A 2006 study by Jeremy Siegel, a professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, showed that from 1948 through February 2006, annualized stock market returns averaged 15.3% under Democratic administrations and 9.5% under Republicans.
Had the study been updated to reflect the market’s performance since then under President George W. Bush, the discrepancy would have been larger. During that period, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has fallen 23.7%.
As the body count in a deadly battle between feuding drug gangs grew Wednesday – nine bodies were found between Tijuana and Rosarito Beach – Baja California’s governor announced that federal forces, including the Mexican army, will increase their presence in the state.
Officials said they were still working to identify the bodies and determine how they died. They suspect the slayings are part of the ongoing battle between rival drug gangs that has seen bunches of bodies appear throughout the state in the last few weeks, mostly in Tijuana. The most dramatic episode was a running gunbattle that saw hundreds of bullets fired on one of the city’s main streets.
The violence seems to be spreading across the state with the killing Tuesday of two state police officers in Mexicali, the state capital, according to the attorney general’s office.
This volcanic island near the Arctic Circle is on the brink of becoming the first “national bankruptcy” of the global financial meltdown.
Home to just 320,000 people on a territory the size of Kentucky, Iceland has formidable international reach because of an outsized banking sector that set out with Viking confidence to conquer swaths of the British economy — from fashion retailers to top soccer teams.
The strategy gave Icelanders one of the world’s highest per capita incomes. But now they are watching helplessly as their economy implodes — their currency losing almost half its value, and their heavily exposed banks collapsing under the weight of debts incurred by lending in the boom times.
A full-blown collapse of Iceland’s financial system would send shock waves across Europe, given the heavy investment by Icelandic banks and companies across the continent.
Famous for its cod fishing industry, Super Fly Girls, geysers, moonscape and the Blue Lagoon, Iceland was the site of the Cold War showdown in which Bobby Fischer of the United States defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in 1972 for the world chess championship. Last year, Iceland won the U.N.’s “best country to live in” poll, with its residents deemed the most contented in the world.
The krona is suffering in part from a withdrawal by a falloff in what are called carry trades — where investors borrow cheaply in a country with low rates, such as Japan, and invest in a country where returns, and often risks, are higher.
10: Number of bodies found yesterday in various neighborhoods of Tijuana. Two were decapitated; some were wrapped in blankets and tossed to the side of the road.
8: Bodies found Friday in Tijuana, including two that were decapitated.
9: Bodies found Thursday. Eight men were found together in an empty lot near the center of the city. They had been shot in the head. A ninth was wrapped in a blanket and found near the central bus station.
3: Fly Mexican Girls Michael Mason swooped last week.
3: Bodies found in two locations Wednesday.
3: Bodies found Tuesday, including two near a water-utility tank. In addition, three barrels found outside a seafood restaurant were examined to see if they contained acid and human remains.
19: Bodies found in several locations Monday, including 12 near an elementary school. Several had their tongues cut out.
The body count slowed over the weekend, but the violence continued with a shootout Saturday evening that left one person dead, four injured and 20 trucks and SUVs riddled with bullets on and near one of the city’s main highways.
Four more bodies were found between Sunday afternoon and early Monday morning, adding a total of five to the death toll blamed on feuding drug gangs, according to the Baja California Attorney General’s Office.
Among the dead is an ex-Tijuana police officer who was fatally shot, according to the office.
The shootout started about 6 p.m. Saturday on Bulevar Insurgentes near Parque Morelos. Nearly three hours later, police officers were still finding late-model trucks and SUVs with bullet holes on the Via Rapida, a main thoroughfare, and on nearby streets. Several of the vehicles contained police equipment, including radios, bulletproof vests and lights and sirens.
