Author: Kamelia Angelova

The domino effect of debt maturity is coming to America, says Keith McCullough, CEO of Hedgeye Risk Management. “The U.S. is on the road to perdition and it is not going to end well.”

“When you burn your currency, you promote inflation and you enrage your citizens,” says McCullough.

He says that Ben Bernanke will soon be voted out for his excess borrowing policies and failure to deliver on promises to cut the Fed’s balance sheet.

Don’t Miss..

– Europe Is So Toast, Says Hedgeye’s Keith McCullough: France, Italy Will Crash Next

– How To Invest Like Warren Buffett And Peter Lynch

– The Small Pool Of Smart VCs In New York Has Expanded

Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei

More Video: CLICK HERE >

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Green startups are tricky. They are often primarily driven by good and noble intentions about saving the environment–and that often sounds like a non-profit model to customers and VCs.

But there is one green company that has come up with a winning business model that has attracted heavyweight investors like Coca-Cola, Al Gore’s Generation IM, and Sigma, says RRE Ventures Stuart Ellman, who is backing the company.

RecycleBank has a simple model – it pays people money to recycle. And we are not talking about cents. Households signed up with the company get about $40-$50 a month (depending on how much they recycle) for doing the right thing.

“Everybody wants to be green. Everybody wants to do the right thing, but it’s amazing how many more people do it when you get paid,” say Ellman.

Don’t miss…

• Our Exclusive Interview with RecycleBank CEO Ron Gonen >

And more Green Innovation interviews:

• CAPE WIND: Wine-Sipping Hypocrites Preach Gospel Of Renewable Energy…As Long As It Doesn’t Wreck The View

• Bill Gross: Man Of A Hundred Startups Now Hellbent On Saving The World (With A Revolutionary Solar Energy Project)

Produced By: Kamelia Angelova & William Wei

More Videos: Click Here >

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Home prices finally got a boost in February in comparison to last year, but not all major cities are out of the gutter.

Almost half are seeing their prices decline year-over-year, and peak to trough stats are still dismal.

See if your city is part of the price recovery, according to the newest release of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

San Francisco, California

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): 0.36%

Annual Change (Y/Y): 12.05%

Peak To Trough: -36.9%

San Diego, California

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): 0.77%

Annual Change (Y/Y): 7.55%

Peak To Trough: -36.43%

Los Angeles, California

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): 0.2%

Annual Change (Y/Y): 5.35%

Peak To Trough: -36.2%

Washington, D.C.

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): 0.04%

Annual Change (Y/Y): 5.07%

Peak To Trough: -28.94%

Denver, Colorado

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.18%

Annual Change (Y/Y): 3.69%

Peak To Trough: -8.54%

Cleveland, Ohio

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.02%

Annual Change (Y/Y): 3.43%

Peak To Trough: -15.42%

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.9%

Annual Change (Y/Y): 3.1%

Peak To Trough: -29.28%

Dallas, Texas

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -1.39%

Annual Change (Y/Y): 2.71%

Peak To Trough: -6%

Boston, Massachusetts

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.48%

Annual Change (Y/Y): 1.81%

Peak To Trough: -14.56%

Atlanta, Georgia

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.85%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -0.86%

Peak To Trough: -20.73%

Phoenix, Arizona

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.42%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -1.58%

Peak To Trough: -51%

Charlotte, North Carolina

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.38%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -2.43%

Peak To Trough: -11.58%

Chicago, Illinois

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -1.03%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -2.88%

Peak To Trough: -26.26%

New York, New York

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.15%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -4.14%

Peak To Trough: -21.1%

Miami, Florida

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.26%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -4.36%

Peak To Trough: -47.39%

Portland, Oregon

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -1.87%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -4.74%

Peak To Trough: -21.08%

Detroit, Michigan

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.9%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -5.3%

Peak To Trough: -43.89%

Seattle, Washington

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.78%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -5.58%

Peak To Trough: -23.33%

Tampa, Florida

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.31%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -5.98%

Peak To Trough: -42.24%

Las Vegas, Nevada

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): 0.14%

Annual Change (Y/Y): -14.62%

Peak To Trough: -55.76%

20-City Composite

Monthly Change
(Jan ’10 to Feb ’10): -0.1%

Annual Change (Y/Y): 0.7%

Peak To Trough: -29.25%

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Click here to see the week’s charts as a show →

Or choose individually:

• Why The Coming Wall Street Movie Really Does Portend Another Crash
• American Consumers Return To Their Historical Pattern Of Going Nuts
• Actually, Wealthy Americans Pay A Larger Share of Federal Taxes Than Ever Before
• The Companies That Have Analysts Frantically Upping Their Earnings Estimates
• Goldman’s $12 Billion Bloodbath

Why The Coming Wall Street Movie Really Does Portend Another Crash

Some have wondered whether the forthcoming release of Wall Street II movie by Oliver Stone portends a market crash, considering that the last Wall Street was released right before the crash of 1987.

Actually, this line of reasoning understates the case.

There was actually another movie called Wall Street that came out in 1929. Of course, the market collapsed that year, too.

The release of the movie got pushed back to September, so we got a reprieve. But if history is any guide, we’re heading for trouble later this year.

American Consumers Return To Their Historical Pattern Of Going Nuts

Remember when it looked as though consumers might enter into some new age of thrift and austerity?

Well, it’s true that there was in fact a brief, unprecedented dip, but the key word is: brief.

As you can see, the steady march higher continues apace.

Actually, Wealthy Americans Pay A Larger Share of Federal Taxes Than Ever Before

David Leonhardt has a rather lengthy article in the New York Times right now, trying to discredit the significance of the fact that 47% of Americans might not pay any federal income taxes this year.

Leonhardt writes it off as a sign of generous U.S. stimulus, and then bemoans the fact that tax rates for wealthy Americans aren’t as high as they used to be in the past. He also critcizes the 47% figure for only looking at federal income taxes, not all taxes.

But there’s one tiny detail not in there… based on the latest available data from the Congressional Budget Office, wealthy Americans are paying a larger share of Total Federal Tax Liabilities (Yes, total, not income tax only) than ever in at least the last 30 years. The 47% figure the New York Times attacks just scratches surface of what is an enormous disconnect between who and who doesn’t pay for all the Federal programs everybody feels entitled to argue about. And come on, this is simply what you’d want to know — at the end of the day, who is paying the bills? Ie. what percentage they are paying, ie. what is their tax burden.

Hence… In 2006 (the latest data available), the 40% highest earning American Households paid 86% of Total Federal Tax Liabilities. The 60% lowest earning households paid just 14%. The 40% highest earners have never paid such a large share of total federal tax liabilities as far back as we found tax burden data (back to 1979). You can see that there has been a steady erosion in the bottom 60%’s contribution to total federal taxes. We don’t show it in the chart below, but in case you’re wondering, the picture is even worse for the top 10% of Americans. The top 10% of Americans paid 55.4% of total federal taxes, which was a higher share than at any time in the data period going back to 1979. In 1979 they paid 40.7% of total federal taxes, so the top 10% highest earners have taken on a substantially larger share of total taxes, ie. funding of the federal government, over time.

Given the massive stimulus benefits given out during the crisis we wouldn’t be surprised if the trend shown in the chart here has expanded even further recently. Make whatever moral judgment you will about whether or not this is fair or unfair. But it’s a fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office. We encourage you to check our numbers, you can find them here.

The Companies That Have Analysts Frantically Upping Their Earnings Estimates

Analyst expectations have been rising higher and higher for tons of U.S. companies. Here are the major names where analyst sentiment has swung the most, ie. earnings revisions have been ramped higher the most number of times, based on data from Fact Set and Waverly Advisors.

As seen here, Cisco (CSCO) takes the cake with 30 upward revisions to its Q1 earnings so far. Other notables include Texas Instruments (TXN) with 24 upward revisions, Apple (AAPL) with 20, Amazon (AMZN) with 18, Whole Foods (WFMI) with 16, Starbucks (SBUX) with 16, and Home Depot (HD) with 16. We set the cut-off for our screen at 16 revisions.

While analysts may raise their estimates for good reason, at the same time they set the expectations bar ever higher each time. Should these analyst favorites miss their ramped numbers, look out below.

Now see why analysts expect companies to wildly blow away their numbers this quarter >

Goldman’s $12 Billion Bloodbath

This chart isn’t rocket science. On Friday, the SEC announced civil fraud charges against Goldman Sachs (GS), and its shareholders proceeded to lose $12 billion.

See the pitchbook at the center of the scandal here >

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Click to see a slideshow of our charts from the week →

Or select individually:

• Banks Continue To Pull The Rug Out From Under The Economy
• Bankers Getting Paid A Lot To Sit On Their Hands And Do Jack Squat
• History Shows Why Another Sovereign Debt Crisis Is Right Around The Corner
• The Unemployment Chart You’ll Love And Hate
• Yep, The Great Money Bubble Has Come To Its End

Join the conversation about this story »

See this week’s charts as a slideshow →

• Remember When Men Used To Have Jobs?
• Is Austria The Next Euro Nation To Get Vaporized?
• All It Took Was a Few Bad Trading Days To Get Investors Terrified Of Stocks Again
• Asia Killed Us With Low-End Labor, And Now They’re About To Finish The Job
• Dr. Copper Is Telling You To BUY

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Every Thursday, we address reader questions and feedback on video.

Tomorrow, Joe Weisenthal will answer reader questions in a video segment, which we’ll post at about 11AM ET.

Joe has been writing extensively for Clusterstock and The Money Game about the economic crisis, banking industry, government, gold, and sovereign debt.

So If you have anything to ask him, fire away. You can do this until 8:00 AM ET on Thursday, in three ways:

• Leave a question in the comments below
• Tweet your question and include the word “#tbilive” (TBI Live)
• Send an email to [email protected]

We won’t have time to get to all questions, but we’ll pick a few we think everyone else might be interested in.

Thanks for participating!

See Previous Q&A Segments:
– Hey Taxpayers! Get Ready To Bail Out The FHA
– Is Congress Really So Corrupt That Wall Street Calls The Shots?

More Videos: CLICK HERE >

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Economist and historian Niall Ferguson predicts a French-German bailout of Greece and financial collapse for other European countries. U.S. might seem like a safe haven now, but with rising nominal yields at a time of low inflation and having a very large debt, there is more trouble coming our way.

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Once again, yesterday, the latest Case-Shiller proved to be a big disappointment for housing bulls, who keep waiting for that sign that slumping real estate is finally set to make a v-shaped jump.

On the whole the market is recovery very slowly.

But remember! Real estate is not a national market.

Your city could be doing great (or it might be in the toilet).

Find out here >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Case-Shiller: Still Disappointing For Housing Bulls, As 15 Of 20 Markets Fall Sequentially
• Rosenberg: Housing Is In A Depression, And It’s Already Double-Dipping
• Warren Buffett: We Need 13-Year Olds To Start Cohabitating To Clean Up The Housing Overhang

Russia is getting serious about traveling to Mars, committing $600 million to revive plans for a nuclear-powered rocket from 1970s. But one country’s money for space projects is never enough, so Russia is looking to collaborate with other states to make the rocket a reality.

One of the preferred partners is the U.S., which accounts for 80% of space spending worldwide

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Europe Held Hostage As Russia-Belarus Oil Pipeline Talks Collapse
• Fear Russia’s Girls With AK-47s
• SPACE RACE 2.0: Russia Sending Monkey To Mars With A Robot Babysitter

Dubai is going bankrupt but the Middle East still remains an epicenter of wealth and extravagance.

The unveiling of the world’s tallest building Buji Dubai this week is one sign that there is money to be spent (and hopefully made) there.

Arab businessmen have taken over not only their local markets but have turned their companies global, racking up billions.

Get to know these names. You’ll probably be doing business with one of their companies soon.

See the Richest Arab Business People >

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See Also:

• Holy Sh#$! Check Out Video From The Top Of Burj Dubai Tower
• Echoes Of Dubai As Saudi Prince Shifts Citi Shares To Prop Up Kingdom Holdings
• Watch The Official Opening Of The Burj Dubai–The Tallest Building In The World!

The latest Case-Shiller numbers came out yesterday, and while they confirmed that the plunge in housing is basically over, the market still remains very weak.

But actually there’s no national market, but several local markets. It’s a cliché, but it’s true.

Take a quick spin through the numbers to find out if your city is still in housing hell, or if it’s on the mend.

Now, take a look at the cities — >

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See Also:

• The 60-Second Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Oil, Gold, Bonds, China, And Stocks In 2010
• Case-Shiller: Housing Recovery Still Weak, October Decline Of 7.3% Slightly Worse Than Forecast

Shopping malls in the US are hanging on, but their glory days have passed.

Between the weakened US consumer and the rise of e-commerce, US malls have become depressing places.

But around the world, where a newly-emergent middle-class is building up its desire to spend, malls aren’t depressing at all.

We do still have a few biggies here, but the real action is in places like Dubai, Brazil, and China.

These gigantic shopping malls have amazing attractions, entertainment, movie theaters, and of course, lots and lots of shopping.

See the largest malls outside of America >

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Shareholders of Nike, Gatorade and other Tiger Woods sponsors lost some $5 billion to $12 billion due to the scandal involving his extramarital affairs, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis.

The researchers don’t expect the share prices to rebound any time soon.

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See Also:

• Tag Heuer Stands By Woods, Puts Golfer Front And Center On Its Website!
• Accenture Launches Frenzied Global Campaign To Disappear Tiger Woods
• What To Do When Your Celebrity Endorser Has A PR Crisis

While bullet trains in Europe were stuck due to bad weather last week, China launched a new high speed train on Saturday that travels with an average speed of 217 mph. The Harmony Express can reach up to 243 mph, which makes it the fastest train in the world.

It travels the distance of 683 miles from Wuhan to Guangzhou in less than 3 hours that previously took 11 hours. [Examiner: Compare that to Amtrak’s Silver Meteor – the 641-mile journey from New York to Charleston, SC takes 14 hours.]

See Photos of Chinese Bullet Train >

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First, there were the failed banks.

Then, countries started to fold. 

2009 has been the year of shrinking budgets, and economic slowdown for many nations.

In 2010, sovereign defaults are expected to be the economic story.

While many of these survivors have their own troubles, their problems are so far from the dire situations in Dubai, Greece and the UK, that they’re great safe havens for investors.

We have our picks for the world’s safest sovereigns, based on a report of CMA DataVision.

See the governments that will survive the sovereign credit meltdown >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Deutsche Bank: Sovereign Debt And Tighter Money Are Big Risks, But Equities Will Gain 20%
• Morgan Stanley: First Comes The Banking Crisis, Then Comes The Sovereign Debt Crisis
• The 10 Countries Most Likely To Default

Dubai’s economic meltdown was a warning sign of further sovereign default troubles for other governments.

CMA, a credit information specialist, tracks the world’s most volatile sovereign debt issuers according to percentage changes in their 5 year Credit Default Swaps.

On top of their list for the greatest sovereign risks are countries from the former Russian Eastern Bloc, conflict-torn nations, and an oil-rich dictatorship.

See the next round of governments to go bankrupt >

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