What is Happening? Get the Important Stuff Using Online Tools

The Important Stuff--what is really going on in the world--you will not find using MSM without wasting a lot of time (e.g., I have just about given up on Bloomberg, including Bloomberg TV since it was taken over by political junkies and media mavens), but you can use online sources and "tools" such alerts, notifications, RSS, and emails, to effortlessly stay informed without wasting time (or money), just be selective so you are not overwhelmed--here's a sample of the Feb 11th morning email (one of my favorite "tools")--and yes, it is free!) from Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast (excerpts below--note: all links have been removed--get the "real" content by signing up at Seeking Alpha [disclosure: I am a subscriber but this is not a paid endorsement]:

"Economy
"What we want is a deal. But if there is no deal...then we have the obligation to go to Plan B. Plan B is to get funding from another source," said Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos early Tuesday. "It could be the United States at best, it could be Russia, it could be China or other countries." Meanwhile, Greece is in the middle of trying to negotiate a €10B bridge deal to stave off a funding crunch, as it tries to buy time to negotiate with its creditors ....

"The recent surge in oil prices is just a "head fake" and West Texas crude as cheap as $20/bbl may soon be on the way, warned Citigroup (NYSE:C), lowering its crude oil forecast again. Despite declines in spending that have helped oil prices rebound in recent weeks, U.S. oil production is still rising, Brazil and Russia are pumping oil at record levels, and Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran have been fighting to maintain their market share...

"Stocks
"In the final stages of a long-running investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice has recently informed Barclays (NYSE:BCS), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), the Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS) and Citigroup (C) that they must plead guilty to criminal charges that they manipulated the prices of foreign currencies, NYT reports. Last November, regulators fined five major banks a total of $3.4B for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market, following a year-long global investigation.

"In a separate probe disclosed today, the NY Department of Financial Services was reported to have sent subpoenas to Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS), BNP Paribas (OTCPK:BNPQF) and Societe General (OTCPK:SCGLY), expanding its investigation of whether the banks' electronic forex trading platforms allowed them to front-run clients. At issue is a latency period between the time an offer is floated and accepted. The department is already probing Barclays (BCS) and Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) over similar concerns and installed monitors at those banks in recent months.

"U.S. prosecutors have stepped up efforts to establish whether HSBC (NYSE:HSBC) helped Americans evade taxes after the bank admitted yesterday to helping customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets at its Swiss subsidiary. U.S. authorities are also probing whether HSBC manipulated currency rates, which could prompt the Department of Justice to revisit a 2012 deferred prosecution agreement with the bank. HSBC -1.7% premarket...."

"Wall Street Breakfast, Seeking Alpha's flagship daily business news summary, is a one-page summary that gives you a rapid overview of the day's key financial news. It's designed for easy readability on the site or by email (including on mobile devices), and is published at 6:30 AM ET (US) every market day. Wall Street Breakfast readership of over 300,000 includes many from the investment-banking and fund-management industries. Sign up to receive the Wall Street Breakfast in your inbox every business day here: http://seekingalpha.com/account/email_preferences

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