The governor of the Bank of Spain on Sunday issued a bleak assessment of the economic crisis, warning that the world faced a "total" financial meltdown unseen since the Great Depression.

"The lack of confidence is total," Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez said in an interview with Spain's El Pais daily.read more »

by Terry Paulson

Forget about Christmas! Obama is coming to Washington and a $500-700 billion stimulus package is going to be wrapped and ready for passage! With the Bush administration's help, financial institutions are already getting their funds. The auto industry is next in line, and with more money for the taking, cities, states, companies and citizens are lining up to compete for a share of the pie!read more »

By Tom Eley and Barry Grey

(WSWS) -- Fallout from the Madoff scandal continues to batter investors, banks and private charities in the US, Europe and Japan. The massive fraud carried out by a prominent Wall Street insider, Bernard Madoff, the former head of the Nasdaq stock exchange, has exposed clients to as much as $50 billion in losses.read more »

By IAN URBINA and SEAN D. HAMILL

Richard R. Johnson is the first to admit it was a bad idea.

Recently laid off from a job building trailers in Elkhart, Ind., Mr. Johnson came up a dollar short at Martin’s Supermarket last month when he went to buy a $4.99 bottle of sleep medication. So, “for some stupid reason,” he tried to shoplift it and was immediately arrested.read more »

By Eric Ernst | Herald Tribune

Southwest Florida builders, already reeling from a collapse of the housing market, have a new worry. Banks are calling in loans, eliminating lines of credit and raising interest rates.read more »

by Brian Baxter

Europe and the U.S. are about to experience a significant increase in business failures.

That's the conclusion reached by Paris-based Euler Hermes, the world's largest credit insurer, in a recently released 57-page report on business insolvencies worldwide.read more »

The “collapse” cometh. Proactive steps one can take to deal with it.

By Dave Eriqat

Where We Stand

Back in February of this year, in a post titled Paralyzed With Fear, I expressed my concerns about “total economic collapse” arriving “in a matter of months.” Well, it has begun.
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