THE rickshaw driver pulls in to the side of the road to allow us to take shelter from torrential rain. There, under a shop's awning, a small crowd is waiting for the weather to break. The group includes Sapna Sharma and her brother-in-law, Sanjay. Sanjay is holding his 18-month-old nephew, Anshul, who has kohl-rimmed eyes and silver bracelets on his ankles.
As we stand talking, some of the people start pointing to the child's hands and feet while speaking animatedly to us in Hindi, and then Sapna explains through our translator that her son was born with 12 toes and 12 fingers.
Shortly afterwards, about a kilometre away in the Shankar Nagar area of Bhopal, we meet another Indian child with congenital malformations, three-year-old Raj, who is visually impaired, cannot walk and whose head is oversized. ''The doctors said bad water could have been a cause of my son's condition. Older people here are gas victims and now the younger people are victims of the water,'' his mother, Poona Bai, says.
Here, in the city of Bhopal, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, hundreds of children are being born with deformities and mental health problems. As we walk back to our rickshaw, we come across more afflicted youngsters who have followed us along the road. They include 12-year-old Rajesh, who is barefoot and bald. The other children make fun of him as his mother, Yashdabai, explains that they do so because they believe he is mad. Rajesh's older sister, Sonia, scolds the other children and says she has to protect her brother from bullies. Sonia is barefoot, too, and as she speaks a colleague notices that the young girl has huge feet.
This is the horrendous legacy Bhopal is facing 25 years on from the world's worst industrial accident. The Bhopal gas disaster, as it became known, has been dubbed the ''Hiroshima of the chemical industry''. It happened shortly after midnight on December 3, 1984, when a cloud of poisonous gas escaped from a Union Carbide pesticide plant. The release of 42 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (known as MIC) from the factory exposed more than 500,000 people to toxic gas. Up to 10,000 are thought to have died within the first 72 hours after the leak.
At least 25,000 people exposed to the gas have since died, and today in Bhopal tens of thousands more Indians suffer from a variety of debilitating gas-related illnesses such as respiratory and psychiatric problems, joint pains, menstrual irregularities, tuberculosis and cancers. Then there is the escalating number of birth defects, including cleft palates, webbed feet and hands, twisted limbs, brain damage and heart problems.
Shankar Nagar is a slum area of the city, just north of the derelict Union Carbide factory. For years local campaigners have been demanding that Union Carbide, now owned by US multinational Dow Chemicals, clean up the abandoned pesticide plant, but so far their pleas have been ignored.
In 1999, a Greenpeace investigation found severe chemical contamination of the environment surrounding the former factory, which, the NGO said, was polluted with heavy metals and chemical compounds.
The report said: ''Analysis of water samples drawn from wells serving the local community has also confirmed the contamination of groundwater reserves with chemicals arising either from previous or ongoing activities and/or incidents. As a result of the ubiquitous presence of contaminants, the exposure of the communities surrounding the plants to complex mixtures of hazardous chemicals continues on a daily basis.
''Though less acute than the exposure that took place as a result of the 1984 MIC release, long-term chronic exposure to mixtures of toxic synthetic chemicals and heavy metals is also likely to have serious consequences for the health and survival of the local population.''
The Greenpeace study was backed in 2004 by Amnesty International, whose Clouds of Injustice report said, ''toxic wastes continue to pollute the environment and water supply … and it is appalling that no one has been held
accountable.THE rickshaw driver pulls in to the side of the road to allow us to take shelter from... more
FROM THE NEWS BLOG:
According to the standard unemployment rate 12.2 percent of Californians are out of work. But there's another figure kept by the Employment Development Department called 'underemployment' which represents people without jobs, people who have to take lesser or freelance employment or people who have given up looking. That number is 21.9 percent of Californians. One fifth of the state.
When we talk about the recession, we tend to follow economists' lead on when the recession begins, ends, etc. In theory, our national economy in aggregate will start growing (or has already started growing) and we will soon 'be out of the recession'. However most economists are saying it will be a 'jobless recovery' - meaning that the economy will grow but unemployment will stay the same. And if unemployment stays the same - just how much bigger is the national underemployment number? How much longer will people who took lesser paying jobs or moved into the freelance world or just plain stopped looking for work to live off their savings while the clouds passed - how much longer will those people be affected by the recession?
As the Dow goes up and the bankers at Goldman Sachs get fat bonuses again, I think this is a concerning number. The difference between economists' balance sheets and the experience of the rest of the country. What do you think? Are you affected by this? Is this something that concerns you? Something you would want to know more about?FROM THE NEWS BLOG:
According to the standard unemployment rate 12.2 percent of... more
Partying like it's 1999? Well, it's much worse when we use math skills beyond elementary school ...Partying like it's 1999? Well, it's much worse when we use math skills beyond... more
The Dow Jones industrial average has reclaimed 10,000 for the first time in a year.
The Dow closed above five figures Wednesday, seven months after it hit a 12-year low of 6,547.05 on March 9. The comeback by the stock market’s best-known indicator is the most visible sign yet that investors believe the economy is indeed recovering from the financial crisis and recession.
Cheering erupted from traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as stocks briefly moved above the psychological barrier. The Dow at times fell back below 10,000 in the normal ebb and flow of trading.
The Dow is now up 53 percent from its March low. But it remains 29 percent below its peak of 14,164.53 hit in October 2007.
The index first finished above 10,000 on March 29, 1999, in the midst of a powerful rally that ended with the dot-com bust at the start of this decade. Stocks then fell below that mark last October as investors sold stocks in a feverish panic following the downfall of Lehman Brothers.
The latest round of earnings reports, which will continue to pour in over the next few weeks, are the key to keeping the market’s rally alive, analysts say. If earnings fall short of expectations, stocks could stumble.The Dow Jones industrial average has reclaimed 10,000 for the first time in a year.... more
Oh sure, massive photovoltaic installations on rooftops are nothing terribly new, but by and large, the ones we've seen are stuck on massive warehouses or elaborate stadiums in foreign lands. Dow Chemical is doing its darnedest to change all that with the introduction of the POWERHOUSE line of solar shingles. As you'd expect, these solar shingles are aimed at roofers looking to tip their hats to Ma Earth while providing shelter for well-endowed homeowners, and unlike most of the futuristic alternatives, these actually look somewhat similar to traditional shingles. Dow claims that "affordability" will be a feature when they become widely available in 2011, but we're understandably skeptical of such a claim given just how pricey solar roofs currently are (and you know, considering the company's for-profit standing)Oh sure, massive photovoltaic installations on rooftops are nothing terribly new, but... more
It has been almost two years since the DOW had hit its decade high, but this month it is almost grazing 10,000.
Companies First Solar, JA Solar, and Sun Power started off the week with a 33 point rise for a market gain. Could this be an indication that solar installations are going to be on a consistent rise?
Solar power is in demand worldwide as China’s government has made a commitment to convert 20% of its energy demands to wind and solar power. The project is likely to be completed by its 2020 date.
San Francisco has launched another unprecedented green program in the city called the “Climate Passport.”
Demand Response Supporters, a coalition of companies serving the electric industry, filed a protest with the FERC asking it to establish market rules that would level the value of demand response with compensation for generation.
"Twenty-five years after the Bhopal gas leak killed thousands, there has been no cleanup of the site – and Indians continue to die horribly."
"We all know what the world's worst industrial disaster was: the gas leak from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal in central India. On the night of 2 December 1984, the creaky pesticides plant, which was lacking a number of basic safeguards, released a cloud of methyl isocyanate, phosgene and other gases over a densely populated city. This poison gas killed thousands of people – some immediately, many others in the years that followed. The death toll so far appears to be around 25,000. Hundreds of thousands of others were harmed, in many cases permanently. The 25th anniversary falls in just over two months."
One more excerpt:
"You might have imagined that after the global outrage this disaster caused, and the way in which Bhopal has become shorthand for corporate malfeasance and insouciance, that the site of this great crime would have been cleaned up and sorted out as quickly as possible. That the plant, which was closed after the gas leak, would either have been demolished and removed or cleaned up and turned into a memorial for the victims. You'd be wrong.
As the Bhopal Medical Appeal reminds us, the plant has instead simply been abandoned. Hundreds of tonnes of deadly chemicals have been left there – in open pits or just piled on the ground – to leach into the water supply, where they continue to poison people to this day, causing cancer and foetal malformations, among other horrible effects. The chemicals include deadly pesticides and their even deadlier precursors.
After drinking half a glass of water that the people of the city drink every day, the author Dominique Lapierre reported that "my mouth, my throat, my tongue instantly got on fire, while my arms and legs suffered an immediate skin rash. This was the simple manifestation of what men, women and children have to endure daily, some 18 years after the tragedy." Seven years on, nothing has changed. There has been no cleanup, no attempt to prevent the leakage from the site that takes place during every monsoon."
Why has this been ignored for so many years?
The contamination continues bringing deaths, illnesses and nature's catastrophe."Twenty-five years after the Bhopal gas leak killed thousands, there has been no... more
"If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in a sorry a state as the souls who live under tyrrany."
By Thomas Jefferson ( Founding Father and third President of the United States).
Excerpts:
"Unsuspecting consumers by the tens of millions are being allowed to purchase and consume unlabeled genetically engineered foods, despite findings by FDA scientists that these foods could pose serious risks. New genetically engineered crops are being approved by federal agencies despite admissions that they will contaminate native and conventional plants and pose other significant new environmental threats. In short, there has been a complete abdication of any responsible legislative or regulatory oversight of genetically engineered foods. Clearly, now is a critical time to challenge the government’s lack of regulatory oversight on this technology, and demand labeling of all GE foods so that consumers have a choice in the marketplace.
At the site you'll briefly read what Prince Charles and a few others had to say about Genetically engineered food.
Here is what Pope John Paul II said to 50,000 farmers:
" 'resist the temptation of high productivity and profit that work to the detriment of the respect of nature.' The pontiff added that "when (farmers) forget this basic principle and become tyrants of the earth rather than its custodians ... sooner or later the earth rebels."
"if modern farming techniques don't reconcile themselves with the simple language of nature in a healthy balance, the life of man will run ever greater risks, of which already we are seeing worrying signs."
Sign the petition at the site and stand up for the right to be informed, fight gmo and corporate greed that is destroying our NATURE.
On July 15, 2009 Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences announced that they received approval to introduce their new eight-trait GE corn 'SmartStax' into Canada and the US. But Health Canada did not assess 'SmartStax' for human health safety and did not even bother to authorize it. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency authorized the environmental release of 'SmartStax' but never conducted an environmental risk assessment and actually substantially weakened its environmental stewarship rules for the crop.
I want this corn labelled simply to allow the GM apologists a chance to be able to buy it all up and shove it down their throats instead of all of us being put at risk. Again, no regulatory accountability or oversight, and no environmental tests done. And once again NO MEDIA COVERAGE of it ANYWHERE. I sometimes wonder why I even care to post these items in the hopes of alerting people to exactly what is being done behind their backs and without their consent in hijacking our sustenance for profit. Perhaps people deserve what they get at this point. So here you have it, your dinner served up by chemical companies that poisoned you and this planet for the last fifty plus years. Bon apetit.I want this corn labelled simply to allow the GM apologists a chance to be able to buy... more
NEW YORK - New hope for the economy just gave the stock market its best July in 20 years.
Investors placed big bets over the last month that the profit machine at U.S. companies will continue to rev higher, and that the longest recession since World War II is finally easing its grip. If that turns out to be wrong, the huge gains of July means there will be an even bigger price to pay if companies don't deliver.
The Dow surged 725 points, or 8.6 percent, for the month, with most of the gains arriving in bursts in the final 15 days. The extraordinary run shaped July into the best month for the blue chips since October 2002 and the best July since 1989.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index, a benchmark for many mutual funds, also ran at a strong pace and July was its best performance since 1997. Even with the gains, the S&P is still down 37 percent from its peak in October 2007.
The companies that fared best in July were those that signaled they were patching up their businesses after a terrible winter and fall. Caterpillar Inc.'s earnings for the April-June quarter fell but the company raised its profit forecast for the year. Its stock surged 33.4 percent for the month.
Earnings reports that fueled the rally often contained a few dark spots, and many companies have been increasing their bottom line by taking a knife to costs. Eventually they will have to bring in more revenue because trimming costs can't increase profits forever.
Stu Schweitzer, global markets strategist at J.P. Morgan's Private Bank in New York, said the lower expenses means companies will be better positioned to reap big earnings when the economy does grow and revenue starts to tick higher.
Economic reports are starting to support traders' bets. The government reported Friday that the economy shrank at a pace of just 1 percent in the second quarter, better than analysts anticipated. In the first three months of the year, the economy shrank at a pace of 6.4 percent, the steepest slide in nearly 30 years.
Despite the improving outlook, the economy still faces significant hurdles. Analysts worry that difficulty for consumers in borrowing, unemployment and a still-weak housing market will choke off growth. Key reports next week on manufacturing, housing, employment and the service industry could also reshape the market's view about where the economy is headed.
"I don't think this is a one-way staircase back up to where we came from. I fully expect potholes along the way," Schweitzer said.
On Friday, the Dow rose a modest 17.15, or 0.2 percent, to 9,171.61. The S&P 500 index rose 0.73, or 0.1 percent, to 987.48, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 5.80, or 0.3 percent, to 1,978.50.
For now, companies aren't hemorrhaging money like they were last fall and early this year. Traders began the latest rally July 13 when they rushed to buy stocks ahead of a strong profit report from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The bank's profit turned out to be huge, and strong report cards since then from companies like AT&T Inc. and microchip producer Intel Corp. confirmed that a range of companies were finding their footing.
Three of four companies in the S&P 500 index have reported results that topped analysts' expectations, according to Thomson Reuters. About 300 of the 500 companies have turned in their reports.
That unexpected bounty has pushed major market indexes to their best levels of the year. On July 23, the Dow rose above 9,000 for the first time since January.
The Nasdaq traded above 2,000 and the S&P 500 index neared the 1,000 mark, a level not seen since November.NEW YORK - New hope for the economy just gave the stock market its best July in 20... more
Dow AgroSciences’ recent request [1] to the regulatory authorities in Brazil to field test a new GM soya bean tolerant to weedkillers 2,4 D and haloxyfop R has been described by GM Freeze as “a step back into the Dark Ages”.
2,4 D [2], which kills broad leaf weeds, has been approved since the 1940s and was a constituent part of Agent Orange – the defoliant used by the US during the war in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. It is rated as “moderately toxic” and is considered by some authorities to be a possible cancer-causing agent. It can be washed from the soil after application and has been a pollutant in untreated drinking water in the UK. It is highly toxic to fish. It is still approved for use in the EU.
Dow’s application for the approval of haloxyfop R has been rejected by the EU, citing [3]:
The potential contamination of groundwater
The risk to mammals
The high toxicity to fish
The only GM herbicide tolerant crop currently approved for growing in Brazil is Monsanto’s Roundup Ready (RR) soya, which is tolerant to the weedkiller Roundup. The introduction of RR soya in 1996 was hailed as a way to reduce herbicide use and protect the environment form other, more harmful weedkillers. However new evidence is emerging that casts increasing doubts about the safety of Roundup [4], particularly significant for farmers handling Roundup or people living near sprayed fields. The legal limit on maximum residues was increased two hundred times to accommodate the use of Roundup on GM soya beans imported into Europe, mainly for animal feed [5].
Dow’s new proposed GM may increase residues of 2,4 D or haloxyfop R in soya imports in the future.
In addition, weed resistance to Roundup is developing fast in North and South America, making the GM seeds both ineffective and expensive to use, as farmers now must apply extra weedkillers to kill the resistant weeds. In Argentina, Roundup resistant Johnson grass was first found in 2005, and since then it has infested at least 10,000 hectares of soya land, with some reports saying 100,000 hectares are affected [6]. More and more herbicides are being used to combat resistance following the adoption of RR crops in North and South America.
___
Weed resistance is now driving the push for new herbicide tolerant crops, such as those being developed by Dow.
Commenting Pete Riley of GM Freeze said:
“GM Roundup tolerant crops were supposed to reduce weedkiller use and cut out the need for using more toxic chemicals such as 2,4 D. Scientists always warned that the overuse of Roundup would lead to resistance developing in weeds, and that is exactly what has happened. The proposal by Dow to introduce GM soya tolerant to 2,4 D and haloxyfop R is a step back into the Dark Ages – these are exactly the sort of products GM was supposed to phase out.
“GM herbicide tolerant crops can now be seen for what they are - a short term fix for companies wanting to make money selling weedkillers. The sooner farmers recognise this and return to crop rotations and other agroecological approaches to control weeds the better.”
_______
Are these companies trying to perpetuate a worldwide genocide through food?Dow AgroSciences’ recent request [1] to the regulatory authorities in Brazil to... more
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks slipped Tuesday, at the end of the S&P 500's best quarter in more than a decade, with a weaker-than-expected consumer confidence report and a slump in oil prices sparking the selloff.
Stocks gained Monday as investors scooped up shares hit in the recent selloff. But the advance petered out Tuesday at the end of a strong quarter on Wall Street. According to preliminary tallies, the S&P 500 gained 15% for its best quarter since the final three months of 1998.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks slipped Tuesday, at the end of the S&P 500's best... more
"If no change is made, no condemnation of the use of Agent Orange, no call for immediate compensation to the victims and their families, no call for the chemical companies such as Monsanto and Dow to be charged with war crimes, then the hearings will have solved nothing."
TAKE ACTION: Sign the Justice for Victims of Agent Orange petition:
As Vietnamese Agent Orange activists take their struggle for justice to the floor of the United States congress, a British advocate campaigning on their behalf can't be sure of the US's intentions.
The hearings on Thursday (US time) are the second time testimony on the issue is brought before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment.
But as the US Supreme Court earlier this year rejected a lawsuit filed by Vietnamese victims of the defoliant seeking compensation from the companies that manufactured the chemical, Agent Orange activist Len Aldis, who has been advocating for restitutions and aid for over 20 years, has more questions than answers.
Noting via email that US court settlements have entitled US veterans to millions of dollars in compensation for their exposure to the toxic substance, Aldis pointed out the hypocrisy on the issue:
"When the US Veterans won their out of court settlement in 1984 the Judge was Judge Jack Weinstein. The Vietnamese lawsuit that lost in 2005, the judge was Judge Jack Weinstein," he said. "Why did he rule against the Vietnamese? They were suing the same chemical companies. The Vietnamese victims have the same illnesses and disabilities."
He also pointed out that part of the problem was that the major chemical companies the suits were filed against, Dow Chemical and Monsanto among others, were often feeders for the government and vice-versa.
"Monsanto is notorious for this; it is called the Revolving Door," he said. "Justice Clarence Thomas, who sat in on the AO lawsuit, worked for two years as a lawyer for Monsanto."
Aldis, the Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society, said the hearing provided an ideal opportunity for the congress to listen to the witnesses and actual victims to see how Agent Orange has affected them long after the war ended.
But despite US$3 million recently given to Agent Orange clean up efforts by the Obama administration, Aldis cannot be sure justice will be served by the hearings.
"If no change is made, no condemnation of the use of Agent Orange, no call for immediate compensation to the victims and their families, no call for the chemical companies such as Monsanto and Dow to be charged with war crimes, then the hearings will have solved nothing.
"The Vietnamese victims will continue to suffer and die. I sincerely hope I am wrong, but the victims have waited for over 40 years for justice. It is an insult for the chairman of the committee to ask the victims to be patient."
Drop in the bucket
Aldis said the US$3 million recently approved by the US government to assist Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam would do "very, very little."
It has been estimated that the cleanup of the Da Nang site in central Vietnam will cost $17 million, Aldis said, adding that Da Nang is just one of several affected sites.
International agencies have recognized at least 25 so-called "hot-spots" contaminated with Agent Orange.
"It is an insult to make such an offer when millions of dollars have been paid and rightly so to US Veterans and their families for the illnesses caused by Agent Orange," Aldis said.
end of excerpt"If no change is made, no condemnation of the use of Agent Orange, no call for... more
So you thought Wall Street might be out of the woods? Think again.
A surge of optimism that started a market rally late last year, mercifully quieting the stock market's stomach-churning volatility, has vanished as economic recovery recedes further onto the horizon.
On Wednesday, stocks took a dive reminiscent of the terrifying jumps and drops of last fall, with the Dow Jones industrials falling more than 300 points before closing down 248.
It was the Dow's biggest point drop since Dec. 1 and the first string of six straight down days since early October. The Dow is still 9 percent higher than its November low, but the bumpy decline feels all too familiar.
more...So you thought Wall Street might be out of the woods? Think again.
A surge of... more
NEW YORK – Wall Street prepared to extend some of its gains Wednesday a day after its enormous surge and as investors awaited an afternoon decision on interest rates from the Federal Reserve.
Stock market futures indicated stocks would show a moderate advance at the open, a reversal from an earlier decline in futures. Some fluctuations weren't surprising after the nearly 900-point gain logged by the Dow Jones industrials on Tuesday. The Dow and the Standard & Poor's 500 index posted gains of nearly 11 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 9.5 percent as investors, confident about the prospects for a rate cut, piled into the market to pick up stocks that have become bargains.
The Dow's 889-point gain was its second-largest; the biggest was a 936-point surge on Oct. 13. that later evaporated as fears about the economy grew. Beyond a simple case of investor indecision, the market's back-and-forth moves may also be part of its attempt to establish a bottom.NEW YORK – Wall Street prepared to extend some of its gains Wednesday a day after... more
When this man predicted a global financial crisis more than a year ago, people laughed. Not any more...
Dominic Rushe
As stock markets headed off a cliff again last week, closely followed by currencies, and as meltdown threatened entire countries such as Hungary and Iceland, one voice was in demand above all others to steer us through the gloom: that of Dr Doom.
For years Dr Doom toiled in relative obscurity as a New York University economics professor under his alias, Nouriel Roubini. But after making a series of uncannily accurate predictions about the global meltdown, Roubini has become the prophet of his age, jetting around the world dispensing his advice and latest prognostications to politicians and businessmen desperate to know what happens next – and for any answer to the crisis.
While the economic sun was shining, most other economists scoffed at Roubini and his predictions of imminent disaster. They dismissed his warnings that the sub-prime mortgage disaster would trigger a financial meltdown. They could not quite believe his view that the US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would collapse, and that the investment banks would be crushed as the world headed for a long recession.
Yet all these predictions and more came true. Few are laughing now.
What does Roubini think is going to happen next? Rather worryingly, in London last Thursday he predicted that hundreds of hedge funds will go bust and stock markets may soon have to shut – perhaps for as long as a week – in order to stem the panic selling now sweeping the world.
What happened? The next day trading was briefly stopped in New York and Moscow.
Dubbed Dr Doom for his gloomy views, this lugubrious disciple of the “dismal science” is now the world’s most in-demand economist. He reckons he is getting about four hours’ sleep a night. Last week he was in Budapest, London, Madrid and New York. Next week he will address Congress in Washington. Do not expect any good news.
Contacted in Madrid on Friday, Roubini said the world economy was “at a breaking point”. He believes the stock markets are now “essentially in free fall” and “we are reaching the point of sheer panic”.
For all his recent predictive success, his critics still urge calm. They charge he is a professional doom-monger who was banging on about recession for years as the economy boomed. Roubini is stung by such charges, dismissing them as “pathetic”.
He takes no pleasure in bad news, he says, but he makes his standpoint clear: “Frankly I was right.” A combative, complex man, he is fond of the word “frankly”, which may be appropriate for someone so used to delivering bad news.
Born in Istanbul 49 years ago, he comes from a family of Iranian Jews. They moved to Tehran, then to Tel Aviv and finally to Italy, where he grew up and attended college, graduating summa cum laude in economics from Bocconi University before taking a PhD in international economics at Harvard.
Fluent in English, Italian, Hebrew, and Persian, Roubini has one of those “international man of mystery” accents: think Henry Kissinger without the bonhomie. Single, he lives in a loft in Manhattan’s trendy Tribeca, an area popularised by Robert De Niro, and collects contemporary art.
Despite his slightly mad-professor look, he is at pains to make clear he is normal. “I’m not a geek,” said Roubini, who sounds rather concerned that people might think he is. “I mean it frankly. I’m not a geek.”
He is, however, ferociously bright. When he left Harvard, he moved quickly, holding various positions at the Treasury department, rising to become an economic adviser to Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. Then his profile seemed to plateau. His doubts about the economic outlook seemed out of tune with the times, especially when a few years ago he began predicting a meltdown in the financial markets through his blog, hosted on RGEmonitor. com, the website of his advisory company.
More @ linkWhen this man predicted a global financial crisis more than a year ago, people... more
" After being in panic mode the past few weeks, Wall Street is now wallowing in despair.
'The market in general is people throwing in the towel,' says Michael Cohn, chief market strategist at Atlantis Asset Management, ;Bear markets go from denial to panic to despair, and we're at the despair point, which I'm hoping is the last of the stages.
Wall Street looked set to follow European and Asian markets sharply lower at the open Friday, with all three major stock indexes losing the maximum amount permissible before the trading began in the US.
What's behind the selloff?
Investors around the world are ignoring the good news and focusing on the bad. And there's plenty of that to go around. Amid all the gloomy economic data and disappointing earnings, economists and market pros are increasingly convinced that the US and the rest of the world are headed for a painful recession..." " After being in panic mode the past few weeks, Wall Street is now wallowing in... more
