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| The German proposal to establish a European monetary fund ran into skepticism at home and abroad Tuesday, highlighting the political and legal hurdles that such an undertaking would face. |
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| The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration. |
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| "Many countries have tried this and they've all failed," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. |
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American households saw their wealth increase at the end of last year, mainly because the healing economy boosted stock portfolios. |
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| Russia looks to common currency with Kazakhstan and Belarus |
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| Family homes in Detroit are selling for as little as $10 (£6) in the wake of America's financial meltdown. |
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| The Kansas City school board is closing nearly half of the district's schools in a desperate bid to stay afloat. |
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| The Federal Open Market Committee of the nation's central bank, an intricate part of the United States government may be continuing to destroy its source records, a policy it began in 1995 with an unrecorded vote -no fingerprints - conducted by then Chairman Alan Greenspan. |
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| The U.S. government ran its largest ever monthly budget deficit in February as the country's fiscal year-to-date deficit ballooned more than 10% to a record of $651.60 billion. |
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| House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank caused a bit of an uproar Friday when he suggested the U.S. government does not guarantee the debts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. |
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| In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave. |
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| • Leading US banks blamed for triggering financial crisis
• Policymakers propose a rival European monetary fund |
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| The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is trying to encourage public retirement funds that control more than $2 trillion to buy all or part of failed lenders, taking a more direct role in propping up the banking system, said people briefed on the matter. |
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| Internet sellers who don’t report their sales will no longer be under the radar. Starting next year, any bank or other payment settlement company that processes credit cards, debit cards, and electronic payments such as PayPal will have to issue information returns telling the IRS what merchants receive. |
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| The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday proposed a plan for the world's governments to pool together to raise money needed to adapt to climate change, a rare step for an organization that normally does not develop environmental policies. |
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| The head of China’s central bank has given the strongest signal yet that the country will move away from pegging its currency to the dollar, but he said any changes would be gradual. |
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| Iceland’s voters expressed their outrage on Saturday against bankers, the government and what they saw as foreign bullying, overwhelmingly rejecting a plan to pay $5.3 billion to Britain and the Netherlands to reimburse customers of a failed Icelandic bank, Sarah Lyall reported in The New York Times. |
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| Regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Utah, boosting to 26 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession. |
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| To meet the Obama administration’s targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, some researchers say, Americans may have to experience a sobering reality: gas at $7 a gallon. |
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| Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday. |
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| The so-called "Great Recession" has left Americans depending on the government dole like never before. |
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| A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro. |
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| The euro has become another "subprime" currency, afflicted by debts, funny bookkeeping, regulatory failure and widespread street protests in Greece and Spain. It's ironic that more violence-prone Americans didn't hit the streets, and throw rocks, when their living standards were sliced dramatically. Not yet anyway. |
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| Close to 3,000 banks are currently classified as having a risky concentration of commercial real estate loans, according to a recent report by the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP). All of them are small to mid-sized banks, already weakened by the financial crisis. |
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| Jamie Dimon, chairman of JP Morgan Chase, has warned American investors should be more worried about the risk of default of the state of California than of Greece's current debt woes. |
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| Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, suggested Friday that the organization one day might be called upon to provide countries with a global reserve currency that would serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. |
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| The US is heading for a debt-driven “financial meltdown” within five to seven years, according to Judd Gregg, the outgoing Republican senator for New Hampshire. |
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| A recent notice to Citigroup checking account holders that had clients and bloggers alike buzzing with theories of a pending bank run has brought to light a little-known Federal Reserve rule that, in very rare circumstances, could limit access to your money. |
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| The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance surged to just below the 500,000 level last week, and have climbed more than 12% over the past two weeks, the government said Thursday. |
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| Lawmakers said the former head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank had presided over a backdoor bailout of Wall Street firms and a coverup. Geithner countered that he had acted properly to avert the collapse of the financial system. |
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| The U.S. Treasury Department wants to give regulators discretion to define proprietary trading as the White House tries to revive its plan to bar banks from making hazardous bets that could cause another financial crisis. |
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| The number of "problem" U.S. banks jumped 27 percent during the fourth quarter of 2009 to 702, the highest level since 1993 and a sign the industry's recovery is still shaky, regulators reported on Tuesday. |
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| A top Federal Reserve official warned Monday that even as the economy starts to grow again, employers are likely to continue squeezing more productivity out of workers rather than start hiring new ones, thereby prolonging the economic crisis for the millions of unemployed. |
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Flash Back: Chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Barton Biggs says Insure yourself against war and disaster by buying a remote farm or ranch and stocking it with ``seed, fertilizer, canned food, wine, medicine, clothes, etc.'' |
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| This is the trick: replacing private debts with public obligations. Lots of people loaned money to banks and corporations in Iceland. They are now facing huge losses. |
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| In this week’s report we saw large sales from the CFOs of Netflix and Walter’s Industries. Arguably, there is no one more familiar with corporate financial condition than the CFO so we always take notice of insider sales by CFO’s. |
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| The image of banks locking their doors to keep customers from making withdrawals during a bank run is what immediately came to mind when we heard that Citigroup was telling customers it has the right to prevent any withdrawals from checking accounts for seven days. |
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| But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary. |
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| Customers of Bank of America are claiming the bank charges $8.99 a month for identity-theft protection and credit monitoring without authorization. |
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Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits. |
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| Recently while reviewing the bank participation reports (BPR) released each month by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading commission I noticed that, since November 2009, in silver and in some other commodities the CFTC has stopped listing the number of banks that hold positions. |
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| Man Says Actions Intended To Send Message To Banks |
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| It sounds far-fetched but, as Dr. Ron Paul highlights in his weekly column, Americans have no insight into the operations of the Federal Reserve. Therefore, the Fed can covertly funnel US funds to wherever it decides. This could include, for example, Greece, as it inches ever closer to default. |
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| The underground or "black" economy is rapidly rising, and the fault is mainly due to government policies. |
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| The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance unexpectedly surged last week, while producer prices increased sharply in January, raising potential hurdles for the economic recovery. |
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| U.S. states face a total shortfall of at least $1 trillion in their funds for employees' pensions and retirement benefits, and their financial problems are quickly mounting, according to a report released by the Pew Center on the States on Thursday |
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| Three pages of ABC neWz about the snowballing debt crisis and not one word about the WarBama regime’s absurd military spending increases and adventures. |
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| Will the European Union use Greece's debt crisis to claw more economic power away from its member governments? |
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| South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts has introduced legislation that would mandate that gold and silver coins replace federal currency as legal tender in his state. |
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| A record drop in foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury bills in December sent a reminder that the government might have to pay higher interest rates on its debt to continue to attract investors. |
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| China's holdings of US Treasury bonds tumbled in December, allowing Japan to take over as the top holder of American government debt, according to Treasury data released Tuesday. |
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| As it happens, the Cardosos are not the first family this year to sue Bank of America for illegal home invasion |
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| Stock markets in Dubai were down this morning as investors reacted nervously to the latest proposed solution to Dubai World’s $22 billion (£14 billion) debt crisis. |
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| The European Commission has said it is seeking answers following allegations that Wall Street investment banks helped Greece hide the extent of its debt. |
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| “WHEN some foreign nation restrains ... the importation of some of our manufactures ... revenge naturally dictates retaliation.” |
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| Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of. |
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| China sprung a surprise on global markets on the eve of its New Year's holiday with an increase in banks' reserve requirements, a move that can slow bank lending and tamp down on rising inflation. |
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A congressional oversight panel charged with scrutinising the Obama administration's bailout efforts has warned that $1.4tn of loans covering commercial premises will reach maturity between 2011 and 2014. After a plunge in property prices, nearly half of these loans are underwater, with borrowers owing more than their underlying property is worth. |
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| About 10,000 airport security workers will get access to secret intelligence that could help stop terrorist attacks on planes. |
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| The Financial Times newspaper reported on Thursday that Brown believes opinion has shifted decisively in favour of a globally coordinated tax after U.S. President Barack Obama's move last month to raise $90 billion from a U.S. bank levy. |
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| Bluecrest and Winton, two of Europe's biggest hedge fund firms, have signed up to industry body the Hedge Fund Standards Board (HFSB), giving a boost to the sector's efforts to fend off tough regulation and meet investor demands. |
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| Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules. At some point the so-called cross currency swaps will mature, and swell the country's already bloated deficit. |
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Germany and France are tomorrow expected to move to guarantee Greek solvency and to shore up the euro against assault from gamblers on the financial markets. |
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| Credit specialists at Citi are considering launching the first derivatives intended to pay out in the event of a financial crisis. The firm has drawn up plans for a tradable liquidity index, known as the CLX, on which products could be structured that allow buyers to hedge a spike in funding costs. |
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| The European Union is in need of a new economic strategy. |
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| Citigroup and Bank of America may be “too big to fail,” but the credit agencies aren’t counting on another bailout |
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| Dollar-denominated risk assets, including asset-backed securities and corporates, are no longer wanted at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), nor at China’s large commercial banks. |
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| According to an independent British newspaper editor, in the not-so-distant future, English drivers will be charged based upon the number of miles they drive, as is being done step-by-step in America.
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| In modern times, and with carefully engineered methods, this goal has for the most part been accomplished. However, these methods also have inherent weaknesses. Lies are fragile. They require constant attentiveness to keep them alive. |
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Greece's efforts to restore confidence in its finances have only called attention to its woes, and now investors are fretting debt contagion could spread to other countries, starting with similarly troubled Portugal, but with markets wondering who's next. |
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| Richard Nixon once said, “We’re all Keynesians now.” But that was a long time ago, and it’s certainly not the case anymore (if it ever was). |
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| The battle-stretched US military Saturday vowed to keep up US assistance in Haiti as long as needed on Saturday as it pointed to a likely 45 to 50 day armed mission. |
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