by Richard C. Cook first written, June 14, 2007

It’s official. Mark your calendars. The crash of the U.S. economy has begun. It was announced the morning of Wednesday, June 13, 2007, by economic writers Steven Pearlstein and Robert Samuelson in the pages of the Washington Post, one of the foremost house organs of the U.S. monetary elite.

Pearlstein’s column was titled, “The Takeover Boom, About to Go Bust” and concerned the extraordinary amount of debt vs. operating profits of companies currently subject to leveraged buyouts.

Today is the deadline to claim undelivered stimulus payments from the IRS worth $583 on average.
    
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Never got that stimulus check in the mail? It might be as simple as a wrong address, and the IRS deadline to fix the error is today.

The Internal Revenue Service is trying to find 279,000 recipients for more than $163 million in undelivered economic stimulus payments, according to the government. The average undelivered check is worth about $583.

Most undelivered stimulus payments had incorrect or incomplete addresses, according to the IRS. By law, the agency can’t send out any more economic stimulus checks after Dec. 31 of this year.

A few days ago I received a letter from my credit card company informing me that they are raising their interest rates to 29%. Can you believe it!

In a time when many people are struggling to make ends meet they decide to up the interest rates and cash in on the people using their credit cards to pay their bills and get through this upcoming holiday season.

In my opinion that is just pure greed and very irresponsible in these hard economic times. It is akin to kicking a man while he’s down.

They were nice enough to at least give an option to either accept the new terms or to decline them. Of course if you decline them your card is automatically canceled and the balance owed is now due. Some option.

By Anna Bahney, USA TODAY
Telephones are ringing — and ringing — at mortgage brokers’ offices around the country after this week’s sharp drop in mortgage rates.
Average rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 5.97%, down from 6.33% the week before, according to Bankrate.com. Some brokers report rates as low as 5.25%.

Borrowers with a $200,000 loan, for example, would save about $63 a month if their interest rate dropped to 5.5% from 6%.

Credit the Federal Reserve’s announcement this week that it will buy $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, helping the two mortgage-finance giants increase the pool of money available to banks and other lenders to make new mortgages.

Nov 27, 8:24 AM (ET) By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraq’s parliament on Thursday approved by a wide margin a security pact with the United States that lets American troops stay in Iraq for three more years.

The vote in favor of the pact was backed by the ruling coalition’s Shiite and Kurdish blocs as well as the largest Sunni Arab bloc, which had demanded concessions for supporting the deal.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appeared to have won the comfortable majority that he sought in order to give the agreement additional legitimacy.

Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said an “overwhelming majority” of the lawmakers who attended the session voted in favor of the pact by a show of hands. The parliament’s secretariat, which counted lawmakers as they entered the chamber, said 220 out of 275 legislators attended.

Nov 26, 3:51 PM (ET) By EILEEN SULLIVAN and DEVLIN BARRETT

WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal authorities are warning police of a possible terror plot against the New York City subway and train systems during the holiday season, prompting local officials to beef up security at stations. An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a “plausible but unsubstantiated” report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system.

A person briefed on the matter, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the intelligence-gathering work, said the threat may also be directed at the passenger rail lines running through New York, such as Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road, which are particularly busy with Thanksgiving holiday travelers.

By Elizabeth Stanton

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks posted the biggest two- day rally since 1987 after the government guaranteed $306 billion of troubled Citigroup Inc. assets and lawmakers pledged to pass another economic stimulus package.

Citigroup, which lost 60 percent of its market value last week, rebounded 58 percent after the Treasury also agreed to inject $20 billion into the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. jumped more than 21 percent, catapulting the Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index to a record gain, as the government rescue boosted confidence in the banking system. Home Depot Inc. and General Electric Co. climbed more than 8 percent on speculation the stimulus will spur economic growth.