Banks Sell 'Toxic Waste' CDOs to Calpers, Texas Teachers Fund
`Lipstick on a Pig'
Chriss Street, treasurer of Orange County, California, the fifth-most-populous county in the U.S., says no public fund should invest in equity tranches. He says fund managers are ignoring their fiduciary responsibilities by placing even 1 percent of pension assets into the riskiest portion of a CDO.

Quick Overview

• U.S. unemployment rate remained at 4.5%
  

• The Institute of Supply Management's manufacturing index increased from 54.7 to 55.0
  

• The University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment increased from 87.1 to 88.3
  

• U.S. personal incomes were down 0.1%
  

• U.S. consumer spending was up 0.5%.
  

• YoY a measure of core inflation slowed to a 2.0% gain in April
  

• Manufacturing in the U.K. rose from 54.1 to 54.9
  

• Manufacturing in Australia rose from 51.7 to 55.2
  

• The unemployment rate in the Euro area improved from 7.2% to 7.1%.
  

• YoY GDP in the Euro area rose 3.0% in the first quarter.
  

• India's economy grew at a record 9.4 percent last year - its fastest pace in nearly two decades.
  

• Renewable Fuels Association said that the U.S. produced 384,000 barrels of ethanol per day in March and used 414,000 barrels daily.
  

• The Chicago Board of Trade set an all time record for monthly total trade volume during May 2007

Barred From Testing for Mad Cow, Niche Meatpacker Loses Clients
His staff was trained in testing for mad cow, using a machine that gives results in seven hours, while the carcasses are still in the cooler.
But on April 9, the United States Department of Agriculture forbade Creekstone to test its cattle, saying there was ''no scientific justification'' for testing young steers like those Creekstone sells. Certifying some beef for Japan as disease-free, the department said, might confuse American consumers into thinking that untested beef was not safe.

As pork prices soar, Chinese put brakes on corn for ethanol
Ethanol production has put the Chinese government in an unpleasant bind, as fears rise that the environmentally friendly gasoline additive is also fueling politically dangerous increases in the price of food – particularly pork, a key staple.

Quick Overview

• U.S. GDP growth in the first quarter was 0.6%. YoY GDP was up 1.9%
  

• Chicago purchasing managers index rose from 52.9 to 61.7
  
  

• U.S. Home prices increased 0.5% in the first quarter, the slowest QoQ price gain in 10 years.
  
  

• Canada’s GDP rose 0.3% in March -- up 2.0% YoY
  

• Consumer prices in the Euro area rose 1.9%.
  

• Germany's unemployment rate remained at 9.2%.
  

• YoY GDP in India rose 9.4%.
  
  

• The U.S. DOE said that:
  Supplies of crude oil were down 2.0 million barrels at 342.2 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline were up 1.3 million barrels.
  U.S. Gasoline demand was up 1.4% YoY.
  Distillate demand was up 2.9% YoY.
  
  

• The International Cocoa Organization said the global cocoa shortfall this year will be 145,000 tons. Adverse weather hurt crops in the top producing countries. They estimate end of season world cocoa stocks at 1.74 million tons -- 49% of annual use.

Quick Overview

• The Mortgage Bankers' Association’s index of mortgage applications fell 7% as interest rates reached seven-month highs.
  

• Concerns about inflation trumped fears about the slumping housing market last month in the minds of Federal Reserve members.
  

• China hiked its tax on securities transactions to 0.3% from 0.1% in its strongest effort yet to cool a bull run.
  

• Japan's industrial production fell 0.1% in April.
  

• Australia's retail sales rose 0.1% in April.

• Malaysia's economy grew 5.3% YoY.
  
  

• Norway raised rates 0.25 %, the seventh hike since May 06.

All for the fight against global warming. Unless, that is, it drives up the price of his beer.
And that is exactly what is happening to Mr. Erdmann and other German brewers as farmers abandon barley — the raw material for the national beverage — to plant other, subsidized crops for sale as environmentally friendly biofuels.

Quick Overview

• U.S. Consumer confidence increased from 106.3 to 108.0 in May, stronger than expected.
  
  

• South Africa's Chamber of Mines said the nation's gold production was down 7.6% YoY
  

• Japan's Unemployment rate improved from 4.0% to 3.8%.
  Japan’s Household spending was up 1.1% in April.
  Japan’s Retail sales were down 0.6% in April.
  

• Canada kept the interest rate unchanged at 4.25%, but said that another increase may be required.
  

Short Sales Break Record on NYSE; Market Bulls Get More Bullish

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- Short sellers are betting against U.S. stocks like never before as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index approaches an all-time high. That's making some of the biggest bulls even more optimistic.
``What the short seller appears to be doing is doubling down,'' said Kenneth Fisher, who oversees about $40 billion as chairman of Fisher Investments in Woodside, California. ``You love to see it, because if you believe there is a basic driver to the bull market, they're going to get run over.''

Lower gout risk for coffee lovers
Drinking four or more cups of coffee a day may cut the risk of having a painful attack of gout, say Canadian scientists.

Quick Overview

• The National Association of Realtors reports U.S. existing home sales down 2.6% from March's pace and the lowest level in over three years. Current inventories of homes for sale represent an 8.4 month supply, the most in 15 years.

• July lumber rose its $10 daily limit.
  

• GDP in the U.K. rose 0.7% in the first quarter and up 2.9% YoY.
  

• Japans consumer prices were unchanged YoY.
  

• YoY goods shipped by truck in the U.S. fell by 2.7 percent in April.
  

• Container volumes on the Asia — Europe trade rose 20% in the first four months of the year.

Bernanke Warned by Real Estate Analysts:
Housing Collapse Is Much Worse Than You Say

"The housing market has softened much more than is being reported" by the Fed, and the National Association of Realtors (NAR), says JBREC

Quick Overview

• U.S. New home sales were up 16.2% from March's pace and stronger than expected. YoY new home sales are down 20%. New homes for sale in the U.S. are at a 6.5 month supply.
  

• U.S. Durable goods orders were up 0.6% in April, weaker than expected.
  

• U.S. Jobless claims were up 15,000 last week to 311,000.
  

• The USDA estimates 2007-2008 the world sugar production at 163.3 million tons up from 161.3 million tons YoY. World ending stocks are expected to rise 6.1 million tons to 45.1 million tons, or 29% of use.
  
  

• Taiwan GDP was up 4.2% YoY.
  
  

• Pakistan suspended wheat exports.
  

• The DoE said that underground supplies of natural gas were up 104 billion cubic feet last week to 1.946 trillion cubic feet.
  

Indians offer personal maths tuition on the web With private tutors costing £25-£50 an hour in Britain, Indian-based companies are now offering online GCSE maths tuition for just £50 a month for unlimited sessions to anyone with a broadband internet connection.

Quick Overview

• Canada's leading indicators was up 0.4%
  

• Reuters - Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Wednesday he feared a "dramatic contraction" in Chinese stocks.
  
  

• The DOE said that:
  Supplies of crude oil were up 2.0 million barrels to 344.2 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline were up 1.5 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil were down 900,000 barrels
  Gasoline demand was up 1.2% YoY
  Distillate demand was up 2.6% YoY.
  
  

• USDA estimated Brazil's coffee crop at 36.2 million bags.
  

• More than 60,000 birds have died of an outbreak of bird flu near the capital of Pakistan

1 in 8 Iraqis dies before fifth birthday "Unfortunately, this is becoming common," said Saad Mehdi, 35, a pediatrician at Ibn Al-Baladi.

Quick Overview

• An index of investor confidence in Germany increased from 16.5 to 24.0 in May, the highest score in 11 months.
  

• The U.S. House of Representatives voted to allow the government to sue OPEC for price manipulation -- the White House threatened to veto.
  
  

• The handling capacity of China's ports is expected to hit 8 billion tons and 170 million TEUs (twenty-foot container equivalent units) in 2010. The cargo handling capacity of all China's ports totaled 5.6 billion tons and 93 million TEUs in 2006.

Quick Overview

The Chicago Fed index of national activity rose from -.11 to -.10 in April.

The Foreign Policy of Ron Paul Ron Paul has always believed that foreign and domestic policy should be conducted according to the same principles. Government should be restrained from intervening at home or abroad because its actions fail to achieve their stated aims, create more harm than good, shrink the liberty of the people, and violate rights..
..How unusual, how incredibly strange, that Ron Paul, who has stood for these principles his entire public life, is criticized by some as a radical, outside the mainstream, and influenced by experimental ideas that are marginal at best. And why is he treated this way? Because he takes the ideas of Washington and Jefferson seriously, just as seriously as he takes the idea of freedom itself, and he does so in times when faith in Leviathan remains the dominant political ideology.

Kuwait Drops U.S. Dollar Peg in Blow to Gulf Currency Union
Kuwait unshackled its dinar from the tumbling U.S. dollar on Sunday and switched the exchange rate mechanism to a basket of currencies, throwing plans for currency union with other Gulf Arab oil producers into disarray.