Stocks tumble as congressman predicts economic riots in America

 

Louisiana Republican Rep. John Fleming

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/272079.html

Stocks tumbled again on fears of the rapidly approaching fiscal cliff in the United States and a failure by eurozone finance ministers and the IMF to decide how Greece will resolve its sovereign debt and payoff the banksters at Société Générale, Deutsche Bank, Eurobank, and other loan sharking institutions.

"This morning the reasons du jour started out with Europe and the kerfuffle over Greece and then you have the fiscal cliff," Michael Holland, chairman of New York-based Holland & Co., told Bloomberg News.

"We're not out of the woods yet," said Guillaume Duchesne, an equity strategist at BGL BNP Paribas SA in Luxembourg. He added that a resolution of the financial crisis threatening to extend the recession for the foreseeable future depends on the leadershipof Obama.

According to Rep. John Fleming, we won't be getting out of the woods anytime soon, especially with Obama at the helm. "It looks like we're going to have to go through the same or similar pain [as Greece] to get real reforms," the Louisiana Republican told the Daily Caller on Sunday.

He said that if the current economic trend is not reversed, "what's going to happen is there's going to be a day of reckoning that gets into a serious situation where we have to make tough choices." Prison Planet

HIGHLIGHTS

Fleming told The Daily Caller that, ever since President Barack Obama's re-election last Tuesday, he has been advising Americans to play it safe financially because he believes the economy - and the state of the country - may soon get much worse. The Daily Caller

Fleming said he's telling concerned constituents and business owners to "not extend yourselves in debt, make sure that you pay off things, don't get into debt with credit cards, stay as liquid as possible. Don't take risks, and don't get into debt. You need to stay less vulnerable economically over the next two to four years, in hopes that the economy will sort itself out, and that Washington will get its act together." The Daily Caller

"What I fear is we're going to be too late, and we're going to run into a Greece-like situation, where we have riots and unemployment levels are up around 11 percent. That's what we've been trying to avoid," Fleming said. The Daily Caller

The so-called "cliff" comes on Jan. 1, when several tax cuts expire, and severe cuts to government spending are triggered. It's also been called "taxmageddon," because an average American family will see their tax bill increase $3,700 next year. ABC News

In total, the measures are set to automatically slash the federal budget deficit by $607 billion or approximately 4 percent of GDP between FY 2012 and FY 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). CFR

Any deal, all agree, would have to include revenue increases as well as budget cuts. A key question is whether any new revenue includes changes in tax rates - specifically, an end to the Bush-era tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000, which is what President Obama has been pushing and Rep. Boehner says "no" to. Christian Science Monitor

The IMF says the U.S. economy could fall back into recession if Congress fails to avert the package of tax hikes and spending cuts. Reuters

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Thousands take to streets in Argentina to protest economic woes (PHOTOS)

 

Aerial view of people gathering during a "cacerolazo" (a form of civilian protest where pots are used to make noise) against Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's government in Cordoba, Argentina on November 8, 2012 (AFP Photo)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/argentina-protest-march-government-304/

Thousands of Argentineans gathered in the streets of capital Buenos Aires to voice anger against the government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The rally, reportedly the biggest in a decade, was organized on social networks.

­The protesters banged pots and pans as they rallied against soaring inflation and sky-high levels of crime and corruption. Many demonstrators also said that they were driven to protest by the prospect of President Fernandez seeking a third term in office.

The president’s supporters in Congress have lobbied for a constitutional amendment allowing Fernandez to run for a third consecutive term in 2015. President Fernandez was reelected to a second term in 2011, but her popularity has plummeted since she assumed office.

Protesters also spoke out against restrictions on the purchase of dollars that were introduced last year and ramped up this year. The new law has made it harder for Argentineans worried about inflation to trade in their currency.

Official data on inflation in the country puts the current rate at 12%, though some economists predict the actual figure is much higher.

The International Monetary Fund warned Argentina in September that the country could face sanctions if it fails to produce reliable growth and bring down inflation by December.

The Argentinean leadership has claimed that the economic crisis gripping the country is the result of a global recession, not government policy.

 

 

Image from instagram.com @sofidangavs

 

 

Image from twitter.com @AntonellaMarty

 

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US welfare spending up 32% in last 4 years

 

People wait in line to enter the Northern Brooklyn Food Stamp and DeKalb Job Center, Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 in New York. The state of the nation's economy is a dominant issue in this presidential election year. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/267546.html

New figures show a dramatic hike in welfare spending in the United States over the last four years.

Based on a study conducted by Congressional Research Service and the Senate Budget Committee, welfare spending reached $746 billion in 2011, growing over 30 percent during the Obama presidency.

The report was requested by Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. Townhall.com

HIGHLIGHTS

Federal spending on more than 80 low-income assistance programs reached $746 billion in 2011, and state spending on those programs brought the total to $1.03 trillion, according to figures from the study. Washington Post

That makes welfare the single biggest chunk of federal spending - topping Social Security and basic defense spending. Washington Post

Welfare spending as measured by obligations stood at $563 billion in fiscal year 2008, but reached $746 billion in fiscal year 2011, a jump of 32 percent. Washington Post

What’s also shocking to find is that Medicaid, which is only one of several programs under the welfare umbrella, accounts for $296 billion of that federal spending. That’s 40% of total spending on low-income assistance; back in 2008 that number was only $82 billion. Townhall.com

FACTS & FIGURES

The cost of living in the U.S. rose in September for a second month, reflecting a jump in energy expenses that failed to trickle through to other goods and services. Business Week

The consumer-price index increased 0.6 percent for a second month, the Labor Department reported in Washington. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 0.5 percent advance. The so-called core measure, which excludes more volatile food and energy costs, climbed 0.1 percent, less than projected. Business Week

Meanwhile, more Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, reflecting an unwinding of adjustments for seasonal swings at the start of a quarter. Bloomberg

Jobless claims increased by 46,000 to 388,000 in the week ended Oct. 13 from a revised 342,000 the prior period that was the lowest since February 2008, Labor Department figures showed. Bloomberg

The overall pace of the recovery of the U.S. economy will remain too slow in 2013 to make a dent in the unemployment rate, according to a National Association for Business Economics survey released Monday. Market Watch

Professional forecasters expect economic output to grow just 1.9% during the last part of 2012, rising steadily to 3% in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the survey by the association for professional economists. That is a slight downgrade from the pace of growth expected in the group's May 2012 survey, when economists forecast 3.1% growth by the end of next year. Market Watch

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One million more Americans sign up for food stamps in only a year

 

A homeless man named Bob waits for donations from passing motorists.(AFP Photo / Spencer Platt)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/usa/news/million-food-stamps-record-665/

The number of Americans going to the government for assistance has once again hit a new high. More than 46 million Americans are now enrolled in the federal welfare food stamps system, more than double the amount from only a decade earlier.

The latest statistics made available by the United States Department of Agriculture reveal that more Americans than ever before are enrolled in the social welfare program, with numbers from the month of July 2012 indicating that the current roster of recipients amounts to 46,681,833 persons.

The newest figures indicate that enrollment continues to surge, with around one million more people receiving benefits now than just a year earlier. Last year, RT reported that the number of persons enrolled in the food stamps system consisted of roughly 45 million, or 15 percent of the country’s population.

By comparison, only 31.98 million people were receiving assistance in January 2009 when US President Barack Obama took office, indicating an increase of roughly 15 million in less than four years. Halfway through George W Bush’s first term, that statistic was only 19.1 million.

Republican lawmakers have pounced on the latest news and say that the Agriculture Department is openly advertising the program to non-citizens, making federally funded assistance appealing to those who do little to contribute to the country’s resources.

"USDA has engaged in an aggressive outreach and promotional campaign to boost food stamp enrollment. Among these efforts are an ongoing partnership with the Mexican government to advertise food stamps to Mexican nationals, migrant workers, and non-citizen immigrants. Partly as a result of these efforts, the number of non-citizens on food stamps has quadrupled since 2001," representatives from the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee fire back.

"Total spending on food stamps is projected to reach nearly $800 billion over the next 10 years, with no fewer than 1 in 9 people on the program at any given time. Neither food stamp participation nor spending on the program are ever projected to return to pre-recession levels at any point in the next 10 years,” the lawmakers add according to a report published in The Weekly Standard.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney also blamed the left for the skyrocketing numbers, attacking Pres. Obama during this week’s televised debate over his food stamps record.

Tackling a question about the American economy during Tuesday night’s arguments, Gov. Romney remarked, “How about food stamps? When [Obama] took office, 32 million people were on food stamps. Today, 47 million people are on food stamps.”

 

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US economy experiencing second Great Depression: Analyst

Demonstrators from Occupy Chicago, the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, and Communities United Against Foreclosures and Evictions protest outside the regional offices of Fannie Mae in Chicago, Illinois on July 30, 2012

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/07/254901/us-in-second-great-depression/

A prominent economic analyst says the US is in the grips of a second Great Depression, despite the Western media claims that the country’s economy is on the road to recovery.

“The media continues to compare economic data to that seen during the first Great Depression. And they insist that the United States avoided another depression as a result of the “triumphant” actions taken by the Federal Reserve and President [Barack] Obama,” Mike Stathis wrote in an article published on Press TV’s website.

He added that the main reason behind the move is to “undermine the full severity” of the current depression, the US is grappling with, as Washington always strives to “create an atmosphere of optimism” in order to boost the confidence of American consumers.

This is while, according to Stathis, the current economic data demonstrates that the US is experiencing a second depression because the collapse of the real estate in the country is worse than what was seen during the first Great Depression of the 1930s.

Stathis further stated that, in 2009, the US state tax revenues slumped by 11.8 percent, which is the biggest decline ever and, in the same year, manufacturing activity decreased by the largest amount since 1946 when such statistics were first published.

He went on to say that, in 2008, the US consumer confidence fell to a 40-year low, which is another ominous sign of depression.

“Instead of tearing this dictatorship down, Americans naively line up to vote each year, thinking things will change,” Stathis added.

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