Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Dollar Whip Sawed Back Down; Record Low
March 12th, 2008Via: Bloomberg: The dollar fell to an all-time low against the euro on concern that the Federal Reserve’s plan to provide funds to banks won’t be enough to break the gridlock in money-market lending and stem credit losses. An index tracking the dollar against six major currencies fell close to a record low as traders […]
Fallon Resigns as Mideast Military Chief
March 12th, 2008Fallon, you’ll remember, is probably the main reason why Bush has not been able to start a war with Iran. Interesting coincidence, how oil broke out higher in the last several days preceding this news. Via: AP: The Navy admiral in charge of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan announced Tuesday that he is resigning […]
FED ALLOWING INSTITUTIONS TO ACQUIRE NEW, PUBLICLY BACKED TREASURY SECURITIES BY USING MORTGAGE BACKED SECURITIES AS COLLATERAL
March 11th, 2008How many chainsaws can the jugglers keep in the air at once? This is just creating another chunk of publicly backed credit to enter into a balance sheet while the toxic waste (now being referred to as “collateral”) smolders away at the Fed. In other words, the Fed is about to became the buyer for […]
Derivatives Have Become the World’s Biggest Black Market
March 11th, 2008Via: Marketwatch: The fact is, derivatives have become the world’s biggest “black market,” exceeding the illicit traffic in stuff like arms, drugs, alcohol, gambling, cigarettes, stolen art and pirated movies. Why? Because like all black markets, derivatives are a perfect way of getting rich while avoiding taxes and government regulations. And in today’s slowdown, plus […]
BMW Outsourcing Production to the U.S.
March 11th, 2008I wonder… Is the U.S. plan to pay back the trillions of dollars it owes to creditors with dollars that are worth, say, several cents on the original value of the dollars borrowed? Via: BBC: The luxury carmaker BMW has announced it will invest $750m (£373m) as part of plans to increase production in the […]
Florida: People Squatting in Multi Million Dollar Seaside Mansions
March 9th, 2008“Owner occupied defaults.” What a country! Via: Big Picture: “There is a very important phenomena that is occurring that has only been covered in an only “glancing” manner. Beyond the concept of “jingle mail” — which suggests that folks who can pay their mortgages may just choose to walk away given the dramatic loss of […]
JP MORGAN: BANKS FACE $325 BILLION “SYSTEMIC MARGIN CALL”
March 9th, 2008Enjoy your weekend! Via: Reuters: Wall Street banks are facing a “systemic margin call” that may deplete banks of $325 billion of capital due to deteriorating subprime U.S. mortgages, JPMorgan Chase & Co, said in a report late on Friday. JPMorgan, which sent a default notice to Thornburg Mortgage Inc. after the lender missed a […]
Margin Calls for Carlyle Capital
March 7th, 2008Via: AP: Lenders to Carlyle Capital Corp. Ltd. have begun to liquidate securities held in its $21.7 billion portfolio and the fund said Friday it was considering “all available options.” The margin calls against Carlyle portend an ominous development one day after the fund was served with default notices, convulsing already skittish markets. Shares in […]
Employers Slash Jobs by Most in Five Years
March 7th, 2008Via: AP: Employers slashed jobs by 63,000 in February, the most in five years, the starkest sign yet the country is heading dangerously toward recession or is in one already. The Labor Department’s report, released Friday, also showed that the nation’s unemployment rate dipped to 4.8 percent as hundreds of thousands of people — perhaps […]
Top Iraq Contractor Skirts U.S. Taxes Offshore
March 7th, 2008Via: Boston Globe: Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation’s top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven. More than 21,000 people working for […]
