Legal mist stokes US-Iran tensions in strait Asia Times. Very interesting reading on the incident (or not) in the Straits of Hormuz. Turns out our right to have surveillance ships there is (to put the kindest possible spin on it) far from clear.
Baltimore Finds Subprime Crisis Snags Women New York Times. Sad but not surprising. Mystery shoppers have repeatedly found that women get charged more for cars on dealers’ lots, even when they are informed and hondle. But this factiod was striking:
Though women and men have roughly the same credit scores, the Consumer Federation of America found that women were 32 percent more likely to receive subprime loans than men. The disparity existed within every income and ethnic group. Blacks and Latinos are also more likely to get subprime loans than comparable white borrowers….“The striking thing is that the disparity between men and women actually goes up as income rises,” said Allen J. Fishbein, director of credit and housing policy for the Consumer Federation of America. Among high earners — defined as people earning twice the median income — black women are as much as five times more likely to receive subprime mortgages than white men.
Subprime or Bubble: What’s the Bigger Problem? Dean Baker. OK, now that you’ve read (or have the gist) of the article above, read this post.
EU launches new Microsoft antitrust probe Financial Times and EU Regulators Begin New Microsoft Probes Wall Street Journal. Stay tuned, this will be an important story. For once, the Journal and FT are on the same page, but notice how much more compact yet complete the FT’s discussion is.
Better Times Ahead for Financials , Citigroup? 1440 Wall Street. Is a fall in the TED spread a (comparatively) bullish sign for financial stocks? Not a bet I’d make, but different points of view are what make a market.
Video Ads Are Planned for Grocery Carts AP News. Has anyone asked whether I want ads in my grocery cart? The very though is enough to make me boycott those who subjected me to their promos.
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Minor point:
“Mystery shoppers have repeatedly found that women get charged more for cars on dealers’ lots, even when they are informed and hondle.”
Hondle?