and head triathlon coach Beth Frackleton, Anderson felt compelled to help the wayward cyclist, even at the expense of his individual placement. Though he lost precious time on the detour, and fixing his chain after it fell off while making a U-turn to get back on track, Anderson was undeterred in the first sprint triathlon held on Liberty's campus.
"This was such a short course that every second counts, but they had come a long way," Anderson said of Navy, based in Annapolis, Md. "Since we are the race host, I wanted to make sure they had a good race, so they'd want to come back next year."
Anderson didn't use the delay as an excuse, but as additional motivation. Putting everything he had into the rest of the 11.5-mile cycling stage, he caught up with two of the four athletes who had passed him before pulling ahead of the others on the closing 3.2-mile run, winning the staggered race in 48 minutes, 45 seconds, 30 seconds ahead of North Carolina's Gil Cukierman.
It was the third consecutive triathlon triumph for Anderson, who turned professional in the sport this year and won the Luray Sprint and Patriots Sprint races over the past month.
A total of 93 triathletes from eight schools competed, including 22 from Liberty, 14 from Appalachian State, 13 from men's, women's, and overall team champion Navy, and 13 from JMU, led by overall women's winner Cynthia Carson (56:48).
After Anderson, who paced the Flames to a second-place men's team showing, and Cukierman, who helped the Tar Heels to a third-place finish, the Midshipmen swept the next 10 spots, led by David McFarlane (third in 49:18) and Christopher Brahm (fourth in 49:19), to dominate the men's race.
Click here for complete individual men's and women's race results.
The event, run under overcast skies but without rainfall that could have made roads slick for cyclists, started with a 274-meter swim in the LaHaye Student Union pool. Swimmers used the transition area near the Green Hall bus stop to gear up for the three-lap cycling stage that ventured around campus before finishing with a 5.15-kilometer run that ended with a lap around the Matthes-Hopkins Track Complex.
"It was a really awesome race and a really good course," Cukierman said. "The bike stage was really awesome, a rolling course around campus. It was pretty tough overall, but it was up and down and fast."
The staggered start made it impossible for participants to tell what place they were in at any given point in the race.
"You could be fighting next to a runner that was four minutes behind you or ahead of you, so it's just a race against the clock for the entire time," said Robert Weisbach, Liberty's second finisher who was 15th overall in 53:03. "It becomes a mental race and how hard you want to push it."
Josiah Slaydon was Liberty's third finisher and placed 17th overall in 54:14.
For the women, Kathryn Mullaly led the Lady Flames to a third-place team showing behind Navy and JMU, finishing 11th overall in 1:02:44 followed by Elizabeth Vernon (15th in 1:05:07), Bethany Jenkins (16th in 1:05:34), and Hannah Baldino (18th in 1:07:35).
"This is my first year on the team and my second triathlon," Brewer said. "I did a little better than the last one (the Sept. 8 Patriots Sprint near Williamsburg). It was really fun and a great race."
Navy's Luke Sullivan, who was sixth overall in 50:08, might have finished even faster if he hadn't made a wrong turn early in the run.
"Right out of the transition area, instead of turning left, I turned right," Sullivan said. "That was the only trouble I had on the course.
"Other than that, I liked it," he added, noting he especially enjoyed the cycling loop along Regents Parkway and University Boulevard. "There was a lot of room to maneuver and it was challenging. It wasn't flat. It definitely made you drop gears and shift up gears."
Liberty's 10 men and 12 women triathletes were thrilled to stage the race on campus.
"It was super exciting to be able to do it on our home turf," said Jakob Ingersoll, who came in 32nd in 1:00:47. "We knew where the hills are and when to decrease and when to increase our gears so we had the home-course advantage. There's definitely room for improvement, but it was our first one and it was awesome."
"Joey did a fantastic job," added Alex Motley, Liberty's fourth finisher who was 22nd overall in 55:37. "He and Beth both put a lot of work into it."
Frackleton said it was a great learning experience for everyone involved, with tremendous support from Liberty's Club Sports staff as well as the Liberty University Police Department, the Iron Gate Triathlon Club, and Riverside Runners, which provided the timing system.
"There were two little glitches, but for our first event, it was fun and no one got seriously hurt," Frackleton said. "That was the first thing and, secondly, I wanted it to be fair, with it being a USAT-sanctioned event.
"We met our goal," she added.
The race was excellent preparation for the Oct. 6 Mid-Atlantic Triathlon Club Championships, which will be held on an OIympic-length course in Columbia, Md., more than twice the length of Saturday's event with a 1,500-meter swim, 40K cycling stage, and 10K run.
Images by Kevin Manguiob, Ty Hester and James Hancock/Liberty University

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Hi !!
Last night I was doing this prototype case for RASPBERRY PI ZERO
I'm open to making new designs,
I only need a sketch with measures to make a customization ..
Soon it will be to the sale on eBay ...
It's probably better to tweet a photo to @Raspberry_Pi and/or @Magpi1 they're more likely to see that.Woll wrote:You should put a link to the MagPi section of the forum. They might put in the next issue. That looks really good.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/361437954038Woll wrote:Out of interest, how much are they?
And how much postage to UK?
I'm afraid so ..startrek.steve wrote:Be aware the new Zeros with the camera port are different and probably wont fit in your case.
Thank you very much !GoCustomized wrote: ↑Tue Oct 04, 2016 1:13 pmWhoa, these are incredible!


text:
Want to Get Files Off Old Floppies? Here's How.
Floppy disks have gone to the tech graveyard, but you might still have some lying around -- without a floppy drive in sight. AllThingsD's Lauren Goode explores some options for getting in touch with your long-lost floppy files.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I why I reporter contest for all things a bang for my call was the guy decided to move away from modern day technology like tablets and smartphones and apps and Web services ... at last from the pass ... happy about ... the floppy disk ... now what what they doing with the floppy disk ... I've that this pilot is here at my desk from back when I was using an old Gateway ... and later on or Compaq desktop computer and now that my laptop is an emptiness Lacy I no longer have a floppy disk drive and kissing me you don't either so this the this is a lot of different options for getting your files of your old floppy disk drives and they came up a treat for me is the ... belief he found something situation impasse ... maybe this will help you the first batch is the case or to do this for you ... I found him online and seam treatments and insight into the first one is called retro floppy in the second one is called simply Floppy disc ... that also operates is something called is cheaper ... but Sir Richard floppy this is the time I hear Oliver Carolina in the next tackle files from three point five assists and five and a quarter inch discs ... I guess that's ... just because charges Tennessee price is six eighty five for instance extraction ... the ASA Chief authentic reform minded disc surgery if your puppy has created an ... analyst at the time to find compatible software and get ... conversions for you address the pop yet when I was back in a few days now so I know this ... is this even files on ... the floppy disk dot com conference is based in Southern California church the more reasonable price of one ninety five for its three point five inch floppy disk a second thought this race and myriad than ... on ... up to six ninety five that that will depend on whether you send in really older specialty desks ... and the flooding is not coming out my files back duty in just over a day in the following week I might get sent back to me along with the USB flash drive ... with my files on ... unfortunately no one of my discs was deemed unreadable ... and then as I mentioned before ... software compatibility could be an issue for example a handsome old final draft screenplay files on the spot the best ... and while the Services Islands you're able to get the files offered me ... I have a draft supper my laptop crabby so I still was unable to open those documents ... that sickly old Microsoft word documents and old Statement Photos Enel PDX and things like that I could go and ... now ... another chance to buy an external hard drive yourself ... when this ... year ... I actually got this one off the Floppy disc stock on for twenty five dollars this is an old Dell external hard drive its platinum age computer via USB ... if I is for pretty cheap on Amazon dot com e Bay ... I just made sure that the region and floppy disks you have and make sure that compatible with your current operating suspends the ... end of the disk reader that can read your puppy is lastly there's the library ... PCCW Rebuts ... well some men still has ample old computer systems that are available to the public were to BlackBerry numbers and the benefits of this is that some of those computers so ... floppy disks giants so I called around him bolting from libraries and it turns out that loving your public library and Washington DC public library ... you can share Suspends and a floppy disk drives anymore ... the Boston Public Library actually dies the San Francisco public Library will let people with my keys ... check out an external try it on to use the library for a period of time due to ... access and rebuild files on so this is just a little research if you really don't mind spending money on this ... call ... your local libraries and see if they might have a computer system that's well below that you can use them ... so hopefully you found this helpful if you do have a high-level puppy sitting around in my as a cop than these for state and city at its peak ... I learned of AllThingsD and a


text:
Caribbean Citrus Olive Shrimp
|Seafood, Vegetables, Fruits
|Day Part
|Menu Part
|Appetizer/Small Plate
|Cuisine Type
Shrimp sauteed with red onions, pasilla peppers, ginger, and garlic are combined with olives, orange juice and spices in this quick tapas recipe.
1⁄2 cup olive oil
8 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 lb. red onions, sliced into 1⁄4-in. wedges
1 1⁄2 lb. pasilla peppers, cut in 1⁄2-in. dice
1⁄2 cup minced ginger
1⁄3 cup minced garlic
2 lb. California ripe olives, halved
2 cups orange juice
2 tbsp. curry powder
1 1⁄2 tbsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1⁄2 cup unsalted butter
4 lb. orange segments
1. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add shrimp and cook for 2 min. Stir in onions, peppers, ginger, and garlic and continue to simmer for 2-3 min.
2. Add olives, orange juice, curry powder, salt, and pepper flakes and bring to a boil. Turn down heat to a simmer for 2-3 min.
3. Remove from heat and stir in butter and orange segments.


text:
The Corner Shop DinerBramwell, WV
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text: Pregnancy creates a lot of challenges for the body and prenatal yoga can help you feel more fit, comfortable and relaxed during pregnancy. Prenatal yoga focuses on breathing and safe sequences which can help ease labor and delivery. Yoga can also help you improve sleep, reduce stress, and bond with other pregnant women as you prepare for baby.


text:
We recognize that welding applications differ for every welder and that sometimes only a customizable, industrial-duty MIG gun will get the job done. That's why we allow you to configure a custom MIG gun for your specific application.
Consider the impact of MIG guns on your business. As much as 85% of hand-held welding costs are labor related. What is the real cost of using outdated tools with poor ergonomics and excessive consumable and replacement part inventories?
The Bernard team can help all of your welders configure the MIG gun that is perfectly suited to their preferences and welding applications while keeping related parts and consumables to a minimum. Happy and healthy welders are productive welders – a win-win for all involved!
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Here's an interesting skyscraper- 888 7th avenue, formerly known as the Arlen Building opened in 1972 and designed by Emery Roth and sons. I have to admit, I like the coloring on this one- that green stands out.
I do have to wonder though- was it always that distinctive color or has it gotten a reclad at some point?
Here's a picture I took on my most recent NYC visit:


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Availability: In stock
Main Event Alchemy Titanium Pro Elite Boxing Boots - One of the classiest ring boots availale at present - Made from a mixture of the softest Nappa Leathers and the latest Italian styled hi spec synthetic fabrics that hug your feet and remain breathable at the same time for a lovely fit all round. The design is very fashionable with a low / mid cut just above ankle height. The striking gold leather trim along with the glossy Metallic Red trim sets the boot off. The soles are designed to give you superb traction to a ring canvas, yet still allow you change direction with ease. These boots are lightweight to aid the boxer for faster movement and are constructed from the best quality materials available - These boots come with a free Main Event Alchemy string bag.
Available Options:
Size:UK 5UK 7UK 9UK 10UK 11UK 6
Welcome to our Boxing Equipment website.
Our store is owned by Les Cooke, who has over 35 years experience in the sport and is also currently an England Boxing Coach and Official
MON - SAT 10am - 5pm
Store Address
4 Basilca House
334 Southend Road, Shotgate,
Wickford, Essex SS11 8QS.
01268 574 679
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G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #171
The mission has begun: Flint, Lady Jaye and Heavy Duty take point on a top-secret operation to find an elusive foe that was long-thought dead. How will they track him down? Can they complete the mission before they lose the element of surprise? And what role does Sneak Peek play in all this? Find out the truth in this month's G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO!
Cover Illustrator


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This short sleeve ladies V-neck will meet all your performance need. Our classic performance V-neck has essential technologies to handle whatever your next fishing trip throw at you. We use a added mesh underarm gusset for enhanced breathability, a durable Poly knit with moisture transport to keep you comfortable. Additionally added is a anti-microbial to keep you from smelling like your catch!
As for comfort, we added mechanical stretch to make sure your hooksets movement is never restricted. Our cooling technology works to keep you comfortable under the sun with SPF to keep you protected.
And style, you may have just found your best fishing shirt yet!
Sun protection
Moisture transport
Superior breathability


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House Speaker John Boehner called for a "simpler, cleaner, fairer tax code" today, staking out the Republican position before President Barack Obama plans to urge quick action by Congress to keep taxes from rising on middle- income Americans.
At a news conference in Washington, Boehner outlined the Republican approach to the so-called fiscal cliff: avoid tax rate increases and spending cuts while beginning a process to overhaul entitlement spending and the tax code.
"This is an opportunity for the president to lead," Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said at a news conference in Washington fewer than two hours before a scheduled 1:05 p.m. statement from Obama.
If Congress doesn't act by the end of the year, $607 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases are scheduled to take effect starting in January.
Obama won't offer a specific proposal to begin negotiations with Congress, according to an administration official who asked for anonymity. The remarks will be Obama's first public statements since his victory speech after winning re-election on Nov. 6.
The president wants to let George W. Bush-era tax cuts lapse on income of individuals above $200,000 and of married couples above $250,000. That would push the top tax rate to 39.6 percent from 35 percent.
In recent days, Boehner has emphasized opposition to higher tax rates, rather than talking about higher taxes or higher revenues. He has endorsed the idea of higher revenue through an overhaul of the tax code without saying explicitly whether he would support a tax increase or the elimination of tax breaks without a corresponding rate cut.
Pressed by reporters, Boehner reiterated his previous statements and said he wanted to preserve flexibility for negotiations with Obama on a deal to avert the fiscal cliff and reduce the federal budget deficit.
"I don't want to limit the options that would be available to me or limit the options that would be available to the White House," he said. "There are a lot of ways to get there."
Concern that the global recovery will be slowed by a political deadlock in the U.S. over the fiscal cliff and about Greece's ability to meet debt payments has contributed to declines in stocks over the past two days. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index has fallen 2.3 percent this week. U.S. stocks rose today as better-than-forecast data on consumer sentiment overshadowed concern about the fiscal cliff.
The S&P advanced 0.8 percent to 1,388.10 as of 12:05 p.m. in New York. The 10-year yield rose one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 1.62 percent at 10:39 a.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices.
The blueprint for a deal to avoid a fiscal nightmare early next year may be found in the failed debt negotiations between Obama and Boehner in mid-2011.
The contours of that agreement included revenue increases, spending cuts and changes to lower the long-term costs of entitlement programs. Before the talks collapsed, Boehner was willing to accept $800 billion in revenue increases and Obama was ready to settle for $1.2 trillion.
Part of their negotiations on a $4 trillion deficit-cutting plan included a gradual increase in the Medicare eligibility age to 67 and an alternative yardstick for calculating inflation that would reduce annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustments.
The White House and congressional Democratic leaders view the president's re-election and Democrats' expanded majority in the Senate as a mandate for generating new revenue by allowing the Bush-era tax rates for higher earners to expire as scheduled Dec. 31. They want to pressure Republicans to give up their opposition to raising income taxes on couples making more than $250,000.
Exit polls conducted during the Nov. 6 balloting found that 47 percent of voters said they favored letting taxes rise for couples with incomes of $250,000 annually or more, and 13 percent said they should go up for everyone.
In a conference call with reporters yesterday, David Plouffe, Obama's senior political adviser, said the election results show the public "clearly chose the president's view of making sure that the wealthiest Americans are asked to do a little bit more" to reduce the U.S. budget deficit.
In his remarks today, Boehner cited a study by Ernst & Young LLP that said higher tax rates would cost the economy 700,000 jobs.
"Raising tax rates will slow down our ability to create the jobs that everyone says they want," he said.
The study was sponsored by business groups opposed to tax increases, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The 700,000 is a long-run figure, and the study assumed that Obama's proposed tax increases would pay for higher spending, not deficit reduction as the president says.
In a study released yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office said that allowing all of the tax cuts to expire would cost 1.8 million jobs, with 200,000 of that stemming from the changes to the top rates.


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TIXIK.com » National parks » Bosque de Fray Jorge National Park
This information is provided by the community of TIXIK users and is waiting for confirmation by the owner.What recreational activities are available or possible?: rafting, hiking, paragliding, fishing
Anything missing? Feel free to add your review of Bosque de Fray Jorge National Park. Thank you for any comments.


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Personalized Blankets
Easy to Customize Baby Blankets
An essential baby item that will make a great gift
Keep your baby boy or girl warm and safe in our quality baby blankets for boys and shop for the best baby boy blanket from Pink Taffy Designs' online baby boy blankets store. Shop our wide range of baby boy products and find baby boy crib bedding to personalized baby blankets. Find the perfect little baby blankets for your boy from our fantastic range of fabrics, themes and colors. Add a personal touch to your little baby boy blanket and shop our custom range of personalized baby blankets for boys. Match your baby boy crib bedding with your personalized baby blankets when you shop from Pink Taffy Designs' online baby store today. Or even find personalized baby blankets for boys from our extensive selections to match your existing baby bedding. Our super soft personalized baby blankets are high quality to keep your little darling safe and warm, as well as easy to wash. Get the latest styles from us and find the most adorable baby blankets for boys when you shop with us today. Be sure to get the best bargains when you shop from Pink Taffy Designs' online boutique today get the best personalized baby blankets for boys!
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Neil Patrick Harris
Oh, man, how I do love Neil Patrick Harris. I will be forever grateful to my senior year suitemate for introducing me to him (well, through Doogie Houser, M.D. and How I Met Your Mother). She would watch the episodes on her laptop, and I'd end up getting pulled in based solely on what I would overhear from across the room. Eventually, we just started watching the show together, starting with the first season. Continue reading


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India's economic upswing is benefiting only a small part of the population, and some 30 per cent the people continue to live below the poverty line. Development is stagnating in rural areas, while conflicts over land and natural resources are intensifying. The government's pro-business policy promotes land acquisition by large investors and this is leading to ever greater marginalization of smallholders and day labourers. The Indian caste system further accentuates social differences. People who belong to no caste – called Dalits – as well as indigenous groups such as the Adivasis are systematically excluded from society. HEKS/EPER supports these minorities in obtaining land titles, securing their food supply and improving their income.
In 2019, altogether 4850 peasant families received land titles to 3100 hectares, of which 74 per cent received collective rights of use over roughly 2800 hectares. Agro-ecological farming is practised on 96 per cent of the land, and 73 per cent of the peasant families increased their income over the year before. Some 10'280 people who had been affected by extensive flooding the year before continued to receive financial support enabling them to buy food or repair their houses.


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Our client in Los Altos, CA reached out to us needing an attic inspection. After our technician inspected our clients home, he recommended attic insulation replacement and cleanup services. The attic's existing insulation was no longer up to code and he found many potential entry points.
Before our teams start any work we make sure to prep the home. We do this by laying down plastic and enforcing them with tape on the areas we will be walking over. This step helps us keep our client's home clean while we provide our services. Our team also ensures our customers are always kept up to date on the status of our services. Not only does this give our customer's a piece of mind, but it also allows us to provide Diamond-Certified customer service.
We removed the existing and decompressed insulation from the attic using a 19 HP vacuum and removal tubes. After we began our next step by cleaning out the attic. We then performed rodent proofing in the attic and exterior of the home. This process involved sealing holes and gaps our team had found. This step is important to prevent future rodent activity and costly damages. Our last step was installing new R-38 Batts insulation accordingly to CA building code, in the attic. One of the benefits of new insulation for our clients is to save money on their energy bills. Since the summer season is approaching, attic cleaning services will be beneficial.


text: Why is Autism (ASD) something I have on my site? The most amazing person in my life is my grandson who is on the spectrum. Some of the things he can do amaze me every time I'm with him. I have no doubt that he is a genius and will grow to do some amazing things. Things I would only ever dream of being able to do or understand. My wife and I read a lot about Autism. Well, mostly my wife because she has dedicated her every waking moment to researching and trying to find the best and most accurate information she can. I will try to keep as much as I can on this site. Not only for myself, because it'll be a good repository of information, but also to share out what we have found. Links Autism Speaks - http://www.autismspeaks.org/ Angel Sense - http://www.angelsense.com/ National Autism Association - http://nationalautismassociation.org/ National Autism Resources - http://www.nationalautismresources.com/ Autism Society - http://www.autism-society.org/ National Autism Network - http://nationalautismnetwork.com Autism Council of Utah - http://autismcouncilofutah.org/ Autism Care ACT - http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/08/11/president-obama-signs-bill-support-needs-people-autism Blog My blog - Blog Link News 60 genes linked to Autism


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Rangers' top international players visit Texas
ARLINGTON -- The Rangers worked out their top five international amateur free-agent signees on Friday at the Ballpark in Arlington. Shortstops Michael DeLeon and Yeison Yrizarri, pitchers Marcos Diplan and Edgar Arredon and outfielder Jose Almonte will report on Saturday to instructional league.
"This is a group we're excited about," said Mike Daly, the Rangers' international scouting director. "It's a group our scouts are excited about it. Not only did we get to know the kids' makeup, but also had the opportunity to go see them in games. It's a big credit to our staff, and we're lucky to have a general manager, CEO and ownership group that backs us. There are a lot of people excited about adding these players to our system."
DeLeon, Yrizarri, Almonte and Diplan are all from the Dominican Republic and were among the 27 top international prospects as ranked by MLB.com. Diplan signed for $1.3 million, while Almonte agreed to a $1.8 million deal. Yrizarri signed for $1.35 million and DeLeon for $550,000.
Arredondo is from Mexico and turned 16 in May. He appeared in one game in the Mexican League on April 18, pitching two scoreless innings for Quintana Roo. He was the youngest pitcher to ever debut in the Mexican League.


text: Djimat I Made Djimat is a very well-known figure in the world of Balinese theatre. Aged over 70, still living in the small town of Batuan (Bali). Fighting against the winds and tides of modernity. Struggling against the perverse notion of exoticism and despite a very fragile health, he keeps on transmitting to students from Bali and all around the world, the essence of theatrical performance.


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This site is the archived OWASP Foundation Wiki and is no longer accepting Account Requests.
To view the new OWASP Foundation website, please visit https://owasp.org
IntroductionOWASP Code Review Guide Table of Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Related Security Activities
- 3 Description
Related Security Activities
Description of Session Management Vulnerabilities
See the OWASP articles on Session Management Vulnerabilities.
Description of Session Management Countermeasures
See the OWASP articles on Session Management Countermeasures.
How to Avoid Session Management Vulnerabilities
See the OWASP Guide article on how to Avoid Session Management Vulnerabilities.
How to Test for Session Management Vulnerabilities
See the OWASP Testing Guide article on how to Test for Session Management Vulnerabilities.
Session management from a code review perspective should focus on the creation, renewal, and destruction of a user's session throughout the application. The code review process should ensure the following:
Session ID:
- Authenticated users have a robust and cryptographically secure association with their session.
- The session identifier (Session ID) shoud not be predictable and generation of such should be left to the underlying framework. The development effort to produce a session with sufficient entropy is subject to errors and best left to tried and trusted methods.
- Applications enforce authorization checks
- Applications should check if the session is valid prior to servicing any user requests. The user's session object may also hold authorization data.
- Session ID should be applied to a new user upon successful authentication.
- Reviewing the code to identify where sessions are created and invalidated is important.
- Sessions may need to be terminated upon authorization failures. If a logical condition exists which is not possible unless the state transition is circumvented or an obvious attempt to escalate privileges, a session should be terminated.
Session Transport
- Applications avoid or prevent common web attacks, such as replay, request forging and man-in-the-middle.
Session identifiers should be passed to the user in a secure manner such as not using HTTP GET with the session ID being placed in the query string. Such data (query string) is logged in web server logs.
- Cookie transport should be performed over a secure channel. Review the code in relation to cookie manipulation. Verify is the secure flag is set. This prevents the cookie being transported over a non secure channel.
Session lifecycle
- Session Timeout- Sessions should have a defined inactivity timeout and also in some cases a session hard-limit. The code review should examine such session settings. They may be defined in configuration files or in the code itself. Hard limits shall kill a session regardless of session activity.
- The log-out commands must do more that simply kill the browser. Review the code to verify that log-out commands invalidate the session on the server.


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Pictures and Review of BCBGMAXAZRIA Spring Summer New York Fashion Week Runway Show
2013 Spring New York Fashion Week: BCBGMAXAZRIA
2013 Spring New York Fashion Week: BCBGMAXAZRIA
If we told you leather, lace, and harnesses dominated BCBG's Spring 2013 collection, you might think designers Max and Lubov Azria were up to some sexy provocation, but when delivered via fluid silhouettes and with plenty of soft silk, the result was a dreamy mix of ethereal and utilitarian. Dresses dominated, most of them in silk crepe cut with cream or black lace, and all worn with a leather harness. Sounds weird, but it worked, and there are sure to be some street stylers sporting the trend next season. Show notes said the collection was inspired by the femme fatale muses and high contrast of Helmut Newton's black and white photography, a message that was felt in the sculptural cuts of a black crepe dress with strong shoulders. There was a quieter second story involving denim, which was used as a detail rather than the main fabric, but this didn't feel as compelling as the combination of leather and lace on a flowy dress.
- Trends: Leather harnesses, lace, sculptural proportions, jumpsuits.
- Colours: Black, coral, talc, dusty pink.
- Key Piece: The opening set of talc crepe shirt dresses with harnesses made a big statement.
- Accessories: Leather portfolios and perforated leather ankle-strap shoes.
- Who Should Wear It: You have to be brave to don the harness, and Zoe Saldana could definitely pull this off, but let's look for Selita Ebanks to don one of the dresses as she was sitting in the front row.


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Rain vengeance upon your enemies
Meet Tony Luciano, the violently unhinged son of LA mob boss Don Luciano, hell-bent on starting an all-out gang war when his father's favourite race horse – Blue Estate – is kidnapped.
Throw into the mix Cherry Popz, the hottest dancer in the underworld club scene and Clarence, a dishonourably discharged ex-Navy SEAL on the wrong side of the law, and you have a recipe for the explosively bizarre Blue Estate.
Take on a shady world of gangsters and killers in an on-rails shooter that makes full use of the DUALSHOCK 4 wireless controller's motion control, load up with weapons and try to stay alive against overwhelming odds – and over-friendly Chihuahuas.


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Washington, D.C. – Cells with too few or too many chromosomes have long been known to be a hallmark of cancer — but the cause of this abnormal number of chromosomes has been little understood. Now, in the August 19th issue of Science, researchers at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, a part of Georgetown University Medical Center, have identified a gene that is commonly mutated in human cancers and have demonstrated its direct role in causing aneuploidy, an abnormal number of chromosomes.
The researchers found that 20 percent of the brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme), skin cancer (malignant melanoma), and bone cancer (Ewing's sarcoma) samples they examined made no STAG2 protein, often due to a missing or mutated STAG2 gene. The STAG2 gene encodes a component of a protein structure known as the "cohesin complex" which regulates the separation of replicated chromosomes during cell division.
What this means is that if the STAG2 gene has been inactivated by a mutation, chances increase that a cell undergoing division will distribute an uneven number of chromosomes to the two new "daughter" cells being created. These cells, which now have too few or too many genes, are significantly more likely to develop into cancer.
"Scientists have long been searching for the genetic basis of aneuploidy in cancer cells, and our study provides substantial new insight into that process," says the study's senior investigator, cancer geneticist Todd Waldman, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor at Georgetown Lombardi.
"In the cancers we studied, mutations in STAG2 appear to be a first step in the transformation of a normal cell into a cancer cell," he says. "We are now looking at whether STAG2 might be mutated in breast, colon, lung, and other common human cancers."
The study may also provide a new direction for cancer therapy, says the study's lead author, David Solomon, Ph.D., a student in the M.D./Ph.D. program at Georgetown University School of Medicine. "We are now attempting to identify a drug that specifically kills cancer cells with STAG2 mutations," says Solomon, who received his Ph.D. in May, 2010. "Such a drug would be of clinical benefit to the many patients whose tumors have inactivation of STAG2."
The study was a product of Solomon's work on a doctoral thesis. Waldman, who heads the M.D./Ph.D. program at Georgetown, mentored Solomon in his cancer genetics lab. Solomon's thesis was to search for genes that are mutated in glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and lethal form of brain cancer.
Using advanced gene chip technology, Solomon and Waldman identified regions of the human genome that were missing in aneuploid brain cancer cells. "One day, we found the gene STAG2 was deleted in one of our brain cancer samples," says Waldman. "It was easy to imagine that this gene might play a role in aneuploidy and that got us excited."
During the hunt for STAG2 mutations, Solomon recalls a "eureka" moment. "I had first identified mutations of STAG2 in a few brain tumors but was unsure of its importance as a broad spectrum cancer gene in tumor types other than brain. The day that I did a Western blot of 10 Ewing's sarcoma tumors, a bone tumor most common in adolescents, and found that 6 out of 10 Ewing's sarcoma tumors had mutations or deletions of STAG2," he says. "I knew then that STAG2 was indeed an important tumor suppressor gene in several tumor types. That day I wrote EUREKA! in my lab notebook."
What was also intriguing is that the STAG2 gene is located on the X chromosome, Waldman says, adding, "this is only the second cancer-causing gene ever found on the human sex chromosome." Men have only a single copy of the X chromosome, and women have only one functional copy (their other copy is dormant due to a process known as X-inactivation). "Therefore, unlike most genes which require mutations of two copies for complete inactivation, inactivation of STAG2 requires only a single mutational event," He says. "This may help explain the unusually high prevalence of STAG2 mutations in cancer."
After identifying the mutations of STAG2, the researchers then used a technique known as "human somatic cell gene targeting" that makes it possible to correct mutant genes in their normal chromosome location. Using this technique, Waldman and Solomon were able to correct the STAG2 mutation in glioblastoma cells, essentially replacing a bad gene with a good one. "When the STAG2 mutations were corrected, the chromosome count stabilized," Solomon says. "This offers compelling evidence that the STAG2 mutation was the cause of aneuploidy in these cells."
Waldman says STAG2 likely functions as a "caretaker" tumor suppressor gene. "It's not like most tumor suppressor genes, which when mutated lead to either enhanced cell proliferation or decreased cell death. Instead it's a tumor suppressor gene with a different function — maintaining normal chromosome number and structure."
This work was conducted in collaboration with investigators at the National Institutes of Health, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the University of California, San Francisco.
The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, and the American Cancer Society. Waldman, Solomon and Jung-Sik Kim are co-inventors on a patent application that has been filed by Georgetown University related to the technology that is described in this paper. The other co-authors report no other related financial interests.
About Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown University Hospital, seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach, and the training of cancer specialists of the future. Georgetown Lombardi is one of only 40 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute, and the only one in the Washington, DC, area. For more information, go to http://lombardi.georgetown.edu.
About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC's mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis — or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical Translation and Science Award from the National Institutes of Health. In fiscal year 2009-2010, GUMC accounted for nearly 80 percent of Georgetown University's extramural research funding.