Archive for the 'Economy' Category
This Is No Ordinary Bank
December 9th, 2010Via: Ventura County Star / AP: This is no ordinary bank: The ATMs are in Latin. Priests use a private entrance. A life-size portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall. Nevertheless, the Institute for Religious Works is a bank, and it’s under harsh new scrutiny in a case involving money-laundering allegations that led […]
U.S. Treasuries Sell Off
December 9th, 2010Monitoring… Via: Reuters: Treasury prices plunged on Wednesday for a second straight day, pushing benchmark yields to a six-month high, after a deal in Washington to extend tax cuts fueled fears of inflation and a swelling budget deficit. The sharp dip in prices brought some buyers to the table in an auction of $21 billion […]
Shell Claimed it Inserted Staff Into Main Ministries of Nigerian Government
December 9th, 2010Standard operating procedure. Via: Guardian: The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians’ every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable. The company’s top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded […]
Steve Wozniak: ‘We’ve Lost a Lot of Control’
December 8th, 2010Via: CNN: The world has mostly caught on to Steve Wozniak’s vision of having a computer in every home. But this digital lifestyle can sometimes turn rotten, he said last week. Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and designed, programmed and built some of the world’s first personal computers, laments the byproducts of a […]
Food Stamp Rolls Continue to Rise
December 8th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal: More people tapped food stamps to pay for groceries in September as the recession and lackluster recovery have prompted more Americans to turn to government safety net programs to make ends meet. Some 42.9 million people collected food stamps last month, up 1.2% from the prior month and 16.2% higher than […]
Tax Appeals Swamp U.S. Cities, Towns as Property Prices Plunge
December 8th, 2010Via: Reuters: A fiscal flood that threatens to swamp local government budgets across the U.S. overflows from file cabinets in the office of Patty Halm, chair of the Michigan Tax Tribunal. The backlog of cases from taxpayers seeking to lower property-tax bills of more than $100,000 shot up to 14,236 this year from an annual […]
Unverified: Swiss Bank Finally Handed Over Client’s Physical Gold After a Month Delay and Legal Threats
December 8th, 2010WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Update: More Similar Anecdotes —End Update— According to the story, which cannot be verified, and is mentioned here for entertainment purposes only, the client kept a ton of gold in an unnamed Swiss bank. In terms of dumb moves, that would […]
Rogers: U.S. Government Inflation Data Is a ‘Sham’
December 8th, 2010Via: Reuters: U.S. government inflation data is “a sham” and is causing the Federal Reserve to vastly understate price pressures in the economy, influential U.S. investor Jim Rogers said on Tuesday. The U.S. central bank uses inflation data that relies too heavily on housing prices, Rogers told the Reuters 2011 Investment Outlook Summit, and he […]
Bank of America to Pay $137 Million in State Fraud Cases
December 8th, 2010Bum change. Via: Washington Post: Bank of America will pay $137.3 million to settle allegations that it defrauded schools, hospitals and dozens of other state and local government organizations, federal officials said Tuesday. The settlement stems from a long-running investigation into misconduct in the municipal bond business that raises money for localities to pay for […]
Deadly Medicine: Lethal Profit Machine
December 7th, 2010Via: Vanity Fair: Prescription drugs kill some 200,000 Americans every year. Will that number go up, now that most clinical trials are conducted overseas—on sick Russians, homeless Poles, and slum-dwelling Chinese—in places where regulation is virtually nonexistent, the F.D.A. doesn’t reach, and “mistakes” can end up in pauper’s graves? The authors investigate the globalization of […]
