Financial Crisis - 2013 - ????

[American Patriot]

The drain just got opened.

Apple shares tumble at open, down nearly 8%

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Published: Tuesday, 28 Jan 2014 | 9:36 AM ET
By: Ansuya Harjani | Writer, CNBC Asia


Why are investors selling Apple?

Monday, 27 Jan 2014 | 5:15 PM ET


Andy Cross, CIO at the Motley Fool, explains that slowing growth and excess capital are weighing on Apple's outlook.



Following Apple's disappointing earnings report, a debate is heating up over where the consumer electronics giant's share price is headed, with one analyst calling for a near 40 percent fall in the stock.


Apple shares fell sharply at the open Tuesday, down nearly 8 percent. (Click here for the latest quote.)


Bert Dohmen, president and founder of Dohmen Capital Research Institute has a long-term downside target of $320 for the stock, citing the company's declining profit margins and lack of technological innovation.


"Apple hasn't had any technological innovations since Steve Jobs left, and this is a company that's getting beaten by its competitors. Now, we hear the next big item (iPhone 6) is going to have a larger (screen) size, Samsung has had that for two years," Dohmen said.


(Read more: Apple has innovation woes, pros say )


Data released by research firm IDC on Tuesday showed that Samsung's smartphone market share edged up one percentage point on-year to 31.3 percent in 2013, while Apple's fell from 18.7 percent to 15.3 percent.


"We are recommending not buying this stock, and have been since six days after the top which was $705 in September last year," he said.


(Read more: Global smartphone makers closing in on Apple)


Apple shares crumbled 8 percent to $506 in after-hours trading Monday on disappointing iPhone sales during the October-December quarter and lower-than-expected revenue guidance for the current quarter.


During the quarter, Apple said it sold 51 million iPhones, fewer than the 55-million estimate expected by Wall Street analysts. In addition, the company said it expects to hand in current-quarter revenue of between $42 billion and $44 billion, versus expectations for $46.05 billion.
The company posted earnings of $14.50 a share on sales of $57.59 billion, surpassing expectations for $14.07 a share on sales of $57.46 billion, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.


Colin Gillis analyst at BGC Financial who cut his rating on Apple to hold from buy ahead of the earnings release on Monday said the company needs new products in order to drive future growth given fierce competition from low-cost rivals in the smartphone and tablet space.
(Read more: Apple drops on weak iPhone sales, revenue outlook)


Getty Images
The Apple store on 5th Avenue in New York City.

"The functionality gap between [Apple and] the low price competition is getting smaller and the pricing gap is getting wider. What we need from Apple is not just to continue to sell iPhones and iPads into its customer base, we need new product," Gillis told CNBC's Fast Money.
"The problem is when you get into this part of the cycle for Apple it could be a dead money stock. And when it hit our price target ($550) today, we felt obligated to downgrade it," he said.
Peter Misek analyst at Jefferies, who has a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $650, however, had a more upbeat view on the company's prospects.
He believes that the iPhone 6, set to be released later this year, will spark a big upgrade cycle for Apple and is optimistic about the company's future product line-up.
(Slideshow: Rising smartphone stars look to outshine Apple)

"As far as new products are concerned, we've heard of all kinds of equipment being order by Apple," Misek said.
"We think new products are on the horizon - an iWatch is the most likely candidate—and at some point in the future an iTV. We don't think it [Apple] is dead yet," he added.
—By CNBC's Ansuya Harjani. Follow her on Twitter

@Ansuya_H

[Malsua]

I've got an idea...maybe apple could change swiping from top to bottom for the next email message, to swiping from the right to the left! It's Brilliant!

Oh? They did that already?

Ok, sell the Iphones in colors instead of just black or silver! It's Brilliant!

Oh, done already? ok, let me think here...

They could make the iphone 1/4" taller! It's Brilliant! It'll sell 10s of millions!

Oh, alright, nevermind.

[Ryan Ruck]

lol!

[American Patriot]

Lol

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Two top American bankers commit suicide in London as one jumps 500ft to his death from JP Morgan skyscraper and another hangs himself in luxury home

• Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan bank executive, died this morning after he threw himself off the top of the bank's European headquarters
• On Sunday, former Deutsche Bank senior manager, William 'Bill' Broeksmit, 58, was found hanging in his home in South Kensington
• Both deaths have been ruled non-suspicious by the Metropolitan Police
• Magee had lived in London for seven years after transferring from the Unites States with JP Morgan
• Broeksmit had been in London many years but still owned an apartment in an exclusive Central Park building in New York
• Both were thought highly of by their bosses and colleagues, sources said

By Martin Robinson and Mark Duell and Kieran Corcoran
PUBLISHED: 16:46 EST, 28 January 2014 | UPDATED: 18:07 EST, 28 January 2014

Two top ranking American bankers working in senior positions in London have committed suicide in the space of two days.

Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan bank executive, died early this morning after he jumped 500ft from the top of the bank's European headquarters. His body was discovered on the ninth floor roof, which surrounds the 33-story Canary Wharf skyscraper.
Just two days earlier, on Sunday, fellow American banker, William 'Bill' Broeksmit, 58, was found hanging in his South Kensington home.

Broeksmit - who retired last February - was a former senior manager at Deutsche Bank and had lived in London many years. He started working for the bank in 1996 but left for a period of 7 years before returning in 2008.


Tragedy: IT executive Gabriel Magee has been found dead today after jumping from the top of JP Morgan's headquarters in Canary Wharf, London, and landing on a surrounding roof

Magee was a vice president in the corporate and investment bank technology department having joined JP Morgan in 2004 and moved with the bank from the U.S. to Britain in 2007.

Magee was named in an email sent to all JP Morgan staff Tuesday afternoon.

A company spokesman said: 'We are deeply saddened to have lost a member of the J.P. Morgan family at 25 Bank Street today. Our thoughts and sympathy are with his family and his friends'.

A source close to Magee said he was in 'good standing with his bosses and colleagues. He was well liked.'

Scotland Yard said they were called to 25 Bank Street at 8.02 a.m. and detectives are not treating the death as suspicious.

'No arrests have been made and the incident is being treated as non-suspicious at this early stage', a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said.

Canary Wharf workers were in shock today, with one trader telling MailOnline that his body lay on the flat roof until around midday.

'My colleague yelled that he could see that someone had jumped from the top of the building onto a lower roof. His body lay there uncovered for at least two hours,' he said.



In shock: A JP Morgan worker looks out of his window as Mr Magee's body was recovered today





Roof death: Workers at Canary Wharf said hundreds were looking at the man's body from their windows



Investigation: Police at the scene outside the JP Morgan building this morning, where the man was found dead at around 8am

'Hundreds were looking out of their windows at him.

'It was bonus week at JP Morgan last week so I hope it wasn't to do with that'.

Another Canary Wharf worker who could see where the man fell told the Evening Standard: 'It’s upsetting what’s happened but the thought of somebody lying up there for four hours is awful.

'I got into the office at about 8.10 and the body was on the floor and there were police up there, and they put a white cover on him.

'I think he was in a suit. As far as I could see the was dressed appropriately, but there was quite a lot of blood, so me and my colleagues were a bit upset.'

Others tweeted that what they saw this morning.

Amie Hughes-Gage said: 'Just watched the police finally remove that poor bankers body 4 and half hours later with only a white sheet over him.'

Hetal Patel tweeted: 'The 9th floor roof of JP Morgan is visible from my office window. For a long time the body was left cordoned & unattended'.

Another wrote online: 'It's not a nice view from my building. The body is on the rooftop of level 9. So sad'.







An air ambulance was sent to the scene but the man could not be saved.

'We were called to Bank Street to reports of a person fallen form a height', London Ambulance Service spokesman said:

'We sent one ambulance crew, a duty officer, our hazardous area response team and London Air Ambulance to the scene.

'Sadly a man in his 30s was pronounced dead at the scene.'

JP Morgan's building has been the headquarters of the bank's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operation since July 2012.

It used to be owned by Lehman Brothers until its collapse in 2008, and the area houses the headquarters of other banking giants including HSBC and Barclays.

The horrific tragedy came hot on the heels of the shock death of of Broeksmit Sunday, who apparently had close ties to co-chief executive Anshu Jain.

Jain and fellow co-chief executive Juergen Fitschen said in an internal memo: 'He was considered by many of his peers to be among the finest minds in the fields of risk and capital management.

'We are deeply saddened by Bill's death. He was a dear friend and colleague to many of us who benefitted from his intellect and wisdom.




Location: The body of William 'Bill' Broeksmit, 58, was found at his home in South Kensington, central London



Discovery: Police had been called to reports of a man found hanging at a house on this road, Evelyn Gardens

'Our thoughts and condolences are with his wife and family at this time. We will remember him for his contributions to Deutsche Bank, thoughtful advice and personal friendship.'

Broeksmit worked in investment banking - specifically risk and securities - and lived on exclusive Evelyn Gardens in South Kensington, which has an average property value of £1.9million.

He is also registered to a high-value property a stone's throw from New York's Central Park.

Broeksmit's name appears on U.S. government records for the Broeksmit Family Foundation, which is based in the palatial 1185 Park Avenue building.

The three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment to which he is linked was worth $4,500,000 when it was last sold in June 2000.

He worked at Deutsche Bank from 1996 to 2001, then from 2008 until he retired. Broeksmit was also employed by Merrill Lynch for a period.

Broeksmit was one of around 100 bankers who left Merrill Lynch for Deutsche when its investment banking arm was founded in the 1990s.



Links: Mr Broeksmit is linked by U.S. documents to an apartment in this building, yards from Central Park



Offices: He worked at Deutsche Bank from 1996 to 2001, then from 2008 until he retired (file picture)
He was involved in the process of rescuing the bank in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, when many investment banks found their debts were 'toxic', and unlikely ever to be repaid.

Broeksmit, a renowned risk expert, assisted the bank's efforts to shift the worst of the debt, and reduce its total amount of lending.
Chiefs at Deutsche Bank had planned to promote Broeksmit to its management board in 2012, but stopped when the German financial regulator expressed doubts about his experience as a leader.

Scotland Yard confirmed only that a 58-year-old man was found hanged.

A spokesman said: 'Police were called at 12.35 p.m. on Sunday to a man found hanging at Evelyn Gardens, SW7.

'Kensington and Chelsea police, ambulance and air ambulance all attended. A 58-year-old man was declared dead at the scene. The death is being treated as non-suspicious.'

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Marine Links Carslon Obama Wagonlit Hit to JP Morgan Suicide, MI-3 Sherlock Pedophile Shtick


Plum City – (AbelDanger.net). United States Marine Field McConnell has linked contract hit teams allegedly hired by staffers of the Carlson Obama Wagonlit ('COW') travel office in the White House to today's suicide of a JP Morgan executive at Canary Wharf, and a decades-old pedophile blackmail shtick as practiced by insiders of London’s Sherlock Holmes Park Plaza hotel and the MI-3 Innholders Livery Company.

McConnell claims Serco director Maureen Baginski equipped the White House with crime-scene tracking devices used by Sherlock pedophiles to entrap witnesses, remove evidence and extort victims and conceal the MI-3 Innholders’ role in international child-sex trafficking.

McConnell notes that his sister Kristine ‘Con Air’ Marcy – co-custodian with Eric Holder of the U.S. Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture Fund since 1984 – recently extorted a $13 billion payment from JP Morgan and he alleges that she relayed a message via the COW’s White House travel office which warned Gabriel Magee that his name had been placed in the MI-3 Sherlock Holmes pedophile list at Canary Wharf leaving the late vice president of JP Morgan's banking technology arm little choice but to kill himself.

McConnell invites key word Googlers to read excerpts below and ask why “The List of Sherlock Innholders – The Wrist That Didn’t Bleed” book has a new title at http://www.abeldanger.net/

Prequel 1: #1832: Marine Links MI-3 Sherlock Pedophile Yachts to Serco Maddy, Mumbai Triage Tags

IT Executive plunges to his death from JP Morgan's London headquarters in Canary Wharf



Record fine of $13 billion for JP Morgan - Business Daily

[IMG]http://presidentialfield.com/sites/default/files/*/sites/all/default/files/treason-charges-3.jpg[/IMG]

White House COW travel office allegedly used child hookers to entrap secret service agents in Cartagena

“JP Morgan IT executive plunges to death at bank's London HQ
BY COSTAS PITAS AND LAURA NOONAN
LONDON Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:37pm GMT
(Reuters) - A JP Morgan tech executive fell to his death from the U.S. bank's 33-storey tower in London's Canary Wharf financial district on Tuesday in what British police said was a "non-suspicious" incident.

Police were called to the glass skyscraper at 8:02 GMT, where a 39-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene after hitting a lower 9th-floor roof. Witnesses said the body remained on the roof for several hours.

London police said no arrests had been made and the incident was being treated as non-suspicious at this early stage.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed the deceased was Gabriel Magee, a vice president with the JP Morgan's corporate and investment bank technology arm, who had been an employee since 2004.

"We are deeply saddened to have lost a member of the JP Morgan family at 25 Bank Street today," JP Morgan said in a statement. "Our thoughts and sympathy are with his family and his friends."

Workers in Canary Wharf, whose Manhattan-style skyscrapers form part of one of the world's major financial centres, took to Twitter to express their shock at the death.

"The 9th floor roof of JP Morgan is visible from my office window," tweeted Hetal V Patel. "For a long time the body was left cordoned and unattended. Weird. #Wharf."

The JP Morgan building has been the headquarters of the bank's Europe, Middle East and Africa operation since July 2012. It was previously occupied by Lehman Brothers, whose staff left with their belongings in cardboard boxes after the investment bank filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008.

Home to Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, HSBC, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Thomson Reuters, Canary Wharf, lies to the east of the City of London.

Though the details of Tuesday's incident are still unclear, occasional suicides by people working in London's big banks have provoked criticism of the demands placed on some financial services workers.

A Bank of America exchange manager jumped in front of a train and another man jumped from a seventh-floor restaurant, both in 2012. A German-born intern at Bank of America died of epilepsy last year in London.

On Tuesday, when asked about the death of William Broeksmit, a former senior manager at Deutsche Bank, London police said a 58-year-old man had been found hanging at a house in South Kensington on Sunday afternoon.

(Additional reporting by Clare Hutchison. Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Larry King and Jane Merriman)”

“Marilyn Carlson Nelson's fight to end sex trafficking
Updated: November 24, 2013 - 5:07 PM

Among the most compelling presentations at the recent World Affairs Councils of America conference in Washington, D.C., was from Marilyn Carlson Nelson, the former chair and CEO of Carlson Companies

The Minnetonka-based firm was the first North American travel company to sign the industry’s international Code of Conduct to end child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes. The travel industry has a vital role in combating this scourge, Nelson said in an interview before her prepared remarks.

Speaking of the course she co-teaches at the University of Minnesota, she said, “One of the things we talk about is that there is this growing commitment of business to partner with the public sector and nongovernmental organizations on one of the largest problems the world faces.” The best result, she said, “is when the corporate skill set is most closely aligned with the problem. In our case we train thousands of people around the world, and adding this training was consistent.”

It’s also consistent with Nelson’s noted civic engagement. Her work in the community was recognized at the conference and by the Obama administration, which in April made Carlson the first company to win the Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons.

After her address, Nelson sat on a panel with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

Ending trafficking “cuts across partisan lines. It’s international, and it’s a problem right here,” Portman said.

“You see the suffering,” said Blumenthal. “And yet also you see the potential for transformative change. If we can save people, rescue them, protect them and prosecute wrongdoers, this issue can be effectively addressed. But it will take awareness and action at every level.”

Awareness should spur action, Nelson said. “Sometimes in life, if you don’t know about something, you don’t feel uncomfortable not taking a stand on it. But once you know it, then you have to look at yourself in the mirror and say, ‘Do I have the courage to step out on this?’ ”

Marilyn Carlson Nelson did just that.”

“JP Morgan’s $13 Billion Settlement Explained [WFLT Radio]
JP Morgan Settlement
JP Morgan agreed to pay the Department of Justice $13 billion. In an WFLT, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., radio interview Lawyers.com Editor-in-Chief Larry Bodine explains why the banking giant settled its case. He also discusses a recent Florida case, where two girls were charged with aggravated stalking for cyber bullying a 12-year-old girl into suicide.

The 2008 economic crash and following recession resulted from reckless bank activities. The wrongdoing included mortgage fraud against home buyers, investor fraud with mortgage-backed securities, and defrauding the government which bought the mortgage bonds.

The justice department was under intense criticism for failing to pursue the banks and executives responsible for the crash. The settlement aims to hold the bank responsible and make payments for people’s financial losses. The banks’ reckless conduct included issuing vast numbers of home mortgages, not wanting anyone to carefully examine the paperwork, then bundling these bad investments into securities and selling those securities to the public and investors. In this process, banks such as JP Morgan made billions of dollars.

As the largest fraud settlement of that the justice department has ever received, this could be a template for holding Wall Street responsible. This, along with criminal indictments of those who wrongly profited from this activity, will help restore investors’ confidence in Wall Street and the marketplace.

Bullying Leads to 12-year-old’s Suicide

Larry also analyzes the legal aspect of the tragic death of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, who was cyber bullied to suicide in Lakeland, Fla. Police charged two girls, 12 and 14, with aggravated stalking. They hounded her on social media through online message boards and texts.

On Sept. 10, Rebecca ended her life by jumping off the third floor of a cement plant. USA Todayreported that on the day before she texted a boy that she could not take the harassment any longer and would jump off the factory tower.

If the facts were a little different and the parents of Rebecca’s tormenters were more involved then they could be held criminally liable. Megan Meier, a 13-year-old, in Dardenne Prairie, Mo., hanged herself after the mother of one of Megan’s former friends harassed Megan online, pretending to be a teenaged boy. The mother, Lori Drew, was put on trial.

In this case, the two perpetrators were put in the juvenile system. Larry reminds listeners that the best thing parents can do is to talk to their kids and find out if someone is bullying them. Calling the school or the parents of the bullies can help protect the targets of cyber harassment. Once the parents are involved, they can be held responsible depending upon their conduct, in not only criminal but also civil cases. They can be liable for defamation, libel and slander.

As a final reminder, parents should encourage their children to speak up, when online peer pressure becomes troubling.”


“WND EXCLUSIVE
DISTURBING TRUTH BEHIND OBAMA'S TRAVEL MADNESS [Allegedly coordinated through the White House’s Carlson Obama Wagonlit (COW) travel office]
Spending totals hundreds of millions
Published: 11/28/2013 at 5:40 PM
Supporters of Barack Obama tout his dedication to the responsibilities of the presidency by noting that he had taken 96 days of vacation at the point in his term that President George W. Bush had taken a reported 335.

But they admit that 51 of Bush’s trips were to his Texas ranch, while records show that Obama’s destinations have ranged from exotic European and African locales to pricey digs to Hawaii, where he’s sometimes traveled separately from his family, effectively doubling transportation costs for taxpayers.

The records released are partial, meaning no firm travel-expense total can be assembled. But individual cases are revealing.

For example, the Washington Post in June revealed the Obama family’s African vacation was slated to cost between $60 million-$100 million, according to a “confidential internal planning document.”

Part of the expense the purchase of nearly 4,000 “room-nights” for one stop in Johannesburg and close to $2 million for car rentals.

The cost of trips that are purely personal, such as daughter Malia Obama’s 2012 spring break trip to Mexico that took $115,500 from the U.S. Treasury, are not always fully disclosed.

And the Obama family has made many trips that are a hybrid of personal and business.

While it seems that members of the media are not generally asking pertinent questions about such travel and expenses, the administration also has provided information on an inconsistent basis.

In some cases, federal entities such as the State Department, which arranges the logistics of executive branch travel, have thwarted efforts to discover more about the government’s accomodations, transportation and related expenses.

Indeed, WND has been waiting more than a year and a half for the State Department to reveal details of a mysterious stay at the super-luxurious Hotel Hessischer Hof in Frankfurt, Germany.

Although State on Nov. 17, 2011, had uploaded to the FedBizOpps database a contract awarded to the hotel for $52,000, it released no details explaining the contract. State acknowledged receiving the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request, but otherwise has remained silent on the matter.

It remains unclear who may have stayed at the luxury hotel, as the award date is not necessarily indicative of when the government actually used the facility.

Vice President Joseph Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, and Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, traveled to Frankfurt just months prior to the notice. However, there is no record of where they stayed as they cheered for Team USA during the Women’s World Cup Final.

The media lack of interest in pertinent details of administration travel is startling.

“Is the president reading any books on his vacation?” one unidentified reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney aboard Air Force One as Obama headed to the exclusive Martha’s Vineyard resort scene last summer.

“I expect he will, and I will see what I can find out,” Carney said in response to the softball question. “Most of the many hours I spent with him in the last couple of weeks, when he’s been reading, he’s been reading briefing materials.”

While it often takes FOIA requests and lawsuits to obtain information about the vacations of POTUS (president of the United States), FLOTUS (first lady) and VPOTUS (vice president), CNN’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer earlier this year tooted its own horn for purportedly finding a seemingly once-in-a-lifetime document about such trips.

CNN bragged about its supposed findings in the broadcast version of the report. In contrast, the online text version deferred, erroneously, to the Weekly Standard for breaking the story – even though U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor (with which this writer is affiliated) reported on the Biden trip Feb. 23, nearly a month ahead of either media outlet.

the State Department spent $585,000 on hotel rooms and racked up $322,000 on intra-country transportation costs.

Blitzer, nonetheless, expressed wonder at CNN’s supposedly “rare” uncovering of detailed documents specific to VPOTUS Biden’s one-day jaunt to Paris

In that report, it was revealed
Blitzer and CNN White House Correspondent Brianna Keilar on March 22 bantered back and forth about their “amazing, amazing discovery.”

Blitzer went so far as to claim he had never seen such information in the seven years he had covered the White House.

Keilar added that she personally conducted a search of the FedBizOpps contractor database. Data on the publicly accessible source was limited to Biden accommodations specific to the Parisian trip and a corresponding stop in London, she claimed.

“We’re getting an extremely, extremely rare glimpse at how much it costs when Vice President Joe Biden goes traveling,” Blitzer proclaimed in the broadcast. “Brianna, we’ve covered a lot of presidential and vice presidential trips, but this is pretty amazing.”
“It kind of makes you wonder if this information was put out accidentally,” Keilar later said. “I did a search myself of the past 365 days where obviously the president and vice president have gone on other foreign trips and I could find no contracts in addition for any of those visits.”

An immediate follow-up search by this writer – followed up by a more recent search by WND – revealed that Keilar either did not actually look or, at the very least, did not look closely at the records.

Also readily available were hotel and transportation records of the Obama and Biden trip to Colombia that year – the scandal-plagued journey to South America in which Secret Service agents were caught patronizing prostitutes while guarding the president.

The trip called for the rental of 1,046 hotel rooms at 13 separate establishments in and around Cartegena, Colombia, where the sixth annual Summit of the Americas took place.

While the overall cost to taxpayers is unknown, the rooms and cars alone cost nearly $1 million.

A simple keyword search using terms such a “POTUS,” “VPOTUS” and “presidential” quickly turn up the records, which separately include the cost of hotels and limos as well as a “justification for other than full and open competition” document governing State’s selection of vendors.

Conservative media generally have acknowledged that Bush took more vacation days than Obama but argue that he often did so at his own expense and at personal or family owned locations, where at times he hosted world leaders.

Left-leaning media have retorted that – despite taking 51 of those trips to his Texas ranch – Bush had vacationed for a total of 335 days, contrasted to Obama’s 96 days at a similar point in his second term.

The Washingtonian earlier this year conducted a profile on Mark Knoller, CBS News correspondent and “unofficial White House statistician,” to find out more about presidential facts in general.
It attempted to glean critical statistics from Knoller by posing questions, for instance, about Obama’s dog, Bo, including how many times the pet had been aboard the president’s helicopter, Marine One.

According to the article, Knoller admitted that despite the voluminous tidbits of data that he has amassed, he had no knowledge of Bo’s flight information.

Despite its discovery, the Post at times appeared apologetic, claiming that “the preparations appear to be in line with similar travels in the past,” and that, in advance of the trip, “the federal agencies charged with keeping him safe won’t be taking any chances.”

WND separately located numerous procurement documents detailing some expenses for the Obamas’ African travel and accommodations. Though the administration in late September and early October posted records for the Obama’s stay in South Africa, it did not disclose records for their stay in Senegal and Tanzania.

It cost an estimated $550,000 to house a “Senior High Level USG [U.S. government] Principal” at the Radisson Blu Sandton in Johannesburg, South Africa,” whom the document did not explicitly identify – despite the FedBizOpps page referring to the procurement as “POTUS Accommodation.”

The no-bid justification called for “2,200 lodging room nights” for this unnamed official for “June 12, 2013-July 11, 2013.”

Separately, it cost another $500,000 for “1,700 lodging room nights” during the same period at the Table Bay Hotel overlooking Cape Town Harbor.

Despite the documents’ secretive nature, even the White House made no secret about the POTUS/FLOTUS hybrid vacation and official business visit to Africa during that period, as Michelle Obama kept an online journal about their journey across the continent.

The U.S. Department of State made arrangements with multiple transportation vendors for the South African presidential visit that totaled close to $2 million.

Contractors included Europcar ($702,342), Kwathlano ($500,000) and Cabs Car Hire ($185,000).

A separate $503,846 contract was awarded to Europcar for SUVs, pickup trucks, vans, buses, box trucks and “large capacity vehicles.”

Judicial Watch has been building a dossier on Obama family vacations, obtaining documents that otherwise had been publicly released and also suing the government when it withholds information.

The organization has chronicled the cost of Obama family trips, particularly those of first lady Michelle Obama and her children unrelated to official White House business.

Her 2010 trip to Spain cost taxpayers $487,585, the group discovered.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said at the time, “The American people can ill afford to keep sending the first family on vacations around the globe. There needs to be greater sensitivity to the costs borne by taxpayers for these personal trips.

“It is hypocritical for President Obama to fire GSA officials for wasteful conference spending, while his family went on a luxury vacation in the Costa del Sol Spain that cost taxpayers nearly half-a-million dollars.”

Judicial Watch also has filed FOIA requests for, among others records, information about President Obama’s trip to Palm Springs, Fla., and “the simultaneous vacations of Michelle Obama and Joseph Biden in Aspen, Colorado.”

Although other publicly accessible records do not necessarily address presidential vacation-specific trips, they do indeed shed light on the cost of such standard globe-trotting in general.

Despite some gaps in the Obama trip record, a comprehensives search of FedBizOpps produces multiple records on the current administration’s travels.

On the other hand, it produces zero records for the George W. Bush administration, despite the database’s voluminous provision of federal procurement information extending back to the William Jefferson Clinton administration.

The following list offers a chronological record of what is publicly and readily available about the cost of Obama and Biden trips on primarily official business.

Obama’s 2009 trip to Germany included an estimated cost of $272,976 for rooms at Hotel Leonardo Weimar.

It took an additional $533,585 on that same journey for presidential accommodations – rooms, office space and parking spaces – at the Hotel Tascshenbergpalais Kampinski in Dresden.

One travel blogger describes the German luxury facility as a “Distinguished and elegantly restored 214-room hotel housed in the resurrected ruins of an 18th-century royal baroque palace, in the heart of a historic district adjacent to the famous Semperoper and Zwinger palace complex.”

It separately cost about the same amount for additional rooms at the Dresden’s Steigerberger Hotel de Saxe.


Obama, during his re-election campaign several years later, praised his union supporters in Ohio while on the re-election campaign trail because, he said, “It is unions like yours that helped to forge the basic bargain of this country – the bargain that built the greatest middle class and the most prosperous country and the most prosperous economy that the world has ever known.”

Part of that union bargain includes the ability of workers to save enough money to retire and take “maybe a vacation once in a while – nothing fancy, but you can enjoy your friends and your family.” Presumably that bargain does not include vacations in European palaces.

Due to “unusual and compelling circumstances,” the State Department awarded an approximately $3 million no-bid contract to secure rooms at Pittsburgh’s Omni William Penn Hotel and the Hilton Pittsburgh Hotel “to meet housing and security requirements for POTUS staff and DoS [Department of State] senior-level support staff” for Obama’s visit to the G20 Summit.

The contract arranged housing for about “1,000 officials and support staff from September 1, 2009 through September 26, 2009″ needing close access to the David Lawrence Convention Center, where the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, or G20, event was held.

Obama’s trip to France to commemorate the Normandy D-Day invasion cost $870,868 for single rooms, suites and control rooms at the Hotel Westin in Paris between May 25 and June 8, 2009.

It cost another $343,643 for additional rooms at the Mercure Omaha Beach and four other hotels in the region from May 24 to June 7.

Yet another $166,824 helped house 80 Secret Service agents at the five-star Hotel du Louvre June 1 to June 8 during the Normandy event.

The president in 2010 traveled to Prague to sign a nuclear arms-reduction treaty with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The trip led to an $811,000 bill at the Hotel Hilton Prague for 1,533 single-room, single-occupancy room nights, 13 single-room, double-occupancy room nights, 64 suite room nights, 248 single offices, 12 suite offices, one “special use of an elevator, 100 late check-out fees [and] 126 room-emptying fees.”

Related accommodations at the Hotel Marriott B.H. Centrum in the Czech Republic fetched an estimated $163,000 for 287 single room nights and various conference rooms, electronic devices and late check-out fees.

Driving first lady Michelle Obama and other VIPs around Denmark to lobby – unsuccessfully – the International Olympics Committee to choose Chicago as the site of the 2016 Olympics was a boon for Copenhagen Limousine Services in 2009, which received an estimated $212,449 payment for its services.

The U.S. Department of State, however, did not release those records until 2010.

Judicial Watch separately uncovered an additional $467,175 in expenses related to the arrival of the president and his entourage. The group included Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago political hack who needed an “ethics waiver” to serve as Obama’s “Olympics czar” on behalf of Chicago, the group said. The president arrived in the Denmark capital toward the end of that campaign.

In December 2009, the president visited Copenhagen to attend Climate Change Conference: vehicle and driver rental services via Viking ($405,679), Copenhagen Limousine Service ($510,204) and Edelskvo Bus ($306,192).

The president and his staff also rented 90 rooms at Scandic Palace, Scandic Copenhagen and Scandic Front hotels ($1 million) and another 70 rooms at Scandic Syhavn ($195,183).
Additional records include:

The Warsaw, Poland, rental of 2,114 lodging room/nights cost $454,000 for an Obama stay May 27 and May 28, 2011, at the Warsaw Marriott Hotel as part of his multi-state trip to visit the leaders and citizens of England, France, Ireland and Poland.

Obama presented himself to the British people as “the grandson of a Kenyan who served as a cook in the British army,” while in Ireland he “drank a beer with the residents of Moneygall, birthplace of his maternal great-great-great-grandfather,” the Washington Post reported.

Oct. 28, 2010 – Nov. 11, 2010: Presidential visit to New Delhi, India, required 134 rooms and conference facilities at Taj Palace Hotel, cost: $203,853.


November 2010: Presidential stay at Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta, Indonesia, requiring 450 sleeping rooms, offices and one-day ballroom rental, cost: $700,000.


August 2011: VPOTUS trip to China, Japan and Mongolia. Records available only for 1,601 room nights and conference rooms at Hotel Okura Tokyo, cost: $477,301.


May 26-27, 2011: G8 conference, Deuville, France, 3,498 hotel accommodations for POTUS at 10 different hotels, cost: $2 million. Estimated transportation package with Biribin Limousines: $992,400-$2,857,150.


Dec. 2-3, 2011: VPOTUS trip to Istanbul, Turkey, $475,000 for 218 rooms.

Feb. 21, 2012-March 8, 2012: VPOTUS trip to Mexico City, requiring 919 hotel room nights at Inmobiliaria Nacional Mexicana (Four Seasons Hotel), cost: $348,936.


March 13, 2012 to March 28, 2012: POTUS hotel room rental at Grand Hyatt Hotel for Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea. Designated a “sensitive/secure package” and locked. Cost undisclosed.

June 2012 (specific rental dates not provided): POTUS attendance at G20 Summit, Los Cabos, Mexico. Estimated hotel room cost (through travel agency Turismo y Convenciones): $1,889,388-$2,078,327. Vehicle rentals (via Operadora Transtur): $630,760-$693,836.


November 2012 (specific rental dates not provided): Obama visit to Phnomn Penh, Cambodia. Raffles Hotel Royale; 895 room nights and several conference rooms. Cost: $400,000. Another 1,010 room nights at Sunway Hotel for an additional $400,000.


August 22, 2013: Presidential trip to Stockholm, Sweden. Total number of rooms: 121. Grand Hotel Stockholm and Lydmar Hotel. Estimated cost: $112,190 -$246,230.


The most recently published presidential travel records offer limited access.

Full records for Obama’s travel to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC 2013, conference in Indonesia are not currently accessible.

Records exist under the headers of “Cargo trucks to support POTUS visits” and “Passenger car rental services for APEC 2013, Bali, Indonesia.”

Partial records come up during a search of FedBizOpps, but the entire package remains marked as “sensitive,” thereby requiring site registration.

Although this writer is a registered and validated user of the FedBizOpps and System for Award Management, or SAM, access remains blocked, with the error message “SAM Validation Required” popping up when the APEC records list appears during a database search.

Records of the presidential stay at Yokohama Grand InterContinental Hotel in Japan for APEC 2010 likewise are only partially accessible – and for some reason the three-year-old records remain marked as “sensitive.””

Yours sincerely,

Field McConnell, United States Naval Academy, 1971; Forensic Economist; 30 year airline and 22 year military pilot; 23,000 hours of safety; Tel: 715 307 8222

David Hawkins Tel: 604 542-0891 Forensic Economist; former leader of oil-well blow-out teams; now sponsors Grand Juries in CSI Crime and Safety Investigation

[American Patriot]

What the hell is going on? I saw this yesterday on the blogs but was not sure what the hell to think.

[Malsua]

It means it's time to leave the party. Just make sure the exits aren't barred shut.

[American Patriot]

Well, let's do this. We have 4 IRAs, a mutual fund and a big checking account.

What the hell do we do to protect this money? Cash out and take the tax and penalty losses or let it sit until they siphon it off?

[Ryan Ruck]

DOW down around 200 right now.

[American Patriot]

damn.... crash and burn

[Ryan Ruck]

DOW down about 240 right now...

[American Patriot]

-245 now

[Malsua]

I got out of my riskier positions on Friday...I banked some losses, but I've avoided even more.

[vector7]

RadioShack to close about 500 stores: Report

Published: Tuesday, 4 Feb 2014 | 1:04 PM ET

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

U.S. electronics chain RadioShack is planning to close about 500 stores within months, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The struggling retailer, which is due to report results for the fourth quarter later this month, said it could not comment on rumor or speculation.

RadioShack has been working with bankers from Peter J Solomon Co to boost its liquidity and with AlixPartners on its operational turnaround.

Its sales have been in free-fall amid executive departures, strong competition and an image problem. Despite its ubiquitous presence in the United States, analysts say it has not done enough to transform itself into a destination for mobile phone shoppers, nor has it become hip enough to woo younger shoppers.

Chief Executive Joe Magnacca, who took the company's helm in February 2013, has said he expected the turnaround to take several quarters.

--By Reuters

[Ryan Ruck]

No surprise there. It's frankly amazing the company is still in business.

If I need piece electronic parts in hand ASAP I'll stop in but if I don't, it is off to Mouser Electronics or eBay.

[American Patriot]

In the old days (we're talking early '70s) I'd walk in and chat with the sales people who were usually technicians too. They also repaired crap that was brought in.

In the 1980s they went towards "computers" like the TRS-80. In the '90s the idea of vacuum tube testers went out the door, techs were now ONLY sales people, and none of them had a fricken clue what a transistor was other than from a part number.

In the decades I've been going there, the electronics went from great stuff to cheap Chinese junk.

I'm seriously NOT surprised they are foundering. I went in a few weeks back to look at scanners. I asked some pointed questions and was lied too. Imagine that. I took the radio back and they ARGUED about me returning it "because it works". "Nope, it doesn't DO what YOU said it would and I asked if it did this thing I needed and you said 'absolutely'."

Haven't been back since. Won't.

[Ryan Ruck]

Dell Layoff Bloodbath To Hit Over 15,000 Staffers

February 3, 2014

Two sources have told us Dell is starting the expected huge layoff programme this week, claiming numbers will be north of 15,000.*

The company is returning to private ownership to restructure its operations in the wake of a falling PC market, a commoditisation of the server market and a perceived need to better serve enterprises with their ever-increasing mobile and cloud-focused IT requirements.

We heard from people close to the Round Rock Dell HQ area that Dell management has every conference room booked, and every HR person and security staff member is at work. There are cuts in all departments, according to one of our sources, who says some of these have already been downsized and are now being told to cut 15 per cent more heads.

We hear the worldwide layoff number is now greater than 15,000 people.

Our insider commented: "It’s going to be a bloodbath.”

The severance package is two months' pay plus an extra week of pay for each year of service, a bonus at 75 per cent, obligated COBRA health insurance for 18 months in the United States, and outplacement services (in the US at least).

We have separately heard that Dell has started its Stateside layoffs this week. Internal company emails seen by The Reg mention “simplifying client support structure - both basic and up sell,” “client support structure combined - Consumer and Commercial come under one umbrella,” and “Up sell offers will align with Pro Support and will "evolve”. The “evolve” word could mean that further changes are coming.

We hear that layoffs are hitting the engineering divisions inside Dell as well.

We were told on 16 January that: “Dell won’t go into specifics on figures and there won’t be any additional comment outside of the statements already provided.”

* The company contacted El Reg a few hours after publication to deny this, stating that "a small percentage" of staffers had accepted redundancy packages.

[Ryan Ruck]

Two top American bankers commit suicide in London as one jumps 500ft to his death from JP Morgan skyscraper and another hangs himself in luxury home

Third Banker, Former Fed Member, "Found Dead" Inside A Week

January 31, 2014

If the stock market were already crashing then it would be simple to blame the dismally sad rash of dead bankers in the last week on that - certainly that was reflected in 1929. However, for the third time in the last week, a senior financial executive has died in what appears to be a suicide. As Bloomberg reports, following the deaths of a JPMorgan senior manager (Tuesday) and a Deutsche Bank executive (Sunday), Russell Investments' Chief Economist (and former Fed economist) Mike Dueker was found dead at the side of a highway in Washington State. Police said the death appeared to be a suicide.
Via Bloomberg,

Mike Dueker, the chief economist at Russell Investments, was found dead at the side of a highway that leads to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. He was 50.

He may have jumped over a 4-foot (1.2-meter) fence before falling down a 40- to 50-foot embankment, Pierce County Detective Ed Troyer said yesterday. He said the death appeared to be a suicide.

Dueker was reported missing on Jan. 29, and a group of friends had been searching for him along with law enforcement. Troyer said Dueker was having problems at work, without elaborating.

Dueker was in good standing at Russell, said Jennifer Tice, a company spokeswoman. She declined to comment on Troyer’s statement about Dueker’s work issues.

But as Michael Snyder noted recently, if the stock market was already crashing, it would be easy to blame the suicides on that. The world certainly remembers what happened during the crash of 1929...

Historically, bankers have been stereotyped as the most likely to commit suicide. This has a lot to do with the famous 1929 stock market crash, which resulted in 1,616 banks failing and more than 20,000 businesses going bankrupt.

The number of bankers committing suicide directly after the crash is thought to have been only around 20, with another 100 people connected to the financial industry dying at their own hand within the year.

Dueker had also been a research economist at the St. Louis Fed:

He published dozens of research papers over the past two decades, many on monetary policy, according to the St. Louis Fed’s website, which ranks him among the top 5 percent of economists by number of works published. His most-cited work was a 1997 paper titled “Strengthening the case for the yield curve as a predictor of U.S. recessions,” published by the reserve bank while he was a researcher there.

So, with stocks a mere 4% off their highs, are so many high ranking and well respected bankers committing suicide?




Under Investigation, American Title CEO Dead In Grisly Suicide

February 7, 2014

The founder and CEO of American Title Services in Centennial was found dead in his home this week, the result of self-inflicted wounds from a nail gun, according to the Arapahoe County coroner.

Richard Talley, 57, and the company he founded in 2001 were under investigation by state insurance regulators at the time of his death late Tuesday, an agency spokesman confirmed Thursday.

It was unclear how long the investigation had been ongoing or its primary focus.

A coroner's spokeswoman Thursday said Talley was found in his garage by a family member who called authorities. They said Talley died from seven or eight self-inflicted wounds from a nail gun fired into his torso and head.

Also unclear is whether Talley's suicide was related to the investigation by the Colorado Division of Insurance, which regulates title companies.

The division is a part of the Department of Regulatory Agencies.

DORA spokesman Vince Plymell confirmed that the investigation was focused on Talley and the company but would not provide additional details.

Before coming to Colorado, Talley was a former regional financial officer at Drexel Burnham Lambert in Chicago, where he met his wife, Cheryl, a vice president at the company. The two married in 1989.

Talley had formed a number of companies, some now defunct, according to the Colorado secretary of state's office. Among them: American Escrow, Clear Title, Clear Creek Financial Holdings, Swift Basin, Sumar, American Real Estate Services, and the American Alliance of Real Estate Professionals.

In addition to its headquarters in the Peakview Tower near Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre in the Denver Tech Center, American Title has offices in Pueblo, Brighton, Boulder, Westminster, Lakewood, Wheat Ridge and Fort Collins, according to its website.

Talley's 1989 wedding announcement in the Chicago Tribune noted he was a graduate of the University of Miami and had a graduate degree from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

It also said he was "a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic swimming team." A spokeswoman for USA Swimming on Thursday said Talley was not on the team.

A funeral mass is to be held at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Centennial.

[Ryan Ruck]

Roubini Doom Scenario: It Looks Like 1914 Again

January 23, 2014

With many parts of the world gearing up to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War, Nouriel Roubini has solidified his hold on the title "Dr. Doom" by suggesting parallels between 2014 and 1914.

There may be no Austro-Hungarian empire or Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but Roubini tweeted this from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos today:

Tweet one:

#wef14 many speakers compare 2014 to 1914 when WWI broke out & no one expected it. A black swan in the form of a war between China & Japan?
— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) January 23, 2014

He then tweeted some of the reasoning behind this train of thought.

Tweet two:

#wef14 Echoes of 1914: backlash against globalization, gilded age of inequality, rising geopolitical tensions, ignoring tail risks
— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) January 23, 2014

While Roubini is renowned for his bubble warnings and doom scenarios, his concerns weren't drawn out of thin air, but rather taken mainly from the lips of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

According to reports from both The Financial Times and BBC, Abe said on Wednesday that China and Japan were in a "similar situation" to that of Britain and Germany ahead of World War One.

However, Reuters reported that Abe's top spokesman denied the Japanese leader meant war was possible or imminent, which is unthinkable for many.

Still, Abe said that China's increase in military spending was a source of instability in the region and he reiterated his calls for a military hotline to avert a conflict. In November, China tried to impose an air defense zone over a small collection of islands in the East China Sea, which the Japanese call the Senkaku Islands while the Chinese refer to them as Diaoyu.

Abe himself is a hawk. Back in December, he visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's wartime dead, including those who committed atrocities during the country's march across Asia during the Second World War.

There are other areas of concern in the rest of the world for those seemingly keen to compare 2014 to 1914: the on-going Syrian civil war and its ramifications for the Middle East, as well as the future of Iran's place in the international community.

Furthermore, the current protests in Kiev and Ukraine's pro-EU or pro-Russia dilemma raise questions over the rising power of Russia and how Western powers deal with this.

Yet Roubini also mentioned the twin problems of a "backlash against globalization" and a "gilded age of inequality." The latter has been a watchword at Davos this year and has become the key focus of President Barack Obama's final term in office. In a speech to a think-tank in Washington D.C. last month, Obama described it as the "defining issue of our time."

Perhaps 1914 isn't a good comparison, but rather 1848 and 1968 could be: the former a year of revolutions across Europe; the latter a year of socialist, communist and student protests in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy and the USSR. Will 2014 be the year when there is a growing backlash against the prevailing status quo and rising income inequalities?

Of course, it is worth noting that the written history of World War One has come under much scrutiny in recent months, as politicians and historians debate over revisionist theories and nationalistic fervor.

As Joseph Nye, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense, has written: "Among the lessons to be learned from the events of 1914 is to be wary of analysts wielding historical analogies, particularly if they have a whiff of inevitability."

"War is never inevitable, though the belief that it is can become one of its causes."