By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
The economic crisis that began in 2008 eroded public confidence in free markets - unjustifiably, in the minds of many - and set U.S. policy squarely on a path of increased financial regulation and governmental tinkering in the economy.
Along with the cherry blossoms, hordes of bureaucrats descended on Washington for the spring meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The meeting concluded with, among other things, a communique from the International Monetary and Financial Committee urging the United States and the European countries, including the United Kingdom, to keep the money spigots flowing and ease up on austerity.
These days, American policy toward the Middle East tends to be dominated by two regional crises.
Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who transformed Britain in the 1980s with a core of conservative convictions and history's most formidable handbag, died Monday of a stroke. She was 87 years old.
Actor Gerard Depardieu couldn't make it to court for his drunken driving charges because he was just too busy, his attorney said.
Pressure is mounting on the United States to ratify the reform of the International Monetary Fund, which the Obama administration unsuccessfully submitted for congressional approval last month. Congress should think twice before passing the reform - importantly because its thrust consists of doubling the amount the United States will owe the IMF - also known as the "quota."
That Treasury Department official Harry Dexter White was a Soviet agent — perhaps the most important one in the Red-riddled Roosevelt administration — has been well-documented in defector reports and intercepted intelligence cables. Now startling new evidence has emerged on an attempt by White to tilt international economic policy in favor of the Soviet Union during the postwar Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire.
There is a deal in place that will bail out the government of Cyprus — but only after extracting more than $5 billion from bank depositors and plunging the economy into uncertainty. It virtually guarantees the island nation will stay in the recession that has been plaguing it for the past six quarters.
Money that's been trapped in Cyprus banks for the last two weeks could begin to cross the Atlantic and flood the American banking system starting Thursday when banks on the European island reopen, one banking expert predicts.
Money that's been trapped in Cyprus banks for the last two weeks could begin to cross the Atlantic and flood the American banking system starting Thursday when banks on the European island reopen, one banking expert predicts.
On Tuesday, the Cyprus parliament voted "no" on a measure that would have allowed the government to confiscate up to nearly 10 percent of all deposits in Cypriot banks. The measure was proposed after European Union countries threatened to withdraw lending support from the troubled country unless depositors shared the costs of the bailout.
He pulled off one of soccer's greatest historic upsets. Now Otto Rehhagel has been handed a task equally challenging: to make Germany popular again in crisis-hit Greece.
Europeans have so many nations in financial trouble that they came up with an acronym, PIIGS, to keep track of the worst: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. Now a sixth nation, Cyprus, is about to join this less-than-illustrious group.
As the U.S. stands at the 84 percent threshold for continuous economic slowing, it's time for Congress to take a hard, long-term look at the effects high debt have when calculating the costs and benefits of government spending.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn says he's sick of people trying to exploit his private life to make money.
