Business

Boost in Food-Stamp Funding Percolates Through Economy
DAVENPORT, Iowa -- The lush red strawberries caught the attention of Rachel Patrick, a mother of five shopping at a farmers market along the Mississippi River here. She selected two cartons and ignited a little-noticed chain reaction that is an important

Dry milk recall expands to cereal, hot cocoa, popcorn toppings
What began as a small investigation into tainted milkshake powder has become a nationwide recall of related products. No illnesses have been linked to the contamination of ingredients sold by a Minnesota milk cooperative, says the Food and Drug Administr

BBC Report: Chinese Babies Stolen; "Sold"
The BBC is reporting that dozens of Chinese babies have been forcefully taken from their parents by the government and sent into the international adoption system. The report–which I couldn’t find any trace of elsewhere–suggests that families breaking th

Is organic food better? There's growing evidence
As production of organic foods is rising about 20 percent a year, farmers markets are crowded and even mainstream grocery stores carry organic produce. Organics are moving beyond the fad stage, Jim Riddle says. They are here to stay because they are of

Speaker-Rep. James Traficant, Jr. (Ohio) addressing the House:
"Mr. Speaker, we are here now in chapter 11.. Members of Congress are official trustees presiding over the greatest reorganization of any Bankrupt entity in world history, the U.S. Government. We are setting forth hopefully, a blueprint for our future. Th

Nestlé Recall Leaves A Mystery in Its Wake
Federal microbiologists and food safety investigators have descended on the Danville, Va., plant that makes Nestlé's refrigerated cookie dough, trying to crack a scientific mystery surrounding a national outbreak of illness from E. coli 0157, a deadly str

International Report Predicts Decade of High Food Prices
A report released in Paris says international food prices will likely remain high during the next decade, although they will probably not hit the heights that sparked riots last year. Experts also say the prices will have a mixed impact in developing coun

Class connects food to its origins
The Braise Culinary School holds classes on farms and in forests during warm months. Most classes start with a farm tour -- or recently, a walk in the woods -- so students can see how food grows before they learn to prepare it. "The idea, basically, is

Are You Hoarding Ammo?
If President Obama has stimulated anything in America, it is demand for guns and ammunition. According to Rich Wyatt, the voluble and intense owner of Gunsmoke — a firearms shop and training facility just outside Denver — “If I had known it would be this

The Only Two Reasons to Own Gold
I always get a real kick out of hearing that “the consumer is 70 percent of the economy,” mostly because it gives me a chance to heap ridicule and scorn on whoever said it, and I say that the consumer is 100 percent of the economy! One CAN say that, wi

Hot dog sales sizzle as makers embroiled in suit
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Hot dog sales are set to sizzle as people look for ways to eat on the cheap and the summer grilling season starts. But the scramble to be top dog in the .1 billion market has sent the makers of Ball Park franks and Oscar Mayer wieners t

NUTRO Recalls Dry Cat Food Sold in 11 Countries
For more than a year, NUTRO Pet Products has shrugged off consumer complaints about dogs and cats becoming ill and even dying after eating the company's food. The company's public relations agents have insisted the food was "100 percent safe" and both NUT

A New Market for South Street
Former fish dealers’ stalls in the Fulton Market building on South Street will become a two-day-a-week market for foods from the region, from May 22 through early fall.

Mississippi Farmers Trade Cotton Plantings for Corn
Farmers working land that has bloomed a dazzling snowy white every September since before the Civil War are switching to corn and soybeans. As gleaming silver corn silos go up on farm after farm, cotton gins are laying off workers or shutting down.

Day 1 of Chrysler's ‘surgical’ bankruptcy begins
NEW YORK - Attorneys for Chrysler LLC will ask a federal bankruptcy judge Monday to let the ailing automaker start using a new infusion of .5 billion in loans from the Treasury Department so it can operate under bankruptcy protection. At a hearing Fr

Food Stamps Create Jobs… in India
Michele Brown has seen Americans' struggles with jobs first hand. She lives in hard-hit Florida, spent 20 years in the real estate business and recently had her days as a nanny cut back after her boss had his own hours reduced.

Carnival barkers? No, U.S. sellers hawking homes
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Not satisfied with your home purchase as the value plummets? No problem. Return it and get your money back. That is what Rockrose Development Corporation is promising potential buyers of hundreds of condominiums in New York, as sel

Food Firms Cook Up Ways to Combat Rare Sales Slump
CAMDEN, N.J. -- The packaged-food industry has long touted itself as recession-proof. Strapped consumers are shattering that assumption, setting off a frenzy in the nation's supermarket aisles and cooking labs. In the last quarter of 2008, consumer spe

Carbon trading won't stop climate change
ONE day renewable energy looks like a sunrise industry, the next, tumbleweeds are blowing around a setting solar panel. What has changed? The price of emitting carbon dioxide. In 2005 the European Union created the world's first proper carbon market, t

Burger King to scrap ad after complaint
An advertisement for a new Tex-Mex style hamburger hangs in a Burger King window in central Madrid April 14, 2009. Mexico's ambassador to Spain said posters for the new "Texican whopper inappropriately display the Mexican flag, which is draped over a dimi

Novel Approach to Health Plans Gains Traction
As the Obama administration wrestles with how to expand health-care coverage to the millions of uninsured Americans, some local organizations are finding creative ways to help cover one of the most affected groups -- employees of small businesses. The

Tax Day protests not media's cup of tea
The mainstream media provided extensive coverage of the protests surrounding California's ban on same-sex "marriage," but appears to be virtually ignoring the grassroots "TEA parties" that are drawing huge crowds across the country. One conservative media

Southeast growers ponder future with little history for guidance
In my job I get to meet a lot of interesting people, mostly farm people, many come from a farming legacy. Being a fourth or fifth generation farmer is common and farming land that has been in their family over a hundred years is not too uncommon. Moder

Recession closes in on chicken farmers
Reporting from Siler City, N.C. -- Four years ago, Andrew Meeks literally bet the farm on chickens. Now he fears he made a losing bet. His three massive chicken houses are empty, and a "For Sale" sign has sprouted out front. Meeks, a contract chicken f

Warren Buffett takes charge
Warren Buffett hasn't just seen the car of the future, he's sitting in the driver's seat. Why he's banking on an obscure Chinese electric car company and a CEO who - no joke - drinks his own battery fluid. Warren Buffett is famous for his rules of inve

Chinese taste for fried food may keep vegetable oils hot despite slump
Permanently changed diets in China and the world's unrelenting appetite for fried food may defy the global recession and trigger a “stagflation” surge in the price of edible oils, commodity traders in Asia have said. Fears are growing that food oil mar

Mexico tariffs hurt California farmers
California agricultural groups, stung by retaliatory tariffs resulting from a U.S. trucking dispute with Mexico, are stepping up pressure on the Obama administration to quickly resolve a budding trade war that could cost them more than 0 million this y

Benefits widen public, private workers' pay gap
The pay gap between government workers and lower-compensated private employees is growing as public employees enjoy sizable benefit growth even in a distressed economy, federal figures show. Public employees earned benefits worth an average of .38 a

Chinese drywall poses potential risks
PARKLAND, Fla. – At the height of the U.S. housing boom, when building materials were in short supply, American construction companies used millions of pounds of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and cheap. Now that decision is haunting hund

10 ways the new economy will look different
Cooke & Co. was the Bear Stearns of its time, a pillar of national finance. If it could fail, anyone could, and the US stock market collapsed that awful autumn. The price of real estate, railroads, and other hard assets crashed, too. Banks fell like w

Obama in a Pear Tree
Still think trade protectionism is good policy? Tell it to fruit growers in the Northwest, who are already feeling the bite of President Obama's decision to appease the Teamsters union and bar Mexican trucks from U.S. highways. Mr. Obama acquiesced in

Report: Ethanol raises cost of nutrition programs
WASHINGTON (AP) — The increased use of ethanol could cost the government up to 0 million for food stamps and child nutrition programs, a congressional report says. Higher use of the corn-based fuel additive accounted for about 10 percent to 15 percent

Where Policy Grows
Dave Murphy is the founder of a food advocacy group. But he wants you to know, "in no uncertain terms," that he is not a foodie. Foodies are people who obsess about the perfect apple tart. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But for Murphy, the fig

Hero of Our Times
Just for the hell of it, I made myself a martini when I got home earlier tonight. I'm not much of a mixed drinks guy. A shot of whiskey and a cold beer are the usual for me. Still, there are times when you need to walk past the neighborhood bar and off to

Just 53% Say Capitalism Better Than Socialism
Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better.

Author who predicted crisis sees inflation ahead
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An author who saw the global financial crisis coming fears the next bubble will come in the form of inflation and has little confidence U.S. President Barack Obama's team is up to the challenge ahead. "The Democrats have replaced t

Solution To Drought: It's In The Genes
California is short of more than jobs, money and optimism these days. Several years of drought have dried up reservoirs, parched fields, damaged forests and caused regulators around the state to impose restrictions on water usage. California agricul

Ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world
1. What is fragile should break early while it is still small. Nothing should ever become too big to fail. Evolution in economic life helps those with the maximum amount of hidden risks – and hence the most fragile – become the biggest.

A Long Row to Hoe: Obama's ill-fated effort to cut subsidies to wealthy farmers
At least someone is getting a bonus this year. Bankers may be out of luck, and things aren't looking too good for autoworkers, but boy howdy, things are right as rain down on the farm. Food prices are holding fairly steady, energy costs are low. And ev

Making do making milk / Rising costs squeeze dairy farms, but quitting is no simple solution
WEST HAVEN -- Got milk? Kerry Gibson does. He's just not getting paid much for it. Gibson is one of many dairy farmers in Utah losing money every day by trying to make a living. At Gibson's Green Acres farm in West Haven, the state representative

Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing
A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money. Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.

Geithner's 'Dirty Little Secret'
The 'dirty little secret' which Geithner is going to great degrees to obscure from the public is very simple. There are only at most perhaps five US banks which are the source of the toxic poison that is causing such dislocation in the world financial sys

'Chia Obama' booted from local stores
TAMPA - Some local Walgreen's stores are pulling a supposed likeness of President Barack Obama off their shelves. The 'Chia Obama' will no longer be sold there.

Fannie, Freddie plan to give out bonuses totaling 0M
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) plan to pay more than 0 million in bonuses through next year to give workers the incentive to stay in their jobs at the government-controlled companies.

Cooking up a new career in the food industry
It’s all about food lately. Culinary shows like “Top Chef” and “Hell’s Kitchen” are all the rage. Tainted peanuts have us worried about what we eat and how to make it better. Books such as “The Omnivore's Dilemma” and “Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics”

Modern cattle rustlers update Wild West ways
Otto Dwaine Hendricks is a character out of the Old West transplanted to the 21st century, to hear the police tell it. The Dade County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department says Hendricks is a cattle thief, responsible for making off with tens of thousands of dol

U.S. Debtor Meets G20 Creditors at the Dollar’s Funeral
Perhaps it was a grand error of judgment to host the G20 Meeting in London. The epicenter of the financial hegemony, corruption, hidden agency influence, and financial market destruction has clearly been the United States and the United Kingdom working in

Ho-hum – The Collapse of the Dollar
Recently, the news has been rife with reports of the imminent collapse of the dollar. Now, I would have guessed that this story would be of inordinate interest – especially to Americans. What it means, fundamentally, is that their dollars are going

Mind over Chocolate
Move over, organic, fair trade and free range--the latest in enlightened edibles is here: food with "embedded" positive intentions. While the idea isn't new--cultures like the Navajo have been doing it for centuries--for-profit companies in the U.S. and C

Commodities subject to laws of supply, demand
Unlike financial assets, commodities, for the most part, are subject to the laws of economic gravity -- supply and demand. Higher prices, for example in oil, led to a sharp reduction in demand as people lowered consumption or used substitutes. Falling pr

U.N. 'Climate Change' Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy
A United Nations document on "climate change" that will be distributed to a major environmental conclave next week envisions a huge reordering of the world economy, likely involving trillions of dollars in wealth transfer, millions of job losses and gains

US corn acreage expected to drop slightly
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- The nation's farmers are expected to plant fewer acres of corn and wheat - staple ingredients in a wide variety of foods. But industry experts say consumers should not expect a big jump in prices at the grocery store. The Agricul

Unrequired test nipped tainted pistachios in bud
TERRA BELLA, Calif. – The reason it didn't take dozens of illnesses for federal regulators to learn about salmonella-tainted pistachios has nothing to do with federal regulations. Routine but unrequired testing by a manufacturer for Kraft Foods Inc. firs

Maple syrup-makers strike gold
FAIRFIELD, Vt. — The spring sun is shining and billows of steam are rising from the chimneys at Tom and Cecile Branon's sugarhouse, set on a rise above acres of maple trees. The scent of maple syrup is strong enough to make your mouth water. The price is

Will the Dark Cloud of Commercial Real Estate Blot Out the U.S. Recovery?
While this is hardly a portrait of an economy on a roll, there are enough bright spots to nurture a feeling that the U.S. economy is finally on a path to recovery - especially given the upbeat response the latest elements of the Obama administration’s fix

Salmonella in Pistachios Spurs Recall
Barely two months after a huge recall of peanut-related products, federal officials said late Monday that a California processor would recall about one million pounds of pistachio products because of concerns about salmonella contamination. The company

Ventura Details Upcoming Conspiracy TV Show
Ventura told listeners of the nationally syndicated Alex Jones show that the TruTV series he is working on will look into 9/11 and ask questions surrounding the stonewalling of the truth concerning the attacks. "To me that is the question we are going

Geithner-Krugman Feud Comes To A Head On Sunday Shows (VIDEO)
"It's a plan to rearrange the deck chairs and hope that that keeps us from hitting the iceberg," the Nobel Prize-winning economist said of Geithner's bank plan. "They've done some things very fast, but they've been very small things ... There's no way thi

The Question Tim Geithner Refuses To Answer
Each of the financial institutions that Geithner is desperate to bail out has tens or hundreds of billions of dollars that could be used to cover losses before the taxpayer had to cough up a dime. And with the exception of Lehman Brothers (and, now, Gener

Fast-food diners don't check calorie content
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Ever wonder how often people take time to find out how many calories are in their large order of fries? Almost never. Out of 4311 people buying food at McDonalds, Burger King, Au Bon Pain, or Starbucks, Christina A. Rober

Fed's Plosser: Economic outlook "pretty ugly"
He said that there had been discussion of going to Congress to seek authority for the Fed to issue its own debt, which could be used to help shrink its balance sheet, but he would prefer to remove liquidity in a more "traditional fashion." "There are a

Ask the World Bank President
Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, and a man who believes that 2009 will be a “dangerous year”, will be speaking on March 31st and has agreed to take questions from Reuters readers. Zoellick has been outspoken during the current economic cri

Poor records slow food probes: U.S. watchdog
By Christopher Doering WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many U.S. food handlers do not maintain proper records to track products such as milk and oatmeal, making it hard to identify the source of a food-borne outbreak, a government investigator said on Thursday.

Second Harvest Food Bank Joining Forces with Food City
Every month, the Second Harvest Food Bank provides food for about 29,000 people in Northeast Tennessee. And to keep the pantries stocked, Second Harvest is again joining forces with Food City and the Junior Leagues of Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport t

Food costs: Prices starting to get reined in
While prices may still seem painfully high in the supermarket aisles, long-suffering consumers are beginning to see a break in their grocery bills—a bit of good news amid economic gloom. Falling raw material costs coupled with a feeble economy have cur

for a cup of coffee? Use debit card wisely
Would you pay for a cup of coffee? Clifford Phillips of Spokane, Wash., did. He used his debit card to pay for a latte, not knowing there wasn’t enough money in his checking account to cover it. The bank could have declined the transaction for insuffi

Shaky economy forces Americans to rediscover community
(CNN) -- Leslie Gage knew it was coming, but that didn't take away the pain. She was working as an architect for a small company in Atlanta, Georgia, when the company's founder asked her into his office. He took off his glasses and rubbed his hand agai

Fast Food Calorie Counter for iPhone
You were being totally sincere last New Year’s Eve when you yanked that lampshade off your head and shouted out some semi-lucid babble to nobody in particular about this being the year you finally lose some weight. And though you’ve definitely worked broc

Why should society be worried by the domination of video games?
It is thought The Hypodermic Needle Theory is more applicable to the video games medium than other forms of media. The theory came about in the late 1940’s and 50’s when radio and television ownership was increasing; and people were concerned about media

Hennecke: Trillion Dollar Bailouts Will Lead To Destruction Of Western Currencies
“The budget deficit is already out of control, we might be talking about trillion U.S. dollars, which is 20 per cent of GDP, which is absolutely staggering,” said Hennecke, reiterating that easy money was what caused the problems in the first place. “

Commentary: Time for another tea party?
NEW YORK (CNN) -- There is a chill wind blowing across this land of ours. People are losing faith in their ability to realize the American dream. While AIG pays out 5 million in bonuses to people who arguably contributed to the need for the federal

Commentary: Legalize drugs to stop violence
Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground. This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead. Violence was common in the alcohol in

Drug industry advocates join chorus to split FDA
WASHINGTON (AP) — As momentum builds to rework the nation's food-safety system after a salmonella outbreak linked to peanuts, the drug industry is hoping for a happy side effect: faster approvals for new medicines. Drug industry advocates are quietly all

What next for the beloved, beleaguered peanut?
In America, when it comes to food, the low-cost, high-protein peanut is one of the national icons — right up there with the hamburger and the apple. "We grew up, and it was just a part of our lives," says Beth Feldman, a New York Web entrepreneur, mother

Sugar Is Back on Food Labels, This Time as a Selling Point
Sugar, the nutritional pariah that dentists and dietitians have long reviled, is enjoying a second act, dressed up as a natural, healthful ingredient. From the tomato sauce on a Pizza Hut pie called “The Natural,” to the just-released soda Pepsi Natura

Is a Food Revolution Now in Season?
AS tens of thousands of people recently strolled among booths of the nation’s largest organic and natural foods show here, munching on fair-trade chocolate and sipping organic wine, a few dozen pioneers of the industry sneaked off to an out-of-the-way con

To GM or Not To GM
There’s been quite a bit of contention erupt over a bill being proposed in the House, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, HR 875: This bill is purportedly to establish a ‘Food Safety Administration’ within the DHHS to regulate food safety, labellin

Obama’s 0,000 AIG Bonus
President Barack Obama has called the bonuses that AIG paid its employees an “outrage,” but Obama himself received a “bonus” of sorts from the insurance giant — more than 0,000 in campaign contributions. In fact, the 1,332 that the Obama campaign

Union Pacific Railroad says it has no control over drug smuggling
The Union Pacific Railroad has been butting heads with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for years about drugs found in railcars traveling across the border from Mexico. The U.S. Department of Justice this week filed lawsuits against the railroa

CAFR1 NATIONAL POST
In general, lets go back to what Al Capone use to say in the 30's: "What the hell are we fighting government for, let's become government and we will then take whatever we want." Well, they did and the rest is history.

The Big Takeover
CAUTION: If you are sensitive to "spicy" language, don't read this article. It is however, a very informative article about the ongoing bailout of AIG. The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using

Scenes from the recession
The state of our global economy: foreclosures, evictions, bankruptcies, layoffs, abandoned projects, and the people and industries caught in the middle. It can be difficult to capture financial pressures in photographs, but here a few recent glimpses into

FL. Judge Holds Non-Filer Not Guilty Of Crime!!
FLORIDA JUDGE RULES ATTORNEY REFUSING TO FILE SINCE ’99 COMMITED NO CRIME!! That’s right! After a trial of a hearing on a Florida Bar Association complaint alleging that Charles “Chuck” Behm, a Florida attorney, had violated bar rules by committing a cri

Business Owners: How To Handle a Shrinking Business
During depressions, many businesses make a fatal mistake: They lay off employees. Some businesses have no choice; if the product or service is related more to quantity than quality, then perhaps there is no alternative. But many businesses are far better

Will Obama Go AWOL on VA Health Benefits?
'If you were injured in Iraq or Afghanistan and you have not paid your co-pay, please press 1. If you were injured during military training and you have not yet reached your deductible, please press 2. If your family has reached its maximum insurance bene

Bernanke's Witness Protection Program
March 16, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- Fed chief Ben Bernanke's new funding facility is a real doozy. In fact, if the Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility or TALF, which is set to launch on Thursday, doesn't convince the American people that it's tim

Finally, US Bans Diseased Cattle from Food Supply
At long last, a rule finalized this weekend will ban so-called “downer” cattle from entering U.S. slaughterhouses, said Reuters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) finalized the rule nearly one year after the largest meat recall in American history

Low Corn Prices Forcing Farmers To Change Planting Strategy
Farmers are gearing up for planting season, but no matter what kind of crops they harvest, some farmers are just hoping to break even this year. Last summer corn was selling for .35 a bushel; today that same bushel comes in at .50. On top of a drop

“Shadow Fed” Casts a Shadow Over the Solvency of the U.S. Banking System
By Shah Gilani Contributing Editor Money Morning It’s called the “Shadow Fed.” And it’s the next potential hot spot in the ongoing financial crisis. But few outside the Federal Home Loan Bank system, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) the

Bilderbergers excite conspiracists
The highest levels of the Obama administration are infested with members of a shadowy, elitist cabal intent on installing a one-world government that subverts the will of the American people. It sounds crazy, but that’s what a group of very persistent

As Economy Plummets, Cashless Bartering Soars on the Internet
Bartering and swapping are booming as the global financial crisis squeezes cash out of the world's wallet. Web sites and business organizations promoting cash-free transactions are growing, from New Hampshire to New Zealand to Sri Lanka, as unemployment

The Culture Warriors Get Laid Off
What has happened between 2001 and 2009 to so radically change the cultural climate? Here, at last, is one piece of good news in our global economic meltdown: Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in

Weary of Looking for Work, Some Create Their Own
SAN FRANCISCO — Alex Andon, 24, a graduate of Duke University in biology, was laid off from a biotech company last May. For months he sought new work. Then, frustrated with the hunt, he turned to jellyfish. In an apartment he shares here with six roomm

China’s Leader Says He Is ‘Worried’ Over U.S. Treasuries
BEIJING — The Chinese premier Wen Jiabao expressed concern on Friday about the safety of China’s 4086 trillion investment in American government debt, the world’s largest such holding, and urged the Obama administration to provide assurances that its invest

NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to 'Grave Peril', Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress
The government's national cybersecurity efforts would be in "grave peril" if they were dominated by the intelligence community, said Amit Yoran, former head of the Department of Homeland Security's National Cyber Security Division. Yoran told a House sub

Are We Looking at a Stock Market Rebound, or Just Another Bear Market Head Fake?
For many investors, the last 12 months have felt like a cross between Dante’s “Ninth Circle of Hell” and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Even so, after Tuesday’s market action - which saw the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rebound from a 12-year low to gain 6.4

Global Financial Assets Lost Trillion Last Year, ADB Says
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- The value of global financial assets including stocks, bonds and currencies probably fell by more than trillion in 2008, equivalent to a year of world gross domestic product, according to an Asian Development Bank report. “Th

UPDATE 1-U.S. mall owner General asks bondholders for leeway
LOS ANGELES, March 9 (Reuters) - General Growth Properties GGP.N, the No. 2 U.S. mall owner that has warned it may have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, began on Monday to ask holders of .25 billion of bonds for nine more months of breathin

February Job Losses: Have We Hit Bottom?
The nation's unemployment rate jumped to 8.1% as the economy lost 651,000 jobs in February, the Labor Dept. reported on Mar. 6. While the report showed the deepening recession was continuing to batter the nation's wage earners, the numbers were lower than

Ten Economic Predictions for 2009
I wish that my predictions were a bit more uplifting, but we are truly in dire straits with conditions only continuing to worsen. The United States is essentially bankrupt and running on borrowed money and borrowed time. Many Americans will be facing seve

8 really, really scary predictions
Known as Dr. Doom, the NYU economics professor saw the mortgage-related meltdown coming. We are in the middle of a very severe recession that's going to continue through all of 2009 - the worst U.S. recession in the past 50 years. It's the bursting of

Economic crisis hurts male workers most: U.N.
GENEVA (Reuters) - The world's economic crisis has cost more men their jobs than women in Western countries, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez tightens state control of food amid rocketing inflation and food shortages
Venezuela's public finances are unravelling, with oil prices at a barrel, while the national budget is calculated at a barrel. Inflation is running at over 30 per cent, yet with the new measures Mr. Chavez is seeking to ensure that his core suppor

On the Brink of Collapse: US food shortages loom
Because of the economic collapse, corporate farms are having the same problem as other industries: they can’t get operating loans to buy seed, fertilizer and the over-priced chemical inputs needed to mass produce food.

Soros sees no bottom for world financial "collapse"
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis. Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe

No end yet in sight for recession
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. economy is still getting worse, even as Washington's policy makers scramble to find the formula that will revitalize credit markets and consumer spending. The economy will probably provide some more bad news over the

USDA Reports; CFTC Issues; and Crop Insurance
The USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) released its 2009 Farm Sector Income and Costs Forecast, which stated that, “Net farm income is forecast to be .2 billion in 2009, down .1 billion (20 percent) from the preliminary estimate of .3 billion

‘I’ll stop flying,’ pilots tell TSA
Pilots aren’t threatening; they’re not begging. But they are being frank with the Transportation Security Administration in their comments about how the proposed Large Aircraft Security Program would affect their flying. The common response: They would be

The Silver Slam
The Silver Slam is when the door on buying silver slams shut. Now, before those thousands of emails come flying my direction let me state that knowing free market economics there in theory will always be silver for sale at some price and we cannot run out

A Short History of U.S. Government Handouts
Global economies are withering while Washington conceives "Financial Recovery Plan(s) from Hell," according to economist Michael Hudson in his latest February 11 article. Bankers demand more trillions, "or (they'll) plunge the economy into financial crisi

Thirty Years Later, a Return to Stagflation
CONGRESS has made a terrible mistake. Amid a rhetorical debate centered on words like “crisis,” “emergency” and “catastrophe,” it acted too fast. While arguments were made about the stimulus bill’s specific components — taxpayer money for condoms, new gre

Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production
After reading about the droughts in two major agricultural countries, China and Argentina, I decided to research the extent other food producing nations were also experiencing droughts. This project ended up taking a lot longer than I thought. 2009 looks

This is how much do-do we are in right now!
Forget your political position for a moment. Going off the gold standard and any kind of fiscal discipline has got us where we are today.

Eating Isn’t Option When Minnesota Corn Burns in Houston Cars
Today, burning crops like corn, soybeans and sugar cane for fuel is policy in the U.S., Brazil and the European Union — while almost 1 billion of the world’s 6.8 billion people are hungry, the most in a generation. About 95 percent of what Vis grows feeds

California Cut to Lowest Credit Rating Among States
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- California became the lowest rated U.S. state as Standard & Poor’s cut its general obligation bonds one grade because Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers have failed to close a record budget deficit. California’s

Televangelism empire in chaos over family split
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. – Once one of the nation's most popular televangelists, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller is watching his life's work crumble. His son and recent successor, the Rev. Robert A. Schuller, has abruptly resigned as senior pastor of the Cryst

Peter Schiff: Stimulus Bill Will Lead to "Unmitigated Disaster"
The fiscal stimulus bill being debated in Congress not only won't help the economy, it will make the recession much worse, says Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital. Schiff scoffs at the notion the economic decline is starting to level off and

Consumers get frugal, so retailers get creative
"Most of the consumer behavior we saw in 2008 will continue well into this year," says Rosalind Wells, NRF's chief economist. "Shoppers will be seeking value and trading down to discount and off-price retailers in order to stretch their purchasing power."

Japan's Panasonic to cut 15,000 jobs, shut plants
TOKYO (AP) — Panasonic Corp. said Wednesday it will slash as many as 15,000 jobs and shut 27 plants worldwide, joining a slew of major Japanese companies announcing deep cuts as the global slowdown batters the world's second-largest economy. The world's

ACORN Gets ,000,000 from Bailed Out Bank of America
Will media pursue beleaguered financial institutions charitable contribution to controversial organization as they have with executive compensation? a donation in the amount of million to the ACORN Housing Corporation of Chicago which shows the bank ha