--One big bank that saw the trouble coming, Goldman Sachs, began reducing its inventory of mortgages and mortgage securities last year. Even so, Goldman went on to package and sell more than $6 billion of new securities backed by subprime mortgages during the first nine months of this year. A1 Thank you, Market God!
--A Santa Claus starting his fourth year at a store in Cairns said he had been fired for saying “Ho! Ho! Ho!” which, according to local reports, the recruitment agency Westaff, the country’s biggest Santa supplier, feels might frighten children and be seen as demeaning to women. The agency wants its Santas to say “Ha! Ha! Ha!” instead, the reports said.—A8
--BAGHDAD, Dec. 5 — Senior Pentagon and military officials said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had decided against a proposal to shift Marine Corps forces from Iraq to take the lead in American operations in Afghanistan. Mr. Gates told top Marine Corps officials and his senior aides that the situation in western Iraq, where the Marines now operate in Anbar Province, remained too volatile to contemplate such a significant change in how the ground combat mission in Iraq is shared by the Army and the Marine Corps. A14 the surge continues to work
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 — The birth rate among teenagers 15 to 19 in the United States rose 3 percent in 2006, according to a report issued Wednesday, the first such increase since 1991. The finding surprised scholars and fueled a debate about whether the Bush administration’s abstinence-only sexual education efforts are working. The federal government spends $176 million annually on such programs. But a landmark study recently failed to demonstrate that they have any effect on delaying sexual activity among teenagers, and some studies suggest that they may actually increase pregnancy rates. A16. Everything else from GWB works so well
--About one in every 31 adults in the US was in prison, in jail or on supervised release at the end of last year, the DOJ reported yesterday. ... In several states, incarceration for blacks were more than 10 times the rate of whites. A16 is this a great country, or what?
No comments:
Post a Comment