Fayette, metro meet ozone requirements

A 20-county area of metro Atlanta has met federal requirements relating to the 1997 “8-hour ozone standard.” Though noted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a Dec. 2 announcement, the bottom line is that none of the restrictions put in place will be relaxed or removed now that the attainment criteria has been met.

Most motorists see the effect of the EPA rules at the gasoline pump in higher prices for reformulated gasoline during the spring and summer months.

read more

via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/12-04-2013/fayette-metro-meet-ozone-requirements

The Last Two Times This Happened, Things Didn’t End Well

With the almost extinction of ‘bears’ we noted last week, the bull-bear index has now crossed the Rubicon into a euphoria mode that marked the turning point before the last 2 major corrections in the US equity market. Of course, we are sure, this time is different; but hasn’t the Fed ‘always’ had our back? Perhaps, as GenRe’s CIO notes, “gravity will win,” after all?

 

 

Shrugging that off… this has happened 15 times in the last 24 years with stocks falling 79% of the time in the following 3 months…

 

h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/7eM9NQdpIuU/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The Last Two Times This Happened, Things Didn't End Well

With the almost extinction of ‘bears’ we noted last week, the bull-bear index has now crossed the Rubicon into a euphoria mode that marked the turning point before the last 2 major corrections in the US equity market. Of course, we are sure, this time is different; but hasn’t the Fed ‘always’ had our back? Perhaps, as GenRe’s CIO notes, “gravity will win,” after all?

 

 

Shrugging that off… this has happened 15 times in the last 24 years with stocks falling 79% of the time in the following 3 months…

 

h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/7eM9NQdpIuU/story01.htm Tyler Durden

How Has The UK Economy Performed Since The Coalition Came To Power?

On December 5 2013, George Osborne will deliver the Autumn Statement, providing an update on the state of the UK economy. In the address, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will detail the coalition’s plans to reduce the budget deficit and extend the UK economic recovery into 2014. Saxo Capital Markets latest infographic outlines the changes in the economy since the coalition government formed in 2010. In 2010, the Chancellor projected that the coalition would slash the structural budget deficit to zero by 2016. Three years on, net public debt has risen as a consequence of the government’s measures to reduce the deficit. While there is some hope in the figures – and we are sure they will be projected in nothing but glowing glorious ways, Brits are drawing down savings at record rates to cover soaring costs of living and the UK’s debt-load is surging. What happens if/when Carney lifts his foot even a little?

 


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/xz9X570vLKc/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Big Labor’s Misguided Attempt to Double Wages at Fast-Food Chains

My latest piece at The Daily
Beast takes aim at tomorrow’s union-backed labor action at
fast-food joints around the country.


Here’s the start of it:

In what is probably the least inspired labor action since the
great Detroit Symphony Orchestra Picket Line of 2011, groups
such as the Service Employees International Union, Fast Food
Forward, and Fight for 15 are calling for nation-wide wage
strikestargeting McDonald’s, Burger King, Arby’s, and other
latter-day Dickensian workhouses. On Thursday, protesters in over
100 cities will stand outside of fast-food joints and call for
doubling the wages of burger flippers and fry-vat operators from
$7.25 an hour (the current federal minimum) to at least $15.

Regardless of how much solidarity or sympathy you might feel
about the people who assemble your Triple Steak Stack or
your Cheesy Gordita Crunch, this sort of demand is economic
fantasy at its most delusional and counterproductive. Doubling the
wages of low-skilled workers during a period of prolonged
joblessness is a surefire way not just to swell the ranks of the
reserve army of the unemployed but to increase automation at your
local Taco Bell….

Think
about this way: Are you worth double your paycheck? And
while I’m sure you are, what about the other slobs you work with?
The wage strike – which follows up on earlier iterations held in
August and last November – showcases just how devoid of vision
organized labor is when it comes to the private sector. There’s
almost 4 million jobs open in trades such as construction, welding,
carprentry, and the like – and there are employers ready and
willing to train new workers for these positions. Groups such as
the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of tomorrow’s
organizers, would do better by workers if they figured out a way to
match unemployed and underemployed folks with jobs that pay well
and offer chance for long-term growth.


Read the whole article.

Near the end of the piece, I cite Mike Rowe, the host of the
cable show Dirty Jobs, whom we interviewed recently for Reason TV.
Look for that Q&A to go live sometime next week at this here
website.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/04/big-labors-misguided-attempt-to-double-w
via IFTTT

Big Labor's Misguided Attempt to Double Wages at Fast-Food Chains

My latest piece at The Daily
Beast takes aim at tomorrow’s union-backed labor action at
fast-food joints around the country.


Here’s the start of it:

In what is probably the least inspired labor action since the
great Detroit Symphony Orchestra Picket Line of 2011, groups
such as the Service Employees International Union, Fast Food
Forward, and Fight for 15 are calling for nation-wide wage
strikestargeting McDonald’s, Burger King, Arby’s, and other
latter-day Dickensian workhouses. On Thursday, protesters in over
100 cities will stand outside of fast-food joints and call for
doubling the wages of burger flippers and fry-vat operators from
$7.25 an hour (the current federal minimum) to at least $15.

Regardless of how much solidarity or sympathy you might feel
about the people who assemble your Triple Steak Stack or
your Cheesy Gordita Crunch, this sort of demand is economic
fantasy at its most delusional and counterproductive. Doubling the
wages of low-skilled workers during a period of prolonged
joblessness is a surefire way not just to swell the ranks of the
reserve army of the unemployed but to increase automation at your
local Taco Bell….

Think
about this way: Are you worth double your paycheck? And
while I’m sure you are, what about the other slobs you work with?
The wage strike – which follows up on earlier iterations held in
August and last November – showcases just how devoid of vision
organized labor is when it comes to the private sector. There’s
almost 4 million jobs open in trades such as construction, welding,
carprentry, and the like – and there are employers ready and
willing to train new workers for these positions. Groups such as
the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of tomorrow’s
organizers, would do better by workers if they figured out a way to
match unemployed and underemployed folks with jobs that pay well
and offer chance for long-term growth.


Read the whole article.

Near the end of the piece, I cite Mike Rowe, the host of the
cable show Dirty Jobs, whom we interviewed recently for Reason TV.
Look for that Q&A to go live sometime next week at this here
website.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/04/big-labors-misguided-attempt-to-double-w
via IFTTT

IRS Inspector General Says Obamacare Subsidies Susceptible to Fraud

The Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) doesn’t have a strategy to address fraud related to
Obamacare’s subsidies, according to a report by the tax agency’s
Inspector General (IG). 

Under the law, individuals with incomes between 133 and 400
percent of the poverty line, or roughly $90,000 a year for a family
of four, are eligible for tax credits and subsidies to offset the
cost of private health insurance. By 2022, those subsidies are
expected to cost taxpayers about $808 billion,
according to a March 2012 projection by the Congressional
budget office.

But according to the IG
report, dated September 2013 but released in a partially
redacted version to the public this week, the IRS hasn’t put in
place the necessary checks to ensure that the the information
technology systems that calculate and manage the subsidies aren’t
subject to fraud. “A fraud mitigation strategy is not in place to
guide Affordable Care Act systems development, testing, initial
deployment, and long-term operations,” the report says. The tax
agency’s current protocols “do not address management’s
responsibility for managing, monitoring, and mitigating fraud risk
with the development of new information systems for the ACA.
Further, the ACA Program has not yet completed a fraud mitigation
strategy to guide ongoing systems development.” 

“With the healthcare exchanges open for business, it is
imperative that the IRS ensure the accuracy and completeness of
Premium Tax Credit and Advanced Premium Tax Credit calculations,”
said Russell George, the tax administration inspector general,

according to The Hill, “and ensure the security
of information provided by taxpayers to the IRS and subsequently
transmitted to other government entities.” 

If other high-cost government-run health programs are any
indication, there’s a significant risk of large-scale fraud, abuse,
and waste.

Medicare’s payment system is rife with bad payments, some of
which are billing errors and some of which are outright fraud. A
2011 review by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), for
example, estimated that the system made some $48 billion in
improper payments each year. That’s about 10 percent of Medicare’s
budget. The problem has always been that there are very few checks
on who can bill the system. As I noted in a
2011 story on fraud in government health systems, a 2008 GAO
report found that it’s possible to set up shop billing Medicare
with little more than a few forged documents and a dummy phone
number—one that went to an empty desk at GAO’s office. Medicaid,
the health program for the low-income and disabled, has been
similarly plagued by abuse and outright fraud.

This has been going on for years, and yet relatively little has
been done to stop it. Under the Obama administraiton, Medicare’s
managers have taken some steps to address fraud and abuse in the
system, but at best these efforts have succeeded only at marginally
reducing the problem, cutting out a few billion dollars in wasteful
or fraudulent spending each year. The magnitude of the problem is
still pretty enormous, and what the IRS IG report suggests is that
it may soon grow to encompass Obamacare as well. 

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/04/irs-inspector-general-says-obamacare-sub
via IFTTT

President Unleashes The Obama Youth To Preach Obamacare Gospel

Or, as they may also be known, die Obamagesundheitjugend.

  • OBAMA SAYS HE NEEDS YOUNG PEOPLE TO SPREAD WORD ABOUT OBAMACARE

It gets better:

Non-compliance will be punished by “Amazon delivery”…


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/R3Y4oY6bG6k/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Hugh Hendry Goes Stock, Bitcoin Bull Retard: “Don’t Tell Me The Valuation, It Is Trending”

Everyone knows "you never go bull retard," but it seems Eclectica's Hugh Hendry, the hardiest of hardy Scots, has accepted that there is only one way for this farce to end (as we predicted back in 2009). As Investment Week reports, the bear-turned-bull has bought 3D printing stocks as a play on trend-driven, QE-fuelled equity markets, and said the rise in the valuation of Bitcoin amounts to “the same thing”. Perhaps summing up the "trend-driven, QE-fueled" new normal better than anyone, Hendry added:

"I say to my team 'don't tell me the valuations, it is trending'… This is the environment where Bitcoin could go to $1m. There is no qualitative reason, but it is trending. If I could own Bitcoin, I would.

It gets worse: Hendry is now chasing the biggest momentum trend of all, that of Bitcoin, which he now "expects" to rise to $1 million! As for his hedge – don't laugh – 3D printing stocks…

Sigh.

We suspect, as he noted previously, he will be avoiding mirrors even more now. And yes, that this whole series now reeks of an Onion viral marketing campaign, is clear to everyone. Although sadly, we fear it is all too sincere, and a sad consequence of what happens when Bernanke's centrally-planned markets crush one after another talented asset manager and leave the E-Trade momo babies in charge.

Via Investment Week,

Eclectica’s Hugh Hendry has said he would buy into online currency Bitcoin if it were feasible to do so within his funds.

 

Hendry has bought 3D printing stocks as a play on trend-driven, QE-fuelled equity markets, and said the rise in the valuation of Bitcoin amounts to “the same thing”.

 

All US-listed 3D printing stocks are trading on at least 50 times earnings, but Hendry said he has little concern over the sector’s sky-high valuations.

 

"We are in 3D printing stocks. I say to my team 'don’t tell me the valuations, it is trending,'" he said, speaking at a Harrington Cooper conference at which he also revealed he is no longer bearish.

 

The power of those trends is such that Hendry said he would own Bitcoin if it was accessible on a regular exchange. The value of the volatile online currency passed $1,000 per coin for the first time last week.

 

“This is the environment where Bitcoin could go to $1m. There is no qualitative reason, but it is trending. If I could own Bitcoin, I would. If I own 3D printing, it is just the same thing,” he said.

 

read more here

 

Of course, while Hendry's asset allocation may appear bullish, it is not from a sense of impending positivity – more of resignation…

Hendry added equity market fundamentals do not matter at a time when policy is misaligned, emphasising instead the ‘feedback loops’ created by US quantitative easing.

 

“There is no point arguing about the one-way causality we [as an industry] believe determines our processes. That is all about a belief this is rational.

 

“We want to believe markets go up because the economy is improving, because corporate cashflows are improving. But when you get monetary disturbances creating loops, it does not really matter.”

Poor guy.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Mrd35WJ2WH8/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Hugh Hendry Goes Stock, Bitcoin Bull Retard: "Don't Tell Me The Valuation, It Is Trending"

Everyone knows "you never go bull retard," but it seems Eclectica's Hugh Hendry, the hardiest of hardy Scots, has accepted that there is only one way for this farce to end (as we predicted back in 2009). As Investment Week reports, the bear-turned-bull has bought 3D printing stocks as a play on trend-driven, QE-fuelled equity markets, and said the rise in the valuation of Bitcoin amounts to “the same thing”. Perhaps summing up the "trend-driven, QE-fueled" new normal better than anyone, Hendry added:

"I say to my team 'don't tell me the valuations, it is trending'… This is the environment where Bitcoin could go to $1m. There is no qualitative reason, but it is trending. If I could own Bitcoin, I would.

It gets worse: Hendry is now chasing the biggest momentum trend of all, that of Bitcoin, which he now "expects" to rise to $1 million! As for his hedge – don't laugh – 3D printing stocks…

Sigh.

We suspect, as he noted previously, he will be avoiding mirrors even more now. And yes, that this whole series now reeks of an Onion viral marketing campaign, is clear to everyone. Although sadly, we fear it is all too sincere, and a sad consequence of what happens when Bernanke's centrally-planned markets crush one after another talented asset manager and leave the E-Trade momo babies in charge.

Via Investment Week,

Eclectica’s Hugh Hendry has said he would buy into online currency Bitcoin if it were feasible to do so within his funds.

 

Hendry has bought 3D printing stocks as a play on trend-driven, QE-fuelled equity markets, and said the rise in the valuation of Bitcoin amounts to “the same thing”.

 

All US-listed 3D printing stocks are trading on at least 50 times earnings, but Hendry said he has little concern over the sector’s sky-high valuations.

 

"We are in 3D printing stocks. I say to my team 'don’t tell me the valuations, it is trending,'" he said, speaking at a Harrington Cooper conference at which he also revealed he is no longer bearish.

 

The power of those trends is such that Hendry said he would own Bitcoin if it was accessible on a regular exchange. The value of the volatile online currency passed $1,000 per coin for the first time last week.

 

“This is the environment where Bitcoin could go to $1m. There is no qualitative reason, but it is trending. If I could own Bitcoin, I would. If I own 3D printing, it is just the same thing,” he said.

 

read more here

 

Of course, while Hendry's asset allocation may appear bullish, it is not from a sense of impending positivity – more of resignation…

Hendry added equity market fundamentals do not matter at a time when policy is misaligned, emphasising instead the ‘feedback loops’ created by US quantitative easing.

 

“There is no point arguing about the one-way causality we [as an industry] believe determines our processes. That is all about a belief this is rational.

 

“We want to believe markets go up because the economy is improving, because corporate cashflows are improving. But when you get monetary disturbances creating loops, it does not really matter.”

Poor guy.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Mrd35WJ2WH8/story01.htm Tyler Durden