SAP Investors to Look Past Second Quarter for Signs of Slowdown capitalists looking past next week, what a concept

Buffett, in a speech entitled ``A Conversation with Warren Buffett, Part II,'' used a slide show comparing the earnings of the Dow Jones Industrial average component companies over the past decade with the Gross Domestic Product of the U.S. over the same period, to illustrate how the market remains overvalued by historical norms, said attendees. ``You basically have to listen to Warren,'' said Jeff Bezos, chairman of Amazon.com Inc., an Internet retailer whose stock has fallen to about 17 a share from a high of 113 in December 1999. ``Some things he said were quite painful, but, by god, the man is a genius and so far seems to be right.''

How Bush Took Florida:In an analysis of the 2,490 ballots from Americans living abroad that were counted as legal votes after Election Day, The Times found 680 questionable votes. Although it is not known for whom the flawed ballots were cast, four out of five were accepted in counties carried by Mr. Bush, The Times found. Mr. Bush's final margin in the official total was 537 votes. this is how the times will get around it, by dribbling out the info every few weeks. no big announcements like usa today's recount in bush's favor. no coverage in the network media (still busy looking for chandra).

Monsanto plans genetically modified wheat in five years whether Canadian farmers want it or not they'll force it on europe eventually too

Ford recalls 1.4 million 2001 vehicles they claim it's a seatbelt problem that they can't confirm ie not rollovers

Charles Schwab subsidiary fined $10m by Fed hell hath no fury like a rich investor scorned

As a member of the House intelligence committee, Condit oversees some of the nation's most sensitive secrets the whole thing smells of CIA. let's give ollie north a lie detector test

A weak Rx for schools: among 21 nations, only those educational powerhouses South Africa and Cyprus fared worse than the U.S. in both math and science.

Powell to Sharon: Violence Must Stop good hawk bad hawk

I have spent several days lecturing at the World Environment Conference on Aspartame marketed as NutraSweet, Equal and Spoonful. In the keynote address by the EPA, they announced that there was an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus, and they did not understand what toxin was causing this to be rampant across the United States

For the past year, as Internet stocks have crumbled and entire companies have vaporized, Meeker has maintained the same upbeat ratings on her companies that characterized her research reports in the glory days. For instance, of the 15 stocks Meeker currently covers, she has a strong buy or an outperform rating on all but two. Among the stocks she has never downgraded are Priceline, Amazon, Yahoo, and FreeMarkets--all of which have declined between 85% and 97% from their peak.

GOP sources have already admitted to Dave Boyer of the Washington Times that the "effort is coordinated" and designed to "[focus] on one Democratic 'bogeyman'". how the repubs are improving the tone in washington politics

AHP pays $2.5m over Colombian drug charges: AHP said on Thursday that some of its Colombian operations "may have inadvertently engage" in sales of pharmaceutical products to prohibited parties between 1995 and 1997. american corporate drug pushers. where's that fifteen year jail term they promised us when they were wagging their fingers at mitsubishi and ford?

Australia's Dugongs Almost Wiped Out another large mammal bites the dust

Campaign finance legislation derailed the same week campaign finances break all historical records

More than 800 people suspected of being witches have been slaughtered in northeastern Congo, according to a Ugandan newspaper. The people were blamed for an outbreak of disease hard to confirm

Troops, Ships, Minesweepers for G8 a capitalist state of peace

Wary Democrats see the plan for oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge as a smoke screen to divert attention from other controversial proposals in a White House-backed energy bill. the dems suddenly realize the the reps employ smoke screens

Regulators order utilities to form regional systems / Giant step toward national deregulation it's working so well in California (at least for the energy companies)

Motorola Says 2nd-Half Sales to Rise, Boosts Job Cuts to 30000 they say their sales will increase, but their going to throw 30000 working families out on an ever lengthening unemployment line anyway

As mayor of Jersey City, Bret Schundler awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal work to a close friend and major political donor who now serves as finance chairman of his Republican campaign for governor sounds like the guy knows how to manage finances

As planning for the state's new auto inspection system reached a crucial point three years ago, state officials gave one potential bidder -- the one that would win the $500 million deal -- inside information capitalist experiment in privatization chapter two. please pay attention before we get to chapter three

How the Competing Campaign Finance Bills Differ all versions now presume that the point of reforming campaign finance is to reduce the influence of labor unions

Senate rejects Gulf drilling delays: the Senate voted 67-33 against an amendment offered by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who called the leases "the camel's nose under the tent" for broader oil and gas development in the currently off-limits eastern Gulf. a camel's nose! i thought i smelled something in here. oh well, unlike alaska, the gulf is a dead zone already.

Public Schools Are Beyond Reform And Redemption: Some of the nation's highest paid heroes are barely literate, which can be verified by listening to almost any sports interview. the corporate capitalist offensive against footing the bill for public schools proceeds apace. note the clarifying comment about sports interviews. do you suppose he thought we might be thinking of some other national figure?

Dow Soars 238; Nasdaq Closes Up 104 somebody needs to explain to these people the principle of a market correction before they drag us all into another bubble and break new jobless records when it bursts. once bitten twice shy, but when they get bit a second and third time they may become phobic.

U.S. jobless claims soar in latest week i'm confused again. don't the capitalists always tell us how we need them because they create jobs?

McDonald's hit with 'unhappy meals' syndrome blames bad service for lost sales unfortunately 750 million in lost sales is still cheaper than paying a living wage

Bush's approval rating rebounds here we go with the mysterious bouncing poll numbers again like we had leading up to the election. i guess, for some people you might as well ask do you approve of god and unborn babies and disapprove of killing pregnant interns.

Israeli generals are planning for a possible massive invasion of Palestinian territories if the current Mideast cease-fire fails, says a published report denied by Israeli officials I call another one accurately. What CBS omits is the US role in these plans

In its annual report on capital flows released on Thursday, the IMF said that price-earnings ratios in the US and other markets were "somewhat on the high standards of historical averages". The danger of a "sharp repricing" in US stocks was a "key risk" for the world economy, it added. a report written before thursday's five percent jump

President Bush has just hired a guy who made headlines in the 1980s as a deceitful, scheming coddler of Latin American tyrants.

Ancient Bones Found in Ethiopia: hominid forest dweller nearly 6 million years old

Milosevic has been made out to be as nasty a tyrant and schemer as there is, but it’s all a creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia—i.e., it’s pure unadulterated bullshit. it's remarkably quiet on the show trial front

Microsoft to post $2.6 billion investment loss that explains why their stock is up

Is campaign finance reform dead? give us another week and we'll cut down our money tree

Global Warming Will Devastate Agriculture so long as i got my stock portfolio

Global warming encourages mosquito invaders forget west nile; here comes malaria

A 2,000-page UN report on the science and potential impacts of climate change gave the most authoritative statement yet that the Earth is warming rapidly, that the main cause is industrial pollution, and that the consequences for human society are likely to be catastrophic. could you include some pictures so george can read it

ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS AND CORPORATIONS TARGET TAX-EXEMPT STATUS OF THE RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK BILLBOARD: Frontiers of Freedom Institute was founded in 1995 by former Sen. Malcolm Wallop, a Wyoming Republican and friend of Vice President Dick Cheney. Its biggest contributors include Philip Morris Cos., Exxon Mobil Corp. and RJ Reynolds Tobacco. Frontiers says that RAN is "fundamentally radical, anti-capitalist and lawless" oh, that's a criticism

Montesinos’s Revenge: CIA’s Drug Warrior Was a Thug but when you ask the capitalists why the rising tide of capitalism isn't lifting all boats, they blame corrupt local governments

Senators worried that tax checks may be delayed maybe they didn't punch the chads on their tax returns

HUD Inspector General Blasted for Quality of Data, Financial Records it takes a thief

Selling Chandra congress is closed; they're all out looking for chandra. nobody's getting robbed today.

Criticism and Support for Rules on Clean Air: clashing views were expressed repeatedly today as opposing groups sought to influence the Bush administration's review of whether clean air rules unnecessarily impede energy production. unfortunately, how unnecessary they are remains to be seen

Flesh eating disease warning for drug addicts who contaminated the dope with fasciitis?

Polaroid May Seek Protection another capitalist corporation seeks protection the capitalist state is trying to deny to you

AIDS Toll Could Hit 200 million: This pandemic is not stabilizing, It's just beginning, it's just a baby

Bush taps Olson to be US Federal Reserve governor isn't this the guy that lied about divesting of some stock he he owned? i'm starting to get my republicans confused.

EPA begins review of pollution rules the "gallant defender of children" strikes again

Group Warns on Superfund Limits we'd really like to help you, but we're tapped out. a trillion and half tax cut don't grow on trees.

US corporate debt defaults heading for record high but personal bankruptcy is rampant irresponsibility and must be outlawed

Lawyers want to question Ford chairman (who is great- grandson of Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone) over tire deaths, but Ford Motor Co. has resisted lawyers' attempts to question the company chairman.

TWISTER ON SOUTH CAROLINA BEACHhere george, this book even has pictures

Floods Devastate West Virginia Bush needs further study of global warming. start studying.

Give us your lunch money! But this spring, Kowalski discovered that Microsoft didn't care much for his reasoning. Following an anonymous tip, the software giant launched an investigation of Philadelphia's entire public school system. Microsoft threatened to sue unless the administrative offices and all 264 schools conducted an audit and proved that every piece of installed Microsoft software had a valid license. The Gates Foundation at its philanthropic best

Toxic Playgrounds: Doctors admit that no one knows precisely what concentrations of environmental arsenic are toxic, and the wood-treatment industry insists that wherever that line is, its products don't cross it. Environmental groups, however, disagree, insisting that at any dosage level, children and arsenic don't mix. they mix all the time.

Uncertainty about quarterly corporate profits continued to hang over the market. "It looks as if people are trying to bottom-fish, but I think it's misguided bargain hunting," said Tom Van Leuven, US equity strategist at JP Morgan. "It will be tough for the market to make a sustained upward move if there isn't more evidence that earnings are on the rebound."

Court halts Pinochet legal action whew, the suspense was killing me. not as attrocious as milosevic or not as communist? neither, note from his doctor.

Chicago's Big Plans To Go With Alternate Energy let's hope so. it's their coal, but it's our acid rain

Paul O'Neill, US Treasury secretary, has proposed international co-operation to tackle overcapacity in the global steel industry to avoid the threat of a trade war. protect your industry while condemning protectionism everywhere else

Particles' odd behavior offers clue to matter's origin the mystery of the creation of the universe covered by the christian scientists

West Fears Ecalation in Mideast

FARMED salmon - widely marketed as among the leanest and healthiest of fish - have been shown to be fattier than wild fish. Some have 20% fat, more than four times the amount in their natural, wild counterparts. The fats could also be contributing to increasing toxins in farmed salmon. Plump salmon from fish farms have been shown to accumulate higher levels of dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides they also get loose and mate with natural salmon because they outcompete them

Evidence of D.C. Toxins Unheeded: upscale neighberhood arsenic under senators' houses while they were busy lowering the standards for arsenic in the rest of the countries water

Bush brothers joke about Gulf oil exploration over golf how witty. maybe next time they'll paint little globes on the golf balls.

Bush would cut funds to combat global warming: The White House declined to discuss the report on the record Friday. everybody was busy trying to find chandra levy

West Fears Ecalation in Mideast

SMALL groups of elite Iranian soldiers who have infiltrated southern Lebanon are preparing for rocket attacks on Israel.

The Group of Seven industrial nations said they expect the U.S. will lead a rebound in world economic growth after six interest rate reductions and $1.35 trillion in tax cuts. U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said he told his counterparts that the world's largest economy will expand at an annualized rate of more than 2 percent in the fourth quarter of this year and greater than 3 percent next year. ``This would be good news for all of us'' this is it. the last trick in the capitalist bag. they're basing their optimism on the economic wisdom of Oneill (still not divested) who wants to do away with social security and medicare.

Bush family finances: Best democracy money can buy: Take two packets of payments to the Republican Party, totalling $148,000, from an outfit called Barrick Goldstrike. That's quite a patriotic contribution from a Canadian company. They can afford it. In 1992, in the final hours of the Bush presidency, Barrick took control of US government-owned property containing an estimated $10bn in gold. For the whole shooting match, Barrick paid the US Treasury only $10,000. Barrick made deft use of an 1872 gold rush law meant to allow pan-and-bucket prospectors to gain title to their tiny claims. white house stock outperforming the markets by 1000 percent.

In retaliation for the investigative story about the finances of the George W. Bush campaign, Barrick Gold Mining of Canada has sued my paper, the Observer of London, for libel. The company, which hired the elder Bush after his leaving the White House, is charging the newspaper with libel for quoting an Amnesty International report, which alleged that 50 miners might have been buried alive in Tanzania by a company now owned by Barrick. more capitalist free speech. good thing we don't live in russia where they control the press.

Germany's Hans Eichel Has Few Tools to Fix Economy another depression in germany? uh oh. just knock down another wall.

U.S., U.K., and Japanese officials will urge their European counterparts to help prime a sputtering world economy at a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers today. better start throwing them workers out on the street

Delays in tax breaks possible: n January, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the 2001 surplus would be $96 billion, not counting funds Congress has pledged to reserve for Social Security and Medicare. But the CBO now says that the 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut enacted in June, along with a slowing economy, has reduced the 2001 surplus to $16 billion. The budget squeeze looks even worse when Bush's proposed $18.4 billion defense spending increase for 2002 and congressional pet projects are included. oh well, we weren't using the money for anything important anyway

Global gloom for hi-tech shares: More than £3.6bn has been wiped off the stock market value of Marconi following a warning that its profits would be halved. so where does the 5 billion dollars go?

La Verkin Declares Itself United Nations-Free Zone all of the benefits of global economic domination with none of the responsibility

Union attacks Blair over his 'infatuation with rich men': pay and conditions must not become "a sorry second" in the battle for greater efficiency. He said: "Downing Street is infatuated with rich men. It bestows magical qualities on the private sector." just narcissism

Dershowitz book: "The decision may be ranked as the single most corrupt decision in Supreme Court history, because it is the only one that I know of where the majority justices decided as they did because of the personal identity and political affiliation of the litigants ... No honest person can any longer trust them to do justice, as distinguished from politics."

One Bush is never far from the other senior got even fewer votes than junior

Hidden genetic defects were found in otherwise healthy cloned animals in a study that could fatally undermine the arguments for loosening controls on the most controversial area of reproductive technology.

Alcoa reports record Q2 before exceptionals it helps to have office space in the white house

Stench warfare and stink bombs-U.S. secret weapon? The Pentagon is developing a stink bomb to drive away enemy
troops or hostile crowds, the magazine New Scientist has said. Stench warfare could form a key part of the U.S. non-lethal weapons programme and provide police with an extra means of dealing with the kind of rioting that has disrupted recent summits of world leaders. note the claim that it's first for enemy troops, but they have bullets for them.

Drought sears another summer a cyclic la nina or an accelerating global warming?

Former UK Ambassador To Columbia Says Anti-Drug War Unwinnable: Slumbering Marxist guerrillas prospered on the money the drug traffickers paid them to protect the cocaine laboratories. The traffickers also hired assassins to kill and intimidate, and paramilitaries to defend their ranches from the very guerrillas to whom they were paying protection money. another capitalist says he "now realizes" without mentioning anybody that told him so

Camp Wood, whose bonds may become the latest of billions of dollars worth of U.S. nursing home debt to default over the past two decades, will probably be followed by more defaults, say municipal bond analysts. Low Medicaid reimbursements, the rising cost of liability insurance and difficulties hiring staff hurt the companies' ability to pay their debts, they said. Most nursing home bonds aren't rated. ``Times are much tougher now and will be in the near future,'' said Robert Wetzler, a director with Fitch. ``We expect defaults to increase.'' the economic recovery package is starting to do its work

Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi accuses the Supreme Court's conservative majority of criminal conduct bordering on treason.
looks like manson had a point

Could just anyone get a pacemaker like Cheney's? Not necessarily, HMO critics say. And Bush has ready promised to veto a bill that would help patients get care as good as the vice president's.

O'Neill rebukes EU for blocking GE merger -- The Washington Times the moonie paper again (let's not forget they also bought upi). in europe they know oneill is the guy who still hasn't divested his enron stock, who is busy with american steel industry protectionism, and who has a dream that one day old people will stop leeching off american corporations through social security and medicaid

Human Sperm In Dramatic Decline Scientists Warn: And even if men today can reproduce, their damaged sperm might
lead to infertility in their male progeny, Aitken suggested. "You're likely to see lots of diseases that are related to poorer semen quality." Scientists suspect a wide range of environmental causes for the abnormal sperm - from exposure to pesticides and heavy metals to eletromagnetic radiation. if you read anything, please read this. republicans who think they're voting for unborn babies need to see the real consequences of their party's deregulatory policies. this is not a head cold.

Cave Engravings Found in France

Milosevic Refuses to Enter Plea here comes the spin doctor army with horns and a tail

The original points of the case were almost moot as soon as the antitrust case was filed. These days competitors are more focused on whether Microsoft will be able to translate its desktop dominance on to the internet the fact that before throwing out the break up order, the court said microsoft was an illegal trust doesn't matter if there are no consequences for breaking the law. they now seem to spend all their time figuring out how to grab the whole market rather than improving their half assed operating system

Calif. caves in to heat, humidity same deal (see below). you can cap prices, but you can't force privatized utilities to sell comodity, even if it might kill people. they now seem to be trying to cook us into voting against price caps.

Halting the slide in Japan or not

Yen Drops on Concern Economy May Be Falling Into Recession lest we forget

U.S. West electricity prices rose above federal price caps for the second day in a row, and a Nevada utility owner said the caps prevented it from buying power yesterday that was needed to avoid blackouts. ``This was the first real market test of the price caps, and they did not help us,'' said Paul Heagan, a spokesman Sierra Pacific Resources, owner of Nevada two biggest utilities. Utilities that could have boosted output from plants already operation didn't because the capped prices didn't justify the expense, Heagan said. OH! price caps doesn't mean they have to sell you any, even in 120 degree heat. providing a/c to the elderly is not a justified expense.

U.S. Report Finds Flaws in Study of California Power Companies difference of capitalist opinion

conditions for manufacturing industries worldwide are still difficult with few signs global growth is about to bounce back.

conditions for manufacturing industries worldwide are still difficult with few signs global growth is about to bounce back. apparently a difference of opinion with wall street

Wellman's landmark victory last week: the company was found not liable for causing four Rocky Flats workers to suffer beryllium disease. The plaintiffs say they will seek a new trial or appeal, and 200 more victims of the wasting lung ailment have similar suits pending against Brush Wellman. them damn greedy litijeeus lawyers is at it agin

New York Trinity Church Feels Pinch From Internet you can't serve god and mammon

Reforming Social Security and Medicare? O'Neill
wonders aloud why we need them at all. "There's a
concept that has a lot of appeal to me," he mused.
"Able-bodied adults should save enough on a
regular basis so that they can provide for their own
retirement and for that matter for their health and
medical needs." Otherwise, he explained to the
Financial Times, elderly people are just dumping
their problems on the broader society. On June 18,
the Secretary went to Wall Street to rally the
financial guys in behalf of his crusade. The
brokerages and banks will pony up $20 million for
TV ads selling Social Security privatization. The
package is called "reform," but O'Neill's musings
indicate that the lasting objective is destruction. compassionate conservatism comes out of the closet

whereas the Washington Times wore its conservative stripes with pride, as an eager participant in the Reagan revolution, FNC refuses to this day to own up to its conservative slant. In fact, it seemed that half of the New York Times' 8,000-word article was spent trying to get Fox chief Roger Ailes, a longtime Republican political activist, to cop to the channel's obvious political bias.

Turnaround on Wall St. rise in drug stocks has nothing to do with vetoing of patients' bill of rights?

among those dining on grilled tenderloin and sweet potato and corn soufflé with President Bush and Vice President Cheney was a gaggle of lobbyists calling themselves the "Washington Program." This group's co-chairmen include two lobbyists, Bruce Gates and Kim McKernan, who are taking the lead against the patients' bill of rights bill currently being fought on the Hill. The "President's Dinner" raised a whopping $20 million it aint the 20 mil that "convinced" Bush that it was a bad idea

Milosevic: I'll name British leaders who helped me. The French government may well be nervous about its own friendly relationship with Milosevic right up to 1999. Lord Hurd, who aroused controversy by opposing American plans to lift the arms embargo on Bosnia's Muslims, later became the deputy chairman of NatWest Markets and brokered a deal to privatise Serbia's telecoms service. At a secret business breakfast with Milosevic, he was accompanied by Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, formerly Britain's most senior woman diplomat, who had also joined the bank. it's all about freedom and democracy and protecting the downtrodden

LA Times Poll: The energy market was manipulated to boost sellers' profits, 86% say. price fixing could also explain how gasoline is suddenly inexplicably dropping nationwide

US Greenhouse Gas Emissions Now Greater Than Ever: Its output of the gas jumped almost 3 per cent last year, twice
the previous rate of growth, and the biggest increase for years we think the issue requires further study, so we're doing a little testing of the theory

CIA Gave at Least $10 Million To Peru's Montesinos Over the Years

Trial of Milosevic Could Unnerve Leaders in the U.S. and Elsewhere: in the two years since the Kosovo conflict, it appears that the former president did not commit the genocide he was accused of by NATO, including the deaths of some 10,000 people. $6 month subscription for this site, but worth it.

Vote device deal raises questions: Election Systems and Software will offer discounts to counties and pay a percentage of its profits to the Florida Association of Counties in return for the exclusive endorsement of its equipment. maybe we'll even program it to throw you a few extra votes, waddya say?

Carved Pebbles: resembling Tibetan Buddhist art found? in Grand Canyon in 1909?

High-Tech Security on Tampa Streets the panopticon is here

Is the White House spinning Cheney's condition? where's a rolling blackout when you need one?

Children Shrug Off Cell Phone Health Warnings microwave your kids for a trillion dollar windfall? ok with you.

Iran military alert for U.S. attack this might have been the original plan, but the right wing's pr problems might make them wary of any more international bad press. they might decide to leave israel to hang.

California on brink of recession but you gotta pay them actors and writers and keep the air conditioners buzzing in them studios. no bread and circuses, somebody might notice they're being robbed of their retirement money

KGB Spies Prevented WWIII Says Master Russian Spy George Blake Go to Russia for the real history of the cold war

First it was top White House aide Karl Rove talking to Intel reps while holding Intel stock. Now WH admits he did the same with energy companies. But no one seems to care. no one seems to know about it. no interns involved.

There was a fond assumption, back in early 2000, that technology would be unaffected by the economic cycle. Companies would have to maintain their technology spending, bulls asserted, in order to stay competitive. Tech earnings could grow at 20 per cent a year ad infinitum. The last year has shattered these beliefs. Once the indicator falls below zero (which it did at the end of January) and then turns up, a buy signal is generated. Alas, since January, the indicator has ended every month at successively lower levels. Patience is still required. you can't shatter the peter pan optimism of american capitalists until their bank accounts are empty. patience is required.

Pyramids lined up with the stars Good theory. I think the two "indestructibles" might be the source of all the twins myths

After the ruling, antitrust enforcers, who have battled the world's largest software maker for almost a decade, signaled a determination to prevent the company from neutralizing competitors and forcing business partners to choose its Internet technology. The United Capitalists of America are going to give away global software domination as soon as the 10 year match with Hulk Hogan is won

Pesticide Fishing Spreading In Mexico Lobster in Puerto Vallarta? You eat it. (I subscribe to Pesticide Action Network Updates)

FERC issued a study in February saying it found no evidence that suppliers withheld electricity to drive up prices. The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, faulted the study Friday, saying it ``was not thorough enough to supports its overall conclusion,'' The FERC study looked only at physical reasons for outages and didn't address the possibility that generating companies used bidding strategies to withhold supplies

Globalisation of supply has given governments, led by the US, the opportunity to pursue rapid growth without generating serious domestic inflation. It has been left to obscurely-motivated fringe groups to demonstrate against globalisation at prestigious meetings of political leaders. But maybe mainstream investors ought to join in. I still hope that the final low point will be passed in the second half of 2001, but that may easily be too optimistic. maybe the investors should be the fringe group and the protesters the mainstream

``Over 600,000 people have lost their jobs since last fall, and with corporate America making cuts of 5-10 percent across the board, unemployment may hit 5 percent by the end of the year... Income tax rebates and the biggest rate cuts in 20 years are little match for a steadily rising jobless trend,'' Rupkey said. ``The Fed still has more work to do in order to put the economy back on track. The economy will remain in a fragile state for the rest of the year, if not longer.'' longer

A delegation representing Japan's Consumer Finance Association recently visited a Payday Loan Store in downtown Chicago for an inside view of this sometimes controversial business, which just happens to be one of the fastest-growing financial sectors in the US. The Japanese are amazed that they're lending money at up to 500% interest to people whose credit cards are maxed out