iBankCoin
Home / 2011 / August (page 11)

Monthly Archives: August 2011

The Fly’s home base discovered: UFO BASE FOUND IN HIMALAYAS

Indian and Chinese authorities have confirmed the existence of an underground UFO base in the Himalayas.

“India has found an active UFO base in The Himalayas. We are working with China and the U.N. to discuss how to handle this alien incursion,” said Indian Defense Minister, A.K. Antony. “We do not want our people to be alarmed. We are confident we can contain this threat from an alien culture.”

Comments »

Asian Markets Mixed

Symbol Name Last Trade Change Related Info
^AORD All Ordinaries 4,271.40 1:22AM EDT Down 9.10 (0.21%) Components, Chart, More
^SSEC Shanghai Composite 2,603.01 1:28AM EDT Down 12.25 (0.47%) Chart, More
^HSI Hang Seng 19,710.07 1:28AM EDT Down 42.41 (0.21%) Components, Chart, More
^BSESN BSE 30 16,195.59 1:33AM EDT Up 49.26 (0.31%) Chart, More
^JKSE Jakarta Composite 3,805.43 1:36AM EDT Down 38.95 (1.01%) Components, Chart, More
^KLSE KLSE Composite 1,446.55 1:28AM EDT Down 18.19 (1.24%) Components, Chart, More
^N225 Nikkei 225 8,767.44 1:22AM EDT Down 4.92 (0.06%) Chart, More
^NZ50 NZSE 50 3,295.63 1:00AM EDT Down 5.95 (0.18%) Components, Chart, More
^STI Straits Times 2,747.21 1:23AM EDT Down 18.53 (0.67%) Components, Chart, More
^KS11 Seoul Composite 1,774.04 1:23AM EDT Up 9.46 (0.54%) Components, Chart, More
^TWII Taiwan Weighted 7,451.74 1:22AM EDT Up 40.87 (0.55%) Chart, More

Comments »

BIZARRE: The Fed’s WTF? Raid on Gibson Guitars

Federal authorities entered the warehouse brandishing automatic weapons. Employees were separated and interrogated. The Fed seized over half a million dollars of product.

What was the Obama Administration after? Weapons grade plutonium? Heroin? No…something much more sinister.

Guitar fingerboards.

In apparent effort to lose the musician vote, the Obama Administration has launched not one but TWO Kafkaesque raids on one of America’s iconic brands – Gibson guitars, makers of such classis instruments as the Les Paul, SG, ES-335 and the brand new Firebird X.

Read the rest here. It is well worth the read.

Comments »

Will Hurricane Irene Be a Black Swan for the U.S. Economy?

The U.S. economy is growing very slowly, just 0.4 percent in the first quarter, 1.3 percent in the second. And it might not do a whole better the rest of the year. That’s a problem. A recent study from the Federal Reserve finds that that since 1947, when two-quarter annualized real GDP growth falls below 2 percent, recession follows within a year 48 percent of the time. (And when year-over-year real GDP growth falls below 2 percent, recession follows within a year 70 percent of the time.

So while we may be in a recovery, it’s a fragile one, at best. In short, nothing can go wrong or we’ll end up back in recession. That’s a big reason everyone is so focused on Europe and its ongoing sovereign debt and banking troubles. And why problems at Bank of America cause flashbacks of 2008.

But what about the nasty storm making its way up the East Coast? What’s the potential it causes enough economic damage and disruption to nudge the American economy back into a downturn? Well, I suppose the worst-case scenario would be a direct strike on New York City. That would be pretty bad:

In the city, a hurricane’s storm surge would cause sudden, extensive flooding, submerging much of Lower Manhattan and crippling the subway system and tunnels.

The powerful winds would uproot thousands of trees, down power lines and send debris flying in all corners of the city. And those winds could shatter windows on skyscrapers, especially in the taller buildings that would bear the brunt of powerful gusts that occur at higher elevations. The canyons of Manhattan could magnify the winds, and would be a deadly place for anyone caught beneath the raining glass.

Other comparisons to Hurricane Katrina are hard to ignore. Katrina, the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history, caused insured losses of more than $40 billion in 2005. AIR Worldwide, a firm that models disaster scenarios for insurance companies, has said that a repeat of the Long Island Express would cost $33 billion if it happened today. In the most dire projections, a direct hit on New York City could cost upwards of $100 billion.

The impact would be felt long after flood waters recede. Coch predicts that the salt water in the subway would corrode the switches and cripple the system for months or years, and disable much of the communications infrastructure in Lower Manhattan. “In 1893, Wall Street was cut off from the rest of the country when the telegraph lines went down,” he said. “Imagine what would happen now when the fiber optic cable failed.”

Sounds a lot worse than Hurricane Katrina given the incredible importance of Manhattan to the U.S. and global economy. Tough to quantify, of course. But, for comparison purposes, here is a Congressional Research Service analysis of the economic impact of Katrina in 2005:

Read the rest here.

Comments »

Documentary: How The Banks Won

Business as usual for the banks…

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmy2MmWsyog&feature=player_embedded#! 450 300]

Comments »

ALERT: AGO/MBI Halted

Both up sharply.

Mortage names lifting… AGO, MBI, MTG, RDN, PMI, GNW

Comments »