economic crisis

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How Banks' Fake Daisy-Chains Led to Meltdown
 How Banks' Fake 
 Daisy-Chains Led 
 to Meltdown 



investigation

How Banks' Fake Daisy-Chains Led to Meltdown

Self-dealing artificially propped up market for CDOs

(Newser) - An extensive ProPublica investigation reveals what it calls “one of the greatest episodes of self-dealing in financial history.” Banks, most notably Merrill Lynch, set the stage for the economic meltdown by rewarding themselves for said “self-dealing” during the final two years of the housing bubble. They created...

G20 Leaders Head Home, Vowing to Cut Deficits

Economic powers set goals for reducing public debt

(Newser) - The leaders of the Group of 20 nations wrapped up their 2-day summit today in Toronto, striking an agreement to reduce deficits over the next 3 to 6 years without endangering the global economic rebound. The major economic powers vowed to cut their deficits in half by 2013 and "...

Bottled Water Sales Head Down the Drain

Environmentalists claim credit; industry blames economy

(Newser) - Bottled water sales are sinking, and environmentalists point triumphantly to their hard-fought campaign against the wasteful industry. Consumption is expected to drop 2% this year, following a 3.2% drop last year, MSNBC reports. But industry executives say it’s just a natural result of the economic downturn, noting that...

Detroit's Silverdome Sells for 1% of $56M Cost

Stunning bargain sale marks state's desperation

(Newser) - In a stunning sign of the imploding economy, Detroit is selling its $56 million sports dome for a bargain basement $580,000. The 80,000-seat Pontiac Silverdome, once home to the Detroit Lions, went for 1 percent of the cost to build it 35 years ago. The city of Pontiac...

Pittsburgh G-20 March Proceeds Peacefully

Demonstration free of violence that marked yesterday's protests

(Newser) - Protesters again marched in Pittsburgh today while world leaders met at the G-20 summit, but the demonstration has so far been peaceful, in marked contrast to the mayhem that marked yesterday’s rally. The demonstration, organized by the antiwar Thomas Merton Center, made its way across town after an opening...

Fed Sees More Signs of Recovery

(Newser) - The economy is finally beginning to show signs of stabilizing in some parts of the US, bolstering hopes of a broader-based recovery this year. A Federal Reserve snapshot of economic conditions issued today finds that most of the Fed's 12 regions indicated either that "the pace of decline has...

Goldman's Gains Are America's Losses
 Goldman's Gains Are America's Losses 
OPINION

Goldman's Gains Are America's Losses

Record earnings show Wall Street behavior hasn't changed

(Newser) - Goldman Sachs’ record profits are good for the firm and “bad for America,” writes an irate Paul Krugman in the New York Times. With unemployment soaring, we’re seeing that “Wall Street’s bad habits” haven’t changed, and the government has actually made another crisis more...

Recession Will Cost More Jobs, End 'Before Long': Fed

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve is confident the general economy is turning around but still pessimistic on the jobs part, the Wall Street Journal reports. In June meeting minutes issued today, those gathered agreed that data since April “indicated that the economic contraction was slowing and that the decline in activity...

Nice Trip, Now Get Back to Work, Mr. President

(Newser) - President Obama got his usual hero's welcome overseas, but this trip seemed "jarring and discordant" back in the US, writes Cynthia Tucker in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Our economic news keeps getting worse by the day, yet at summit after summit, “photos of the Obamas in resplendent, gold-bedecked palaces...

Krugman to Obama: I Told You So
Krugman
to Obama:
I Told You So
OPINION

Krugman to Obama: I Told You So

Bush-style hedging on possible 2nd stimulus isn't helping anyone

(Newser) - A second economic stimulus package looks increasingly necessary, and President Obama may get "caught in a political-economic trap" if he doesn't act soon, warns Paul Krugman in the New York Times. The Fed is out of the picture, and the White House has to deal with legislators convinced that...

G8 Leaders Stumble on Climate Change
 G8 Leaders Stumble 
 on Climate Change
G8 Roundup

G8 Leaders Stumble on Climate Change

Obama urges a tougher stance on Iran, N. Korea nuclear programs

(Newser) - World leaders gathered in L’Aquila, Italy, today for the G8 summit. Highlights from the day's meetings:
  • A forum organized by President Obama for the world’s 17 biggest polluters failed to approve a proposal to cut global emissions by 50% by 2050, the New York Times reports. The group
...

Pope Urges New World Order for Global Economy

(Newser) - Pope Benedict delivers a broad criticism of contemporary capitalism in his latest encyclical, the Washington Post reports. The biggest problem with businesses today is that “they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors,” Benedict writes in the 144-page document. He proposes a radically different economic model in which...

Economic Crisis Hits Al Qaeda, Too
Economic
Crisis Hits
Al Qaeda, Too

Economic Crisis Hits Al Qaeda, Too

Terrorist activities must wait as fundraising falters

(Newser) - Al Qaeda operations are struggling due to a lack of capital brought on in part by the global economic downturn, the New York Post reports. “In Afghanistan, we have a severe supply deficit,” the group said in a plea for donations. “Mujahideen sit and wait and cannot...

Zuma's First Big Test: South Africa's 23% Jobless

At 23.5%, unemployment keeps nation locked in poverty

(Newser) - South Africa is facing its first post-apartheid recession, and unemployment has hit 23.5%—a punishing figure that has ended the honeymoon of its new president, Jacob Zuma. Many who voted for Zuma have never had a job at all and are desperate for work, Celia Dugger reports for the...

Jobless Cling to Their Faith in Detroit

Religions offer comfort as jobless face pain, hunger

(Newser) - Thousands of Detroit's jobless are coping with fear and desperation by falling back on faith, the Detroit Free Press reports. Houses of worship are increasingly fielding calls from people seeking jobs, food, and housing—but above all, congregants say, they find comfort. "When the tension comes and the pressure...

Chile's Thrift Pays Off as Downturn Bites Elsewhere

Finance minister hailed for dodging commodity bubble

(Newser) - Chile's thrifty finance minister is starting to look like a prophet as spendthrift, "grasshopper" economies founder around him, the Wall Street Journal reports. Andres Velasco's tight grip on the country's copper revenue during the commodities boom made him and his party deeply unpopular at the time, but the country...

Biggest US 'Bankers' Bank' Fails

(Newser) - The FDIC has shut down a Georgia-based bank that was the largest in the country to accept deposits exclusively from other banks, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some argued that Silverton Bank—known as the Bankers' Bank until last year—was “too big to fail.” The FDIC has...

Financial 'Pearl Harbor' Is Past, Says Buffett

Oracle confident as he prepares to be buffeted by shareholders

(Newser) - The Oracle of Omaha still sees tough times ahead for the US economy, but he says he thinks the worst is in the past, CNCBC reports. “We’re at a war now to some degree, but Pearl Harbor was September,” Warren Buffett says. “There was a strike...

British MPs Blast Bankers For 'Astonishing Mess'

Report by finance committee blames HBOS, RBS for meltdown

(Newser) - Bankers bear the majority of blame for the global economic crisis for having made "an astonishing mess of the financial system," an investigation by the British parliament's finance committee has concluded. The Treasury Select Committee said in a report that bailed-out banks such as HBOS and Royal Bank...

UK Billionaires' Ranks Halved in Downturn

Wealthiest lose collective $228B

(Newser) - The number of UK billionaires has been almost cut in half by economic woes, from 75 to 43, with the country’s wealthiest having lost a collective $228 billion, the Times of London reports. The hardest-hit was steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who remains Britain’s richest man despite having lost...

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