The Dow Jones plummeted under 11,000 today, dropping 635 points as the United States’ downgraded credit rating punished the markets. That took the Dow down 5.55% to 10,810, reports MarketWatch . The Nasdaq and S&P 500 bled more, shedding 6.90% and 6.66% respectively.
Continue reading …Fresh off his weekend prayer rally, Rick Perry will head to South Carolina on Saturday to make clear he’s going to toss his hat into the 2012 presidential race, reports Politico. In so doing, the Texas governor will upend the current field of Republicans seeking the nomination, as well as…
Continue reading …Standard & Poor’s has downgrade fever. The ratings agency today downgraded the credit ratings of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a host of other agencies linked to long-term US debt, including farm lenders; long-term government-backed debt from 32 banks and credit unions; and three major clearinghouses, which…
Continue reading …Michele Bachmann kicks off the week as the subject of two profiles: A Newsweek cover story (whose cover image many, many people are calling creepy ) and a New Yorker piece. Both suggest she’s poised to do well in Iowa’s upcoming straw poll, but faces major hurdles to winning the…
Continue reading …You probably already know that smoking is bad for you, but a new study shows that smoking first thing in the morning is apparently even worse. Among the 7,610 smokers studied—62% of whom had lung cancer—those who lit up within 30 minutes of waking were 79% more…
Continue reading …Barack Obama did his best to reassure the country after the Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the US credit rating. S&P pulled the trigger “not so much because they doubt our ability to pay our debt,” Obama explained , but because “they doubted our political system’s ability to act.” But Obama…
Continue reading …Don’t put too much stock in Standard & Poor’s much ballyhooed credit ratings—because they’re astonishingly bad. Nate Silver of the New York Times ran an analysis on S&P’s ratings from five years ago, and found that, had you heeded them, they “would have told you almost nothing about the…
Continue reading …Arne Duncan promised to take action on No Child Left Behind if Congress didn’t, and now he’s making good on that promise. With efforts to reform the controversial 2002 education law stalled in Congress, the Obama administration will allow states to apply to be exempted from the law. More details…
Continue reading …The helicopter that crashed over the weekend in Afghanistan, killing 30 US troops and eight others, was likely shot down by a Taliban rocket, NATO forces said today. Though the Taliban was quick to claim responsibility, Western officials had been tight-lipped until today’s announcement, Reuters notes. The Navy SEALs and…
Continue reading …There’s a reason we gorge on chocolate bars or French fries when we’re down: Fatty foods actually do make us feel better, a study suggests. Scientists in Belgium had subjects look at images of sad people and listen to sad music while being fed through a tube, the Daily Mail…
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