Influential liberal columnist (and Nobel economics laureate) Paul Krugman struck back today in his New York Times blog against critics of the Waxman-Markey bill who view cap-and-trade as an open invitation to massive new depredations by Wall Street. Michael Hoexter, Ph.D., a blogger and consultant on policy, energy efficiency and green marketing to businesses and government, and a previous contributor to this page, sent this reply, which we reprint, with Michael’s permission, in full

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Has Krugman Fallen Prey to the Progressives’ Blind Spot?

Boris Johnson met UL students and staff this morning at the official launch of a new careers website designed to help graduates find work in London, despite the recession. The Mayor said the new online resource was “a very exciting jobs portal that I’m pleased City Hall have been involved in developing”. Anne-Marie Martin, Director of The Careers Group, University of London who collaborated with the Mayor’s Office on the project, said the website would “help graduates to expand their career

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London Mayor Boris Johnson launches new careers website

The Russian authorities, yet again, are taking decisive steps to deal with the economic crisis.  This time, they are threatening a foreign investor with expropriation of property (without due compensation by simply revoking licenses) if production does not increase to satisfactory levels. As Foreign Policy notes , this is not a one-off incident.  Foreign investors in labor intensive industries may be coming under the same pressure that local companies are already facing – pressure to keep up production levels, despite an economic downturn, to avoid social distress connected with job losses (see the story of Pikalevo ). Some time ago, a paper by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and George Downs detailed very well how modern authoritarian leaders remain in power by reaping the benefits of economic growth (driven by things like demand for resources) and using those benefits as a trade off between political freedoms and social stability.  Russia’s story may be giving some more credibility to their arguments.

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Comply or else…

By Danica Hampton The currency markets have retreated from six week highs, as equity markets and the demand for risk appetite eased on concerns regarding the CIT Group and cautionary testimony from Bernanke. This sees the NZD/USD open this morning at the 0.6525 level, some way off its exhaustive move to the 0.6600 level in the London session. Once again our flows see leveraged and proprietary traders adding to their ‘long” positions, with some ongoing real money demands however, while the l

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Opinion: Kiwi$ lower on CIT concerns and Bernanke testimony

  Housing starts improve a little more – Tim Iacono – The Census Bureau reported(.pfd) a jump in housing starts and permits for new construction in June, however, the increase leaves new home construction at levels that are still far, far below that seen during any previous housing downturn in data going back 50 years. – themessthatgreenspanmade ———— 1.  Who cares about future house prices? – Posted by: Felix Salmon – …  Let’s say that you have a choice betwee

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Housing Borrowing: Housing Starts, Housing Prices, Experience Hurts, Right-To-Rent, Genworth, Rating Agencies on Credit Scores

July 21st, 2009 | No Comments | Posted in Commercial Real Estate, Mortgage The growing rate of commercial real estate loan delinquencies is putting pressure on banks to write down bad loans now, rather than face a crisis of bad debt down the road. But according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal, smaller banks are lagging behind the biggest banks in charging off bad commercial mortgages.In contrast to residential mortgages, which mainly come from about 10 lenders, thousands of U.S

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Commercial Mortgage Delinquencies Put Pressure On Banks

Update: “We’ll probably ban naked credit default swaps.” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, from Reuters: US House bill to require clearing of OTC derivatives Orginal Post: I’ve heard that Agriculture chairman Collin Peterson and Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank (share oversight of of futures markets) are in agreement to have derivatives go through clearinghouses and to ban naked credit default swaps as part of the omnibus financial reform bill.

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Bill to Ban Naked CDS, CIT Terms and Market

It seems like the “board is out of the bag” (sorry for the poor twist on a bad cliché).  The Outer Banks is one of the best surf locations and cultures in the U.S., if not the world.  Surfer Magazine recognizes this, and now the New York Times is catching on.  The OBX surf, and surfers, have be recognized by a variety of sources , but recognition from one of the most widely read papers builds quite a bit of credibility.  Outer Banks local photographer, Chris Bickford ,  created a stunni

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Outer Banks Surf Continues to Garner National Attention – Local Surf Photographer Hits the New York Times

Cleveland Plain Dealer July 19, 2009 You can see a troubling new trend in the foreclosure crisis in a Cleveland Plain Dealer article by Sandra Livingston titled, “Bank ‘walkaways’ from foreclosed homes are a growing, troubling trend” here . “Bank walkaways” are another troubling development in the foreclosure crisis, particularly in cities like Cleveland with weaker housing markets, say housing advocates and government officials.

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"Bank ‘walkaways’ from foreclosed homes are a growing, troubling trend"

Recall Hurricane Katrina.  It was a disastrous moment that put people into shock .  Everyone was disoriented and confused in that situation.  But now imagine someone having the idea that this is the perfect opportunity to implement a new system.  Now is the time to expand a certain ideology.  This new idea is to get rid of public schools and replace them with charter schools.  It seems like an odd idea to implement.  People are dying of hunger, people have no homes, and people are economically

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Book Review: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

I wrote before about how environmentalists banned DDT in Africa, causing 25-50 million innocent deaths . And I also profiled the murderous views of leading environmentalists , including the radical views of Obama’s pick for Science Czar . The real goal of the secular-left is to equalize life outcomes by controlling the economy, and they don’t care how many poor people have to die in order to get control

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How environmentalist extremism hurts the poorest developing countries

Jeffery Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, has led the outsourcing charge in the past. So commentators were shocked last month when, speaking at the Detroit Economic Club, Immelt said that the United States needs to invest in American manufacturing in order to get out of our current economic crisis. Some companies had gone overboard with outsourcing in the past and now it was time to bring that work back into the United States to create a strong economy, Immelt said at the forum.

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Mike Elk: GE Promotes Manufacturing Jobs in US, Then Ships ‘em Overseas

Canada’s central bank holds key rate steadyTORONTO — Canada’s central bank kept its key interest rate steady on Tuesday as expected and said the country’s economy is beginning to recover from recession. … jeffmerlet Guy Kawasakis 10 Questions to Ask Before You Join a Startup | Mint.com Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice ; mathewingram globemoney: Tips from our staycation: Spend less for a good hotel — and make sure you relax, writes personal finance blogge..

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Canada's central bank keeps interest rate steady, raises economic …

Story from NewsMax . (H/T doubleplusundead via ECM) Warning: Vulgar Language! Republicans tried to stop it, but… Excerpt: On Friday, Democrats moved one step closer to giving free health insurance to the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal aliens when they successfully defeated a Republican-backed amendment, offered by Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., that would have prevented illegal aliens from receiving government-subsidized health care under the proposed plan backed by House Democrats and President Barack Obama

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Obama’s health care plan will provide coverage for illegal immigrants

Ghana trapped in World Bank/IMF Vicious Cycle Posted by xcroc under Ghana, IMF, Jobs, World Bank, development, economy | Tags: Betty Mould Iddrissu | Leave a Comment World Bank/IMF policies have consistently increased the number of unemployed, expanded poverty, and decreased productivity and self sufficiency in Ghana as in most countries. Once again Ghana is caught in that vicious cycle. Anti WTO poster from the Thai Labour Campaign 2005, TNC = trans national corporations, the results list

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Ghana trapped in World Bank/IMF Vicious Cycle

I have compiled the following “brainstorming” list of what non-profits are doing based on various articles I’ve read: – Tapping reserve funds – Creating contingency plans – Protecting thier most important programs (Renegotiating terms with donors to focus on main programs and realigning staff to support such programs) – Working with other charities and collaborating with other organizations to raise money    – Collaborations with either other non-profits or with businesses    – Joint events    – Partnering to provide services jointly (complementary services)    – Sharing staff or swapping other services (transportation, performance space, marketing expertise, etc.) – Expanding efforts to promote themselves – Working with the Board of Directors to identify new sources of funding – Launching new fundraising goals – Making efforts to increase online giving and focusing on smaller donations – Using social media/networking (blogging, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) – Expanding email reach by persuading companies to sponsor Internet fund-raising campaigns on their behalf – Asking supporters to create personal fund-raising web pages where they can post fund-raising goals, invite others to give, etc. – Focusing on the organization’s image (emotional branding) and increasing advocacy efforts – Strengthening board members’ connection and commitment to the organization – Asking donors to give monthly – Looking for ways to save money on fund-raising – Making the most out of volunteers – Freezing salaries, cutting hours or staff – Exploring a merger with a similar non-profit – Improving cash flow by speeding the collection of receivables – Asking donors for releases of donations previously restricted – Increasing the prices of services provided – Obtaining a new line of credit, or expanding an existing one – Reevaluating investments – Renting office space or equipment to others (Note: this may be taxable) – Reaching out to businesses for goods and services (not just cash) – Asking those served to personally call to thank donors to establish a personal connection – Offering new services to generate income (e.g., a ballet company offering dance lessons to the public) Please respond through the comment section to share what you have done within your organization to deal with these hard economic times. Colette Kamps, CPA

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What Are Non-Profits Doing to Deal With This Economy?

We have a plethora of earning reports to get through [ Early Week Earnings Watch ] the next 72 hours, so we’ll begin with Caterpillar (CAT) and Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold ( FCX ) – the former used as a proxy on global growth in terms of heavy construction equipment sales and the latter due to its heavy reliance on copper. As we’ve been saying FCX has seemingly replaced oil as this year’s “go to” reflation trade stock.

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Caterpillar (CAT) and Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold (FCX) Please the Street

There are many obstacles to taking action on climate change. Most of those obstacles have deep roots: there are powerful interest groups that don’t want market prices to reflect true costs, and there are ideologues — financially supported by these interest groups — who don’t want to admit that sometimes the government has to intervene.But there’s also, it seems, growing opposition to cap-and-trade from people who should be on the side of progress — but whose reaction is basically “Eek! Markets!W

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Is the threat of speculation a reason to shun cap and trade?

HedgeWeekBoca Raton trade firm salesman fined $40000Palm Beach Post… Boca Raton salesman must pay $10000 in restitution and a $30000 fine for misleading customers, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Monday. …Florida Court Enters Orders Imposing Fines And Other Sanctions …Exchange News Directall 3 news articles »Written by “futures trading” – Google News and Powered by WordPress This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 9:51 amand is filed under News.

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Boca Raton trade firm salesman fined $40000 – Palm Beach Post

How Currencies are quoted and what moves individual currencies? ONE of the best advantages in FOREX Trading is The amount of money you need to place a trade (known as “margin”) is all that can be lost ! You have to know, that despite the super-high leverage offered by some Forex brokers up to (400:1); meaning if you put up $ 1000 the broker will allow you to trade like you really have $400.000). Forex trading is still less riskier than Stock or Futures Trading, where you can loose more

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Find Helpful About Forex Currency Trading System

A quick look at news you might have missed from around the world for Tuesday, July 21, 2009. Schwarzenegger and legislature reach budget compromise US Government report on terrorism pushed back six months NATO chief warns against retreat in Afghanistan Federal debt could reach $23 TRILLION Sacramento, CA California legislators and Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger have come to a budget agreement that will cut more than $15 billion in spending in education, health and welfare services and will borrow heavily from local government, but will not raise taxes

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Morning Coffee News Update 07-21-09

In the Auditor General’s report to the House of Commons, the National Audit Office has qualified the UK Treasury Accounts for the first time in 350 years of history. A major issue is that in 2008-2009 the Treasury spent £23.8 billion more than had been authorised by Parliament.Amyas Morse, the Auditor General, did contextualise the extreme action taken by the National Audit Office in qualifying the accounts by saying that the Treasury had faced problems of an ‘extreme nature’.Several specific de

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UK Treasury accounts qualified for first time in 350 years

Jul21 Chris Grande7.21.09In what appears to be an attempt to prevent overinflation/speculation in Chinese real estate, Chinese banking regulators are raising lending standards for purchasers of second homes:JLM Pacific EpochUnlike US banks, which could lend to people with no money and no job (even to buy multiple properties), The Chinese have increased the down payment required to buy vacation homes to 40% and with an interest rate floor of 110% of the national base rate.I didn’t mind more lenie

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China Knows Better How to Cool a Hot Housing Market

by Chris Blanchet For full-time investors who rely on volatility and day-to-day fluctuations in security prices, it is an understatement that they must learn technical analysis. Such analysis enables them to make appropriate changes to their positions, but not all technical analysis accommodates short-term trading. For traders who look to take advantage of quick entry and exit points, short-term patterns are their best allies

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If You Learn Technical Analysis, You Need To Learn About The Hanging Man Pattern

I recently received in the mail the 2008 Annual Report of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The title of the report is “The Current Economic Crisis: What Should We Learn from the Great Depressions of the 20th Century?” After reading the report, it is clear to me that either the Fed has learned almost nothing about 20th-century depressions or it is lying through its teeth in order to shift the blame for causing the current depression (or both). FULL ARTICLE

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The Shameless, Blame-Shifting, Minneapolis Fed