FICRY

Can the recession save children’s lives? According to economist Michael Greenstone, a decrease in global production due to the current crisis has spared the lives of “…between 257 and 451 British, between 1.104 and 1,933 American, and probably between 58,088 and 101,655 Chinese babies” through the reduction of global emissions (Economist June 2009 issue).  He [...]

Tens of thousands of civilian contractors have aided U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Civilian contractors perform such indispensable tasks as “delivering fuel to frontline troops, guarding U.S. diplomats and translating for soldiers during dangerous raids.” In the process, many of these contractors have suffered devastating and physical and psychological injuries. However, ProPublica reports [...]

Writing for the Washington Post Foreign Service, Blaine Harden reports that for Kim Jong Il’s birthday, North Korean insurance managers delivered “$20 million in cash into two heavy-duty bags and sent them, via Beijing.” The cash was given to Korean insurance managers by their international counterparts. The money is reimbursements for fraudulent claims.
This incident highlights [...]

Production drove the boom. Now that it’s Bust will workers demand their fair share? Reporting from China, Caijin Online correspondent Andy Xie, claims that the financial sector overestimated its worth by more than 100%, and that in light of this realization, the global financial sector will shrink to half its size. This will cause a [...]

Investments in unconventional markets are relatively immune to Wall Streets whims, but despite the potential for growth and profit, small-scale lending institutions have been victims of FICRY’s sweeping, invisible hand.
In December of 2007, “socially responsible” investments constituted 10% of all professionally managed assets. In good economic times institutions as well as individuals looked [...]

Truly the FICRY has no mercy if we can’t even rely on professional athletics to distract us from our financial worries. Soccer, known globally as football, is feeling the heat of the crisis. While individual teams have struggled with the recession, entire leagues are now at risk of going under faster than Didier Drogba goes [...]

Not to be outdone by other people we previously thought were rich, the Vatican has stolen the spotlight from the Queen of England by reporting a deficit for the second year in a row. Blaming the FICRY, the Holy See released its budget for the past year, showing a deficit of .9 million Euro, [...]

The United Kingdom’s economy posted its sharpest decline in more than fifty years, according to a source for the Wall Street Journal. The GDP shrank a staggering 4.1% so far in 2009. This figure is a nosedive away from the 1.9% economic shrinkage predicted during the first quarter. James Knightley, U.K. economist at ING, said [...]

James Amburn, a financial advisor in Speyer, Germany, was recently kidnapped and tortured by investors who blame him for losing £2million of their savings. As Amburn left his home, the kidnappers ambushed him, bound him in masking tape, and forced him into a car. After 300 miles of driving, they then led him into a [...]

We’ve seen the FICRY used as an excuse for a lot of bad behavior, but this example might just take the cake. As reported in The New York Times this morning, deep in the Andes lies a smelting plant owned by New York billionaire Ira Rennert, which is slowly but surely killing all the people [...]