The Two-Way
4:15 pm
Tue June 12, 2012

From Our Readers: Less Hedginess, More Neology

Our use of the term "hedginess," coined by finance criminologist Bill Black, inspired commenter "Tim Myers" to engage in some neology of his own in order to prove his point:

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Idaho Execution
4:11 pm
Tue June 12, 2012

Media Witness To Idaho's Second Execution In 7 Months

Credit Adam Cotterell / Northwest News Network
AP Reporter Rebecca Boone

Idaho executed death row inmate Richard Leavitt this morning as planned. Leavitt was convicted for the 1984 murder of 31-year old Danette Elg of Blackfoot.

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The Two-Way
4:05 pm
Tue June 12, 2012

Dimon Will Tell Congress JPMorgan 'Let People Down' With Trading Loss

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon.

Originally published on Wed June 13, 2012 7:00 am

"This portfolio morphed into something that, rather than protect the firm, created new and potentially larger risks. As a result, we have let a lot of people down, and we are sorry for it."

That's part of JPMorgan Chase President and CEO Jamie Dimon will tell the Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs tomorrow, when it looks into the botched trades that lost the bank $2 billion. Chase released Dimon's prepared remarks this afternoon.

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Latin America
3:50 pm
Tue June 12, 2012

Venezuela's Chavez Aims To Beat Cancer, Election Foe

Originally published on Thu June 14, 2012 7:38 am

The crowds came out by the thousands in Venezuela on Monday, flooding the streets of Caracas in red T-shirts just as the nation's populist government had promised.

Hugo Chavez — the country's 57-year-old, bigger-than-life leader — then took the stage. He had arrived in an open truck, minutes after registering as a candidate for the Oct. 7 election.

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Your Money
3:42 pm
Tue June 12, 2012

Credit Card Debt Cut: The Reason May Surprise You

Credit iStockphoto.com

Originally published on Tue June 12, 2012 4:17 pm

A Federal Reserve study showing that Americans lost wealth in the Great Recession turned up another, perhaps more surprising, result: Credit card debt fell sharply.

"The percentage of families using credit cards for borrowing dropped over the period; the median balance on their accounts fell 16.1 percent" between 2007 and 2010, the report concluded.

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The Two-Way
3:06 pm
Tue June 12, 2012

Feds Say Mexican Cartel Used American Quarter Horse Racing To Launder Money

Credit Southwest Stallion Station
Mr. Piloto, which federal authorities are trying confiscate, is offered on a website for sire services.

Federal authorities arrested seven people, today, in connection with what authorities say was a multi-million dollar money laundering operation run by Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas.

The scheme allegedly used the millions earned through the illicit drug trade to purchase, train, breed and race American quarter horses in the United States. The Department of Justice said 14 had been indicted; among them is Zetas leader Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales and his brothers Oscar Omar Treviño Morales and José Treviño-Morales.

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Planet Money
2:55 pm
Tue June 12, 2012

Remembering Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Laureate

Credit Raveendran / AFP/Getty Images
Elinor Ostrom in January 2011.

Originally published on Wed June 13, 2012 8:08 am

Elinor Ostrom, the only woman ever to win an economics Nobel, died today at age 78.

She was famous for challenging an idea known as the tragedy of the commons — the theory that, in the absence of government intervention, people will inevitably overuse a shared resource.

So, for example, if a village shares a pasture, it's in the individual interest of each farmer to graze his cattle as much as possible on the pasture even though, in the long run, overgrazing may ruin the pasture for everyone.

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Politics
2:55 pm
Tue June 12, 2012

Where Are The Democratic Billionaires?

Democrats knew that they would be disadvantaged under the new campaign finance rules created by the Supreme Court. But the disparity between the amount of money Republicans can raise in unlimited anonymous donations and what the Democrats have been able to raise is huge.

It's All Politics
2:55 pm
Tue June 12, 2012

Justice Department Sues Florida As Voter Battle Intensifies

Credit Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images
A Republican primary voter walks to her polling precinct in January in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Originally published on Tue June 12, 2012 5:02 pm

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Florida on Tuesday to stop it from trying to remove noncitizens from its voter registration rolls.

The department says the way the state is going about doing this violates federal law. Florida says it's partly the federal government's fault for not sharing citizenship data with the state.

It's all part of the escalating battle between the Obama administration and Republican-led states over voting laws.

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Middle East
2:55 pm
Tue June 12, 2012

At Syrian Military Hospital, The Casualties Mount

Originally published on Tue June 12, 2012 6:02 pm

Syrian activists have posted thousands of videos of civilians killed and wounded in the 15-month-old conflict. But there have been many casualties on the government side as well, and they are on display at a military hospital in the capital, Damascus.

For Abdul Kareem Mustapha, a 51-year-old colonel in the Syrian army, the war came for him at 8:15 a.m. on his way to his military post.

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