Archive for the 'Economy' Category
European Economic Collapse: “It May Already be Too Late to Prevent Social Unrest”
February 15th, 2009Via: Times Online: Jon Moulton, the private equity chief, warned a City lunch this week that he feared serious civil unrest. There was, he said, a 25 per cent chance of one of the 15 member countries of the eurozone pulling out of the currency club. That, he said, would be a catastrophic shock leading […]
GM CONSIDERING CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY FILING
February 15th, 2009Via: Reuters: General Motors Corp, nearing a Tuesday deadline to present a viability plan to the U.S. government, is considering as one option a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that would create a new company, the Wall Street Journal said in its Saturday edition. “One plan includes a Chapter 11 filing that would assemble all of […]
Rural Zimbabweans Are Desperately Panning for Gold Powder to Ward Off Starvation
February 15th, 2009Why don’t people grow potatoes? Why don’t they grow beans? Wouldn’t that be easier than panning for gold all day to buy industrial food? In this video, I saw dirt, ruminant animals, water, and plenty of biomass that could be turned into compost. People had shovels… Yet, starvation is setting in. I don’t understand why […]
Ben Bernanke’s Childhood Home Sold After Foreclosure
February 15th, 2009Via: Wall Street Journal: Travis Jackson walks through his modest ranch house, admiring the kitchen’s built-in spice rack and the red-oak floors. He draws back the curtains, and sunlight illuminates the pride on his face. The young banker just bought Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s childhood home at a foreclosure sale. “This is where it […]
Blackwater Worldwide Changes Its Name to Xe; Same Mercenaries, but Now with More “Aviation Support”
February 14th, 2009Blackwater has probably been used for U.S. Government narcotics trafficking operations before, but it looks like that is going to be a major component of their business going forward. Note the phrase “aviation support” in the story below. Aviation support is synonymous with narcotics trafficking. If you read, Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA, this […]
Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down
February 14th, 2009Facing debtor’s prison in a country with summer temperatures over 120F/48C? I’d run for my life too. Via: New York Times: Sofia, a 34-year-old Frenchwoman, moved here a year ago to take a job in advertising, so confident about Dubai’s fast-growing economy that she bought an apartment for almost $300,000 with a 15-year mortgage. Now, […]
Panasonic Employees Ordered to Buy $1500 Worth of the Company’s Products
February 14th, 2009Japan is in very deep shit. But then again, which country isn’t? Via: Telegraph: Its electronic gadgetry is gathering dust on the shelves of high street stores, nobody is buying new fridges and the mountain of unsold plasma televisions is growing by the day. However, in desperation, Panasonic has hit on the perfect counter-attack against […]
Orbital Collision: Please Pick Up the Nearest Black Courtesy Phone
February 12th, 2009So, an Iridium satellite just happened to collide with a defunct Russian military satellite… You’re about to learn how the sausage gets made, and, before we begin, you should know that it’s not pretty. I don’t know the whole story about Iridium, but it has got to be one of the spookiest tales of them […]
Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon’s Secret World
February 12th, 2009UPDATE: Contest Results The target was a picture of my ancient, tattered Audio Technica headphones sitting on the concrete floor. There were no direct hits, but 9 of 13 submissions had something to do with round things. For days, it looked like Evil Chopsticks was going to be the closest one, since he or she […]
EU Faces ‘Toxic’ Debt Spiral
February 12th, 2009Via: Telegraph: It is not surprising that European Union finance ministers looked ashen faced in Brussels on Tuesday. The breakfast meeting discussed how EU governments should deal with, in other words pay for, the “toxic” banking assets that triggered the economic crisis. As discussed here on Monday, the European Commission warned that government attempts to […]
