"Lockheed Martin, Robert J. Stevens, $23.8 million; General Dynamics, Jay L. Johnson, $18.0 million; Northrop Grumman, Wesley G. Bush, $15.5 million; Alliant Techsystems, Mark W. DeYoung, $6.8 million; Exelis, David F. Melcher, $5.8 million; SAIC, John P. Jumper, $5.4 million." Continue reading →
"The District will have three fewer Walmart stores if the city's liveable wage act passes on Wednesday. The number has been cut from six to three, due to the District’s own doing. Councilwoman Yvette Alexander oversees Ward 7, where two of the three proposed Walmarts may no longer be built. Legislation that is supposed to pass on Wednesday requires big box stores like Walmart to start employee salaries at $12.50 – well above the District’s $8.25 minimum wage. Unfortunately, pulling the plug on these locations allegedly means pulling the plug on approximately 900 jobs as well." Continue reading →
"If you think the federal student-loan program looks like a bad deal for taxpayers, imagine how it would look with honest accounting. And now you don't need to imagine thanks to a new [CBO] report that's receiving far too little attention. Turns out that the official 'savings' for taxpayers of $184 billion over the next decade really add up to $95 billion in losses.' The 'scam' is that Congress has enabled a huge subsidy for universities while claiming that student loans create huge tax savings, the editorial says. It can make that claim because a 1990 law 'requires a deliberate under-counting of the cost of defaults,' the editorial says." Continue reading →
"Over the last several years, an exclusive group of investors has paid a steep premium to receive the results of a closely watched economic survey a full two seconds before its broader release. Those two seconds can mean millions of dollars in profits for the investors, who practice a computer-driven strategy called high-frequency trading. On Monday, the company providing these investors with that lucrative edge, Thomson Reuters, is expected to announce that it will suspend the practice, yielding to pressure from the New York attorney general, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter." Continue reading →
"It’s official. Jon Corzine will not be cuffed over MF Global’s improper handling of customers’ funds leading up to the commodity brokerage firm’s spectacular collapse in late 2011, The Post has learned. Federal investigators have found no evidence that the disgraced Wall Street titan broke the law. The Justice Department’s decision to drop the case is sure to come as a relief to Corzine, who has been widely blamed for MFG’s bankruptcy — as well as the misuse of some $1.6 billion in customers’ funds." Continue reading →
"Today, Mr. López is one of about 300,000 Spaniards who, in the midst of a brutal recession, have seen their life savings virtually wiped out in what critics call a deceptive and possibly fraudulent sales campaign by banks that were threatened by the implosion of Spain’s property market. Many, like Mr. López, are older and lack formal education, and were easily misled when bank officials hit on the idea of raising capital and cleaning debts off their books by getting people with savings accounts to invest in their banks instead. oon, they came to understand that they had purchased complex financial products, originally designed for sophisticated investors." Continue reading →
"The Reserve Bank of India's, or RBI, offensive against gold continued Tuesday when it imposed restrictions on the country's regional rural banks, or RRBs, for lending money against gold, in an attempt to discourage demand for the precious metal and reduce its imports. 'It is advised that while granting advance against the security of specially minted gold coins sold by banks, RRBs should ensure that the weight of the coin(s) does not exceed 50 grams per customer,' RBI said in a statement. The RBI, in recent months, has been hard at work trying to contain the appetite for gold, which is an integral part of India’s culture, lifestyle and festivals." Continue reading →
"In August, the New York Hilton Midtown, in the heart of Manhattan, will discontinue food and drink service to all 2,000 of its rooms. In its place will be a new self-service Herb n’ Kitchen stocked with grab-and-go items. A spokesman for the hotel, which is part of the chain that also operates the Waldorf, cited declining demand for room service as the reason; some hotel industry experts see the elimination of the labor-intensive amenity as a way for the chain to save money." Continue reading →
"I had some fun back in April when I noted that politicians and staff on Capitol Hill were getting very agitated about having to be part of Obamacare. Well, it seems that the way the law applies to them is so costly that many of them are thinking about calling it quits. Here are some of the heartbreaking details. Because of sloppy legislative language in Obamacare, it appears that the politicians and Hill staffers will have to pay for health insurance with after-tax dollars out of their own pockets. If things get too hard for those blokes and gals, maybe the powers that be on the Hill can re-hire the grief counselors who were put on the payroll after the 2010 elections." Continue reading →
"Government and household debt has reached $179,000 per person in the U.S. For the past several years, we've heard pundits blathering on about the 'great deleveraging' that's reduced the household debt burden, freeing up American consumers to borrow more, more, more. The Great Deleveraging is shown here--yes, it's that thin slice of debt writeoffs. Debt has since resumed its inexorable rise. That which is unsustainable will go away. That includes debt, malinvestments, currencies, deficits and yes, entire empires." Continue reading →