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Dow plunges 635 points as downgrade fuels market turmoil
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 635 points Monday, dropping below 11,000 as the impact of an unprecedented downgrade to the U.S. credit rating reverberated through financial markets.
The downturn came on the heels of a brutal week for the market, capped off when the Dow lost 512 points on Thursday. That gave the blue-chip stock index two of its 10 biggest point losses in the last three trading days.
The S&P 500 and NASDAQ stock indices were both down nearly 7 percent at the close of Monday’s trading.
The dramatic point drops followed the first-ever downgrade of United States debt by Standard & Poor’s late Friday evening. The credit rating agency, citing increasing concern over the nation’s political infighting and the relatively small amount of deficit reduction included in the deal to raise the debt limit, knocked America down from its top rating for the first time, moving it down one notch to AA+.
In an ironic twist, the financial product that was downgraded reaped the Read more…
Heat wave chokes southern U.S.
The suffocating heat wave sweeping the southern U.S. that has led to at least four deaths and left farmers’ fields bone dry shows no signs of abating as temperatures continue to reach record highs and electricity demand threatens to cripple the power grid.
The National Weather Service issued yet more excessive heat warnings Thursday for most of the southern plains, where the temperature in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas reached as high as 43C, without the humidex.
Southern parts of California and Arizona in the west and Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas in the east also fell under heat advisories, while municipalities and counties scrambled to open cooling centres and make house calls on vulnerable residents.
Dallas marked its 34th straight day of temperatures over 38C, while on Wednesday, Fort Smith, Ark., saw the temperature reach 46C without the humidex, breaking a record of 42C set back in 1896.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, Florida residents are bracing for the Read more…
Unemployment rose in 90 percent of U.S. cities in June
Unemployment rates rose in more than 90 percent of U.S. cities in June, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Unemployment rose in 345 large metro areas during the month, according to the report. Rates dropped in 20 cities, and remained steady in seven.
The national unemployment rate increased in June to 9.2 percent.
The statistics show a drastic change in unemployment rates in recent months. In May, unemployment rates rose in only 210 cities. In April, rates decreased in nearly all metro areas.
In June, employers added just 18,000 jobs, the lowest number in nine months. It was also a sharp decrease from the average of 215,000 jobs that were added in February, March, and April.
Many of the highest unemployment rates were seen in metro areas that are college towns. Champaign-Urbana, Ill., the home of the University of Illinois, saw its unemployment rate rise from 6.9 percent in May to 9.6 percent in June. College towns in Read more…
Military Launches Unmanned Solar-powered Lighter-than-air Vehicle (Airship)
Akron, Ohio – The U.S. Army and Lockheed Martin launched the first-of-its kind High Altitude Long Endurance-Demonstrator this morning, demonstrating a number of key technologies critical to development of unmanned airships.
The aircraft successfully launched at 5:47 a.m. out of the Airdock in Akron, Ohio. The airship reached an altitude of approximately 32,000 feet, however, a technical anomaly prevented the airship from attaining its target altitude of 60,000 feet and the HALE-D team decided to terminate the flight.
The aircraft descended without incident at 8:26 a.m. in southwestern Pennsylvania to a predetermined landing location. Lockheed Martin is coordinating with state and local authorities to recover the airship. We have confirmed that no injuries or damage were experienced during this landing in a heavily wooded area.
“While we didn’t reach the target altitude, first flights of new technologies like HALE-D also afford us the ability to Read more…
Hackers target 72 organisations in ‘biggest cyber attack in history’
Security experts have discovered the biggest series of cyber attacks to date, involving the infiltration of the networks of 72 organisations including the United Nations, governments and companies around the world.
Security company McAfee, which uncovered the intrusions, said it believed there was one “state actor” behind the attacks but declined to name it, though one security expert who has been briefed on the hacking said the evidence points to China.
The long list of victims in the five-year campaign include the governments of the United States, Taiwan, India, South Korea, Vietnam and Canada; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); the International Olympic Committee (IOC); the World Anti-Doping Agency; and an array of companies, from defence contractors to high-tech enterprises.
In the case of the United Nations, the hackers broke into the computer system of the UN Secretariat in Geneva in 2008, hid there unnoticed for nearly two years, and quietly combed through reams of secret data, according to McAfee.
“Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators,” McAfee’s vice president of threat research, Dmitri Alperovitch, wrote in a 14-page report.
“What is happening to all this data Read more…
Mobile biometrics to hit US streets
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| With new mobile gadgetry, suspects will no longer have to be taken to police stations for their fingerprints and irises to be scanned and recorded [GALLO/GETTY] |
We’re fast approaching a time when law enforcement will no longer need to ask you for your identification – your physical self, and the biometric data therein, are all that will be required to identify you.
A gadget attached to a mobile phone can photograph and plot key points and features on your face (breaking the numbers down into biometric data), scan your iris and take your fingerprints on the spot.
This gizmo doesn’t exist in a futuristic world – it’s already been prototyped and tested. By autumn, the Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System (MORIS), which will allow 40 law enforcement agencies across the US to carry out such biometric diagnostics, will be rolled out. So far, the 1,000 units on order – at $3,000 and 12.5 oz per device – will be going to sheriff and police departments.
Proponents of the technology figure the Read more…
The Missing Security Tapes From The World Trade Center
Late on the night of August 23, 2001, at about 3 a.m. security cameras in the parking garage of the World Trade Center captured the arrival of two or three truck vans.
Visual examination determined the vans were separate and unique from trucks used by janitorial services, including different colors and devoid of markings.
More curious, all the janitorial trucks had pulled out of the Towers by about 2:30 a.m—about half an hour before the second set of vans arrived.
According to my high level State Department source with a top security clearance, who disclosed the unusual nightly activity, no vans matching that description had entered the World Trade Center at such an hour in any of the weeks or months prior to that date. It was a unique event.
Security cameras caught the vans leaving the Towers at Read more…
China Boldly Goes (Again) Where Moody’s Has Never Gone Before, Downgrades US From A+ To A, Outlook Negative
As was predicted last week, China’s rating agency Dagong, unlike its worthless western counterparts, has come through on its threat to downgrade the US in the event a subpar debt ceiling deal was hammered out. As Xinhua reports, ‘Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. said Wednesday it has cut the credit rating of the United States from A+ to A with a negative outlook after the U.S. federal government announced that the country’s debt limit would be increased.” Confirming that not being branded a NRSRO is the only thing that allows a rater to still think straight (and not in terms of lost client revenue if one goes ahead and tells the truth), Dagong’s decision was spot on: “The decision to lift the debt ceiling will not change the fact that the U.S. national debt growth has outpaced that of its overall economy and fiscal revenue, which will lead to a decline in its debt-paying ability, said Dagong Global in a statement.” So while Moody’s, which is now certified as the Read more…
The Charts The Government Doesn’t Want You To See
A healthy skepticism of government statistics is one of those self-preservation mechanisms that keeps us from hurting ourselves. Misleading official statistics too often lead people and businesses to act contrary to their own best interests and plan for scenarios that never happen.
We have always questioned what the government gives us; it’s not only a self-preservation mechanism, it’s part of our patriotic duty in the democratic system.
Take these two charts, presented by Robin Harding over at the Financial Times Money Supply blog. One is of the U.S.’s real GDP in dollars, and one is of the percent change of real GDP. The green bars are the government’s GDP estimates in June 2010, the blue are estimates from a year later in June 2011, and the red are the most recent estimates, from July 29, 2011.
What the charts are screaming is that the government has a consistent tendency to overinflate GDP numbers, and that the United States never really emerged from recession.
Take the second quarter of 2009—which has been continuously revised lower to the tune of a quarter trillion dollars. That’s enough to pay the annual median income ($52,000) for 4.8 million U.S. families—no small error. The percentage change chart shows something starker—a consistent fall of GDP since early 2010
Super Congress To Target Second Amendment
The so-called “Super Congress” that is about to be created with the debt ceiling vote will have powers far beyond just controlling the nation’s purse strings – its authority will extend to target the second amendment – eviscerating normal protections that prevent unconstitutional legislation from being fast-tracked into law.As the Huffington Post reported last month, the debt deal that has already been passed by the House and faces the Senate tomorrow will create an unconstitutional “Super Congress” that will be comprised of six Republicans and six Democrats and granted “extraordinary new powers” to quickly force legislation through both chambers.
Legislation decided on by the Super Congress would be immune from amendment and lawmakers would only be able to register an up or down vote, eliminating the ability to filibuster. The Speaker of the House would effectively lose the power to prevent unpopular bills from making it to the House floor.
But far from just being a committee that would make recommendations concerning the debt ceiling, the body is now to be granted Read more…
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