Update 3: Rangel Presser 9:00am; Charlie says hell no he won’t go; Charlie Rangel stepping down as Chair of House Ways & Means Cmte!!
Update 4: Charlie taking ‘leave of absence’ from chairmanship…
Wednesday 8:45am Update 3: Rangel has a presser in about 15 mins…
Above the post Update 2: HotAir covers news that Charlie refuses to step down..oh boy…
Update: The plot thickens!
Charlie Rangel emerged from a closed-door meeting in Nancy Pelosi’s office Tuesday night to declare that he’s still the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and hasn’t agreed to give up his gavel – even as some media outlets were reporting that he’d done just that.
But asked whether he’d still be the chairman tomorrow and in the coming days, Rangel said: “I can’t make all those promises at my age.”
And when Pelosi was asked whether Rangel was resigning, she said “no comment.”
When Roll Call asked him if he’ll still be chairman, he said, “You bet your life.” Looks like we’re going to have to do this the hard way. On to the floor vote! Just one question: Who leaked the bogus news that he had quit? Was that the Dems’ way of trying to pressure him into leaving, knowing that if it looked like he had changed his mind and was trying to hold on, irritated caucus members would be more likely to abandon him?
Wow! Breaking on the CNBC Chyron now…cant stand the heat! get out of the kitchen!!! Charlie BTW was the one on the conference call to HRC telling her she must withdraw and not go to a roll call count at the convention and fight in the RBC….cough cough karma cough cough cough
hey who gets that Cmte gavel now???
giving his gavel away, hey he has made it through countless shenanigans before, I would never have believed he step down…
He lost our AZ mod Dems already, my Rep Harry Mitchell and Gabby Giffords in Tucson both said they would vote against him tomorrow
Update: Chuck Todd on Kudlow now says SANDER LEVIN D-MI, Carl Levins bro will be taking over the gavel, he is 3 in seniority, but number 2 is PETE STARK! Who is apparently ill, sorry for that but Stark would be a DISASTER OMG! Hey MI Dems have to answer for Pres Barack Carter Obama too! they stopped the revote….
Todd indicating Rangel not to resign seat, but will likely retire this yr if he doesnt get gavel back after end of ethics investigations…..
Jamie Dimon fights back against UK Banker Bonus Tax
Jamie was one of our picks for Treasury Secretary to replace the tax challenged Timmeh (see our March post). Plus since we are shoveling money into, and making all our policy based on, protecting the banks, why not have someone with actual private sector banking experience?! Plus Jamie is actually, you know, SUCCESSFUL!
Jamie talks reality to Alistair Darling. JPMChase is about to enter a ginormous HQ on Canary Wharf in London. Maybe the ingenius Banker Bonus Tax that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have floated is NOT the best way to keep London as the European center of trading….
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Update: ‘Audit the Fed’ Bill out of Committee…
Update: The WSJ has a great Q/A on the legislation to audit the Fed here
Break the Matrix and Ron Paul will be totally psyched. I know we need to crack the opaque black box that is the lack of transparency of the Fed in many ways but I am also verrrry worried about what this will do to the financial markets…I do NOT want the TOTUS or the TREZ to get control of the Fed…Alexander Hamilton where are you?!
Courtesy of BreaktheMatrix
Read the article at http://bytestyle.tv/node/119
Federal Reserve Loses Bloomberg FOIA Lawsuit, Sensitive Disclosures ForthcomingMORE HERE:
http://bytestyle.tv/node/114* * * * *
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UK minister Sacked amid Labour Turmoil
Courtesy of gonadmoore: ABC News – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is clinging onto power despite European elections which have shown support for the UK Labour Party plunge. The party has lost another minister, who has been sacked for failing to pledge allegiance to Mr Brown.
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Market Mover Thursday: April PPI higher than expected..WalMart same store sales flat on US dollar….weekly jobless claims higher than expected, rate hits 4.9%…
PPI rose 0.4% on higher food prices for consumers…
WalMart reported flat sales….
Weekly jobless claims higher than expected…
CNBC, what a typo they have here :
..In a separate report, producer prices rose 0.3 percent, also more than expected and a sign that economy (I think they mean INFLATION! )remained a threat to the economy.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits increased 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 637,000 in the week ended May 9, reversing an easing trend of the previous two weeks.
PPI:
…producer prices rose faster than expected in April, government data showed on Thursday, driven by a surge in food costs.
The Labor Department said the Producer Price Index climbed 0.3 percent after declining 1.2 percent in March. Food prices rose 1.5 percent in April, the biggest increase since January 2008. Food costs rose on a record jump in egg prices, along with soaring prices for vegetables and meat….
Unemployment rate also jumped:
..Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new claims rising to 610,000.
The number of people staying on the benefit rolls after collecting an initial week of aid jumped 202,000 to a record high of 6.56 million in the week ended May 2, the latest week for which the data is available, from 6.36 million the previous week.
This was the 15th straight week that so-called continued claims touched a record high and lifted the insured unemployment rate to 4.9 percent, the highest since December 1982, from 4.8 percent the previous week….
Wal-Mart reported a flat quarterly profit Thursday as its low prices attracted shoppers amid a global economic slowdown, but the retailer’s results suffered from the stronger U.S. dollar. For the current quarter, the company forecast results roughly in line with Wall Street expectations as it faces tough comparisons with a year ago, when it got a boost from customers spending tax rebate cash in its stores…
Ben on the Hill….
Poor Ben Bernanke will be back on the Hill today, 10:00am EST
CNBC LIVE streaming Video when it begins
The GOLD bugs are with me in rejecting the baseless rally yesterday, now at 913.5 up 11.3 today…
Update: Results will now be released Thursday…Market Mover Friday: Stress Test Results ‘delayed’ as Banks appeal findings…
Update: Results scheduled to be released Monday, now they say Thursday:
Results of the “stress tests” conducted on the nation’s 19 biggest financial institutions will be released late Thursday afternoon and include information on both the individual banks as well as aggregate data, CNBC has learned.
The results of the tests, which were conducted during April, will include estimated losses in certain loan categories as well as the banks’ resources to absorb potential losses, a source said. The source added that the information is not a solvency test….
The Federal Reserve will postpone the release of stress tests on the biggest U.S. banks while executives debate preliminary findings with examiners, according to government and industry officials.
The results, originally scheduled for publication on May 4, now may not be revealed until toward the end of next week, said the people, who declined to be identified. A new release date may be announced as soon as tomorrow, they said.
They really painted themselves into a corner on this:
At least six of the 19 largest U.S. banks require additional capital, according to preliminary results of government stress tests, people briefed on the matter said this week. While some of the lenders may need extra cash injections from the government, most of the capital is likely to come from converting preferred shares to common equity, the people said.
By pushing conversions, rather than federal assistance, the government would allow banks to shore themselves up without the political taint that has soured both Wall Street and Congress on the bailouts. The risk is that, along with diluting existing shareholders, the government action won’t seem strong enough.
Here is the best, most NO SHXT SHERLOCK line of the piece (and the process in fact):
Regulators and bank executives are concerned about how the disclosure is handled because weaker institutions could suffer a collapse in their stock prices.
You mean Uncle Sam is gonna tell us these guys cant survive a financial heart attack and investors might pull their money out? The hell you say! I AM SHOCKED! BWAAAAHAAAAAA frakkin maroons…..
Market Mover Tuesday: Case-Shiller Housing Index…
Just released Case-Shiller Housing Index:
10 of 29 Metro Areas show record rates of annual decline
15 metro areas showed price declines of over 10% vs Feb of 08
10 city composite posts annual decline of 18.8% in February
20 city composite down 18.6%
here is how CNBC morning crew is spinning this to be a good number:
Annual home price decline did not set a new record for the first time in 16 months
well alrighty then, let me pop my Korbel cork right now, LOL…..
So the Delta is slowing, that would be IMO the foreclosure sales, however we still have a RECORD inventory out there and with the foreclosure moratoriums ending I suspect prices will fall farther as those ‘shadow inventory’ short sales hit the market…but by all means it is good if the rate of decline would frakkin slow or better stop…or you know actually show an increase in value, HA!
Dow futures are sharply lower after the Dow ended yesterday down 50+, futures down -103 before the open…
*VH House of Pain courtesy of 5150EVH5150
*Straight off of the Gene Simmons Demos, the House Of Pain! Its basically just the basic riff from the 1984 HOP, with different choruses, different verses, and a different solo. The Intro and outro to the solo are also in the 198 HOP, although in different places here. Enjoy!
Moderate in the Middle 