Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Ex-Goldman Programmer Detailed His Code Downloads to FBI Agent
July 10th, 2009It looks like there’s a large bozo factor in this case. If there was criminal intent, this will be one for America’s Dumbest Criminals. Via: Bloomberg: Sergey Aleynikov, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. computer programmer arrested last week for stealing software, told an FBI agent he uploaded proprietary code to an encrypted server he […]
Mexico Accused of Torture in Drug War
July 9th, 2009Via: MSNBC: The Mexican army has carried out forced disappearances, acts of torture and illegal raids in pursuit of drug traffickers, according to documents and interviews with victims, their families, political leaders and human rights monitors. From the violent border cities where drugs are brought into the United States to the remote highland regions where […]
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 […]
