USA - Earlier this month, Democrats flocked to President Obama demanding action which would ensure they and their staffers would not be liable to the edicts of the Health Care bill (Obamacare) they pushed through Congress in 2009. And in a ruling made by the Executive Branch’s Office of Personnel Management on August 2, this ‘crisis’ was averted.
USA - As the coming months unfold, keep a close eye on the "too big to fail" banks both in Europe and in the United States. When the next great financial crisis strikes, they will play a starring role once again.
USA - You can see it coming, can't you? The yield on 10 year US Treasuries is skyrocketing, the S&P 500 has been down for 9 of the last 11 trading days and troubling economic news is pouring in from all over the planet.
EUROPE - Al-Qaeda is plotting attacks on Europe's high-speed rail network, German mass circulation daily Bild reported on Monday, citing intelligence sources.
ISRAEL - Israeli and Jewish targets all over the world are likely to be sought out by terrorist organizations in the coming weeks, the Israeli government’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau warned in strikingly strident tones on Monday, listing dozens of countries where it said it had “concrete” indications of a terrorist threat.
JAPAN - I recently pointed out, this operation has to go on forever - a long sickness, but at least not a sudden death. However, this week begins a new development in the potential sudden death department.
JAPAN - Another tank with highly radioactive water at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant has leaked, reported operator TEPCO. The contaminated water contains an unprecedented 80 million Becquerels of radiation per liter. The norm is a mere 150 Bq.
SAUDI ARABIA - The open backing by Saudi King Abdullah for the military crackdown in Egypt adds an entirely new dimension to the ongoing crisis.
USA - The White House has quietly placed military aid to Egypt on hold, despite not saying publicly whether the Egyptian military takeover was a coup, Josh Rogin reports exclusively.
USA - World shares sank to their lowest level in more than a month on Tuesday as unease about an expected cut in US stimulus and a related rise in bond yields left markets on edge.
RUSSIA - More than 20,000 people have been evacuated from flood-stricken areas in Russia's far east, where the Amur river has burst its banks after heavy rain.
AACHEN, GERMANY - Political hopeful Bernd Lucke has a simple explanation for why his fellow Germans have so far agreed to pay billions of euros to keep Greece and other Southern European countries in the euro zone.
USA - It wasn’t so long ago that the challenge of making money with interest rates stuck around zero was investors’ top concern. Those days are gone. Today, they’re worried about the opposite: the threat that now-rising rates pose for fixed income investments.
SPAIN - In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo sharply criticised Gibraltar's creation of the reef last month in disputed waters that were used by Spanish fishermen.
UK - It will take "years or maybe decades" for the turmoil in the Middle East to "play itself out," UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has told BBC News.