Patience and preparation are the key to a great deal. Buying a new PC or Mac is a major purchase, potentially costing $1500 or more. Top-of-the-line new designs like the Microsoft Surface Book and Apple’s MacBook Pro (2016) can easily approach a $3000 list price. But you don’t have to pay that sticker price. With a little preparation and some patience, you can save 30, 40, even […]
Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com, There just isn’t a lot of good news here. The middle class is still struggling for something tangible, but things remain pretty frustrating for most people. It could actually feel like things are going in reverse… and that each piece of economic interaction squeezes just a little bit harder. via the Washington Examiner: A new report on the economy finds that […]
US biotechnology stocks have surrendered much of the gains accrued in the wake of last month’s presidential election after comments from Donald Trump stoked concerns that the incoming administration will crack down on rising drug prices. The Nasdaq biotechnology index has skidded almost 4 per cent from Tuesday’s closing level after the president-elect told Time Magazine that he does not “like what has happened with drug prices” […]
By Antonella Cinelli and Isla Binnie | ROME ROME Political parties made their cases to Italy’s president on Saturday for ways out of a government crisis prompted by Matteo Renzi’s resignation as prime minister following his defeat in a referendum on constitutional reform. Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) was planning to use a meeting with President Sergio Mattarella later in the day to argue that Foreign Minister Paolo […]
Donald Trump has rejected the assessment of the US intelligence community that alleged hacking by Russia in the months before the election was aimed at helping the property mogul beat his rival Hillary Clinton. “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” the Trump transition team said after the Washington Post reported that the CIA had concluded that Russia tried to […]
The Associated Press is laying off two-dozen employees in its global news department, the cooperative told Poynter Friday. While AP makes every effort to cut costs elsewhere before affecting jobs, AP is laying off 25 staffers in the global News department this week. Like so many media companies, especially in the news business, AP must reduce expenses in order to continue to provide its objective, indispensable news […]
ANKARA Turkey’s ruling AK Party on Saturday submitted to parliament a package of constitutional reform proposals that would expand the president’s powers, party officials said, in a move that could potentially see President Tayyip Erdogan govern until 2029. The package would also bring structural changes to Turkey’s security and judiciary, implementing criminal liability for the president, who previously was immune from all crimes except treason. The AKP, […]
By Lamin Jahateh | BANJUL BANJUL Gambia’s President-elect Adama Barrow said on Saturday the country’s outgoing leader Yahya Jammeh had no authority to reject the results of Dec.1. polls, while the United Nations and African Union piled pressure on Jammeh to step aside. Long-ruling Jammeh on Friday called for another election in the tiny West African country after narrowly losing to opposition leader Adama Barrow, jeopardising what […]
For a quick study in market blindness, look at how an obscure US fund reacts to events in a country where markets do not even exist. Nearly two years ago US president Barack Obama and Cuban president Raúl Castro jointly announced their intent to rejuvenate the diplomatic and commercial relationship between their two countries. Until that day, the Cuba closed-end fund had historically traded beneath its net […]
By Antonella Cinelli and Isla Binnie | ROME ROME Political parties made their cases to Italy’s head of state on Saturday for candidates to lead the country out of a government crisis prompted by Matteo Renzi’s resignation as prime minister. President Sergio Mattarella, a 75 year-old former constitutional court judge, must decide if someone can lead the country to elections scheduled for 2018, or whether an interim […]
Yahya Jammeh, the eccentric and capricious ruler of Gambia for the past 22 years, has reversed his decision to accept defeat in last week’s elections, saying he will call a fresh poll. He alleged voter irregularities and called for new “transparent” elections to be held by a “god-fearing” electoral commission, presumably not overseen by the same official that declared results a week ago. Speaking on Friday night, […]
This is part of a series on the global rise of exchange traded funds The morning after the US election Steven Bregman, a New York-based hedge fund manager, began to notice something strange going on in a corner of the stock market. His screen showed that shares of gold mining companies were being sold indiscriminately, falling by double digits, even though the price of gold itself had […]
Tom Brokaw has a theory about covering politics that can be summed up in three letters: U.F.O. The basic idea is this: If something unforeseen can occur, it will. That’s why, when asked what the biggest news story will be one year from today, he gave an honest answer: “I don’t know.” “We don’t know what’s going to happen with Donald Trump,” Brokaw said. “We don’t know […]
Ghana re-established its reputation as one of Africa’s cleanest democracies on Friday when authorities proclaimed opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo, 72, a British-educated lawyer and veteran statesman, as the next president. The victory by Mr Akufo-Addo’s centre New Patriotic party, after eight years of rule by the left-leaning National Democratic Congress, triggered wild celebrations across much of the country. It follows the surprise electoral defeat last week of […]
Submitted by Nomi Prins via TomDispatch.com, Given his cabinet picks so far, it’s reasonable to assume that The Donald finds hanging out with anyone who isn’t a billionaire (or at least a multimillionaire) a drag. What would there be to talk about if you left the Machiavellian class and its exploits for the company of the sort of normal folk you can rouse at a rally? It’s […]
Global investors are turning their backs on French government bonds, reflecting alarm over the capacity for next year’s presidential election to deliver another shock to the eurozone and financial markets. A pronounced drop in French sovereign bond prices suggests they are being treated less like those of a core European economy and more like securities issued by the region’s least creditworthy countries. The selling has pushed the […]
By Jeff Mason | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence agencies to review cyber attacks and foreign intervention into the 2016 election and deliver a report before he leaves office on Jan. 20, the White House said on Friday. In October, the U.S. government formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election, […]
December 10, 2016 by: Joe Leahy in São Paulo Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and one of his sons have been accused by prosecutors of influence peddling and other crimes in relation to a landmark $4.5bn Saab Gripen fighter jet deal in Latin America’s largest country. Prosecutors in Brasília accused Mr Lula da Silva’s son, Luís Cláudio Lula da Silva, of receiving nearly R$2.6m […]
Update, Dec. 9, 2016, 2:22 p.m.: This story has been updated. Donald Trump routinely blasts his political foes for “pay-to-play” politics and “crony capitalism and corruption.” But Trump is now rewarding some of his biggest campaign bankrollers with unparalleled access, influence, prestige and power in his presidential administration-in-waiting, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of new campaign finance disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission. In […]
WASHINGTON The CIA has concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help President-elect Donald Trump win the White House, and not just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, the Washington Post reported on Friday. Citing U.S. officials briefed on the matter, the Post said intelligence agencies had identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided thousands of hacked emails from the […]
Journalism took a beating in 2016. Donald Trump was elected president, thwarting pollsters and shaking off seemingly endless fact-checking. News organizations continue to lay off journalists as Facebook and Google gobble up the advertising market. And trust in media sunk to an all-time low, helped along by abuse on the campaign trail. Despite that, a former whistleblower thinks journalism still has the power to make big changes. […]
Submitted by Steven Horowtiz via The Foundation for Economic Education, The headlines tell us that the Dow Jones is up around 1,000 points since Donald Trump won the election on November 8th. The conventional wisdom is that this shows how much confidence people have in Trump’s ability to generate a healthy American economy. The argument is that if people are willing to buy stock in American firms, […]
Donald Trump wants Wilbur Ross, the billionaire investor tapped for Commerce secretary, to oversee his trade policy, in a controversial move that could spark a battle between the incoming administration and Congress. Mr Trump has agreed to give Mr Ross, a close friend, responsibility for handling one of his signature campaign issues, the Financial Times has learnt. The move, which would cut the influence of the US […]
It is a story of the markets against the US Federal Reserve — and so far, the markets have been on the right side of the call. Bond market movements have this year proved a better guide to potential shifts in benchmark rates than has the Fed’s official range of projections. But as Donald Trump prepares to take power amid expectations that the Fed will next week […]
