The Off Topic Topic

[garbon]

Your childhood? Seems to me you are still in it.

I'm not 17 anymore.

Also I noticed on CK2 boards that the discussion seem very similar to 10 years ago. "Game is 'Crusader Kings' so it shouldn't focus on anything by Christian Europe" whereas before the comment was with regards to 'Europa Universalis'.

[Admiral Yi]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) – McGraw-Hill Cos. stock tumbled more than 5% on Tuesday, adding to deep declines on Monday, as investors reacted to news that the Justice Department is suing its Standard & Poor's Ratings Services unit over claims that the firm intentionally rated mortgage investments incorrectly before the financial crisis.

"This is a landmark case," Jacob Zamansky, a lawyer in New York who specializes in securities fraud, told MarketWatch. "Investors would never have bought toxic mortgage securities if they didn't get S&P's stamp of approval."



The Justice Department civil charges are the first against a rating agency since the financial crisis. The claim refers to CDOs in 2007 related to mortgage-backed securities just before the financial crisis.

"What this lawsuit shows is that the U.S. government is still committed to attacking the financial industry legally," said Dick Bove, bank analyst at Rafferty Capital Markets, LLC. "The view of the government is that the financial industry still needs to be reined in."

Standard & Poor's MHP) said in a statement they will vigorously defend against the suit and that their analysts provided good-faith ratings.

The two other major rating agencies in the U.S., Moody's Corp. MCO) and Fitch Ratings, have not been charged by the Justice Department.

"Those ratings agencies will be next in the cross hairs" said Zamansky. "I expect there will be massive lawsuits against Moody's and Fitch."

Moody's declined to comment. Fitch Ratings said in a statement they had no reason to believe they were the target of any such action.

There is broader concern about what the lawsuit means for the U.S. economy.

Bove said that a shrinking financial industry or one that was under pressure from the government would harm the economy. "What the Justice Department doesn't seem to realize is that [these actions are] harming the US economy and the ability of people to get jobs."

The government's investigation, which has been going on for three years, is focused on whether S&P violated their own standards, a report in The Wall Street Journal said.

"It damages the U.S. economy because business is fraught with what the government will do next," said Neil Hennessy, founder of Hennessy Funds which manages $3.1 billion.

Since the financial crisis, the ratings agencies have been criticized for their practices and their relationships with the banking industry.

More broadly, financial stocks were up Monday, Bank of AmericaBAC) rose more than 2% and was the biggest gainer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA). Goldman SachsGS), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM) and Morgan Stanley MS) were all up more than 1.50%. Citigroup gained more than 1%.

The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund XLF), which tracks financial stocks in the S&P 500 , gained 0.66%.

[Syt]

[Ideologue]

Browsing a Japanese jobs site I see something....interesting.

If you are passionate about automobiles and can speak English, Russian,Chinese or Latin we would like you to be in charge of the foreign market selling Japanese used cars to other countries.

:caesar:
Just where are they selling these cars to...

[Liep]

Found a gun under a seat in my train. Affiliation to the assassination attempt earlier today unknown.

[DGuller]

Found a gun under a seat in my train. Affiliation to the assassination attempt earlier today unknown.

Is it working? 

[jimmy olsen]

Found a gun under a seat in my train. Affiliation to the assassination attempt earlier today unknown.

What assassination attempt?

[Barrister]

Found a gun under a seat in my train. Affiliation to the assassination attempt earlier today unknown.

What assassination attempt?

http://cphpost.dk/news/national/islam-critic-survives-assassination-attempt

??

[Liep]

That's the one.

[crazy canuck]

Rather convenient planting that story here to cover the fact your prints are all over the weapon 

[Liep]

What surprised me was that it took the police more than 30 minutes to remove it from the train. That's time I could've spent drinking coffee and telling my colleagues about that gun I just found.

[DGuller]

What surprised me was that it took the police more than 30 minutes to remove it from the train.

Maybe they needed to call in an expert who knew how to handle guns.

[CountDeMoney]

What surprised me was that it took the police more than 30 minutes to remove it from the train.

They obviously didn't have a contingency plan.

[Ed Anger]

Kasich proposes 50% tax cut for small business. 

[jimmy olsen]

The % of bastards is greatly exaggerated.

In modern Germany it's only 1%, and in Britain over the last 700 years it was only 1.3%

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2013/02/cuckoldry-rates-in-germany-are-1-percent/#more-19971

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1288207/