Archive for the 'Economy' Category
‘Rogue Broker’ Blamed for Oil Spike
July 3rd, 2009If I buy a wheat contract, I should have to take delivery of the physical wheat on the specified date. If I sell a wheat contract, I should have to deliver the physical wheat on the specified date. I should not be allowed to buy or sell those leveraged contracts without having to take delivery, […]
From “Green Shoots” to “Jobless Recovery”: Payrolls Fall More Than Forecast, Unemployment Rises
July 3rd, 2009Economic collapse by any other name is sill economic collapse. Via: Bloomberg: Employers in the U.S. cut 467,000 jobs in June, the unemployment rate rose and hourly earnings stagnated, offering little evidence the Obama administration’s stimulus package is shoring up the labor market. The payroll decline was more than forecast and followed a 322,000 drop […]
FDIC Thursday: Seven More Banks Fail
July 3rd, 2009I guess it’s FDIC Thursday this week because of the holiday weekend. Via: CNN: Regulators close six Illinois banks and one Texas bank setting the FDIC back a total of $314.3 million. Seven banks were shut down by authorities Thursday, pushing the tally of failed banks for 2009 to 52, more than doubling the failures […]
Washington Post Sells Access to the Regime and Its Own Reporters for $25,000 and Up
July 2nd, 2009Via: Politico: For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few”: Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, […]
5 Years After: Portugal’s Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results
July 2nd, 2009Maybe Portugal didn’t view the Prison Industrial Complex as a growth industry (like elites in the U.S. do). Via: Scientific American: In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized […]
Government Energy Audit Required to Sell Your Home?
July 2nd, 2009Via: WWLP 22 News: The American Clean Energy and Security Act is aimed at reducing the nation’s energy consumption. The ambitious piece of legislation passed in the House on Friday. It addresses a variety of issues from carbon emissions to planting trees. The energy bill also proposes a change in how homes are sold. Originally, […]
Afghanistan: Thousands of U.S. Marines Move Into the World’s Largest Opium Production Area
July 2nd, 2009Via: AP / USA Today: Thousands of U.S. Marines poured from helicopters and armored vehicles into Taliban-controlled villages in southern Afghanistan on Thursday in the first major operation under President Obama’s strategy to stabilize the country. The offensive was launched shortly after 4:30 p.m. ET Thursday in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and the world’s […]
California: Financial Emergency; State Will Issue IOUs; Government Offices Will Reduce Employee Hours
July 2nd, 2009Via: AP: California’s controller will start paying many of the state’s bills with IOUs as soon as Thursday after lawmakers failed to close the state’s worsening budget deficit, adding a new measure of indignity to a state sinking deeper into dysfunction. Lawmakers’ failure to act on Tuesday, the end of the fiscal year, also widened […]
SEC Lawyer Raised Alarm About Madoff
July 2nd, 2009Via: Reuters: A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer warned about irregularities at Bernard Madoff’s financial management firm as far back as 2004, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing agency documents and sources familiar with the investigation. Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot, a lawyer in the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, sent emails to a […]
Digital Media Are Overwhelming Our Consciousness and Eclipsing Our Capacity for Reflection
July 1st, 2009Via: OnTheCommons: One of the more pernicious enclosures of the commons is the enclosure of time and consciousness. It’s pernicious because it is so subtle and rarely discerned. When commercial values such as productivity and efficiency become so pervasive and internalized, they crowd out other ways of being. Our very sense of humanity — full-bodied, […]
