Financial Mines

The Pentagon reported that Defense Sec. Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey have warned Congress that if a $500 billion sequestration provision of the 2011 Budget Control Act hits, it could leave the military without a “workable strategy to counter global threats.”

The Pentagon is supporting a $614 billion spending plan for the fiscal year 2013. This budget starts to incorporate the $487 billion of cuts over the next year called for under the Budget Control Act. But the two Pentagon officials said further cuts are untenable.

There have already been layoffs at Connecticut defense contractors and further spending cuts could increase those numbers.

Panetta, himself, told Congress the $500 billion sequestration threat casts “a huge shadow of doubt” over defense industries, their workers and the military, according to the Pentagon.

An old gambler named Roy in West Haven practically spat on the floor and cursed when he heard people who lost their homes to foreclosure possibly because of abusive or alleged fraud will get paid $1,500 for their troubles. A caller this morning said, it was patently unfair.

At the heart of the matter is the idea that some of the world’s largest banks, which deal with complicated financial instruments and contracts daily, somehow bungled the taking of thousands if not possibly millions of homes over the last few years and will only have to pay the affected people the equivalent of a single month’s mortgage payment. (I know, some pay more, some pay less a month. It’s a median.)

It stinks to be sure, but here’s the logic behind it, according to Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen.

“This doesn’t ease the pain of what so many families went through,” Jepsen said by phone Thursday. “In the the overwhelming majority of cases the foreclosure would have taken place (anyway) and without this deal they would have received nothing.”

Basically, this involves robo-signing, in which the banks mass produced affidavits for foreclosures and filed faulty paperwork on those foreclosures.

It’s a presumptive argument, though probably a safe bet in many cases. But is it the right way to go?

It is, at least something, Jepsen noted, and, “It is recognition, of the shabby treatment homeowners received.”

Fortune has an interview with the Yale School of Organizational Management’s Dean Ted Snyder on the future of the under appreciated business school.

Sounds like Snyder is looking for more credibility going forward and possibly growing the school, which is good news for the New Haven and region’s economy.

Still, Snyder might tread carefully. After all, the prestigious business schools of the country were constantly named as contributing alumnae to the cadre of figures who nearly destroyed the global financial system in 2008.

Here’s the Fortune Article:

http://bit.ly/ABNqNs

The WorkPlace Inc.’s Platform to Employment program to help long-term unemployed over the age of 50 find new careers received a $200,000 boost in funding from the AARP.
The WorkPlace, a nonprofit that handles the job placement and training for the state, started its P2E program last year inviting 100 people who had exhausted 99 weeks of unemployment to participate. The people, dubbed 99ers, were given classes and employment subsidized through private sector grants. The WorkPlace said so far, 50 of the first participants have been placed in jobs.
The AARP grant will support intensive core skills as well as occupational training for the program.
“The current economic uncertainty has left many older Americans concerned about making ends meet,” said Phyllis L. Kim, AARP Foundation senior vice president, Office of Grants Administration. “AARP Foundation is already in communities across the country helping vulnerable Americans with direct services, but we believe strongly that we must also invest in long-term solutions. We look forward to working with our innovative grantees who share our goals so that together, we can seed hope for older Americans who are struggling.”
“Platform to Employment is the only project of its kind in the nation and it is already has shown promising results in placing participants in jobs,” said Joe Carbone, President & CEO of The WorkPlace.  “We have seen a number of socially responsive employers, good corporate citizens, step forward and consider hiring local workers through P2E.”

We’re for a strong market here at FinMines, but even our poetic heart can’t out bluff reality:

A pretty smart lawyer who advises fiduciaries on obligations, remarked last month during a conference, that the S&P 500 is at about the same level it was in 2001.

We at FinMines finally got around to checking and here is the depressing closing numbers more than a decade apart:

Feb. 5, 2001, S&P 500 1,354.41

Feb. 3 2012 S&P 500 1,345.

It’s enough to make a man or woman, …

Howl

I saw the best portfolios of a generation destroyed by madness

Traders dragging themselves down Wall St. wondering where to find a fix

Silver haired investors, gazing, bleary-eyed, at retirement visions chewed up by the economic dynamo

Who sit in barren flats dreaming of Caribbean jazz filled days and left wishing on stars like children for better returns

…..

With apologies to Allen Ginsberg and readers. I’ll spare you a full parody and besides, Monday’s a new day.

Whoops or just kidding? Perhaps that’s the catchy name Congress could use for a new bill trying to head off $500 billion in Defense cuts over the next decade that were part of that unseemly standoff last year over the debt ceiling and budget.

U.S. Sen John McCain, R-Ariz., and a group of other senators is offering up a new bill to delay planned cuts to military spending that will automatically kick in because a special committee failed to agree on how to trim $1.2 trillion from the U.S. budget.

The deal was cut last year when Republicans and Democrats squared off over whether to raise the debt ceiling to allow the U.S. to continue borrowing. While there was hyperbole on both sides, the ultimate compromise put the nation in this situation.

Namely, right as the economy appears to be generating job growth, more than 200,000 last month according to Labor, the nation’s defense industry must prepare for massive cuts which will ultimately put a lot of people out of work.

McCain and supporters of rolling back the cuts, say this would gut national defense.

So far, the official line from the Obama Administration can be summed up as –  no backsies.

And Obama received support from 100 members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, Conn.-4.

Another chapter in DebitCard Gate. (Please feel free to suggest a better name.)

The DRS and the State Treasurer are both claiming the debit card will be a great deal and benefit to people and it’s probably true for some, most notably those without bank accounts.

But what percentage of people getting back tax refunds don’t have banks? And what about the rest of the taxpaying public? What do they want?

Were you ever asked if you wanted a debit card tax refund?

What do you think? Do you want this card?

And one more thng.

The state says it can save money by doing this, but the reason there is a refund expense in the first place is because the state is holding tax money it was not owed. If the state really wanted to save money, it would create a tax system in which people only pay exactly what they owe thus elinminating the need to issue refunds. This is the 21st Century, isn’t it.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy lauded Hartford-based United Technologies Corp. on Tuesday for spending $1 billion on the education of its employees.

Fifteen years ago, UTC started its Employee Scholar Program in which the company covers tuition, books and fees for employees enrolled at accredited institutions.

According to UTC’s website, more than 32,500 workers have earned degrees through the program. In 2011, the company had 10,000 employees enrolled in colleges and 2,000 earned degrees.

Shares of UTC were up 36 cents to $77.97 in Tuesday morning trading.