Clarification Appended: June 30, 2011 Here’s some good news for consumers who feel themselves trampled by soulless banking and credit giants: on July 21, a new consumer-protection agency will open its doors in Washington, with the mission of making everything from mortgage documents to credit statements fairer and easier to understand and generally giving the little guy more power against the financial corporate juggernauts. Here’s the bad news: it’s not clear that President Obama will be able to appoint anyone to run it
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Obama’s Response to Egypt’s Crisis: What Would Reagan Do?
“You will be visiting Berlin at a time of ferment,” Secretary of State George Shultz wrote to his boss, Ronald Reagan, on May 11, 1987.
Deficit Deal? The Gang of Six Ain’t Talking
One of the more depressing and outrageous revelations of the massive Wall Street scandal was the news that the previously Olympian ratings agencies, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, were incompetent at best; at worst, they were in bed with the investment banks whose bonds they were supposed to be evaluating. Both agencies, for example, bestowed AAA ratings — the highest possible — on laughably flimsy mortgage-backed bond contraptions, whose demise almost sank the global economy
Massive Accounting Fraud Fells WorldCom
Is there anybody out there investors can trust? Wall Street was pondering that today as markets were hammered following last night’s announcement that WorldCom had inflated profits by a staggering $3.8 billion over the past five quarters
Cheating or Investing?
For the past couple of years, Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has been shaking the trees on Wall Street.
Is the Wii Really Good for Your Health?
A week after Nintendo’s Wii debuted in November, the Wall Street Journal reported that the gaming console was leaving some users as sore as the gym often does.
Why the Berlin Wall Came Down
The fall of the Berlin wall caught the world by surprise. For months, East Germany’s beleaguered communist rulers had tried in vain to silence a growing opposition movement and stem the tide of people pouring out of the country.
What’s Still Wrong with Wall Street
Are you furious?
Why the Nobel Peace Prize Should Go to Nuclear Weapons
President Barack Obama’s Nobel peace surprise was given “primarily for his work on and commitment to nuclear disarmament,” according to Agot Valle, a Norwegian politician who served on the award committee.
Two journalists wounded in Afghanistan
Two journalists working for Associated Press were wounded when they were struck by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the news agency reported Wednesday.