As children across America costume themselves as ghouls, ghosts, goblins and former North African dictators Monday night, they may have missed the most spine-chilling scare of the day. According to calculations based on the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, on All Hallows’ Eve the United States’ total debt will surpass its Gross Domestic Product for the first time since World War II. (more)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Treasury Department sold $29 billion in 7-year notes Wednesday at a yield of 2.280%, the lowest yield since November. (more)
For the second time since he became chairman in 2006, Ben S. Bernanke is leading the Federal Reserve into uncharted monetary territory. (more)
Google Inc. cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years using a technique that moves most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda. (more)
Americans armed themselves to the teeth and paid through the nose to have a smoke, according to a U.S. government report released on Wednesday. (more)
After years of filling Democratic coffers with massive campaign donations, trial lawyers are cashing in their chips with a sweetheart deal from the government that will save the industry billions of dollars over the next few years. (more)
In what is sure to be celebrated as a diplomatic victory for the Obama administration, the European Parliament voted Thursday to approve a revised version of the so-called SWIFT agreement on bank data sharing. The agreement will permit the resumption of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP). Under the program, which is credited with both preventing terror attacks and facilitating their investigation, American investigators have consulted and analyzed selected data on international bank transactions originating in Europe. The new agreement, however, effectively places the program under European “oversight” and gives European officials the authority to deny data requests and “block” data searches (more)
On May 26, 2010, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) wrote an op-ed in Politico defending Social Security’s solvency, and refuting many concerns cited by critics. Intrigued, I contacted the Congressman’s press secretary by phone the following day to interview the Congressman about his assertions, and to contrast them with what I have heard and read from critics of Social Security. His press secretary and I exchanged several phone calls, and I sent two follow-up e-mails regarding an interview. After receiving no response, I moved forward. (more)
Total U.S. debt will rise from $13.6 trillion this year to the astounding level of $19.6 trillion by 2015, which is four years earlier than previously estimated, according to a U.S. Treasury Department report released last week. The Treasury expects that figure to represent 102% of 2015 gross domestic product. Most astonishingly, the report projects that publicly traded debt, which excludes intra-governmental obligations, will rise to $14 trillion by 2015, up from last year’s figure of “just” $7.5 trillion. (more)
