Free Republic

He always had them laughing their heads off. The hero cop who nabbed the killer behind the legendary 1983 New York Post headline “Headless body in topless bar” died Friday after a long, fittingly colorful life. Retired New York City Transit Police Detective Frederick “Freddy” Mack, 79, passed away while in hospice care, his daughter Debbie Comstock told The Post on Sunday. “He was a man full of character,” Comstock, 58, said. “He always had stories and jokes to tell. He was loved by many.” Perhaps Mack’s biggest story of all unfolded in April 1983, after 25-year-old lowlife Charles Dingle...

The key to holding up the entire speculative U.S. financial system with its current excessive levels of debt - federal (current account and trade), state, municipal, corporate and household - is maintaining the U.S. housing bubble. Anything less would result in America’s worst nightmare and, in short order, the entire world. The housing market is dominated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who hold 75% of all outstanding home mortgages (and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to a much lesser extent). One too many additional increases in the Fed rate may well turn out to be the U.S. economy's...