Report: IRS Sent Database Containing Confidential Taxpayer Information to FBI … The Internal Revenue Service may have been caught violating federal tax law: In October 2010, the agency sent a database on 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups containing confidential taxpayer information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to documents obtained by a House panel. The information was tra...Read More
World stock markets up near record high; low yields help Reuters … Global equity markets edged higher on Monday, boosting a gauge of world stock performance to near an all-time high, as low interest rates bolstered sentiment even as U.S. Treasury yields rose. Wall Street's Dow industrials and benchmark S&P 500 closed at all-time peaks, with the latter rising to its seventh record cl...Read More
'Do I have to go on my knees?': grovelling apology from IMF head for incorrect warnings on UK economy … Head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, accepts her organisation's low growth forecasts for the UK economy were wrong … Christine Lagarde has asked whether she needs to grovel on her knees before George Osborne over the IMF's incorrect warnings on...Read More
Why Should We Support the Idea of an Unconditional Basic Income? An answer to a growing question of the 21st century … What would you do? So what exactly would you do, if you were guaranteed $1,000 per month for the rest of your life? And yes, that's around what the amount would most likely be here in the United States, at least at first. So think about that amount for a moment, and don&...Read More
'Do I have to go on my knees?': grovelling apology from IMF head for incorrect warnings on UK economy … Head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, accepts her organisation's low growth forecasts for the UK economy were wrong … Christine Lagarde has asked whether she needs to grovel on her knees before George Osborne over the IMF's incorrect warnings on...Read More
Why Should We Support the Idea of an Unconditional Basic Income? An answer to a growing question of the 21st century … What would you do? So what exactly would you do, if you were guaranteed $1,000 per month for the rest of your life? And yes, that's around what the amount would most likely be here in the United States, at least at first. So think about that amount for a moment, and don&...Read More
Not too long ago, this advisory sold its remaining stake in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT-NYSE, $77.11) at the $56 US level for a tidy profit. As editor Barry S. Arnold sees things, consumers are still too strapped for cash thanks to the jobless recovery, high utility bills after an unusually harsh winter and ObamaCare sticker shock. He acknowledges that banks are loosening their tight reins on consu...Read More
Record rise for stocks before employment report … U.S. stocks closed at record highs on Thursday, with both the Dow and the S&P 500 advancing further into uncharted territory, after the European Central Bank moved to combat disinflation and investors looked to Friday's employment report. "With the service sector quite strong, I think the jobs will surprise," said Peter Car...Read More
'Don't ask for privacy, Take it back': Anti-NSA #ResetTheNet campaign kicks off … Internet activists and rights groups have launched a massive online campaign against mass government surveillance, urging users and websites to use encryption. The campaign's inspiration – NSA whistleblower Snowden – has called to join ResetTheNet. … A year to the day since the...Read More
Record rise for stocks before employment report … U.S. stocks closed at record highs on Thursday, with both the Dow and the S&P 500 advancing further into uncharted territory, after the European Central Bank moved to combat disinflation and investors looked to Friday's employment report. "With the service sector quite strong, I think the jobs will surprise," said Peter Car...Read More
'Don't ask for privacy, Take it back': Anti-NSA #ResetTheNet campaign kicks off … Internet activists and rights groups have launched a massive online campaign against mass government surveillance, urging users and websites to use encryption. The campaign's inspiration – NSA whistleblower Snowden – has called to join ResetTheNet. … A year to the day since the...Read More
Kiss Gold Bull Market Goodbye … In the beginning of this year, we looked at some of the trading errors commonly made by gold investors during this cycle. At the time, gold had fallen 38 percent from its 2011 peak. Yesterday, spot gold traded at less than $1,242 before closing slightly higher. Gold is hitting new multiyear lows relative to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. J.C. Parets...Read More
Ex-Bankers Upgrade the Good Life to Get a Violin-Shaped Pool … What's ambitious about Jay Dweck's bathroom isn't the television by his whirlpool tub or the screen that will face his toilet and bidet. It isn't the wide nook in his shower for a third TV and one more across from the sink, or his plan to have each turn on automatically when he's nearby. It's that Dweck, a...Read More
Kiss Gold Bull Market Goodbye … In the beginning of this year, we looked at some of the trading errors commonly made by gold investors during this cycle. At the time, gold had fallen 38 percent from its 2011 peak. Yesterday, spot gold traded at less than $1,242 before closing slightly higher. Gold is hitting new multiyear lows relative to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. J.C. Parets...Read More
Ex-Bankers Upgrade the Good Life to Get a Violin-Shaped Pool … What's ambitious about Jay Dweck's bathroom isn't the television by his whirlpool tub or the screen that will face his toilet and bidet. It isn't the wide nook in his shower for a third TV and one more across from the sink, or his plan to have each turn on automatically when he's nearby. It's that Dweck, a...Read More
Senate must rein in the NSA … The House of Representatives seemed poised last month to rein in the government's ability to spy on its citizens by prohibiting the bulk collection of Americans' telephone records. On the eve of the vote, however, the Obama administration and House leadership intervened. In secret negotiations, they took a carving knife to the bill, removing key privacy...Read More
Federal Reserve Officials Are Trying to Disarm the $2.58 Trillion Bomb They Built … It will be six years in October 2014 that Federal Reserve officials started building the monetary bomb. Now that the bomb has reached $2.58 trillion, some reporters and broadcasters have found a problem. Fed officials are now talking about plans to dismantle the bomb with no troublesome side effects. Some of...Read More
Senate must rein in the NSA … The House of Representatives seemed poised last month to rein in the government's ability to spy on its citizens by prohibiting the bulk collection of Americans' telephone records. On the eve of the vote, however, the Obama administration and House leadership intervened. In secret negotiations, they took a carving knife to the bill, removing key privacy...Read More
Federal Reserve Officials Are Trying to Disarm the $2.58 Trillion Bomb They Built … It will be six years in October 2014 that Federal Reserve officials started building the monetary bomb. Now that the bomb has reached $2.58 trillion, some reporters and broadcasters have found a problem. Fed officials are now talking about plans to dismantle the bomb with no troublesome side effects. Some of...Read More
Global watchdogs rattled by lack of fear in the markets … A storm alert … from Simon Derrick at the Bank of New York Mellon. He cites three warnings from leading central bankers, all alarmed by the remarkable disregard for risk in the equity, credit, and currency markets. The Bank of England's Deputy Governor Charles Bean says the lack of volatility is "eerily reminiscent"...Read More