“United States” on The Daily Caller

In this period of “exceptional uncertainty” (to quote Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke), where can investors turn for a considered perspective on the current environment? Produced to feed the beast of the 24-hour news cycle, the bulk of financial journalism and commentary today isn’t worth the servers it is stored on. One notable exception to that rule is Buttonwood, the financial markets column of The Economist. Philip Coggan is the columnist — arguably the most influential position in financial journalism (along with the head of Lex at the Financial Times). (more)

“I explain in the book I really don’t think we can be legitimately called a constitutional republic anymore,” radio host Mark Levin told The Daily Caller in an extensive interview about his new book “Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America,” released Monday. (more)

Will New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez be the next vice president? (more)

A couple hundred Occupy Portland protesters are rallying this morning at the entrances to terminals 5 and 6 of the Port of Portland in what appears to be a largely peaceful demonstration. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican senator is blocking President Barack Obama’s nominee to become ambassador to Russia over suspicions the U.S. might provide Moscow with sensitive missile defense information. (more)

One tea party chapter in Virginia is fighting back against what it has called a double standard for tea partiers and members of Occupy Wall Street, and, it alleges, the capital city of Richmond has punished the group for lodging complaints. (more)

Afghan troops who came under fire while operating near the Pakistan border called in the NATO airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two posts along the frontier, Afghan officials said Sunday. (more)

The United States said Tuesday it would no longer provide data to Russia on conventional weapons and troops in Europe, citing non-compliance by Moscow with a two-decade old treaty that governed the information exchange. (more)

1.) Obamacare = Obamajobkiller — With all the talk about Solyndra and Fast & Furious, it’s easy to forget about the biggest Obama administration scandal of all: Obamacare. TheDC’s Neil Munro reports on the latest unintended-but-long-predicted consequence of the unpopular utopian legislation: (more)

Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani knocked media coverage of U.S.-Pakistani relations Wednesday and said his country seeks to become independent of American aid. (more)

President Barack Obama has declared Washington, D.C. a major disaster zone, but it’s not because of the red ink flooding from his pen. It’s not due to the president’s collapsing approval ratings. And it has nothing to do with the mud-slides and verbal infernos that he has loosed on his political rivals. (more)

LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says in a new memoir that he did not sexually assault two women who have accused him of rape, and he claims he was warned the U.S government was trying to entrap him. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund says the global financial system faces more challenges than at any point since the 2008 financial crisis. (more)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A black man convicted of a double murder in Texas 16 years ago was at least temporarily spared from lethal injection when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review his lawyers’ claims that race played an improper role in his sentencing. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending a small team of diplomats to Tripoli this weekend to prepare for the eventual opening of the U.S. Embassy in Libya. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes fell for the third straight month in July, a sign that housing remains a drag on the economy. If the current pace continues, 2011 would be the worst year for new-home sales on records dating back at least half a century. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of troubled banks tracked by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. fell in the April-June quarter, the first quarterly drop in five years. But growth in bank earnings slowed, a sign that the financial industry is feeling the effects of a weak economy. (more)

While the American public is concerned about its 9-percent unemployment rate, a certain subset of the population is especially worried: our veterans. (more)

Three-quarters of the American public now believe that the country’s affairs are going pretty or very badly, according to a new CNN/ORC poll released Monday. (more)

It’s been described as one of the most telegraphed downgrades in sovereign debt rating history, but did Standard & Poor’s have some sort of ulterior motive when it moved the U.S. debt from AAA to AA+? (more)