Free Republic

Oh yes, remember the banks cleaned up their balance sheets and closed all those pesky derivative trades.... Right? "NEW YORK – This spring, traders and analysts working deep in the global swaps markets began picking up peculiar readings: Hundreds of billions of dollars of trades by U.S. banks had seemingly vanished." “We saw strange things in the data,” said Chris Barnes, a former swaps trader now with ClarusFT, a London-based data firm." Except.... they didn't vanish. They went overseas, but are still there. Just remember, it was CDS and IR products that blew up the world last time, and you...

The detection of a small amount of genetically modified material in a Washington state farmer's non-GMO alfalfa crop constitutes a "commercial issue" only and does not warrant any government action, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday. The Washington state farmer had complained in late August to state agricultural officials that his alfalfa hay had been rejected for export sale because of the presence of a genetically modified trait that makes the crop resistant to herbicide. The event triggered a wave of concern from consumer and agricultural groups who have fought the government for nearly a decade to keep...

<p>Most Asian stock markets sank Friday as mixed economic data from the world's largest economy reinforced fears that investors have overestimated the recovery's strength.</p> <p>Knocked by weak exporters, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average fell 145.21 points, or 1.4 percent, to 10,238.20. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 179.11, or 0.9 percent, to 20,148.56 while China's Shanghai Composite index rose for a second day -- gaining 1.7 percent to 2,960.77 -- after rattling investors worldwide when it tumbled earlier this week.</p>