Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Musical Chairs with Peter Sutherland
June 11th, 2010Goldman Sachs Sold $250 Million of BP Stock Before Spill: The brokerage firm that’s faced the most scrutiny from regulators in the past year over the shorting of mortgage related securities seems to have had good timing when it came to something else: the stock of British oil giant BP. According to regulatory filings, RawStory.com […]
“These Are Company Towns”
June 11th, 2010Via: ABC News: Reporting is often about access, but journalists along the Gulf Coast covering the BP oil spill have had some trouble getting it. As BP faces more pressure from the government and from its own shareholders unhappy with the company’s falling stock price, it seems to be clamping down on who can talk […]
“Indefinite Incarceration” Over $300 Lumber Yard Debt?
June 10th, 2010Via: Star Tribune: You committed no crime, but an officer is knocking on your door. More Minnesotans are surprised to find themselves being locked up over debts. As a sheriff’s deputy dumped the contents of Joy Uhlmeyer’s purse into a sealed bag, she begged to know why she had just been arrested while driving home […]
Many Americans Too Broke to File for Bankruptcy
June 9th, 2010Via: USA Today: Bankruptcy filings are nearing the record 2 million of 2005, when a new law took effect that was aimed at curbing abuse of the system. Filings could reach 1.7 million this year, says law professor Robert Lawless, but few experts believe that debtors are now gaming the system. Instead, concern exists about […]
U.S Debt to Rise to $19.6 Trillion by 2015
June 9th, 2010Via: Reuters: The U.S. debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015, according to a Treasury Department report to Congress. The report that was sent to lawmakers Friday night with no fanfare said the ratio of debt to the gross domestic product would rise to 102 percent […]
“Are you fucking happy? Are you fucking happy? The rig’s on fire! I told you this was gonna happen.”
June 8th, 2010Via: The Atlantic: A prominent Houston attorney with a long record of winning settlements from oil companies says he has new evidence suggesting that the Deepwater Horizon’s top managers knew of problems with the rig before it exploded last month, causing the worst oil spill in US history. Tony Buzbee, a lawyer representing 15 rig […]
Turning Poverty Into A Multibillion-Dollar Industry
June 8th, 2010Via: NPR: Payday lending operations have grown rapidly in the United States since the early 1990s. At the industry’s peak a few years ago, there were more payday lenders in the United States than McDonald’s and Burger King stores — combined. “The payday lender is kind of the emergency banker for the working poor,” explains […]
Gold: Record High
June 8th, 2010WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell of hold any financial instrument. Short term gold longs, beware of the possible double top situation around the $1250 level. Via: Bloomberg: Gold rose to a record on demand for a haven from financial turmoil in Europe. Gold futures rose to $1,254.50 an ounce in New […]
Connecticut Rating Cut by Fitch
June 7th, 2010Via: Bloomberg: Connecticut, the state with the highest tax-supported debt, had its bond rating lowered one level to AA by Fitch Ratings as it prepares to borrow money to cover a budget deficit for a second straight year. The state, whose residents are the wealthiest in the U.S., relies “on borrowing to address its ongoing […]
America’s $13 Trillion Debt Poised to Overtake GDP
June 6th, 2010Via: Bloomberg: President Barack Obama is poised to increase the U.S. debt to a level that exceeds the value of the nation’s annual economic output, a step toward what Bill Gross called a “debt super cycle.” The CHART OF THE DAY tracks U.S. gross domestic product and the government’s total debt, which rose past $13 […]
