Category: Business
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James Howard Kunstler on the Coming Mortgage Collapse
Jim Kunstler only blogs once a week – but it is always a doozy – here the author of Clusterfuck Nation muses on the state of US finance: A tsunami of nausea seems to be sweeping across the media now in recognition that the Potemkin edifice of mortgage finance is imploding like a discarded Las […]
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Ford Execs to Fly With the Proles, Continue to Make Shitty Cars
Put the chump on Southwest and you’ll save even more: The action comes amid media scrutiny over his flights, a common perk among executives but an expense that raised eyebrows because of billions of dollars in losses last year at Ford. Mr. Fields is the architect of a turnaround plan, the Way Forward, that calls […]
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San Diego Bans Wal-Mart
(via ThinkProgress) The San Diego City Council “voted late Tuesday to ban certain giant retail stores, dealing a blow to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s potential to expand in the nation’s eighth-largest city.” Also today, WakeUpWalMart released the first ad in its “Hope For The Holidays” campaign.
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Ladders of Abundance Launches to Support Microfinance in Developing Nations
This is big stuff. I’ve been working with Ladders of Abundance for the past several months. They are dedicated to supporting microfinance in developing nations – which helps individuals as well as entire societies move out of poverty and into self-sustaining economic success. Few things give me much hope lately – but the power of […]
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Adjustable Rate Mortgages: The Brewing Nightmare
From BusinessWeek: For cash-strapped homeowners, it was a pitch they couldn’t refuse: Refinance your mortgage at a bargain rate and cut your payments in half. New home buyers, stretching to afford something in a super-heated market, didn’t even need to produce documentation, much less a downpayment. Those who took the bait are in for a […]
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24-Year-Old Buys 6 Homes No-Money Down: $2 Million Debt
Nothing smarter than blogging your own financial fraud: I’m a 24-year-old aspiring real estate investor from Sacramento CA. After going to few seminars I bought 8 houses in 8 months across 4 states with no money down. I fixed and sold 2 and then ran out of cash. I am now facing foreclosure on 6 […]
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Regulation of Braiders and Lockticians Opens Up Rift in Illinois
As black hair trends turned from relaxed and straightened back to more natural, the cosmetology industry, miffed at revenue lost to braiders and dread lock lockticians helped push through legislation in 2001 that made the ancient art of braids and dreadlocks requiring a 1500 hour cosmetology license. Back when I used to party all night, […]
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Detroit Press's Stephen Schiavi Blames You for Shitty American Cars
Just on CNN, a Detroit journalists confuses pride with pity: The people of Detroit have not failed us; we have failed Detroit…. When we buy at the stores that only sell cheap goods made elsewhere, we have only ourselves to blame. When we buy from foreign sources, we have only ourselves to blame. We need […]
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Observer: US Housing Slump Fuels Crash Fears
Key snips: The downturn in the US housing market will force businesses to slash 73,000 jobs a month in the new year. The number of new homes sold in July was 22 per cent lower than a year earlier. The number of unsold new homes is now at a 10-year high. Morgan Stanley predicts that […]
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Current Account Balanace, Country-by-Country
Ranked in order of account balance. From the CIA World Fact Book: 1 Japan $158,300,000,000 2 China $129,100,000,000 3 Germany $119,800,000,000 4 Russia $89,310,000,000 5 Saudi Arabia $87,100,000,000 6 Norway $51,500,000,000 7 Switzerland $49,660,000,000 8 Kuwait $31,510,000,000 9 […]