TOP STORIES:
Businesses
brace for 'serious cuts' as city enacts record $15 minimum wage - (www.foxnews.com) As
talk builds on Capitol Hill over hiking the federal minimum wage, one city in
Washington state is poised to set the highest rate in the nation. On Jan.
1, an estimated 1,600 hotel and transportation workers in SeaTac, Wash., will
see their pay jump to $15 an hour, a 60 percent increase from the state's $9.32
minimum wage. While many workers look forward to the higher pay,
employers are looking for ways to absorb the big increase in labor costs. Some
plan on eliminating jobs. "We're going to be looking at making some
serious cuts," said Cedarbrook Lodge General Manager Scott Ostrander.
"We're going to be looking at reducing employee hours, reducing benefits
and eliminating some positions." That's in the short term.
Eventually, those jobs and more are expected to return as the Cedarbrook Lodge
looks to build an addition to the hotel. The plan is to increase revenue
to offset the higher labor costs.
Lessons
of 2008 Long Forgotten: House Passes Banker-Backed Bill - (www.americanfreepress.net) The word on Capitol Hill is that this bill,
which the White House claims to oppose, would wipe out Section 716 of
Dodd-Frank, “Prohibition Against Federal Government Bailouts of Swaps
Entities.” That section “requires banks to use a non-bank entity for trading
commodity, energy and other swaps. In other words, if the legislation becomes
law, financial institutions could return to conducting high-risk trading with funds
that are backed by the FDIC (i.e. the taxpayer),” AllGov.com pointed out, while
adding: “Citigroup was responsible for recommendations made in 70 lines of the
85-line bill,” citing the research of New York Times writers
Eric Lipton and Ben Protess. According to these reporters, the bill contains a
couple of essential paragraphs copied “word for word” from a draft submitted by
Citigroup, which Citigroup had developed “in conjunction with other Wall Street
banks,” AllGov.com also noted. Thus, Wall Street institutions, if they get
their way, could return to gambling with risky “investments” and make the
taxpayer cover their losses again if they make bad bets.
Gold's
First Down Year Since 2000 - What's Next? - (www.gold-eagle.com) Sorry for writing this before the last gold
price of 2013 has been posted by the markets. But on New Year’s Eve I’ll
be busy with more pressing matters than writing this article, using the actual
last price of the year. I expect nothing exciting will happen in the PM
markets between now and the end of the year (two trading days from now), so
gold’s December 27th closing price is good enough for now. As seen in the table
below, it can no longer be denied; for the first time in thirteen years
(2000-2013) gold will close below its previous year’s closing price.
That’s an impressive thirteen year record that to my knowledge is unmatched by
any other bull market. Silver, too, is closing this year with a loss, as
it did in 2008 and 2011, making 2013 only the third year since 2000 in which
silver closed below its previous year’s closing price. During a
secular-bull market, an occasional down year is no big deal. The Dow
Jones during the first thirteen years of its 1982 – 2000 bull market
(1981-1994) closed down for the year three times, as we’ll see in a table later
in this article. But members of the financial media will ignore this
fact, and in the main dwell on the bearish implications of gold ending 27.59%
below its 2012 closing price. However, with the stock bulls running wild
at the NYSE, the financial media may not cover this topic at all.
Calif.
church battling county to keep up 'Support Our Troops' billboard - (www.foxnews.com) A church in California's Nevada County is
battling local officials to keep up a "Support Our Troops"
sign. According to FOX40, the Simple Truth Church recently was told by the
county Planning Department that its billboard has to come down. The message
from the county came after the church touched up the run-down sign and painted
the patriotic message on it. But that’s the problem. According to county
regulators, “no changes can be made to an existing sign without getting
approval from the planning department first.” Pastor Jeff Alaways from
Simple Truth Church told FOX40 that residents of the county are "very patriotic,"
and said the message itself is not in dispute. "[It] had nothing to
do with what the sign is saying, what it has to do with is it’s out of
compliance with county ordinance on signage,” he said.
HP
Announces Another 5,000 Layoffs, For A Total Of 34,000 - (www.businessinsider.com) HP
has officially ratcheted up its layoff numbers again. It will be cutting
another 5,000 jobs above and beyond the 29,000 jobs it had previously targeted.
And that was an increase from the 27,000 jobs it announced in May 2012, as first reported by Business Insider. In HP's previous quarterly earnings reports filed with the SEC,
it warned investors that the company might get rid of more than 29,000
employees. In its annual report filed on Monday, it made
the bigger layoff official, declaring it would cut 34,000 jobs.
Abenomics
Drives Japan Hedge Funds to World’s Top Performers - (www.bloomberg.com)
Treasuries Love Affair Endures After First Loss Since ’09 - (www.bloomberg.com)
Treasuries Love Affair Endures After First Loss Since ’09 - (www.bloomberg.com)
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