The stock market took a big dive this past week, but the turbulent markets bounced off their lows Monday after an industry group said existing home sales rose last month by more than economists had forecasted.
But stocks are set to resume their slide Monday as investors remain jittery about the strength of Europe's financial stability. Futures are sharply lower. The expected drop at the open comes after a tumultuous week that saw major U.S. indexes post their biggest one-day losses of the year on Thursday only to rebound and rise Friday. Still, major indexes have been hit hard in recent weeks as investors continue to worry about European sovereign debt problems.
Major European indexes all fell Monday following a bailout over the weekend of a regional bank in Spain, one of the countries already dealing with ballooning deficits. The Bank of Spain stepped in to bail out Cajasur after it failed to complete a merger. It was only the second time Spain's central bank stepped in to bail out a regional lender.
BP says it's doing all in its power to stop oil disaster — but Obama administration officials aren't too sure.
Newspaper sting catches U.K.'s Sarah Ferguson offering to sell access to ex-hubby Prince Andrew for about $750G.
Jamaica declares state of emergency in the city of Kingston as thugs loyal to alleged drug lord Christopher 'Dudus' Coke torch police station and trade gunfire with security forces.
SAN'A, Yemen -- Tribal gunmen kidnapped two American tourists in Yemen on Monday and are demanding the release of a jailed tribesman for the pair, security officials said.
Having placed 50 percent of America's economy under government control, the Obama administration is now angling for a tighter grip on the financial sector. The operative word is "fairness," which is shorthand for Obama's famous campaign promise to "spread the wealth around."
When critics said that this remark to "Joe the Plumber" displayed Obama's socialist leanings, Obama justified it by citing Scripture:
"My Bible tells me there is nothing wrong with helping other people," said then-Sen. Obama. "That we want to treat others like we want to be treated. That I am my brother's keeper, and I am my sister's keeper. I believe that."
But Obama, who once dismissed the Bible's relevance to politics, saying, "People haven't been reading their Bibles lately," may need to go reread his Engels. Co-author with Karl Marx of The Communist Manifesto, Friedrich Engels knew better than Obama about collectivism's clash with Christianity, stating, "...if some few passages of the Bible may be favourable to Communism, the general spirit of its doctrines is, nevertheless, totally opposed to it ...."
Despite Engels and Marx (who dismissed religion as the "opium of the people"), Obama and many others still manage to see socialism in the Bible. They point to the early church which, at first glance, seems like a model socialist community. The New Testament reports that these first believers "had all things in common" (Acts 4:32) and "all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need" (Acts 4:34-35).
But unlike socialism, the sharing was voluntary, not coerced, and the money was given not to the state, but the church. As Southern Baptist leader Richard Land puts it, "It's one thing for you to give out of compassion to someone who's less fortunate. It's an entirely different thing for the government to confiscate your property and give it to someone else."
While the Bible asserts property rights and the rights of inheritance, socialism assaults them.
Oh, I almost forgot the good news. It sure is "a good day to fly."
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