Free Republic

It would appear that the administration is really after Goldman. As of yet very little proof of any actual wrongdoing has been shown.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized overnight after experiencing extreme drowsiness but was later released, a court spokeswoman said on Thursday. Spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Ginsburg, who has been treated for pancreatic cancer, was evaluated at the Washington Hospital Center and found to be in stable health after she fell from her seat on a plane before departing for London.

Zero loses as well as the corrupt politicians in Chicago

I'm active in the FX markets, and, this morning I've got information from a business contact in EU that large banks are pulling liquidity from FX markets. Hotspot, one of the larger liquidity aggregators has taken their site down and is now informing everyone that they no longer provide retail services. Supposedly Currenex is similarly affected. Does anyone know more about this situation ? Because, if this is true, it means that the credit freeze and counterparty risk/fear is reaching new levels with further reprecussions. Does anyone have any additional information ?

TOKYO - She is big-busted, petite, very friendly, and she runs on batteries. A Japanese firm has produced a 38 cm (15 inch) tall robotic girlfriend that kisses on command, to go on sale in September for around US$175, with a target market of lonely adult men. Using her infrared sensors and battery power, the diminutive damsel named "EMA" puckers up for nearby human heads, entering what designers call its "love mode". "Strong, tough and battle-ready are some of the words often associated with robots, but we wanted to break that stereotype and provide a robot that's sweet and interactive,"...

Pakistan: Trouble Brewing over Latest Prophet Mohammed Cartoon August 30, 2007 16 20 GMT Pakistan's Foreign Ministry lodged a complaint with the Swedish Embassy in Islamabad on Aug. 30 over a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed published in a Swedish daily. The cartoon could ignite violent protests in Muslim countries and among Europe's Muslim population. The cartoon, which depicts the Prophet Mohammed's head on the body of a dog, was published Aug. 19 in the Swedish daily Nerikes Allehanda.

<p>ABC reported on their website blog about 20 min ago that United Nations weapons inspectors discovered six to eight vials of a dangerous nerve gas, phosgene, as they were cleaning out offices at a U.N. building in New York this morning, federal authorities tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com. The federal authorities said the office, in a U.N. building near headquarters, was being evacuated and the White House had been notified at 10 a.m. New York police and fire officials said federal authorities had not notified them of any problem at the U.N. building, as of 11 a.m. A U.N. spokesperson said a statement would be issued shortly.</p>

The dish in front of me is grey and shiny. "Russian dog," says my waitress Nancy. "Big dog," I reply. "Yes," she says. "Big dog's penis..." We are in a cosy restaurant in a dark street in Beijing but my appetite seems to have gone for a stroll outside.

Leftist parties dominated European politics throughout the 1990s and the early years of the 21st century; however, 2007 will see the end of the left as a leading force on the Continent. This slow shift has been accompanied by a move toward the right that reaches farther than the traditional "Big Three" -- Germany, France and the United Kingdom -- to include Poland, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria. In fact, a series of elections has allowed center and right parties to take the reins in all the large European states. It is time to consider the possibilities raised...

The number of new U.S. jobs climbed by an unexpectedly brisk 157,000 in May on a surge of hiring in service businesses while hiring in the factory sector continued to decline, Labor Department data showed on Friday. The total of new jobs in May handily outstripped Wall Street economists' forecasts for 130,000 jobs and fit with other recent evidence that the pace of economic activity was bouncing back from a soft patch in the first three months of the year. It may also raise fears about the possibility that tight labor markets will fan wage and price pressures. The monthly...

OAKLAND, Calif. - A stretch of highway near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed Sunday after a gasoline tanker crashed and burst into flames, leaving one of the nation's busiest spans in a state of near paralysis. Officials said traffic could be disrupted for months. ADVERTISEMENT Flames shot 200 feet in the air and the heat was intense enough to melt part of the freeway and cause the collapse, but the truck's driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported.

AMZN surges up another 10% as the great short squeeze continues. Seems sellers are nowhere to be found as some panicked hedge funds attempt to cover. AMZN P/E is quickly approaching 140, the likes of which have not been seen since the great .com bubble of '01. The question remains how high it will go.

lready the best-performing big-cap Internet stock, Amazon.com (AMZN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) has just won itself more supporters. Shares surged 13% early Wednesday after the online retailer blew away the Street's first-quarter earnings expectations and ratcheted up revenue guidance for the second quarter and full year. Piper Jaffray upgraded the stock to market perform from underperform, citing margin gains. That move came two days after Piper downgraded the stock, citing valuation concerns.

America's employers ramped up hiring in March, driving the unemployment rate down to a five-month low of 4.4 %. It was a surprisingly strong performance in an economy that has otherwise shown signs of sluggishness recently.

The company said after U.S. markets closed that an audit panel had found accounting errors and evidence of misconduct. Dell also said it will delay filing its Form 10-K until it has completed an internal investigation.

Private equity firms that take over companies and bring in new management teams are likely to cut jobs and depress employees' wages, says a major report published today. However, where an existing management team helps take a company into private equity in a management buy-out (MBO), they tend to expand jobs and the impact on wages is smaller.

he Internet video sensation that targeted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton now has rival Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) on the spot. Paid Political Advertisement Heralded by many as the embodiment of Web-driven citizen activism, the mysterious YouTube ad now stands revealed as the work of a Democratic operative employed by a consulting firm with Obama links.

China plans to produce its own large commercial jet by 2020 to challenge the dominance of Airbus and Boeing in the world's fastest-growing aircraft market, the state media reported today.

Inflation at the wholesale level surged in February, pushed higher by a big jump in energy prices and the largest increase in food costs in more than three years.

Checking interest in the financial markets and investments ping list at Free Republic. While many folks often discuss various economy and financial news here, there doesn't seem to be a ping list (per my recent search). Being an active participant in the markets and Free Republic, as well as very interested and delighted in discussing/debating the above with others, I volunteer to maintain a new Financial Markets, Economy and Investments ping list, where all the Boeing vs Airbus, capitalism vs socialism, DOW up 250pts, DOW down 416pts, and various other market-related items (such as, equities derivatives, naked short selling, corporate...