Let Banks Fail Is Iceland Mantra as 2% Joblessness in SightIceland let its banks fail in 2008 because they proved too big to save. Now, the island is finding crisis-management decisions made half a decade ago have put it on a trajectory that’s turned 2 percent unemployment into a realistic goal.
Exclusive: Bank of America’s trading practices have been probed, filing showsNEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have both held investigations into whether Bank of America (BAC) engaged in improper trading by doing its own futures trades ahead of executing large orders for clients, according to a regulatory filing.
Why There’s No OutcryPeople ask me all the time why we don’t have a revolution in America, or at least a major wave of reform similar to that of the Progressive Era or the New Deal or the Great Society.
The Techtopus: How Silicon Valley’s most celebrated CEOs conspired to drive down 100,000 tech engineers’ wagesIn early 2005, as demand for Silicon Valley engineers began booming, Apple’s Steve Jobs sealed a secret and illegal pact with Google’s Eric Schmidt to artificially push their workers wages lower by agreeing not to recruit each other’s employees, sharing wage scale information, and punishing violators.
Independent board says NSA phone program should endThe board’s conclusion goes further than President Obama, who said in a speech Friday that he thought the NSA’s database of records should be moved out of government hands but did not call for an outright halt to the program. The board had shared its conclusions with Obama in the days leading up to his speech.
Bank of America’s Billion-Dollar Judgement Day Is Only Days AwayMore than two years after a settlement was struck between Bank of America ( ) and 22 institutional investors over a passel of mortgage securities gone bad, a job promotion for the judge presiding over final approval of the deal means a decision will be announced very soon, probably within two weeks.
The World-Changing Truth Our Leaders Are Only Beginning To UnderstandJon Kabat-Zinn, a father of the mindfulness and meditation movement in America, traveled to Beijing in November to help lead a cross-section of Chinese leaders and thinkers in a seven-day retreat. Chinese government workers, health care professionals, academics and scientists attended the well-being workshops, but it was the presence of several Buddhist monks that most surprised Kabat-Zinn.
IP address does not prove online piracy, US judge says in landmark rulingReuters / Lee Jae-Won A US federal judge in Washington wrote that a suspected internet pirate should not be prosecuted solely because his computer’s IP address was identified by a film studio. The landmark opinion may tip the fortunes of defendants in similar situations.
Govt retaining documents thought to detail unknown NSA programsReuters / Carlo Allegri Officials from the US Justice Department have admitted that they have intentionally not provided documents related to NSA surveillance activity in response to a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union.
America’s most popular prescription sleep medication linked to mass shootingsA new report describing the bizarre and dangerous side effects of the sleep aid Ambien has once again raised questions about one of the United States’ most popular prescription drugs. In a story by the Fix, Allison McCabe chronicled the numerous cases in which Ambien has caused individuals to commit unsafe, and sometimes deadly acts.
New documents: NSA provided 2-3 daily “tips” to FBI for at least 3 yearsNSA leaks View all… According to newly declassified court orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the National Security Agency was (and may still be) tipping off the FBI at least two to three times per day going back at least to 2006.
Coming to an office near youINNOVATION, the elixir of progress, has always cost people their jobs. In the Industrial Revolution artisan weavers were swept aside by the mechanical loom. Over the past 30 years the digital revolution has displaced many of the mid-skill jobs that underpinned 20th-century middle-class life.
How Bank of America and Others Schemed to Exploit YouMy idea of New York, and by that I mean the controlling interest there, is that they sit back and look upon the rest of the country much as Great Britain looks upon India. Senator Henrik Shipstead, Minnesota, 1922 In the middle of 2011, Bank of America settled an otherwise nondescript lawsuit with the City of San Francisco for the paltry sum of $5 million.
Vertical farms sprouting all over the worldLeader: ” Fruit and veg, fresh from the skyscraper” URBAN warehouses, derelict buildings and high-rises are the last places you’d expect to find the seeds of a green revolution. But from Singapore to Scranton, Pennsylvania, “vertical farms” are promising a new, environmentally friendly way to feed the rapidly swelling populations of cities worldwide.
Feds accuse Walmart of threatening, intimidating employees who protest companyAFP Photo / Robyn Beck Federal officials issued a complaint against Walmart Wednesday, formally charging the corporate monolith of breaking US labor law when it attempted to break up Black Friday protests organized by its workers.
NYC to pay $18 mil for RNC arrests in largest protest settlement in US historyNew York City has agreed to pay $18 million for the arrest, detention and fingerprinting of hundreds of protesters, journalists and legal observers during the 2004 Republican National Convention, marking the largest protest settlement ever in the US.
Supreme Court hands Monsanto victory over farmers on GMO seed patents, ability to sueReuters / Darren Hauck The US Supreme Court upheld biotech giant Monsanto’s claims on genetically-engineered seed patents and the company’s ability to sue farmers whose fields are inadvertently contaminated with Monsanto materials.
States may bind together to fight federal gun lawsAFP Photo / Emmanuel Dunand Lawmakers in Missouri are once again trying to nullify federal gun laws within the Show-Me State, and this time around they hope Second Amendment advocates elsewhere will join in their fight.
Judge rules TSA no-fly procedures unconstitutionalDespite a series of disgraceful dirty tricks, the TSA has lost its case against Dr Rahinah Ibrahim, a Malaysian academic who had been wrongly put on the no-fly list.