KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Monday June 1 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Chinese Solar Maker Plunges, Losing Nearly $19 Billion in 24 Minutes - (www.bloomberg.com) The decline of Hanergy Thin Film Solar Group Ltd. was as spectacular and inexplicable as its ascent. Just 24 minutes of Hong Kong trading erased $18.6 billion of market value and wiped out almost four months of gains that made it more valuable than Sony Corp. of Japan. Those increases came as analysts and investors questioned why, exactly, this stock was increasing in the first place. The maker of solar equipment controlled by Li Hejun suspended trading after the stock plummeted 47 percent in the morning. Discussion of what triggered the move emerged after trading halted. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has been probing market manipulation in Hanergy’s shares for several weeks, Reuters reported late Wednesday citing an unidentified person. Ernest Kong, a spokesman for Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission, declined to comment to Bloomberg.

The unemployed are dropping out like flies - 40 percent of unemployed have quit looking for jobs - (www.cnbc.com) At a time when 8.5 million Americans still don't have jobs, some 40 percent have given up even looking. The revelation, contained in a new survey Wednesday showing how much work needs to be done yet in the U.S. labor market, comes as the labor force participation rate remains mired near 37-year lows. A tight jobs market, the skills gap between what employers want and what prospective employees have to offer, and a benefits program that, while curtailed from its recession level, still remains obliging have combined to keep workers on the sidelines, according to a Harris poll of 1,553 working-age Americans conducted for Express Employment Professionals. On the bright side, the number is actually better than 2014, the survey's inaugural year, when 47 percent of the jobless said they had given up. "This survey shows that some of the troubling trends we observed last year are continuing," Bob Funk, CEO of Express Employment Professionals and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said in a statement. "While the economy is indeed getting better for some, for others who have been unemployed long term, they are increasingly being left behind."

Facing $1B deficit, Arizona cracks down on welfare - (www.cnbc.com) Facing a $1 billion budget deficit, Arizona's Republican-led Legislature has reduced the lifetime limit for welfare recipients to the shortest window in the nation. Low-income families on welfare will now have their benefits cut off after just 12 months. As a result, the Arizona Department of Economic Security will drop at least 1,600 families—including more than 2,700 children—from the state's federally funded welfare program on July 1, 2016. The cuts of at least $4 million reflect a prevailing mood among the lawmakers in control in Arizona that welfare, Medicaid and other public assistance programs are crutches that keep the poor from getting back on their feet and achieving their potential. "I tell my kids all the time that the decisions we make have rewards or consequences, and if I don't ever let them face those consequences, they can't get back on the path to rewards," Republican Sen. Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu City, said during debate on the budget. "As a society, we are encouraging people at times to make poor decisions and then we reward them."

The Gloves Come Off: Moody's Warns Of Greek "Deposit Freeze" As Schauble "Won't Rule Out Default" - (www.zerohedge.com) And then, perhaps just the confirm that both gloves are off, moments ago the WSJ reportedthat German FinMin, Wolfgang Schauble, said he couldn’t rule out a Greek default, a stance that will add pressure on Athens as negotiations over much-needed financing enter their final stretch. Asked whether he would repeat an assurance he gave in late 2012 that Greece wouldn't default, Wolfgang Schäuble told The Wall Street Journal and French daily Les Echos that “I would have to think very hard before repeating this in the current situation.” “The sovereign, democratic decision of the Greek people has left us in a very different situation,” he said, referring to the January election that delivered a radical-left government bent on reversing five years of creditor-mandated austerity and painful economic overhauls.

Six Banks Pay $5.8 Billion, Five Plead Guilty to Market Rigging - (www.bloomberg.com) Six of the world’s biggest banks will pay $5.8 billion and five of them agreed to plead guilty to charges tied to a currency-rigging probe as they seek to wind down almost half a decade of enforcement actions. Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Plc agreed to plead guilty to felony charges of conspiring to manipulate the price of U.S. dollars and euros, according to settlements announced by the Justice Department in Washington Wednesday. The main banking unit of UBS Group AG agreed to plead guilty to a wire-fraud charge related to interest-rate manipulation. The Swiss bank, the first to cooperate with antitrust investigators, was granted immunity in the currency probe. The four banks that agreed to plead guilty to currency charges are among the world’s biggest foreign-exchange traders. They were accused of colluding to influence benchmark rates by aligning positions and pushing transactions through at the same time. Traders who described themselves as members of “The Cartel” used online chat rooms to discuss their positions before the rates were set and suppress competition in the market, the Justice Department said.

OTHER STORIES:

History tells us how the Greek drama could end - (www.cnbc.com)

It's a dangerous summer for stocks: Deutsche Bank - (www.cnbc.com)

U.S. Economy Edges Closer to the Next Recession - (www.wallstreetdaily.com)

The Real Deflatgate May Have Been the Fed Taking the Air Out of the Economy - (www.marketwatch.com)

HSBC:Central Banks Are Running Low on Ammunition - (www.bloomberg.com)