Entries in World Economics (55)
Global Research - 50 Economic Numbers From 2011 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe
Global Research, December 18, 2011
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28268
Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no idea just how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we are going to be in if we don't make dramatic changes immediately. If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the U.S. economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them. Just "tweaking" things here and there is not going to fix this economy. We truly do need a fundamental change in direction. America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding. If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.
At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point. Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you share the reality of the U.S. economic crisis with your family and friends. If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that "business as usual" will result in a national economic apocalypse.
The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....
#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.
#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.
#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.
#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.
#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.
ZeroHedge.com - Australian Banks Given One Week To Prepare For European "Meltdown"
ZeroHedge.com
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/australian-banks-given-one-week-prepare-european-meltdown
Whereas previously we had heard extensive horror stories about banks being told to prepare for the end of the world in case the European summit (the latest and greatest one from last Friday which was supposed to find a cure for cancer among other things) failed, and even went so far as to read about preparations for trading in the drachma on a when issued basis, once the summit passed (and it was clear that media posturing would do nothing to fix what has already been a failure and it would be best to remove the threats of "reality" from the public's attention) all such "end of the world" speculation promptly disappeared - after all why remind people that things are now worse than ever. Until today. According to the Australian Finance Review (link - subscription required), banks down under "have been given 1 week by regulators to stress test how they would handle a spike in joblessness, plunge in home prices spurred by EU debt crisis." Aka a European "Meltdown." And since we don't have immediate access to the article, we leave it to Bloomberg First Word to describe for us what the article says:
- Australian Prudential Regulation Authority envision worst-case scenario of 12% unemployment, 30% drop in house prices, 40% fall in commercial property values, AFR says
- Banks will assume that write-offs, other mitigation measures are unavailable; later stress tests might allow for such steps, AFR says
- Australia’s banks have A$87.2b of exposure to Europe, or 2.7% of assets, with A$74.6b of it mostly tied to bank borrowers in France, Germany, Netherlands, AFR says, citing RBA statistics
John Cavanagh - Why the 99 Percent Are Protesting at the World Bank Today
Published on Thursday, December 15, 2011 by IPS Blog
http://www.ips-dc.org/blog/why_the_99_percent_are_protesting_at_the_world_bank_today
Undemocratic provisions in treaties enable corporations to sue governments in international tribunals over environmental, health, and other measures foreign countries take to protect the public.
Today I will join leaders from the labor, environmental, faith, and human rights communities to protest in front of the World Bank.
Why?
We'll be there to stand up for the democratic rights of people everywhere in the face of ever-expanding corporate rule.
There's a set of people from the 1 percent who don't think we should be there. Twenty-one years ago, those people got together just two blocks north of the World Bank, in the K Street corporate lobbyist corridor, and crafted a set of corporate rights that they then inserted in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
247WallStreet.com - Fitch Downgrades The Entire World
247WallStreet.com: December 12, 2011
http://247wallst.com/2011/12/12/fitch-downgrades-the-entire-world/#ixzz1gXOsXwk5
Research firm Fitch downgraded its forecasts for the growth rate of almost every region in the world. It is yet another warning that the slowdown in the EU economy has begun to spread rapidly to other regions.
The firm wrote in a new note:
In its latest quarterly Global Economic Outlook (GEO) Fitch Ratings forecasts the economic growth of major advanced economies (MAE) to slow to 1.3% in 2011 and remain weak at 1.2% in 2012, followed by only a modest acceleration to 1.9% in 2013.
Compared with the previous GEO in October, Fitch has revised down its GDP forecasts over the entire forecast horizon to 2013. The agency forecasts global growth, based on market exchange rates, at 2.4% for 2012 and 3.0% in 2013, compared with 2.7% and 3.1% previously.
According to Fitch, the American economy will not escape the downdraft:
The recovery in the US will remain lacklustre in the short run with stronger growth momentum expected from H212 onwards, weighed down by the continued drag from the housing market as well as fiscal tightening equivalent to around 1% of GDP. In line with weak GDP growth in the EZ, the economic outlook has also weakened in the UK, where Fitch has revised down its GDP growth forecasts again to just 0.7% in 2012 and 2.0% in 2013.
Read more: Fitch Downgrades The Entire World - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2011/12/12/fitch-downgrades-the-entire-world/#ixzz1gXOsXwk5