Archive for the 'Economy' Category
U.S. Light Duty Vehicle Sales Plunge 36.7% in November
December 3rd, 2008Via: Green Car Congress: Total US sales of light-duty vehicles (LDV) plunged 36.7% in November from November 2007 to 746,789 units, according to figures from Autodata. There were 25 selling days in November 2008 and November 2007. Year-to-date, total LDV sales are down 16.3% from 2007. Sales of passenger cars dropped 36.5% year-on-year, while sales […]
Delinquent Mortgages Set to Nearly Double in 2009
December 3rd, 2008Via: Wall Street Journal: The number of consumers with delinquent mortgages is poised to almost double by the end of next year, hitting its highest level in at least 16 years, according to a leading credit bureau. TransUnion LLC, which analyzed about 27 million consumer records in its database, predicted that the proportion of consumers […]
UN Team Warns of Hard Landing for Dollar
December 3rd, 2008Wait until Ben Bernanke-San starts buying up those U.S. Treasuries. Seriously, read that first, and then read the one below. Via: Financial Times: The current strength of the dollar is temporary and the US currency risks a hard landing in 2009, according to a team of United Nations economists who foresaw a year ago that […]
Ohio: Hungry? Turn In Your Guns, Get Food
December 3rd, 2008Via: Beacon Journal: Sponsors of the Goods for Guns program are hoping that the promise of a full belly will lure people to turn in their guns in exchange for $100 gift cards for Acme Fresh Markets. The dates for the program, Nov. 21 and 22, were strategically selected this year to coincide with Thanksgiving […]
No. 1 Chicken Producer Pilgrim’s Pride Files for Chapter 11
December 2nd, 2008Via: USA Today: The economic pressures facing the U.S. chicken industry came into full view Monday when the No. 1 producer, Pilgrim’s Pride, (PPC) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection. Pilgrim’s, which produces 25% of U.S. broilers, suffered a triple whammy of large debt, high feed prices and lower prices for chicken amid weakening demand […]
AFRICOM China and Congo Resource Wars
December 2nd, 2008Via: Engdahl: If France was the covert target of US ‘surrogate warfare’ in 1994, today it is clearly China, which is the real threat to US control of Central Africa’s vast mineral riches. The Democratic Republic of Congo was renamed from the Republic of Zaire in 1997 when the forces of Laurent Désiré Kabila brought […]
U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE MAY BUY U.S. TREASURIES
December 2nd, 2008This doesn’t make any sense. The U.S. Government authorizes the Fed to create money out of thin air, which it will then use to buy up the debt of the U.S. Government that nobody else wants? Is anyone who is currently holding U.S. Treasuries even reading the news? The auctions are going to fail, so […]
Australia Extends Biggest Rate-Cut Round Since 1991: Cuts Another Full Point
December 2nd, 2008Via: Bloomberg: Australia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by one percentage point, extending the biggest round of reductions since the nation was last in a recession in 1991. Governor Glenn Stevens lowered the overnight cash rate target to a six-year low of 4.25 percent in Melbourne today, the fourth reduction in as many […]
As Crisis Mounts, Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate and Illegal
December 2nd, 2008Via: AlterNet: Amidst the spreading global financial crisis, a special debt audit commission released a report charging that much of Ecuador’s foreign debt was illegitimate or illegal. The commission recommended that Ecuador default on $3.9 billion in foreign commercial debts–Global Bonds 2012, 2015 and 2030–the result of debts restructured in 2000 after the country’s 1999 […]
New Zealand: Currency Swapline with U.S. Federal Reserve
December 2nd, 2008KiwiCanDo has been investigating the recent and unprecedented agreement between the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the U.S. Federal Reserve with regard to the creation of a US$15 billion currency swapline. The Fed has asked the New Zealand Reserve Bank authorities to keep the details of the agreement a secret. As far as I […]
