Top Picks ~ Week of March 24, 2008

Money & Markets

The Sheltering Storm: Uncertainty on Section 8
By Matt Schwarzfeld – CityLimits.org (24 Mar 2008)
~ Catherine’s comment: Are states and cities expected to vote Democratic in November scheduled to lose their HUD money?

Iceland Contagion May Spread Far And Wide
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – London Telegraph (27 Mar 2008)

People Don’t See Yet It’s a Money Problem, But They Will
By Murray Pollitt – Pollitt & Co. (24 Mar 2008)

South Korean Pension Funds Shuns U.S. Debt
By Michael MacKenzie – Financial Times, London (26 Mar 2008)

Chinese Exporters Shun Flagging Dollar
By Robin Kwong – Financial Times, London (27 Mar 2008)

Waiting for Armageddon
At The Economist.com (27 Mar 2008)

RLPC-Morgan Stanley Credit Lines To Be Downsized-Sources
By Faris Khan – Reuters (27 Mar 2008)

Bear’s Bondholders, Not Public, Should Pay
By John P. Hussman – HussmanFunds.com (24 Mar 2008)

CPM Gold Yearbook 2008 – An Interview on The Financial Sense Newshour
Jim Puplava interviews Jeffrey Christian (22 Mar 2008)

Hoarding by Banks Stokes Fears on Credit Crisis
By Chris Giles & James Politi – Financial TImes, London (25 Mar 2008)

Main Street Sacrificed to the Gods of Wall Street
By Trader Mark – SeekingAlpha.com (20 Mar 2008)

Statement on Financing Arrangement of JPMorgan Chase’s Acquisition of Bear Stearns
From the Federal Reserve Bank of New York


From Wikipedia

~ Update on Clear Channel

Clear Channel Deal in Legal War
From BBC News (26 Mar 2008)

Clear Signals That The Banks Are Shutting Their Doors
By Slobhan Kennedy – Times Online (28 Mar 2008)

~ View previous blog posts on this issue: (1) (2) (3) (4)

Revealed: How Sovereign Wealth Funds Were Left Nursing Multibillion Losses
By Richard Wray – The Guardian.co.uk (22 Mar 2008)

Fed’s Rescue Halted a Derivatives Chernobyl
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – London Telegraph (23 Mar 2008)

JPMorgan Raises Bear Stearns Offer, Fed Balks
At Daily Intel (24 Mar 2008)

Morgan’s Revised Bid for Bear Emphasizes Original Ripoff, Fed Desperation
By Charles Reiter – Reuters (24 Mar 2008)

Disclosure Reports on Contributions to Eliot Spitzer’s Campaign for Governor
At FollowTheMoney.org

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Precious Metals

Chinese Banks Allowed to Trade Gold Futures
Editor: Yan Liang – China View (24 Mar 2008)

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Mortgage Market

Bank of England Preparing To Buy Banks’ Junk Mortgages
By Chris Giles & Krishna Guha – Financial Times, London (26 Mar 2008)

L.A. Land ~ California Freefall: Home Prices Down 26% in February
By Peter Viles – Los Angeles Times (26 Mar 2008)


From PrudentBear.com

Fed Joins Bank of England In Denying Junk Mortgage Purchase Plan
By Sumeet Desai & Timm Ahmann – Reuters (22 Mar 2008)

Central Banks Plot Mass Purchase of Junk Mortgages
By Chris Giles & Krishna Guha – Financial Times, London (21 Mar 2008)

Rubin Calls for Urgent Government Action to Stem Foreclosures
By Rich Miller – Bloomberg.com (21 Mar 2008)

Note from Catherine: For Bob’s role in choosing bubbles rather than real solutions when he helped start the housing bubble, read Dillon, Read & Company & The Aristocracy of Stock Profits.

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Food & Health

Rising Prices Hit the Organic Supply Chain
By Samuel Fromartz – Natural Foods Merchandiser (24 Mar 2008)

Food Stamps Double Since ’01
By Catherine Candisky – Columbus Dispatch (22 Mar 2008)


Click the image to find out…

Organic Winter Wheat Topped 100 Bushels Per Acre In Bozeman Last Harvest
By Carol Flaherty – Montana State University (17 Mar 2008)

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Life

Gone in 2 Minutes: Mac Gets Hacked First in Contest
By Robert McMillan – Yahoo News (27 Mar 2008)

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Geopolitical

Truckers ‘Going Broke’ And Threatening to Strike
By Barb Ickes – Quad-City Times (19 Mar 2008)

“I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me
Emblems from the Black World”
– By Trevor Paglen

US Legal System ‘Worse Than Russia’
By Michael Herman – TimesOnline (18 Mar 2008)

Inside a Government Chemtrail Aircraft
From Tim White – CloakAndDagger.de

Energy, Water in “Catch-22”
By John Fleck – Albuquerque Journal (20 Mar 2008)

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