The Government Shutdown Probably Kills A Taper In October

Oil falls below $104 a barrel as inventories rise

Canada/Norway To Drill For Oil In North Atlantic 500 Miles Northeaast of St. Johns, Newfoundland

PIMCO's Bill Gross now sees low interest rates for decades to come

S&P 500 companies with the safest-highest yields

Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) shares fall 6.24% Wednesday on battery fire in one of their cars

Peter Schiff's take on Chancellor Merkel of Germany caving in to the demands of socializing losses while privatizing gains in the Greek mess.

I'm with Schiff on this one. Let the bond holders get wiped out if needs be. It is outrageous that German taxpayers will be coming to the aid of the banks and hedge funds which took on the risk. All Merkel's cave in will do is to increase Moral Hazard in the investing banks and hedge funds.

Schiff also explains why he believes QE3, QE4, QE5, and so on are slam dunks as the Fed invents a new way to print money to buy Treasuries, i.e., the Fed will simply no longer call it "Quantitative Easing" with a set amount of money to be printed. Instead, as Schiff points out, the Fed will target interest rates in the USA and will do so by printing whatever amount of money is needed to keep them low. That amount will not be trumpeted up front in the media. Instead, it will be printing presses rolling 24/7, some days faster than others, depending on interest rates. Schiff points out that both he and Bill Gross of Pimco believe this is how the Fed will continue to pump money into Wall Street without calling it "Quantitative Easing".

Video From Wednesday's (June 15, 2011) Riots In Greece

The first video (NBC News With Brian Williams) is a brief look by Tom Costello explaining why interest rates on Greek bonds are now 18% and why a default could reverberate as dominoes such as Ireland, Spain, and Portugal fall next. There is also a bit of footage of the street riots in this report.

The next four videos are all clips showing in more detail what the riots look like from street level and from balconies overlooking the battleground.

Gerald Celente On Surge In Oil Prices And The Giant Ponzi Scheme In The FIRE Economy

Housing Will Double Dip In 2011: Two Housing Experts, Dolly Lenz & David Lykken

Douglas Elliman Vice Chairman Dolly Lenz and Mortgage Banking Solutions President David Lykken offer their outlook for the housing industry, and it isn't pretty.

Both of them are basing their bleak look on Huge Inventory + Stealth Inventory, Rising Interest Rates during Quantitative Easing II, and Rising Property Taxes.

Business/Economic News for 25 Feb 10