A new study is touting “hard headed socialism” as Environics Analytics WealthScapes published in the Globe and Mail, that the net worth of the average Canadian household in 2011 was $363,202, while the average American household’s net worth was $319,970.
Comments »Strangling the Republic
“For several decades, Corporate America has been squeezing the life out of what’s left of the democratic Republic, applying steady pressure from well-funded right-wing media and political groups. This year, under the cloak ofCitizens United, the deed might finally be completed, observes Beverly Bandler.”
Comments »U.S. Considering Criminal Charges in Libor Case
“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department is building criminal cases against severalfinancial institutions and their employees related to the manipulation of interest rates, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Citing government officials close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Times said traders at Barclays Plc were among the individuals against whom Justice was building cases. Authorities expect to file charges against at least one bank later this year, the newspaper reported.”
Comments »“Don’t Worry We Will Regulate Ourselves”
“A government program that allows businesses to implement “voluntary protection” for its workers has resulted in missed inspections, numerous industrial accidents and at least 80 deaths.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s Voluntary Protection Program(VPP) was set up for businesses and federal agencies with good safety records. VPP allows participants to avoid federal inspectors visiting their sites, even at chemical plants, shipyards and sawmills. They can avoid revaluation for the program for up to five years.
While VPP companies have skipped inspections, at least 80 workers have died at these sites since 2000, according to an investigation by The Center for Public Integrity. In addition, investigators found serious safety violations at least 47 of these locales.”
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USDA: America Experiencing Biggest Disaster in History
“More than half of the United States hosts areas considered natural disaster sites by the US Department of Agriculture following a ravaging dry spell that has left more than 1,000 counties in 26 different states destroyed.
The USDA says droughts and fires are to blame for their recent labeling of much of the US as being in a state of natural disaster. Among those effected by damage, reports Bloomberg News, are around one-third of the country’s farmers, which contributes in making this declaration the largest ever of its kind by the Department of Agriculture.
“Agriculture remains a bright spot in our nation’s economy,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack tells the country this week in an official statement. “We need to be cognizant of the fact that drought and weather conditions have severely impacted farmers around the country.”
States that contain the 1,016 counties considered natural disaster sites include California, Texas, Illinois, Florida and Hawaii, to name a few. More than half of the Midwest region — the heartland of America’s agriculture community — is currently experiencing moderate to extreme droughts.”
Comments »Italy’s Bond Rating Cut By Moody’s On Contagion, Funding Risks
via Bloomberg
Italy’s bond rating was cut and its negative outlook reiterated by Moody’s Investors Service as the euro area’s third-biggest economy faces higher funding costs and contagion risk from Greece and Spain.
The ratings company lowered Italy’s government bond rating by two steps to Baa2 from A3, citing a greater risk of a Greek exit from the euro and the Spanish banking system experiencing greater credit losses, according to a statement released in Frankfurt today. That makes Italy’s rating the same as those of Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and Brazil, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Italy’s near-term economic outlook has deteriorated, as manifest in both weaker growth and higher unemployment, which creates risk of failure to meet fiscal consolidation targets,” Moody’s said. “Failure to meet fiscal targets in turn could weaken market confidence further, raising the risk of a sudden stop in market funding.”
The euro fell toward a two-year low after the downgrade. The 17-nation currency bought $1.2189 as of 9:06 a.m. in Tokyo, from $1.2203 yesterday in New York, when it touched $1.2167, the least since June 2010.
READ THE REST HERE
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The Market Has Spoken, and It Is Rigged
“Simon Johnson is the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and co-author of “White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You.”
In the aftermath of the Barclays rate-fixing scandal, the most surprising reaction has been from people in the financial sector who fully understand the awfulness of what has happened. Rather than seeing this as an issue of law and order, some well-informed people have been drawn toward arguments that excuse or justify the behavior of the Barclays employees.”
Comments »Russell Wasendorf Sr., PFGBest Founder, Forged Bank Docs For Years In Massive Cover-Up
Maybe with all the money the government is raising with settlements they could do a little better of a job of catching crooks.
Comments »Spain Imposes More Austerity
MADRID (AP) – Spain’s government imposed more austerity measures on the beleaguered country Wednesday as it unveiled sales tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at shaving €65 billion ($79.85 billion) off the state budget over the next two and a half years.
A day after winning European Union approval for a huge bank bailout and breathing space on its deficit program, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned Parliament that Spain’s future was at stake as it grapples with recession, a bloated deficit and investor wariness of its sovereign debt.
“We are living in a crucial moment which will determine our future and that of our families, that of our youths, of our welfare state,” Rajoy said to catcalls from the opposition socialists and other parties as he revealed the biggest single amount of projected deficit savings in modern Spanish history.
He spoke as thousands of miners stung by a huge cut in government subsidies marched through downtown Madrid and clashed with riot police outside the Industry Ministry.
The spending cuts, designed to cut €65 billion off state budgets by 2015, include a wage cut for civil servants and members of the national parliament and a new wave of closures at state-owned companies. Spain will also speed up a gradual increase in the retirement age from 65 to 67. They are to be approved officially Friday at a Cabinet meeting.
Spain has had to digest round after round of austerity measures since Rajoy’s conservative government took power in December. Until now, there have been €60 billion ($73.71 billion) in spending cuts and tax hikes by the central government or regional administrations. If you include measures taken by the previous, Socialist government, the number goes up to €75 billion. Now, albeit spread over two-and-a-half years, comes another €65 billion.
Read here:
Comments »How Cronyism is Hurting the Economy
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSgUENZ9O94 450 300]
Comments »LIBOR Was A Criminal Conspiracy From The Start
“So far, everybody who’s said anything about the Libor rigging affair appears to have been lying. And if Nouriel Roubini can call for “somebody hanging in the streets”, I can at least call for all the Libor liars to go to jail for it. AND lose all their money, benefits, pensions, everything.”
Comments »San Bernardino Is The Third California City To Go Bankrupt In Two Weeks
“SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — As recently as last month, no city in California had opted for bankruptcy since 2008, and no U.S. city of more than 200,000 people had ever chosen bankruptcy.
The past two weeks have changed all that, in a big way, as the fiscal struggles faced by so many American cities became too much for some to bear.
San Bernardino became the third California city in that small span to choose Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection with a City Council vote on Tuesday night.”
Comments »“The Impairments of Capital Formation are Now So Profound That No One and Nothing Can Be Trusted’
“News that that a swarm of termites deep inside the British banking system have been fiddling the interbank interest rates (LIBOR) for years in order to systematically vacuum a few billion pence off the exchange floors for themselves is the latest blow to the credibility of the global money system – and probably a fine overture to a looming climactic implosion of the gigantic, creaking, smoldering, reeking, duck-taped edifice of broken promises, booby-trapped hedge obligations, counterparty follies, central bank euchres, sovereign flim-flams, and countless chicanes too various, dark, and deep to smoke out.”
Comments »$220 Million of Customer Funds Goes Missing at PFGBest
The founder of the firm attempted suicide and a broker is missing. A mini MF Global drama for investor confidence….
Comments »The Theft of American Homes
Antiquated laws are allowing big banks to literally steal homes from the elderly and other vulnerable home owners who owe just a few hundred dollars in back taxes.
Comments »{VIDEO} Reporter Golfs Through Entire City Of Detroit
Libor Scandal: Manipulation Spanned Decades, According To Reports
Analysis: Eurozone Fragmenting Faster than EU Can Act
The ECB Has No Further Plans to Stimulate the Economy or Support the Debt Crisis
“The view of the governing council is that we don’t need additional non-standard measures at the current juncture,” Coeure said when asked if the ECB may implement quantitative easing. “It’s not on the table at the current juncture,”
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