Mainstream News

GM says 2012 sales in China hit record highs

"US auto giant General Motors said that its sales in China, the world’s biggest car market, hit a record 2.84 million vehicles last year, despite the country’s slowing economy. GM’s China sales grew 11.3 percent in 2012 from 2011, which recorded the previous record of around 2.55 million vehicles, the company said in a statement. GM’s sales growth outpaced China as a whole. A Chinese industry group said Friday that China’s auto sales rose only 4.3 percent year-on-year to 19.31 million vehicles in 2012." Continue reading →

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China Overtakes Sluggish Europe in Car Sales

"It's no secret that Europe's automobile industry isn't exactly booming. Several carmakers on the Continent are struggling as demand has fallen off during the euro crisis, particularly in southern European countries, where austerity programs have taken a bite out of prosperity. In China, however, more and more cars are flying off the lots. And in 2012, for the first time ever, Chinese consumers purchased more automobiles than did buyers in Europe, according to the dailySüddeutsche Zeitung, citing an unpublished report by Germany's VDA automobile industry association." Continue reading →

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Food Shortages in Venezuela Bigger Worry Than Constitution

"At a bustling food market in downtown Caracas, armed officers belonging to President Hugo Chavez’s National Bolivarian Guard marched by boxes of lettuce and tomatoes, checking prices and storage rooms. The inspection is part of a nationwide campaign to crack down on over-pricing and hoarding the government blames for shortages of basic goods, from toilet paper to sugar. The government said today that consumer prices in December jumped the most in 2 1/2 years, highlighting the growing economic problems that are amassing as Chavez’s battle with cancer unleashes a power struggle." Continue reading →

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Activists and family blame suicide of Aaron Swartz on overzealous prosecution

"Two years before the MIT incident, the FBI launched an investigation after Swartz released a trove of US federal court documents online that are usually only accessible at a fee through the government’s Public Access to Court Electronic Records, or PACER. In 2008, that fee was eight cents per page. In less than three weeks, he managed to download more than 18 million pages with an estimated value of $1.5 million to his home in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. Swartz had pleaded not guilty to charges of computer fraud, wire fraud and other crimes carrying a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingActivists and family blame suicide of Aaron Swartz on overzealous prosecution

Obama gives himself and Michelle protection by armed Secret Service agents for rest of their lives

"President Barack Obama gave himself and his wife Michelle the benefit of armed protection for the rest of their lives by signing a bill granting a Secret Service detail to former presidents and their spouses in perpetuity. The new law, which will cost U.S. millions of dollars, is a re-instatement of a 1965 law which will see presidents protected for life as well as their children up to age 16. The bill passed the House and Senate in December. Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, joked in 2011 that he liked the fact that 'men with guns' protected his daughters, Malia, now 14, and Sasha, now 11." Continue reading →

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Finally, the SEC Goes After a Failed Bank’s Auditors

"The Securities and Exchange Commission is finally doing something that desperately needed to be done: Suing the auditors of a failed bank that got caught cooking its books. Today the SEC’s enforcement division accused two accountants at KPMG LLP of engaging in unprofessional conduct during their 2008 audit of TierOne Corp., a Lincoln, Nebraska- based lender that had about $3 billion in assets when it collapsed in 2010. The SEC’s administrative order accuses the pair of 'failing to subject TierOne’s loan loss estimates -- one of the highest risk areas of the audit -- to appropriate scrutiny.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFinally, the SEC Goes After a Failed Bank’s Auditors

Buffett Says Banks Free of Excess, Pose No U.S. Threat

"Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who oversees stakes in some of the largest U.S. banks, said the nation’s lenders have rebuilt capital to the point where they no longer pose a threat to the economy. Buffett’s firm has investments in at least four of the seven biggest U.S. lenders by assets, including a stake of more than $14 billion in San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), $5 billion in Bank of America and warrants that allow it to buy $5 billion of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shares. Berkshire also has a holding in U.S. Bancorp." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBuffett Says Banks Free of Excess, Pose No U.S. Threat

What’s Inside America’s Banks?

"Some four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as 'black boxes' that may still be concealing enormous risks—the sort that could again take down the economy. A close investigation of a supposedly conservative bank’s financial records uncovers the reason for these fears—and points the way toward urgent reforms." Continue reading →

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Billions in Afghan aid could be wasted: U.S. inspector

"Billions of dollars in American assistance to Afghanistan could ultimately go to waste without better planning and security in the war-torn nation, a US investigator said Thursday. Despite US commanders’ talk of progress in Afghanistan, Sopko said that it was becoming more difficult for inspectors to head into the field to ascertain that US money was being well spent. Sopko accused both the Pentagon and the US Agency for International Development of lacking long-range plans on where and why they were building projects and of often failing to ensure quality standards." Continue reading →

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Indian man buys $230,000 solid gold shirt as investment

"More than two dozen goldsmiths toiled for 15 days for lender Datta Phuge, who custom ordered the seven-pound top to wear for New Year's festivities, according to the Pune Mirror. The shirt is crafted from 14,000 22-karat gold rings linked together and comes with six Swarovski crystal buttons and a belt also made of gold. Phuge said he considers the shirt 'an investment which will keep appreciating.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndian man buys $230,000 solid gold shirt as investment