BREAKING: Fermosa Chemical Plant explosion in Texas

A flash fire at Formosa Plastics in Calhoun County seriously injured at least 12 workers Thursday afternoon at the plant.

Emergency officials from several agencies converged on the chemical plant, 102 Pease St., in Point Comfort about 2 p.m. after the fire ignited.

Five of the wounded workers were transported to Citizens Medical Center in Victoria – four by ambulance and one by private vehicle – with varying injuries after the fire.

Three [...]

A Double Digit Correction On The Horizon? January Factory Orders Confirm Manufacturing Slump Continues, Eurozone Faces Worst GDP Contraction Since 2009. BofA: NYSE Margin Debt Is Generating A Sell Signal We Haven’t Seen In Three Years

Yet Another Funny Chart: January Factory Orders Confirm Manufacturing Slump Continues

Following the earlier laughable seasonally adjusted ADP data (because for some reason Mark Zandi does not find it necessary to supplement his report with the unadjusted data), courtesy of which the gullible public was supposed to believe that in February as small businesses were running out of money they proceeded to engage in a massive hiring spree, we thought: “hmmm: [...]

Spain Plunders 90% Of Social Security Fund To Buy Its Own Debt

zerohedge.com

 

With Spanish 10Y yields hovering at a ‘relatively’ healthy 5%, having been driven inexorably lower on the promise of ECB assistance at some time in the future, the market has become increasingly unsure of just who it is that keeps bidding for this stuff. Well, wonder no longer. As the WSJ notes, Spain has been quietly tapping the country’s richest piggy bank, the Social Security Reserve Fund, as a buyer of last [...]

Spain Drains Pension Fund In Borrowing Spree

Spain Drains Pension Fund in Borrowing Spree (Link found at Zerohedge)

“Spain has been quietly tapping the country’s richest piggy bank, the Social Security Reserve Fund, as a buyer of last resort for Spanish government bonds, raising questions about the fund’s role as guarantor of future pension payouts.

Now the scarcely noticed borrowing spree, carried out amid a prolonged economic crisis, is about to end, because there is little left to take. At least [...]

Why New York Will Soon Lose A Quarter Of Its Entire Police Department

After a massive hiring spree 20 years ago, the New York Police Department will soon find itself in the midst of an unprecedented wave of retirements.

 

The department is set to lose about a quarter of its employees over the next several years as many officers hired during the department’s “Safe Cities, Safe Streets” initiative reach their 20 year mark and are able to retire with full benefits, DNAinfo.com New York reported Wednesday.

Crime has jumped [...]

Meredith Whitney: banking to lose 50,000 more jobs

Meredith Whitney appeared on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene and Scarlet Fu and said that the banking industry will lose 50,000 more jobs as companies shrink headcount to match revenue.  She said, “I would argue the banks have not overfired and are really middle of the way through firing.”
Whitney also said that PNC, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo are attractive stocks.

 

BLOOMBERG TELEVISION

 

Whitney on how many more jobs will be lost: [...]

Death row murderer planned bizarre suicide using oysters

HARTFORD, Conn. –  A Connecticut man on death row for the killings of a mother and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion says he came up with a bizarre plan to end his own life by lying about killing others in a spree of violence.

In an interview with The Hartford Courant, Steven Hayes said he fabricated claims in letters last year that he killed 17 people and committed dozens of [...]

GUESS WHAT BANK OF AMERICA DOES THREE YEARS AFTER OUR TAXPAYER MONEY BAILS IT

Bank of America, which last fall announced plans to lay off 30,000 workers, is about to go on a hiring spree—overseas.

America’s second-largest bank is relocating its business-support operations to the Philippines, according to a high-ranking Filipino government official recently quoted in the Filipino press. The move, which includes a portion of the bank’s customer service unit, comes less than three years after Bank of America received a $45 billion federal bailout.

Roman [...]

In Egypt Turmoil, Thieves Hunt Pharaonic Treasures

Taking advantage of Egypt’s political upheaval, thieves have gone on a treasure hunt with a spree of illegal digging, preying on the country’s ancient pharaonic heritage.

Illegal digs near ancient temples and in isolated desert sites have swelled a staggering 100-fold over the past 16 months since a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak’s 29-year regime and security fell apart in many areas as police simply stopped doing their jobs. The pillaging [...]

Chesapeake Plays Chicken With Market, Plunges, Blinks, Plunges Some More

In the span of 30 minutes CHK managed to crush both longs and shorts in the name.

First, just after 3pm Eastern, the company filed an NT 10-Q announcing it would delay its 10-Q filing. The reason:

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (the “Company”) is unable to file, without unreasonable effort or expense, its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2012 (the “Form 10-Q”). Additional time is needed for the Company [...]

CLOONEYLAND: BIG CAMPAIGN BOXOFFICE

 

 

SEATTLE (Reuters) – President Barack Obama drew cheers and applause for his endorsement of same-sex marriage during a fundraising spree on Thursday that will culminate in a multimillion-dollar extravaganza at the home of Hollywood movie star George Clooney.

Obama’s campaign revved up supporters with teases about Clooney, encouraging fans to donate as little as $3 online for a chance to dine with the Oscar-winning actor and the president in Los Angeles.

Excitement [...]

US Equity markets continue to make the sky is black crowd look foolish. However ridiculous the ‘reasons’ are getting for the continued momentum (LTRO, QE, multiple expansion, fund flows, generational opportunity, etc), there are a few things the economist in me would like to point out.

Spain is the new Greece.   Portugal is going to debate this, as they’re banged up, but Spain is a unique disaster.  The major issue is that no one cares about them. Sans development and tourism, which are in soliatry for a decade or so, you’ve got a paper bag full of water.  Take a look thru the headlines in April of 2010, things were contained.  We got confirmation Spain is a bag of [...]

ROCK STAR: Foo Fighters to perform at $38,000-per-person bash

WEST LOS ANGELES (KABC) – President Barack Obama is going on a West Coast fundraising spree, beginning with a stay in Los Angeles.

 

The president is scheduled to land at Los Angeles International Airport Wednesday at about 4 p.m. From there, he is expected to arrive via helicopter at the Veteran’s Hospital in West Los Angeles. He will then drive to Holmby Hills for a fundraiser.

Traffic is expected to be congested in [...]

10 Good And Bad Things About The Economy And Rosenberg On Whether This Isn’t Still Just A Modern Day Depression

Two things of note in today’s Rosie piece. On one hand he breaks out the 10 good and bad things that investors are factoring, and while focusing on the positive, and completely ignoring the negative, are pushing the market to its best start since 1997. As Rosie says: “The equity market has gotten off to its best start in a good 15 years and being led by the deep cyclicals [...]

If you think our real estate bubble was bad, just wait for China to implode

Tom Friedman, please take note. China’s lack of political wrangling is not an asset, it’s what will drag it down. Friedman’s and other liberals’ utopian dream of a benevolent dictator has never worked. It fails because unrestrained dictators, with the best of intentions, make mistakes – often grandiose mistakes. And when they are criticized and challenged, they fight to hold on to power. And then they become the Stalins, the [...]

Top analyst Gary Shilling’s outlook for 2012

From Investment Postcards from Cape Town:

… Shilling believes the global economy will be dominated by an era of deleveraging and sees the following causes slowing down growth over the years ahead:

1. U.S. consumers will shift from a 25-year borrowing-and-spending binge to a saving spree. This will spread abroad as American consumers curtail the imports of the goods and services many foreign nations depend on for economic growth.

2. Financial deleveraging will [...]

UPDATE: Man detained after 55 fires lit across L.A.

Los Angeles police this morning detained and are questioning a “person of interest” in the spate of arson fires occurring around the city since Friday.

The individual, believed to be the man seen in a video police released Sunday in connection with the case, was detained near Sunset Boulevard this morning, according to an LAPD source familiar with the investigation.

However, in a statement, a Los Angeles fire official said that “it [...]

More hypodermic needles found hidden in clothing at WAL-MART

(TSG) Police are continuing to recover hypodermic needles that have been hidden inside garments at a Walmart in Georgia.

Yesterday morning, Bartow County Sheriff’s Office deputies again arrived at the store in Cartersville, this time in response to a shopper discovering a syringe inside a pocket in a pair of men’s pajamas (seen at right). The woman who found the needle was not stuck, according to a sheriff’s report.

While at the store, cops and [...]

20-year-old known as ‘Barefoot Bandit’ pleads not guilty to charges of a two-year cross country burglary spree

FILE This is a July 2009 file self-portrait provided by the Island County Sheriff’s Office showing Colton Harris-Moore, the so-called “Barefoot Bandit.” Harris-Moore is expected to plead not guilty at his arraignment in Seattle, Thursday, June 9, 2011. Photo: Island County Sheriff’s Office Via The Herald / AP

SEATTLE (AP) — Colton Harris-Moore, who gained a popular following as the “Barefoot Bandit,” has pleaded not guilty to [...]

There are 100,868 apartments waiting to be sold in Beijing according to the Beijing Branch of Centaline

This is the first time in four months that inventories reached 100,000.

This is hardly surprising of course.  Under new and tougher buying restrictions in Beijing, as well as tighter credit, the pool of potential buyers are shrinking fast, yet the number of apartments waiting to be sold surge naturally because the land acquisitions spree in the past two years means that the new supply will start [...]

Shorts Refuse To Capitulate: End Of September NYSE Short Interest Near Record Highs

by ZH

The one side-effect of the torrid market move over the past 40 days that every bull had been hoping for, a massive, and self-sustaining short covering spree, has completely failed to materialize. Despite what is now a 10%+ move since early September, predicated by nothing more than the dollar debasement and QE2 expectations, NYSE short interest remained virtually unchanged for the past 30 days, [...]

WHY do we have to bail out big banks AGAIN because they made stupid gambles?

Before the Euro was created, Greece–as it has been for thousands of years–was essentially a poor, underdeveloped country, more akin to its Eastern Block neighbors than western Europe, only with lots of awesome tourist attractions so as to support a semi-functional, utterly corrupt socialist system (populated by a relatively lazy people).

With intro of Euro, bond traders suddenly pretended Greece was Germany. Overnight, consumer lending rates went from 20% to 4%. [...]