Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Schwarzenegger Orders Unpaid Leave for State Workers
December 20th, 2008Via: Bloomberg: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today ordered all state workers to take two days of unpaid leave each month to conserve money amid a record budget deficit and a legislative impasse over how to fix it. The furloughs will begin in February and will last through June 2010, Schwarzenegger said in an executive order. […]
China Says Lending to U.S. Will Not Go On Forever
December 20th, 2008Via: AFP: China warned Wednesday it would not keep lending money to the US economy indefinitely, even as new data showed it had consolidated its position as the top buyer of American government bonds. “China’s increased purchase of US Treasury securities should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the assumption that the US can […]
Las Vegas: Hundreds Line Up for Shot at Fewer Than 50 Jobs at New Fast-Food Store
December 20th, 2008Via: Las Vegas Sun: If president-elect Barack Obama could have stepped out of the flat-screen TV on the wall of the Holiday Inn Express on Rainbow Boulevard on Monday, he would have come face to face with the stark reality of the economy. As rain pelted the roads and Obama announced more Cabinet appointments, close […]
Auto Makers to Get $17.4 Billion
December 19th, 2008More antics. Trying to push “PAUSE” on collapse. Via: Wall Street Journal: The White House announced a $17.4 billion rescue package for the troubled Detroit auto makers that allows them to avoid bankruptcy and leaves many of the big decisions for the incoming Obama administration. Speaking from the White House, President George W. Bush said […]
Four Really, Really Bad Scenarios
December 18th, 2008I found this one most interesting. Via: Politico: The Alternate-Dollar Nightmare “The Number One vulnerability is the dollar itself,” Rickards concluded. “We’re printing them and shoving them out the door, and the Fed is basically out of bullets. So why hasn’t the dollar collapsed? The short answer is, global investors don’t have any other choice.” […]
Moody’s: 70 Percent Chance That GM Will File for Bankruptcy
December 18th, 2008Via: Washington Post: General Motors is likely to file for bankruptcy protection with government backing, giving bondholders a recovery of more than 25 cents on the dollar, according to Moody’s Investors Service. There is a 70 percent probability that the restructuring plan for U.S. automakers will consist of a prepackaged bankruptcy financed by government loans […]
Madoff’s Auditor… Doesn’t Audit?
December 18th, 2008Via: Fortune: The three-person auditing firm that apparently certified the books of Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, the shuttered home of an alleged multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, is drawing new scrutiny. Already under investigation by local prosecutors for its potential role in the scandal, the firm, Friehling & Horowitz, is now also being investigated by the American […]
George Bush: “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.”
December 18th, 2008Double plus good, comrade! * Queue applause * Translation: Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could […]
Oil Under $40; More Oil Stored on Ships at Sea Than at Any Time in The Last twenty Years
December 18th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Oil is decoupling from the dollar now, to the downside. Gold is up sharply, the dollar is down sharply, oil is down sharply. I don’t think there was any doubt about it before, but people are definitely moving their paper based […]
Chrysler to Shut All Factories for a Month, GM Will Shut 20 Factories for Part of Q1
December 18th, 2008It’s snowballing now. Via: New York Times: Chrysler said Wednesday that it would close all its factories for at least one month, starting at the end of this week, in response to plunging vehicle sales in the United States. Chrysler said Wednesday that it would close all its factories for at least one month, starting […]
