Weekend News Roundup

New York to lead US cities in job losses - My key reason why I believe real estate in tri-state area will continue to decline for years to come. North East is behind the curve but catching up with other areas.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown urges banks to come clean over bad assets - Echos what I previously blogged, the urgent need for world finance adopting complete economic transparency to restore trust.
Societe Generale said on Thursday that the United States' economy looks likely to enter a depression and China's could implode. - People will sell their stocks at the bottom.....
Zimbabwe unveils $100 trillion banknote - Gotta love it! Pure currency printing at its finest. Zero trust currency gone to the greatest extremes possible.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he will announce a new banks rescue package on Monday aimed at encouraging them to restart lending. - Britain is following the US's lead of digging a bigger hole. Britain to guarantee loans made by banks, where is the sanity?
California controller to suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants - Nothing to see here, move along. Focus on the banks, not government and state solvency.
Obama team weighs government bank to ease crisis - Basically the plan is to take the "worst" losses from banks, pretend they have higher value than reality, and have the taxpayer cover the losses. Great plan, pay private debt with public debt. Now if I can only get the government to cover my Amex bill.....
Link to FDIC Bank failures web site - Another one bites the dust, small Bank in Washington
ConocoPhillips writes off $34B in noncash assets - Yikes! One of the reasons I don't like buying oil companies.
S&P strips Spain of its AAA credit rating - Wonder when the USA will face this?
Ukraine Bonds Indicate possible Default
The price investors pay to insure themselves against the U.S. government defaulting on its debt jumped to a record high on Monday - Apparently its not just me concerned the US Government will stumble from high debt.
New Zealand inflation fall in Q4 biggest in 10 years
Royal Bank of Scotland expected to be nationalized
Fiat to take 35% stake in Chrysler
Bank of England to buy private securities - When the government starts taking ownership of private corporations, this can't be good.
Huge natural gas field off Israel’s coast found - ug, UNG cant go well.....
Asia computer sales drop for first time in 10 years
State Street: $9 Billion in potential Losses - Ugh, I had these guys shorted a while back, got shaken out.
Time to Sell US Treasuries, Biggest Korean Fund Says - I agree with this sentiment, see previous posts. However I don't think it needs to be an urgent sell, over next 6 months to a year.
Pressure on HSBC to let US sub-prime unit go bankrupt
Over 8 in 10 corporations have tax havens - Yea, the US doesn't have basic issues. Companies get profits, and avoid taxes. I want a tax haven for individuals.
Irish government plans to take steps to fully nationalize Anglo Irish Banks
Bank of America's Secret Backroom Bailout - Public media outraged? Come on, its "unlimited" taxpayer money...didn't anyone tell Yahoo that giving money away will save us all? No damage done!

I stopped at news back to the 15th, there is just too much to go through. One theme, this is a death spiral.