Nearly Half of Wall St. Bank Profits Are Gone- June 16, 2008 Louise Story New York June 16NYT - Only a year ago, Wall Street reveled in an era of superlatives: record deals, record profit, record pay. But a mere 12 months later, nearly half of the profits that major banks reaped during that age of riches have vanished. The numbers are staggering. Between early 2004 and mid-2007, a period of unprecedented wealth on Wall Street, seven of the nations largest financial companies earned a combined $254 billion in profits.http://agonist.org/20080616/nearly_half_of_wall_st_bank_profits_are_gone Lehman and Weekend Emergency Talks- June 15, 2008 Anyone who thinks the financial crisis that began last August with the collapse of those two Bear Stearns funds is over is deluded. Why would Lehman Brothers be having emergency weekend talks otherwise Look to the Asian markets which open in a few hours for a hint as to Monday's action.http://agonist.org/sean_paul_kelley/20080615/lehamn_and_weekend_emergency_talks Long-Term Iraqi Agreement- June 15, 2008 I wouldn't be surprised if a result of the negotiations ongoing is an agreement for a long-term US presence in the Iraq. I also wouldn't be surprised if we began to see a serious uptick in violence as well. They don't want us there, but they don't have the requisite political unity to say so. Hence, guerrilla warfare will increase, once again. War is politics, as they say, carried on by other means.http://agonist.org/sean_paul_kelley/20080615/long_term_iraqi_agreement The Problem With American Foreign Policy- June 15, 2008 The quote below encapsulates the full panoply of problems with American foreign policy today. It is as trenchant now as it was when Bill Clinton was elected and one of the key reasons why I think Clinton's presidency, when judged from the realm of foreign policy, was an unmitigated disaster: He seems to be much the same man now. There is a certain rigidity about him, and an inability to deal with new paradigms of thought that I find worrisome. He seems locked into a paradigm made up of World..http://agonist.org/sean_paul_kelley/20080615/the_problem_with_american_foreign_policy Family Planning- June 15, 2008 more funny fail pictures at FAIL Bloghttp://agonist.org/sean_paul_kelley/20080615/family_planning |