The Apocalyptic News Wire 11-03-11

Today's Apocalyptic news wire keys the end of days in Greece and Europe, war and rumors of war in the Middle East, riots in California and social unrest across the globe... you know, the usual apocalyptic news we are all now so comfortable with.

Apocalyptic News

• Riots Break Out at California Protests


• Israel Works Toward Strike of Iran


• Iran Warns of Surprising Response


• Papandreou Faces Weight of World


• Greece May Scrap Referendum


• Consumer Confidence Caves in


• 15% of Americans on Food Stamps


• Draghi’s ECB Cuts Rates


• BNP Paribas Blames Greece for Earnings Slump (OTC: BNPQY.PK)


• Draghi Says EU Headed into Recession


• Jefferies Slammed for EU Risk (NYSE: JEF)


• The Gold Hedge Against Political Stupidity


• Will China Help Out Europe?


• Pressure Mounts on Italy


• Weekly Jobless Claims Hang High


• Service Sector Slips Slightly


• Factory Orders Gain in September


• A Suspect Fed Forecast


• Third Quarter Productivity Gained


• White House Summoned to Turn Over all Solyndra Communications


• China Sold Iran Advanced Missiles


• Euro Recovering


• Gensler Testifies on MF Global Downfall (NYSE: MF)


• Glaxo Pays $3 Billion in Avandia Settlement (NYSE: GSK)


• Anxiety Curbed Chain Store Sales in October (NYSE: M)


• Exelon Deal Could Cost 600 Jobs (NYSE: EXC)


• Clash of Protesters and Cops in Seattle


• Bloomberg Growing Tired of it All


• Israel Tests Missile Meant for Iran


• US Working on More Iranian Sanctions


• Islamist Jihad Ready for All Out War with Israel


• All EU Governments Threatened


• Kellogg Q3 Net Falls (NYSE: K)


• Natural Gas Report


• Yahoo! Earnings Calendar

The Fed Forecast Highlights its Failings

The Federal Reserve concluded its Federal Open Market Committee meeting and issued monetary policy Wednesday as usual, but it also adjusted its economic forecasts downward. Last projected in June, before the summer slide, the Federal Reserve reduced its GDP projections for this year and the long-term, raised its unemployment expectations, and hiked its near-term inflation view. In other words, it was an all around bad chew.

Our founder earned clients a 23% average annual return over five years as a stock analyst on Wall Street. "The Greek" has written for institutional newsletters, Businessweek, Real Money, Seeking Alpha and others, while also appearing across TV and radio. While writing for Wall Street Greek, Mr. Kaminis presciently warned of the financial crisis.

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The Fed Forecast Highlights its Failings

The market took it like a champ, with the Dow hanging in the green after the news, and even climbing higher. However, that was probably the result of an already well understood change in the economy since June. Besides, the market had anxiously anticipated the release while edging lower heading into it. Still, what the Fed had to say should have been more concerning to markets, in my view, especially since in our observance, it has generally failed to forecast adequately. This in turn worries me that the Fed’s documented nearsightedness will leave it a day late and a dollar short when the inflation monster inevitably roars in the future. There may be nothing the Fed can do about that, but this is for another article.

The Federal Reserve’s forecast for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicates a reduction in consensus expectations (among its forecasters) for growth projections. The GDP forecast for this year has been cut to a range of 1.6% to 1.7%, down from a hopeful 2.7% to 2.9% forecast in June. That’s more than a point lower, quite a difference for a five month interval between publishing. The Fed went ahead and cut its projections for 2012 and 2013 as well, which is yet another indicator of incompetent work. My reasoning for that derogatory judgment is that if the capacity is there, our mature economy should be able to reach absolute levels of productivity over a certain time span, and that should not be dependent upon what was accomplished the year before. We are not India or China, where new ground is broken each quarter.

What the projectors have done here is too simplistic, and that’s a disservice to the American people. They appear to have simply applied changes to prior numbers in their figure-licking. Instead, they might have contemplated the components of their forecasts more completely. This would surely have flown at the Mickey Mouse operation I was confined to for too long, but it should not apply to the most important of economic forecasts for our nation. It is guesswork, and I expect likely to miss reality yet again.

Despite exposing it for its uselessness, we’ll go ahead and fill you in with regard to the rest of the data. The Fed sees unemployment much stickier now than it did in June. Where it had projected unemployment to improve to between an 8.6% and 8.9% rate, it now sees 9.0% to 9.1% for 2011. In 2012, the Fed sees stubborn unemployment only improving to 8.5% to 8.7%, versus the 7.8% to 8.2% it thought it saw previously.

With regard to Core PCE Inflation, the Fed now expects 2011 to mark between a 1.8% to 1.9% rate this year, up from its June expectation for a tamer 1.5% to 1.8% price increase. The Fed’s forecast for between a 1.5% to 2.0% increase in 2012 and 1.4% to 1.9% rise in 2013, tells me it currently sees a mid-to-late year 2012 change in monetary policy; I believe that is where we can currently place expectations to see it begin hiking rates. I think what you can bet will play out, though, is a Fed losing control of the situation, but that issue is for another article.

Article should interest investors in Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), TD Bank (NYSE: TD), PNC Bank (NYSE: PNC), State Street (NYSE: STT), Janus (NYSE: JNS), T. Rowe Price (Nasdaq: TROW), General Electric (NYSE: GE), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Alcoa (NYSE: AA), American Express (NYSE: AXP), Boeing (NYSE: BA), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), DuPont (NYSE: DD), Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), 3M (NYSE: MMM), Merck (NYSE: MRK), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), AT&T (NYSE: T), Travelers (NYSE: TRV), United Technologies (NYSE: UTX), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM).

Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.

Fed FOMC Monetary Policy Statement 11-02-11

What follows is a verbatim copy of the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) Monetary Policy Statement release for November 2, 2011.

Release Date: November 2, 2011

For immediate release

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Fed FOMC Monetary Policy Statement

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September indicates that economic growth strengthened somewhat in the third quarter, reflecting in part a reversal of the temporary factors that had weighed on growth earlier in the year. Nonetheless, recent indicators point to continuing weakness in overall labor market conditions, and the unemployment rate remains elevated. Household spending has increased at a somewhat faster pace in recent months. Business investment in equipment and software has continued to expand, but investment in nonresidential structures is still weak, and the housing sector remains depressed. Inflation appears to have moderated since earlier in the year as prices of energy and some commodities have declined from their peaks. Longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.

Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee continues to expect a moderate pace of economic growth over coming quarters and consequently anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline only gradually toward levels that the Committee judges to be consistent with its dual mandate. Moreover, there are significant downside risks to the economic outlook, including strains in global financial markets. The Committee also anticipates that inflation will settle, over coming quarters, at levels at or below those consistent with the Committee's dual mandate as the effects of past energy and other commodity price increases dissipate further. However, the Committee will continue to pay close attention to the evolution of inflation and inflation expectations.

To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with the dual mandate, the Committee decided today to continue its program to extend the average maturity of its holdings of securities as announced in September. The Committee is maintaining its existing policies of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities and of rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction. The Committee will regularly review the size and composition of its securities holdings and is prepared to adjust those holdings as appropriate.

The Committee also decided to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic conditions--including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run--are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through mid-2013.

The Committee will continue to assess the economic outlook in light of incoming information and is prepared to employ its tools to promote a stronger economic recovery in a context of price stability.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; Elizabeth A. Duke; Richard W. Fisher; Narayana Kocherlakota; Charles I. Plosser; Sarah Bloom Raskin; Daniel K. Tarullo; and Janet L. Yellen. Voting against the action was Charles L. Evans, who supported additional policy accommodation at this time.

Editor's Note: Article should interest investors in Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC.OB), Fannie Mae (OTC: FNMA.OB), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Toronto Dominion (NYSE: TD), BB&T (NYSE: BBT), CIT (NYSE: CIT), Bank United (NYSE: BKU), First Citizens (OTC: FCNCA.PK), Synovus (NYSE: SNV), United Bankshares (Nasdaq: UBSI), Hampton Roads Bankshares (Nasdaq: HMPR), WesBanco (Nasdaq: WSBC), City Holding (Nasdaq: CHCO), Sandy Spring (Nasdaq: SASR), First Citizens (OTC: FCBN.OB), SCBT Financial (Nasdaq: SCBT), Wilmington Trust (NYSE: WL), WSFS Financial (Nasdaq: WSFS), Southside Bancshares (Nasdaq: SBSI), Stellar One (Nasdaq: STEL), Union First Market (Nasdaq: UBSH), Eagle Bancorp (Nasdaq: EGBN), First Bancorp (Nasdaq: FBNC), Ameris (Nasdaq: ABCB), The Bancorp (Nasdaq: TBBK), First Community (Nasdaq: FCBC), Capital City (Nasdaq: CCBG), Financial Institutions (Nasdaq: FISI), National Bankshares (Nasdaq: NKSH), Citizens & Northern (Nasdaq: CZNC), Charter Financial (Nasdaq: CHFN), Seacoast Banking (Nasdaq: SBCF), TIB Financial (Nasdaq: TIBB), American National (Nasdaq: AMNB), United Community (Nasdaq: UCBI), Middleburg Financial (Nasdaq: MBRG), Heritage Financial (Nasdaq: HBOS), Zions Bancorp (Nasdaq: ZION), East West Bancorp (Nasdaq: EWBC), City National (NYSE: CYN), Bank of Hawaii (NYSE: BOH), SVB Financial (Nasdaq: SIVB), Westamerica (Nasdaq: WABC), Cathay General (Nasdaq: CATY), Umpqua (Nasdaq: UMPQ), Glacier Bancorp (Nasdaq: GBCI), Pacific Capital (Nasdaq: PCBC), PacWest (Nasdaq: PACW), Western Alliance (NYSE: WAL), First National Alaska (OTC: FBAK.OB), First Interstate Bancsystem (Nasdaq: FIBK), Nara (Nasdaq: NARA), West Coast (Nasdaq: WCBO), TriCo (Nasdaq: TCBK), Territorial (Nasdaq: TBNK), Washington Banking (Nasdaq: WCBO), Bank of Marin (Nasdaq: BMRC), Hanmi (Nasdaq: HAFC), PNC Bank (NYSE: PNC), J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), United Bankshares (Nasdaq: UBSI), Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK), MB Financial (Nasdaq: MBFI), Astoria Financial (NYSE: AF), New York Community (NYSE: NYB), Hudson City (Nasdaq: HCBK), People’s United (Nasdaq: PBCT), First Niagra (Nasdaq: FNFG), Capitol Federal (Nasdaq: CFFN), Washington Federal (Nasdaq: WFSL), Investor’s Bancorp (Nasdaq: ISBC), Northwest Bankshares (Nasdaq: NWBI), Sterling Financial (Nasdaq: STSA), Ocwen (NYSE: OCN), Flagstar (NYSE: FBC), Provident (NYSE: PFS), Colombia Banking (Nasdaq: COLB), Kearny (Nasdaq: KRNY), Brookline (Nasdaq: BRKL), Dime Community (Nasdaq: DCOM), Flushing Financial (Nasdaq: FFIC), Danvers (Nasdaq: DNBK).