Cleveland Sues 21 Lenders Over Subprime Mortgages
By Christopher Maag - New York Times (12 Jan 2008)
See City of Cleveland Press Release for a list of lenders.
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Click the image to view the entire Complaint.
On the left: From a Case Western Reserve Study
On the right: From the Plain Dealer ~ Data source, City of Cleveland
Urgent Action on Behalf of Oaxacan Political Prisoners
From Food First (21 Jan 2008)
Learn more about Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca
Countrywide’s Underwriters Sued for Fraud by New York Agencies
By David Mildenberg & Karen Freifeld - Bloomberg.com (26 Jan 2008)
The New York lawsuit has been consolidated with other lawsuits against Countrywide. Here is the consolidating order of the District Court (Central District of California). New York is ordered to file a consolidated complaint on February 5th.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to see the numbers on how much the the members of the bar will make on the housing bust vs how much they made engineering the bubble?
Click here to view the full Consolidating Order.
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Mortgage Lender Hid Big Risks, Suit Alleges
By James Nash - Columbus Dispatch (23 Jan 2008)
“The giant mortgage financer known as Freddie Mac swindled an Ohio pension system out of as much as $27 million by concealing its heavy investments in the battered subprime lending industry, Attorney General Marc Dann alleges in a lawsuit.
Dann said the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. “secretly and intentionally participated in one of the largest housing investment deceptions in modern U.S. economic times.”
The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Youngstown, alleges that Freddie Mac downplayed its investments in subprime lenders before its stock nosedived in November on news that it lost $2 billion in the third quarter, largely because of the collapse in the subprime market.”
Click here to view the full Complaint.
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Earlier news re insider selling by senior Barrick executives has me wondering what they know about market liquidity, 2008 prices for precious and base metals and how they know it. The heads of exploration, operations and the general counsel take their holdings down to ZERO? In my day, you only did that if you expected indictments, resignations or a drop in prices sufficient to put the company under. But then again, times have changed.
Hard to square these sales with Barrick’s leaders’ recent bullish comments:
Munk Sees Even Higher Gold Prices
From thestar.com (26 Jan 2008)
Usually it’s the “lone” assassin. Now that coup d’etats are financial, we have the “lone” or “rogue” trader.
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The lone trader strikes again ala 2008:
SocGen Reels From Record $7billion Rogue Trader Fraud
By Sudip Kar-Gupta - Reuters (Jan 2008)SocGen Director Offloaded Eur100m Worth of Shares
By Dearball Jordan - TimesOnline (28 Jan 2008)
Updates on this story:
French Police Hold SocGen Trader
By Martin Arnold, et al - FinancialTimes.com (25 Jan 2008)SocGen Accused of Smokescreen After Loss
By Martin Arnold, et al - FinancialTimes.com (27 Jan 2008)Rogue Trader to Escape Fraud Charges as it Emerges His Brother Was Sacked For ‘Get Rich Scheme’
The Daily Mail (29 Jan 2008)
The lone trader strikes ala 1995:
Markets Shaken as a British Bank Takes a Big Loss
By Richard W. Stevenson - New York Times (27 Feb 1995)
You Should Be Wary of This Market Rebound
By John Crudele - New York Post (24 Jan 2008)US Slides Into Dangerous 1930s ‘Liquidity Trap’
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - London Telegraph (25 Jan 2008)GreenStockInvesting - Picking Winners in the Clean-Tech Boom
Selling Out Grandma
By Emily Udell - In These TImes (21 Jan 2008)Stanford Endowment Soars, Congress Takes Notice
By Carrie Sturrock - San Francisco Chronicle (24 Jan 2008)Startling Jump in California Foreclosures
By Carolyn Said - San Francisco Chronicle (23 Jann 2008)New Zealand Well-Prepared For Global Slowdown
By Hon Dr. Michael Cullen - Minister of Finance (24 Jan 2008)Stock Market Follies
By Chris Sanders - Sanders Research (23 Jan 2008)Abu Dhabi Becomes Larggest Citigroup Shareholder With $7.5B Investment, Bailout Comes Amidst Subprime Mortgage Cirsis, Record-High Oil Prices
A Democracy Now Interview (29 Nov 2007
Fed Cuts Interest Rate 3/4 of a Point
By Martin Crutsinger - AP Economics (22 Jan 2008)
Bank of England Under Pressure to Cut Rates as Global Markets Meltdown Sparks Recession Fear
From thisislondon.co.uk (22 Jan 2008)Ambac Downgraded, Cities Seen at Risk
By Stephen Bernard & Leslie Wines - Associated Press (19 Jan 2008)Shareholders Set for EUR1bn of Loss-Making German Bank
By Christine Seib - Times Online (22 Jan 2008)Stocks Plummet in Germany, Hong Kong, India, Brazil in Rout
By Sarah Thompson - Bloomberg.com (22 Jan 2008)Overseas Filipino Workers Told to Shun Dollars For Pesos
From the "Random Jottings" Column - The Manila Times (21 Jan 2008)The Current Credit Crunch is More Than The Bursting of A ‘Bubble’
By D. Murali - The Hindu (16 Jan 2008)Government’s Court Order Plan Will Allow People in Debt to Keep Their Creditors at Bay
By Grainne Gilmore - Times Online (17 Jan 2008)Ambac Slumps on Plan to Raise Capital; CEO Leaves
By Allistair Barr & Greg morcroft - MarketWatch (16 Jan 2008)Trading in Deal Stocks Triggers Look at Banks
By Mark Maremont - Associated Press (14 Jan 2008)Predictions 2008: Gloom, Doom and Silver Linings
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - London Telegraph (2 Jan 2008)Moody’s Says Overspending Threatens U.S. Debt Rating
By Francesco Guerrera, et al - Financial Times, London (10 Jan 2008)
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Don’t Trust Gold and Silver ETFs To Have Any Metal
By Richard J. Greene - Thunder Capital Management (24 Jan 2008)Sunken Treasure of Silver Now a Court Battle
Associated Press Article (24 Jann 2008)Treasury’s Gold Auditor Doesn’t Know If Reserves Are Leased or Swapped
By Jerome R. Corsi - WorldNetDaily.com (25 Jan 2008)
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Nursery Sources for Edible and Useful Plants
At Permaculture ActivistSeeds of Change ~ Organics
American Farmers Turn to Profitable Agritourism USDA Says
By Paul Icamina - AllHeadlineNews.com (8 Jan 2008)
~ Agritourism: The Connecticut ExampleUSDA Seeks Public Comment on Genetically Engineered Alfalfa
By Rachel Iadicicco & Angela Harless - USDA (Jann 2008)American Airlines WiFi Will Cost $10-$13 - Anti-Missle System Still Free
By Thomas Ricker - Engadget (23 Jan 2008)Cell Phone Radiation Wrecks Your Sleep
By Geoffrey Lean - The Independent UK (20 Jan 2008)Nestle Loses Sales as Alice Waters Bans Bottled Water
By Mary Jane Credeur & Thomas Mulier - Bloomberg.com (24 Jan 2008)Embryonic Stem Cells Create Healthy Muscle in Mice
By Madeline Vann - e-Vitamins.com ( 20 Jan 2008)Action Alert: Funding School Gardens Via The 2007 Farm Bill
At kidsgardening.org (19 Dec 2007)Transforming Communities Through Locally-Grown Food
By Carolyn Banker - Speaking Truth to Power (17 Jan 2008)There’s No Inflation, But British Food Costs Are Soaring Anyway
By James Kirkup - London Telegraph (15 Jan 2008)Merck Vaccine Chief Brings HIV/AIDS to America
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Preserving Culture & Community As Well As We Do History
By Sam Smith - Progressive Review (Jan 2008)America’s Got Talent (Chicago) - Terry Fator
‘Idol’ Ratings Down From Last Year
Associated Press (17 Jan 2008)Golfweek Editor Out For Putting Noose on Cover
From Associated Press - MSNBC (18 Jan 2008)
EOL - Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Life
A collaborative design and build project that addresses issues of sustainable and afforadable design in the context of the ubiquitous American trailer park.
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The Fight to Free the Charleston 5
By Suzan Erem & E. Paul Durrenberger - On The Global Waterfront
Russian Bombers to Test-Fire Missiles in Bay of Biscay
The Times Online (22 Jan 2008)Pre-emptive Nuclear Strike a Key Option, Nato Told
By Ian Traynor - The Guardian (22 Jan 2008)Bahrain: Testimony Regarding Currently Detained Human Rights Defenders
By Chris Michael - The Hub (Dec 2007)Big Business is Even More Unpopular Than You Think
By Robert Weissman - CommonDreams.org (16 Jan 2008)Museum Provides Detail From Nazi Archive
By Desmond Butler - Associated Press (18 Jan 2008)
Forced Loyalty Oath Locks Kucinich Out of Texas Primary
By Michael Collins - Scoop Independent News (19 Jan 2008)FBI Denies File Exposing Nuclear Secrets Theft
By Chris Gourlay, et al - Times Online (20 Jan 2008)Dum-De-Dum
By Howard Switzer - The Green PartySacramento, You’ve Never Been Better. See Ya!
By Mark Drolette - Sacramento Bee (6 Jan 2008)US Plans ‘Robot Troops’ For Iraq
From the BBC News (23 Jan 2005)Appeals Court Decision: Guantanamo Detainees Not "Persons"
By Greg Gordon - McClatchy Newspapers (11 Jan 2008)
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That’s it. I’m ditching Google. It is lots of little things, but the reality is I don’t trust ‘em.
Centralizing internet data does not lend itself to promoting freedom, particularly the way these guys are doing it.
Criticism of Google ~ at Wikipedia
Investment Banking Revenues for 2007
For those of you who keep asking me “Who is doing this?” here is a very
useful tool from the Financial Times which provides revenue and deal value rankings of the global investment banks for 2007.
(Click the image to access the full tool.)