Another Oil Rig Explosion In The Gulf Today
Posted on 02. Sep, 2010 by Shera Crossan in Audio-Video, Business & Finance, Economy, Health, Shera Crossan, Top Stories
An explosion on an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico early today ignited a fire that caused workers to evacuate into the water, but the U.S. Coast Guard said that all the workers survived and there are no oil leaks reported near the platform. The cause of the explosion is not yet known, [...]
VP of Central Council of Jews in Germany, has words for the central bank
Posted on 31. Aug, 2010 by Shera Crossan in Business & Finance, Free Speech, Immigration, Israel & Jewish Issues, Shera Crossan
—- Germany’s Jewish community urged the central bank on Tuesday to sack a board member who polarised the nation by making disparaging comments about Muslim immigrants and asserting that Jews have a particular genetic makeup. Dieter Graumann, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin was out [...]
Wealthy Govt. Lawmakers Increased Their Riches as Economy Shrivelled in 2009
Posted on 31. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Politics
While the economy struggled through a recession during much of 2009 and the nation’s unemployment rate soared to 10 percent, the stock market rebounded, helping lawmakers with large investments. The S&P 500 rose by about 28 percent in 2009. Total assets for the 50 wealthiest lawmakers in 2009 was $1.5 billion — that’s actually a [...]
Audit the U.S. Gold Reserves, Where Is the Gold?
Posted on 30. Aug, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Business & Finance, Economy, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories
In an exclusive interview with Kitco News, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) revealed that next year at the start of the newly inaugurated 112th United States Congress, he would introduce a new bill to audit the U.S. gold reserves, which are reportedly stored at the New York Federal Reserve and Fort Knox. The reason behind this [...]
Gambling With Government Money?
Posted on 27. Aug, 2010 by Shera Crossan in Business & Finance, Shera Crossan
In California and Michigan, welfare recipients have been using their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards to withdraw state-funded payments from ATM machines in casinos. The degree to which the casinos benefited from this is not known, but politicians in both states have called for the machines to be programmed so as not to accept the ATM-like [...]
Norway government-run pension fund drops Africa Israel group shares
Posted on 23. Aug, 2010 by Shera Crossan in Business & Finance, Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Israel & Jewish Issues, Shera Crossan
Norway’s 450 billion euro oil-riches fund has excluded two Israeli firms involved in developing settlements, as well as a Malaysian forestry firm, on ethical grounds, Norway’s finance ministry said yesterday. The excluded companies are Africa Israel Investments and its engineering subsidiary Danya Cebus, both of which are controlled by energy and real estate magnate Lev [...]
Time Running Out For America’s Middle Class
Posted on 21. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
While America’s super-rich congratulate themselves on donating billions to charity, the rest of the country is worse off than ever. Long-term unemployment is rising and millions of Americans are struggling to survive. The gap between rich and poor is wider than ever and the middle class is disappearing. For a while, America seemed to have [...]
Housing Crisis Growing: 1.3 Milllion Homeowners Drop out of the Mortgage Relief Program
Posted on 21. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy
WASHINGTON – Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration’s flagship mortgage-relief program have fallen out. The program is intended to help those at risk of foreclosure by lowering their monthly mortgage payments. Friday’s report from the Treasury Department suggests the $75 billion government effort is failing to slow the [...]
Lies and Unction
Posted on 18. Aug, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Business & Finance, Economy, Politics, Rob Belatucadros, Top Stories
In his remarks upon signing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 21, 2010, President Obama said that “the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes.” This was one of the most quoted sound bites in main stream media accounts of the passage [...]
Is A Crash Coming? 10 Reasons to be Cautious
Posted on 18. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
Could Wall Street be about to crash again? This week’s bone-rattlers may be making you wonder. I don’t make predictions. That’s a sucker’s game. And I’m certainly not doing so now. But way too many people are way too complacent this summer. Here are 10 reasons to watch out. 1. The market is already expensive. [...]
Health Care Premiums Are Already Soaring in Advance of “Obamacare”
Posted on 17. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Health, Nathaniel Bacon, Rob Belatucadros, Shera Crossan
This past month millions of Americans got notice from Blue Cross/Blue Shield providers across the country that their insurance premiums are going way up effective immediately. Here is the terse reason CareFirst/ Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Washington gave its subscribers for raising a monthly premium from $333 to $512 on a middle aged man who [...]
How The U.S. Economy Is Being ‘Japanized’
Posted on 16. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
In 1963, Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz wrote a seminal piece on the Great Depression (A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960), parts of which have become accepted wisdom in monetary policy and theory ever since. Friedman and Schwartz’s argument is that what turned a recession into a depression in the 1930s (where output [...]
The Entire Financial System Could Collapse Under a Derivatives Bubble
Posted on 15. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
Today there is a horrific derivatives bubble that threatens to destroy not only the U.S. economy but the entire world financial system as well, but unfortunately the vast majority of people do not understand it. When you say the word “derivatives” to most Americans, they have no idea what you are talking about. In fact, [...]
IRELAND: 33% of the Population Under 30 is Unemployed
Posted on 14. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Europe News, Nathaniel Bacon
When Ann Moore returned to have breakfast with her family after a 12-hour night shift at a nursing home, she found riot police and bailiffs outside her home of 16 years. She and her husband, Christy, and their three children were being evicted. Despite climbing a ladder to the top of the house for six [...]
U.S. Running Out Of Economic Solutions
Posted on 13. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
Ben Bernanke is running out of ammo in his attempts to combat the anemic US economy. Investors signaled their retreat yesterday, driving the Dow down 265 points, after the Federal Reserve chief’s latest effort to spur growth, buying back government debt, failed to allay fears of an economic slowdown. Stocks tumbled on two continents, the [...]
Europe Pocketed Billions From U.S. Bailout Money
Posted on 13. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
WASHINGTON (AP) – The $700 billion U.S. bailout program launched in response to the global economic meltdown had a far greater impact overseas than other countries’ financial rescue plans did on the U.S., according to a new report from a congressional watchdog. Billions of dollars in U.S. rescue funds wound up in big banks in [...]
Obama Overtures to Business Fall Flat
Posted on 11. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy
Labeled antibusiness by Republicans and some corporate chiefs, President Barack Obama mounted a campaign to show he wasn’t. But his charm offensive has hit a rocky patch. Business leaders gripe about burdensome new financial and health care regulations, what they see as unfriendly tax policies and vast government spending. They were put off by Obama’s [...]
Endless Debt and Tyranny
Posted on 11. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
On June 5th, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Emergency Banking Act which declared America bankrupt and insolvent. Twenty years after the 1913 Federal Reserve Act authorized a private central bank to loan money to the government at interest, the country declared its bankruptcy. Twenty years after the Federal Reserve Act was passed, [...]
Former Enemies: U.S. And Vietnam Now Business Partners
Posted on 09. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, War Coverage
ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON – Cold War enemies th United States and Vietnam demonstrated their blossoming military relations Sunday as a U.S. nuclear supercarrier cruised in waters off the Southeast Asian nation’s coast — sending a message that China is not the region’s only big player. The visit comes 35 years after the Vietnam [...]
U.S Job Market Shrinks Again
Posted on 07. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
The economy sheds 131,000 jobs in July as governments lay off workers. Companies appear to be investing in raising productivity instead of hiring. With the U.S. economy losing jobs for a second straight month in July, evidence is mounting that U.S. companies are spending huge sums on new equipment and taking other steps to make [...]
U.S. Companies Emerge in Robust Health
Posted on 06. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
BOSTON — You may have heard recently that U.S. companies have emerged from the financial crisis in robust health, that they’ve paid down their debts, rebuilt their balance sheets and are sitting on growing piles of cash they are ready to invest in the economy. American companies are not in robust financial shape. Federal Reserve [...]
GM Invests $500 Million to Generate Jobs, Upgrade Plant ..in Mexico
Posted on 06. Aug, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)–U.S. automobile giant General Motors Co. said Tuesday it plans to invest close to $500 million in its Ramos Arizpe plant in northern Mexico to produce a new line of engines as well as a new vehicle. Lieblein said General Motors has invested $4.1 billion in Mexico over the last four years. [...]
‘Hope’ For Recovery Fading
Posted on 31. Jul, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
The recovery is fading, and a troubling new pattern is setting in: economic growth that is too slow to put Americans back to work. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, grew at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the April-through-June period, the government said Friday, down from 5 percent at the end [...]
Tracking of All Gold Coins
Posted on 27. Jul, 2010 by Rob Belatucadros in Business & Finance, Economy, Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Politics, Rob Belatucadros
The Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill contains a provision that requires companies buying gold and other minerals to submit an annual report outlining what they are doing to ensure their minerals are “conflict-free.” Most of the focus on this provision, to date, has been on the ramifications for high tech companies such as Apple and Intel. [...]
Irish Economy Being Plundered by Bankers Charges Head of Police Union
Posted on 26. Jul, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Europe News, Nathaniel Bacon
When a national police association accuses its government of what amounts to treason it is time to sit up and pay attention. Michael O’Boyce, President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), said at its annual conference in Limerick, at the end of April, 2010, that the Irish Government had been ‘corrupted’ and had been ‘bought’ [...]
Credit Crunch Drags On
Posted on 19. Jul, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
Over the past several decades, one of the primary engines of U.S. economic prosperity has been a constantly expanding debt spiral. As long as the U.S. government, state governments, businesses and American consumers could all continue to borrow increasingly large amounts of money, the economy was going to continue to grow and “the greatest party on earth” [...]
Congress Passes Bankster Consolidation Bill
Posted on 17. Jul, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy
Change has arrived. But it is not the sort of change imagined by the fawning mobs of 2008 at Obama’s campaign rallies. Obama and Congress have pulled a three-card Monte on the American people. It’s called “financial regulatory reform” and it hands unprecedented power over to the Federal Reserve. “This historic reform creates the strongest [...]
Some Issues Still Blocking Sept. 11 Trial, Holder Says
Posted on 11. Jul, 2010 by Shera Crossan in 9/11, Business & Finance, Hidden Crimes, Politics, Shera Crossan
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Sunday that the Obama administration was still working through a number of issues in determining a site for the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and four co-defendants. Mr. Holder said administration officials were taking into account the need for Congress [...]
U.S. Chamber of Commerce – Antiboycott
Posted on 08. Jul, 2010 by Shera Crossan in Business & Finance, Economy, Feedback, Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Free Speech, Hidden Crimes, Israel & Jewish Issues
So in other words….”THERE IS A LAW HERE IN THE USA THAT MAKES IT ILLEGAL TO BOYCOTT ISREAL!!!!!!! Antiboycott Issues Background During the mid-1970s the United States adopted two laws that seek to counteract the participation of U.S. citizens in other nation’s economic boycotts or embargoes. These “antiboycott” laws are the 1977 amendments to the [...]
‘Why Are Americans Fleeing the Job Market?’
Posted on 06. Jul, 2010 by Shera Crossan in Business & Finance, Economy, Opinion, Politics, Shera Crossan
Are we about to see a wave of Americans giving up on the labor market? The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ June jobs report saw the labor market lose 652,000 workers — a defection so large that it caused the nation’s unemployment rate to drop from 9.7% to 9.5%, not because jobs were created, but because [...]
Israel’s MA Pays $1 Billion for U.S. Herbicide Maker
Posted on 04. Jul, 2010 by Shera Crossan in Business & Finance, Health, Israel & Jewish Issues, Shera Crossan
Makhteshim Agan Industries, an agrochemical company based in Israel, will buy Albaugh, a maker of herbicide based in Iowa, for about $1 billion. The company, also known as MA Industries, said on Sunday that it had signed a letter of intent to pay $340 million in cash, $455 million in seven-year promissory notes and 59 [...]
Seventy Million Expired Flu Vaccines About to be Incinerated as Waste
Posted on 03. Jul, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Health
Forty million doses of H1N1 swine flu vaccine are about to go up in flames, and another 30 million will soon meet the same fate. They’ve expired, you see, and despite the CDC’s best efforts to push flu vaccines on the American people, the industry still couldn’t find a way to offload seventy million doses [...]
50 Random Facts That Make You Wonder What In The World Has Happened To America
Posted on 02. Jul, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Free Speech, Health, Immigration, Nathaniel Bacon, Politics, Race
Our world is changing at a pace that is so staggering these days that it can be really hard to fully grasp the significance of what we are witnessing. Hopefully the collection of random facts below will help you to “connect the dots” just a little bit. On one level, the facts below may not [...]
Spectre of the ‘Double Dip’
Posted on 02. Jul, 2010 by Nathaniel Bacon in Business & Finance, Economy, Nathaniel Bacon
Fears of an economic relapse across the world have begun to stalk markets again after pending homes sales in the US crashed by a third and a slew of weak data from China and Japan sent bourses tumbling across Asia. The credit system is once again flashing warnings of extreme fragility, with the yield on [...]
$10 Trillion Climate Exchange Fraud Leads All The Way To The White House
Posted on 29. Jun, 2010 by Shera Crossan in Business & Finance, Economy, Politics, Shera Crossan
Cap-And-Trade: While senators froth over Goldman Sachs and derivatives, a climate trading scheme being run out of the Chicago Climate Exchange would make Bernie Madoff blush. Its trail leads to the White House. Lost in the recent headlines was Al Gore’s appearance Monday in Denver at the annual meeting of the Council of Foundations, an [...]
Comments