Word: moneyitis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...least, in a certain sort of America: the land of simple truths, where nothing Barack Obama does makes sense. I mean, why bail out the big banks when they're the ones that caused all the troubles in the first place? And why spend more money when you're already running a deficit? That's not what Americans do: they sit - inevitably - around the kitchen table and tighten their belts. And what's all this about global warming? The White House is up to its Truman Balcony in snow. And why not just whack the Iranians before they...
...pensioners were bent on revenge, prosecutors say. So they allegedly did what some who've lost fortunes in the downturn have probably thought about at one point or another: they allegedly abducted their financial adviser and locked him in a cellar for days, demanding he help them get their money back. Now the retirees - all over the age of 60 - are on trial for kidnapping, and they seem as feisty and unrepentant as ever...
...this week that they didn't intend to kidnap the victim, identified as James A. He said he and his friend and fellow investor, 60-year-old Wilhelm D, met with the investment specialist in the town of Speyer in June 2009 for a "final chat" about getting their money back. But when they realized that their savings were gone for good, he said they became enraged. (See the top 10 crime stories...
...According to prosecutors, the retirees - dubbed the Pensioner Gang by the German media - interrogated James and even threatened at one point to kill him if he didn't find a way to return their money. (There was allegedly a gun in the house.) After four days, the pensioners forced James to send a fax to his bank in Switzerland to transfer funds to their accounts. And that was their undoing. The frightened consultant wrote, "Sell 100 Call.pol.ICE" on the fax, and a bank employee alerted authorities in Germany. An armed police squad stormed the house and freed James...
...Roland didn't deny being angry at James, calling him a "liar and a crook" in court. He said that the retirees met James while on vacation years ago in Florida and that he persuaded them to invest their money in the U.S. housing market, promising the group a profit margin of 18%. Following the subprime-market collapse in the U.S., Roland now claims that James "tricked us and took us for a ride...