Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Green Shoots: U.S. Food-Stamp Recipients Reach New Record High with Each Passing Month
July 9th, 2009Via: Bloomberg: A record 33.8 million people received food stamps in April, up 20 percent from a year earlier, as unemployment surged toward a 26-year high, government figures show. Spending also jumped, as the average benefit rose. It was the fifth straight month of record participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to the […]
FDIC Gearing Up for Large Number of Bank Failures
July 8th, 2009Via: Washington Business Journal: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is gearing up to handle a large number of bank failures expected as a result of bad mortgages, both in residential and commercial real estate, an economist said Tuesday. “They know they’re going to take down a large number of banks and they can’t do it […]
U.S. Mortgage Fraud ‘Rampant’ and Growing
July 8th, 2009Via: Reuters: U.S. mortgage fraud reports jumped 36 percent last year as desperate homeowners and industry professionals tried to maintain their standard of living from the boom years, the FBI said on Tuesday. Suspicious activity reports rose to 63,713 in fiscal year 2008, which ended last September, from 46,717 the year before. California and Florida, […]
Swiss to Stop UBS Handing Over Data in U.S. Tax Row
July 8th, 2009Via: Reuters: Switzerland has vowed to prevent UBS from handing over client information to U.S authorities, in an attempt to defend bank secrecy, saying a tax case targeting its main bank is souring diplomatic ties. Wealth management giant UBS is facing a court hearing in Miami next week after refusing to disclose data on 52,000 […]
True Unemployment Rate Already at 20%
July 8th, 2009Via: MSN: Really, how hard is it to find a job? Was June’s horrid numbers, in which 467,000 people lost their jobs compared to 345,000 in May, a one-time fluke? Or does it mean that all those Wall Street economists who believe the economic recovery is starting are dead wrong? Not to scare you, but […]
U.S. Federal Prosecutor: Stolen Goldman Sachs Software Could be Used to “Manipulate Markets in Unfair Ways”
July 8th, 2009This isn’t a free market; it’s a black magic trick, involving supercomputers, psychological operations and lots and lots of leverage. —CBOT Resembles Carnival Act as Billion Dollar Black Box Operators Move In Imagine my shock. Via: CNBC / Reuters: The purported theft of a Goldman Sachs trading platform threatens to cost it millions of dollars, […]
And Now… Pope Proposes New Financial World Order Guided by Ethics
July 7th, 2009Via: AP: Pope Benedict XVI called Tuesday for a new world financial order guided by ethics, dignity and the search for the common good in the third encyclical of his pontificate. In “Charity in Truth,” Benedict denounced the profit-at-all-cost mentality of the globalized economy and lamented that greed had brought about the worst economic downturn […]
Big Banks Don’t Want California’s IOUs
July 7th, 2009Via: Wall Street Journal: A group of the biggest U.S. banks said they would stop accepting California’s IOUs on Friday, adding pressure on the state to close its $26.3 billion annual budget gap. The development is the latest twist in California’s struggle to deal with the effects of the recession. After state leaders failed to […]
Fitch Cuts California Debt Rating to Two Notches Above Junk
July 7th, 2009Snowballing cluster. Via: Reuters: California suffered a new setback in its financial crisis on Monday when Fitch Ratings cut its rating on the state’s general obligation debt to just two notches above junk status. Fitch cut its rating on California’s long-term bonds to “BBB,” two notches above speculative grade, citing the state’s budget and revenue […]
Biden: We ‘Misread the Economy’
July 6th, 2009Maybe Goldman Sachs needs a few billion dollars more in handouts. Via: ABC News: “The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy,” Biden told me during our exclusive “This Week” interview in Iraq. Biden acknowledged administration officials were too optimistic earlier this year when they predicted the unemployment rate would peak at 8 […]
