Are US Banks Playing with Fire in the Commercial Loan Market ...

As interest rates remain historically low, the biggest U.S. banks are seeing the need to increase the volume of lending to businesses. The dramatic uptick in commercial and industrial loans is adding significant risks for banks that have with fire in the past and gotten burned. Regulators are aiming to tighten restrictions before severe damage can be done.

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The very small margins have been troubling for banks like?Wells Fargo?(NYSE:WFC) and?Bank of America?(NYSE:BAC) since the beginning of the year. In order to make more on the lowest margins in over 50 years, banks have had to push big in commercial lending, according to?The Financial Times. Regulators have noticed dangerous trends developing for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008. Consequently, the Fed has issued new standards for leveraged lending practices among banks.?Citigroup?(NYSE:C)?and?JPMorgan?(NYSE:JPM) join BofA and Wells Fargo in having to comply with the new Fed guidelines by Tuesday May 21.

How can the top banks put their own business and the economy at risk? According to Moody?s, the problems come from the banks? refusal to discipline themselves and stay away from loans to businesses already saddled with debt. Other risks are general overexposure and the potential to create an asset bubble. Amid calls for banks to increase the amount of capital in their portfolios, the lending practices so far in 2013 have reflected a trend in the opposite direction.

Source: http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/are-us-banks-playing-with-fire-in-the-commercial-loan-market.html/

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Pfeiffer: Legality of IRS Targeting of Conservative Groups 'Irrelevant' (ABC News)

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Lovelorn frogs bag closest crooner

May 20, 2013 ? What lures a lady frog to her lover? Good looks, the sound of his voice, the size of his pad or none of the above? After weighing up their options, female strawberry poison frogs (Oophaga pumilio) bag the closest crooner they can, finds research in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers of Zoology. This seemingly short-sighted strategy turns out to be the optimal mate choice strategy for these colourful frogs.

Males of the species congregate in the Costa Rican rain forest 'lek-style' to display and call together, giving females the chance to weigh up multiple males at once. But despite their best efforts, build and territory size, females tend to mate with the closest calling male, Ivonne Meuche from the University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany, and colleagues report.

The find was confirmed by playback experiments where females, played recordings of various male calls, failed to discriminate between different call rates or frequencies, preferring instead, the nearest speaker.

Female mate choice is a tricky business. Some species chose the first mate that is 'good enough' whilst others seek out and compare many mates before returning to choose the fittest. But the simplest, least costly option is to mate with the first or nearest male encountered, regardless of quality. The strategy doesn't seem an evolutionary winner as it means that nearby, unfit frogs sometimes get to pass on their genes at the expense of more distant, genetically-superior specimens. But it does make sense in certain situations.

Non-choosy behaviour like this has been noted in fishes, and some frog species with a lek-like mating system. It's thought the strategy works for them because it reduces 'costs' in terms of search time and competition for mates. Female strawberry poison frogs may also benefit little from 'shopping around' because strong inter-male competition means the available mates are all much of a muchness.

The team also noted that females unable to find a mate within a certain time period ended up laying unfertilised eggs that never hatch. So in species, like the strawberry poison dart frog, where the choosing sex outnumbers the chosen sex, it makes sense to 'grab the nearest guy' rather than run the risk of not mating at all.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/BoBpdJzuBGM/130520095103.htm

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What do we eat? New food map will tell us

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) ? Do your kids love chocolate milk? It may have more calories on average than you thought.

Same goes for soda.

Until now, the only way to find out what people in the United States eat and how many calories they consume has been government data, which can lag behind the rapidly expanding and changing food marketplace.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are trying to change that by creating a gargantuan map of what foods Americans are buying and eating.

Part of the uniqueness of the database is its ability to sort one product into what it really is ? thousands of brands and variations.

Take the chocolate milk.

The government long has long classified chocolate milk with 2 percent fat as one item. But the UNC researchers, using scanner data from grocery stores and other commercial data, found thousands of different brands and variations of 2 percent chocolate milk and averaged them out. The results show that chocolate milk has about 11 calories per cup more than the government thought.

The researchers led by professor Barry Popkin at the UNC School of Public Health, are figuring out that chocolate milk equation over and over, with every single item in the grocery store. It's a massive project that could be the first evidence of how rapidly the marketplace is changing, and the best data yet on what exact ingredients and nutrients people are consuming.

That kind of information could be used to better target nutritional guidelines, push companies to cut down on certain ingredients and even help with disease research.

Just call it "mapping the food genome."

"The country needs something like this, given all of the questions about our food supply," says Popkin, the head of the UNC Food Research Program. "We're interested in improving the public's health and it really takes this kind of knowledge."

The project first came together in 2010 after a group of 16 major food companies pledged, as part of first lady Michelle Obama's campaign to combat obesity, to reduce the calories they sell to the public by 1.5 trillion. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation agreed to fund a study to hold the companies accountable, eventually turning to UNC with grants totaling $6.7 million.

Aided by supercomputers on campus, Popkin and his team have taken existing commercial databases of food items in stores and people's homes, including the store-based scanner data of 600,000 different foods, and matched that information with the nutrition facts panels on the back of packages and government data on individuals' dietary intake.

The result is an enormous database that has taken almost three years so far to construct and includes more detail than researchers have ever had on grocery store items ? their individual nutritional content, who is buying them and their part in consumers' diets.

The study will fill gaps in current data about the choices available to consumers and whether they are healthy, says Susan Krebs-Smith, who researches diet and other risk factors related to cancer at the National Cancer Institute.

Government data, long the only source of information about American eating habits, can have a lag of several years and neglect entire categories of new types of products ? Greek yogurt or energy drinks, for example.

With those significant gaps, the government information fails to account for the rapid change now seen in the marketplace. Now more than ever, companies are reformulating products on the fly as they try to make them healthier or better tasting.

While consumers may not notice changes in the ingredient panel on the back of the package, the UNC study will pick up small variations in individual items and also begin to be able to tell how much the marketplace as a whole is evolving.

"When we are done we will probably see 20 percent change in the food supply in a year," Popkin says. "The food supply is changing and no one really knows how."

For example, the researchers have found that there has been an increase in using fruit concentrate as a sweetener in foods and beverages because of a propensity toward natural foods, even though it isn't necessarily healthier than other sugars. While the soda and chocolate milk have more calories on average than the government thought, the federal numbers were more accurate on the calories in milk and cereals.

Popkin and his researchers are hoping their project will only be the beginning of a map that consumers, companies, researchers and even the government can use, breaking the data down to find out who is eating what and where they shop. Is there a racial divide in the brand of potato chips purchased, for example, and what could that mean for health? Does diet depend on where you buy your food ? the grocery store or the convenience store? How has the recession affected dietary intake?

"It's only since I've really started digging into this that I have realized how little we know about what we are eating," says Meghan Slining, a UNC nutrition professor and researcher on the project.

Steven Gortmaker, director of the Harvard School of Public Health Prevention Research Center, says the data could help researchers figure out how people are eating in certain communities and then how to address problems in those diets that could lead to obesity or disease.

"The more information we have, the more scientists can be brainstorming about what kinds of interventions or policy changes we could engage in," Gortmaker said.

But the information doesn't include restaurant meals and some prepared foods, about one-third of what Americans eat. If the project receives continued funding, those foods eventually could be added to the study, a prospect that would be made easier by pending menu labeling regulations that will force chain restaurants to post calories for every item.

Popkin and his researchers say that packaged foods have long been the hardest to monitor because of the sheer volume and rapid change in the marketplace.

The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, an industry group representing the 16 companies that made the pledge to reduce 1.5 trillion calories, says it will report this summer on how successful they've been, according to Lisa Gable, the group's president. The first results from Popkin's study aren't expected until later this year.

Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition, food studies and public health, says the data could be useful in pressuring companies to make more changes for the better. Companies often use "the research isn't there" as a defense against making changes recommended by public health groups, she notes, and it can be hard to prove them wrong.

"What people eat is the great mystery of nutrition," Nestle says. "It would be wonderful to have a handle on it."

___

Online:

UNC Food Research Program: http://uncfoodresearchprogram.web.unc.edu

Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation: http://www.healthyweightcommit.org

___

Find Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eat-food-map-tell-us-174342840.html

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Scandals Galore, Sensory Deprivation, and Bitter Beer Backlash

?President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference on Thursday, answering questions on the IRS Justice Department invesigation.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

?Scandal Jujitsu: How is Obama coping with multiple scandals? By playing them off against one another,? by William Saletan. It?s been a bad week for the White House, with scandals over the 2012 Benghazi attacks, IRS targeting of conservative groups, and Justice Department monitoring of AP reporters? phone records all making national headlines. Saletan criticizes the administration?s tactic of justifying the AP phone record surveillance by tying it to Republican?s concern about Benghazi-like security breaches. He writes that it?s a cynical move and a failure in messaging that won?t make any of these headaches go away.

?The White House Field Guide to Scandal: How the trio of Obama scandals could save immigration reform and the welfare state,? by David Weigel. Weigel assesses the potential damage from the various scandals and concludes that just as the Iran-Contra scandal didn?t sink Reagan?s presidency, Obama will survive the current situation, possibly even with new Republican cooperation on issues such as immigration reform.

???La Carte Won?t Fix Cable: Unbundling cable will actually raise prices and reduce choices for most customers,? by Matthew Yglesias. Sen. John McCain introduced a bill last week requiring cable television companies to offer their subscribers channels on an ? la carte basis, but Yglesias argues that this would be a bad deal for consumers. He explains that the low level of competition in the cable TV industry means that simply requiring lower rates would make more sense and be more beneficial to subscribers than the McCain proposal.

?Against Hoppy Beer: The craft beer industry?s love affair with hops is alienating people who don?t like bitter brews,? by Adrienne So. While utilization of hops in more than token amounts has been a huge selling point for craft brewers in the United States, So argues that beer makers have lately gotten carried away with overly hoppy products. She contends that the resultant bitterness of these beers is unappealing to many and a ?pointless gimmick? which overshadows a good beer?s other wonderful characteristics.?

?I Boldly Went Where Every Star Trek Movie and TV Show Has Gone Before: Now I can tell you exactly why this franchise is great,? by Matthew Yglesias. Yglesias undertook the astronomical task of watching every Star Trek movie and television episode?ever?and lived to write about it. In his epic article, he explains how the long-running series keeps alive the ?spirit of midcentury optimism,? celebrating American values of ?peace, progress, and tolerance.?

?Embracing the Void: The profound, ecstatic state of nothingness I achieved while floating naked in a sensory deprivation tank,? by Seth Stevenson.?Stevenson explores the trippy world of sensory deprivation, achieved while enclosed in a pitch-dark tank full of salt water. ?For the first time in my waking life,? he writes, ?I had zero thoughts. It was a mental quietude I?d never known existed.?

?Far From the Tree: Why Vermont wants you to use wine descriptors to talk about maple syrup,? by Warren Cornwall. The ?terroir movement? which has consumers paying top dollar for coffee or wine from a single specific location has now spread to the world of maple syrup. Cornwall reports on maple syrup producers? efforts to target a more gourmet-minded clientele and explains why different maple syrups can taste so different from one another.? ?

?Escape Plans: Why do we need a space program? Because Earth isn?t going to be a safe place in the long term,? by Annalee Newitz. Touching on the themes of her new book, Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction, Newitz writes about the great importance of space exploration and technological innovation in light of Earth?s future inhabitability. She explains that while mega-cities on other planets may be a long way off, projects like deflecting deadly asteroids and devising alternatives to rocket-travel are within our reach.??

?How to Beat GeoGuessr, the Insanely Addictive Google Maps Guessing Game: Tips and tricks from a National Geographic cartographer,? by Will Oremus. If you haven?t already played GeoGuessr, a new online game in which users guess the global location of randomly selected Google Street Views, beware?because it?s extremely addictive. Oremus plays a round with Rosemary Wardley, senior GIS cartographer at National Geographic Maps, and shares some tips for how to play like a pro.
?

?The?Gatsby?Test: I?ve never read?The Great Gatsby. But can I write a convincing high school essay about the novel after watching the film?? by J. Bryan Lowder. The otherwise well-read Lowder tests his ability to write a high school English essay about F. Scott Fitzgerald?s The Great Gatsby based only on Baz Lurman?s new film. His subpar results lead him to advise, ?Read the real deal, and don?t let some Hollywood director?s carnivalesque, hip-hop-infused, champagne-soaked siren call lead you astray.?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=8959a7a172ab633ce5818ebd0634182c

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Nine Hangout Fest Vines That Put You Right On The Sand

These video snippets of Afrojack, Macklemore and more give you a taste of all the on-demand coverage MTV and VH1 have to offer.
By Katie Atkinson

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1707617/hangout-festival-nine-vines.jhtml

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OJ's ex-lawyer contradicts his testimony on guns

Defense attorney Patricia Palm, left, and O.J. Simpson appear at an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (AP Photo/Ethan Miller, Pool)

Defense attorney Patricia Palm, left, and O.J. Simpson appear at an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (AP Photo/Ethan Miller, Pool)

Former O.J. Simpson defense attorney Yale Galanter testifies during an evidentiary hearing for Simpson in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (AP Photo/Ethan Miller, Pool)

O.J. Simpson looks over at his lawyer Tom Pitaro during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (AP Photo/Ethan Miller, Pool)

Former O.J. Simpson defense attorney Yale Galanter laughs as he testifies during an evidentiary hearing for Simpson in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (AP Photo/Ethan Miller, Pool)

Former O.J. Simpson defense attorney Yale Galanter appears on the witness stand during an evidentiary hearing for Simpson in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (AP Photo/Ethan Miller, Pool)

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? O.J. Simpson's former lawyer defended himself point-by-point Friday against allegations he botched the former football star's armed-robbery trial, after giving damaging testimony that Simpson actually knew his buddies had guns when they went to a hotel room together to reclaim some sports memorabilia.

Miami-based attorney Yale Galanter quickly found himself under withering cross-examination from a Simpson lawyer intent on proving that Galanter's word couldn't be trusted ? that he knew ahead of time of Simpson's plan and spent more effort covering up his involvement than representing Simpson.

The weeklong hearing concluded late Friday with Clark County District Judge Linda Marie Bell telling attorneys she will issue her decision in writing. She didn't specify a date.

Simpson was returned to prison custody. His attorneys, Patricia Palm and Ozzie Fumo, said they were optimistic that the judge would grant a new trial.

"I just think the evidence of his claims is overwhelming," Palm said.

Galanter took the stand as the state's star witness in a hearing on Simpson's claim that he was so badly represented at trial and on appeal that his conviction should be thrown out.

He spent most of the day on the defensive, with Simpson lawyer Tom Pitaro grilling him with accusations and pointed questions.

"Mr. Simpson never told me he was going to go to the Palace (Station) hotel with a bunch of thugs, kidnap people and take property by force," Galanter said at one point. "To insinuate I, as his lawyer, would have blessed it is insane."

Galanter conceded at one point that Simpson's conviction was his responsibility.

At another point, he conceded that he "misspoke" when he told the trial judge, Jackie Glass, that crucial audio recordings had been carefully analyzed by experts.

"Clearly I misspoke," Galanter said as Pitaro bored in. "I would never, ever ... I would just never intentionally mislead a judicial officer or a lawyer. I'm falling on that sword."

Galanter denied giving Simpson the go-ahead to retrieve the photos and footballs he believed had been stolen from him. He denied keeping Simpson in the dark about offers of plea deals that carried only a few years in prison. He said his client agreed all along with the decision not to put him on the stand to testify at his trial.

And he disputed Simpson's testimony from earlier this week when the former NFL star said he didn't know anyone in the hotel room had guns.

"When you look at the entire trial, I don't think I could have fought harder, done more," Galanter said. "I put every ounce of blood, sweat and soul into it."

At another point, he said: "Simpson brought a lot of baggage into the courtroom. It's not like the 12 jurors didn't know he was accused of murder and acquitted."

Simpson, 65, was found guilty in 2008 of kidnapping and armed robbery over the hotel room episode and was sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison. The conviction came 13 years to the day after his "trial of the century" acquittal in Los Angeles in the murders of his ex-wife and a friend of hers.

Galanter testified that Simpson confided to him that he had asked two men to bring guns to the hotel room in September 2007, and "he knew he screwed up."

On the stand, Galanter brought up the guns only after he paused and was reminded that Simpson had waived attorney-client privilege. "I'm very uncomfortable doing this," he said.

Testifying about events leading up to the incident, Galanter said he was surprised when Simpson told him over dinner in Las Vegas that he and several other men were planning a "sting" the next morning to take back the mementos.

Galanter said he advised Simpson not to take matters into his own hands: "I said, 'O.J., you've got to call the police.'"

Simpson testified that Galanter advised him that he was within his rights to retrieve the items, told him not to testify at the trial, and failed to tell him prosecutors had offered plea bargains.

During questioning about how much Galanter was paid for the case, the judge asked Pitaro where he was going with his questions.

"What Mr. Galanter has done is, this man has received over a half-million dollars and has put his interest, his financial interest, above the interest of his client," Pitaro said.

Galanter insisted he told Simpson at least three times that prosecutors discussed plea bargains. He said Simpson rejected them.

Simpson said, "No deal. No way," to an offer from the district attorney of five to seven years in prison, Galanter said. Later, during the trial, Simpson turned down a better offer, Galanter said.

"I went out in the hall and said to O.J., 'There is an offer of two to five.' He said, 'See if they will take a year,'" Galanter testified. "I discussed a year with them, and they said no and the trial went on."

If Simpson succeeds in getting his conviction thrown out, prosecutors will have to decide whether to retry him or offer a plea bargain. If he loses, he will be sent back to prison and will probably appeal. He will be 70 before he is eligible for parole.

___

Find Ken Ritter at http://twitter.com/krttr .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-18-OJ%20Simpson/id-373e1c4471924d75b5c2a75f03abdaf1

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