Group items tagged

The growing crisis in the eurozone threatened to undermine the global economic recovery as markets plunged across the world on fears that European leaders may not be able to contain the debt contagion spreading from Greece.

The audacious bid to protect the euro with a massive rescue fund seems to be faltering. The euro is still losing value as investors worry about the consequences of tough austerity measures. German papers on Friday dissect the common currency's ongoing problems.

The point of all of this is, if you add up all of the MBS-related liability out there, the banks as it stands are facing an Armageddon of claims from all sides. It can't possibly be less than a trillion dollars, and it's probably much, much more. But the Obama administration's current plan is to let them all walk after paying a few shekels apiece into a $20 billion kitty.

As intense protests spawned by Occupy Wall Street continue to grow, it is worth asking: Why now? The answer is not obvious. After all, severe income and wealth inequality have long plagued the United States. In fact, it could reasonably be claimed that this form of inequality is part of the design of the American founding -- indeed, an integral part of it.

Occupy Wall Street: The Beginning Joe Rogan on Occupy Wallstreet:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjMcDXGkR8I Network -- Corporate Cosmology:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqEcLlp_Big THE CORPORATION [1/23] What is a Corporation?:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pin8fbdGV9Y What CNN doesn't want you see ever again:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_2aTzC_4kY Poll: Americans Distrust Governmenthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylEEnEp0Lbg Elizabeth Warren: Death of the Middle Classhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBf70qX1sBw Dylan Ratigan (rightfully) loses it on air:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIcqb9hHQ3E GREEN WAR:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ864ucbR_4 Network - Mad as hellhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ELleCQvew In the House, In a Heartbeat - John Murphy:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST2H8FWDvEACategory:News & Politics

Arab nations finally won agreement from the US and the other nuclear powers to take the first step toward banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. Now, the next move is Israel's.

If the left doesn't come up with a credible and comprehensive alternative to a focus on reducing the deficit, argues FPIF columnist Walden Bello, the far right might eventually fill the policy vacuum.

When the spending bubble popped, it ushered in the era of the incredible shrinking consumer. Demand is weak, and companies are looking to do more with less by stretching their workforce and filling the gaps with cheap labor, even part-timers. Indeed of Brookings' 20 strongest cities have average or below average cost-of-living, and most of those cities have below average wages.

Unlike Zimbabwe, the US can easily get the currency it needs without being beholden to anyone. But wouldn't that dilute the value of the currency? No.

What really went on at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen? Secret recordings reveal how China and India prevented an agreement on tackling climate change at the crucial meeting. The powerless Europeans were forced to look on as the agreement failed.

Emergency moves by the European Central Bank on Monday and the €110bn ($145bn) international rescue package agreed over the weekend have failed to quell investor fears about the future of the eurozone as concerns have risen about other member countries' stability.

Meanwhile, the banks that caused much of this mess are getting all their money back. A more equitable approach would require the banks to pay at least part of the bill - writing down the debts of some European governments or extending their maturities into the future to allow battered European economies time to recover.

The deal widens a divide between a group of countries led by the U.S., on the one hand, and developing nations on the other, over the right of Iran and other developing nations to use nuclear energy.

The pain of the European debt crisis is spreading, with the plummeting euro making Chinese companies less competitive in Europe, their largest market, and complicating any move to break the Chinese currency's peg to the dollar.

Brazil and Turkey, which were represented by their presidents in the talks, invested significant diplomatic cache in the negotiations. It is rare for non-permanent members of the Security Council to intervene in a process led by nuclear powers, and in many ways the result could be seen as a revolt by smaller powers over the rights to nuclear power and prestige.

The 750 billion euro package the European Union passed last week to prop up the common currency has been heavily criticized in Germany. Former Bundesbank head Karl Otto Pöhl told SPIEGEL that Greece may ultimately have to opt out, and that the foundation of the euro has been fundamentally weakened.

Markets in the United States and Europe fell and the euro hit another low for the year on Thursday after the European Central Bank disappointed investors hoping for decisive action to contain the euro zone's increasingly virulent debt crisis.

The future of the U.S. economic recovery is in the hands of politicians in an assortment of European capitals. If one or more fail to make the expected progress on cutting budgets, restructuring economies or boosting growth, it could drain confidence in a broad and unsettling way. Credit markets worldwide could lock up and throw the global economy back into recession.

Not long ago I was sitting at home writing something for publication - I won't say what, except that it was a passage about a certain politician on the Hill. Out of habit I launched into a description that was full of nasty and personal language, and I was about to press on to the next part of the piece when suddenly I hit a mental speed bump. A voice in my head whispered - this really happened - "If you write that shit and Bernie Sanders sees it, he's going to be disappointed in you." So I went back and removed the gratuitous body blows from the article.