Trouble for BofA; Cash for Gaza?

(1) More bad news for Bank of America: Earlier this week Bloomberg and other outlets reported on the settlement that has BofA paying Fannie/Freddie $2.8 billion, "after the U.S.-owned firms demanded the company buy back mortgages they said were based on faulty data."  This kind of news, along with WikiLeaks' claim (which we've reported here a couple of times) that they have some dirt on the gigabank, is what got BanksterUSA head Mary Bottari to include "the Demise of Bank of America" among her predictions for 2011:

The Demise of Bank of America

Read all of Mary's predictions, Full Catastrophe Banking in 2011.

(2) More Wikileaks mischief--Israel aimed to keep Gaza on the economic brink: How's your Norwegian?  'Cause the latest publication to spill U.S. diplomatic beans, courtesy of Wikileaks' trove of diplo-cables, is Norway's Aftenposten, which just published a cable, entitled CASHLESS IN GAZA?, that reveals that Israel aimed to keep Gaza's economy "on the brink of collapse".  Check out analysis and commentary at the NYT's Lede blog.

That's it for today--watch this space for live blogging (if I can figure out how to do it from my Droid!) from the Allied Social Sciences Association meetings in Denver.  I hope to be able to announce the American Economics Association's adoption of a code of ethics--but don't hold your breath.

--Chris Sturr