Newscom The world’s second-largest reinsurer, Swiss Re, reports “that natural catastrophes and man-made disasters cost the insurance industry $77 billion in 2012.” The report noted this figure covered “more than 300 catastrophes and disasters caus[ing] the loss of 14,000 lives and $186 billion.” These disasters included many of the 112 events for which the Federal […]
The Obama Administration Wants Banks to Stop Being So Uptight About their Mortgage Underwriting. How Crazy is That? Here we go again The Washington Post reports that the administration is pushing for banks to loosen their lending standards in order to make more home loans to buyers and minorities with poorer credit and lower incomes. […]
Air pollution contributed to the deaths of 1.2 million people in China in 2010, according to data presented at a summit in Beijing this week. The study, led by researchers at the University of Washington, said air pollution posed the fourth largest threat to the health of Chinese people, behind dietary risks, high blood pressure […]
Stimulus funds fed minority businesses that served as middlemen. WB Construction & Sons Inc. is a 10-employee, minority-owned firm that received $7.5 million in five stimulus contracts from the federal government, but it did not do close to that much work. Every one of the stimulus contracts it received followed a pattern: Win a contract […]
Were California’s state government a business, it would be a candidate for insolvency with a negative net worth of $127.2 billion, according to an annual financial report issued by State AuditorElaine Howle and the Bureau of State Audits. The report, which covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, says that the state’s negative status — all of its assets […]
In the ongoing debate over deficit reduction, President Obama and his colleagues in the House and Senate incessantly call for tax increases as if our budget problems persisted because of taxes being too low. If only the federal government could usurp more of taxpayers’ hard earned money, the line of thought goes, Washington could get […]
Newscom It’s no secret that the White House, regardless of Administration, releases unpopular news on Friday afternoons. On the popular television drama West Wing, the fictional Bartlett Administration calls it “Take out the trash day.” We shouldn’t be too surprised that the Obama Administration released Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that will increase the price […]
What would you do if you woke up one day and discovered that the banksters had “legally” stolen about 80 percent of your life savings? Most people seem to assume that most of the depositors that are getting ripped off in Cyprus are “Russian oligarchs” or “wealthy European tycoons”, but the truth is that they […]
Newscom The law of supply and demand cannot be revoked. But it is being amended slightly, and we’re all paying the price. In this case, for sugar. Last year produced a bumper crop of sugar beets, which are refined (as their name would suggest) into sugar. Meanwhile, Americans have been using less sugar over the […]
Marios Lolos/Xinhua/Photoshot/Newscom Today, Cyprus’s banks opened for the first time in more than 10 days, after Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades—without seeking approval from his parliament—agreed to bailout terms that will raid citizens’ bank accounts. Those banking in Cyprus should not get too excited about the banks reopening. Strict capital controls are in place, allowing account […]
