Grand Theft Economics
Carolyn Baker
Speaking Truth to Power
Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:44 UTC
Since many months before the November election, Truth to Power has been researching and informing readers regarding the fundamental underpinnings of Barack Obama's agenda and his likely appointments in the areas of economic, foreign policy, and energy issues. Not only have I written several pieces on the topic, so have a variety of other researchers. In reviewing our reporting, what has remained consistent and therefore validates it, is Obama's adherence to neoliberal, globalist policies couched in the rhetoric of "change" but offering no substantial departure from the ultimate strategies of imperialism, corporate capitalist supremacy, and almost total ignorance (or ignore-ance) of the energy and environmental suicide perpetuated by endless growth.
Simon Davies & Donald Hunt
SOTT.net
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:05 UTC
World stock indexes rebounded strongly last week. The Dow and the Hang Seng were up nearly 10%, the FTSE and DAX were up 13% and the Brazilian Bovespa was up a whopping 17%. Gold pushed passed $800.
In the U.S.
retailers reported a better than feared "Black Friday," with sales rising 3% compared to the previous year, although discounts were deep and profit margins low. Black Friday refers to the Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday. It is both the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season and the day that retailers start to make their profits for the year. In recent years it has become a bigger and bigger thing, with families waiting in line outside big box stores and malls the night before waiting to get let in at five in the morning, lured by steep discounts on a few big ticket items. This year with the bad economy it got completely out of hand as a Walmart employee was
trampled to death in Long Island when the crowds were let in.
David Carr
The New York Times
Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:21 UTC
This weekend, news reports were full of finger-wagging over the death by trampling of a temporary worker, Jdimytai Damour, at a Wal-Mart store in Long Island on Friday. His death, the coverage suggested, was a symbol of a broken culture of consumerism in which people would do anything for a bargain.
Stephen Leahy
IPS News
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:18 UTC
As the world community meets in Poland this week to find solutions to the climate crisis, the George W. Bush White House is chaining the United States' tiller to prevent a change of course by President-elect Barack Obama by passing new anti-environmental rules and regulations at a furious pace.
David Montero
Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:28 UTC
© Jayanta Dey/Reuters
Harvest: A farmer carried harvested rice last month from a field on the outskirts of Agartala, India.
Financial crisis may worsen food crunch it eclipsed
Neha Singh and Amiteshwar Singh
Reuters
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:53 UTC
The U.S. credit-card industry may pull back well over $2 trillion of lines over the next 18 months due to risk aversion and regulatory changes, leading to sharp declines in consumer spending, prominent banking analyst Meredith Whitney said.
The credit card is the second key source of consumer liquidity, the first being jobs, the Oppenheimer & Co analyst noted.
"In other words, we expect available consumer liquidity in the form of credit-card lines to decline by 45 percent."
Maria Sheahan, Jan Schwartz, Irene Preisinger
Reuters
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:30 UTC
* Porsche schedules 8 days of production stops at main plant
* Volkswagen may stop production in Wolfsburg for 3 weeks
* Audi says production halts are a precaution
* BMW says will cut further 400 temporary jobs in Leipzig
* Porsche shares down 8.8 pct, VW down 17.7 pct
(Adds Audi production stops, BMW temporary job cuts)
Frankfurt - German carmakers made another move to cut output levels towards the end of the year to offset slumping demand as the global economic crisis prompts consumers and companies to closely monitor their finances.
Sports car maker Porsche halted production at its headquarters in the southern German town of Zuffenhausen, for one day on Nov. 21, and planned to stop assembly for another seven days until end-January.
BBC News
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:33 UTC
Banking group HSBC has confirmed it is cutting 500 jobs across the UK. HSBC said the move followed "a review of the business and current economic conditions". None of the affected positions are customer facing. The announcement comes after HSBC said in September that it was cutting 1,100 jobs worldwide because of the continuing global financial turmoil.
Trade union Unite accused HSBC of "using the economic downturn as an excuse to make job losses". HSBC said the latest job cuts represented less than 1% of its 58,000 UK workforce.
Russia Today
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:12 UTC
It's a new way of doing business. Instead of paying somebody to do a job, you offer your skills in return. The idea has caught on in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, where locals have adopted a 'time banking' scheme, enabling them to preserve money.
In 'time banking' people trade skills for the services they require. It works by people doing jobs for other members of the scheme, and receiving services in return.
Time banking started in the U.S in the early 1980's and then spread all over the world. The unit of currency here is valued at an hour's worth of any person's labor and can be called different names - Time Dollar in the US and Time credit in the UK.
In Nizhny Novgorod the scheme has been successfully running for a couple of years.
PR manager of Time Bank in Nizhny Novgorod, Natalia Kim says the advantage of the scheme is that "You can offer services to other people, wait for something they can do. And you can get the services back without paying money."
Jonathan Tasini
OpEdNews
Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:58 UTC
When you are a pro at a scam--the definition of "scam" also can be found under the term "insurance industry" -- you know how to try to pull a fast one. And AIG is trying to pull one -- under cover of the holidays. Check this out.
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