Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Britain’s Budget Deficit Threatens to Hit 12 Percent of GDP
April 22nd, 2009Via: Telegraph: That is just about the worst performance of any major country at any time in history, during peacetime. Gordon Brown’s sin as Chancellor was to run a fiscal deficit of 3pc of GDP at the top of the long boom, when other countries were prudently using their windfall tax revenues to build a […]
U.S. Recession Linked to More Abortions, Vasectomies
April 22nd, 2009This is not quite Kill Off, but it’s close enough. Via: Reuters: The recession may be a factor influencing more Americans to opt out of parenthood with abortions and vasectomies, although there is no data available yet to suggest a trend Even so, there is some anecdotal evidence that would-be parents are factoring the rough […]
Freddie Mac Acting Chief Financial Officer David Kellermann Found Dead; Apparent Suicide
April 22nd, 2009Update: Hanging or Gunshot? Not Clear, Apparently Suicide, though. Definitely a suicide. Trust us. Via: AHN: Police are not speculating on the cause of death of Freddie Mac’s acting head, David Kellermann, at this point and will leave it up to the medical examiner, Fairfax County Police Public Information Officer Lucy Caldwell told AHN Media. […]
Feinstein Sought $25 Billion for Agency that Awarded Contract to Spouse
April 21st, 2009Via: Washington Times: On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband’s real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms. Mrs. Feinstein’s intervention […]
Bank Bailout May Hurt Taxpayers, Be Open to Fraud
April 21st, 2009No shit? Had me going there for a second… Wake me up when someone can tell us where all of that money went. Via: AP: Taxpayers are increasingly exposed to losses and the government is more vulnerable to fraud under Obama administration initiatives that have created a federal bank bailout program of “unprecedented scope,” a […]
Rent-A-Cops: Cash-Strapped Cities Using Private Armed Guards Instead of Police
April 21st, 2009Via: Wall Street Journal: Facing pressure to crack down on crime amid a record budget deficit, Oakland is joining other U.S. cities that are turning over more law-enforcement duties to private armed guards. The City Council recently voted to hire International Services Inc., a private security agency, to patrol crime-plagued districts. While a few Oakland […]
Fed Should Use Negative Interest Rates to Force Savers to Spend Their Money
April 21st, 2009Via: New York Times: In many ways today, the Fed is in uncharted waters. So why shouldn’t the Fed just keep cutting interest rates? Why not lower the target interest rate to, say, negative 3 percent? At that interest rate, you could borrow and spend $100 and repay $97 next year. This opportunity would surely […]
Phoenix: Radar Camera Employee Murdered
April 21st, 2009Via: Arizona Republic: It has come under attack from protesters, politicians and even a pickax-wielding resident, but sentiment against Arizona’s photo-enforcement program had not turned to bloodshed until Sunday night. Doug Georgianni, 51, of Cave Creek, was shot and killed while sitting in a van alongside the highway and monitoring cameras that snap photos of […]
Food, Inc: “A Civilized Horror Movie”
April 20th, 2009Via: Variety: With a constituency limited to anyone who eats, “Food, Inc.” is a civilized horror movie for the socially conscious, the nutritionally curious and the hungry. Yes, it has a deceptively cheery palette, but helmer Robert Kenner’s doc — which does for the supermarket what “Jaws” did for the beach — marches straight into […]
The Tower of Basel: Secretive Plans for the Issuing of a Global Currency
April 20th, 2009Via: Global Research: In an April 7 article in The London Telegraph titled “The G20 Moves the World a Step Closer to a Global Currency,” Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote: “A single clause in Point 19 of the communiqué issued by the G20 leaders amounts to revolution in the global financial order. “‘We have agreed to support […]
