Top Picks ~ Week of March 10, 2008


Money & Markets

US Home Defaults, Foreclosures Rise 60% in February
By Alan Mirabella & Sharon Lynch – Bloomberg.com (14 Mar 2008)

Dollar’s Clout Sinks Worldwide
By Alan Clendenning – Associated Press (13 Mar 2008)

Abolish The Fed
By Jim Rogers – CNBC.com (12 Mar 2008)

HUD E-Mails Refer to Retaliation
By Carol D. Leoning – Washington Post (12 Mar 2008)

Dollar Plunge Sets Off Global Alarm Bells
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – London Telegraph (14 Mar 2008)

Fed Bails Out Bear Stearns As Stocks Plunge
By Martin Crutsinger – Associated Press (14 Mar 2008)

Bear Stearns: The Drexel Burnham Lambert Precedent
Posted by Heidi Moore – Wall Street Journal (14 Mar 2008)

Goldman Expects ‘Explosive’ Commodities, Oil Rising to $175
By Claudia Carpenter & Alexander Kwiatkowski – Bloomberg.com (14 Mar 2008)

US Treasuries Riskier Than German Debt, Default Swaps Say
By Abigail Moses – Bloomberg News (11 Mar 2008)

Market Panic After Bear Stearns Reports
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – London Telegraph (11 Mar 2008)

~ Updates on the Eliot Spitzer Story

The Spitzer Story – Something Doesn’t Add Up
By leevank – Daily Kos (11 Mar 2008)

Some Questions About the Spitzer Incident
By Jane Hamsher – firedoglake.com (10 Mar 2008)
~ View previous blog posts on this issue: (1)

Sovereign Funds Soon May Surpass Official Foreign Reserves
By Vivianne Rodrigues – Reuters (11 Mar 2008)

Emergency Interest Rate Cut Possible, Goldman Sachs Says
By Richard Leong – Reuters (10 Mar 2008)

Blighted Kingdom? How Tax Changes are Spurring Non-Doms to Vote With Their Feet [Must subscribe to view full article.]
By Vanessa Houlder – Financial Times (9 Mar 2008)

~ Updates on Clear Channel

Clear Channel Buyer Notifies Investors Of Pending Draw Down
By Shira Ovide – Dow Jones Newswires (6 Mar 2008)

Morgan, Credit Suisse Break Ranks on Clear Channel
By Pierre Paulden – Bloomberg.com (12 Mar 2008)

~ View previous blog posts on this issue: (1) (2) (3)

Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor: Booz Allen Hamilton
By Tim Shorrock – CorpWatch.org (8 Mar 2008)

Fed Joins Three Other Central Banks with $200 Billion More in Lending
By The Associated Press (11 Mar 2008)

TVA Board Approves 7% Rate Increase Effective April 1
Press Release from the Tennessee Valley Authority (15 Feb 208)

Fannie Mae Shares Fall on Bailout Report
By MarketWatch (10 Mar 2008)

Diebold filed a disclosure document with the SEC on March 3, describing the resolution of an ongoing SEC investigation and the potential restatement of earnings.
xxx ~ See Catherine’s earlier blog post: Did Someone Just Buy All The Votes in Texas & Ohio?

NAFTA, Immigrants and the Discussion That is Not Happening
By Bill Fletcher, Jr. – The Black Commentator

Swiss Bank Drops Lawsuit Against Wikileaks
The Associated Press (6 Mar 2008)

Interest Rate Rift Resembles One That Led to 1987 Market Crash
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – London Telegraph (8 Mar 2008)

Wall Street Banks Face ‘Systemic Margin Call,’ Morgan Warns
By Walden Siew – Reuters (8 Mar 2008)

SEC Steps Up Probe of BofA
By Dan Caterinicchia – The Charlotte Observer (6 Mar 2008)

The ‘Fortunate 400’
Host Tom Ashbrook – IntRadio.org (7 Mar 2008)
xxx~ The Fortunate 400 pdf document

China’s Investment Fund Pushes Back [Must subscribe to view full article.]
Wall Street Journal (7 Mar 2008)

The Sovereign Wealth Funds Dilemma
By Mairi Mackay – CNN.com (7 Mar 2008)

China Approves Market Investment by Norway Oil Fund
By Lu Jianxin & Eadie Chen – Yahoo, Malaysia (8 Mar 2008)

Illinois AG Subpoenas Countrywide, Wells Fargo
Canadian Business Online (6 Mar 2008)

Federal Reserve Gives Emergency Help to Wall Street Banks
By Larry Elliott – Guardian.co.uk (7 Mar 2008)

Whistle While You Work ~ From government to big business, if you have a dirty secret, Wikileaks is your nightmare.
By David Leigh & Jonathan Franklin – The Guardian (23 Feb 2008)

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Precious Metals

Korea Resources to Lead $6 Billion Metal Investments
By Sungwoo Park – Bloomberg.com (13 Mar 2008)

At Least There’s Something In Ethiopia’s Gold Vault
By Elizabeth Blunt – British Broadcasting Corp. (13 Mar 2008)

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Mortgage Market

Fed Begins Monetizing Everybody’s Busted Mortgages
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – London Telegraph (13 Mar 2008)

A Single "Toxic" CDO, A Multitude of Subprime Lawsuits
By Kevin LaCroix – The D&O Diary (9 Mar 2008)
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Food & Health

Frances Moore Lapp&#233’s World Hunger: Twelve Myths
By Richard Moore – Richard Moore’s Blog ( 13 Mar 2008)

One Woman’s Astonishing Experiment With Aspartame
By Victoria Inness-Brown – Mercola.com (Mar 2008)

The NutraPoison ~ By Alex Constantine

AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water
By Jeff Donn, et al – Associated Press (9 Mar 2008)

Surging Costs of Groceries Hit Home
By Robert Gavin – Boston.com (9 Mar 2008)

Michael Pollan: Don’t Eat Anything That Doesn’t Rot
By Amy Goodman – Democracy Now! (8 Mar 2008)

Entangled Minds – "Effects of Intentionally Enhanced Chocolate on Mood"
By Dean Radin (23 Mar 2007)

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Life


Photo thanks to National Geographic

Consumer Alert: Toxic Chemicals to be Sprayed Over San Francisco
By Rami Nagel – NaturalNews.com (3 Mar 2008)

Fertility Falls, Population Rises, Future Uncertain
By Robert Engelman – WorldWatch (Mar 2008)

Climate of 2007 – Annual Report
From the NOAA Satellite & Information Service (15 Jan 2008)

The Invite – “Altenberg 16” Evolution Summit
By Suzan Mazur – Scoop Independent News (9 Mar 2008)

Announcement: Immense Possibilities Radio (IPR) comes into the world this Tuesday. Look for IPR shows at www.eq.tv.

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Geopolitical

Prevention of Superstore Sprawl and Small Town Decline
By David Bollier – SprawlWatach.org (1998)

Oklahoma High Court To Cut Off Online Access to Court Records
By The Associated Press (13 Mar 2008)

US Commander Quits ‘Over Iran’
At Aljazerra.net (12 Mar 2008)

Plumbing the Depths – How the Gears Turn
By Fred – fredoneverything.net (9 Mar 2008)

Clinton-Papers Release Blocked
By Peter Eisler – USA Today (7 Mar 2008)

Starbucks/Walmart Update – A statistical study at Columbia University’s
Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference & Social Science Dept.


On the Take And Loving It ~ World Telecommunications Traffic Flows

At WikiLeaks (7 Oct 2007)

Obama Wows Casper; Clinton Next
By David Olinger – Denver Post (7 Mar 2008)

Wave-Power Proposals Alarm Locals
By Frank Hartzell – Christian Science Monitor (4 Mar 2008)

Homeschoolers’ Setback Sends Shock Waves Through State
By Bob Egelko, et al – San Francisco Chronicle (7 Mar 2008)

Air Force Cyber Command’s New Weapon: DMCA Notices
By Kevin Poulsen – Wired.com (7 Mar 2008)

Exclusive Capitulation Report: House Democratic Leadership Circulates FISA Bill
By Glenn Grenwald – salon.com (7 Mar 2008)

Washington Seeks Power to Ban Air Travelers – Even if They Are Only Flying Over the U.S.
News & Current Affairs – thisislondon.co.uk (9 Mar 2008)

Half of New Orlean’s Poor Permanently Displaced
By Bill Quigley – Scoop Independent News (8 Mar 2008)

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Take Action

The Wire’s War on the Drug War
By Ed Burns, et al – Time (5 Mar 2008)
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