US's economy trouble maker has revealed

US sues 17 big banks over financial-crisis losses

By Alexander Osipovich | AFP News – 11 hours ago

Related Content

• Enlarge PhotoA view of Fannie Mae headquarters is seen in Washington, DC, 2008. US authorities …
• Enlarge Photo US authorities on Friday sued 17 major banks for losses on mortgage-backed securities …

US authorities on Friday sued 17 top US and foreign banks over "billions of dollars" in losses on mortgage-backed securities that plunged in value in the 2008 financial crisis.
In court filings the Federal Housing Finance Agency alleged that in some cases the lenders committed fraud in selling nearly $190 billion in securities to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which had to be bailed out by the government.

US firms targeted in the suits included Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, General Electric, Ally Financial and First Horizon.
The foreign banks were Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Credit Suisse, Barclays, Nomura, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Societe Generale.

The FHFA also sued two former mortgage giants -- Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch -- which are

It' s Yoyo' s time

Stocks Dive Again on Europe, Economy Fears

Dow Sheds Nearly 520 Points; Investors Flock to Bonds Despite Record Low Yields; Rumors Swirl of Weakness in France.

By TOM LAURICELLA, MATT PHILLIPS and DAVID ENRICH

Stock prices tumbled Wednesday, led downward by some of the world's biggest banks. But bond investors offered a potentially more ominous assessment of prospects for the global economy, pouring money into the safety of U.S. Treasury bonds despite yields that are near their lowest levels in history.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 519.83 points, or 4.62% to 10719.94, more than wiping out the gains posted in Tuesday's sizable late-day rally. It was the Dow's fourth triple-digit move in five days and brings its declines since its April peak to more than 16%. The index is less than 500 points away from officially being in a bear market, defined as a decline of 20%.

Asian shares Thursday morning moved lower. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.6%; Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.4%; South Korea's Kospi Composite dropped 1.8% after slumping over 4% at the opening; and New Zealand's NZX-50 was 0.1% lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged to an 11-month low as investors were squeezed between fears of further contagion among European banks and the Federal Reserve's gloomy economic outlook. Paul Vigna has details.

.In Europe, rumors swirled about the health of French banks and the possibility that France could lose its AAA credit rating as the country's borrowing costs rise. The main indexes for stock markets in France, Germany, Spain and Italy each shed more than 5% of their value.

The market gyrations and clear worries about the health of the U.S. and European economies sparked a volley of phone calls between senior administration officials, including President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and European leaders. Mr. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also met with President Obama Wednesday, but no new steps were announced to address the market volatility.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been calling banks with increased frequency amid

Stocks are on the sky again

Stocks Rally Ahead of Fed

By STEVEN RUSSOLILLO

NEW YORK—U.S. stocks rose Tuesday morning in what is expected to be another volatile session as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's policy statement and any hint that the central bank will be able to calm markets and boost the economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently up 228 points, or 2.1%, at 11037. The index briefly turned negative shortly after the opening bell, but has rallied since.

Bank of America led the measure higher, rising 4.8% after tumbling 20% in Monday's rout. J.P. Morgan Chase gained 4%. The Dow fell 635 points on Monday, the sixth-biggest point drop in its history, to close at a 10-month low.

The blue-chip index fell beneath 11000 for the first time since November in the wake of Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. government's credit rating. Jittery investors have fretted over government debt and the possibility that the economy could slide into another recession.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbed 26 points, or 2.3%, to 1145, led higher by financial and material stocks. Financial stocks were hit the hardest in Monday's drubbing. The technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite gained 61 points, or 2.6%, to 2418.

US Stock Exchange bloodbath

..World stocks slide further

By Ben Perry
AFP News – Sat, Aug 6, 2011.

Enlarge Photo.A display board showing the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong. Hong Kong shares dived …

Enlarge Photo.Closings for Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul and Taipei stock markets. Global stocks plunged …

AP - Sat, Aug 6, 2011.....Surprisingly robust US jobs data sparked only a brief rebound on Wall Street and in Europe on Friday, leaving investors scarred from a week of heavy losses brought on by slow growth and eurozone debt concerns.

European stock markets initially dived 3.0-4.0 percent after heavy falls in Asia, and rally quickly lost steam following the announcement that the US economy gained a net 117,000 jobs in July.

London's FTSE-100 index closed down 2.71 percent to 5,246.99 points for a weekly loss of 9.8 percent, wiping nearly £150 billion ($246 billion, 173 billion euros) off its total value over the last five days.

In Frankfurt, the DAX dropped 2.78 percent to 6,236.16 points, dropping 13.3 percent over the week.

In Paris, the CAC-40 slid 1.26 percent to 3,278.56 points to chalk up a record 10th consecutive daily loss. It lost 10.7 percent over the week.

In highly volatile trading, Madrid and Milan rebounded for part of the day on rumours that that the European Central Bank was preparing to buy hard-hit Spanish and Italian bonds, before falling back.
Madrid ended the day down 0.18 percent and dropped 10 percent over the week, while Milan fell 0.70 percent on Friday and lost 13.12 percent for the week.

Wall Street also opened higher on the surprisingly strong jobs data, but the rally quickly fizzled.

S & P downgraded long term US debt rank

S&P Strips U.S. of Top Credit Rating

By DAMIAN PALETTA and MATT PHILLIPS

A cornerstone of the global financial system was shaken Friday when officials at ratings firm Standard & Poor's said U.S. Treasury debt no longer deserved to be considered among the safest investments in the world.

S&P downgraded the U.S. government's AAA sovereign credit rating, an unprecedented action that could send shock waves through the global financial system. WSJ's Money & Investing Editor, Francesco Guerrera, reports. (Photo: Getty Images)

.S&P removed for the first time the triple-A rating the U.S. has held for 70 years, saying the budget deal recently brokered in Washington didn't do enough to address the gloomy outlook for America's finances. It downgraded long-term U.S. debt to AA+, a score that ranks below more than a dozen governments', including Liechtenstein's, and on par with Belgium's and New Zealand's. S&P also put the new grade on "negative outlook," meaning the U.S. has little chance of regaining the top rating in the near term.

The unprecedented move came after several hours of high-stakes drama. It began in the morning, when word leaked that a downgrade was imminent and stocks tumbled. Around 1:30 p.m., S&P officials notified the Treasury Department that they planned to downgrade U.S. debt and presented the government with their findings. Treasury officials noticed a $2 trillion error in S&P's math that delayed an announcement for several hours. S&P officials decided to move ahead, and after 8 p.m. they made their downgrade official.

Japan win women soccer world cup 2011

Japan wins 1st World Cup title in penalty shootout

By NANCY ARMOUR, AP National Writer / 19 minutes ago

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)—Amid the sorrow that lingers throughout Japan, the determined women on its World Cup team may have brought a little joy.

Japan beat the Americans for the title in a riveting final Sunday, 3-1 on penalties after rallying from behind twice in a 2-2 draw. The star of the shootout was dogged goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori, who made two brilliant saves in the shootout.
All tournament the teammates poignantly reminded the world they were playing for their battered country, still reeling from the devastation of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Winning goalie Ayumi Kaihori of Japan made two saves in the shootout.

They held the gleaming trophy high above their smiling faces as confetti swirled around the podium, flecking their hair with gold.

“Before we went to the match tonight we had some commentary on television and we heard comments on the situation in Japan,” coach Norio Sasaki said. “We wanted to use this opportunity to thank the people back home for the support that has been given.”

This was Japan’s first appearance in the final of a major tournament, and they had not beaten the Americans

Great story of this year 2011

Police: Train ticket helps crack 1957 Ill. killing

By BARBARA RODRIGUEZ - Associated Press
AP – Sat, Jul 2, 2011

...The grave site of Maria Ridulph at Elmwood Cemetery is shown in Sycamore, Ill., on …

....SYCAMORE, Ill. (AP) — Charles "Chuck" Ridulph always assumed the person who stole his little sister from the neighborhood corner where she played and dumped her body in a wooded stretch some 100 miles away was a trucker or passing stranger — surely not anyone from the hometown he remembers as one big, friendly playground.

And, after more than a half century passed since her death, he assumed the culprit also had died or was in prison for some other crime.

On Saturday, he said he was stunned by the news that a one-time neighbor had been charged in the kidnapping and killing that captured national attention, including that of the president and FBI chief. Prosecutors in bucolic Sycamore, a city of 15,000 that's home to a yearly pumpkin festival, charged a former police officer Friday in the 1957 abduction of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph after an ex-girlfriend's discovery of an unused train ticket blew a hole in his alibi.

Jack Daniel McCullough, 71, has been held in Seattle on $3 million bail. A judge overseeing a Saturday court appearance for him said he had been taken to a regional trauma center but did not elaborate. She rescheduled his bail hearing for 12:30 p.m. Monday.

"I just can't believe that after all these years they'd be able to find this guy," Chuck Ridulph told The Associated Press at his duplex in Sycamore, about 50 miles west of Chicago.

A 65-year-old minister who mainly serves his area's senior citizens, Ridulph once shared a bedroom with his sister and already has his headstone placed on a burial plot next to her grave. With McCullough's arrest, he worries about a drawn-out legal process that will dredge up bad memories but also perhaps answer some nagging, stomach-churning questions about what happened to the little girl who loved to play dress up.

"It's in my every thought, even in my dreams," he said of his sister's death. "It was just like it was yesterday. It comes up all the time in conversation."