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$$$ Greece fails to form unity government [FT] $$$ Greek Depositors Withdrew $898 Million From Banks Monday [WSJ] $$$ “The plane carrying newly sworn-in French President François Hollande was hit by lightning Tuesday afternoon, forcing him to delay a trip to Berlin, where he is due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel.” [WSJ] $$$ Happy…

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There seems to be a lot of interest in currency regimes with the failings in EMU and concerns about what might happen there next. The US and the dollar have become part of this dialogue as the dollar has over the years lost value and gold bugs are quick to propose gold as an alternative that would be better at preserving capital.

I don’t think there is really much doubt about that.

Time was, Jamie Dimon was the most popular CEO on Wall Street and America’s “Least Hated Banker,” for reasons that included the fact that the man has soulful blue eyes, charisma out the ass, and was in charge of one the banks that a) didn’t go out of business during the financial crisis, like Lehman…

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The US Justice Department opened an investigation into how JP Morgan lost more than $2bn in poorly managed trading at its London office as the bank's embattled boss, Jamie Dimon, saw off attempts by shareholders to strip him of his role as chairman....   read more >

Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds

That Which Is Unsustainable Will Go Away: Pensions

Publicly funded pensions and Medicare are two examples of unsustainable systems that will go away in the decade ahead. Today we look at pensions, tomorrow we examine Medicare.

The Phoenix Companies, Inc. (PNX)

Annual Meeting of Shareholders Call

May 15, 2012 10:00 am ET

Executives

Tom Johnson - Chairman

John Mulrain - Corporate Secretary, EVP and General Counsel

Jim Wehr - President and CEO

Analysts

Presentation

Tom Johnson

The iShares MSCI Japan fund is down 6 percent in the last month, compared with a 2 percent decline for the S&P 500, as investors worry the European crisis will hurt its export-dependent economy.

Total option volume is slowing with just 5.7 million contracts as the market holds, while hedging again tops the action in indexes and ETFs, according to optionMONSTER's data systems.