Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Cash-for-Clunkers Boost Japanese Car Sales
August 18th, 2009Via: Financial Times: The US’s cash-for-clunkers scheme, designed to bolster Detroit’s embattled carmakers, is turning out to be an even bigger boon for their Japanese rivals. According to data published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday, Americans are using the scrappage incentives to buy more vehicles from Toyota than any of the […]
95% of Dollar Bills in Washington DC Bear Traces of Cocaine
August 17th, 2009Via: BBC: The largest study of banknotes has found that 95% of dollar bills in Washington DC bear traces of the illegal drug cocaine. The figure for the US capital is up 20% over two years. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth tested notes from more than 30 cities worldwide. They say the […]
Stocks Selling Off Around the World; U.S. Futures Down
August 17th, 2009Via: Bloomberg: U.S. stock-index futures retreated, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will extend last week’s drop, as Japan’s economy grew less than estimated and commodities declined. Stocks in Asia and Europe tumbled. Intel Corp., which gets about 60 percent of annual sales in the Asia-Pacific region, and International Business Machines Corp. fell at […]
Leaked Letter: Neurologists Concerned About Swine Flu Vaccine
August 16th, 2009Unfortunately, the Daily Mail is the original source for this story. Via: Daily Mail: A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter. The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public […]
Mutated Virus from Vaccine Causing Polio Outbreaks in Africa
August 15th, 2009See The Polio Vaccine: A Critical Assessment of Its Arcane History, Efficacy, and Long-Term Health-Related Consequences by Neil Z. Miller (pdf). Via: Boston Globe: Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say in some cases, it’s caused by the vaccine used to fight it. […]
FDIC Friday Bank Failures Much More Significant Than Usual
August 15th, 2009Via: CNN: Troubled Colonial BancGroup will be bought by rival BB&T Friday, the government said after state regulators closed the bank whose assets had been frozen by a federal judge. The Montgomery, Ala., bank, which has 346 branches spread across Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Nevada, and Texas, is the sixth largest bank failure in U.S. history […]
Toxic Loans Topping 5% May Push 150 Banks to Point of No Return
August 14th, 2009Via: Bloomberg: More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank’s equity and threaten its survival. The number of banks exceeding the threshold more than doubled in the year through June, according to data […]
Foreclosures Still Accelerating: Rise 7 Percent in July from June
August 13th, 2009Via: AP: The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes rose 7 percent from June to July, as the escalating foreclosure crisis continued to outpace government efforts to limit the damage. Foreclosure filings were up 32 percent from the same month last year, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. More than 360,000 households, […]
Green Shoots: 47 Percent of South Florida Homeowners Underwater on Mortgages
August 13th, 2009Via: Miami Herald: As home values continue to show declines compared to a year ago, the percentage of South Florida homeowners underwater in their mortgages grew between the first and second quarter of the year, figures from Zillow.com show. Forty-seven percent of all single-family homeowners with mortgages in Miami-Dade and Broward were in a negative […]
Piracy Off the Coast of Sweden?
August 13th, 2009Via: Bloomberg: Russia is using “all means of detection,” including satellites and naval vessels, to find a Maltese-flagged freighter that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean after being attacked in Swedish waters. The Russian coast guard ship Ladny is leading the search effort, which also involves navy ships located in the Atlantic, the Defense Ministry said […]
