Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.
Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.
How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash
Palestinians barred from Dead Sea beaches to 'appease Israeli settlers'
Palestinians are being regularly and illegally barred from reaching Dead Sea beaches in the occupied West Bank, according to a Supreme Court petition filed by Israel's leading civil rights organisation.
The Association of Civil Rights (Acri) in Israel is challenging what it says is the frequently imposed ban by the military on Palestinians seeking to swim or relax at beaches in the northern Dead Sea. The salt-saturated sea is the only open water accessible to Palestinians from the otherwise landlocked West Bank.
Texas AG: Big Pharma Bribes Forced Teens To Be Fraudulently Medicated
Texas attorney general has filed charges against Big Pharma for bribing officials to implement an elaborate scheme to fraudulently diagnose and medicate teenagers for mental illness.
State lawyers say Janssen’s payments to Shon were part of a scheme to influence development of the guidelines, known as the Texas Medication Algorithm Project, or TMAP, and tout them as a model for other states trying to advise doctors on prescribing drugs. Shon was asked how often he went around the U.S. to talk to other states about the TMAP.
It’s Time To Occupy Mainstream Media
“Between the public sector and the private sector, we have wreaked untold havoc on the media environment.”
These aren’t the words of a progressive media advocate such as University of Illinois professor Robert McChesney or The Nation’s John Nichols, but of ex-FCC commissioner Michael Copps in January. In an interview on Democracy Now!, Copps attributes his claim to “the abdication of public interest responsibility by the FCC” over the last 30 years and their failure to enforce public interest guidelines and a stronger focus on news.
Bob Alexander: Up a Lazy River
I know … I know … It’s one of the most repellant conversation openers topped only by, “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Personal Lord and Savior?” Or better yet … sometimes you get the double whammy from some guy who found Gawd at a treatment center, turned his life around, and is now spreading The Good News as a Clean and Sober Christian … Hallelujah!
Dickens and Eastwood
The absolutely un-American thinking of billionaires and billionaire wannabes like Romney was made obvious to all by a Republican actor whose reputation rivals the sainted Reagan, except this one can act, and is intelligent.
White House compromise still guarantees contraceptive coverage for women
Seeking to allay the concerns of Catholic leaders and head off an escalating political storm, President Obama on Friday announced an adjustment to the administration’s health-care rule requiring religiously affiliated employers to provide contraceptive coverage to women.
Women still will be guaranteed coverage for contraceptive services without any out-of-pocket cost, but will have to seek the coverage directly from their insurance companies if their employers object to birth control on religious grounds.
Cross-Dressing, Weather Rope, & New Hats
Political lies have always come bundled in the Economy-pack: half-truths, misquotes, bald lies, propaganda, slung mud, smear campaigns, slips of the tongue, Freudian moments, avalanches of excrement, and surprised misstatements -- where the politico is stunned, simply shocked, they will tell you, at what their mouths have just gone and done.
It is as if their mouths were no longer under their control, or had been repo'd, dragged or lugged off back to the shop for some diagnostic tests.
Mossad hit-squads behind Iran scientists' murders - US official
Israel’s Mossad trained and financed a terrorist group that carried out a series of Hollywood-style assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, unnamed US officials have revealed. Iran, however, believes the CIA was also sponsoring the killings.
Two senior US officials confirmed to NBC that People’s Mujahideen of Iran dissident group (MEK) was to blame for the killing of Iranian scientists. “All your inclinations are correct,” said one of the officials in an interview, while speaking about MEK’s involvement in the assassinations and Israel’s support for the group.
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