Sorry, but I was at the Roadhouse last night....
So what happened yesterday anyway?
"Deutsche Bank to raise $11 billion in fresh capital" by Jack Ewing | New York Times May 19, 2014
FRANKFURT — Deutsche Bank, the largest German bank, said Sunday that it would raise roughly $11 billion in new capital, primarily from existing shareholders and the royal family of Qatar, responding to regulatory pressure on banks to reduce risk.
And remember, the Nazis worked with Islamists, blah, blah, blah.
Deutsche Bank said it had sold new shares worth $2.4 billion to Paramount Holdings Services Ltd., an investment vehicle owned by Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani of Qatar. The remaining $8.6 billion will be raised from existing shareholders in a rights issue likely to begin June 24, Deutsche Bank said.
The measures will help answer criticism that Deutsche Bank, which has the biggest investment banking operation among European banks, presents a risk to the financial system because it does not have enough capital to absorb potential losses.
(Blog editor sat straight back in his chair when he saw that!)
But the capital increase, approved by the Deutsche Bank supervisory board at a meeting Sunday, may be less welcome among shareholders. The additional 360 million shares will dilute the value of the holdings of existing Deutsche Bank stock. The bank will hold its annual shareholders meeting here Thursday.
It's $ort of like printing up money to prop up the stock markets so the 1% can stay phat and rich (hello, Federal Reserve).
The additional capital could also take a toll on earnings. In its statement issued Sunday, Deutsche Bank pushed back some of its profit targets by a year. The bank said it expects to report a 12 percent return on equity, a common measure of bank profitability, in 2016 rather than 2015.
That will get people's attention, yeah.
While additional capital makes a bank less risky, it also means the bank operates with a greater proportion of its own money, which tends to reduce the profit margin.
So, what, they will only make a billion this quarter rather than two?
Deutsche Bank said Sunday that, if it has excess capital in the future, it would return the money to shareholders in the form of a dividend.
All banks in Europe are under pressure from regulators to raise capital so that they are more impervious to financial shocks.
I was led to believe the cri$i$ was over, the $y$tem had weathered it, and we were $ailing into recovery. What happened?
Deutsche Bank, the largest European competitor to Wall Street giants like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, has often faced criticism that it is thinly capitalized, compared with other large banks. Deutsche Bank managers consider the criticism unfair.
After the capital increase, Deutsche Bank’s common equity Tier 1 capital ratio, a common measure of a bank’s ability to absorb losses, will rise to 11.8 percent from 9.5 percent at the end of March. The ratio was less than 6 percent in mid-2012, according to the bank.
“We are decisively strengthening our capital, further improving our competitiveness, and investing in targeted growth initiatives across our core businesses,” Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, co-chief executives of Deutsche Bank, said in a statement.
The bank also said it would be hiring additional senior managers to speed up growth in the United States.
The capital increase is subject to approval by German bank regulators.
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I'm starting to come out of the grog so....
"Fuel savings bring worry about gas tax revenue; State officials eye new funds for road upkeep" by Martine Powers | Globe Staff May 26, 2014
The rise in both the fuel efficiency of new cars and trucks and the popularity of hybrid vehicles threatens to eventually undermine the effectiveness of the gas tax, some transportation officials and lawmakers fear, forcing them to search for novel ways to pay for the escalating cost of caring for the state’s roads and bridges.
(As blog editor hops into today's driver's seat he is enraged by this blatant ca$h grab $ugge$ted by the mouthpiece media)
:-(
Yeah, that's the look.
One Republican lawmaker has proposed an additional registration fee for fully electric vehicles.
Great, he's one of "mine." What an a$$hole!
Some officials suggest looking at charging all motorists per mile traveled; others say more tolls are the answer.
Oh, YEAH?
Well, if it were the MILES CHARGE, I guess I WON'T BE GOING TO GET A GLOBE ANYMORE!!
You got that?
As for the tolls, I'll avoid them.
Of course, being rural will now $uck.
They all contend that with revenue from the gas tax expected to taper off in coming decades, it’s time to end the free ride for some motorists.
OH! How IN$ULTING!
Is that what "we" have been getting all these years?
So does that mean the PUKES PROPOSING THIS that are GETTING FREE RIDES at TAXPAYER EXPENSE are going to start paying?
The hypocrite Patrick going to start paying for his caravan? His last term has been one big party as far as I can tell, as he leaves behind eight years of shambles. Roads suck, DCF sucks, state drug lab scandal, meningitis murders, website disasters with unemployment, revenue, health, loads of tax loot going to well-connected he hobnobs with, but that's about it in a nut$hell. I know there are a million miracles a day out there, and they all $eem to be happening at the top. Is it going to be John Kerry cutting down on the travel?
“That person who switches to an all-electronic vehicle, they’re paying nothing for the benefit of the upkeep, maintenance, and filling of potholes on the roads,” said Representative Bradley H. Jones, who earlier this month unsuccessfully pushed an amendment for the new registration fee. “The issue is really one of equity.”
He says that in the midst of unparalleled wealth inequity in this country, a $ituation that continues to get wor$e by the day, and I guess it is NICE TO KNOW that if you DO WHAT THEY $AY, do what is "good," do what is "right," by authority you will be "rewarded." But nope, the agenda-pushing, ca$h-grabbing, greedy government is back!
Now "if only the US government would put a price on carbon emissions!"
PFFFFFFFFTT!
Less than one year after the state increased the gas tax by three cents, transportation advocates and antitax activists continue to bicker over the future of gas tax indexes, an issue that will be on the November ballot. Yet vehicles are becoming more fuel-efficient, requiring drivers to purchase less gas, and more consumers are turning to gas-electric hybrid vehicles, requiring even less gas still.
And HERE THEY ARE AGAIN! Not even a DAMN YEAR GONE BY and they are BACK PICKING YOUR POCKET!
Of course, there is NEVER ANY MENTION how much of this is to FUND PADDED PENSIONS ama$$ed over decades as well as PAY OFF BIG DEBT!
According to the US Energy Information Administration, annual sales of hybrid, all-electric, and fuel cell vehicles in New England are expected to double between now and 2040.
Why bother $witching now? I'd rather the profits go into the billions per quarter for oil companies then.
Some, like Jones, are already pushing for an alternative tax; the amendment he introduced would have charged drivers of all-electric cars at least $100 per year. Though the amendment got little traction in the House, Jones warns that taxing fully electric vehicles is an issue that lawmakers will have to contend with, sooner or later.
“Eventually, you’ve got to have that discussion,” Jones said. “If everybody ultimately switches over to electric cars, what would you do?”
Nothing, because where does that electricity come from? Fossil fuel energy plants -- or nuclear. The $avings in clean tech are outweighed by the co$ts in money and environment.
But as long as some well-connected concern or corporation gets loads of tax loot to work on it. That's the important thing.
Others agree that now is the time to begin considering the alternatives.
“We are going to continue to rely on the gas tax for quite a while to maintain the safety of our roads and bridges,” said Kristina Egan, the director of Transportation for Massachusetts, a coalition of organizations pushing for more investment in transit. “But it is really important for us to start exploring sources to supplement the gas tax as cars become more fuel-efficient.”
For now, the focus of transportation funding in Massachusetts remains on the state’s gas tax, which was raised to 24 cents per gallon last year — the first increase in 20 years.
Yeah, you were due to have your pockets turned in$ide out, citizen.
Did the Nazis tax fuel? The Soviets? Does China? Many in the world are getting $ub$idies from government, and when those get taken away -- think Ukraine, Africa, Middle East -- the people get pi$$ed. They get cheap fuel because energy really is the lifeblood of of an economy and standard of living. Air, food, and water are necessary for survival.
So I don't know what the Globe's point is other than pu$h the agenda, pu$h it any way you can!
The law that mandated that tax hike also stipulates that the tax rate increase automatically to match inflation rates.
So the FEW MORE CENTS we will all be required to toss in the till are NOT ENOUGH! When does it end, when the wallet is empty?
What is with money-junkie $cum occupying all in$titutions in AmeriKa anyway!?
Some detractors have launched a campaign to repeal those automatic increases, garnering more than 100,000 signatures to put the question of repealing the gas tax index on the November ballot.
I know how I will be voting, and yes I will sign that.
But data show that the gas tax may become a waning source of revenue in coming years. From 2004 to 2012, the average fuel economy on new cars and trucks sold in the United States increased 22 percent, according to a December report from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Is that it, or could it be something el$e?
And fuel efficiency is no longer the domain of a small subset of manufacturers seeking to appeal to niche buyers: This month, BMW introduced its first fully electric vehicle to the US market, a car that can run for 81 miles just on its battery charge. With gas in the tank, it gets 124 miles per gallon.
One way to make drivers of hyper-fuel-efficient vehicles contribute to road upkeep is to collect more tolls.
Jeffrey Mullan, state secretary of transportation from 2009 to 2011, said he anticipates that highway tolls will become more widespread in many states, including Massachusetts, as part of an attempt to tax people for roads they use, not just how much gas their cars guzzle in the process.
I thought we already paid for all that all these years in what was called a "tru$t fund."
Where did the BILLIONS go?
“We need to develop a new proxy, and for me, the easiest and most useful option — and the one users are more familiar with — is tolling,” Mullan said.
The prospect of new tolls on highways other than the Massachusetts Turnpike may soon gain more momentum: Last month, President Obama’s administration proposed getting rid of restrictions on the ability of states to introduce new tolls on interstate systems.
Mullan said that adding tolls is a particularly attractive option for states, which would no longer have to wait for the federal government to dole out their share of highway funds.
Who el$e is on the "dole?"
“I predict we will see more tolling as a solution — partly because people are familiar with it, but also because states are beginning to take matters into their own hands,” he said. “They’re relying less on federal resources to finance their own programs.”
The only people who should not do that are.... the people!
And I will tell you, this crap is taking a toll on me.
The prospect of new tolls remains unattractive to many legislators, especially those who fear it will be a burden on businesses that depend on shipping goods by truck. Yes, I wanted to touch upon that for a minute.
Now think about this: the GAS TAX REVENUES are GOING DOWN at a time when we are $UPPOSEDLY having a RECOVERY that is GAINING $TEAM! You know, the one that survived the long, cold, brutal, winter.
So HOW CAN THAT BE?
Would there not be MORE REVENUE coming in? Or is the amount LESS than PREDICTED because the NUMBERS AUTHORITY USES are BASED ON BULL$HIT and NOW THEY NEED to MAKE UP the $HORTFALL$?
Other experts see possibilities in new fees.
Jones’s idea for an electric vehicle registration fee intrigued Barbara Anderson, the executive director of Marblehead-based Citizens for Limited Taxation, which is among the groups working to repeal gas tax indexing. She’s not quite a supporter, but said new fees could help bring about parity by spreading the tax burden to those who own electric cars.
(Blog editor just shaking his head; no wonder she is the go-to-girl for the Globe on antitax $hit)
Egan, too, said she was curious about the idea. An electric-specific tax could be controversial because it might discourage people from buying environmentally friendly vehicles, she said.
Right. But so what? Someone will get ven-cap or government funding before going bankrupt.
“I think there’s a balance you have to strike,” Egan said. “We want to have an incentive for people to buy cleaner cars. But we don’t want that incentive to be so much that only people who are using gas are paying for roads and bridges.”
A very delicate way to $ay we don't know how we are going to pick your pocket.
There are other options, including a miles-traveled tax.
No more Globe purch$es. That will be my re$pon$e.
In Oregon, 5,000 volunteers have signed up to pay a usage tax starting in 2015, using a GPS device or odometer readings to track their miles traveled over the course of the year.
Oh, it COMES WITH ITS OWN GPS/NSA beeper, huh?
Participants must also track their gas purchases, and at the end of the year they can apply for a refund of the gas taxes they paid.
Oh, so the $tate gets the MONEY UP FRONT, huh?
Wow, what a BLATANT REACH for your WALLETS right in OPEN SIGHT!
Mullan is skeptical that a similar tax could catch on in Massachusetts. Residents may feel that a different tax system is an extra tax burden, he said, even if the price is comparable to a year’s worth of gas taxes.
“The reaction is often, ‘Why do I have to pay more? Don’t punish me,’ ” Mullan said. “New things are difficult to implement, especially when people are just not 100 percent certain of it.”
Umm, not only are we not not 100% certain, we are 100% opposed, 'kay?!!!
In Oregon, the tax was set at 1.5 cents per mile, to be comparable to the 30 cents per gallon gas tax.
No Globe, no Globe, (sound of drums beating).
Egan said that success stories from other states, such as Oregon, could dissolve some of the trepidation among Massachusetts drivers.
“A lot of fear would melt away,” Egan said.
Look at her invoke fear! I'm not afraid, I'm angry at fart-mi$ters like her! What pathetic $cum.
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And biking is no better, especially after a night of hard drinking.
Have they patched up the potholes yet because the ride could get bumpy?
Far right, fringe groups gain big in EU vote; Results will help plot body’s future" by Andrew Higgins and James Kanter | New York Times May 26, 2014
The first thing I noticed was my print copy carrying the byline John-Thor Dahlburg, so the Globe is already off the road!
BRUSSELS — Exit polls showed the far right and Euroskeptics making sweeping gains in European Parliament elections Sunday, signaling a major political shift toward parties that want to slash the European Union’s powers or abolish it altogether.
Polls in recent days had predicted Euroskeptics could snag as many as a third of the seats in the EU’s 751-seat legislature in the vote ending Sunday.
WOW!
One of the most significant winners appeared to be France’s far-right National Front. Two polling companies said the party, led by Marine Le Pen, was outright winner in France with one-quarter of the popular vote.
Voters in 21 of the European Union’s 28 nations voted Sunday. The other seven countries had already voted, in a sprawling exercise of democracy that began Thursday in Britain and the Netherlands.
The results will help determine the bloc’s future leaders and course. They could herald changes in EU policy in areas ranging from border control and immigration to a new trade and investment agreement being negotiated with the U.S.
The National Front was not the only party benefiting from widespread disillusionment with the EU.
Unofficial exit polls reported a surge in support for Britain’s UKIP party. Pollsters said the Danish People’s Party was also on target to become Denmark’s biggest party with 23 percent of the vote, and a year-old party in Germany that wants that country to stop using the euro single currency reportedly won 6.7 percent of the vote.
In the Netherlands, however, the right-wing Euroskeptic Party for Freedom surprisingly dropped from second to fourth place, pollsters reported.
We now know Netherlands elections were rigged, and so were all the others. Like I said yesterday, this was a massive wave that no vote fraud could turn. I suspect they won way more than a third.
Even in victory, unity may be hard to find in the fractured Euroskeptic camp.
Le Pen has said she will work in the Parliament with the Dutch Party for Freedom, but UKIP leader Nigel Farage has ruled out cooperating with both those parties, which have stridently anti-immigrant platforms.
“We won’t work with right-wing populists,” Alternative for Germany’s leader Bernd Lucke also said after the vote, insisting his party was generally in favor of the European Union despite its rejection of the common currency.
Then that is NO ALTERNATIVE at all!
What has been scrubbed from the web is the result being a "blow to Germany's established parties, which have championed the euro and sought to brand Alternative for Germany as an unelectable mix of academics and nationalists."
As for the NYT piece, it resorts to the usual slander of “Greece’s radical left-wing Syriza and Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi outfit, picked up seats" in what was "a bad day for the European Union when openly racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic programs get the vote,” but who is really listening anymore?
Also see: After Anti-EU Parties Surge, What's Ahead?
Seems like a good place to end the next day updates and move along.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
I'm feeling much better, thanx.
"Established parties rocked by anti-EU vote" by Alan Cowell | New York Times May 27, 2014
LONDON — Members of the European political elite expressed alarm Monday over the strong showing in European Parliament elections by nationalist and anti-immigrant parties skeptical about European integration, a development described by the French prime minister as an “earthquake.”
In France, Britain, and elsewhere, anti-immigrant parties opposed to the influence of the European Union emerged in the lead.
That has become a tag word for those opposing globali$ation and centrali$ation $chemes that have only enriched the architects of those policies, with the implicit charge of racism attached.
In France, the National Front won 26 percent of the vote to defeat both the governing Socialists and the Union for a Popular Movement, the center-right party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
In Britain, the triumph of the UK Independence Party, or UKIP, which won 28 percent of the vote, represented the first time since 1910 that a nationwide vote had not been won by either the Conservatives or Labor.
“The people’s army of UKIP have spoken tonight and delivered just about the most extraordinary result that has been seen in British politics for 100 years,” said Nigel Farage, UKIP’s leader.
Wow, the French and British people really are fed up with their $lavish "public" $ervants.
Official results released overnight showed that populist parties strongly opposed to the European Union also trounced establishment forces in Denmark and Greece and did well in Austria and Sweden. The results, a stark challenge to champions of greater European integration, left mainstream political leaders stunned.
They finally heard a whisper of our pain and agony. Why does it have to take such extremes for $hit-bag leaders and their ma$ters to listen?
The radical left-wing Syriza coalition in Greece beat the party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, while Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi outfit that the Greek authorities have tried in vain to outlaw, also picked up seats, bringing Holocaust-deniers and belligerent xenophobes into the European Parliament.
I take it as a badge of honor that the NYT would holler names and insults at you. Must be doing something right.
With the political landscape redrawn across Europe, some politicians, notably Nick Clegg, the British deputy prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats, the junior coalition partner, faced calls from their own party members to quit. The Liberal Democrats finished fifth in Britain and lost nearly all their seats at the European Parliament.
The $ub$ervient deal they cut with the Tories was a complete flop. They got nothing, absolutely nothing in return, and the British people registered their opposition to leftist globali$m for bankers.
In Spain, the two main parties failed for the first time to get a combined 50 percent of the votes. Such was the upheaval that Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the leader of the Socialist Party, said Monday he would step down after failing to capitalize on Spain’s economic woes and record unemployment to beat the governing Popular Party.
Because the people see they are $ociali$ts now.
Traditional parties sought to depict the ballot as a protest vote inspired by deep alienation among voters repelled by what they consider to be out-of-touch political elites at home and an arrogant European Union bureaucracy spreading its influence with no democratic mandate.
It's an epidemic stretching across Europe and the entire world!
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