Circuit City files for bankruptcy protection

Circuit City seeks bankruptcy protection amid pressure from vendors ahead of the holidays

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Facing pressure from vendors and consumers who aren’t spending, Circuit City Stores Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection Monday as it heads into the busy holiday season with hopes that the move will help it survive. Read more

Trump: Bush impeachment would be ‘wonderful thing’

(AFP) - Property mogul and diehard Republican Donald Trump told CNN on Wednesday that President George W. Bush misled the US into the Iraq War and should have been impeached when the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.

“I was surprised that she didn’t do more in terms of Bush and going after Bush,” Trump said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, referring to Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“It … just seemed like she was going to really look to impeach Bush and get him out of office, which personally I think would have been a wonderful thing.”

Trump, 62, said Bush misled the United States into waging war on Iraq, a much worse offense than a dalliance with a White House intern his predecessor Bill Clinton was impeached for in 1999.

“He lied. He got us into the war with lies,” Trump said about Bush. “And I mean — look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant. And they tried to impeach him, which was nonsense.

“And yet Bush got us into this horrible war with lies, by lying, by saying they had weapons of mass destruction, by saying all sorts of things that turned out not to be true,” he added.

On the race for the White House, Trump said he was rooting for John McCain to win the November 4 election, and felt sure he could overtake his Democrat rival Barack Obama, whom he trails in opinion polls, in the next three weeks.

“He’s a very smart guy, he’s a tough guy,” he said. “I think he’d be a great president. But, he has to be John McCain and he could still probably pull it out.

“But, it’s going to be tough.”

McCain and Obama face off in their third and final televised debate late Wednesday in New York state.

Trump inherited a real estate empire and added an airline, casino, resorts, hotels, skyscrapers in New York, around the world and named them after himself, turning his name into a sort of brand.

He also owns a television show, “The Apprentice,” in which he appears, as well as the Miss Universe contest.

This video is from CNN’s Situation Room, broadcast October 15, 2008.

Download video via RawReplay.com Raw Story | Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World’s Markets

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world’s financial markets while they “rewrite the rules of international finance.” Read more

Markets routed in global sell-off

Stock prices collapsed around the world on Monday amid growing fears that the credit crisis would trigger a global recession.

The wave of selling swept through markets despite a scramble by governments to tackle the crisis, leading to rampant speculation that co-ordinated emergency rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and other central banks might be in the offing.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index had its third worst day ever, plunging 7.75 per cent, as France’s CAC 40 slumped 9 per cent, its second worst day on record.

In London, the FTSE 100 suffered its biggest one-day points loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 3.6 per cent at 9,955.50 after falling as much as 7.75 per cent, to 9,525.32, during the day.

“There is a need for confidence in solvency and liquidity [in banks] but there is a lack of trust,” said Mark Kiesel, portfolio manager at Pimco.

“People are far too hesitant to take risk and stocks are reacting to the outlook that as leverage is reduced, return on equity will be much lower.”

Emerging markets were particularly hard hit. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index slumped 11 per cent, its largest daily decline since 1987.

Trading was temporarily stopped in some major emerging economies, including Russia, where the market fell by just over 19 per cent, and Brazil, where stocks fell as much as 15 per cent before closing 5.4 per cent lower.

“This has been the biggest day so far for the capitulation of the long emerging markets trade, which has been in the works for weeks,” said Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital.

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, said the crisis in Europe and the US could prove a “tipping point” for many developing countries as falling exports and worsening credit conditions triggered business failures and banking emergencies.

The falls came despite a rash of government initiatives around the world, which seemed to have no positive effect on confidence, leaving investors to rush to the safety of government bonds.

The Fed on Monday announced a series of new measures designed to revive the credit and commercial paper markets, including discussions with the US Treasury that would mark a dramatic step into unsecured lending.

By the end of the trading day US stocks bounced higher, partly on the expectation that the next move would be a Fed rate cut co-ordinated with other central banks, on the grounds that this would have a much greater impact on credit markets than action by the Fed alone.

In Europe, investors earlier took no comfort in statements from the continent’s leaders at the weekend promising a co-ordinated approach and followed by individual actions.

Across Europe, governments followed Germany’s weekend move to guarantee retail savers’ deposits, with similar steps taken in Denmark, Sweden and Austria.

In Iceland, the currency fell 30 per cent. Antje Praefcke, of Commerzbank, said: “We would also not be surprised to see the Icelandic krona lose its function as a medium of payment.”

Earlier, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index plunged 4.3 per cent to a 4½-year low. Jakarta suffered a 10 per cent drop.

Additional reporting by John Aglionby in Jakarta

Chris Giles, Michael Mackenzie, James Politi and Alan Beattie | Monday, October 6, 2008

Congress OKs historic bailout bill; Bush signs it

WASHINGTON (AP) - With the economy on the brink and elections looming, Congress approved an unprecedented $700 billion government bailout of the battered financial industry on Friday and sent it to President Bush who quickly signed it. Read more

Some House lawmakers rethink bailout, some don’t

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A move in the U.S. Senate to add a few tax sweeteners and other changes to a $700-billion Wall Street bailout bill was prompting a rethink on Wednesday in some corners of the House of Representatives, but not all. Read more

Let Risk-Taking Financial Institutions Fail

The Administration and Congress have felt compelled to do something about the “financial meltdown,” so an inefficient and inequitable “bailout plan” has been rushed through the legislature despite harsh criticism from the right and left. That’s unfortunate. Both presidential candidates were stalling by qualifying the plan. Whichever candidate had had the courage to reject outright this proposal would have had the better claim to be President. Read more

Crimea Calls for Recognition of South Ossetia, Abkhazia as Enclaves Sign Russia Defense Deal

The Crimean Parliament voted today 79-8 to press the Ukrainian government to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It seems highly unlikely that the Ukrainian government will act on the call given the collapse of its coalition government and the strongly anti-Russian sentiment of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

The move would also have serious ramifications within the Crimea, which enjoys a large measure of independence already and might be seen to move in the direction of separation in light of its large Russian population and the Ukrainian government’s stated desire to expel the Russian Navy from a base rented in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

And even though the vote is non-binding it does add to the credibility of the independence of the enclaves, which formally separated themselves from Georgia after the brief Georgia-Russia war in August. Russia is the only power in the region to recognize the move, and the United States has promised to use its status as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to ensure that the enclaves are forever seen as Georgian provinces in the eyes of the world.

The status of the enclaves is a major bone of contention in Russia’s increasingly tense relationship with the West. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has vowed to return the regions to Georgian control. This seems increasingly unlikely however, as today Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed formal treaties with both enclaves promising to defend them from any future attack.

NATO has supported Georgia’s position on the lost territories, and publicly denounced a EU-brokered peace deal which would allow Russia to keep troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia as a hedge against future Georgian attacks. They also are moving cautiously toward offering Georgia membership, though questions about President Saakashvili’s penchant for anti-opposition crackdowns has delayed any formal offer to join. Russia has criticized NATO for its “Cold War-era reflexes“.

Antiwar | Jason Ditz | Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Flashback: Tarpley says ’shadow government’ courting war with Russia

CIA Killed RFK: Jim Marrs on the Alex Jones Show

March 31, 2008

Next Page »