.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/to-new-england-fishermen-another-bothersome-barrier.html?ref=business

Fish like the Atlantic cod will no longer be sold by Whole Foods.

A Ban on Some Seafood Has Fishermen Fuming

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

A decision by Whole Foods to stop selling any seafood it does not consider sustainable strikes New England fishermen as just one more barrier to their livelihood.

Whole Foods does a good thing. There is no right to over fish.

These fishermen will not get to keep their boats and the banks will suffer.

The yards will not have a good year. Used boats will be cheap.

No fish is an uncomfortable reality.

http://www.afp.com/en/news

I see they have an iPad app.

Just the wire feed. Real time is not of much interest.

http://vancouverdesi.com/business/solid-growth-low-unemployment-seen-in-germany-institutes/

"Think happy thoughts."

This from Reuter:
http://vancouverdesi.com/business/global-economy-weekahead-awash-in-money-and-piles-of-debt/

Just the same gold standard claptrap.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/links-earth-day-2012.html

The Earth is fascinating. Earth Day is not.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Links Earth Day 2012

Drone Use Takes Off on the Home Front Wall Street

Journal (Lambert)
Japanese tsunami debris reaches Alaskan shores Guardian (John L)
Megaupload Trial May Never Happen, Judge Says TorrentFreak (Cap’n Magic)
‘They’re killing us’: world’s most endangered tribe cries for help Guardian (John L)
Torture claims emerge in China’s Bo Xilai scandal BBC
Dutch prime minister says government austerity talks collapse Washington Post. Weird. This is serious weekend news (from the markets’ perspective) which is not being treated as serious news if you look at the usual suspects.
IMF allows eurozone to stay in its fantasy world Telegraph
Archbishop of York victim of “naked racism”, claims ally Telegraph
Surviving In an Unstable World Using A Secret Weapon Known As Literature Slacktavist (Lambert)
Exclusive: National Security Agency Whistleblower William Binney on Growing State Surveillance Democracy Now (Thomas R)
Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012 Chicago Tribune (Lambert)
Independent and Principled? Behind the Cato Myth Mark Ames, Nation
Paul Krugman is Very, Very Wrong Ken Houghton, Angry Bear (Aquifer)
Employees, Too, Want a Say on the Boss’s Pay Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times

The growing optimism on housing is not justified Credit Writedowns
The Central Question Posed by the Great Crash masaccio, Firedoglake
Just Banking Presentation Steve Keen
Is high public debt harmful for economic growth? Ugo Panizza and Andrea F Presbitero, VoxEU
Antidote du jour:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and Francois Hollande, the Socialist Party candidate, will advance to the runoff election.

Pool photo by Eric Feferberg; pool photo by Christophe Ena

Hollande and Sarkozy Head to Runoff

By NICOLA CLARK 13 minutes ago

François Hollande, the Socialist challenger, right, won the first round of presidential elections in France, but he had a slim lead over the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy.

One percent is not slim. Thirty two votes is slim.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/reports-dutch-government-austerity-talks-collapse-possibly-paving-way-for-fresh-elections/2012/04/21/gIQARzIjXT_story.html

"Dutch prime minister says government austerity talks collapse
(Peter Dejong, File/ Associated Press ) - FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 file photo, Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders poses for a photograph following an interview in The Hague, Netherlands. Time seems to run out for the minority government as seven weeks of talks to hammer out an austerity package aimed at bringing the Dutch budget deficit back within European Union limits collapsed Saturday April 21, 2012, the prime minister said, laying the blame squarely with anti-EU lawmaker Geert Wilders. Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his minority Cabinet will hold a crisis meeting Monday April 23, 2012 to discuss what to do now. “Elections are the logical next step,” Rutte said, but he added that he wants to work with parliament to hammer out austerity measures before a poll can take place.

By Associated Press, Published: April 21

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The ruling Dutch minority government was on the brink of collapse Saturday after anti-EU lawmaker Geert Wilders torpedoed seven weeks of austerity talks, saying he would not cave in to budget demands from “dictators in Brussels.”
New national elections that will be a referendum on the Netherlands’ relationship with Europe and its ailing single currency are now all-but-certain.

But before Prime Minister can tender his resignation — possibly as early as Monday — he must consult with allies and opposition parties on how to run a caretaker government that will have to make important economic decisions in the coming weeks and months.
“Elections are the logical next step,” Rutte said.
Opposition leader Diederik Sansom of the Labor Party joined others across the political spectrum in calling for new elections as soon as possible.
“In the meanwhile, we in parliament will take responsibility for a careful budget in 2013,” he said.""

Usually when we are told that "no does not mean no" we know there is trouble ahead.

http://vancouverdesi.com/news/investigators-end-search-for-new-york-boy-missing-since-1979/

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-qe/

"April 22, 2012, 3:04 pm

What We Talk About When We Talk About QE

Karl Smith is bemused; in two posts he asks what Wall Street thinks quantitative easing does, and apparently is getting a lot of vehemence but no coherence. (I liked this comment: “Zero hedge commentary suggests the fed manipulates our very life blood, as ordered by the lizard men, in order to create infinite debt and establish a soviet central planning regime.”)
I can’t help him here. It might, however, be helpful to have a picture of what we’re talking about here. The Cleveland Fed has a nice, continually updated chart on the Fed’s balance sheet. Here’s the story up to now:

There was a period when the Fed was lending a lot of money to banks under the TALF and all that — which is probably where the thing about giving the banks money comes from — but most of that has been repaid. These days, QE is basically purchases of long-term federal debt and bonds issued by Fannie and Freddie, which is effectively also federal debt. And these purchases have vast effects on the economy because … well, I share Karl Smith’s bemusement.
PS: Reading a few comments, I think it’s really important to emphasize that the Fed is only buying agency mortgage-backed securities — that is, the stuff that already has an implicit Federal guarantee. A lot of readers seem to think that the Fed is buying subprime MBS or something like that, handing over money for worthless paper. Not so."

"April 22, 2012, 4:56 pm

QE Or Not QE, That Is The Question

OK, some readers have asked me to react to this critique by Mike Kimel. Brief response: Kimel apparently misses the distinction between ordinary monetary policy and quantitative easing, and also misunderstands what the Fed is buying.
Ordinary monetary policy involves cutting short-term rates to fight a slump; it’s not what we’re talking about here, since it’s hard up against the zero lower bound. But the large-scale conventional expansion the Fed engaged in by getting to the zero bound has, of course, widened the spread between short and long term rates, since markets expect short rates to rise above zero eventually. So looking at the raw data on the short-long spread tells you nothing.
QE is an attempt to get traction despite those zero short-term rates by buying long-term debt, hopefully narrowing the spread and thereby boosting the economy. I don’t think it’s had a large effect, but that’s the goal.
And as for the other thing: Kimel apparently thinks the Fed is buying privately issued MBS, aka toxic waste; actually it’s only buying agency debt, which already has an implicit federal guarantee and is functionally not much different from long-term Treasuries.
Next question?"

Krugman will post his Monday column later tonight.

http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/category/features/business-finance/

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