NewsTrust - Finance - Most Recent Stories

Van Jones: Bank Settlement: $25B Down, $675B to Go

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Van Jones - Feb. 12 (News Analysis) - 'We must not forget the more than 14 million homeowners (one in five) whose homes are underwater, beneath a crushing total $700 billion in negative equity. We must not forget the more than 4 million families who have lost their homes.' Van Jones, Reader Supported News

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

American Airlines' attempt to ditch pension riles feds, labor unions

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Steven Mufson - Feb. 11 (News Report) - Now in bankruptcy proceedings, the airline wants to terminate its four pension plans for 130,000 workers and retirees and ask the government's Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. to bail out its unfunded pension obligations to the tune of $9 billion.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

50-State, $25B Mortgage Settlement: Relief for Struggling Homeowners or Bailout for Big Banks?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 10 (News Analysis) - The U.S. Justice Department has unveiled a record mortgage settlement with the nation's five largest banks to resolve claims over faulty foreclosures and mortgage practices that have indebted and displaced homeowners and sunk the nation's economy. While the deal is being described as a $25 billion settlement, the banks will only have to pay out a total of $5 billion in cash between them. We speak to one of the settlement's most prominent critics, Yves Smith, a longtime financial analyst who runs the popular finance website, "Naked Capitalism." "The settlement, on the surface, does look like it's helping homeowners," Smith says. "But, in fact, the bigger part that most people don't recognize is the way it actually helps the banks with mortgages on their own books... The real problem is that this deal is just not going to give that much relief." [includes rush transcript]

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Taibbi: Mortgage Fraud Settlement is More Like a Bailout Than Justice

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Kristen Gwynne - Feb. 10 (News Analysis) - Tabbi says that as more of the banks' bad behavior is exposed, it will become obvious that they must shut down to pay for their crimes, because the reparations necessary would bleed them dry. This settlement, he says, is a "kewpie doll" for victims of banker greed, and won't "stem the tide or turn the tables for these people."

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Austerity Debacle

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Jan. 30 (Opinion) - Britain is doing worse this time than it did during the Great Depression. Four years into the Depression, British G.D.P. had regained its previous peak; four years after the Great Recession began, Britain is nowhere close to regaining its lost ground.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Ford may post best year since 1998

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Louisville Courier-Journal - By Bloomberg News - Jan. 26 (News Report) - Ford Motor Co., boosted by a one-time tax gain, may report its most profitable year since 1998, while weakness in Europe and Asia cut fourth-quarter earnings.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Looking Back on a Century of the Fed’s BS

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

infowars.com - Jan. 23 (News) - Infowars.com | A timeline of the most amusingly disturbing speeches delivered by the Federal Reserve & Co.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

shirky.com - By Clay Shirky - Jan. 04 (Opinion) - This may be the year where newspapers finally drop the idea of treating all news as a product, and all readers as customers. One early sign of this shift was the 2010 launch of paywalls for the London Times and Sunday Times. These involved no new strategy; however, the newspaper world was finally willing to regard them as real test of whether general-interest papers could induce a critical mass of readers to pay. (Nope.) Then, in March, the New York Times introduced a charge for readers who crossed a certain threshold of article views (a pattern copied from the financial press, and especially the Financial Times.) Finally, and most recently, were a pair of announcements last month: The Chicago Sun-Times was adopting a new threshold charge, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune said that their existing one was working well. Taken together, these events are a blow to the idea that online news can be treated as a simple product for sale, as the physical newspaper was.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Nobody Understands Debt

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Paul Krugman - Jan. 02 (News Analysis) - 'In 2011, as in 2010, America was in a technical recovery but continued to suffer from disastrously high unemployment. And through most of 2011, as in 2010, almost all the conversation in Washington was about something else: the allegedly urgent issue of reducing the budget deficit. This misplaced focus said a lot about our political culture, in particular about how disconnected Congress is from the suffering of ordinary Americans. But it also revealed something else: when people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they're talking about - and the people wh

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Special Report: The watchdogs that didn't bark

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Reuters - Dec. 22 (News) - Special Report: The watchdogs that didn't bark Reuters By Scot Paltrow (Reuters) - Four years after the banking system nearly collapsed from reckless mortgage lending, federal prosecutors have stayed on the sidelines, even as judges around the country are pointing fingers at possible wrongdoing. ... The Mortgage Law Group Shares Good News With Homeowners Facing Holiday Foreclosure MarketWatch (press release) New state law will regulate foreclosure rescue fraud scams The Star-Ledger - NJ.com Despite Widespread Wrongdoing, Fed'l Prosecution of Institutions Involved in ... ABA Journal The Olympian LoanSafe all 30 news ...

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

President Obama’s view of fraud “from 40,000 feet” (without an oxygen mask)

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New Economic Perspectives - By William K. Black - Dec. 20 (Fact Check) - Hallucinations occur at high altitude when you become oxygen deprived. Let’s review the bidding on the Bush/Obama record in prosecuting the elite control frauds that drove the ongoing crisis. There are no convictions of the Wall Street elites that made, purchased, packaged, and sold millions of fraudulent liar’s loans. There are no federal prosecutions of the major banks that committed over 100,000 fraudulent foreclosures. There are a few settlements that sound like large dollar amounts, but are merely what even Obama concedes to be the (deeply inadequate) “cost of doing (fraudulent) business.” Fraud pays – it pays enormously and our elites now commit it with impunity as a means of becoming wealthy. We have just witnessed the travesty of Wachovia admitting to criminal conduct in their (grotesquely weak) settlement with the Department of Justice (which has a policy of no longer prosecuting large corporations that commit crimes) – and having the SEC refuse to require Wachovia to make similar admissions in its settlement. All this, the President implicitly or even explicitly concedes.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Fed Report Finds Speculators Played Big Role in Housing Collapse

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

consumeraffairs.com - Dec. 17 (News) -

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The 'Squidding' of Goldman Sachs

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Matt Taibbi - Dec. 14 (News Analysis) - Earlier Monday, about 300 protesters in squid costumes surged outside the offices of Goldman Sachs investment bank shouting, "We fry calamari!" and "Everyone pays their tax - everyone but Goldman, Sachs!"

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Secretive Millionaires Funding Online Primary For 'Independent' White House Run

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Justin Elliott - Dec. 13 (Special Report) - Here’s what the group is not so upfront about: It’s fueled by millions of dollars of secret money, there is a group of wealthy, well-connected board members who have control over Americans Elect’s nominating process, and the group has myriad links to Wall Street.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

David Cameron’s move to save the City, not the euro

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Anne Applebaum - Dec. 12 (Opinion) - .. no other European capital thinks quite like London, and no other European capital will think like London anytime soon.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Remarkable Political Stupidity of the 'Street' - you know, Wall Street

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich: - Dec. 10 (News Analysis) - 'Wall Street has blanketed America in a miasma of cynicism. Most Americans assume the reason the Street got its taxpayer-funded bailout without strings in the first place was because of its political clout. That must be why the banks didn't have to renegotiate the mortgages of Americans - many of whom, because of the economic collapse brought on by the Street's excesses, are still under water. Some are drowning.' Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Ex-Greek PM George Papandreou on Greece's Fiscal Crisis and Why He Backs Occupy Movement

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 09 (Interview) - In an exclusive interview, we speak with former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, who is attending the U.N. climate change summit in Durban, South Africa. Papandreou was forced to resign last month when he suggested holding a national referendum to allow the Greek people to have a say in whether they would accept the European Union’s bailout plan which would necessitate severe austerity cuts. We speak to Papandreou about the financial crisis, the role of banks and the importance of the growing Occupy Wall Street movement. "The Occupy Wall Street movements ... are saying something very, very specific. That inequality in the end is an inequality of power. And we need to redistribute power, not just money. Power –– and this is I think the Democratic challenge that we have today," Papandreou says. [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Most Important Speech of His Presidency

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Dec. 07 (Opinion) - The President’s speech today in Osawatomie, Kansas — where Teddy Roosevelt gave his “New Nationalism” speech in 1910 — is the most important economic speech of his presidency in terms of connecting the dots, laying out the reasons behind our economic and political crises, and asserting a willingness to take on the powerful and the privileged that have gamed the system to their advantage.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Eliot Spitzer: 5 Ways to Make Banks Pay for Their Secret $7 Trillion Free Ride

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Eliot Spitzer - Dec. 06 (News Analysis) - Imagine you walked into a bank, applied for a personal line of credit, and filled out all the paperwork claiming to have no debts and an income of $200,000 per year. The bank, based on these representations, extended you the line of credit. Then, three years later, after fighting disclosure all the way, you were forced by a court to tell the truth

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Thirteen Ways to Tax the Rich

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

truth-out.org - By Jack Rasmus - Dec. 03 (Opinion) - In order for it to have impact, it must be further clarified, or else it will be misinterpreted by politicians pushing ideas which they will falsely claim would tax the rich - such as Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's phony 9-9-9 plan, or even Obama's "millionaires' tax." Here are 13 true, progressive tax-the-rich proposals:

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Bank spending on lobbying on pace to hit record high again this year

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

www2.journalnow.com - Dec. 02 (News) -

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

State sues five big US lenders

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

bostonglobe.com - Dec. 01 (News) -

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Central bank action: stunning move highlights sense of desperation

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Jill Treanor - Dec. 01 (Opinion) - European governments are desperately seeking a lender of last resort as sovereign debt exposure fears grow The stunning move by six central banks to announce emergency measures to push more dollars into the financial system shows just how desperate the authorities are to "ease strains in financial markets" that are making it difficult for some banks to operate as easily as normal. Jon Peace, head of European bank research at Nomura, said: "It is an evolution of the crisis from three years ago, when countries took on the risks of the banks. Back in 2008, there was a lender of last resort – countries bailed out banks. This time it is governments that need a lender of last resort – but there is no obvious lender of last resort." While the massive bank bailouts of October 2008 – in the month after Lehman collapsed – worked for a while in shoring up banks, confidence is again ebbing , even though the banks are much stronger then they were three years ago. This time the problems for banks is ...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

News Analysis: New Warnings of Euro Zone Danger — News Analysis

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Steven Erlanger - Nov. 30 (News Analysis) - In Europe there are growing concerns that even an aggressive intervention by the European Central Bank will not be enough to stabilize the markets and preserve the euro. Money flows, but what Euro Zone lacks is glue.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

MF Global Bankruptcy: Portion Of Missing Customers' Funds Possibly Found At UK JPMorgan Chase

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Nov. 29 (News Report) - Regulators are trying to determine what happened to the missing money and whether MF Global may have improperly mixed customer funds with its own, a violation of industry rules. The total shortfall at the brokerage is estimated to be just under $1 billion. Officials with MF Global and JP Morgan could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours. A representative for MF Global trustee, James Giddens, was not available either.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer