The Big Picture

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• Tokyo Hit With Fukushima Radiation
• Anthony Freda: Too Big To Fail
• Succinct summation of week’s events (10/14/11)
• Who are some of these billionaires anyway?
• QOTD: Bill King on Normal Markets
• Who are some of these billionaires anyway?
• US Manufacturing: The Engine That Could
• Wired: Steve Jobs, Revolutionary
• Confidence falls, Outlook lowest since ’80
• Influencing the Influencers

Tokyo Hit With Fukushima Radiation Posted: 14 Oct 2011 10:00 PM PDT Fukushima Radiation Hits Tokyo CNN reports today: An extraordinarily high level of radiation was detected in one spot in a central Tokyo residential district Thursday, prompting the local government to cordon off the small area, local officials said. Radiation levels were higher in Tokyo's Setagaya ward than in the evacuation area around the badly damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, according to ward Mayor Nobuto Hosaka. "We are shocked to see such high radiation level was detected in our neighborhood. We cannot leave it as is," Hosaka told reporters. But the tsunami-struck Fukushima plant may not be the source of the radiation, Hosaka said later on state television. Officials searching for the cause found "glass bottles in a cardboard box" in the basement of a house in the neighborhood which sent radiation detectors off the charts, he said on NHK. "We suspect these bottles in basement could be the cause of the high radiation reading and we are hastily working to confirm it," he said. Radiation experts are now checking what contaminated the bottles, a Setagaya ward official told CNN, declining to be named in line with policy. Perhaps it is just some random contaminated bottles. But as the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday: Japanese researchers discovered high levels of radioactive material in concentrated areas in Tokyo and Yokohama, more than 241 kilometers away from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, as increasingly thorough tests provide a clearer picture of just how far contamination has spread and accumulated …. In Tokyo, a sidewalk in Setagaya ward, in the western part of the city, recorded radiation levels of 2.707 microsieverts per hour, about 50 times higher than another location in Setagaya where the ward regularly monitors radiation levels…. In Yokohama, the local government said last month that it detected 40,200 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram of sediments collected from one part of a roadside ditch…. Yokohama is investigating another spot on an apartment rooftop where tests conducted by a local private research institute detected more than 60,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium per a kilogram of sediments. The Journal also notes that these radioactive hotspots were not found through routine tests, but only because some residents walked around with geiger counters: Both Setagaya Ward and Yokohama discovered those concentrated spots after residents carrying their radiation measuring devices noticed such spots and reported it to local officials. The Australian noted today: Strontium 90, a highly dangerous radioactive isotope, has reportedly been found atop an apartment building in Yokohama, fuelling fears that fallout from the Fukushima disaster has affected the greater Tokyo area. Yokohama, a city of 3.6 million people, effectively adjoins the Japanese capital, and sits about 250km from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. [...] And ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) reported yesterday: Elevated levels of radioactive strontium, which can cause cancer, have been found 250 kilometres from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. The find in the city of Yokohama has heightened fears that radiation has spread further than the Japanese government has acknowledged. As I've previously noted, Japanese government officials and high-level scientists have considered evacuating Tokyo. I hope and pray that these high readings are not the start of worse to come. In related news, plutonium was found 28 miles from Fukushima and: The latest discovery is a potentially disturbing turn, as it shows that people relatively far from the plant could be exposed to more dangerous elements than had been previously disclosed. The Japanese government's response? To stop testing for plutonium, and to tell people they shouldn't use geiger counters to test for themselves. The Japanese government has been caught blatantly under-reporting radiation levels in general, and Japanese professors are starting to fear for Japan's future.

Anthony Freda: Too Big To Fail Posted: 14 Oct 2011 03:00 PM PDT Anthony Freda: >

Succinct summation of week’s events (10/14/11) Posted: 14 Oct 2011 12:30 PM PDT Succinct summation of week’s events: Positives: 1) Merkel and Sarkozy agree to agree on European solution with details to come but EU specifically working on Greek debt restructuring Part II, bank recap’s and Superman EFSF 2) Retail Sales in Sept surprise to upside and Aug gains revised up, notwithstanding tough labor market and global market turbulence over past few months 3) Initial Jobless Claims 4 week average falls to lowest since mid Aug 4) Sept NFIB small business optimism index up slightly from one yr low 5) Indonesia cuts interest rates, 1st Asian country to reverse recent tightening policy, Singapore follows with slight ease 6) Australian job gains in Sept twice expectations, key to watch as China proxy Negatives: 1) Contagion threat in Europe still front and center as bond yields jump in Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Portugal. French yields in particular at highest since Aug and Belgium 5 yr CDS at record high after Dexia bailout 2) Chinese CPI remains elevated at 6.1% in Sept at same time loan growth slows to lowest since Dec ’09, money supply growth slows to lowest since Feb ’02 and import and export growth both moderate 3) Oct UoM confidence falls, led by the Outlook component which drops to the lowest since 1980

Who are some of these billionaires anyway? Posted: 14 Oct 2011 12:00 PM PDT As we now get daily news reports from Occupy Wall Street, where the object of ire is not just banks but also those that are in the 1% wealth/earnings category, I felt the need for factual purposes just to list some of the publicly traded companies that were founded by billionaires and the amount of employees working at companies that were founded by them. Microsoft, Oracle, Walmart, Las Vegas Sands, Amazon, Google, Dell, Nike, News Corp, Apple, Echo Star, Estee Lauder, EBAY, Ralph Lauren, Franklin Resources, Carnival Cruise, Viacom, Limited Brands, Intel, Charles Schwab, MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts, Cablevision, Dolby, Waste Management, Republic Services, Autonation, Best Buy, Salesforce.com, Direct TV, Home Depot, FedEx, Paychex, Marriott, AOL, Starbucks, Chesapeake Energy, Qualcom, Yahoo, Progressive and Vornado. The above 42 companies employ a combined 4,000,000+ people globally. I fully understand the frustration of many as our country goes through a difficult time and I don’t want to get political in this note on who’s to blame. I just wanted to put some faces behind these billionaires and corporations they built and I can’t imagine our world without them.

QOTD: Bill King on Normal Markets Posted: 14 Oct 2011 11:30 AM PDT I am no conspiracy theorist, and my assumption is this has been an oversold rally. However, I love that Bill King (of M. Ramsey King Securities) asks the questions that others gloss over: SPZ s rallied 13.75% from the pre-NYSE open low on October 4 to October 12 high. Normal markets do not rally almost 14% in 6 sessions. Normal buyers do not behave this way. Volume was lacking on the rally; there was little real buying. The compelling question is: Who forced SPZs higher and why? 14% in 6 sessions? That some serious shite!

Who are some of these billionaires anyway? Posted: 14 Oct 2011 11:18 AM PDT As we now get daily news reports from Occupy Wall Street, where the object of ire is not just banks but also those that are in the 1% wealth/earnings category, I felt the need for factual purposes just to list some of the publicly traded companies that were founded by billionaires and the amount of employees working at companies that were founded by them. Microsoft, Oracle, Walmart, Las Vegas Sands, Amazon, Google, Dell, Nike, News Corp, Apple, Echo Star, Estee Lauder, EBAY, Ralph Lauren, Franklin Resources, Carnival Cruise, Viacom, Limited Brands, Intel, Charles Schwab, MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts, Cablevision, Dolby, Waste Management, Republic Services, Autonation, Best Buy, Salesforce.com, Direct TV, Home Depot, FedEx, Paychex, Marriott, AOL, Starbucks, Chesapeake Energy, Qualcom, Yahoo, Progressive and Vornado. The above 42 companies employ a combined 4,000,000+ people globally. I fully understand the frustration of many as our country goes through a difficult time and I don’t want to get political in this note on who’s to blame. I just wanted to put some faces behind these billionaires and corporations they built and I can’t imagine our world without them

US Manufacturing: The Engine That Could Posted: 14 Oct 2011 11:00 AM PDT Click for ginormous chart: Source: US Manufacturing Is Not Dead Forbes, October 11, 2011

Wired: Steve Jobs, Revolutionary Posted: 14 Oct 2011 09:30 AM PDT Wired magazine has a new eBook anthology out reviewing the best of Wired coverage of Steve Jobs: Revolutionary. Includes work by Steven Levy, who interviewed Jobs many times over the last two decades, and six other stories that track Jobs on his uncanny rise, his dramatic fall, and his spectacular, unlikely return to Apple. Free to Wired subscribers; Kindle version $2.99

Confidence falls, Outlook lowest since ’80 Posted: 14 Oct 2011 09:06 AM PDT The first Oct UoM confidence figure was almost 3 pts below expectations at 57.5 and down from 59.4 in Sept. It’s the 2nd lowest reading since Mar ’09 but as seen in today’s Retail Sales data and the Aug upward revision, how people feel doesn’t always equate to how they behave. Current Economic Conditions fell about 1 pt to 73.8 and the Economic Outlook was down by 2.4 pts to 47.0, the lowest since 1980. Coincident with the recent decline in gasoline prices, one year inflation expectations fell to 3.2% from 3.3% and are the lowest since Dec.

Influencing the Influencers Posted: 14 Oct 2011 09:00 AM PDT Influencing the Influencers View more presentations from Mike Maney

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