By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Last week, just before the Thanksgiving holiday, Dubai World asked creditors if it could suspend payments on nearly $60 billion in debt.  Experts call this a “technical default” by Dubai itself because it owns Dubai World which is a state run investment company. 
Imagine calling your banker and telling him that you are not going to make your mortgage payment for at least 6 months; that would also be considered a technical default.  The folks defaulting on their debt are famous for building the man-made palm tree shaped island …

 By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced this week that the insurance fund that covers more than $4.5 trillion in deposits was not only depleted but has a negative balance of $8.2 billion according to the Wall Street Journal.   The FDIC is now an insurance fund with no money of its own.  The FDIC says it still has $23.3 billion to cover failing banks.  It also has a $500 billion line of credit at the U.S. Treasury.  FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said in early September, “…We can tap up …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
A very important hurdle was cleared last week for the folks who want to end the Federal Reserve’s privilege of secrecy.   By a bipartisan vote of 46-26, the House Finance Committee approved an amendment to audit the Fed.  This did not get passed without a fight from the Fed and its backers.  Democrat Mel Watt offered up a watered down amendment which was not voted on.  Even Chairman Barney Frank, who had previously been a supporter,  made a surprise turnaround and voted “no” on the amendment.
Here is …

 By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
It appears the “fix” is in as far as the road plan for the U.S. dollar and economy.  The government and the Fed appear to have chosen a path of inflation for America and the world.    This is not an official announced plan but it might as well be.   Just look at what Fed Chief Ben Bernanke and his number two Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn have been saying this week.  Both Kohn and Bernanke say, “…it is not obvious there are any large misalignments in asset prices today.” In other words, …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
With all the euphoria about the stock market these days, it would seem that the worst of the economic meltdown is behind us.  After all, the S & P 500 is up an astounding 64% since March.  I have heard plenty of market pundits say “the worst is behind us.”   Then again, I saw this story on Bloomberg over the weekend.  It said, “Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley said the central  bank could curtail the risk of future liquidity crises by providing a “backstop” …

By Gene Tunney
Guest Writer for Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” is one of my favorite literary quotes. Today I have a vision of Obama and Congress, in place of the Wizard of Oz, telling the American people to please ignore the economy, unemployment and forget about what the Federal Reserve is doing in secret.
The “Wizard(s)” tell us we need to focus on health care. The government will take care of the people of America as we are too stupid to know what is …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com    
Gold hit another all time high this week.  I do not pretend to be a gold expert, but I do know a good story when I see one.  The yellow metal hitting one all time high after another is not just a fluke that makes a few gold bugs happy.    Gold is rising as the dollar is falling.  According to expert money manager Monty Guild, dollar weakness is part of the Obama administration’s plan.  On Tuesday, Guild wrote, “Does the Obama Administration want the U.S. dollar to …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
Whatever happened to the “Audit the Fed” Bill?  (HR 1207)   You know, where “We the people” find out what the Fed did with trillions of dollars.  I for one would just like to know why the Fed gave a half trillion bucks to foreign  banks?  That’s a fact!   Some in Congress are trying to gut the legislation so we find out nothing.  What a surprise.  The Federal Reserve is like a vampire; it is sucking the country dry and it cannot live in the light of day.  Below is a …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
Last week, John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics predicted on USAWatchdog that the unemployment number would be worse than expected.  He said in an interview, “The risk is on the upside because the economy is weaker than consensus.”    Williams went on to tell me that, “Unemployment has a fair shot at hitting 10%.” On the phone interview he offhandedly said,”It might go as high as 10.2 percent.”   I did not print that number in the story because I didn’t want to seem alarmist.  My bad!!    Williams was right!  It came in at 10.2 percent on Friday!!  Most …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
The following video was on the Friday MSNBC  “Morning Joe” program.  It features the Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, Elizabeth Warren.  This group is supposed to monitor the bank bailout.  Warren is a Harvard Law professor that specializes in bankruptcy and contract law.  Something that came out in the interview: U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for more than 4 trillion in guarantees for financial assets!  This little fact is just glossed over in the interview!!  I cannot believe how candid and critical Warren was on the bailout of the big …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
Mixed in with all the happy talk about better than expected jobless claims and high productivity numbers was this story.  (CNNMoney.com) – “The Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate near zero once again Wednesday.”   I think this was the biggest story of the week and here’s why.  The Fed gave a signal to Wall Street that free money was going to be available for many months to come.  In a statement, the Fed said the current economic conditions are “… likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the …

 By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com   
The latest unemployment number will be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.  The consensus is it will be slightly higher than last month.   I interviewed John Williams, an economist at shadowstats.com.  He predicts, “The risk is on the upside because the economy is weaker than consensus.”    Williams went on to tell me that, “Unemployment has a fair shot at hitting 10%.”   Keep in mind that is according to the “official”  government numbers.  Williams contends if you caculate the unemployment number the way BLS did …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
The headline today will probably be something like “Big Republican Wins on Election Day!“   Bob McDonnell won the Virginia Governor’s job and Chris Christie (left) unseated Democrat Jon Corzine for Governor in New Jersey.   I am sure there are going to be many stories about the revived party of Lincoln.  Some will proclaim the health care plan is dead or the Democrats will lose control of at least the House or the Senate in 2010.  Fact of the matter is, it’s not going to make much difference whether Democrats or Republicans …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  
It is official, CIT filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday night (11/01/09).  This was not a surprise because the lender had been having financial trouble for months.  The government tried to save CIT with a 2.3 billion dollar bailout last fall.  Now that money will be written off by the taxpayer.    I was listening to CNBC, last week, talk about the prepackaged bankruptcy of CIT.  You would have thought it was some small bank with 1,000 depositors.  The CNBC commentator brought up the term “prepak” referring to a prepackaged Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.   That’s when a company tries to reorganize debt to …