Archive for June, 2010
Fannie and Freddie Tab is $146 Billion and Rising
June 20th, 2010Via: New York Times: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took over a foreclosed home roughly every 90 seconds during the first three months of the year. They owned 163,828 houses at the end of March, a virtual city with more houses than Seattle. The mortgage finance companies, created by Congress to help Americans buy homes, […]
Bank Failure Rate Double Last Year’s
June 20th, 2010Via: USA Today / AP: Regulators on Friday shut down a Nevada bank, raising to 83 the number of U.S. bank failures this year. The 83 closures so far this year is more than double the pace set in all of 2009, which was itself a brisk year for shutdowns. By this time last year, […]
Napolitano on Internet Surveillance
June 20th, 2010Via: AP: Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation’s homeland security chief said Friday. As terrorists increasingly recruit U.S. citizens, the government needs to constantly balance Americans’ civil rights and privacy with the need to keep people safe, […]
California on ‘Verge of System Failure’
June 20th, 2010Via: Globe and Mail: Arnella Sims has seen a lot in her 34 years as a Los Angeles County court reporter, but nothing like this. Case files piling up by the thousands, phones ringing off the hook, forced midweek courthouse closings and occasional brawls as frustrated citizens queue for hours to pay parking fines. “People […]
North Korea Lifts Restrictions on Private Markets as Last Resort in Food Crisis
June 20th, 2010Centralized agriculture will result in famine. Whether it’s Dear Leader or Monsanto, it’s doomed. Call it communism (which results in statist plutocracy) or capitalism (which results in corporate plutocracy), it doesn’t matter. Fascism is fascism, regardless of the mask it happens to be wearing. To understand the effects of statist plutocracy on your belly, see: […]
China Signals a Gradual Rise in Value of Its Currency
June 20th, 2010Via: New York Times: China announced on Saturday evening that it would allow greater flexibility in the value of its currency, a move that could deflect growing international criticism of its fiscal policies and defuse one of the greatest sources of tension between Beijing and Washington. The statement, by China’s central bank, was the clearest […]
Medvedev: “New World Economic Order”
June 19th, 2010Via: Bloomberg: Medvedev said he envisages a new economic hierarchy allowing emerging-market giants such as Russia and China to drive the global agenda as the world emerges from the first global recession since the 1930s. “We really live at a unique time, and we should use it to build a modern, prosperous and strong Russia, […]
Iceland Rewrites Law to Create Haven for Investigative Reporting
June 19th, 2010Via: Independent: Iceland has passed a sweeping reform of its media laws that supporters say will make the country an international haven for investigative journalism. The new package of legislation was passed unanimously at 4am yesterday in one of the final sessions of the Icelandic parliament, the Althingi, before its summer break. Created with the […]
Coast Guard Authorized to Burn Oil Off Florida, Health Notification Issued
June 19th, 2010“Don’t panic.” —The Management Via: NFW Daily News: The Florida Department of Environmental Protection authorized the Coast Guard to burn oil offshore, and the county is warning people of potential health issues. Particulate matter, an airborne mix of very small particles and liquid droplets, may reach the shore, according to an Okaloosa County Health Department […]
The Strange and Consequential Case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks
June 18th, 2010This is a lengthy meditation on the Manning/Lamo/WikiLeaks situation. It’s very worth going through, but don’t expect to come away with any clear conclusions as to what actually happened here. Via: Salon: From the start, this whole story was quite strange for numerous reasons.
