Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Possible Gold Bounce Setting Up
June 23rd, 2009WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Gold is right around a its pennant support line. I also drew a “last change” pennant support line on the chart, in case it decides to pay attention to that one. If gold breaks down and out of this pennant… Well, […]
South Carolina Governor’s Whereabouts Unknown, Even to Wife
June 23rd, 2009Update: Hiking —End Update— I’ll put this in Economy until I have reason to add it to other categories. Via: AP: Where is South Carolina’s governor? The lieutenant governor doesn’t know, and neither does a state senator who’s a close confidante. Even Gov. Mark Sanford’s wife is in the dark. And while his staff said […]
More Green Shoots: States Turning to Last Resorts in Budget Crisis
June 22nd, 2009Via: New York Times: In Hawaii, state employees are bracing for furloughs of three days a month over the next two years, the equivalent of a 14 percent pay cut. In Idaho, lawmakers reduced aid to public schools for the first time in recent memory, forcing pay cuts for teachers. And in California, where a […]
Kiwis Moving Closer to Cashless Society
June 22nd, 2009Japan was the future cashless country in yesterday’s news cycle. Today it’s New Zealand. Well, New Zealand will probably use a Pan Asian digital currency, at some point, along with Japan and several other states…either that or Kongbucks. Via: New Zealand Herald: Cash is no longer king in New Zealand, according to the Retirement Commission’s […]
City of London Fraud Has Increased by 63% Over the Last Year
June 22nd, 2009Via: Guardian: The number of fraud cases being investigated by City of London police has increased by 63% over the last year to more than 10,000, involving losses of well over £1bn, according to Steve Head, chief of the force. Head warns that the UK is about to be hit by a further wave of […]
The Empire Strikes Back: FTC Plans to Regulate Blogs That Have Affiliate Relationships
June 22nd, 2009What has happened is that bloggers have blown the support columns out from underneath traditional media and the people who run the show don’t like that. The fact that some of us are able to survive by maintaining blogs must have come as an incredible shock to fat bastards in boardrooms across the land. That […]
Green Shoots: Numbers on Welfare See Sharp Increase
June 22nd, 2009Via: Wall Street Journal: Welfare rolls, which were slow to rise and actually fell in many states early in the recession, now are climbing across the country for the first time since President Bill Clinton signed legislation pledging “to end welfare as we know it” more than a decade ago. Twenty-three of the 30 largest […]
Japan Considering Taxing Cash; “Nominal Rates of -4% Might be Closer to What is Required to Rescue the Economy from Another Deflationary Spiral”
June 21st, 2009Japanese people will just buy more gold and park their speculative yen back in the carry trade pachinko parlor (this may already be happening). Why wouldn’t they? If holding cash means a guaranteed loss of 4% a year, that’s a pretty good incentive to gamble. Bonus points to the state for the totalitarian surveillance grid […]
Goldman Sachs to Make Record Bonus Payout
June 21st, 2009Mission accomplished! Via: Guardian: Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm’s 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms. A lack of competition and a surge in […]
California Faces Prospect of “Multi-Notch” Credit Rating Downgrade
June 20th, 2009Via: Reuters: California, which is struggling to close a $24.3 billion budget gap, faces the prospect of a “multi-notch” downgrade in its credit rating if the state’s legislature fails to act quickly to produce a budget, Moody’s Investors Service warned on Friday. Moody’s decision to place California’s general obligation debt on alert for a possible […]
