Archive for the 'Economy' Category
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 […]
Toyota: America’s Car Company
July 6th, 2009Via: Business Insider: A new study from Cars.com sheds light on the absurdity of thinking cars have a “nationality.” When you consider that even a post-bailout GM will expand its use of foreign labor, it shouldn’t be that hard to understand how an “American” car isn’t really so, just because its maker was founded in […]
U.S. Lurching Towards ‘Debt Explosion’ with Long-Term Interest Rates on Course to Double
July 6th, 2009Via: Telegraph: In a 2003 paper, Thomas Laubach, the US Federal Reserve’s senior economist, calculated the impact on long-term interest rates of rising fiscal deficits and soaring national debt. Applying his assumptions to the recent spike in the US fiscal deficit and national debt, long-term interests rates will double from their current 3.5pc. The impact […]
At Least 140 Dead in Chinese Riots
July 6th, 2009UPDATE: Internet Access Down in Region —End Update— Same video in case YouTube pulls it. Via: Reuters: At least 140 people have been killed in rioting in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, with the government blaming exiled separatists for the Muslim area’s worst case of unrest in years. Hundreds of rioters have been arrested, the […]
Programmer Steals Software That Runs Goldman Sachs’ Automated Trading Systems
July 6th, 2009Update: Programmer Out on Bail Via: Reuters: A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc computer programer accused of stealing secret trading codes from the financial firm has been released from federal custody after posting bail, authorities said on Monday. Sergey Aleynikov, 39, was arrested by the FBI on Friday and charged with “theft of trade secrets.” […]
Afghan Drug Trade: “Most of the government officials are involved.”
July 5th, 2009Via: McClatchy: When it’s harvest time in the poppy fields of Kandahar, dust-covered Taliban fighters pull up on their motorbikes to collect a 10 percent tax on the crop. Afghan police arrive in Ford Ranger pickups — bought with U.S. aid money — and demand their cut of the cash in exchange for promises to […]
Flood of Afghan Heroin Fuels Drug Plague in Russia
July 5th, 2009Via: McClatchy: The drugs usually reach Russia from Tajikistan and Kazakhstan in trucks or, in smaller amounts, tucked away in train compartments or nervous travelers’ stomachs. The trade is nothing new in Russia, but after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, it exploded. Afghan opium production climbed from 3,400 metric tons in 2002 to […]
U.S.-Built Bridge is Windfall for Illegal Afghan Drug Trade
July 5th, 2009Via: McClatchy: In August 2007, the presidents of Afghanistan and Tajikistan walked side by side with the U.S. commerce secretary across a new $37 million concrete bridge that the Army Corps of Engineers designed to link two of Central Asia’s poorest countries. Dressed in a gray suit with an American flag pin in his lapel, […]
Fears for the World’s Poor Countries as the Rich Grab Land to Grow Food
July 5th, 2009A pants shitting, must read. Via: Guardian: The acquisition of farmland from the world’s poor by rich countries and international corporations is accelerating at an alarming rate, with an area half the size of Europe’s farmland targeted in the last six months, reports from UN officials and agriculture experts say. New reports from the UN […]
