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>I can't think of a stock that's more hated. I've written about this company several times before. I've personally owned it for years. But just about every time I mention it, I end up receiving nasty emails admonishing the fact that I would cover... let alone recommend... investors own shares of this company.In fact, it happens so often that I instruct our staff to put in a mention that this investment isn't for everyone whenever they cover it. If you don't want to invest in this stock, I can certainly understand. But if you have an open mind toward this...

Screengrab from the YouTube video posted by hackers on the justice ministry website, 3 February 2012 The police's cybercrime unit on Monday announced that it had identified those behind the hacking of the justice ministry's website on February 2, naming the pseudonyms of three highschool students as their main suspects. Police say they have already arrested an 18-year-old in Athens and are drawing up charges against two teenagers aged 16 and 17, respectively. They said the three were part of a group styling itself Greek Hacking Scene (GHS) that had accepted responsibility for the attack on the ministry's site in...

"First massive protest against labour law reform," headlines Spanish daily La Vanguardia, following demonstrations on Sunday in 57 cities protesting against labour law reform introduced by the government of conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Tens of thousands of people marched to the call of the major national trade unions, UGT and CCOO. It was the "first step towards an attack that could lead to a general strike," notes the Barcelona daily paper, for which this possibility would be "a serious mistake". The government cannot and must not back down on this issue because it would endanger its credibility towards the...

I am not going to speculate about anything this morning. No guesses about what the Finance Ministers might do on Monday, no simple addition or subtraction that the data used to forecast Greece’s return to a 120% debt to GDP ratio is a falsification of the numbers, no mention that only nineteen cents of any bailout for Greece would actually go to the country; I am not going to discuss anything except what the European Central Bank has actually done and what we now know with a one hundred percent (100%) certainty and the horrifying implications of their actions. The...

Israel, under threat of war from its neighbors since being founded in 1948, produced better risk-adjusted returns than all other developed stock markets in the past decade as the technology-driven economy attracted global investors. The Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking shows the Tel Aviv TA-25 Index (TA-25) returned 7.6 percent in the 10 years ended February 17, after adjusting for volatility, the highest among 24 developed- nation benchmark indexes. Israel beat Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HSI), the next-best market with a risk-adjusted gain of 6.7%, and Norway, which had the highest total return. Related: Steinitz: I can’t promise 5% growth...

In an era that lives by self-promotion- an era that takes someone like Donald Trump seriously as a presidential candidate- Presidents' Day is a day to remember that greatness still resides in what one does, not what one claims to be. That is why Abraham Lincoln will always belong to every age. Because Lincoln was not just a great president; he may have been one of the greatest men that this country has yet produced. His rare combination of self-confidence and humility produced the archetype of "the American, this new man," who is still universally admired. While many of our...

From Gleick's Huffington Post confession: Given the potential impact however, I attempted to confirm the accuracy of the information in this document. In an effort to do so, and in a serious lapse of my own and professional judgment and ethics, I solicited and received additional materials directly from the Heartland Institute under someone else's name. The materials the Heartland Institute sent to me confirmed many of the facts in the original document, including especially their 2012 fundraising strategy and budget. I forwarded, anonymously, the documents I had received to a set of journalists and experts working on climate issues....

It’s been one of the mysteries of Japan’s ongoing nuclear disaster: How much of the damage did the March 11 earthquake inflict on Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors in the 40 minutes before the devastating tsunami arrived? The stakes are high: If the quake alone structurally compromised the plant and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then every other similar reactor in Japan is at risk. Throughout the months of lies and misinformation, one story has stuck: “The earthquake knocked out the plant’s electric power, halting cooling to its reactors,” as the government spokesman Yukio Edano said at a March 15 press...

Mexico and the United States signed an agreement on Monday to help U.S. firms and Mexican oil monopoly Pemex exploit deep water oil resources in the Gulf of Mexico that straddle the countries' maritime boundaries. The deal, negotiated last year, will lift the moratorium on oil and gas exploration and production for 1.5 million acres in the Gulf and sets up legal guidelines for companies to jointly develop any trans-boundary reservoirs.

Indians own about 40 million guns, second only to the U.S. Rising incomes, along with crime and fear of terrorist attacks, have fueled firearms purchases. Vikramjit Singh stands in the parking lot of a posh club in Chandigarh discussing one of his favorite subjects: guns. He owns 10 or so; he can't remember exactly. In a Hatfield-versus-McCoy saga that haunts the 25-year-old student, his grandfather was shot to death here in the western state of Punjab and his father imprisoned for a retaliatory murder. Although the two clans signed a truce a few years back, Singh isn't taking any chances....

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is dangling the prospect of gas as low as $2 a gallon if he's elected. The former House speaker has spoken in the past of gas dropping to $2.50 a gallon under a Gingrich administration. Monday's prediction, coming as Gingrich campaigned in Oklahoma, contrasts sharply with rival Rick Santorum, who told an Ohio audience that big-city Americans should brace themselves for $5-a-gallon gas. Both candidates are citing new sensitivity over rising pump prices to push for relaxed regulation on domestic oil production. According to AAA's daily fuel gauge, the national average...

$4 gas is here today, higher tomorrowHere we go again. Gasoline prices are rising rapidly and already have shattered the $4-a-gallon mark in California. Industry analysts say the all-time national average record of $4.11 could be shattered this summer. Some stations in Los Angeles are charging $4.93. Americans hired Barack Obama in 2008 partly in hope of finding relief from that summer’s pain at the pump. As the agony returns, voters could be primed by November to pull the lever for anybody but Barack. The Golden State has the unwelcome distinction of having the nation’s highest gas prices, having reached...

Why do cities like Buffalo decline, and what role should government play in promoting recovery? In his State of the State Address this month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced $1 billion in incentives to attract new investment to the beleaguered city by Lake Erie. “We believe in Buffalo,” he said, “and we’ll put our money where our mouth is.” Too bad Mr. Cuomo ignores the factors that help keep areas like Buffalo inhospitable to new investment—namely steep tax rates and the high cost of government. This is an old story for Buffalo. Ever since the city began losing its...

So let’s figure the actual percentage of Americans working, overall. January 2009: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Workforce Participation rate when Obama took office was 65.7%. That means 34.3% of the workforce wasn’t even trying to participate, through discouragement, disability or whatever case applied. Add to that the 7.8% unemployed, and you reach a figure of 57.1% of the American workforce actually working. October 2009: At this point, the “low point” of the Obama recession, the participation rate was an even 65% just in time for unemployment to hit an even 10%., 55% of the American work...

Currently, the American legal and regulatory system is set up to bind as many people to employers as possible. The government wants you to be a wage slave and sets up a regulatory framework that keeps as many of us as possible yoked to bosses and management. The IRS doesn’t like the self-employed, fearing they many conceal income. Banks and credit card companies view such people with suspicion, and it is notoriously difficult for start ups and part time enterprises to have access to formal finance. Many services are hard for the self-employed to get on terms like those made...

The greatest problem facing Greece is not lack of money but a clientelist system that is accountable to no-one, writes a Greek journalist. Kostas Karkagiannis You are possibly fed up with the Greek crisis, and so are Europe’s leading politicians. Doubtlessly you think that Greece’s problems are of a financial nature: lack of competitiveness, gargantuan debts and deficits, and a counterproductive public sector. You are right, but these are just the tip of the iceberg. The heart of the problem lies firstly in its anarchic and poorly functioning legal system, and secondarily on the existence of a clientelist system...

Warren Buffett, who appreciated their shared experience as newspaper deliverers, once told her that fashion changes but the home remains far more secure. In apparel every celebrity with a Q rating above zero either had a line or was pitching one. But precious few celebrity licensors dabbled in home furnishings, even though the dynamics of buying a dresser are no different from buying a dress. "A known brand name gives people a comfort level when buying," says furniture industry analyst Wallace Epperson. In 1999 Ireland went to the biannual furniture convention in High Point, N.C. with a line of sofas,...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- When Paula Symons joined the U.S. workforce in 1972, typewriters in her office clacked nonstop, people answered the telephones and the hot new technology revolutionizing communication was the fax machine. Symons, fresh out of college, entered this brave new world thinking she'd do pretty much what her parents' generation did: Work for just one or two companies over about 45 years before bidding farewell to co-workers at a retirement party and heading off into her sunset years with a pension.

U.S. and Mexico ink oil deal involving maritime border in Gulf Oil prices jumped to a nine-month high above $105 a barrel as Iran on Monday reportedly threatened to extend an embargo on Britain and France to other European nations. A day after Tehran said it halted crude shipments to France and Britain, the head of Iran’s state oil company said if other European nations continued “hostile acts,” it would stop exporting oil to them as well, according to the Associated Press, which cited a semiofficial Iranian news agency. But the European Union could handle a sudden end to imports...

...Ireland's policy choices have been constrained by the euro. But its recovery has been damaged by the euro zone's poor crisis management, which has dragged down the whole currency bloc's economy. Longer-term, euro membership should help Ireland lure investment and boost exports: Even in 2011, there was a 30% increase in companies investing in Ireland for the first time. Over time, that may prove the deciding factor.

Bob Janjuah, a noted investment strategist for Nomura International, has written an analysis, appropriately titled “Bob’s World: Monetary Anarchy,” wherein he offers his own unique take on the current state of the markets. Janjuah’s report, which first appeared on Zero Hedge, claims that we are in a bubble. What’s worse, according to his analysis, is the fact that the markets have also become so manipulated and rigged by policymakers that it’s near impossible to predict where things are headed. He also notes that all over the eurozone, as well as in the U.S., the rule of law has been disregarded...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa signed an agreement today for joint development of oil and and natural gas reservoirs that straddle the two nations' maritime boundaries in the Gulf of Mexico.

A report this week showing rampant foreclosure abuse in San Francisco reflects similar levels of lender fraud and faulty documentation across the United States, say experts and officials who have done studies in other parts of the country. The audit of almost 400 foreclosures in San Francisco found that 84 percent of them appeared to be illegal, according to the study released by the California city on Wednesday. "The audit in San Francisco is the most detailed and comprehensive that has been done - but it's likely those numbers are comparable nationally," Diane Thompson, an attorney at the National Consumer...

European powers struggled to agree a Greek rescue deal on Monday night as politicians doggedly refused to either lower Athens' debt targets or boost the €130bn (£108bn) bail-out fund. Members of the eurogroup promised a deal would be done but the talks ran into the night in a tug-of-war battle over the yawning gap in Greece's finances. There were violent protests in Athens as Greek democracy and sovereignty appeared to be being carved up by demands from individual European countries. Northern European "hardliners" - including Holland, Germany, Austria and Finland - demanded a "permanent representation" of the troika in Athens...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers inched towards approving a second bailout for debt-laden Greece on Monday that would resolve Athens' immediate repayment needs but seems unlikely to revive the nation's shattered economy. Agreement on a 130-billion-euro rescue package on strict conditions would draw a line under months of uncertainty that has shaken the currency bloc, and avert imminent bankrupcty. As the ministers met, officials were struggling to make the numbers add up. EU sources said they had to cut a further 6 billion euros, via various means, to make the financing work, and private investors might have to...

At a rally in Marseille on Sunday, Nicolas Sarkozy launches his campaign for a second term of the presidency Nicolas Sarkozy told his first major rally in his re-election campaign that he had saved France from "catastrophe" during the financial crisis and the only way to save the country from economic meltdown was to give him a second term. The 7,000-strong meeting in Marseille marked a return to the political showmanship and verbal violence of Sarkozy's campaigning style. There was sea of tricolore flags, dramatic music, a new election slogan – "a strong France" – and a cheering Carla Bruni...

Nationally, gas prices are $3.53 a gallon, up 25 cents since Jan. 1, and likely headed to $4.25 a gallon by late April. Republicans have demanded more oil production at home, as well as building the Keystone XL pipeline across the middle of the U.S. to allow oil from Canada to reach Texas refineries. Obama rejected the plan, but one of his spokesmen, Robert Gibbs, said the president is looking to increase domestic energy production. "Just on Friday, the Department of Interior issued permits that will expand our exploration in the Arctic. The president has increased our fuel efficiency and...

"I am staggered at how easily the concepts of Democracy and the Rule of Law – two of the pillars of the modern world – have been brushed aside in the interests of political expediency." SNIP---- I am not well equipped to navigate bubbles where tactical views and secular views are all thrown into the melting pot together, where there is no visibility, where – as one client put it to me recently – we have Monetary Anarchy running riot, where the elastic band between the ‘real’ economy and the current liquidity-fuelled markets is stretched further and further beyond credulity,...

Now the Germans may lead the way to abandoning the global-warming hysteria and subsidy approach to alternative-energy economics: Germany once prided itself on being the “photovoltaic world champion”, doling out generous subsidies—totaling more than $130 billion, according to research from Germany’s Ruhr University—to citizens to invest in solar energy. But now the German government is vowing to cut the subsidies sooner than planned and to phase out support over the next five years. What went wrong? Subsidizing green technology is affordable only if it is done in tiny, tokenistic amounts. Using the government’s generous subsidies, Germans installed 7.5 gigawatts of...

Even though California’s statewide sales tax declined in June with the expiration of a temporary 1% tax, the Golden State still has the highest statewide sales tax in the country at 7.25%, according to data from the Tax Foundation, a Washington D.C. nonpartisan fiscal research group that favors low taxes. When combined with locally imposed sales taxes averaging 0.86%, California drops to 12th in combined sales tax that consumers pay on most purchases.

-excerpt- ..Tocqueville,....."Thus, taking each individual by turns in its powerful hands and kneading him as it likes, the sovereign extends its arms over society as a whole; it covers its surface with a network of small, complicated, painstaking, uniform rules through which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot clear a way to surpass the crowd; it does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them and directs them; it rarely forces one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one’s acting; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born; it does not...

PRINCETON,NewJersey(CNN) - The outcome of the election of 2012 is becoming even tougher to predict, since there are many political landmines facing both parties. President BarackObama has enjoyed a resurgence in his political standing, with polls showing him ahead of the GOP rivals in hypothetical matchups for the general election. Recent statistics showing an improving economy have bolstered the president's position, while his budget proposal and increasingly populist rhetoric have generated some excitement within the base of the Democratic Party. On the Republican side, MittRomney remains the front-runner, though barely, still enjoying the kind of edge in campaign contributions that...

At the start of Barack Obama’s term, few moments better crystallised America’s change of face than his “New Day” video address to the Iranian people. Ending with a salutation in Farsi, Mr Obama offered Iran a new era of “co-operation”. It followed from the promise in his inaugural address to “extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist”. Unhappily, Tehran has ignored Mr Obama’s overtures. Not only is Iran thought to be within striking distance of how Israel defines its “zone of immunity” – the point at which Iranian nuclear weapons capability is irreversible – it has...

Spain and Ireland have economies in shambles over housing bubbles popped long ago. Damage continues to mount. Here are a pair of stories highlighting problems. Bloomberg reports Irish Home Loans At Least 90 Days In Arrears Rise to 9.2%

Has a Mitt Romney surge begun in Michigan? A week ago, PPP had Rick Santorum up by fifteen points in Romney’s home state. In their new poll, PPP puts Romney back only four — although Santorum hasn’t actually lost any support: The Republican race for President in Michigan has tightened considerably over the last week, with what was a 15 point lead for Rick Santorum down to 4. He leads with 37% to 33% for Mitt Romney, 15% for Ron Paul, and 10% for Newt Gingrich. The tightening over the last week is much more a function of Romney gaining...

On the heels of last week’s payroll tax deal, Washington pundits began asking whether the Party of No was dead. As is often the case, the professional pundits have it all wrong. The Party of No is alive and well. This time around though, the partiers have a “D” next to their name. When President Obama unveiled his budget last week, his former Democratic Senate colleagues met it with a mix of silence and condemnation. One of President Obama’s closest confidants, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), remained noticeably silent. The inside-Washington publication Roll Call observed that Senator Reid instead...

As mentioned in a feature earlier this week, February 17 marked the third anniversary of President Obama’s signing into law of his infamous economic Stimulus. The ceremony took place in Denver complete with an Air Force One grand entry, a plethora of television cameras and adoring media reporters.  While this Denver appearance didn’t include gargantuan Greek or Roman marble columns, he did pick the Museum of Nature and Science to give a timeless perspective to $825 billion of government extravagance he promised would bring “real and lasting change for generations to come.”  Three years later it is obvious that history...

The Obama Administration's FY2013 federal budget is inherently dishonest and is a reelection scheme that masquerades as a budget.  Take a close look, and you will see that the Obama Administration’s approach has veered far away from mere incompetence and political expediency.  President Obama, it would seem, has crossed into new territory and his Administration, unhappy with the constitutional constraints on Executive authority to direct spending, is now openly violating the Constitution.   The highest law of the land constricts Team Obama’s ability to spend taxpayer money on pet projects that have never been part of any appropriation bill.  However,...

Rick Santorum struck the right note with conservatives when he attacked Obama on his phony liberal theology. This is the red meat that conservatives have been waiting for. They want someone who will take the fight to the enemy, exposing the false religiosity of the liberal left. “I just said that when you have a world view that elevates the Earth above man and says that, we can't take those [energy] resources because we're going to harm the Earth by things that frankly are just not scientifically proven- for example, that politicization of the whole global warming debate,” Santorum told...

[SNIP] I'm much prepared to break out of the Washington establishment model. ........WALLACE: You were listing to some of the states. And obviously, you know, it's not only big ideas. It's also political strategy. What does it mean to Mitt Romney if he were to lose his home state and an important swing state of Michigan? GINGRICH: Well, I'd be curious what their rationales would be. Here' the guy who's been running for six years, put in $40 million of his own money last time, has outspent all the rest of us I think by three or four to one...

((Reuters) - Iran ordered a halt to its oil sales to Britain and France on Sunday in a move seen as retaliation against tightening EU sanctions, as a team of U.N. inspectors flew to Tehran to press the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear program. The European Union enraged Tehran last month when it decided to impose a boycott on its oil from July 1. Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, responded by threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, the main Gulf oil shipping lane. On Sunday, its oil ministry went a step further, announcing Iran has now stopped...

'Dumb Money' Keeping Stocks Afloat: Analyst By Michael Baron 02/17/12 - 09:38 PM EST6 Comments Add Comment NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- It wasn't the improvement in initial jobless claims or the growing likelihood that Greece will get another round of bailout money and stave off default that drove the stocks higher this week. And no, it wasn't Jeremy Lin either. Rather it was the so-called dumb money, according to Mark Arbeter, chief technical strategist at S&P Capital IQ, who was calling for a timeout for this rally a week ago. The bullishness just got to be too much to resist....

Europe’s key powers are on the brink of a €130bn (£108bn) debt deal to rescue Greece and avert the first sovereign default in Western Europe in over half a century. Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble toned down threats to force Greece out of the euro, bowing to intense pressure from France, Italy, and the US-led bloc of global leaders. Mr Schäuble said the country is "on the right path" and signalled that pension cuts agreed by the Greek cabinet over the weekend would be enough to secure approval for the loan package from EU ministers on Monday. "If Greece can...

With their unemployment-insurance checks running out, some of the country’s long-term jobless are scrambling to fill the gap by filing claims for mental illness and other disabilities with Social Security — a surge that hobbles taxpayers and making the employment rate look healthier than it should as these people drop out of the job statistics.

Ridiculously High Gas Prices Expected To Hit Major US Cities By Memorial Day Calculated Risk Febuary 19, 2012 From the Mercury News: Gas prices surging beyond $4 a gallon -- and they will go higher Gasoline prices are rising at an almost unheard-of pace, and painfully so in California, where the cost for a fill-up now exceeds $4 a gallon in five cities and is approaching that dreaded mark in numerous others, including San Jose and Oakland. The statewide average of $3.96 on Friday is 25 cents higher than just a month ago and 46 cents more than this time...

BEIJING — Japan and China said they were ready Sunday to back the International Monetary Fund's efforts to resolve Europe's debt crisis and agreed to coordinate their positions on responding to its call for more eurozone aid from member countries. Finance Minister Jun Azumi and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan also agreed to boost cooperation by facilitating Japan's purchase of Chinese government bonds and encouraging the private sector to use both the yen and yuan rather than the dollar to settle bilateral trade when their financial authorities hold their first meeting Monday in Beijing. Azumi and Wang, who is in...

"The Acropolis" by David Roberts (1796-1864). Oil on canvas, David David Gallery, Philadelphia. Crippled by debt, propped up by European powers, handicapped by an ineffective administration: uncompromising diagnoses of Greece’s ills are not new. The text that follows, drafted by 19th century French writer Edmond About, has re-emerged in the European press.Greece is the only known example of a country that has lived in bankruptcy since the day that it was born. If such a situation were to prevail in France or England for just one year, we would see terrible catastrophes. Greece has peaceably lived with bankruptcy for more...

Greece’s unemployment bomb detonated. The surge in job losses since last summer is shocking even for those who never believed that combined fiscal and monetary contraction could lead to any result other than ruin. In November alone 126,000 Greeks lost their jobs in a country of 11 million, equivalent to three and a half million Americans in a single month. The unemployment rate jumped from 18.2pc to 20.9pc.This has not yet led into social breakdown. Greeks receive unemployment support for an average of thirty weeks, with a ceiling of €454 a month. Those with civil service tenure are placed on...

The world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, appears to have cut both its oil production and export in December, according to the latest update by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI), an official source of oil production, consumption and export data. The OPEC heavyweight saw production decline by 237,000 barrels per day (bpd) from three-decade highs of 10.047 million bpd in November, the JODI data showed on Sunday. The draw-down was sharper for the actual amount exported, declining by 440,000 bpd, or 5.6 percent, to come in at 7.364 million bpd, the data also showed. The level would still be...

A recovering addict in New Jersey racked up $120,000 in unpaid tolls and fines for his mother after he used her car to buy drugs. "I used to take her car to [New York City] to buy drugs," a contrite Peter Davis said. He claims to be a recovering addict and living with his mom in an Englewood, N.J., apartment. It is actually his mother, 75-year-old Jean Davis, who is shamed on the Port Authority's website as owing the most money of any scofflaw. But on Saturday, Peter Davis admitted that he is the one who racked up the debt,...