By Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story

Billions of dollars were at stake when 21 executives of Goldman Sachs and the American International Group convened a conference call on Jan. 28, 2008, to try t…

SWIFT headquarters in La Hulpe.

The civil liberties committee in the European Parliament on Thursday recommended that the parliament’s MPs reject a deal that would allow U.S. authorities to contin…

The world’s central bankers began arriving in Australia yesterday as renewed fears about the strength of the global economic recovery gripped world share markets.

Representatives from 24 central bank…

Continue reading A No-Nonsense Look at Long-Term Care

WASHINGTON – Al Qaeda can be expected to attempt an attack on the United States in the next three to six months, senior intelligence officials told Congress yesterday.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said …

By Jason Ditz

In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee today, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told representatives that American citizens can be assassinated by the US gover…

By: Eamon Javers

In the midst of two wars and the fight against Al Qaeda, the CIA is offering operatives a chance to peddle their expertise to private companies on the side — a policy that gives …

By Ellen Nakashima

The world’s largest Internet search company and the world’s most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement th…

Eustace Clarence Mullins, Jr. was born in Roanoke, Virginia, the third child of Eustace Clarence Mullins (1899-1961) and his wife Jane Katherine Muse (1897-1971). His father was a salesman in a ret…

By Stephen Bernard and Ieva M. Augstums

The New York Attorney General’s office said Thursday it filed civil charges against Bank of America and its former CEO Ken Lewis, saying the bank misled inve…

Photo: Daniel Kurtzman’s Political Humor Blog

Dennis Bernstein, of the KPFA radio show, Flashpoints, interviewed Catherine last night (Feb 3, 2010.) Listen to the portion of the interview where Catherine talks about small business:

Listen to the…

By Tony Capaccio

The U.S. military plans to more than triple its inventory of high-altitude, armed and unarmed drones capable of 24-hour patrols by 2020.

The long-range aviation plan delivered to …

Every year, farmers in the rural town Inakadate, Japan create rice field art by using red rice in with their regular rice in special patterns.

Continue reading Japanese Rice Fields

Continue reading Who Owns Organic

By Jesse

“more than 519 municipalities that face 990 million euros in derivatives losses”

As the quote indicates, its a big problem, and Bank of America is not the only bank involved. But they are…

By Rebecca Christie

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said he has continued to support the strong dollar policy he helped craft in the Clinton administration when he worked for his predec…

By Brady Dennis

American International Group plans Wednesday to pay another round of employee bonuses, worth about $100 million, said several people familiar with the matter, a year after similar p…

By Tyler Durden

Yes, slowly but surely it is happening. In a federal notice filed earlier, the DOL and Treasury are soliciting a response on what has been on many investors’ mind, namely the proces…

From Wikipedia

A Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is a government financial statement, which goes beyond the minimums established for public sector companies by NCGA (National Council o…

By Lance Lewis

Since December 2009, gold bears have had a ray of hope as gold has corrected (as all bull markets do), and now the bears are keying in on a headline from George Soros today: Gold…

By PK Semler

A proposal by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to limit bank’s proprietary trading will be either be dropped or significantly modified in the Senate, lawmakers and staffe…

By Tyler Durden

The chart below demonstrates the amount of borrowing per state, as well as trust fund holdings.

(View Larger Chart)

Continue reading A Majority Of States Are Now Insolvent: Quantif…

By F. William Engdahl

Former President becomes UN Special Envoy to earthquake-stricken Haiti.

A born-again neo-conservative US business wheeler-dealer preacher claims Haitians are condemned…

By Margaret Collins and Alexis Leondis

U.S. President Barack Obama’s effort to increase retirement savings by requiring all businesses to offer automatic IRA accounts may face opposition from sma…

By David Reilly

The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water, and peanut butter. After this…

By Scott Thompson and Paul Gallagher

If the rising movement of American patriots is going to clean out the London/Wall Street swamp of the Obama Administration, not only must Treasury Secretary…

Continue reading Boston Globe Names Elizabeth Warren ‘Bostonian of the Year’

Related articles:

Should You Care About Bernanke’s Reappointment?
Daily Finance (26 Feb 10)

By Doug Wakefield and Ben Hill

(View larger chart)

This chart is from the December 2009 issue of The Investors Mind)

Continue reading Unfinished Business: 2009

There recently was an article in the St. Petersburg Fl. Times. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on: “How Would You Fix the Economy?”

I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr. President,

Ple…

By Robert Britt

Tonight’s full moon — called the wolf moon — will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see …

1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s
3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates
4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
5. Europe Blocks US Toxi…

Whitley Strieber writes, “For years, I have grappled with strange memories from early childhood that suggested involvement in some sort of abusive program. But I was never sure what these memorie…

J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose “The Catcher in the Rye” shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.

Salinger died of nat…

By Jesse

Just returned last night from Beijing. While on standby at airport from 11:30 AM until 6:30 PM (all classes of all half-hourly flights of all airlines were overbooked and loaded full, and …

By Sven Egenter

The police commander heading security at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland was found dead on Tuesday, local authorities said, adding that his death appeared to be suicide.

Mark…

The heavily-redacted regulatory filing that spells out the details of the New York Federal Reserve’s controversial bailout of American International Group is a secret no more.

Reuters has obtained …

By Michael B. Marois

The California State Teachers Retirement System, the second biggest U.S. public pension, will need to ask taxpayers for more money after investment losses left it underfunded b…

By Emily Singer

The anti-aging power of blood might not be just the stuff of vampire stories. According to new research from Harvard University, an unspecified factor in the blood of young mice can r…

From the Federal Register today:

[Federal Register: January 28, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 18)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 4635-4654]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo….

Ben Bernanke’s great reflation gamble appears to be working. Unfortunately, it appears to be working in all the wrong places.

View Larger Chart

Continue reading The Trillion Dollar Mean Reve…

CAF Note: Not enough time to ask about:

the Chair of the NY Fed being a former Goldman Co-Chair, a member of the Goldman board and shareholder;
what % of the shares of the NY Fed bank are owned …

By James MacPherson

A federal appeals court on Tuesday affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit by two North Dakota farmers who said they should be allowed to grow industrial hemp wit…

By Joe Weisenthal and Kamelia Angelova

Continue reading Chart of The Day: How The AIG Bailout Really Worked

1. You and those you love are your assets – invest in you, your health, your homebase and your own business first;

2. Bank and do business with people you respect and trust;

3. Stick with the primar…

The 2010 State of the Union Address will be given by United States President Barack Obama on January 27, 2010, to a joint session of Congress. It will be Obama’s first State of the Union Address, th…

I am watching the Congressional testimony about AIG. It’s a parade of people lying to themselves and to you. My expectation is that you will get a much more accurate explanation of the government’s gi…

Today the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held hearings on: “The Federal Bailout of AIG” to examine the Federal response to the collapse of AIG. The hearing will focus on the deci…

By Tyler Durden

Zero Hedge discussed a month ago the disastrous prospects of what would happen if the new proposal contemplated by the SEC, which would allow the suspension of redemptions from Money …

By Ryan Grim

A Republican senator said Tuesday that documents showing Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernake covered up the fact that his staff recommended he not bailout AIG are being kept fro…

By Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story

Weeks after rescuing the American International Group with an $85 billion taxpayer loan in late 2008, Federal Reserve Board officials rejected a proposal that…

By Rob Kirby

According to the most recent data from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the notional value of derivatives held by U.S. commercial banks increased $804 billion in the t…

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed! You’re facilitating the problem if you give an anim…

View Larger Map

By Nick Turse

One moment there was the hum of a motor in the sky above. The next, on a recent morning in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, a missile blasted a home, killing 13 people. Days later,…

By Joe Weisenthal and Kamelia Angelova

View Larger Chart

In the last several days, a view emerged that the tightening has un-officially begun.

Continue reading Chart of The Day: Say Goodbye To The…

By David Voreacos, Carlyn Kolker and Klaus Wille

A Swiss court ruling that impedes the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to collect data on 4,450 UBS AG accounts may prompt the U.S. to revive a …

By Michael Shuman

Since the global financial system unraveled in 2008, U.S. policymakers have struggled heroically to improve the performance and oversight of global banks and investment firms. But t…

U.S. securities regulators originally treated the New York Federal Reserve’s bid to keep secret many of the details of the American International Group bailout like a request to protect matters of n…