One of the biggest problems the U.S. is having right now in fixing the housing crisis is the same banks that caused it.

For the record, it’s not some secret Obama conspiracy to turn America into Islamic colony as one “prominent” attorney in Idaho tried to convince me it was or one of Alex Jones’ conspiracies involving the Illuminati or the Freemasons. It’s the banks and the government trying

The banks that created risky amalgams of mortgages and loans during the boom — the kind that went so wrong during the bust — are busily reviving the same types of investments that many thought were gone for good. Once more, arcane-sounding financial products like collateralized debt obligations are being minted on Wall Street.

The revival partly reflects the same investor optimism that has lif

a student called Ed (you'll see very soon why he didn't want to reveal his whole name) went on eBay and offered up his prized new gadget.
His motivation, he says, was quite simple: he wanted to pay off his student loans. Given that, these days, some student loans are more expensive than some houses, his keenness to perhaps break even is understandable.
For a very brief moment, he must have felt

The Parliamentary Commission on Banking declared that HBOS crashed after a lack of risk controls, rapid and aggressive expansion and poor management, which amounted to a “colossal failure” on the part of bank executives. Particular criticism was directed at HBOS’s former head Sir James Crosby, who led the bank until 2006. The inquiry described him as the “architect of the strategy that set the co

The rapid fall in the price of gold over the past few days—its biggest plunge in more than 30 years—is an indication that deflationary tendencies are strengthening throughout the world economy.

As one commentator on the Australian Business Spectator web site put it: “Are we witnessing a global slump unfolding before our eyes?”

On Monday the gold price dropped by $110 per ounce, eclipsing it

It's hard to swallow that these charts are evidence of a free and efficient market. Otherwise, a pattern this predictable would be quickly removed as traders and HFT algos piled in to a "sure" bet.
Instead, this is behavior one would expect to see if powerful interests wanted to suppress the price of gold: hit the price hard and early at the start of the trading week to prevent the price from b

SecondMarket Holdings, the private-market securities trading firm best known for allowing numerous overzealous fans to buy FaceBook at moronic valuations, on Monday "will roll out a platform allowing lenders to issue securities backed by student loans directly to investors."

Why is SecondMarket doing this? The same reason Lloyd Blankfein was selling Abacus (and all those other synthetic MBS CD

It sounds like the stuff of satire. On Thursday, RBS, the bank that taxpayers were forced to buy, posted 2012 losses of more than £5bn. That was after paying out more than £600m in bonuses. On the very same day, an EU draft agreement to cap bank bonuses emerged – and the prime minister immediately signalled that Britain would resist.

New figures show a sharp rise in gambling problems linked to Lotto, and health officials blame big jackpots.

The figures show more than 12 per cent of problem gamblers cite the Lotteries Commission as their main gambling outlet, up from 8.8 per cent in a survey three years earlier.

While pokies in pubs and clubs still lead problem gambling statistics, the figures show more problem gamblers

We’ve had an endless series of products whose ingredients have been cheapened in order to maintain the price. Consumers won’t be able to taste the difference, the theory goes.
So, as the horse-meat lasagna scandal in Europe is spiraling beautifully out of control, we’re now getting hit where it hurts: Maker’s Mark is watering down its bourbon.
Unlike the horse-meat folks, Maker’s Mark

the woman received a letter from the job center on Saturday suggesting she apply for a service staff position at an establishment called the Colosseum. The precondition for working there is an "appropriate appearance," the letter said, and she would serve drinks for 42 hours each week, primarily at night and on weekends.

There's just one problem: A web search for the Colosseum revealed the com

The movie industry is increasingly shifting toward Asia, especially China, striking fear in the hearts of Hollywood studio executives. The two cultures are about to clash at the Berlin International Film Festival, which opens with the Chinese epic film "The Grandmaster" by Wong Kar-wai.

A study by the management-consulting firm Ernst & Young predicts that China will replace North America as th

By most accounts, unemployment is one of the greatest challenges facing Nigeria.

Observers say that the socio-economic problem is compounded by the fact that several thousands of jobless youths have been forced into crime because of idleness.

They, nonetheless, contend that while there are no justifiable reasons for anyone to take to crime because of unemployment, the negative effects of un

Last week, Chris Grayling, the minister of justice in the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government, announced plans to privatise 70 percent of the Probation Service in the UK, to be completed by spring 2015.
“Transforming Rehabilitation: a revolution in the way we manage offenders” states, “Private and voluntary sector organisations will work together on closing the ‘revolving door’ of the crimi

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) court on Monday ruled that Iceland did not break European free trade laws on deposit guarantee schemes by refusing to compensate foreign depositors after Icesave’s owner, Lansbanki, collapsed in 2008.

The judgment obliterates any hopes the UK government had of pursuing Reykjavik for interest on the £2.35bn bail-out. It also raises grave questions abo