Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Debt Saturation: Each Dollar of New Debt Now Subtracts 45 Cents from GDP
March 24th, 2010Click through for plenty of chart doom. Via: Nathan’s Economic Edge: This is a very simple chart. It takes the change in GDP and divides it by the change in Debt. What it shows is how much productivity is gained by infusing $1 of debt into our debt backed money system. Back in the early […]
Portugal Credit Rating Downgraded Over Debt Concerns
March 24th, 2010WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. The U.S. Dollar Index is sharply higher on the news. It’s up and out of the recent range at 81.803 right now. Via: BBC: Portugal’s credit rating has been downgraded from AA to AA- by leading credit rating agency Fitch over […]
Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Finance
March 24th, 2010Via: Asia Times: By 2014, International Monetary Fund official John Lipsky remarked March 21, the debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of the Group of Seven countries will reach 100%, and the governments of the industrial world will carry the highest debt burden since shortly after the end of World War II. That is bad news; […]
IRS May Need to Hire 16,500 Additional Employees for Health Care Enforcement?
March 24th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal: House Republicans said Thursday that the health care overhaul will expand IRS authority by giving agents the power to verify acceptable health care coverage and fine or confiscate the tax refunds of Americans without coverage. Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee, a panel that oversees taxes and health […]
And Now… Lawmakers Eyeing National ID Card
March 24th, 2010Mmm hmm. Via: Wired: Lawmakers are proposing a national identification card — what they’re calling “high-tech, fraud-proof Social Security cards” — that would be required for all employees in the United States. The proposal by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) comes as the states are grappling to produce another […]
Madoff Programmers Face Charges for Creating Software that Generated Bogus Trading Records
March 23rd, 2010Via: Register: A federal grand jury has indicted two computer programmers on fraud and conspiracy charges for developing programs used by Bernard Madoff to cook the books in his billion-dollar ponzi scheme. Jerome O’Hara and George Perez knowingly created the programs that removed or altered key data contained in reports submitted to regulators in the […]
U.S. Health Care Open Thread
March 22nd, 2010Let it rip, if you feel the need. Via: Bloomberg: The U.S. House passed the most sweeping health-care legislation in four decades, rewriting the rules governing medical industries and ensuring that tens of millions of uninsured Americans will get medical coverage.
All G7 countries, Except Canada and Germany, Will Have Debt-to-GDP Ratios Close to or Exceeding 100 Percent by 2014
March 21st, 2010Via: Bloomberg: Advanced economies face “acute” challenges in tackling high public debt, and unwinding existing stimulus measures will not come close to bringing deficits back to prudent levels, said John Lipsky, first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. All G7 countries, except Canada and Germany, will have debt-to-GDP ratios close to or exceeding […]
Federal Reserve Must Disclose Bank Bailout Records
March 21st, 2010Via: Bloomberg: The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever, a federal appeals court said. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the […]
Satire: New College Graduates To Be Cryogenically Frozen Until Job Market Improves
March 20th, 2010Via: The Onion: In a bold new measure intended to address unemployment among young professionals, lawmakers from across the political spectrum agreed on legislation Tuesday to subsidize the cryogenic freezing of recent college graduates until the job market recovers. The bill, expected to swiftly pass in both houses, would facilitate the subzero preservation of any […]
