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South Hampton Doesn't Give a Hoot About "Clawbacks" : "Problem is, the contract for that now-obsolete insurance policy is locked in place through 2019. That’s right, the state of New Jersey is paying Goldman almost $1 million bucks a month to insure bonds that no longer exist. There’s Just No Way I Can Compete One might presume that there is some sort of “buyout clause.” But no one in Jersey can seem to figure out what it is, or whether it is more or less than the $11.4 million that has been funneled across the river – and most probably out to the Hamptons – since the bonds were sold. So long as the bureaucrats in New Jersey and Washington remain clueless, and the con men at Goldman et al. remain shameless, the Lass clan is pretty much assured to be sweating out its summers right here in Maryland." Norton: So what has changed? Destiny of Greed and fleesing of the majority continues. For one reason, the majority that used to be the middle class engine of Americ...

"There is an odd disconnect between the furious public debate over health care reform, with its emphasis on the cost of an increased government role, and the nonexistent discussion about the far more expensive and largely secretive government program to bail out Wall Street."

Why Is Congress Agnostic About Natural Gas? -- Seeking Alpha : "The only cure for eventual US insolvency (and loss of sovereignty) is a strategic long-term comprehensive energy policy that reduces foreign oil exports, invests in natural gas transportation infrastructure with an eye toward a future hydrogen based economy, and a reduction in US deficit spending. Still, Congress is asleep and content to support failed 20th century liquid and solid fuels like oil and coal while ignoring the one domestic fuel that is cleaner, cheaper, abundant, and can significantly reduce foreign oil imports: US produced natural gas." Noe=rton's comment: We are missing an obvious energy future in the USA here. Let's get going for vehicles that run on natural gas!

Will the Downturn in the Baltic Dry Index Lead to a Correction in the S&P 500? greenfaucet : "There's been some chatter on the recent down-turn in the Baltic Dry Index, which has been a rough leader of the S&P 500 at key turning points. Let's take a look at the recent relationship between the two indexes and what the current BDI Index is showing."

The Quiet Coup - The Atlantic (May 2009) : " "...Typically, these countries are in a desperate economic situation for one simple reason—the powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks. Emerging-market governments and their private-sector allies commonly form a tight-knit—and, most of the time, genteel—oligarchy, running the country rather like a profit-seeking company... Squeezing the oligarchs, though, is seldom the strategy of choice among emerging-market governments. Quite the contrary: at the outset of the crisis, the oligarchs are usually among the first to get extra help from the government, such as preferential access to foreign currency, or maybe a nice tax break, or—here’s a classic Kremlin bailout technique—the assumption of private debt obligations by the government... Becoming a Banana Republic In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. economic and financial crisis is shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging...

Going Broke on $50,000: The Story of the Struggling American Middle Class. The $50,000 Median Household Budget. Posted by mybudget360 in Employment, baby boomers, banks, budget, debt, economy, frugal, government, income, investing, recession, retirment planning, savings, wealth preservation 3 Comment ..The recent recession is exposing how many American families have been treading on the edge. Problems were already in the system before the recession began but the downturn in the economy was the ultimate catalyst. Many families were using credit cards as a means of supplementing a decade of stagnant wages. The median household income for the entire country is $50,740. In addition we have 34,000,000 Americans now receiving some form of food stamps. They are not part of the middle class group. Yet when we dig deeper into the data, it is clear why so many Americans are going broke on $50,000 a year Norton's comment: And now you know why it is a struggle! And it is going to get worse so...

Jesse's Café Américain : "Until the median wage improves, there will be no recovery"