Archive for August, 2009
“Banks Still Hold Many Risky Loans of Uncertain Value”
August 11th, 2009Via: AP: Despite signs that the financial system has stabilized, banks remain threatened by billions of dollars of bad loans on their balance sheets, and more could fail if the economy worsens, a congressional watchdog reports. In its latest assessment of the $700 billion financial system bailout, the Congressional Oversight Panel warns that banks still […]
Food Crisis Could Force Wartime Rations and Vegetarian Diet on Britons
August 11th, 2009You’ll love the citation for the source of this: “A paper setting out the food security assessment…” That’s it. The The Great Rupert Murdoch Wurlitzer strikes again. Via: Times: The British people face wartime rations and a vegetarian diet in the event of a world food shortage, a new official assessment on the UK’s food […]
Shut Out at Home, Americans Seek Opportunity in China
August 11th, 2009Via: New York Times: Shanghai and Beijing are becoming new lands of opportunity for recent American college graduates who face unemployment nearing double digits at home. Even those with limited or no knowledge of Chinese are heeding the call. They are lured by China’s surging economy, the lower cost of living and a chance to […]
Governors Oppose DoD Emergency Powers
August 10th, 2009Via: The Hill: A bipartisan pair of governors is opposing a new Defense Department proposal to handle natural and terrorism-related disasters, contending that a murky chain of command could lead to more problems than solutions. Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas (R), chairman of the National Governors Association, and Vice Chairman Gov. Joe Manchin (D) of West […]
Parents Paying Thousands of Dollars to Firms That Help Their Kids Get Unpaid Internships
August 10th, 2009Via: New York Times: With paying jobs so hard to get in this weak market, a lot of college graduates would gladly settle for a nonpaying internship. But even then, they are competing with laid-off employees with far more experience. So growing numbers of new graduates — or, more often, their parents — are paying […]
Ex-Madoff Finance Chief Could Point U.S. to Other Accomplices
August 10th, 2009This might be interesting to watch. Via: Bloomberg: Frank DiPascali, the finance chief at Bernard Madoff’s investment advisory business who agreed to plead guilty, could help prosecutors build criminal cases against other players in his boss’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme. DiPascali, 52, is scheduled to enter his plea tomorrow in federal court in Manhattan, U.S. […]
Lament for a Dying Field: Photojournalism
August 10th, 2009Wow. I’ve made some boneheaded decisions in my life, but the decision to not stick with photojournalism wasn’t one of them. When I was involved in the 1990s, it seemed grim, in terms of income. It’s obviously much worse now. To those of you who are making it work, I salute you. To those of […]
The Hank Paulson Goldman Sachs Party Line
August 10th, 2009Via: New York Times: Before he became President George W. Bush’s Treasury secretary in 2006, Henry M. Paulson Jr. agreed to hold himself to a higher ethical standard than his predecessors. He not only sold all his holdings in Goldman Sachs, the investment bank he had run, but also specifically said that he would avoid […]
Pentagon Puts Afghan Drug-Traffickers on Hitlist
August 10th, 2009I wonder how many of the people on the hit list were present at the MI6 meetings with the Taliban? Also, remember the opium bridge that the U.S. built at great expense? Has that been blown up yet? Where’s the 4,200 tons stockpile of opium (or has that been converted into 600 tons of heroin […]
Japan Core Machinery Orders up 9.7 Percent in June
August 10th, 2009* raised eyebrow * Via: AP: Japan’s core machinery orders, a closely watched indicator of corporate capital spending, jumped in June for the first time in four months, the government said Monday. Core private sector machinery orders in June surged 9.7 percent from a month earlier to 732.8 billion yen ($7.5 billion), according to the […]
