In the News: Dec-16

Fed drops rates to target of zero to 0.25 percent - 16 Dec 2008 at 2:38pm - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve on Tuesday cut its target for overnight interest rates to zero to 0.25 percent, bringing it closer to unconventional action to lift the economy out of a year-long recession.

OPEC readies cut of 2-million barrels a day: Saudi minister - 16 Dec 2008 at 1:08pm - ORAN, Algeria (AFP) - OPEC plans to announce an output cut of two million barrels a day, the Saudi oil minister said Tuesday, as the cartel seeks to prop up oil prices amid crumbling demand and rising crude stocks in consuming countries.

U.S. sends three Guantanamo men home to Bosnia - 16 Dec 2008 at 12:52pm - MIAMI (Reuters) - The United States sent three Algerian-born prisoners home to Bosnia on Tuesday in the first release under court order from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, one of their lawyers said.

U.S. costs of Iraq, Afghan wars top $900 billion: report - 16 Dec 2008 at 9:08am - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military operations, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, have cost $904 billion since 2001 and could top $1.7 trillion by 2018, even with big cuts in overseas troop deployments, a report said on Monday.

V.P. Cheney lauds Obama's choice of national security team - 16 Dec 2008 at 8:38am - Vice President Dick Cheney is calling President-elect Barack Obama's national security lineup "a pretty good team."

Uh-oh.

Madoff pyramid fraud puts US finance system in spotlight - 16 Dec 2008 at 9:08am - LONDON (AFP) - Commentators sharply criticized the US financial system Tuesday as more firms announced losses in the suspected multi-billion-dollar swindle run by ex-Wall Street heavyweight Bernard Madoff.

Thought for the day:
If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. -George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)