Standard

Friday Talking Points [141] -- Rahm's Exit Contest Winner Announced

Chris Weigant | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Barbara Lee, Elizabeth Warren, White House, Mcconnell, Chief of Staff, President, One Nation Working Together, Pete Rouse, Warren, Rouse, Oct 2, Emanuel, Profanity, Midotw, Rally, Confirmation, Most Impressive Democrat of the Week, Rahm's Exit, Reid, Professional Left, murphy80, Lefty, In Session, Sex Ed, Kaufman, Budget, Congress, Joe Biden, Frank Lautenberg, Biden, Barack Obama, Enthusiasm Gap, Fucking Retarded, Lautenberg, Mddotw, Rahm Emanuel, Harry Reid, Abstinence Only, Senate, Quatloos, Vice President, Standard, Vice President Biden, President Obama, Mitch McConnell, Exit, Washington, Obama, March, Friday Talking Points, Whining, Most Disappointing Democrat of the Week, Rahm, Left, Lefties, House, Ted Kaufman, Abstinence, Lee, Contest, Chris Weigant, Sex, Recess Appointment, George W Bush, Takesake, Politics News
Chris Weigant

I will begin today's column by drying a tear as we all wish Rahm Emanuel a fond farewell. Actually, I am lying. I am drying no tears for Rahm becaus...

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Why Dodd-Frank Won't Help Investors Decipher Big Bank Results

Bloomberg | Bradley Keoun | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Standard, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Wall Street, Mortgage Securities, Bank of America, Wall Street Banks, Trading, Dodd Financial Reform Bill, Investors, Dodd-Frank Bill, Business News

The Dodd-Frank Act, designed to prevent future financial crises, does little to improve investors' ability to analyze results at the five biggest U.S....

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Investors Brace For Another Ugly September

AP | DAVE CARPENTER | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Investing, Labor Day, Standard, Stock Investors, Stock Market, September, Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, Mutual Fund Managers, Mark Zandi, Stock Trader's Almanac, Economic Recovery, Business News

CHICAGO — The economy is weakening, home sales are plunging and stocks are on a long slide. Now comes something even scarier for investors &ndas...

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Wall Street's Lowest-Rated Stocks Turned Into Year's Best Performers

bloomberg.com | Lynn Thomasson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Worst-Performing Stocks, Standard, Best Performing Stocks, Stocks, Nasdaq, Top-Rated Stocks, Dija, Wall Street Stock Picks, Huntington-Bancshares, Business News

une 21 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street's lowest-rated stocks have turned into this year's best performers, a sign that analysts who underestimated the U.S....

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'Vice Fund' Touts Recession-Proof Portfolio: 'Booze, Bets, Bombs and Butts'

AP | MARK JEWELL | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Fund Manager, Standard, Jeff Middleswart, Sin Stocks, S&P, Vice Fund, Vice Stocks, Business News

BOSTON — So much for virtue. Sin is in. That's according to a mutual fund manager who's finding plenty of investment opportunities in companies...

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U.S. Worker Productivity Surprisingly Fell In 2nd Quarter

Bloomberg | Courtney Schlisserman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: JP Morgan Chase, Standard, Federal Reserve, Fed?S Open Market Committee, Worker Productivity, Labor Department, Business News

Productivity in the U.S. unexpectedly decreased in the second quarter after employers expanded the workweek by the most in four years even as the worl...

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Spending Cutbacks By Rich Dull Recovery

AP | JEANNINE AVERSA | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Standard, Federal Budget Deficit, Wealthy-Consumers, Tax Cuts, International Council of Shopping Centers, Economic Recovery, Consumer Spending, Recession, Business News

WASHINGTON — Wealthy Americans aren't spending so freely anymore. And the rest of us are feeling the squeeze. The question is whether the rich ...

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Li Lu, Warren Buffett's Successor? Former Tiananmen Square Protester Could Take Over At Berkshire

Huffington Post | Nathaniel Cahners Hindman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Berkshire Hathaway, Li Lu, Columbia University, Hedge Funds, Standard, Poll, Business News

Warren Buffett is in the hunt for a successor. How do you secure yourself a spot atop his list of choices to take over as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway? M...

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Without Restoring Jobs, Big Business Finds A Way To Make Money

Harold Meyerson | Harold Meyerson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Corporate Recovery, Corporate Profits, Unemployment, General Motors, Corporations, Standard, Employment, Jobs, Economic Recovery, China, Great Depression, Business News

Ain't no hiring. And ain't likely to be any for a good long time. The problem isn't merely the greatest downturn since the Great Depression. It's als...

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Capitalism and the Age of Machines, 3.0

Erik Rothenberg | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Standard, Economics, ursulaproject.org, Values, Ursuaproject, Machines, Calculator, Altcurrency, Self Replicating Machines, Technology News
Erik Rothenberg

When time-saving machines are sophisticated enough to replicate themselves, then our economic system of scarcity and growth is due for a major upgrade -- if not a complete transformation. 2010-05-06-reprap.jpg

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In Europe Crisis Credit-Rating Agency Warnings Still Carry Influence

AP | STEVENSON JACOBS and DANIEL WAGNER | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Standard, Credit Rating Agencies, Europe Debt, Business News

NEW YORK — The downgrading of European debt is turning up the heat on the firms that issue the ratings. Some European officials are calling for...

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Yielding To Wall Street, Credit Raters 'Drink The Kool-Aid'

Huffington Post Investigative Fund | Ben Protess | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Raymond McDaniel, Standard, Credit Rating Agencies, Blackrock, Huffington Post Investigative Fund, Business News

In the lead up to the financial meltdown, Wall Street firms routinely exerted influence on the nation’s largest credit rating companies— which jud...

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Oil and Trouble

Erik Rothenberg | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Standard, Sustainability, Ursulaproject, Oil Drilling, Green Energy, Values, Green Space Politics, Green News
Erik Rothenberg

There is no leadership coming out of the White House on a safe and sustainable energy future, just more of the same, more artfully worded.

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EU Wants New Rating Agencies To Rival US Rating Agencies

AP | AOIFE WHITE | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Standard, Credit Rating Agencies, Credit Ratings, European Commission, Eu, Fitch, Ratings Agencies, Business News

BRUSSELS — The European Union's executive on Wednesday called for European credit rating agencies to rival the three U.S.-based market leaders a...

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Law and Order: AIG

Richard (RJ) Eskow | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Finreg, Robert Kuttner, Pwc, Standard, Financial Reform, Business News
Richard (RJ) Eskow

The DoJ announced last week that there would be no indictments in the collapse of AIG. Nobody's guilty? That's getting it backward. It's like Murder On the Orient Express: They all did it. But we're the only ones who are going to pay for it.

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Amatuer Options Trading: 'Iron Condor' Strategy Spurs Rise

bloomberg.com | Margaret Collins and Jeff Kearns | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Charles Schwab, Standard, Iron Condor, Stock Options, Options Traders, TD Ameritrade, Business News

Volume in the U.S. has tripled since 2004 to a record 3.61 billion contracts in 2009, while trading by individual investors in the same period has inc...

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Our Real Health Care Goals

Erik Rothenberg | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Standard, Tools of Change, Life Cycle Analysis, Tools, Values, Green, Standards, Sustainability, Business Intelligence, Healthcare, Healthy Living News
Erik Rothenberg

Instead of looking for consensus on already politically programmed talking points, we could instead identify a high level goal that would be easy for everyone to agree upon -- "Universal Well Being for all Americans."

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Andrew Cumo Investigating Whether Banks Duped Rating Agencies

AP | STEPHEN BERNARD | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Bank of America, Rating Agencies, Banks, Sec, Standard, Moodys Investors Service, Citigroup, Business News

NEW YORK — New York's attorney general has launched an investigation into eight banks to determine whether they misled ratings agencies about mo...

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Do Our Goals Match Our Values in Haiti?

Erik Rothenberg | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Sustainability, Standard, Outcome Measurement, Progressive Values, Ursulaproject, Values, Altcurrency, Haiti, Green News
Erik Rothenberg

The scope and complexity of the disaster in Haiti is mind-boggling. But when faced with such severe challenges, we can either try to contain it or we can attack the heart of the problem.

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Morgan Stanley Pension Suit: Fund Claims Bank Sold It A $1.2B CDO In Bad Faith

Yahoo! News | Jonathan Stempel | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Morgan Stanley Cdo, Cdos, Morgan Stanley, Standard, Collaterized Debt Obligations, Moody's, Business News

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Morgan Stanley (MS.N) has been sued by a Virgin Islands pension fund that accused the Wall Street bank of defrauding investors b...

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Help Us Investigate Rating Agencies

Huffington Post Investigative Fund | Adam Clark Estes | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Fitch Ratings, Standard, Citizen Journalism, Standard and Poor, Financial Crisis, Credit Rating Agencies, Moody's, Huffington Post Investigative Fund, Home News

The Huffington Post Investigative Fund continuing to report on the causes and consequences of the financial crisis. Ben Protess, who published the fir...

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Investors Cut Back On US Stocks, Seek Growth Abroad

CNBC | Jeff Cox | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Vanguard Emerging Markets Fund, Foreign Stocks, BofA-Merrill Lynch, Standard, Investors Hedge Funds, u.s. Equity Funds, Asia, U.S. Stock Market, U.S. Market, Global Market, Investors, Business News

Even as the US market continues to rally, many institutional investors are trimming their US holdings and putting more money in foreign stocks--especi...

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Barney Frank Vs. The Credit Raters (VIDEO)

Huffington Post Investigative Fund | Ben Protess | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Standard, Credit Raters, Derivatives, Lawrence J. White, Barney Frank, Video, Business News

After deftly dodging federal regulation for years, the nation's top credit rating companies now must get past the formidable Barney Frank. Last week,...

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House Committee Votes For New Regulations For Ratings Agencies

AP | ANNE FLAHERTY | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Standard, Ratings Agencies, Financial Crisis, Securities and Exchange Commission, House Financial Services Committee, Moody's, Business News

WASHINGTON — A House committee voted Wednesday to set new rules for investment rating agencies, which lawmakers say misled investors by giving h...

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Under Attack, Credit Raters Turn to the First Amendment

HuffPost Investigative Fund | By Ben Protess and Lagan Sebert | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Market, Standard, Bill of Rights, Morgan Stanley, Moodys, Egan Jones, Free Speech, Huffington Post Investigative Fund, Video, Business News

Editor's note: This is the first of three articles by the Investigative Fund on the credit rating companies. To help with the investigation, sign up ...

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