"A prudent man forseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished."   Proverbs 22:3 and Proverbs 27:12  KJV   Word study on this verse

Banks, telcos to decide on wallet-phones reuters.com 10/31/8 ["The world's biggest payment card company, Mastercard, will unveil on Thursday a service for banks, enabling them to install payment cards into clients mobile phones much easier than earlier, possibly breaking the deadlock over the market takeoff. "We are talking to serious banks ... and not about trials, but about commercial launches..."]
Treasury, FDIC Near Deal on Mortgage Aid washingtonpost.com 10/31/8 ["Negotiators for the Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are nearing agreement on a plan to have the government guarantee the mortgages of millions of distressed homeowners in what would be a significant departure for the federal rescue program, which has so far directed relief exclusively to banks and other financial institutions. The plan, which sources said could cover as many as 3 million homeowners in danger of foreclosure and cost $40 billion to $50 billion..."]
US transit agencies need immediate fnc'l help-Reps. reuters.com 10/31/8 ["As many as 30 transit agencies are at risk of default or collapse due to financing deals with certain banks, Rep. James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, and Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican, wrote to the country's economic leaders."]
Consumer cut in spending the most since 1980 ap.google.com 10/31/8 ["With retailers bracing for a grim holiday buying season, the economy isn't just slowing; it's actually shrinking, the government confirmed Thursday. It reported that the nation's gross domestic product declined at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the year's third quarter and consumers' disposable income took its biggest drop on record."]
Japan announces $275 billion stimulus package ap.google.com 10/31/8 ["The package — which will total 26.9 trillion yen ($273 billion) — will include 2 trillion yen ($20 billion) in fixed-sum benefits to every household, meaning a 60,000 yen ($600) payment for a family of four. It also guarantees expanded loans and credits to struggling small- and mid-sized firms and includes a cut in payroll deductions for employment insurance and reduced fees for highways."]
Goldman Sachs ready to hand out £7bn salary and bonus package... after its £6bn bail-out dailymail.co.uk 10/31/8 [""]
American Express to cut 7,000 jobs ap.google.com 10/31/8 ["Additionally, American Express said it plans to scale back investments in technology and marketing and business development, and streamline costs associated with some rewards programs. The company also expects to cut expenses for consulting and other professional services, travel and entertainment and general overhead."]
Credit `Tsunami' Swamps Trade as Banks Curtail Loans bloomberg.com 10/31/8 ["Suppliers of oil, coal, grains and consumer products from Chicago to Mumbai are losing sales as the credit crisis spreads beyond financial institutions, and banks refuse financing or increase the fees for buyers. Coupled with declining demand, the credit squeeze is threatening international trade, one of the lone bright spots in the global economy.  ...Another sign of trouble: The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of commodity shipping costs that banks watch as an economic indicator, fell below 1,000 yesterday for the first time in six years, dropping it 89 percent for the year."]
Gold coins in short supply, command 50% premium commodityonline.com 10/31/8 ["Popular gold and silver coins such as the one-ounce gold and silver American Eagles produced by United states Mint is not available for sale in the market and those who sell do it at a premium of 50 percent or more on spot price..."]
Churches are looking at hard times ap.google.com 10/31/8 ["A recent report by the Christian research group Empty Tomb Inc. studied six recessions since 1968 and found that donations by church members declined in three and increased in three. Another study, by Giving USA Foundation, found that religion-related charitable giving fell slightly in six of 11 recession years since 1968."]
 

Russia, China call for trade in more currencies reuters.com 10/30/8 ["Russian and Chinese leaders called on Tuesday for world finance to use a wider range of currencies, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested bilateral trade in roubles and yuan rather than dollars."]
The Seductive Slavery Of Debt newswithviews.com 10/30/8 [By Paul Proctor  "Since the Bible teaches, “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender,” I have a hard time accepting the notion that the Lord provides for His own through loans because, if the borrower is the servant of the lender, how then can that borrower also be a servant of Christ?"]
House to introduce second stimulus bill next month reuters.com 10/30/8 ["The House passed a sweeping $61 billion stimulus bill last month, but the package was blocked in the Senate and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the legislators would try again."]
New York governor calls for federal rescue package for states iht.com 10/30/8 ["Paterson's appearance on Capitol Hill came a day after he called on state lawmakers to put forward ideas on how to reduce the state budget in preparation for a special legislative session he has called for Nov. 18."]
Postal Service Looks To Cut 40,000 Jobs In First Layoff In History ksla.com 10/30/8 ["The postal service is also offering early retirement packages to workers over the age of 50 who have more than 20 years on the job. But according to pepper it may not be enough. "The preliminary numbers look like it's not going to be enough and we may have to do something else.""]
AIG has used billions from the Fed but hasn't said for what iht.com 10/30/8 ["Vickery and other analysts are examining the company's disclosures for clues that the cushion was threadbare and that company officials knew they had major losses months before the bailout."]
Big Car Retailers Write Off Domestic Brands wsj.com 10/30/8 ["Two big auto dealership chains delivered more bad news for domestic car makers: Many Detroit auto franchises have become practically worthless. In third-quarter earnings reports Tuesday, Group 1 Automotive Inc. and Sonic Automotive Inc. announced charges of a combined $51 million reflecting declining "franchise value" for stores that sell brands from General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler LLC.  ...The National Automobile Dealers Association expects 700 new-car dealerships to close this year, up from 430 in 2007."]
 

Under the Dark Shadows of Antichrist! lasttrumpetministries.org 10/29/8 [By Pastor David Meyer  "On September 21st, 2008, the headline of the New York Post consisted of only two shocking words: "Almost Armageddon." The market as listed in the Dow-Jones report was only 500 trades away from reaching a 22 percent decline and an ultimate total collapse. The Federal Government, which is actually bankrupt itself, quickly infused $105 billion of liquidity into the market. Repercussions were immediately felt throughout the banking industry, and banks began to hoard cash in anticipation of a run of massive withdrawals."]
NY: Paterson Warns of ‘Painful’ Budget Cuts nytimes.com 10/29/8 ["In a speech from the governor’s office in Manhattan, Mr. Paterson said that New York State’s budget division now expects the budget gap for next year to be $12.5 billion — nearly double what it projected a few months ago, and that the deficit for this year’s budget has reached $1.5 billion."]
Iceland says IMF cash not enough guardian.co.uk 10/29/8 [" Sigurdsson also said it was time for Iceland to discuss membership in the European Union. His Social Democrats are the country's only major party advocating membership in the bloc. "The times have changed and we will have to go through these things (discussions) all over again in the light of these new consequences of the financial crisis and the weakness of the krona," Sigurdsson said. "There is growing pressure on the political parties to reconsider their position,""]
IMF may need to "print money" as crisis spreads telegraph.co.uk 10/29/8 ["The International Monetary Fund may soon lack the money to bail out an ever growing list of countries crumbling across Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, raising concerns that it will have to tap taxpayers in Western countries for a capital infusion or resort to the nuclear option of printing its own money."]
Gulf Bank Customers Withdraw Deposits After Losses bloomberg.com 10/29/8 ["Kuwait's second-biggest lender by assets, is trying to stem a surge in customer withdrawals after currency losses forced the central bank to guarantee deposits. In the first signs of a bank run in the Persian Gulf, some Gulf Bank depositors panicked and demanded their money..."]
Free Enterprise Did Not Cause The Market Meltdown newswithviews.com 10/29/8 [By Tom DeWeese  "Economics 101 teaches that if you have more of something - it's worth less. If you have less of it, it's worth more. The same is true of the dollar."]
British Officials Lump Pro-Life Advocates in With Terrorists in New Travel Ban lifenews.com 10/29/8 ["To prevent the named individuals from entering the country, the Home Office currently needs to provide proof that their views will lead to violence or incite religious hatred. Anyone appearing on the list can file an appeal to have their name removed. Over the last year, pro-life advocates have repeatedly been compared to terrorists."]
Gun Sales Thriving In Uncertain Times washingtonpost.com 10/29/8 ["Americans have cut back on buying cars, furniture and clothes in a tough economy, but there's one consumer item that's still enjoying healthy sales: guns. Purchases of firearms and ammunition have risen 8 to 10 percent this year, according to state and federal data."]
 

Farm-Credit Squeeze May Cut Crops, Spur Food Crisis bloomberg.com 10/28/8 ["Futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade show wheat will jump 16 percent by the end of 2009, corn will rise 15 percent and soybeans will gain 3 percent.  ``The credit situation is worrying even the biggest and best farmers,'' said Brian Willot, 36, a former University of Missouri commodity analyst who now grows soybeans on 2,000 acres in Brazil. ``For the financially weak, credit has dried up completely. For the strong, credit has been delayed and interest rates are higher.'' "]
Mother to Face Contempt Charges for Refusing Custody of Daughter to Former Lesbian Lover lifesitenews.com 10/28/8 ["Lisa Miller, a former lesbian who rejected the homosexual lifestyle and returned to her belief in Christ, will face contempt of court charges today for refusing to give unsupervised visitation of her daughter to her former lesbian partner."]
Treasury working on aid for GM, Chrysler merger reuters.com 10/28/8 ["The Treasury Department is weighing aid of at least $5 billion, which could include capital injections and government purchases of bad auto loans..."]
Obama's birth certificate sealed by Hawaii governor worldnetdaily.com 10/28/8 ["...Hawaii's Gov. Linda Lingle has placed the candidate's birth certificate under seal and instructed the state's Department of Health to make sure no one in the press obtains access to the original document under any circumstances."]
Schwarzenegger calls back legislators for emergency budget session latimes.com 10/28/8 ["...Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that he will bring legislators back to town for an emergency session the day after the Nov. 4 election, to deal with the growing crisis. He said this year's deficit will be "much more" than the $3 billion state officials projected two weeks ago."]
 

U.S. has plundered world wealth with dollar: China paper reuters.com 10/27/8 ["The United States has plundered global wealth by exploiting the dollar's dominance, and the world urgently needs other currencies to take its place, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Friday."]
Car makers slam on brakes as orders slump timesonline.co.uk 10/27/8 ["Further shockwaves hit the global car industry yesterday when Peugeot Citroën said that it would have to cut production by 30 per cent and Chrysler set out plans to shed up to 5,000 jobs."]
Judge tosses lawsuit challenging Obama citizenship apnews.myway.com 10/27/8 ["Surrick ruled that Berg lacked standing to bring the case, saying any harm from an allegedly ineligible candidate was "too vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any and all voters.""]
Uses for $700B Bailout Money Keep Changing foxnews.com 10/27/8 ["Other planned uses of the bailout money have lawmakers protesting, although it is only fair to note there is nothing in the law that they just wrote to prevent those uses."]
So When Will Banks Give Loans? nytimes.com 10/27/8 ["In point of fact, the dirty little secret of the banking industry is that it has no intention of using the money to make new loans.  ...It is starting to appear as if one of Treasury’s key rationales for the recapitalization program — namely, that it will cause banks to start lending again — is a fig leaf, Treasury’s version of the weapons of mass destruction."]
 

Roubini Says `Panic' May Force Market Shutdown bloomberg.com 10/25/8 ["``Systemic risk has become bigger and bigger,'' Roubini said at the Hedge 2008 conference. ``We're seeing the beginning of a run on a big chunk of the hedge funds,'' and ``don't be surprised if policy makers need to close down markets for a week or two in coming days,'' he said."]
Dow slides 312 points on 79th anniversary of Wall Street Crash telegraph.co.uk 10/25/8 ["All eyes will remain on the US next week, as the Federal Open Markets Committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss whether or not to further cut interest rates from their current 1.5pc, while on Friday, the government will release third-quarter gross domestic product figures, revealing whether the US economy has started to move into a recession as many fear."]
Paulson Weighs Stakes in Insurers, Regional Lenders bloomberg.com 10/25/8 ["An initial $125 billion out of $700 billion approved by Congress was allocated last week to buy shares of nine of the largest U.S. banks and another $125 billion was set aside for smaller lenders. Investments in insurance companies would widen the scope of Secretary Henry Paulson's Troubled Asset Relief Program as the credit crisis deepens."]
Wall Street halts futures trading amid panic timesonline.co.uk 10/25/8 ["Before Wall Street opened yesterday, American regulators suspended all trading of Dow Jones futures contracts, which had plunged. Such contracts allow traders to bet on the future direction of the Dow Jones index. The plunge had triggered an automatic circuit breaker, which halts trading to prevent a market sliding into freefall.  Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University, said that his prediction earlier this week that markets would have to be shut down is already coming true. "]
Japan and China lead flight from the dollar telegraph.co.uk 10/25/8 ["Asian investors dumped $52bn worth of US Treasury bonds alone, led by Japan ($23bn), China ($14.2bn) and Taiwan ($5bn). It is the first time since 1998 that foreigners have, on balance, sold Treasuries."]
Failed Bank Information - Alpha Bank & Trust, Alpharetta, GA fdic.gov 10/25/8 ["On October 24, 2008, Alpha Bank & Trust, Alpharetta, GA was closed by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver. No advance notice is given to the public when a financial institution is closed."]
AIG borrows $90.3 billion from Federal Reserve reuters.com 10/25/8 ["AIG has borrowed $72.3 billion, or 85 percent, of an initial $85 billion bridge loan extended by the government on September 16. In addition, it has drawn $18 billion under a subsequent $37.8 billion securities lending agreement the government agreed to extend earlier this month."]
UK Announces Mandatory Sex Education for Kindergarteners lifesitenews.com 10/25/8 ["UK government officials announced yesterday that by the year 2010, 5-year-old children will enter the first stages of a comprehensive, explicit sex education program, mandatory for schools nationwide, including faith schools.  The compulsory Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) program will begin in kindergarten where Schools Minister Jim Knight says children will learn about "their differences, their friendships, and how to manage their feelings." Knight insisted that the earliest curriculum will not be "sexually explicit," saying "we are not talking about five-year olds having sex." "]
McCain-Palin Taking Donations March 2008 & Obama Action Alert newswithviews.com 10/25/8 [By Devvy Kidd  "In this short video shot August 29, 2008, McCain says he's "spent the last few months looking for someone as his VP pick." Really? So, how come he was collecting campaign donations for the McCain-Palin Compliance Fund for five months prior to his big announcement? What a joke on the American people."]
 

Banks borrow record amount from Fed ap.google.com 10/24/8 ["The Fed's report, released Thursday, showed commercial banks averaged a record $105.8 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That surpassed the old record — a daily average of $99.7 billion — from the prior week. On Wednesday alone, $107.5 billion was drawn, an all-time high."]
Jefferson County Threatened with Another Debt Crisis nbc13.com 10/24/8 ["...creditors are asking for payment of the county’s $120 million dollar general obligation debt. Not to be confused with the on going $3.2 billion sewer debt crisis, the general obligation debt is a separate bond debt covering other areas of county operation."]
US foreclosure filings up 71 percent in 3Q ap.google.com 10/24/8 ["Nationwide, nearly 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, up 71 percent from a year earlier, said foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. By the end of the year, RealtyTrac expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing around a third of all properties for sale in the U.S."]
Chrysler to close Delaware plant early, cut jobs reuters.com 10/24/8 ["resulting in 1,825 job cuts, following a loss of more than $1 billion for the first half of the year."]
 

World leaders to meet on economy in Washington ap.google.com 10/23/8 ["will meet Nov. 15 in Washington to address the global financial crisis — the first in a series of summits to mitigate what economists predict could be a long and deep downturn"]
Atheists plan ad campaign on side of London buses news.yahoo.com 10/23/8 ["Organizers of a campaign to raise funds for the ads said Wednesday they received more than $113,000 in donations, almost seven times their target, in the hours since they launched the project on a charity Web site. Supporters include Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins, who donated $9,000.  ...Sherine came up with the idea after seeing a series of Christian posters on London buses. She said she visited the Web site promoted on one ad and found it told nonbelievers they would spend eternity in torment in hell."  Editor: Psalms 14:1 & 53:1 reminds us, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God..."]
Merck 3Q net drops 28 percent; to cut 7,200 jobs ap.google.com 10/23/8 ["as part of a new restructuring program that comes as its third-quarter profit plunged 28 percent, due to a hefty restructuring charge and flat sales. The maker of allergy and asthma treatment Singulair and cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil..."]
Argentine Bonds, Stocks Sink as Takeover Fuels Default Concerns bloomberg.com 10/23/8 ["Argentina hasn't had access to international debt markets since its 2001 default and demand for its local bonds has dried up on concern the government is underreporting inflation."]
Company pensions expected to take big hit -S&P reuters.com 10/23/8 ["Silverblatt said funds could suffer an under-funding greater than the $219 billion in under-funding seen six years ago."]
How Paulson pressed banks to sign intervention deal mercurynews.com 10/23/8 ["In addition to the capital infusions, which will be made this week, the government said it would temporarily guarantee $1.5 trillion worth of new senior debt issued by banks, as well as insuring $500 billion in deposits in non-interest-bearing accounts, mainly used by businesses.  All told, the potential cost to the government of the latest bailout package comes to $2.25 trillion, triple the size of the original $700 billion rescue package..."]
France's Sarkozy emerging as leading figure csmonitor.com 10/23/8 ["Sarkozy has quickly adopted a bully pulpit for Europe and its traditionally more measured approach to markets. In Strasbourg Tuesday, speaking to the European Parliament, he stated that Europe "must carry the idea of a new foundation of global capitalism. What happened [with toxic assets and derivatives that created a credit crisis] was a treason of the values of capitalism," he said. "The market economy itself is not called into question.""]
US pension agency lost $3.1 bln in stocks -lawmaker reuters.com 10/23/8 ["Miller said the agency's losses in the stock market through the end of August "were only partially offset by modest gains in other investment classes. It is likely that losses will be substantially worse after September results are reported.""]
Wachovia has $23.9 bln loss on writeoff, mortgages guardian.co.uk 10/23/8 [" The loss stemmed mostly from an $18.7 billion writedown of goodwill because asset values fell. Wachovia has lost $33 billion in the last two quarters."]
 

San Francisco weighs decriminalizing prostitution ap.google.com 10/22/8 ["In this live-and-let-live town, where medical marijuana clubs do business next to grocery stores and an annual fair celebrates sadomasochism, prostitutes could soon walk the streets without fear of arrest.  San Francisco would become the first major U.S. city to decriminalize prostitution if voters next month approve Proposition K — a measure that forbids local authorities from investigating, arresting or prosecuting anyone for selling sex.  ...the measure will free up $11 million the police spend each year arresting prostitutes..."]
Bush Says Financial Crisis Can't Mean Cuts in U.S. Foreign Aid bloomberg.com 10/22/8 ["Bush has increased spending on assistance to $21 billion in 2007 from $12.6 billion in 2001, with much of that new aid going to Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Center for Global Development."]
UN's Ban urges global solidarity in financial woes reuters.com 10/22/8 [" "Now more than ever we must be bold," Ban told Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "However a country may be powerful or resourceful, for example like the United States, even the United States ... cannot address this alone."  He said he intended to mobilize "all the resources and wills" of the United Nations' 192 member states. "In particular, we cannot allow the financial crisis to turn into a prolonged human crisis," he said."]
Lehman Credit Default Swaps Settle Without Losses foxbusiness.com 10/22/8 ["It was unclear earlier whether just $6 billion or up to $400 billion in swaps on Lehman's debt would have to be settled."]
Fed to Provide Up to $540 Billion to Aid Money Funds bloomberg.com 10/22/8 ["JPMorgan Chase & Co. will run five special units that will buy up to $600 billion of certificates of deposit, bank notes and commercial paper with a remaining maturity of 90 days or less. The Fed will provide up to $540 billion, with the remaining $60 billion coming from commercial paper issued by the five units to the money-market funds selling their assets"]
National City to cut 4,000 jobs reuters.com 10/22/8 ["and said rising reserves for soured mortgage and real estate construction loans led to its fifth straight quarterly loss.  The job cuts amount to 14 percent of the bank's workforce and are expected to take place over three years."]
Sacramento city orders one-day furloughs for non-union workers bizjournals.com 10/22/8 ["said the furloughs would save the city’s general fund $1.75 million over six months, and another $360,000 from non-general-fund accounts over the same period.  About 900 of the city's 5,000 employees will face furloughs equal to about 5 percent of their pay."]
Group to share patents for radio tracking reuters.com 10/22/8 ["got a go-ahead from the U.S. government to form a patent consortium to share high-frequency radio technology used in tracking and identification, the Justice Department said on Tuesday."]
Wal-Mart customers delay buying necessities reuters.com 10/22/8 ["And, in a "disturbing" trend, Castro-Wright said Wal-Mart for the first time is seeing a paycheck-related spike in sales of baby formula, suggesting consumers are rushing to buy such necessities as soon as they have the cash.  ...credit used as a form of payment at Wal-Mart is falling and that the decline is expected to reach into the double digits this year."]
Biofuel Makers Push to Boost the Amount of Ethanol Allowed in Gasoline to 20 Percent usnews.com 10/22/8 ["Automakers will be watching the results closely. High-mileage tests done in Australia within the past few years on 20 percent ethanol blends revealed significant performance issues, including rusting of some components and catalyst damage. One of the main problems, the tests found, is that ethanol raises the temperature at which reactions take place inside the car and can therefore accelerate damage and decay."]
 

Circuit City Faces Bankruptcy or Closing Up To 150 Stores newsfactor.com 10/21/8 ["If the nation's second-largest seller of consumer electronics chooses Door #2, it could generate an estimated $350 million in inventory liquidation, job cuts, and infrastructure reductions."]
U.S. policymakers mull creation of domestic intelligence agency cnn.com 10/21/8 ["On Monday, at the request of Congress, the RAND Corporation outlined the pros and cons of establishing a domestic intelligence agency. It also discussed different ways to organize a new entity, either as part of an existing department or as a new agency."]
UK: Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones timesonline.co.uk 10/21/8 ["The pay-as-you-go phones are popular with criminals and terrorists because their anonymity shields their activities from the authorities. But they are also used by thousands of law-abiding citizens who wish to communicate in private."]
France pours 10 billion euros into six banks afp.google.com 10/21/8 ["President Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged that no French bank will be allowed to collapse and that savers will not lose "a single euro" in the global turmoil unleashed by the collapse of US investment giant Lehman Brothers last month."]
 

A financial new world order? csmonitor.com 10/20/8 ["The initial summit is expected to be a kind of expanded Group of Eight meeting, assembling the leaders of the most industrialized nations and those of major developing economies like China, India, Brazil, and South Korea. It would aim to assess the current global crisis and to come up with a set of principles of reform.  ...Bush indicated he seeks to maintain some degree of American stewardship over the financial reform effort when he politely declined the offer of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to host the expanded G-8 summit at the UN in New York."]
Markets hold breath as $360bn Lehman swaps unwind telegraph.co.uk 10/20/8 ["...$360bn worth of contracts on now-defaulted derivatives on Lehman Brothers are due to be settled on Tuesday.  ...The collapse of Lehman Brothers, is expected to trigger credit default swap (CDS) protection pay-outs of about $400bn but because the contracts were sold many times through different counterparties it is not yet known who will be liable."]
Car lending slashed as default threat rises among borrowers ft.com 10/20/8 ["Lenders such as Wells Fargo, Capital One and GMAC this week all reported heavy cuts to their auto lending businesses amid signs that borrowers are increasingly affected by the slowing US economy and rising unemployment."]
Factory closure in China a sign of deeper pain ap.google.com 10/20/8 [""Labor costs have gone up 70 to 100 percent in the last three or four years. But these guys have not been able to raise their prices because Toys "R" Us, Home Depot and Wal-Mart are saying no price increase. How is that possible?""]
 

European leaders press for new economic order ap.google.com 10/18/8 [""This is a defining moment for the world economy," Brown wrote in Friday's Washington Post. "The old postwar international financial institutions are out of date. They have to be rebuilt for a wholly new era."  ...Sarkozy cast his net even wider. ...wants discussion on tax havens, hedge and sovereign wealth funds, the "folly" of big pay bonuses for risk-taking executives and even how many major currencies the world needs."]
Israel: Thousands Gather for Temple Congregation Ceremony israelnationalnews.com 10/18/8 ["The Temple Institute in Jerusalem's Old City succeeded on Wednesday in arousing a spirit of longing for the Holy Temple amongst a crowd of thousands that gathered for a re-enactment of the Hakhel ceremony."]
China Shipping's Traffic May Plunge as Exports Slow bloomberg.com 10/18/8 ["`Traffic will drop at least 10 percent for the full year,'' Zhang Denghui, assistant president of China Shipping (Group) Co., parent of China Shipping Lines, the country's second-largest container line, said in an interview yesterday. ``An even much larger drop is possible, as the full impact of the global economic turmoil is yet to come.''"]
German lawmakers approve bank rescue package reuters.com 10/18/8 ["The German package mirrors those in other European states after an agreement at a euro-zone leaders summit on Sunday to proceed with coordinated national plans.  ...The package comprises up to 400 billion euros in bank guarantees to restore liquidity and as much as 100 billion euros in state funds for recapitalizing struggling financial institutions -- sums that together almost equal Germany's annual tax take."]
Putin's dog gets a satellite collar reuters.com 10/18/8 ["Putin interrupted a meeting of officials who were discussing the virtues of the Russia's new satellite global positioning system GLONASS to monitor cattle and wild animals."]
Citigroup’s $13bn writedown raises fears of a crisis beyond Wall Street timesonline.co.uk 10/18/8 ["The latest writedowns brought Citigroup’s total hit from the credit crunch to about $60 billion and left it with an overall group loss, of $2.8 billion, for the fourth consecutive quarter."]
 

NJ flu-shot mandate for preschoolers draws outcry ap.google.com 10/17/8 ["State health officials and the CDC insist the flu vaccine is safe and effective, but Vandervalk and the parent groups who support her bill contend there has been inadequate research into the vaccine's impact on small children. Critics note that flu vaccines contain trace amounts of thimerosol, a mercury-based preservative; the CDC says there's no convincing evidence these trace amounts cause harm."]
Banks borrow record $437.5 bln per day from Fed reuters.com 10/17/8 [" Banks and dealers' overall direct borrowings from the Fed averaged a record $437.53 billion per day in the week ended Oct. 15, topping the previous week's $420.16 billion per day.  Some analysts are concerned that banks' dependence on Fed lending might become long term and difficult to change."]
China vows to help cash-strapped Pakistan afp.google.com 10/17/8 ["Zardari met Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on Wednesday in a meeting in which the two sides pledged to strengthen decades-old ties and signed 11 bilateral agreements, one on unspecified economic cooperation.  The Financial Times newspaper has reported, without citing sources, that Zardari would seek a soft loan of between 500 million and 1.5 billion dollars from China to help Pakistan avoid looming bankruptcy."]
Ship Rates Plunge as Credit Freeze Strands Cargo, Demand Slumps bloomberg.com 10/17/8 ["Traders are finding it harder to get letters of credit that guarantee payments for goods, shipping executives said. Together with a slowdown in trade, that has contributed to this year's 82 percent drop in shipping costs for grain, coal and other commodities."]
Russian bank Globex freezes withdrawals: report marketwatch.com 10/17/8 ["has frozen early withdrawals from fixed-term deposit accounts for five days"]
Crisis spreads to Eastern Europe as Ukraine, Hungary and Serbia call IMF telegraph.co.uk 10/17/8 ["Ukraine, Hungary, and Serbia are all in emergency talks with the International Monetary Fund, raising fears that an exodus of foreign investors will set off a systemic crisis across Eastern Europe."]
At Indian call centers, bleak view of US boston.com 10/17/8 ["For the past three years, Chaturvedi has been a top collection agent at her call center, phoning hundreds of Americans a day and politely asking them to pay up. As the US financial crisis plunges Americans into debt, her business is one of the fastest-growing sectors in Indian outsourcing. It is also one of the few sectors of outsourcing in India that is still aggressively hiring."]
Dallas schools layoff more than 300 teachers chron.com 10/17/8 ["Dallas school officials laid off hundreds of teachers Thursday in an attempt to avoid a projected $84 million budget deficit.  ...The deficit, which increased by about $1 million each week"]
 

EU leaders call for global financial overhaul afp.google.com 10/16/8 ["French President Nicolas Sarkozy said there was unanimous support for a global summit to be held before the end of the year, including industrialised countries and also major emerging economies like China and India, devoted to a complete overhaul of the financial system."]
EU, US call for a global summit to reshape banking kansascity.com 10/16/8 ["French President Nicolas Sarkozy said all European Union nations backed radical restructuring of global institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. He called for a meeting "preferably in New York, where everything started" and said it should lead to "a new capitalism.""]
France's lower house approves $491 billion bank rescue usatoday.com 10/16/8 ["The vote came hours after France's top bankers and insurers welcomed the costly plan presented to them by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who wants to see it in place by the end of the week."]
Birmingham on the brink (of bankruptcy) cnn.com 10/16/8 ["As he would describe it in a follow-up letter to Kashkari, the situation in Jefferson County was "the single biggest threat to the municipal bond market today and a poster child for how the subprime mortgage crisis is hurting Main Street America."  ...The list of potential losers in the county's bankruptcy includes some of the biggest names in banking - past and present. The county's lead underwriter, which brought to market $2.2 billion in debt, is JPMorgan Chase  ...two of the county's biggest counterparties in derivatives trades were Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers."]
There Is Profit In Confusion newswithviews.com 10/16/8 [By Betty Freauf  "On or about September 17th the feathers supposedly hit the fan and we were told we had a Wall Street financial crisis on our hands and if Congress didn’t pass a “bailout” bill promptly, the whole U.S. would disappear off the face of the earth. Pelosi called a few key Democrats into a conference with Republican President George W. Bush, who wanted the bailout. It sounded like a done deal. They had a bill drafted within hours. As a former legal secretary, I know these types of documents cannot be drafted that quickly unless they were preordained."]
Dow plunges 733 as new data points to recession ap.google.com 10/16/8 ["Wednesday's selloff began after the government's report that retail sales plunged in September by 1.2 percent — almost double the 0.7 percent drop analysts expected — made it clear that consumers are reluctant to spend amid a shaky economy and a punishing stock market."]
Paris gold changers busy as crisis spooks savers reuters.com 10/16/8 [""It's almost doubled. Lots of people have lost faith in the financial system. Gold is a safe haven and over the long term, the price is going to rise," said Serge Siauvaud, busy behind the counter of his Saint Marc shop on the Rue Vivienne."]
CTA gives $1M more to fight gay marriage ban mercurynews.com 10/16/8 ["Union spokeswoman Sandra Jackson says CTA's 800-member policy body voted overwhelmingly to oppose the gay marriage ban. Jackson says the issue concerns educators because "teachers teach the importance of equal rights for all.""]
Russia Makes an Extraordinary Show of Missile Force cnsnews.com 10/16/8 ["Also on Saturday, Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers launched cruise missiles in war-games unseen since the Soviet era. And on Sunday, Russia fired three more long-range missiles, including one from a submarine in the Barents Sea, one from a submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Japan, and a Topol ICBM from a space center at Plesetsk, north-east of Moscow."]
Japanese stocks dive more than 10 percent afp.google.com 10/16/8 ["Wall Street's Dow Jones index sank 7.87 percent on Wednesday after US retail sales fell much more than expected and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said a recovery from the financial crisis "will not happen right away."  "Following the second-biggest fall on Wall Street, it's inevitable that Japanese stocks are sliding," said Hiroaki Hiwata, a stock market strategist at Toyo Securities."]
State Farmers Feel Pinch of Poultry Downturn cbs59.com 10/16/8 ["Some farmers are considering shutting down their chicken and turkey operations during the winter months to save energy costs, said David Workman, West Virginia University Extension Service agent for Hardy County."]
 

Iceland shares plunge 76% as trading resumes timesonline.co.uk 10/15/8 ["Market officials said the astounding figure was misleading since the country’s three largest banks — Kaupthing, Landsbanki, Glitnir — which had accounted for three quarters of the exchange’s value, had been removed from the index after they were nationalised last week."]
Direct US stake in banks has many precedents ap.google.com 10/15/8 ["It was presented as a last-resort intervention. But already this year, the Federal Reserve had taken a $85 billion stake in failing insurer American International Group, which it later upped by $37.8 billion. And it provided a $29 billion loan to help JPMorgan Chase & Co. buy investment bank Bear Stearns. The government took over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pledging up to $200 billion."]
Chicago mayor to shut down government for six days reuters.com 10/15/8 ["Along with several other measures, the mayor's plan was aimed at saving $62 million for the city's corporate or operating fund, which currently faces a $469 million shortfall.  Under the plan, city employees, with the exception of mostly public safety workers, would not work and would not be paid for the day after Thanksgiving or for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve this year and in 2009."]
400 county jobs could fall victim to $93 million shortfall seattlepi.nwsource.com 10/15/8 ["More than 250 King County employees could find out Tuesday they won't have a job starting next year, and a long list of county-sponsored programs might also be cut soon because of ongoing budget woes. The cuts were outlined in County Executive Ron Sims' 2009 general fund budget proposal, a contentious plan presented to the County Council on Monday in response to a $93 million budget deficit."]
NYC may lose 165,000 jobs, double July's estimate reuters.com 10/15/8 ["New York City's economy could lose 165,000 jobs in the next 24 months, almost double the estimate made in July, city Comptroller William Thompson said on Tuesday."]
As economy sinks, officials fear violent solutions cnn.com 10/15/8 ["Across the country, authorities are becoming concerned that the nation's financial woes could turn increasingly violent, and they are urging people to get help. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full."]
Boston: Patrick: Layoffs part of ’hundreds of millions’ in cuts news.bostonherald.com 10/15/8 ["because of a sharp drop in tax revenues will affect the core delivery of state services, not just the so-called "fat," Gov. Deval Patrick said today.  ...tax collections fell $223 million short during the first quarter."]
Panic of 1873 wikipedia.org 10/15/8 ["In September 1873, the American economy entered a crisis. This followed a period of post Civil War economic overexpansion that arose from the Northern railroad boom. It came at the end of a series of economic setbacks: the Black Friday panic of 1869, the Chicago fire of 1871, the outbreak of equine influenza in 1872, and the demonetization of silver in 1873."  Editor:  As you read the article, notice how natural/manmade disasters fueled the panic.]
 

Icelandic Shoppers Splurge as Currency Woes Reduce Food Imports bloomberg.com 10/14/8 ["Iceland's foreign currency market has seized up after the three largest banks collapsed and the government abandoned an attempt to peg the exchange rate. Many banks won't trade the krona and suppliers from abroad are demanding payment in advance. The government has asked banks to prioritize foreign currency transactions for essentials such as food, drugs and oil."  Editor: Invest in your food pantry NOW!  Expect similar events to echo in the United States, as many of our foodstuffs are imported as well.]
Henry Morgentaler Receives Order of Canada Medal lifesitenews.com 10/14/8 ["He has boasted of personally killing more than 100,000 unborn children, and is responsible for the deaths of millions more. Because of Morgentaler's pro-abortion activism, Canada currently has one of the most extreme abortion regimes in the world, in which a woman can have her unborn child killed up to birth at taxpayer expense for any reason."]
Researcher: Abortions Cost Economy $35 Trillion Since 1970 in Lost Productivity lifenews.com 10/14/8 ["A researcher who has spent over a decade examining the economic impact of abortion finds that the approximately 50,5 million abortions in the U.S. since 1970 have cost the American economy $35 trillion. That comes in the form of lost productivity by having fewer workers contributing to society.  Those contributions also come in the form of taxpayers contributing to state, federal and local governments that would have had more funds to pay teachers, offer health care benefits or put more police on the streets."]
Press Release federalreserve.gov 10/14/8 ["In order to provide broad access to liquidity and funding to financial institutions, the Bank of England (BoE), the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) are jointly announcing further measures to improve liquidity in short-term U.S. dollar funding markets.  ...Funds will be provided at a fixed interest rate, set in advance of each operation. Counterparties in these operations will be able to borrow any amount they wish against the appropriate collateral in each jurisdiction."  Editor: Get ready for inflation!]
America's latest export: empty municipal coffers guardian.co.uk 10/14/8 ["What is most disconcerting about the way this turmoil is panning out,' says Sujit Canagaretna, senior fiscal analyst at the Council of State Governments (CSG), 'is that most state governments were already in a terrible state. But now things have worsened considerably and the credit markets have a real choke hold on almost all state treasuries. It is so bad that economic activity in most states has all but ground to a halt.'  States have become accustomed to borrowing their way out of troubles like these, but today state and local governments are having just as hard a time securing credit as the banks and financial firms . "]
Why Would God Judge America? informedchristians.com 10/14/8 ["“…which the LORD would not pardon.” I Kings 24:4"]
Chicago to Create Tax-Funded High School for Homosexual and Transgender Students cnsnews.com 10/14/8 ["The Social Justice High School - Pride Campus, slated to open in 2010, will incorporate lessons in sexual identity into its history and literature curricula."]
Europe puts more on the line for banks than US biz.yahoo.com 10/14/8 [""The time of each one for itself is fortunately over," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, following a Cabinet meeting that approved France's spending in the framework of the plan.  "United Europe has pledged more than the United States," added Sarkozy, who has taken a lead in getting the cooperation."]
UK's Largest Teachers' Union Lobbies to Legalise Sex with Students lifesitenews.com 10/14/8 ["Chris Keates, the general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), said that teachers who have sex with pupils over the age of consent should not be placed on the sex offenders register. Keates called prosecution for statutory rape "a real anomaly in the law that we are concerned about.""]
School takes 1st-graders to see lesbian teacher wed wnd.com 10/14/8 ["A public school in San Francisco bused 18 first-graders to City Hall yesterday, so the youngsters could scatter rose petals in celebration of their lesbian teacher's wedding."  Matthew 18:6 warns, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."]
GM to close stamping plant near Grand Rapids ap.google.com 10/14/8 ["Workers at the Grand Rapids Metal Center in suburban Wyoming were told it will close by the end of 2009. The plant employs about 1,340 hourly and 180 salaried workers.  Earlier in Janesville, Wis., workers got the news that SUV production at the plant, with 1,200 employees represented by the United Auto Workers, will end Dec. 23. The closure is earlier than GM had expected"]
Halloween and the Forces of Darkness lasttrumpetministries.org 10/14/8 [Pastor David Meyer  "...Halloween is not harmless. Satan has people in our modern era mimicking the witches and Druids of old. "]
Halloween and the Occult lasttrumpetministries.org 10/14/8 [Pastor David Meyer  "Witchcraft is very real but greatly misunderstood. I know because witchcraft goes back on the paternal side of my family for over five generations to Chesterfield, Massachusetts in 1770."]
Traders' worst fears realised at Lehmans auction independent.co.uk 10/14/8 ["What investors and regulators fear most is a failure to pay by one link in the chain could cause a cascade of losses through the system.  Analysts say the amount of money that has to change hands could be more than $200bn. Some estimates put the value of outstanding credit default swaps on Lehman Brothers debt at $400bn, although some of these trades have already been netted out because some investors both sold and bought CDS contracts. Exact figures are not available because a CDS is a private contract and is not traded on an exchange, but the payout will certainly be the biggest in the 10-year history of the market."]
Next step for USPS: Layoffs? federaltimes.com 10/14/8 [" The Postal Service has already extended early-retirement offers to more than 156,000 postal workers — roughly 20 percent of its work force. And the postmaster general, John Potter, told the largest postal union that the agency has identified as many as 16,000 employees who can be laid off without the need for collective bargaining because they lack seniority. Last month, nearly 3,700 employees had accepted early retirement offers in the first of three rounds of early-retirement offers. "]
Boycott Successful: McDonald's Abandons Homosexual Activism lifesitenews.com 10/14/8 ["McDonald's has severed its ties to a homosexual business group and declared neutrality in the culture wars as per AFA's request.  AFA's five-month boycott ended after Richard Ellis, former McDonald's vice president of U.S. communications, left his seat on the board of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). McDonald's, which was offered the seat after donating $20,000 to the NGLCC, has announced there are no plans to replace Ellis on the board."]
 

IMF warns of financial meltdown reuters.com 10/13/8 [""Intensifying solvency concerns about a number of the largest U.S.-based and European financial institutions have pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown," IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said."]
German banks plan worth around 400 billion euros: lawmaker 10/13/8 ["A German rescue package for its banks will be worth around 400 billion euros ($549 billion) and be restricted until the end of 2009, a senior official in Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives said on Sunday."]
Democrats call for massive econ stimulus plan reuters.com 10/13/8 ["U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week said a $150 billion economic stimulus plan was needed to help counteract a faltering economy shaken by a paralyzed banking system and steep stock market falls."]
Failed Bank Information - Main Street Bank, Northville, MI fdic.gov 10/13/8 [""]
Failed Bank Information - Meridian Bank, Eldred, IL fdic.gov 10/13/8 [""]
Russia test-fires ballistic missiles iht.com 10/13/8 ["a Topol intercontinental missile from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northwest Russia at a target thousands of kilometers away in the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.  ...On Saturday, Russia fired a Sineva ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea to a record distance of more than 11,500 kilometers to a target in the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean."]
Municipal Bonds Freeze Up businessweek.com 10/13/8 ["Like other credit markets, municipal bonds are nearly frozen. During the week of Sept. 22, three significant bond deals were done. Normally the tally would be about 100. Those that are getting done—like New York City's Sept. 29 deal—are high-priced.  ...close to $1 billion in new borrowings scheduled for sale in November and December."]
 

Connecticut Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage boston.com 10/11/8 ["In an 85-page decision issued at 11:30 a.m., the court struck down a law barring same-sex marriage, ruling that the state had "failed to establish adequate reason to justify the statutory ban.""]
Stocks got slammed, but was it a `crash'? ap.google.com 10/11/8 ["A crash is commonly defined as a 20 percent decline in a single day or several days. The drop over the seven days ending Thursday lopped 20.9 percent off the Dow Jones industrial average, which would qualify as a crash. On Friday, the Dow fell again, bringing the cumulative loss to 22 percent."]
Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World's Markets bloomberg.com 10/11/8 ["``The idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed,'' Berlusconi said today after a Cabinet meeting in Naples, Italy. A solution to the financial crisis ``can't just be for one country, or even just for Europe, but global.''"]
 

Morgentaler to be Awarded Order of Canada Friday October 10 in Quebec City lifesitenews.com 10/10/8 ["abortionist Henry Morgentaler"]
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Exhibit Celebrates Abortion Advocates lifenews.com 10/10/8 ["a book that accompanies the exhibit describes Sanger as helping women “whose health had been devastated by excessive child-bearing.""]
Dow plunges 679 for 6th triple-digit loss in a row ap.google.com 10/10/8 ["...turned the anniversary of the stock market peak into one of the worst days in Wall Street history Thursday, driving the Dow Jones industrials down a breathtaking 679 points and deepening a financial crisis that has defied all efforts to stop it.  Stocks lost more than 7 percent..."]
GM shares fall 30 percent after S&P statement ap.google.com 10/10/8 ["Shares of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. plunged in the waning minutes of trading Thursday, after Standard & Poor's Ratings Services placed their credit ratings under review for possible downgrade."]
Darling posts crisis team to Iceland guardian.co.uk 10/10/8 ["The financial meltdown in Iceland continued this morning when Kaupthing became the third bank to fall into the hands of the authorities, and trading on the Icelandic stock market was halted.  The Nordic nation's government also used sweeping new emergency powers to create a new bank that will take over the bulk of the domestic operations of another one of its collapsed banks. "]
IMF readies emergency bailouts for countries reuters.com 10/10/8 [""Nobody knows if some ... advanced economies will not also be in need of some help by the IMF," he said, adding that countries needing to borrow will face more streamlined conditionality than normal and funding will be made available quickly. "Very quickly means two weeks at most," he added."]
Gun lobby reaches deal on return of weapons to Katrina victims afp.google.com 10/10/8 ["In its lawsuit, the NRA condemned what it said were draconian measures authorities enforced in areas hit by Katrina, in what the gun group suggested were misguided efforts to maintain law and order."]
Australia: CBA computer glitch freezes transactions abc.net.au 10/10/8 ["The Commonwealth Bank says it is working to resolve a computer problem that has stopped debits and payments to thousands of customers, including pensioners."]
 

Central banks all but stop lending bullion ft.com 10/9/8 ["Central banks have all but stopped lending gold to commercial and investment banks and other participants in the precious metals market, in a move that on Tuesday sent the cost of borrowing bullion for one-month to more than twenty times its usual level."]
Mandatory Homosexual Indoctrination in Grade School Survives after Supreme Court Turns Down Case lifesitenews.com 10/9/8 ["After mounting a ferocious battle to preserve traditional marriage values, David Parker could only watch helplessly as the United States Supreme Court left intact a lower court ruling that allowed Massachusetts schools to promote homosexuality in the classroom without telling parents or allowing them to opt out."]
John McCain proposes $300 billion US housing market bail-out telegraph.co.uk 10/9/8 ["as it emerged that one in six homeowners are in negative equity."]
Fed announces new 37.8-bln-dlr cash infusion for AIG afp.google.com 10/9/8 ["The newly nationalized company, saved from bankruptcy last month and propped up with increasing quantities of public money, has burned through the majority of its first line of credit of 85 billion dollars."]
Japanese stock market plummets 9.4% jpost.com 10/9/8 ["its biggest one-day drop in 21 years - as investors rushed for the exits on deepening fears over the global financial crisis.  ...The Nikkei index has lost a staggering 24 percent in the last two weeks."]
Grain shipments stalled in credit drought financialpost.com 10/9/8 [""There's all kinds of stuff stacked up on docks right now that can't be shipped because people can't get letters of credit," said Bill Gary, president of Commodity Information Systems in Oklahoma City. "The problem is not demand, and it's not supply because we have plenty of supply. It's finding anyone who can come up with the credit to buy.""]
Chicago's Cook County won't evict in foreclosures ap.google.com 10/9/8 ["Dart said he believes he's the first sheriff in a major metropolitan area to stop participating in foreclosure evictions  ...He talked about tenants who dutifully pay their rent, then leave one morning for work only to have authorities evict them and put their belongings on the curb while they are gone.  ...In many cases, he said, tenants aren't even aware that their homes have fallen into foreclosure."]
U.S. may take stakes in banks iht.com 10/9/8 ["Treasury officials say the just-passed $700 billion bailout bill gives them the authority to inject cash directly into banks that request it. Such a move would quickly strengthen banks' balance sheets and, officials hope, persuade them to resume lending. In return, the law gives the Treasury the right to take ownership positions in banks, including healthy ones."]
U.S. Treasury to Sell More Debt to Address Shortages bloomberg.com 10/9/8 ["The Treasury said it would sell $40 billion in reopenings of 10-year notes today and tomorrow, in four separate auctions of $10 billion each."]
Ford to Triple Job Cuts at Volvo Cars on Demand Slump bloomberg.com 10/9/8 ["Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo subsidiary tripled planned job cuts to 6,000 positions, or 25 percent of its workforce, citing a ``rapidly deteriorating'' auto market."]
IMF urges rapid, coordinated international response to financial crisis guardian.co.uk 10/9/8 ["In its latest twice-yearly Global Financial Stability Review, the Washington-based institution dramatically raised its estimate of losses to the US banking system to around $1.4 trillion (£800bn), 45% up from the $945bn it estimated in April and reaffirmed just two months ago."]
U.S. Stocks Drop as Recession Concern Outweighs Rate Reductions bloomberg.com 10/9/8 [""]
Alcoa shares plunge after 3Q profit sinks 52 pct forbes.com 10/9/8 ["Shares of Alcoa Inc. plummeted to their lowest level in nearly 13 years Wednesday, a day after the aluminum producer reported a 52-percent drop in third-quarter earnings.  Alcoa also said that to conserve cash, it would suspend its stock buyback program and all non-critical capital projects."]
 

European Crisis Deepens; Officials Vow to Save Banks bloomsberg.com 10/8/8 ["``We want a new world to come out of this,'' Sarkozy said. ``We want to set up the basis for a capitalism of entrepreneurs, not speculators.''  Finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations meet in Washington later this week. "]
Russia to test fire cruise missiles for first time since 1984 timesonline.co.uk 10/8/8 ["Up to 20 bombers are being sent into the air with full combat payloads to carry out live firing exercises of their cruise missiles. It is the largest display of Russian air power since the collapse of the Soviet Union."]
US Mint halts some American Eagle coin production reuters.com 10/8/8 ["Unprecedented demand for precious metals and volatile markets forced the U.S. Mint to cease production for the half-ounce and quarter-ounce popular American Eagle gold coins for the rest of this year and to supply other bullion coins on an allocation basis."]
Forecast: US heating costs to jump 15 percent this winter boston.com 10/8/8 ["the government's top energy forecasting agency said Tuesday, citing more expensive fuel and the likelihood of much colder weather than last winter."]
British savers denied cash as chaos hits Iceland bank scotsman.com 10/8/8 ["Hundreds of thousands of UK savers were yesterday blocked from withdrawing their cash from Icesave, the troubled Icelandic internet bank, amid warnings the parent group was likely to go into liquidation."]
Iceland Central Bank Receives 4 Billion Euro Loan From Russia bloomberg.com 10/8/8 ["Russia agreed to lend Iceland's central bank 4 billion euros ($5.43 billion) to inject liquidity into the financial system, the bank said."]
Markets Drown in Another Selling Wave foxbusiness.com 10/8/8 ["The Dow plummeted another 500 points to five-year lows on Tuesday as Wall Street shrugged off another emergency effort by the Federal Reserve to cure ailing credit markets.  The selloff capped the Dow's worst five-day point drop in history..."]
Gay candidates anticipate breakthroughs on Nov. 4 ap.google.com 10/8/8 ["Polis is one of a record 100 gay, lesbian and bisexual candidates for federal, state and local offices winning endorsements this year from the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a national group founded in 1991 to increase the number of openly gay elected officials. The number has risen — steadily but slowly — to more than 420 out of the nation's roughly 500,000 elected officials."]
Gay marriages in California surpass those in Massachusetts latimes.com 10/8/8 ["The data, released Monday by UCLA's Williams Institute, found that an estimated 11,000 same-sex couples were married in California from June 17, when the California Supreme Court began allowing the weddings, to Sept. 17."]
What is commercial paper, and why does it matter? iht.com 10/8/8 ["The big and financially sound firms that typically issue commercial paper have plenty of revenue to fund long-term needs. But they also sometimes need short-term cash to cover everything from buying supplies, paying vendors and making payroll, so they turn to the commercial paper market."]
Fed to Purchase U.S. Commercial Paper to Ease Crunch bloomberg.com 10/8/8 ["The Treasury will make a deposit with the Fed's New York district bank to help set up the new unit. The central bank will also lend to the program at policy makers' target rate for overnight loans between banks, the central bank said in a statement released in Washington. "]
Legislators Seek Abortion-on-Demand for Every State in Mexico lifesitenews.com 10/8/8 ["In the wake of a Supreme Court ruling affirming the constitutionality of Mexico City's abortion law, which allows a woman to kill her unborn baby for any reason during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, liberal lawmakers are seeking to extend abortion-on-demand to every state in Mexico."]
Retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion breitbart.com 10/8/8 ["Public and private pension funds and employees' private retirement savings accounts—like 401(k)'s—have lost some 20 percent overall since mid-2007, he estimated. Private retirement plans may have suffered slightly more because those holdings are more heavily skewed toward stocks..."]
 

Germany takes hot seat as Europe falls into the abyss telegraph.co.uk 10/7/8 ["During the past week, we have tipped over the edge, into the middle of the abyss. Systemic collapse is in full train. The Netherlands has just rushed through a second, more sweeping nationalisation of Fortis. Ireland and Greece have had to rescue all their banks. Iceland is facing an Argentine denouement.  The US commercial paper market is closed. It shrank $95bn last week, and has lost $208bn in three weeks."]
Prices for 16 basic food items shoot up in third quarter latimes.com 10/7/8 ["because of higher commodity costs and increased processing and transportation expenses, the American Farm Bureau Federation said Thursday.  ...Retail prices for flour, potatoes, cheddar cheese and apples showed the largest increases in the quarter. A 5-pound bag of flour cost $2.62, up 37% from a year earlier, while 5 pounds of potatoes rose 32% to $3.38. Prices for cheddar cheese and apples surged 21%."]
Iceland agrees emergency legislation timesonline.co.uk 10/7/8 ["In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Geir Haarde said the country’s top financial regulator will have wide-ranging authority to dictate a bank’s operations and could even force it to merge with another firm or declare bankruptcy.  The bill will also allow the government to take over housing loans held by the banks and put them in a government housing fund, an effort to help thousands of islanders who face the loss of their homes amid an ever-widening credit crunch. "]
Address to the Nation by H.E. Geir H. Haarde, Prime Minister of Iceland forsaetisraduneyti.is10/7/8 ["If there was ever a time when the Icelandic nation needed to stand together and show fortitude in the face of adversity, then this is the moment. I urge you all to guard that which is most important in the life of everyone of us, protect those values which will survive the storm now beginning. I urge families to discuss together and not to allow anxiety to get the upper hand even tough the outlook is grim for many. We need to explain to our children that the world is not on the edge of a precipice and we all need to find an inner courage to look to the future."]
Fed’s first foray into unsecured loans ft.com 10/7/8 ["Any unsecured lending would be a radical departure for the Fed. Central banks the world over almost never make unsecured loans, and the Fed has never done so in its history."]
Fed pumps billions more into banks cnn.com 10/7/8 ["The central bank said that its so-called term auction facility, which accepts financial instruments such as mortgage-backed securities as collateral, will be doubled immediately to $300 billion. The total amount available to banks will rise to $600 billion under the moves announced Monday."]
Mass. Asks About Federal Loan Amid Market Worries foxnews.com 10/7/8 ["The treasurer of Massachusetts has asked the federal government about lending Massachusetts money under the same favorable terms it has given banks and firms during the financial crisis.  ...The state's borrowing problems come as it deals with a $223 million shortfall in projected tax collections during the first quarter of the state's fiscal year."]
'Bride' and 'groom' to be restored to Calif. forms signonsandiego.com 10/7/8 ["In a notice posted on its Web site, the California Department of Public Health says it is making the change because many couples still wanted the option of identifying themselves in traditional terms.  ...Because “bride” and “groom” appear in both sections, couples could check the same title twice to reflect a union between two men or two women."]
Brazil currency, stocks sink, halting trade twice reuters.com 10/7/8 ["Brazil's currency sank and stocks plummeted by as much as 15 percent on Monday, forcing the stock exchange to halt trade twice as a deepening financial crisis battered markets across the globe."]
A.I.G. Uses $61 Billion of Fed Loan nytimes.com 10/7/8 ["of the $85 billion emergency bridge loan it received from the Federal Reserve two weeks ago, an announcement that startled credit ratings agencies."]
Bank of America Offers Stock, Cuts Payout; Net Falls bloomberg.com 10/7/8 ["the bank that bought Countrywide Financial Corp., halved its dividend and plans to sell $10 billion in common shares after third-quarter profit fell 68 percent. The stock declined in late trading."]
Bank savers run at the click of a mouse reuters.com 10/7/8 ["But in Europe, another high-profile banking failure has drawn attention to a different 21st-century phenomenon: as homes and businesses increasingly manage their finances online, mass withdrawals may be invisible.  Fortis, focus of a cross-border rescue last week, was also in part the victim of a silent bank run, which along with a dramatic fall in its stock prompted Benelux governments to step in and inject cash into the banking and insurance group."]
AP Enterprise: In bad economy, power cutoffs soar ap.google.com 10/7/8 ["Shut-offs have been running 17 percent higher than last year among customers of New York state's major utilities, and 22 percent higher in economically hard-hit Michigan."]
Dow recovers to close down 370 after plunging 800 excite.com 10/7/8 ["the Dow Jones industrials plunging as much as 800 points - their largest one-day point drop - before recovering to close with a loss of 370. The catalyst for the selling, which also took the Dow below 10,000 for the first time in four years, was investors' growing despair that the spreading credit crisis will take a heavy toll around the world."]
US Army releases manual on 'stability operations' afp.google.com 10/7/8 ["It identifies tasks and sets forth guidelines for military officers charged with restoring security and governance and providing humanitarian relief before, during or after major military operations."]
 

Germany guarantees savings to avert panic ft.com 10/6/8 ["German government officials also late on Sunday said the country’s commercial banks had agreed to inject an extra €15bn of liquidity into Hypo Real Estate, the ailing German mortgage and public sector lender, raising the bail-out agreed last week to €50bn, the largest since the outbreak of the financial crisis.  ...The UK and France were trying on Sunday to learn details of the German plan, amid concerns other EU governments would have to follow Berlin’s lead and offer similar safeguards to savers, to avoid a cross-border flight of capital to more secure banks."]
Bank on this: bank failures will rise in next year ap.google.com 10/6/8 ["The government's commitment to spend up to $700 billion buying bad debts from ailing banks is likely to save some institutions that would have otherwise died, but analysts doubt it will be enough to avert a major shakeout.  "It will help, but it's not going to be the saving grace" because a lot of banks are holding construction loans and other types of deteriorating assets that the government won't take off their books..."]
159,000 Jobs Lost in September, the Worst Month in Five Years nytimes.com 10/6/8 ["Employment has diminished for nine consecutive months, eliminating 760,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department’s report. And that does not count the traumatic events of recent weeks, as a string of Wall Street institutions collapsed, prompting the $700 billion emergency rescue package approved by Congress on Friday."]
Obama Falsely Claims 'Every Penny' of Bailout Proceeds Will Go to Americans cnsnews.com 10/6/8 ["...the law says the money will go to pay off federal debt – some of which is held by foreign entities.  ...Under Section 106(d) of the bill, entitled “Transfer to the Treasury,” “(all) revenues of, and proceeds from the sale of troubled assets purchased under this Act . . . shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt.”"]
Green Alert: Hidden Carbon Tax Provisions in Paulson’s Bailout 2.0 capitalresearch.org 10/6/8 ["If you look at page 180 of the 451-page monster bailout bill that easily passed the Senate yesterday (PDF here), you will see that it includes at Section 116 language about the tax treatment of “industrial source carbon dioxide.” It also provides, at Section 117, for a “carbon audit of the tax code.”"]
Carbon Tax Break Finds Way Into $700 Bil Rescue investors.com 10/6/8 ["Inserted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., it gives preferential tax treatment to publicly traded partnerships that derive at least 90% of their income from processing and marketing industrial carbon dioxide. "The intent of the provision is to facilitate the capture and storage of carbon dioxide," said a Baucus aide.  ...The technology as yet is unproven. But Jean Prevost, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Princeton Environmental Institute, contends it's viable. "We have pilot programs and we are going to do it." "]
 

Global authority can fill financial vacuum ft.com 10/4/8 ["The current global institutional apparatus is woefully incapable of overseeing the financial system that is evolving. The International Monetary Fund is irrelevant to this crisis, the Group of Seven leading industrial countries lacks legitimacy in a world where China, Brazil and others are big players, and the Bank for International Settlement has no operational role. The US Federal Reserve is too besieged to act as a global central bank.  ...The US’s dependence on massive inflows of foreign capital, roughly $3bn (€2bn, £1.6bn) a day, will surely increase now as Uncle Sam acquires $1,000bn in new obligations from current bail-outs."]
France seeks €300bn rescue fund for Europe timesonline.co.uk 10/4/8 ["It appears to involve the creation of a Europe-wide emergency fund that would be used to prop up banks when national governments are unable to intervene.  Ms Merkel said that Germany could not and would not issue a blank cheque for all banks, “regardless of whether they behave in a responsible manner or not”. "]
UK: Suffering firms switch to a four-day week timesonline.co.uk 10/4/8 ["The symptoms of manufacturing’s plight came as a key survey indicated that industry was buckling in the face of the economy’s deepening woes. Manufacturers suffered record falls in orders last month, forcing them to cut their production at a rate not seen since the end of the last recession, the survey of purchasing managers revealed.  It suggested that overall manufacturing conditions are already the worst suffered since January 1992 – and that they are deteriorating at the fastest rate since then."]
FDIC seeking temporary unlimited Treasury loans reuters.com 10/4/8 ["In the bill, which is expected to be voted on by the Senate later Wednesday, the FDIC is seeking the borrowing authority through the end of 2009."]
‘We Chose Panic,’ Senate’s Top GOP Banking Expert Declares as He Rips Bailout cnsnews.com 10/4/8 ["But Shelby, who has served in Congress since 1978, and who was chairman of the Banking Committee when the Republicans controlled the Senate, delivered a brief history of why he believes Congress itself caused the current financial crisis and why the action Congress took last night is unlikely to solve it.  He argued that the roots of the crisis can be found in well-intentioned attempts by members of Congress to conduct “social engineering” by deliberately loosening credit standards."]
Foreclosures: Did God Want You to Get That Mortgage? time.com 10/4/8 ["he realized that Prosperity's central promise — that God will "make a way" for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, dangerous expression during the subprime-lending boom. Walton says that this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe "God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house." The results, he says, "were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers.""  Editor: Thought-provoking, considering the source.]
Central banks favor gold as crisis unfolds reuters.com 10/4/8 ["And banks elsewhere in the world, most notably in Asia and the Middle East, may even become buyers of gold in an attempt to diversify their reserves away from the dollar, analysts say."]
More U.S. than European kids take mental health meds reuters.com 10/4/8 ["US children were the most likely to be medicated, with 6.7% taking a prescription psychotropic, compared to 2.9% of Dutch youngsters and 2% of Germans.  American kids were also more likely to be on multiple drugs..."]
Following other states, New York may lease assets seattlepi.nwsource.com 10/4/8 ["Under consideration for leasing could be everything from state highways and bridges to the lottery, golf courses, parks and beaches.  Paterson said this week he is creating a commission to study public-private partnerships and come up with specific recommendations by January, in time for his first State of the State address and state budget proposal."]
State Budget Troubles Worsen cbpp.org 10/4/8 ["In addition, the District of Columbia faces a budget shortfall. These budget gaps are in addition to the shortfalls that these and other states faced as they adopted their budgets for the current fiscal year.[1] At that time, 29 states faced a total of more than $48 billion in combined shortfalls.[2]"]
Schwarzenegger to U.S.: State may need $7-billion loan latimes.com 10/4/8 ["California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, alarmed by the ongoing national financial crisis, warned Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson on Thursday that the state might need an emergency loan of as much as $7 billion from the federal government within weeks.  The warning comes as California is close to running out of cash to fund day-to-day government operations and is unable to access routine short-term loans that it typically relies on to remain solvent."]
 

Europe divided over response ahead of Sarkozy finance summit afp.google.com 10/3/8 ["The leaders of Europe's four biggest economies -- Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- will meet Saturday, Paris announced, amid sharp divisions over how to respond to the global financial crisis.  President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said the summit would help European members of the Group of Seven developed nations coordinate positions before next week's meeting of their finance ministers in Washington."]
House Rep. Proposes $1000 Incentive for Poor Women to be Sterilized, Draws Comparisons to Nazism lifesitenews.com 10/3/8 ["Representative John LaBruzzo (R - Metairie) recently proposed fixing the welfare problem in New Orleans by offering poor women $1000 to be sterilized, a suggestion that New Orleans Archbishop Alfred Hughes has condemned as "blatantly anti-life" and eugenic in nature."]
Rick Warren, Interfaith Activist washingtonpost.com 10/3/8 ["Last week at the Clinton Global Initiative, Warren was asked how "the church" could help to solve poverty. His response was to rattle off the numbers of Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians in the world - in that order - and make a plea that the public and private sectors take seriously "the faith sector as the third leg of the stool of successful development".  Warren consistently used the language of a religious pluralist. He spoke of "mosques, temples and churches" as central to the life of villages in the developing world."]
Financial companies borrow record amount from Fed ap.google.com 10/3/8 ["The Fed's report released Thursday said commercial banks averaged a record $44.5 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That compared with a daily average of $39.36 billion in the previous week. On Wednesday alone, banks borrowed a record $49.5 billion, surpassing the previous high that came one day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks."]
Moment of truth for default derivatives independent.co.uk 10/3/8 ["Freddie and Fannie will be settled on 6 October, with Lehman on 10 October and Washington Mutual on 23 October."]
Factory orders drop by 4 percent in August ap.google.com 10/3/8 ["The Commerce Department reported that orders for manufactured goods dropped by 4 percent in August, compared to July. That's a much worse performance than the 2.5 percent decline that economists had expected. It was the biggest setback since a 4.8 percent plunge in October 2006."]
Insurance Company Earnings Plunge 53% thestreet.com 10/3/8 ["The nation's 3,000 property-and-casualty insurers, including MBIA and Allstate, suffered a combined 53% decline in profits during the first half of 2008, dragged down by the first industry-wide underwriting loss in five years."]
Financial crisis moves from Wall St. to the mall ap.google.com 10/3/8 ["Holiday items are starting to flow into stores — and they're expected to be marked down immediately, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for NPD Group Inc."]
 

Foreign economists urge 'global plan' washtimes.com 10/2/8 ["He said that officials from France, Britain, Germany and Italy will meet next week in Paris with the Continent's top financial officials to prepare for a proposed global summit on the economic crisis. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will participate.  The 27-nation European Union said Tuesday that the crisis "has become a global problem" and Washington has a "special responsibility" to resolve it. "]
San Francisco: Lesbian activist Del Martin honored at City Hall sfgate.com 10/2/8 ["In 1959, civil rights activist Del Martin risked arrest to help convene the first-known lesbian convention."]
Gas Pipeline To Atlanta Running At 100 Percent Capacity wsbtv.com 10/2/8 ["While other parts of the country get gasoline from a variety of domestic and overseas sources, the Southeast relies heavily on two pipelines that carry fuel from the Gulf of Mexico. Because the gasoline moves at just 3 to 5 mph, it can take up to 10 days to reach Atlanta."]
President would review 'hate crimes' plan wnd.com 10/2/8 ["Pro-homosexual advocates long have sought such a law, but opponents fear it would be used to crack down on those who maintain a biblical perspective that condemns homosexuality as sin. Observers note it would criminalize speech and thought, since other criminal actions already are addressed with current statutes."]
USA 2008: The Great Depression independent.co.uk 10/2/8 ["Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s."]
Roosevelt talk on unstable economy oddly prescient excite.com 10/2/8 ["The "mirage" of American economic invulnerability has vanished, along with "much of the savings of thrifty and prudent men and women," the presidential hopeful told the crowd.  "We need to correct, by drastic means if necessary, the faults in our economic system from which we now suffer," he said."]
Auto sales plunge as credit crunch hits reuters.com 10/2/8 ["Sales were down 24 percent at Honda Motor Co Ltd, 32 percent at Toyota Motor Corp and 37 percent at Nissan Motor Co Ltd.  U.S. industry sales leader General Motors Corp, which was more aggressive in discounting its vehicles, managed to keep its September sales decline to a relatively small 16 percent..."]
Life in Zimbabwe: Wait for useless money iht.com 10/2/8 ["The withdrawal limit rose on Monday, but with inflation surpassing what independent economists say is an almost unimaginable 40 million percent, she said the value of the new amount would quickly be a pittance, too."]
Cuba faces food shortages after hurricanes reuters.com 10/2/8 ["Due to problems in its state-run agriculture, Cuba has long struggled to meet its food needs and imports much of what it consumes.  Hurricanes Gustav and Ike made the problem worse when they ripped through most of the country in a 10-day span starting August 30, causing $5 billion in damage and destroying 30 percent of Cuba's agriculture.  ...One newspaper reported that many food suppliers had not made their usual shipments because the government's price controls would cause them to lose money."]
 

Grid of 100,000 computers heralds new internet dawn timesonline.co.uk 10/1/8 ["A network of 100,000 computers providing the greatest data processing capacity yet unleashed has been created to cope with information pouring from the world’s largest machine.  The Grid is the latest evolution of the internet and the world wide web and computer scientists will announce on Friday that it is ready to be connected to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). "]
Bad Credit-card Debt Could Be Next Shot To Rip Through Economy foxbusiness.com 10/1/8 ["According to Innovest StrategicValue Advisors, banks will charge off $18.6 billion in delinquent credit-card accounts in the first quarter of 2009 and $96 billion in all of 2009, more than double the research firm's forecast for all of this year.  Innovest projects that amount would be high enough to damage some of the biggest card issuers."]
Bush approves $25 billion loan package for auto makers reuters.com 10/1/8 ["President George W. Bush on Tuesday signed into law a mammoth spending bill to keep the government running until early March 2009 that includes a $25 billion loan package for troubled automakers."]
Argentine economic crisis (1999–2002) wikipedia.org 10/1/8 ["...huge debt was acquired for money that was later lost in different unfinished projects, the Falkland/Malvinas Islands War, and the state's takeover of private debts  ...The influx of foreign currency provided by the privatisation of state companies had dried out, and after 1999 Argentine exports were harmed by the devaluation of the Brazilian real "]
Privatization of first US airport could bank 2.5 billion dollars afp.google.com 10/1/8 ["The 99-year lease of Chicago's secondary airport, Midway, must still be approved by the city council and federal regulators but officials expressed confidence it would pass.  ...Chicago is leading the nation in the privatization of city services."]
FDIC asks to boost deposit limits cnn.com 10/1/8 [""Unfortunately, there is an increasing crisis of confidence that is feeding unnecessary fear in the marketplace," Bair said. "To address this crisis of confidence, I do believe that it would be helpful for the FDIC to have the temporary ability to raise deposit insurance limits.""]
Putin Promises $50Bln For Banks themoscowtimes.com 10/1/8 [""American authorities have not been able to handle the economic problems and the obvious financial crisis" in the United States, Putin told government officials, the government's web site said. "Once again we can say with regret that the contagion has moved into the European financial system.""]
Olmert Calls for the Division of Jerusalem abcnews.go.com 10/1/8 [""Whoever wants to hold on to all of the city's territory will have to bring 270,000 Arabs inside the fences of sovereign Israel. It won't work. A decision has to be made," he said."]
Russia Sees 64 Percent of Its Pregnancies End in Abortion, Causing Infertility Issues lifenews.com 10/1/8 ["Marina Tarasova is the deputy head of the St. Petersburg Research Institute For Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  On Monday, she spoke at an international conference and explained how the use of abortion as birth control among the Russian people has led to more than 5.5 million infertile couples."]
Russian stocks end higher after trading suspension marketwatch.com 10/1/8 ["The RTS stock index has fallen 47% this year, making it one of the worst performers among global emerging markets. Investors have pulled billions of dollars out of Russia on concerns over the global credit crisis, falling oil prices and state interference in the economy, as well as escalating geopolitical tensions with the West after the military conflict between Georgia and Russia."]
Dressing to Sexually Arouse Men or Not lifesitenews.com 10/1/8 ["Many women hope that in dressing provocatively men will find them attractive and desirable, with a view to a lasting relationship. In reality, however, few, if any, men view a scantily clad young woman walking down the street and gape after her with thoughts like, "What a beautiful girl, I wish I could marry her.""  Editor:  I've heard it said that I would rather a woman wear a dress so long that it makes her trip, than a dress so short it trips up a man.]
Mobile technology taught to turn on thieves afp.google.com 10/1/8 ["Yougetitback.com on Monday launched a "Mobile SuperHero" service that lets people track the whereabouts of smart phones using built in GPS capabilities or by figuring out which cellular towers are handling calls. The US company specializes in helping people recover smart phones, laptops, iPods, cameras and other prized mobile electronics."]