meanwhile, moody's suggests US eliminate debt ceiling... from afp: US President Barack Obama pressed polarized lawmakers Saturday to avert what he called economic "Armageddon" by quickly forging a deal to prevent an early August debt default by the world's richest country. "Simply put, it will take a balanced approach, shared sacrifice, and a willingness to make unpopular choices on all our parts," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "That means spending less on domestic programs," the president explained. "It means spending less on defense programs. ... And it means taking on the tax code, and cutting out certain tax breaks and deductions for the wealthiest Americans." The US government reached its debt limit of $14.29 trillion in May, and since then the Treasury Department has used special measures to allow the government to keep paying its bills. But unless the limit is raised by August 2, the Treasury says, growing spending and debt service commitments will force a default, which would have disastrous ripple effects throughout the global financial system.
the economic collapse blog: The rest of the world needs to sit up and take notice of what is going on in Greece right now. This is what can happen when you allow government debt to spiral out of control. Once it becomes clear that you can't pay your debts, a financial collapse can happen very suddenly and you start losing your sovereignty to those that you must turn to for financial help. So is the financial collapse of Greece the "canary in the coal mine" for the global economy? EU finance ministers have given the Greek government two weeks from Monday to approve another round of brutal austerity measures. If the austerity measures are not approved, Greece will not receive the next bailout installment of 12 billion euros. If that happens, the whole globe better buckle up because it is going to get crazy. July 3rd is the deadline. Basically the EU has put a gun to the head of the Greek government. Without this bailout money, Greece will default and economic hell will break loose all across the country.
update: US gasoline settles at 33-month high on stock draw from cbs local: With gas prices pushing $4 a gallon, a lot of people are trying to stretch their dollar at the gas pump, but some of them are trying to stretch it a little too far. Since the beginning of March, AAA has seen an 18 percent increase in the number of roadside calls for people running out of gas. “I never put a lot in because I can’t afford to fill it up,” Leo Greek, a stranded motorist, said. He says he’s not even sure how much it would cost to fill up his truck these days because he hasn’t done it for a while. He gets only what he needs and today he underestimated. “It’s frustrating,” Greek said. “I can’t believe it has to be that expensive, but I know everybody’s going through it.” According to AAA, gas prices in the Pittsburgh area have gone up 26 cents per gallon in the last month. “Before it was more absentminded than anything else,” Jim Krebs with Brighton Service said. “But now, I believe that’s what it is. I believe people are like, ‘Man, I got to buy something else so I’m not going to put gas in the car. I should be able to make it,’ and they don’t.”
from lew rockwell: The U.S. government is insolvent. Who says so? Timothy F. Geithner, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner sent a letter to Congress on Jan. 6, 2011 asking for the debt limit to be raised. If it is not raised, he warned, the U.S. will default on its debt. In his words:
corbett report: episode159 - bursting bubbles of govt deception from corbett report: The Corbett Report is pleased to present the audio of the incredible ThinkFree.ca documentary, Bursting Bubbles of Government Deception. In this hour-long presentation, you will learn about the simple tricks and deceptions by which we are all stripped of our inherent freedoms and by the end of today's episode you will be questioning things you never before thought to question...
corbett report: episode160 - who owns your property? from corbett report: From Locke and the laws of nature to governments and the legal war of words, the question of property is not as simple as it appears, and the answers may surprise you. Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we ask the question Who Owns Your Property?
corbett report: episode156 - foreclosuregate from corbett report: The Corbett Report explores the robo-signers, the bogus assignees, the clouded titles, the securities fraud, the insurance fraud, the unlawful repossessions and all the other ways that trillions of dollars are being snuck out the backdoor of the American economy. This is foreclosuregate.
Welcome to the 50th episode of the New World Next Week - brought to you by James Corbett of Corbett Report & James Evan Pilato ofMedia Monarchy - the weekly video series that uncovers the subtext & gives you the context on some of the most important developments in alternative news & open source intelligence. This week:
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walmarts swell with poor people once a month at midnight — when the govt's electronic dole payout goes through from usatoday: Once a month, just after midnight, the beeping checkout scanners at a Walmart just off Interstate 95 come alive in a chorus of financial desperation. Here and at grocery stores across the country, the chimes come just after food stamps and other monthly government benefits drop into the accounts of shoppers who have been rationing things like milk, ground beef and toilet paper and can finally stock up again. Shoppers mill around the store after 11 p.m., killing time until their accounts are replenished. When midnight strikes, they rush for the checkout counter.
debtors' prisons make a comeback…in the US from allgov: America’s jails are increasingly becoming de facto debtors’ prisons as the legal system levies more fees than ever on individuals who wind up behind bars simply because they can’t pay their bills or the administrative penalties imposed by judges. Both the Brennan Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have issued reports on the rise of debt-related incarceration, noting that courts are administering more fees these days as a way to make up for budget shortfalls.
dying communities see salvation in new prisons from ap: Although rural communities have successfully lobbied for — and built — prisons for years, not many studies have been done on their economic impact. Some studies indicate slight economic gains for some prison towns, according to a Congressional Research Service report in April. Others that have become prison anchors might have not grown as fast as those without prisons. Florence, Colo., where a federal prison complex went up in 1994, was once a major oil producer and gold-smelting center and now has some new businesses. New federal prisons have recently started hiring in West Virginia, which has seen a decline in coal jobs, and in an impoverished farming community in California. Others are being built in Mississippi and Alabama.
or more specifically: doj, dod, sec & state dept employees from allgov: Wouldn’t it be nice if your employer paid your student loans for you? That’s what the federal government has been doing the past eight years for a select group of government employees. A report from the Office of Personnel Management shows 36 agencies helped out more than 8,400 workers last year, paying $61.8 million in student loan bills. Most of those receiving this assistance were lawyers, criminal investigators, administrative personnel, intelligence analysts and contract specialists. The Department of Justice allocated the most money ($19.3 million), followed by the Department of Defense ($14.1 million), State Department ($7.2 million), the Securities and Exchange Commission ($3.2 million) and the Government Accountability Office ($2.8 million). Begun in 2002, the federal government’s loan repayment program was established to help agencies compete with the private sector for new workers. The maximum an agency can repay annually is $10,000, with a cap of $60,000 per employee. Workers enrolling in the program must sign an agreement to remain at their job for at least three years.
from reuters: A dismal job market, a crippled real estate sector and hobbled banks will keep a lid on U.S. economic growth over the coming decade, some of the nation's leading economists said on Sunday.
Speaking at American Economic Association's mammoth yearly gathering, experts from a range of political leanings were in surprising agreement when it came to the chances for a robust and sustained expansion:They are slim.
Many predicted U.S. gross domestic product would expand less than 2 percent per year over the next 10 years. That stands in sharp contrast to the immediate aftermath of other steep economic downturns, which have usually elicited a growth surge in their wake.
"It will be difficult to have a robust recovery while housing and commercial real estate are depressed," said Martin Feldstein, a Harvard University professor and former head of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
fdic gearing up for more bank closures from bizjournals: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is gearing up to handle a large number of bank failures expected as a result of bad mortgages, both in residential and commercial real estate, an economist said Tuesday. “They know they’re going to take down a large number of banks and they can’t do it until they’re staffed up,” said Mark Dotzour, chief economist and director of research for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
deutsche bankster in tech probe fell to his death (nothing to see here, move along please...) from bcc: A City stockbroker fell to his death from a rooftop restaurant two days after bosses investigating an IT-related matter sent him home early. Anjool Malde, 24, was found on the ground outside Coq d'Argent in London's Square Mile at midday on Sunday. He left his Deutsche Bank office early on Friday afternoon after agreeing to "help" the bank with its inquiry. Police are continuing to investigate the death ahead of an inquest, but are not treating it as suspicious.
convicted inside trader & elite finance oligarch george soros says: i'm having a very good crisis from daily mail: A hedge fund manager who predicted the global credit crunch has said the financial crisis has been 'stimulating' and the culmination of his life's work. George Soros, who predicted the global financial crisis twice before, was one of the few people to anticipate and prepare for the current economic collapse. Mr Soros said his prediction meant he was better able to brace his Quantum investment fund against the global storm. But other investors failed to take notice of his prediction and his decision to come out of retirement in 2007 to manage the fund made him $US2.9 billion. And while the financial crisis continued to deepen across the globe, the 78-year-old still managed to make $1.1 billion last year. "It is, in a way, the culminating point of my life’s work," he told national newspaper The Australian.
china voices support for new global currency to replace dollar from paul joseph watson: China has expressed support for Russia’s proposal to hand the IMF the power to create a new supra-national global currency in response to the call for an alternative to the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency. Last week the Kremlin called for the “creation of a supranational reserve currency to be issued by international institutions as part of a reform of the global financial system.” The Russian proposal stated that the IMF should take the lead in establishing a “superreserve currency accepted by the whole of the international community.” China today expressed support for the initiative and said it was ready to discuss the proposal at the upcoming G20 meeting in London on April 2.
geithner pressed on goldman sachs connections from raw replay: Rep. Maxine Waters asked Secretary Geithner about his connections to Goldman Sachs at a House banking hearing today. Goldman Sachs is known to have received bailout money given to A.I.G. Goldman may have participated in the government decision to provide the original bailout money to A.I.G.
stiglitz: geithner plan will rob US taxpayers from reuters: The U.S. government plan to rid banks of toxic assets will rob American taxpayers by exposing them to too much risk and is unlikely to work as long as the economy remains weak, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Tuesday. "The Geithner plan is very badly flawed," Stiglitz told Reuters in an interview during a Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's plan to wipe up to US$1 trillion in bad debt off banks' balance sheets, unveiled on Monday, offered "perverse incentives", Stiglitz said. The U.S. government is basically using the taxpayer to guarantee against downside risk on the value of these assets, while giving the upside, or potential profits, to private investors, he said. "Quite frankly, this amounts to robbery of the American people. I don't think it's going to work because I think there'll be a lot of anger about putting the losses so much on the shoulder of the American taxpayer."
The AP says police have used stun guns and chemical spray to repel protesters, and that "a scuffle" occurred in the City Council chambers. The New Orleans Times-Picayune is live-blogging developments and has published a photo gallery.
The vote is a key moment in a long fight between local activists and preservationists who want the housing renovated, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which seeks demolition. USA TODAY published a feature on the dispute Dec. 13.
video: police taze & chem spray protesters from raw story: Violence broke out in New Orleans on Thursday after police shut the gates of City Hall against protesters who were attempting to enter a City Council meeting that was expected to approve the demolition of 4500 units of public housing. When about 100 protesters broke through, police began using pepper spray and tasers and even engaging in fistfights with the demonstrators.
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from afp: US President Barack Obama pressed polarized lawmakers Saturday to avert what he called economic "Armageddon" by quickly forging a deal to prevent an early August debt default by the world's richest country. "Simply put, it will take a balanced approach, shared sacrifice, and a willingness to make unpopular choices on all our parts," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "That means spending less on domestic programs," the president explained. "It means spending less on defense programs. ... And it means taking on the tax code, and cutting out certain tax breaks and deductions for the wealthiest Americans." The US government reached its debt limit of $14.29 trillion in May, and since then the Treasury Department has used special measures to allow the government to keep paying its bills. But unless the limit is raised by August 2, the Treasury says, growing spending and debt service commitments will force a default, which would have disastrous ripple effects throughout the global financial system.
