No Chance of Default, US Can Print Money: Greenspan  —  Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Sunday ruled out the chance of a US default following S&P's decision to downgrade America's credit rating.  —  “The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that.

European Intervention Buoys Italy and Spain  —  PARIS — The interest rates on Spanish and Italian bonds plummeted Monday after the European Central Bank expanded its purchases of government debt to support Madrid and Rome for the first time.  —  Stocks, however, fell in Europe and Asia …

Explosive Jackie O tapes ‘reveal how she believed Johnson killed JFK and had affair with movie star’  —  Jackie Onassis believed that Lyndon B Johnson and a cabal of Texas tycoons were involved in the assassination of her husband John F Kennedy, ‘explosive’ recordings are set to reveal.

Tea Party Nation: The left's killed “a billion people”  —  THIENSVILLE, Wis. — The founder of Tea Party Nation claimed liberal ideology is responsible for “a billion” deaths over the last century during a raucous rally here Saturday in support of one of the six Republican state senators facing a recall election Tuesday.

Second Recession in U.S. Could Be Worse Than First  —  If the economy falls back into recession, as many economists are now warning, the bloodletting could be a lot more painful than the last time around.  —  Given the tumult of the Great Recession, this may be hard to believe.

Wis. Dem memo: Victory predictions “dangerous”  —  MADISON Wis. — Democrats on the ground here are increasingly confident they will pick-up two state Senate seats, but are warning that winning the third necessary for a takeover is a tenuous prospect.  —  Despite hype from some in the party apparatus …

Sharia execution urged for Mubarak  —  THE spokesman for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which portrays itself as a moderate Islamic movement, has called for execution and hand amputations if the Mubaraks are found guilty of murder and corruption.  —  “If a man has stolen millions of the state's money …

Pawlenty changes his approach on health care  —  He favored exchanges and was ‘open to’ mandates.  Then he ran for president.  —  WASHINGTON - In his presidential campaign autobiography, “Courage to Stand,” former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty recalls a man in a wheelchair who approached him at an airport in Mankato.

Mark O. Hatfield, Republican Champion of Liberal Causes, Dies at 89  —  Mark O. Hatfield, a liberal Republican who challenged his party's positions on the Vietnam War and on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution during his 30 years as a Senator from Oregon, died on Sunday.  He was 89.

Cokie Roberts on Downgrade: ‘The Problem That We Have Here Is the Constitution’  —  ABC's Cokie Roberts said something on national television Sunday that made her colleague George Will shake his head on camera.  —  During a “This Week” discussion about the recent credit rating downgrade …

Credibility, Chutzpah And Debt  —  To understand the furor over the decision by Standard & Poor's, the rating agency, to downgrade U.S. government debt, you have to hold in your mind two seemingly (but not actually) contradictory ideas.  The first is that America is indeed no longer the stable, reliable country it once was.

Palestinians and the U.N.  —  In little more than a month, the Palestinians are expected to ask the United Nations to recognize their state.  We have sympathy for their yearning and their frustration.  For years, they have been promised a negotiated solution — President Obama called …

Sunday Reflection: Why the GOP should give Obama the higher taxes he wants  —  Well, the debt deal is behind us, but it's clear that the White House wants more taxes.  Instead of fighting this head-on, the GOP might want to think about future ways of giving President Obama what he says he wants.

Verizon Unions Strike as Contract Talks Fail  —  A strike of about 45,000 Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) workers continued for a second day as the New York-based phone company struggled to make progress in talks with labor unions, signaling a standoff may be prolonged.

All eyes turn to Ames  —  The most important week of the 2012 presidential race so far begins now.  —  Whatever happens in Thursday's debate and Saturday's straw poll in Ames, the Republican field is likely to be narrowed.  No candidate will come out of Ames the same as he or she went in.

Geithner tells Obama he will remain as Treasury secretary  —  Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has told President Obama he plans to remain in his job through the fall of 2012, keeping in place Obama's longest-serving economic adviser after the first-ever U.S. credit downgrade and renewed fears of a second recession.

Tottenham riots: This could happen in a dozen boroughs |  Dave Hill  —  I don't know what could have been done to avoid last night's explosion of resentment and criminality.  But I'm grimly confident of its potential elsewhere  —  The fires have been put out but the embers still burn hot …