Lens, the photojournalism blog of The New York Times, took a fresh look this week at the Chris Usher case , which has garnered new attention because Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court nominee, was on the three-judge panel that affirmed the decision to award $157,000 to Usher for the loss of more than 12,600 of his images by Corbis — a court-imposed valuation of $7 per image. The most remarkable part of the Times post is when a Corbis lawyer compares photography with nails: Why woul

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If All You Have Is a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail

Keith Hennessey writes Yesterday Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appointed me to be a member of a new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission…The purpose of the Commission is “to examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States.” I can remember my father telling me that a question such as, “What caused the first World War?” cannot be answered scientifically. We cannot run a controlled experiment to verify a hypothesis The financial crisis poses a similar challenge. I could come up with a very long list of controlled experiments that would help sort out difficult issues.

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Impossible Mission Commission

Paul Krugman, who tells us that assets and capital are homogeneous when it comes to economic policy, suddenly claims that there were malinvestments during the boom! (Actually, he does not use the M-word, as he would not know what it means, but I digress.) The Great One writes: Financial firms, we now know, directed vast quantities of capital into the construction of unsellable houses and empty shopping malls. They increased risk rather than reducing it, and concentrated risk rather than spreading it. In effect, the industry was selling dangerous patent medicine to gullible consumers

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Krugman Touts Austrian Theory! (Sort of)

The Phnom Penh PostFriday, 17 July 2009Nathan GreenAnalysis———————————By Nathan GreenGARMENT sector representatives identified a key shortcoming of the domestic industry on Wednesday at the launch of a dress-design competition for workers.Though the second biannual “I Am Precious” competition was primarily aimed at promoting the “self-value” of garment workers by giving them an outlet for their creativity and skills, most speakers identified the lack of domestic design capa

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Design competition highlights huge challenges for garment sector

Writing and submitting articles to article banks has been proven to be one of the most effective of all traffic generating techniques. You may not actually generate any real traffic for your website in the next few days by learning to write and submit articles but this technique will serve you very well and it is worth the effort to learn how to do it and use it to your fullest advantage. You may think that you have no writing ability at all but you are probably wrong.

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Create Phenomenal Traffic to Your Website With Articles

Bankruptcy filings are soaring in the United States.  In the last data point, we had 134,282 bankruptcy filings for the month of March 2009.  Bankruptcy data usually lags 3 or 4 months but the trend is ominous.  For the last 12 months some 1.2 million bankruptcy filings have occurred.  Much of this is linked to the 26,000,000 unemployed or underemployed Americans being unable to pay their bills or even service their debt.  What is more telling is the amount of Chapter 7 bankruptcies occurring

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Bankruptcy Filings up 33 Percent over a 12-month Period: Total 12-month Total of Bankruptcy Filings 1.2 Million. In last Report, Filings up 27…

by Manuel Alvarez-Rivera, Puerto Rico Bulgaria will be having a new government after President Georgi Purvanov formally asked Sofia mayor Boyko Borisov to form a cabinet on Thursday, July 16. Voters in the Southeastern European nation gave a clear victory to Borisov’s right-of-center Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) in a parliamentary election held last July 5. While the election to choose members of the Bulgaria’s unicameral Parliament, the National Assembly, was the country’s second vote in less than a month – last June Bulgarians elected their representatives in the European Parliament – the parliamentary poll nonetheless had a 60.9% voter turnout rate, up from 55.8% in 2005.

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Another election, another government in Bulgaria

(Patrick Kerr, CommodityBroker.Net) As the world inflates their way out of their economic crisis’, China is left holding the bag, their massive wealth is all fiat money.  They presently have over $2 TRILLION in foreign currency reserves, which is backed by less than 1%  gold (vs 76% for the US and same for euro zone). China holds less gold than France or even Italy.  Their massive wealth created over the last decade could literally diappear in a blink.  As the major governments around the world

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Dollar Devaluation, US Wants Free-Floating Yuan: Commerce’s Locke, Inflate out of economic crisis at China’s expense

Bullion Monarch Mining Inc., a natural resource exploration and development company, has named Barrick Goldstrike Mines and Barrick Gold Corporation (collectively referred to as “Barrick”) as defendants in their pending litigation against Newmont USA Limited (Newmont). This lawsuit is regarding unpaid royalties from a 256 square mile area of interest in the renowned Carlin Gold

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Bullion Monarch Mining Names Barrick as Additional Defendant in Pending Litigation against Newmont

Senator Conroy was recently named Internet Villain of the Year at the British annual Internet Industry Awards. But were the other villains jealous? (Credit: Christine Lee/ZDNet.com.au) Comments (0) | Email this Share: Google | Facebook | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Slashdot | StumbleUpon Related Articles Rubber chicken dinner for Tassie fundraiser?

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Blog: Conroy creates super-villain envy

commentary In choosing a media-hardened executive as interim director of the NBN Company and the first appointment to a board that will be finalised within weeks, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has put heft behind his argument that the NBN will not only drive new forms of content, but will potentially become a significant force in reshaping Australia’s online content market. Martin Hoffman (Credit: Future Exploration Network) As someone who has headed Australia’s most enduring old media/new media partnership, Martin Hoffman certainly should know his way around Australia’s content markets

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Hoffman is Conroy’s tasty new media carrot

Posted by cricketdiane under Cricket Diane C Sparky Phillips | Tags: banking, commercial real estate valuations values accounting values, credit default swaps, credit derivatives, Cricket House Studios, cricketdiane, Federal Reserve, financial accounting standards, financial industry, FINRA, …..

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Accounting standards that allow 100% values for Commercial Real …

(Credit: CNET Australia) 3 Mobile has adjusted its iPhone plans ahead of the network’s official launch tomorrow, making its cheapest plans even cheaper. The company today announced that the customers choosing an 8GB iPhone 3G model on its $49 per month plan will not have to pay any monthly handset repayments. This strengthens 3′s pricing on last year’s iPhone model, which it had originally offered for $0 upfront on a $79 plan.

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Hutch modifies iPhone pricing

Veteran reporter Robert Scheer writes today: The federal government works for Goldman and not for us. Is Scheer’s claim over the top? Well, the assistant secretary of the Treasury under Reagan (and former senior Wall Street Journal editor) Paul Craig Roberts agrees with Scheer, saying that Treasury Secretary Geithner “works for Goldman Sachs”, and not the American public : Interviewer : Does the treasury secretary work for the people or does he work for the banking system on Wall Street

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"The Federal Government Works for Goldman and Not for Us"

The Canadian dollar, which started the week with an outstanding performance as traders, attracted by yield and driven by optimism, bought the loonie, fell today against several currencies as the crude oil, the main Canadian commodity export, declined.The loonie fell for the first time in four days as speculations rose today, that the CIT Group Inc., one of the biggest financial conglomerates in the world, may file for bankruptcy, avoiding risky attitudes from traders, that opted for currencies l

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Canadian Dollar Down as Crude Oil Declines

By Jeffrey McCracken and Serena Ng July 13, 2009 CIT Group Inc., a lender to almost a million mostly small and midsize businesses across the country, is preparing for a possible bankruptcy filing after so far failing to win a government guarantee to help it borrow, said people familiar with the matter. To prepare for a possible filing, CIT has retained the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, which has a prominent bankruptcy practice, these people said.

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Capital Gold Group Report: CIT GROUP, INC. PREPARING FOR POSSIBLE BANKRUPTCY FILING

CIT Group Says Its Failure Risks Demise of Customers July 13, 2009 (Bloomberg) — CIT Group Inc., the century-old lender that hasn’t been able to persuade the government to back its debt sales, says its demise would put 760 manufacturing clients at risk of failure and “precipitate a crisis” for as many as 300,000 retailers.

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Capital Gold Group Report: CIT GROUP, INC. MAY DEFAULT AS SOON AS APRIL – WOULD BE BIGGEST BANK COLLAPSE SINCE WAMU

July 16, 2009 If you are in charge of creating the family budget, chances are, you’ve had the unlucky experience of having a brilliant budget plan that isn’t executed in a good way. There is no need to mention that this happens to many families and couples, and with a small modification, you can solicit the aid of your family in making your budget work.Create a family budget vision. Have a discussion with your other half and children on the subject of whatever budgetary constraints you are fac

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We are Family: Budget Tips for Today’s Familial Ties. Helpful Facts to Consider

By: Dominic Mazzone, Managing Partner, Regent Global Funds In the last few years there has been a general misconception on what wealthy really means.  Politicians in America define it as anyone making $200,000 individually or $250,000 jointly with their spouse per year.   Politicians in Canada seem to define it as anyone making more than $130,000 per year.  These definitions have been justified all in the name of everyone paying their fair share.  According to these same politicians, “Fair s

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America’s War on Small Business and Prosperity

It’s Economics Week here in Austria and Pia Varma is reporting on the hottest brands burning up the runways of political thought. All the big names have come out for this star-studded event: the always confused Friedrich Nietzsche, the minimalist and objective Ayn Rand, and the German bohemian-hippie Karl Marx have all graced us with their presence. However, the two haute couture lines creating the most buzz are “Laissez-Faire,” by Ludwig von Mises, and “Après Moi le Déluge” by British export, John Keynes.

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From the Runways of Austria …

ESRI forecasts for 2010 allow me to update the internal/external balance plot first used  by Brendan Walsh and myself to describe the lengthy cycle 1975-2001.  The first chart, with data up to 2006 shows the previous big counterclockwise cycle: first the balance of payments goes into deficit (1975-1979); then the correction begins and unemployment rises (1980-85), the balance of payments deficit contracts (1981-87) and moves into surplus (1991-93); finally unemployment comes down again (1993-2000). Looks like the Irish hare is taking a shorter and sharper curve this time.  The balance of payments blow-out (2003-2008) has been much smaller in amplitude and shorter in duration than in the 1970s and 1980s.  The rise in unemployment (2007-2010) is much faster than in 1981-86.  Sooner or later we’ll get back to the bottom centre of the graph with low unemployment and zero balance of payments.  The first chart shows data up to 2006, the second one joins the dots for 2007-2010 according the the ESRI forecasts published this morning

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Another lap for hare

filed in Business on Jul.16, 2009(07-16) 00:37 PDT Seattle (AP) –Thanks to unexpected winning, Jarrod Washburn and his Mariners have turned this season’s rebuilding project into a summer game show.More SportsCavendish edges Farrar for 4th win 07.15.09MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER / For now, Beckham returns to L.A., but Europe beckons 07.15.09Peaks offer glimpse above summertime’s fog 07.16.09Room, then roam for Yellowstone wildlife 07.16.09Deal or no deal?Last summer, Washburn heard he might be traded to

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Will surprising Mariners buy or sell at deadline?

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration has a line in the sand on the financial rescue Wednesday refused emergency aid to CIT Group Inc., a commercial lender struggling on the brink of bankruptcy. After days of round-the-clock talks with regulators about a possible government rescue, CIT, said negotiations had ceased. The company said its management and directors were “evaluating alternatives.” The decision not to save CIT is a crucial moment for the Obama administration rescue program l

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I reject the rescue operation CIT, Gov’t draws line in sand

Finally, the International Monetary Fund also identified that securities such as Collateralized Debt Obligations, are almost non-existent among the Mexican financial sector. Traditionally the Mexican land market was strongly driven by those American’s who were looking for a second or vacation home in the warm temperate climate of Mexico due to its value for money and low cost of living. When talking about this realestate market, it seems that the US land market is closely associated

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Finally, the International Monetary Fund also identified that

The “slow burn” is my term for a centrally managed economy in which a small group of insiders covertly subsidize themselves at the expense of the outsiders through (i) monetary policy, (ii) manipulation of government resources, regulation and enforcement and (iii) manipulation of financial markets and data. If you’d ask me which people are really ‘must-follow’ for their continuous insight into the evolving post-meltdown evolution, then the following would quickly come to mind: John Robb of Gl

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The deepening meltdown must be matched by increased resilience