Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Harvard and Yale Endowments Get Their Asses Handed to Them
September 11th, 2009Via: Reuters: Harvard and Yale, America’s two richest universities, said on Thursday their endowments lost roughly 30 percent of their value last year, showing how severely the financial crisis battered even the world’s best managers. Both schools, long admired for delivering top-notch returns for years, warned about the declines late last year when their presidents […]
U.S. Gold Rises Above $1,010 on Dollar Deterioration
September 11th, 2009Via: Reuters: U.S. gold futures broke above $1,010 an ounce on Friday, reaching their highest level since February, as a steadily weakening dollar increased the status of bullion as an alternative investment. GOLD * December gold GCZ9 up $13.80, or 1.4 percent, at $1,010.60 an ounce at 10:26 a.m. EDT (1426 GMT) on the COMEX […]
Brazil’s Armored Car Culture
September 11th, 2009This is absurd on many levels, but I couldn’t look away. Interestingly, the Brazilian government doesn’t allow vehicles to be outfitted with Level 3 and Level 4 armor. In other words, any assault rifle would cut through the armor on these vehicles like a hot knife through butter. Via: Wall Street Journal: Everywhere 19-year-old Kareen […]
Millions More Thrust Into Poverty: Decade of Headway in Household Income Erased
September 11th, 2009Via: Washington Post: A new comprehensive economic survey shows that the recession has plunged 2.6 million more Americans into poverty, wiped out the household income gains of an entire decade and pushed the number of people without health insurance up to 46.3 million. The grim economic statistics unveiled Thursday in the Census Bureau’s annual report […]
Kucinich Responds to Obama’s Address to Congress: Windfall for Insurance and Pharmaceutical Companies
September 10th, 2009Foreclosures Keep Coming
September 10th, 2009Via: Reuters: U.S. mortgage foreclosure filings in August hovered near July’s record high despite broad efforts to keep borrowers in their homes and will probably rise for another year, according to a report released on Thursday. Filings — including notices of default, auction and bank repossession — dipped 1 percent last month from July’s all-time […]
Dr Pepper’s Wet Dream: Water, Government Subsidies and Transfer of Wealth in the Middle of the Desert
September 10th, 2009Via: Alternet: On a sun-baked afternoon in October 2008, a group of soft-drink executives and city officials gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony at an old Air Force base on the outskirts of the city, 100 miles east of Los Angeles. They were standing on the edge of the Mojave Desert, one of the driest, most […]
Britain: Question a Doctor and Lose Your Child
September 10th, 2009Via: Sunday Times: PARENTS are being threatened with having their children taken into care after questioning doctors’ diagnoses or objecting to their medical care. John Hemming, a Liberal Democrat MP, who campaigns to stop injustices in the family court, said: “Very often care proceedings are used as retaliation by local authorities against ‘uppity’ people who […]
Family Values: California Republican Assemblyman Has Sex with Utility Company Lobbyist, Brags About It—Woops, the Mic is On
September 10th, 2009Via: AP: Mike Duvall’s second term as a member of the California Assembly was progressing pretty much like his first — in relative obscurity, with few notable legislative accomplishments. The Orange County Republican is now a YouTube hit after his racy comments about his sexual conquests were caught on an open microphone in a Capitol […]
Good Billions After Bad
September 9th, 2009Via: Vanity Fair: Last October, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, putting $700 billion into the hands of the Treasury Department to bail out the nation’s banks at a moment of vanishing credit and peak financial panic. Over the next three months, Treasury poured nearly $239 billion into 296 of the nation’s […]
