World-News: USA

USA

By Niall Ferguson

US government debt is a safe haven the way Pearl Harbor was a safe haven in 1941.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24650.htm

The End of Influence: What Happens When Other Countries Have America's Money

By Stephen S. Cohen and J. Bradford DeLong

America's leading role in the international economy is waning as other world powers find themselves holding onto trillions in U.S. debt.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24653.htm

The New Junk Economics: From Democracy to Neoliberal Oligarchy

Audio Interview With Dr. Michael Hudson

We discuss the Federal Reserve; money as debt; Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's misconception of the causes of the great depression of the 1930's; classical political economy versus anti-classical, so-called "neoclassical", economics; the labor theory of value; the dollar carry trade; government deficit spending; Greece.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24654.htm

You Think Greece Has Problems?

Latvia's Road to Serfdom

By Prof Michael Hudson and Prof. Jeff Summers

It is indeed time to start worrying about whether the Baltics may be a dress rehearsal for what we are about to see in the United States.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24688.htm

Goldman Sachs: the Greek connection

Goldman Sachs, the giant investment bank, is today at the centre of the row over the Greek government's finances, amid recriminations over complex financial deals that allowed the eurozone nation to skirt its debt limits.

http://snipurl.com/udn6s

Goldman Goes Rogue - Special European Audit To Follow

We learn - from Der Spiegel last week and today's NYT - that Goldman Sachs has not only helped or encouraged some European governments to hide a large part of their debts, but it also endeavored to do so for Greece as recently as last November.

http://snipurl.com/udn71

Commercial Real Estate Losses Could Hit $300 Billion

Losses from defaults on commercial real estate loans maturing in the next few years could go as high as $300 billion, threatening to topple nearly 3,000 community banks nationwide, a federal watchdog group has concluded.

http://snipurl.com/udn7e

US banks facing $1.4tn crisis over commercial property loans

America's fragile high street banks are bracing themselves for a fresh financial crunch as a wave of commercial property mortgages go sour on offices, shops and factories, causing losses of up to $300bn (£192bn) hitting nearly 3,000 small- and medium-sized financial institutions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/11/banks-crisis-commercial-property-loans

--------

Michael Hudson discusses the 'neoliberal oligarchy' the U.S. has become
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9411/

--------

Speculators Playing with Debt

C.M., L'Humanite: "How speculators make their profits and accumulate fortunes on the backs of the Greek people. An invention of the financial witch-doctors, the CDS, or "credit default swap" finds its origin in insurance policies on loans, guaranteeing them against default of reimbursement by a state or an enterprise. They have now become the fatted calves for Anglo-American speculative hedge funds."

http://www.truthout.org/speculators-playing-with-debt56940

--------

Are US Taxpayers Bailing Out Greece?
http://list.lewrockwell.com/t/1830297/12759198/112380/0/

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bernanke
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Federal+Reserve
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=debt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=deficit+spending
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=neoliberal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oligarchy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=The+Great+Depression
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=real+estate
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+institut
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Goldman+Sachs
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=speculat
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=hedge+fund
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=taxpayer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Niall+Ferguson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Stephen+S.+Cohen
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=J.+Bradford+DeLong
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Hudson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ron+Paul

rudkla - 11. Feb, 22:20

America is Still in an Official State of Emergency

By Washington's Blog

I don't know whether the official declaration of a "state of emergency" in effect from September 2001 to today was directly used for financial looting. But again, the fear of an existential threat to our country was used to justify the looting.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24651.htm

rudkla - 11. Feb, 22:15

US court: Law does not protect identities of lobbyists

Beat The Chip

02/09/10

Today a federal appeals court rejected a government claim of ‘lobbyist privacy’ to hide the identities of individuals who pressured Congress to grant immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the government’s warrantless electronic surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans. As the court observed, ‘There is a clear public interest in public knowledge of the methods through which well-connected corporate lobbyists wield their influence’...

http://tinyurl.com/ylf6a7t

Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Feds Push for Tracking Cell Phones
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/mccullagh5.1.1.html

--------

Lobbyists Laughing at Obama 'All the Way to the Bank'
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/12-10

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=lobbyists
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=telecoms+immunity
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=warrantless
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=surveillance
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mccullagh
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Arthur+Delaney

rudkla - 11. Feb, 09:53

US foreclosure filings surpass 300,000 for 11th month in a row

Business Week

02/11/10

U.S. foreclosure filings rose 15 percent in January from a year earlier and exceeded 300,000 for the 11th consecutive month as modification programs failed to keep delinquent borrowers in their homes, RealtyTrac Inc. said. A total of 315,716 properties received a notice of default, auction or bank seizure last month, or one in 409 households, the Irvine, California-based seller of default data said today in a statement. Filings fell 10 percent from December...

http://tinyurl.com/yh6rd6j

Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=foreclosure

rudkla - 11. Feb, 09:45