Thursday May 31 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Why Have American Small-Business Jobs Gone Missing? - (www.bloomberg.com) Big business, we keep being told, has been so hampered by regulatory uncertainty over the past few years, it has been reluctant to hire workers. So it is surprising to read the results of a little-known survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Very large businesses, it turns out, have been expanding their domestic workforces relatively rapidly. If, since January 2011, businesses of all sizes had hired at the same rate as those with 5,000 or more employees, we would have almost 4 million more jobs today.  The BLS data show that the overall weakness in the U.S. labor market reflects slow employment growth among smaller businesses, following a recession that hit them especially hard. The data come from the bureau’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which is commonly used to examine trends in rates of hiring and job loss. 

Rajoy warns Spain faces debt market exile - (www.ft.com)  Spain’s prime minister warned his country risked being shut out of the financial markets unless it was allowed to press ahead with its package of deficit cuts, as yields on the country’s debt jumped. Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Mariano Rajoy said: “We must reduce the public deficit because there is a serious risk that we will not be able to borrow, or borrow at astronomical prices ... All these measures are to get out of the hole we find ourselves in.” Yields on Spanish 10-year bonds touched 6.5 per cent for the first time since November, taking them closer to levels that prompted bailouts for Greece, Portugal and Ireland. Italy’s comparable benchmark bonds were trading at 5.94 per cent.

INCREDIBLE: Lawyers For The Major Banks Accidentally Leaked E-mails About Their Clients Naked Short-Selling Overstock.com - (www.businessinsider.com)  For years, Overstock.com has been in a legal battle with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and more. The online retailer accuses the banks of naked short-selling its stock. Overstock.com lost that battle, but they're still trying to get the banks to unseal documents that would prove their case. According to Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi, who posted the Plaintiff's motion on his blog, his publication, as well as The Economist, Bloomberg, and the New York Times, have been fighting to see the documents too.  Fighting the banks is not easy, we know, but then recently, something magic happened. The Defendants' law firm, Morgan Lewis, committed a colossal screw up. During the discovery period, they neglected to redact sensitive e-mails from their clients. Then they sent them off to Overstock.com's legal team.

U.S. Said to Start Probe of $2 Billion JPMorgan Loss - (www.bloomberg.com) The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York have begun a criminal probe of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s $2 billion trading loss, a person familiar with the matter said. The U.S. is looking into whether criminal wrongdoing occurred in relation to the losses the bank reported last week, said the person, who declined to be identified because the matter isn’t public. The inquiry is in its most preliminary stage, the person said. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates derivatives trading, also are examining New York-based JPMorgan’s trading activities, according to people familiar with those probes.

Obama Now Claims The Power To Freeze Your Assets If You Oppose The New Government In Yemen - (www.businessinsider.com)  Over at Salon, Glenn Greenwald has the goods on the latest astounding power grab by the Obama Administration. According to The Washington Post, Obama has just issued an executive order claiming the power to freeze any assets you own, if you "directly or indirectly" obstruct the new government of Yemen.  There are hardly any criteria for judging just how broadly this order can be interpreted.  Here's the background: Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is the new Yemeni president, and the former Vice President of long-time dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. Hadi was recently installed after an "election" where he ran unopposed, prompting celebrations about a new blooming democracy in the Middle East. Subsequently, the U.S. has sent millions in aid and military assistance to the Hadi government, despite its unpopularity among observers in the West and most importantly, the Yemeni people.

OTHER STORIES:

Bank of Japan Stimulus Hits Wall as Bond Buying Falls Short for First Time - (www.bloomberg.com)

BOE Sees Near-Term U.K. Inflation Pressure - (www.bloomberg.com)

Japan’s Growth Seen Peaking as BOJ Pressed to Stimulate - (www.bloomberg.com)

Euro-Region Inflation Slowed in April as Debt Crisis Hit Consumer Demand - (www.bloomberg.com)

Australia’s Weak Consumer Confidence, Wage Growth Spur Rate Bets: Economy - (www.bloomberg.com)

Greece fails to form unity government - (www.ft.com)

New U.S. Housing Construction in April Exceeds Forecasts - (www.bloomberg.com)

Industrial Production in U.S. Climbs More Than Forecast - (www.bloomberg.com)

JPMorgan Said to Consider Clawing Back Bonuses - (www.bloomberg.com)

JP Morgan's $2 Billion-Plus Loss Came On Three-Legged Trade - (online.wsj.com)