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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Post-election report shows record surge in Americans using food stamps

 

AFP Photo / Spencer Platt

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/usa/news/post-election-food-stamps-476/

The number of Americans relying on food stamps to stay fed has been steadily on the rise, hitting an all-time record this year, with more than 47.1 million Americans using government assistance to obtain food.

The US Monthly Data report, released by the Department of Agriculture (USDA), is normally issued at month's end. But the most recent report, which shows the record-breaking surge in food stamp dependence, was published on November 9 – three days after the presidential election.

About 15 percent of all Americans, or 47,102,780 people, are now enrolled in the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This is the highest number on record, and surpasses the number of unemployed Americans who found jobs during the same time period.

Dave Gibson of the Examiner attributes the delayed release to the Obama re-election campaign, claiming the agency waited to release the dreary data, which could have cast a negative light on the president.

“Obviously, this dose of reality would have harmed the Democratic Party’s false narrative of a ‘recovering economy,” he wrote.

When President Obama was first elected in November 2008, 30.8 million Americans were on food stamps. As of August 2012, 47.1 million were – a rise of about 50 percent.

The Washington Post reports that many of the new food stamp users are college students struggling to pay tuition and living expenses. Rather than pay for expensive campus meal plans, college students are increasingly applying for food stamps, “an option that once carried a social stigma on campus but no longer does,” writes Post reporter Breanna Hogan.

“I am receiving about $200 worth of food stamps per month, and I can’t imagine living without them,” said Sheena Vails, a sophomore at the University of Missouri.

About 15 million additional Americans have enrolled in SNAP since Obama took office. And the number could continue to rise, especially since Hurricane Sandy left thousands homeless across New York and New Jersey.

After the storm devastated New York City, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered $65 million in new food stamp money to be automatically placed into the cards of displaced families who live in storm-affected areas. There are 77 zip codes in the region whose residents are eligible to apply for food stamps as they struggle to put their lives back together.

While the data for November food stamp usage will not be released for some time, the additional applicants could close 2012 with a much higher, record-breaking number of SNAP members – a number that clashes with rising job figures and the narrative of an improving economy.

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Cuts and more cuts Athens passes 2013 budget

 

Demonstrators stand outside the Greek Parliament protesting against austerity measures in Athens on November 11, 2012 (AFP Photo / Panayiotis Tzamaros))

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/greece-government-austerity-budget-439/

The Greek government has passed a 2013 budget stipulating new rounds of harsh budget cuts. It comes just after Greece announced the passage of more austerity measures, triggering violent clashes in Athens.

The budget was approved with 167 voting in favor and 128 opposed, while 5 abstained.

The recent austerity package, passed in a narrow vote, was apparently insufficient to appease eurozone finance ministers into granting the cash-strapped nation another tranche of much-needed bailout money.

Without the rescue loan, Greece would effectively default on November 16, the date it must repay a three-month treasury bill worth €5 billion.

Greek trade unions called for another demonstration outside Parliament on Sunday ahead of the lawmakers’ vote on the budget.

Earlier in the week, around 70,000 demonstrators rallied as Parliament voted on the new austerity program.

On Saturday, MPs began debating the 2013 budget. It was the second budgetary test the Greek government has faced in less than a week.

Athens is planning further spending cuts totaling 9.4 billion euro, mainly in state wages, pensions and benefits, all of which have already seen drastic reductions over the past two years.

Several hundred Greek civil servants staged a protest on Saturday in front of parliament, where initial discussions over the 2013 draft budget were held ahead of the vote. The protesters railed against the reduction of 125,000 civil servant jobs by 2016, part of the new austerity package that squeezed through parliament on Wednesday.

 

Protesters demonstrate outside the Greek parliament against the new austerity measures in Athens on November 11, 2012 (AFP Photo / Aris Messinis)

Cutting it close

Greece's 2013 budget predicts that the economy will shrink by a worse-than-expected 4.5 percent next year, and that the country's debt will swell to 346 billion euro ($434.3 billion), or 189 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

Athens is hoping to securing a further 31.5 billion euro of desperately needed international aid. Even then, it would still need to borrow over 68 billion euro next year, the draft budget says

This is in addition to the new austerity package, which includes 18.5 billion euro ($23.6 billion) in cuts and labor law reforms.

Greece has so far avoided default by introducing a series of austerity measures needed to secure two huge bailout loans from a 'Troika' of creditors: The EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.

The recent push for further austerity has sparked popular anger in a country facing its sixth year of recession, while unemployment rose above the 25 percent mark in July.

Meanwhile, the government admits that the program is unfair, and will probably drive the country deeper into recession, Dimitris Yannopoulos, an Economist and Editor at the Athens News newspaper told RT.

According to Yannopoulos, the only benefit the new set of austerity measures will bring is the long-awaited rescue package – which Germany is in no hurry to release.

“Berlin implies that we want more conditions attached to the program dealing with the control of these funds as well as the control of the budgetary administration [in Greece],” he explained.

 

Riot police guard the Parliament building during a demonstration against austerity measures as Greek deputies consider a budget vote (AFP Photo / Panayiotis Tzamaros)

 

Demonstrators march to the Greek Parliament protesting against austerity measures in Athens on November 11, 2012 (AFP Photo / Panayiotis Tzamaros)

 

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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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Spain jobless rate climbs by 2.73% in October

 

This file photo shows people standing in line outside a government employment office in Madrid, Spain, October 26, 2012.

Source; Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/05/270533/spain-jobless-rate-climbs-by-273/

Official data show that Spain’s unemployment rate climbed by 2.73% in October, bringing the number of the unemployed people in the European country to 4.83 million.

According to the data released on Monday by Spain’s Labor Ministry, October was the third straight month that the jobless rate climbed after a break during the summer tourism season.

Battered by the global financial downturn, Spain’s economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, taking with it millions of jobs.

Protests have been growing against the Spanish government’s austerity measures and labor reforms, which are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest, amid the deepening economic crisis.

The government has remained adamant saying the austerity measures are needed to bring it through the crisis.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s proposed 2013 draft budget is expected to slash the overall spending by 40 billion euros ($51.7 billion), freeze the salaries of public workers, and reduce spending for unemployment benefits.

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Greek police, firefighters, coast guards, medics protest against cuts

 

Greek police officers, firefighters, and coast guards protest outside parliament during an anti-austerity demonstration in central Athens on November 1, 2012.

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/01/269989/1000s-of-greeks-hold-demo-against-cuts/

Thousands of Greek police officers, coast guards, firefighters, and medical professionals have held demonstrations to protest against the government’s austerity measures.

The protesters took to the streets in the capital Athens on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Thousands of police officers and coast guards from various Greek regions marched to parliament to protest against salary cuts expected to be included in a new austerity bill.

Next week, Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras is likely to send the parliament a bill of labor reforms, which includes the officers' salary cuts.

In protest to the cuts, the police officers and the coast guards also handed out bowls of bean soup to the needy.

"[We say] 'No' to modern slavery. Our rage is overflowing. They lied to us again; those pre-election promises became dust after the elections, and will lead us to new medieval times," said Dimitris Sarantakis, the president of the Panhellenic Coast Guard Officers' Federation.

"Even if these measures pass the way they have arranged them, we will overturn them because we have not only reached our limits, we have now surpassed our limits," said Dimitris Vogiatzis, the president of the Police Officers' Federation.

A large number of Greek firefighters chanting anti-austerity slogans also marched on the parliament.

Earlier in the day, public hospital staff including doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers, walked off the job and staged a demonstration outside Greek Health Ministry headquarters. They said austerity cuts have weakened citizens' health and made their jobs more difficult.

They carried banners reading, "Austerity measures are bad for your health" and "Free public health care for all".

Greece has been at the epicenter of the eurozone debt crisis and is experiencing its fifth year of recession, while harsh austerity measures have left about half a million people without jobs.

One in every five Greek workers is currently unemployed, banks are in a shaky position, and pensions and salaries have been slashed by up to 40 percent.

Greek youths have also been badly affected, and more than half of them are unemployed.

The long-drawn-out eurozone debt crisis, which began in Greece in late 2009 and reached Italy, Spain, and France in 2011, is viewed as a threat not only to Europe but also to many of the world’s other developed economies.

Also on Thursday, a Greek court ruled that some of the spending cuts needed to secure more bailout funds for the near-bankrupt country are unconstitutional.

The Court of Auditors, which examines Greek laws before they are presented to parliament, said planned austerity measures such as raising the age of retirement to 67 and reducing pensions by 5 to 10 percent, could be against the constitution.

The court said the pension cuts for a fifth time since May 2010 violated many constitutional provisions, including the principles of individual dignity and equality before the law.

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Spain’s economy contracts 0.3% in third quarter of 2012

 

People wait in line at a government employment office at Santa Eugenia's Madrid suburb on January 27, 2012.

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/30/269528/spain-economy-shrinks-in-third-quarter/

Official data show Spain’s economy has shrunk by 0.3% in the third quarter of the year, 2012, as the country continues to grapple with economic woes.

According to new data released by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) on Tuesday, country’s gross domestic product contracted by 0.3% from July to September.

This comes as one in four workers is unemployed in the recession-hit country.

On Friday, the Spanish institute also issued a statement saying that the country’s unemployment rate climbed to 25.02 percent in the third quarter, up from the previous 24.63 percent.

INE also pointed out that a total of 5.78 million people were out of work in the July-September quarter, up 85,000 from the previous three months, while the number of Spanish households in which every member is unemployed rose to 1.74 million.

On October 11, Standard and Poor’s rating agency (S&P) downgraded the country’s credit rating by two notches with a "negative outlook" citing “mounting risks to Spain's public finances, due to rising economic and political pressures.

The Spanish government has been sharply criticized over the austerity measures that are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s proposed 2013 draft budget is expected to slash the overall spending by 40 billion euros ($51.7 billion), freeze the salaries of public workers, and reduce spending for unemployment benefits.

Battered by the global financial downturn, Spain’s economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, taking with it millions of jobs.

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Spain jobless rate exceeds 25 percent in 3rd quarter

 

People wait in line at a government employment office in the center of Madrid on September 4, 2012.

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/26/268825/spain-unemployment-hits-new-high/

Official data show that Spanish unemployment rate has exceeded 25 percent in the third quarter of 2012 as the country continues to grapple with economic woes.

New figures released by Spain’s National Statistics Institute on Friday showed that the country’s unemployment rate climbed to 25.02 percent in the third quarter, up from the previous 24.63 percent.

The institute also pointed out that a total of 5.78 million people were out of work in the July-September quarter, up 85,000 from the previous three months, while the number of Spanish households in which every member is unemployed rose to 1.74 million.

The release of the recent figures follows Spain’s labour unions call for a general strike for November 14.

With its high unemployment rate, Spain is under pressure to get its public finances back on track amid concerns in the markets over the state of the country’s banks and the wider economy.

The Spanish government has also been sharply criticized over the austerity measures that are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.

Public protests have grown in the country over speculation that the government will seek a Greek-style European bailout to keep its borrowing costs in check.

Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s proposed 2013 draft budget is expected to slash the overall spending by 40 billion euros ($51.7 billion), freeze the salaries of public workers, and reduce spending for unemployment benefits.

Battered by the global financial downturn, Spain’s economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, taking with it millions of jobs.

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EU citizens and private banks in a power struggle for survival

Source: Press TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATi0OEptaFk

There is a power struggle between the EU citizens and the private banks. The EU is also struggling to use the crisis to destroy the sovereignty of individual member states. There is also a struggle between Germany and the EU member states.

The European Union needs to do something more dramatic than just saying that they'll have one super-bank which will regulate all the banks. This is not looking at the problem fundamentally. The UK has one of the worst banking systems.

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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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Global Noise takes on austerity: 'We are not going to be silent'

 

People make noise as they take part in a casserole march to protest against government's austerity reforms and the public payment of bank's debts on October 13, 2012 in Madrid. (AFP Photo / Pedro Armestre)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/global-noise-demonstrations-378/

Demonstrators across the world are calling for an end to austerity as Global Noise protests kick off in more than 30 countries, including many in the Nobel Peace laureate European Union.

­The worldwide demonstrations on Saturday passed without incident, and Caleb Maupin from the International Action Centre explained what's driving the public to take to the streets.

RT: A year ago Occupy Wall Street spread across the world, and now it’s Global Noise. What is Global Noise all about? How is it different?

Caleb Maupin: Basically, Global Noise is saying we are not going to be silent. Because right now the banks are coming for us – they are cutting all of the programs. There is mass unemployment. There is cutting in government spending and the governments of the world are just having to pay back the banks.

And in the process, our future is being destroyed. It is impossible to get an education in this country without a rising debt. What we are saying is that we are going to be a global noise. We are the next generation, the youth part of the working class as our future is being destroyed. We are not going to silently sit back and let them destroy our future. We are going to be loud. We are going to be confrontational and we are going demand that this stop.

Austerity is a crime against the people. These cuts are a crime against us, and we are going to demonstrate and we are going to oppose it.

RT: America has not seen austerity cuts as of yet. But in Europe this is precisely what the Global Noise rallies were aimed against. Is it merely a show of support for Europe, or is there, say, a message in the demonstrations for the US presidential candidates?

CM: There are plenty of austerity cuts in the United States. Food stamps, a program which many millions of people depend on so they can have food, is being cut. College prices are going up. They had kind of halted it because they are planning after the elections to have austerity. All the major cuts are going to happen after the election.

But even with these latest debates, you see Romney and Ryan, Obama and Biden, they are all debating how much to cut. How responsibly can you get rid of Social Security, how responsibly can we do it? It is austerity, it is global austerity. Because, you know, Lenin spoke of it in his book – imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism, because the banks kind of become the center of capitalism, its monopoly stage.

And right now it is a revolt against banks. Instead of people having to take all these cuts, why don’t they simply start the cuts to the banks? The government of the United States has the ability to do that. They can pass legislature saying that the banks have to be delayed, but instead they keep paying back the banks with these loans that have taken from the government, and programs that people need to survive on are being cut.

At a time of mass unemployment, millions of youth have great anger on what’s going on, and it is exploding into a global anti-capitalist rebellion. It is here in US. The phrase "we are the 99%" represents what millions of people understand, which is that a small elite, the bankers, capitalists, they own the world and the rest of us just get to live in it.

Well, it is time that we are heard. We are a global noise and we are going to rise up and demand a change to that situation.

RT: Presidential elections are coming up in the US and the Obama administration is criticized for the bailout, while Republicans are promising austerity. And what do you think the policy should be for the US here?

CM: I think whoever wins this election, it is very clear that after the election, it's over. They are going to begin an extreme amount of mass austerity. And the terms of the debate are sickening – the terms of the debate are essentially how much to cut. Some people say, we should just cut everything; others say we should just cut a little bit. No! The people don’t have to pay for the crisis the bankers created.

But that message is not part of the discourse in this country right now. The discourse is limited to one form of cutting or one form of cutbacks, and that is frightening. And that is why the Occupy movement came in. We are the 99%, or as the labor movement and progressive forces have said for a long time – class against class.

It is not Republicans versus Democrats. It is about the bankers versus the people – the people who sell their labor to survive and those who own the world.

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You should’ve served US better and died!’ Debt collector berates disabled veteran

 

(AFP Photo / Michael Nagle)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/usa/news/us-debt-collector-disabled-veteran-372/

A debt collector, angered that a disabled US Army veteran was living off of disability payments, told him he “should have died” in war instead of "taking advantage of" other Americans.

­Minnesota-based debt collection agency Gurstel Chargo is now facing a lawsuit for verbally abusing the Army vet over a $6,000 defaulted student loan, Courthouse News reports.

“If you would have served our country better you would not be a disabled veteran living off Social Security while the rest of us honest Americans work our asses off,” one of the agency’s debt collectors allegedly told the vet. “Too bad, you should have died.”

Michael Collier was declared 100 per cent disabled after suffering permanent spine and head injuries while in the Army. As a result, both Collier and his wife receive disability payments from the federal Social Security Administration, which are exempt from seizure by debt collectors.

But in an attempt to collect on the defaulted student loan, the collector seized the money from Collier's wife’s savings account. The credit union then proceeded to freeze her account.

The Colliers filed an objection and requested a court hearing, at which the couple was told their frozen funds were exempt from such garnishment.

But the debt collection agency’s lawyer continued to harass the couple. Telling Collier “he would need to get a lawyer in order to get his money back,” an unidentified paralegal cursed at and threatened him over the phone.

“F--k you!” the paralegal allegedly said, “Pay us your money! You can’t afford an attorney. You owe us. I hope your wife divorces you.”

The couple is now seeking compensation for actual damages, statutory damages, and punitive damages for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), privacy invasion, malicious infliction of emotional distress and conversion.

The FDCPA considers it abusive for a debt collector to make empty threats, misrepresent the legal status of a debt, or use obscene of profane language.

According to the Daily Beast, debt collectors sometimes use abusive techniques to pry money from the indebted because of the commission rates they receive. On average, debt collectors make 20 cents for every dollar recouped. At this rate, the Colliers’ debt would be worth $1,200 to Chargo.

Verbal harassment is a commonly-used technique to instigate debtors into making payments. In 2010, the Federal Trade Commission received 50,000 complaints about severe harassment from debt collectors, 18,000 of which included the use of obscene language.

And some say that number is low.

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg, as far as I’m concerned,” attorney Sergei Lemberg told the Daily Beast.

While Chargo's berating took it too far for the Colliers, there are of thousands of cases of abuse that never make it to court.

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World economy slides deeper into slump

 

By: Andre Damon

Source: Global Research

http://www.globalresearch.ca/world-economy-slides-deeper-into-slump/

A string of negative reports coinciding with the start of the fourth quarter has revealed a significant deterioration in the global economy, with world trade slowing, manufacturing contracting, and the number of unemployed workers in the euro zone hitting a record high.

Despite these disastrous figures, stock prices in Europe and the United States rose on Monday, fueled by new central bank injections of cash into the global financial system, an intensification of austerity measures against the working class and expectations of new bank bailouts.

Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, reported Monday that the unemployment rate in the 17-member euro zone remained at record highs in August, while the ranks of the unemployed grew by 34,000, bringing the total of jobless workers to a new high of 18.2 million. The jobless rate was 11.4 percent, the same as in July. A year ago, the region’s jobless rate was 10.2 percent.

In the 27-nation European Union as a whole, 25.5 million people were out of a job in August. The EU unemployment rate was 10.5 percent.

The unemployment rates of Spain, Greece and Portugal, the countries hardest hit by the euro crisis, all rose. Spain’s unemployment rate reached 25.1 percent, that of Greece hit 24.4 percent, and Portugal’s rose to 15.9 percent.

The unemployment rate for Italy stayed at 10.7 percent and France’s remained at 10.6 percent. Last week, the French government said the number of unemployed had hit a new record of 3 million.

Youth unemployment in the euro zone likewise worsened, hitting 22.8 percent in August, up more than 2 percentage points from a year ago, according to the Eurostat report. In Spain, 52.9 percent of people under 25 were without work.

The jobs crisis in Europe is likely to get even worse. Markit Economics reported Monday that its euro zone purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a key measure of manufacturing output, was 46.1 in August. As a reading below 50 indicates contraction, the August report marked the fourteenth consecutive month of decline in the manufacturing sector.

PMI figures released last week for both Germany and France, the core countries of the euro zone, showed sustained contraction. France’s PMI showed one of the biggest one-month falls in the survey’s 14-year history.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said that “manufacturers across the euro area suffered the worst quarter for three years in the three months to September. Output, order books and exports all continued to fall at steep rates … causing firms to cut their staffing levels once again.”

JPMorgan Chase’s global manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for September, at 48.9, remained below the 50 level.

The euro zone economy contracted by 0.2 percent in the second quarter of 2012, and economists have predicted that it will show a further decline for the third quarter. The New York Times quoted Jennifer McKeown, an economist with Capital Economics in London, as saying the euro zone economy would contract by 2.5 percent next year.

The economy of the entire European Union contracted by 0.1 percent in the second quarter.

The ongoing downturn in Europe continues to drag down the export-dependent Asian economies. China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index was below 50 for a second consecutive month, coming in at 49.8 for September after a reading of 49.2 in August. The Chinese economy has already slowed for six consecutive quarters, and a seventh quarter of slowdown now looks likely.

Japan is in a similar state. The country’s central bank said Monday that the Tankan report, a measure of business confidence, fell to minus 3 in July from minus 1 in June. Japan’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index reading of 48 likewise indicated contraction.

Last Friday, the Japanese government released figures showing that industrial production fell by 2.9 percent in September and 1.3 percent in August. Exports from South Korea, meanwhile, fell in September for the third consecutive month.

In the US, economic growth for the second quarter was revised downwards last week and a new report showed that durable goods orders had tumbled. The Commerce Department said Thursday that US gross domestic product grew by only 1.3 percent in the second quarter, a downward revision from its earlier estimate of 1.7 percent and significantly less than the 2.0 percent growth rate in the first quarter of the year. Orders for long-lasting manufactured goods (durable goods) fell by 13 percent in August, the largest fall since 2009.

The deepening global downturn is weighing heavily on international trade. The volume of global trade is expected to grow only 2.5 percent this year, down from a 5.0 percent in 2011 and 14.0 percent in 2010, according to a survey released Monday by the World Trade Organization. A separate report by an agency of the Dutch government estimates that world trade actually contracted in June and July.

Global stock markets responded to the dismal news by staging a rally. The German DAX rose by 1.53 percent and the British FTSE by 1.37 percent. The response of stocks in the US was more muted, but still positive, with the Dow rising 0.58 percent and the S&P 500 by 0.27 percent.

The ongoing rise of stock prices despite the marked deterioration of the real economy is a reflection of the immense attacks that are being carried out against workers in Europe, the United States and Asia, including job cuts, the slashing of wages, and austerity measures impacting social programs, pensions, health care and other benefits.

Banking and corporate profits are surging as a result of the lowering of working class living standards and intensification of the rate of exploitation of labor. At the same time, stocks and other speculative assets are being inflated by the injection of hundreds of billions of dollars into the financial markets by the central banks, particularly the US Federal Reserve, which announced last month a plan to inject $40 billion into the financial markets every month for an indefinite period.

These measures are being carried out by capitalist governments around the world, whether social democratic or conservative, to make the working population pay for the crisis of the world capitalist system.

 

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Spain ready to accept eurozone bailout: EU officials

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/02/264568/spain-ready-to-accept-financial-aid-eu/

Spanish officials are ready to request for a euro zone bailout to help the country pay its debts, European officials say.

"The Spanish were a bit hesitant but now they are ready to request aid,” said a senior European official on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.

On Monday, the European Union Economics Chief Olli Rehn called on Spanish officials to immediately accept the EU bailout to repair the country’s deficit-laden finances.

“The choices will only get harder if they are postponed,” he added.

With an unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent, Spain is under pressure to get its public finances on track amid concerns in the markets over the state of the country’s banks and the wider economy.

The Spanish government has also been sharply criticized over the austerity measures that are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.

The 2013 budget will freeze public sector salaries for the third year in a row and cut ministerial spending by an average of 8.9 percent. The country’s regions, which pay for health and education, must also scrape up seven billion euros in savings.

The government has confirmed that it will create a new fiscal watchdog to monitor the budgets not only of the central government but also the regional and municipal ones to make sure they comply with Madrid’s efforts to control spending and cut the country’s deficit.

On Friday, hundreds of Spanish nurses, policemen and other public workers took to streets near the Budget Ministry in Madrid to protest against having their pay frozen for the third year.

Battered by the global financial downturn, the Spanish economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, destroying millions of jobs.

Spain, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Portugal are all in recession and all five are receiving financial assistance from European bailout funds.

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The taxman cometh: Hollande sets France's 'toughest budget in 30 years'

 

AFP Photo / Joel Saget

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/business/news/france-hollande-annual-budget-191/

The French cabinet has approved the “toughest budget in 30 years.” It is seen as a major political test for the president Francois Hollande, who is resorting to a standard method of shoring up the budget: Taxing the rich and cutting spending.

­France needs to make an estimated 30 billion euro in savings in its next fiscal year to reach Hollande’s ambitious target of reducing the country’s deficit from 4.5 per cent in 2012 to three per cent by 2013. The three percent figure is the EU’s mandated deficit ceiling for member-states.

Higher tax rates on business and wealthy individuals are expected to bring in revenues of 20 billion euro. Hollande outlined a plan to achieve the other 10 billion in needed savings by cutting public spending.

But experts believe the austerity measures risk further pressure on France’s stagnant economy, which has teetered on the brink of recession for the last three fiscal quarters. The country’s unemployment rate has also risen above ten percent – a 13-year high.

Francois Asselineau, veteran of several French Ministries over the last 20 years and head of the Popular Republican Union, said that Hollande may fall into the same trap as many of his predecessors.

“The past decades the governments have been cutting and cutting and cutting the state’s expenses to balance budgets, but in fact, the more they cut, the slower the economic growth,”Asselineau told RT. “It leads to recession, and an even bigger deficit, and consequently more cuts. This will be a catastrophic budget, I think.”

One of Hollande’s key promises during this year’s election was to tax France’s wealthiest at an unprecedented 75 percent for those earning more than 1 million euro a year.

Some experts warned that the higher rates may cause foreign capital to flee the country. And while France’s government claimed that austerity was not its top priority, there are no indications the sluggish economy is growing at a fast enough rate to make up for the budget shortfalls.

French publisher Alain Lefebvre believes the move is simply an empty political gesture.

“He did this to make his electorate calm down – to make an impression he’s doing something,” he told RT. “But this is all bluffing! It can't help. It's simply not enough, there’s not that many rich people in France.”

“The worst is that people who are now happy that the rich are being punished don’t understand, the government will start with rich but when [they] fail to succeed – and I’m 100 per cent certain they’ll fail – they’ll descend down the totem pole and tax the poor,” Lefebvre said.

 

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Spain’s economy shrinks quickly in third quarter of 2012: Bank of Spain

 

People stand in line at a government employment office in a suburb of Madrid. (File photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/26/263628/spains-economy-shrinks-in-third-quarter/

The Bank of Spain has announced that the debt-wrecked country’s economic output is shrinking at a “significant pace” in the third quarter of 2012.

“Available data for the third quarter of the year suggest output continued to fall at a significant pace, in an environment in which financial tension remained at very high levels,” the bank said in a monthly report released on Wednesday.

As official data indicated, Spain, the fourth-largest economy in the eurozone, slid into recession in the last quarter of 2011.

Spain’s government is also expecting an economic decline of 1.5 percent this year, and another 0.5 percent in 2013, but many analysts believed that even those gloomy figures are optimistic.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted economic declines of 1.7 percent in 2012 and 1.2 percent in 2013 for Spain.

On Tuesday, the Spanish police clashed with thousands of demonstrators who had gathered at the Plaza de Neptuno square near the lower house of parliament to protest against the austerity measures adopted to address the financial crisis.

The Occupy Congress demonstration drew an estimated 6,000 people from all walks of life tired of nine straight months of harsh economic austerity measures introduced by the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The worsening eurozone debt crisis has increased Spain’s financing costs and the country is seeking a European Union bailout similar to the one Greece received.

On June 9, eurozone finance ministers agreed to lend 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to Spain to save its teetering banks.

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Britons living standards set to deteriorate in future

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/23/263075/standard/

A new analysis of deepening income inequality in Britain has found that rich will become richer and the poor become poorer amid plans to enforce £10 billion welfare cuts.

The study, commissioned by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Institute for Employment Research, for the Resolution Foundation found that low- and middle-income families will have their living standards slashed until 2020, even if the country faces a constant economic growth.

According to the findings, even a boom in future of the UK’s economy will not be able to cover the widening gap in the British society although the government is urged to drop its austerity policy.

Meanwhile, a plan by the chancellor, George Osborne, to slash a further £10 billion from the welfare budget by 2016 is being viewed as a declaration of war against the poor.

The results show net income of low-income households will fall by 15 percent by 2020, which is down from £10,600 (at 2009 prices) to just £9,000 at the end of the decade (again at 2009 prices).

This is while middle income families will also have their income slashed by three percent from £22,900 in 2009 to £22,100 in 2020.

On the contrary, rich and affluent families will have their living standards of living grow by 0.2 percent a year to 2020. This growth would be faster for the most affluent.

Professor Mike Brewer, research fellow at the IFS, said all the signs were that with current government policies the trend would be strongly against income growth for the bottom half of households.

"This analysis confirms the strong currents that will be pushing against income growth in the next 10 years, even once a recovery in GDP takes hold," he said.

"Britain looks likely to see continuing polarisation in our labour market as more high-and low-paid jobs are created, skewing the distribution of income growth towards higher income households,” he said.

"Meanwhile, support through the tax and benefit system is set to fall over the long-term, meaning that lower income households will tend to fall behind,” Professor Brewer added

 

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Federal Reserve announces QE3

 

Ben S. Bernanke (AFP Photo / Brendan Smialowski)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/usa/news/federal-reserve-qe3-effort-079/

The Federal Reserve announced Thursday that they will spent $40 billion a month on bond purchases in an effort to kick-start the US economy, the Associated Press reports.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to make a public address later today to discuss the results of this week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, but in the FOMC confirms that it will keep interest rates "exceptionally low" at least through mid-2015, AP confirms, with the Fed failing to reveal and an end date to the effort at this time.

"If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the committee will continue its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability," the Fed reports in a Thursday afternoon statement. The decision to issue the announcement was approved on an 11-1 vote.

Economists had predicted that the central bank would unveil plans for a third-round of a quantitative easing, or QE3, but the Fed has only hinted at plans for a bond purchasing program until now.

Last week, Goldman Sachs said, “With today’s August employment report showing a nonfarm payroll gain of 96,000 and an unemployment rate of 8.1% because of a drop in the participation rate, we expect a return to unsterilized and probably open-ended asset purchases at the September 12-13 FOMC meeting.”

Some critics, including noted investor Jim Rogers, have attested that previous rounds of quantitative easing did little to aid the faltering economy, and that a third attempt may be met with the same respojnse.

"QE1 failed, QE2 failed, so I'm not so sure they would announce QE3, because they'll look like fools again," Rogers told Yahoo this week.

Less than one month ago, Bernanke warned that QE3 was becoming more and more likely, saying, “Taking due account of the uncertainties and limits of its policy tools, the Federal Reserve will provide additional policy accommodation as needed to promote a stronger economic recovery and sustained improvement in labor market conditions in a context of price stability.”

 

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