Text Box: CONNECTION OF DEBT TO HOMELAND SECURITY: People's Perception of Debt's Relation to Ethics, Truth, Free Trade, Justice, Religion -- and Homeland Security GREEN=GOOD correlation RED=BAD correlation     Rounded Rectangular Callout: BAD-BAD consonnance Text Box: ECONOMIC / BANKER ALERT: BANKERS: A BAD-BAD CONSONNANCE between Debt and Ethics is forming. Debt is perceived as being negatively correlated with Truth. The banking sector must immediately remedy the situation. MI2 Allows You to Detect, Track, Characterize, and Quantify Turbulence, Dissonance, and Consonance in People's State of Mind. 1-Jul-04 - 20-Aug-04     Rectangular Callout: 12-Jul-04 The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Morgan Stanley announce a $54 million settlement of a sex discrimination lawsuit [1]. Rectangular Callout: 11-Jul-04 U.S. officials are trying to determine the legal steps that are necessary to delay the federal election in case of a terrorist attack upon the U.S. [1]. Some people are concerned that postponing the election might be the first step toward a totalitarian regime in the U.S. [5-6]. Rectangular Callout: 9-Jul-04 De Beers, based in South Africa, has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to criminal price-fixing of industrial diamonds [1]. Rectangular Callout: 16-Jul-04 Martha Stewart  is sentenced to 5 months in prison and 5 months of home confinement, and is fined $30,000, for lying to investigators about stock sales [1-2]; MSO shares soar 42% [2-3]. Rectangular Callout: 14-Jul-04 An inquiry into British intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, released by Lord Butler, concludes that the intelligence was seriously flawed [1,2-6]. Rectangular Callout: 23-Jul-04 Japan's Economy Minister, blames bank lending policy for the surge in debt-related suicides in Japan [1]. Suicides in Japan rose 7.1% to 34,427 in 2003 [1-2]; 8,897 suicides were caused by financial distress [2-3]. Rectangular Callout: 20-Jul-04 Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testimony to Congress: "the expansion has become more broad-based . . . corporate investment in fixed capital and inventories apparently continues to fall short of cash flow . . . the proportion of temporary hires relative to total employment continues to rise" [1]. Rectangular Callout: 20-Jul-04 International donors commit $1.085 billion to help rebuild Haiti over 2 years [1-2]. However, a significant portion of the pledged help is in the form of loans not grants. The loans, Oxfam believes, will push Haiti into "further, unsustainable debt" [4]. Rectangular Callout: 31-Jul-04 The Vatican issues a letter outlining the relationship between man and woman [1]. The letter criticizes feminism as it breeds "a radical rivalry between the sexes" or seeks to "cancel the differences between the sexes" [2], with "lethal effects in the structure of the family'' [3]. Rectangular Callout: 29-Jul-04 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data indicate that total adjusted gross income on tax returns, adjusted for population growth and inflation, fell 9.2%, from 2000 to 2002. The number of Americans who reported no income or losses in 2002 surged 48.5% to 1.7 million. [1] Rectangular Callout: 31-Jul-04 The World Trade Organization agrees to cut "unfair" farm subsidies for rich nations. Annual subsidies to farmers in the world's richest countries amount to $300 billion. The subsidies make it almost impossible for farmers in poor countries to compete with subsidized farmers in rich countries. [1] Rectangular Callout: 26-Jul-04 - 29-Jul-04 2004 Democratic National Convention [1-2]. The convention's "multimillion-dollar extravaganza" is financed essentially by private political money [3]. 150 donors gave in excess of $39.5 million [4]. According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), total 2004 presidential candidates' receipts full cycle through 30-Jun-04 amounted to nearly $361 million [5-6]. Rectangular Callout: 24-Jul-04 California paid $230.7 million in fees to Wall Street investment firms for arranging loans through 24-Jul-04. California's debt as at June 2004 was $27.4 billion (some of the debt has been repaid). The projected interest cost of the debt is $8.96 billion. [1] Rectangular Callout: 30-Jul-04 The Bush administration projects a record budget deficit of $445 billion (3.8% of GDP) for fiscal 2004 [1-2]. The surplus in fiscal 2000 was $236.9 billion [2]. Rectangular Callout: 28-Jul-04 Lundquist Consulting reports that U.S. Consumer bankruptcy filings for the first 6 months of 2004 fell 3% to 801,817, from 825,792 in 2003 [1]. However, total bankruptcy filings for the fiscal year ending 31-Mar-04 increased 2.7% to 1,654,847, from 1,611,268 in 2003 [2]. Rectangular Callout: 5-Aug-04 Oil prices surge to a record high of over $44 per barrel [1]. The surge is attributed to a lack of spare capacity, Yukos' legal problems in Russia, unrest in Venezuela, and terrorism [2]. The terrorism risk premium is estimated at $10 [1]. Rectangular Callout: 4-Aug-04 U.S. contractors, including Halliburton Co., are netting at least $1.9 billion in Iraqi funds; the contracts were awarded by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). $1.66 billion in Iraqi funds were paid to Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., a subsidiary of Halliburton. The CPA controlled at least $45 billion. According to auditors, CPA accounting and controls were flawed. [1] Rectangular Callout: 4-Aug-04 Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS) agrees to pay $150 to settle civil fraud charges [1-2]. The SEC filed an enforcement action alleging that BMS perpetrated a "fraudulent earnings management scheme," improperly recognizing revenue from $1.5 billion [1] of "channel stuffing" sales [3]. BMS does not admit or deny any liability [2]. Rectangular Callout: 3-Aug-04 President George W. Bush signs U.S.-Australia free trade agreement [1]. Two-way trade between the US and Australia is $28 billion [2]. The trade agreement has not passed the Australian Senate [2]. Rectangular Callout: 1-Aug-04 - 4-Aug-04 Pre-tax profit for the first half of 2004 at top banks in Britain is nearly $19.5 billion: Rectangular Callout: 10-Aug-04 The Federal Open Market Committee decides to raise its target for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 1.5% [1]. Rectangular Callout: 8-Aug-04 Prime Minister John Howard's government is accused by 43 former senior public servants, diplomats and defense chiefs of misleading and deceiving the Australian people about the reasons for invading Iraq [1-2]. Rectangular Callout: 5-Aug-04 - 6-Aug-04 Global Stock Prices Tumble [1-6]. Rectangular Callout: 31-Jul-04 New York Police Department (NYPD) warning: "Intelligence reporting indicates that Al Qaeda continues to target for attack commercial and financial institutions, as well as international organizations, inside the United States" [1-3]. The Threat Advisory code for New York is HIGH (ORANGE) [4]. 1-Aug-04 Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge issues a terror alert. The terror threat level for Washington, DC, and Newark, NJ, is raised to HIGH (ORANGE). Potential terrorist targets include financial institutions: the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup in New York, the headquarters of Prudential Financial in Newark, and the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington. [1-5] Rectangular Callout: 28-Jul-04 IstoE reports that the head of the Central Bank of Brazil, and the bank's director of monetary policy, are under investigation for possibly evading taxes. Both deny the allegations. [1] Rectangular Callout: 26-Jul-04 Russian prosecutors charge billionaire Yukos shareholder Leonid Nevzlin, an Israeli citizen since 2003, with 2 murders; Yukos' stock price falls 21% [1-2].