Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Wal-Mart to Open 400 In-Store “Health” Clinics
April 25th, 2007Will people show up to be diagnosed for diabetes and high blood pressure and then waddle over to the in-store eatery to dine on some tasty freedom fries, reconstituted chicken parts and 100% synthetic cheeze food? Wash it all down with a slurpee? Pick up prescriptions for ineffective and dangerous pharmaceuticals from the in-store pharmacy […]
New Cryptogon Sponsor: Financial Web
April 25th, 2007I’d like to thank Financial Web for their generous sponsorship of Cryptogon. Financial Web covers a very wide variety of topics, many of which we all have to deal with at some point or another. With financial matters, and overall strategic planning, my advice is: Get into a situation that eliminates your reliance on luck […]
Oblivion: National Survey Reveals More than 70% of Americans Don’t Know Plastic is Made from Oil
April 23rd, 2007The fact that some ADM-related thing purports to have “solutions” to the plastipocalypse just enhances the sense of oblivion that pervades these issues. On the one hand you have knuckle dragging people who will trample each other for bargains at WalMart, and on the other hand, you have ADM with “solutions.” In other news, 79% […]
UK: Lenders Withdraw Fixed Rate Mortgages
April 20th, 2007Via: Guardian: Borrowers seeking protection against a potential interest rate rise next month are seeing the choice of fixed-rate mortgages dwindle as lenders pull some of the best-buy deals. Tuesday’s shock rise in inflation has prompted a number of lenders to withdraw or review their range of fixed deals, while others have increased the cost […]
CALIFORNIA FORCLOSURES INCREASE 800%
April 18th, 2007Via: Los Angeles Times: Nearly 900 Californians a week are losing their homes because they can’t afford to pay the mortgage — up from about 100 a week a year ago — providing fresh evidence that the housing market’s troubles are nowhere near over. The surge is raising concerns that home prices will soon suffer […]
China to Raise Oil Imports by 14%, Sinopec Group Says
April 18th, 2007Sure, and I’ll flap my wings and fly around like a bird. Could happen, right? Via: Bloomberg: China, the world’s largest energy user after the U.S., may increase crude oil imports by as much as 14 percent this year to meet surging domestic demand, said an official with the nation’s largest oil refiner. The nation […]
Virginia Tech Shooting: I’ve Already Seen Enough
April 18th, 2007I thought that I should designate a single post to all of the Virginia Tech related analysis, to parse out some of the key signals from the noise. Within 30 minutes of actually sitting down to read about the incident, I had already seen enough. At first, I was looking for—and found—indications of trauma induced […]
New Zealand: Where Is the Outrage?
April 18th, 2007I’ve been scooping the U.S. media for half a decade, but I didn’t expect to do the same thing in New Zealand. The thing about doing it in the U.S. is that few people notice, well, except perhaps a few of you, dear readers and supporters. There’s lots of noise, and very little signal, on […]
1 in 2 Americans Now Receives Income from Government Programs
April 17th, 2007Via: Christian Science Monitor: As Americans finish their annual tax-filing flurry to meet a Tuesday deadline, it is true that tax rates are lower than they were a few years ago. But according to a different yardstick, the federal government’s reach is expanding. Slightly over half of all Americans – 52.6 percent – now receive […]
Sterling Through $2
April 17th, 2007Via: Forbes: The British pound broke through the $2 barrier for the first time in 15 years on Tuesday, as currency traders bet that rising inflation would spur the Bank of England to raise interest rates. The pound was quoted at $2.005 early in the London afternoon.
