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28 Nov 2011 23:59

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Biz: Don’t look down: Ratings agency says they could downgrade U.S. too

  • The negative outlook indicates a slightly greater than 50 percent chance of a downgrade over a two-year horizon.
  • Credit ratings agency Fitch • Explaining the negative outlook they gave the U.S.’ AAA credit rating. Why the lower outlook? Well, they say there’s “considerable uncertainty surrounding the economy’s potential output.” Well, there won’t be as long as we can figure out a way to turn riots over $2 waffle irons into a sustainable moneymaking endeavor for the U.S. economy at large. We’re sure we can make it happen. Fitch’s downgraded outlook follows S&P’s straight-up downgrade a few months back. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2011 23:53

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World: New elections, new attitude? Egypt’s elections go smoothly (so far)

  • Egypt headed to the polls today: In this photo via ITV News, you can see a small portion of the crowds that gathered to vote in this week’s elections in Egypt. No protests broke out on the first day — a change of pace from last week’s protests in Tahrir Square. In fact, reports of violence were rare, and voter fraud was rare. Here’s to hoping the events have begun to usher in a new era and a more positive Egypt.  source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2011 23:23

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Politics: Barney Frank’s legacy: Three major achievements beyond Dodd-Frank

  • one Barney Frank is one of the most prominent gay U.S. representatives, and as a result, he’s long been a champion of gay rights; he long opposed the recently-repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
  • two Frank was a lead Democrat who helped to build and implement the $700 billion bailout passed in 2008 under George W. Bush; he became a key figure of the financial crisis.
  • three He also worked to end the practice of redlining, a process that banks used to place difficult lending conditions on people and businesses located in low-income neighborhoods. source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2011 20:39

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Politics: Changing tactics: Newt Gingrich begins attacking Mitt Romney

  • It’s wrong to go around and adopt radically different positions based on your need of any one election, then people will have to ask themselves, ‘What will you tell me next time?’
  • 2012 GOP candidate Newt Gingrich • Dropping a clear attack at Mitt Romney for his tendency to flip-flop. This is a change for Gingrich: Before this week, he was known for going out of his way to avoid criticizing his fellow candidates and pointing the trigger directly at Obama. Now that he’s suddenly in the thick of the race, it looks like he’s getting braver about going after the perceived frontrunner. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2011 20:18

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Politics: Speedy Herman Cain denies affair allegations before they’re even public

  • In case you missed it earlier: Here’s Herman Cain denying allegations (to Blitz) that he had a 13-year-long affair — in a rare instance for a scandal of its nature, ahead of the story’s full release. They’re happening so often now that Cain can deny them preemptively. That said, this is a pretty impressive get for a local news station, in this case Fox 5 Atlanta. As for the allegations, Ginger White claims she announced the affair to the public so she could get ahead of the story herself. “It was pretty simple,” White told the station. “It wasn’t complicated. I was aware that he was married. And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2011 13:25

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Politics: Newt Gingrich’s favorite new word is “aggressive”

  • 6 times Gingrich uses the word “aggressive” in this YN interview source
  • » But what should we be aggressive about? Here’s the tally. Twice, Gingrich was describing how we should approach the war on drugs (“We ought to be much more aggressive about drug policy”); once, he was describing how the US went about supporting non-communist trade unions in Poland in the 1980s (“…we when we aggressively supported Solidarity”); and on three occasions, Newt was talking about US-Cuban relations (“I think we need a very aggressive model”). Oddly, he didn’t once utter the words “fundamental” or “profound,” although he did use another Gingrich fallback, “logical,” on two occasions, and busted out “totally” once.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2011 11:28

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Biz: Bloomberg: Banks scored sneaky profits on emergency loans

  • $13 billion earned by banks via roundabout loans source
  • » How they worked: These banks took advantage of a set of emergency loans from the Federal Reserve distributed between August 2007 and April 2010. Bloomberg Markets magazine did the math on the numbers and figured out that, by looking at the companies’ net interest margin, you could see how the companies took advantage of the below-market rates they got on the loans to earn a profit. The companies that scored the biggest paydays? Citigroup, which earned $1.8 billion, and Bank of America, which earned $1.5 billion.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

28 Nov 2011 10:51

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U.S.: Guy watches child porn on plane, story ends as you’d expect

  • cause A University of Utah professor took a ride on a plane over the weekend; during said flight, he watched child porn on his laptop, in view of other passengers. Sickening. And a bad idea, because said passengers told officials about it.
  • reaction Now, Grant D. Smith is stuck in a Massachusetts jail after he was arrested after the plane landed. The school placed Smith on administrative leave. And many are confused as to why someone would do something like this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Nov 2011 20:34

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Biz: How much did people spend over Black Friday weekend?

  • $52.4 billion spent on Black Friday weekend (whoa)
  • $45B the amount spent during Black Friday weekend last year; that’s a 16 percent jump, for those playing at home
  • 226M number of shoppers over Black Friday weekend; that’s also a huge leap from 2010, and a record number
  • $398 the amount spent per customer on Black Friday weekend — a jump of more than $40 from 2010 source
  • » A big win for retail, but for humanity … eh. The heavy spending this year came with a number of downsides, most notably in the form of a series of customers-acting-crazy moments. We covered a few of these over the weekend, including an overzealous pepper sprayer and a riot over $2 waffle irons. Sure, the economy needs a serious kick in the pants, but we hope we can get said kick in the pants while being nice to our fellow human beings. Fortunately, tomorrow is Cyber Monday, where the problems with physical shopping don’t exist. Unless you know a way to shut off your neighbor’s internet. In which case you’re evil and we don’t like you anymore.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Nov 2011 20:11

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Tech: Electronic gadgets on planes: Why can’t you use ’em during takeoff?

  • Surely if electronic gadgets could bring down an airplane, you can be sure that the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, which has a consuming fear of 3.5 ounces of hand lotion and gel shoe inserts, wouldn’t allow passengers to board a plane with an iPad or Kindle, for fear that they would be used by terrorists.
  • New York Times reporter Nick Bilton • Going in for the kill with his story regarding the use of electronic devices on planes — specifically, why can’t they be used as a plane’s taking off or landing? According to FAA spokesperson Les Dorr, the agency chooses to err on the side of caution, despite evidence that the usage of electronic devices have no effect on a plane. “There have never been any reported accidents from these kinds of devices on planes,” Dorr said, reluctantly. So, why the policy? Good question. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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