EU agrees to end ‘dangerous’ tax evasion and bank secrecy

In a period of record recession and unemployment, the EU has decided to recover a reported €1 trillion in tax revenue lost in loopholes and fraud, and has set a one year deadline to end banking secrecy.
Parliament Officials meet in Brussels to address the burden the
€1 trillion tax evasion is having on the EU economy, and have again
called to end fraud and ‘offshore’ zones. 
The European Parliament agreed to halve the 1 trillion figure by
2020 through an aggressive dismantling of tax loopholes and
havens.  The MEP’s also approved state resources to go
after and prosecute tax evaders, in hopes of recovering lost
assets.
“At a time when finances are tight and taxpayers are
squeezed, it’s only right that we crack down on those who pursue
illegal means to avoid making any contribution to public coffers,
and who put smaller competitors at a disadvantage,” said
Conservative MEP Martin Callanan, in a direct challenge to British
PM David Cameron to make tax evasion a priority in the UK
Austria, notorious for its banking secrecy, has joined
its EU partners in the quest against tax fraud, and supports the
one year banking secrecy deadline. According to Tax Research UK, a
blog maintained by an “anti-poverty campaigner and tax expert”
according to the Guardian.

The blog’s owner also is involved with Tax Justice Network and
is the director of Tax Research LLP.
The poverty charity Oxfam said on Tuesday that the EU has missed
out on £100 billion from individual tax scammers.
Oxfam has called for a blacklist of tax havens and believes EU
member states should impose sanctions on members who provide
platforms for such activity.
Ireland has vehemently denied it is a tax haven and on Wednesday
called for an international clampdown on multinationals, yet sits
at the center of the controversy. On Monday, it became known that
Apple Inc. paid just 2 percent on $74 billion
overseas income, which was mostly facilitated by a loophole in
Ireland’s tax code.
The ‘Irish double dip’ allows a company to file two subsidiaries
in Ireland with a corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent, which is far
less than the 35 percent rate in the US, for example.
This ‘legitimate tax abuse’ by high-profile corporates such as
Amazon, Google, and Apple hijacked the EU summit agenda.
Martin Callanan has called for an end to tax-havens and doesn’t
blame the companies, but the governing bodies which allow such a
framework.
“Nobody can blame companies for wanting to look after
share-holders’ capital by minimizing their tax bill in a legal
manner,” he said.
Getting all member states to abide by one tax code, seems near
impossible.
“While companies may be using loopholes to pay as little tax
as possible, the truth is it’s a national issue. It’s up to the
relevant member states to change their tax codes and tighten the
net.”
The EU has already agreed to strengthen savings tax agreements
with European countries widely regarded as tax havens -
Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and San Marino.
Luxembourg has taken a lead and has agreed to an automatic
information exchange with the United States.
This article originally appeared on : RT

Bachmann: God will ‘answer our prayers’ and repeal Obamacare with a ‘miracle’

Source: Raw Story

(Yeah I don’t think it quite works out that way Ms. Bachmann…)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is telling her constituents that God will “answer our prayers” and create a “miracle before our eyes” to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.
In a Tuesday interview with evangelical radio host James Dobson, Bachmann noted that the House of Representatives had recently voted for the 37th time to repeal the Affordable Care Act and that she was hopeful that the Democratically-controlled Senate would do the same.
“I think the President will ultimately be forced to repudiate his own signature piece of legislation because the American people will demand it,” she explained. “And I think before his second term is over, we’re going to see a miracle before our eyes, I believe God is going to answer our prayers and we’ll be freed from the yoke of Obamacare.”
“I believe that’s going to happen and we saw step one last week with the repeal of Obamacare in the House. We have two more steps. We serve a mighty God and I believe it can happen.”
At a tea party rally last week, Bachmann had falsely warned that Obamacare would allow the Internal Revenue Service to deny health care to patients.
“Many people said this issue was dead, many people have said that Obamacare is here to stay,” she told the crowd. “We are here as the people’s representatives, as real people across the United States to say, this issue is now revived! It’s is back on the table!”

Connecticut Advances Conversion from War to Peace Economy

The Connecticut legislature has sent to the governor to sign a bill that would create a commission to develop a plan for, among other things:

"the diversification or conversion of defense-related industries with an emphasis on encouraging environmentally-sustainable and civilian product manufacturing. On or before December 1, 2014, the commission shall submit such report to the Governor and, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a, to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to commerce."

The commission "shall Advise the General Assembly and the Department of Economic and Community Development on issues relating to the diversification or conversion of defense-related industries" among other things.
Read the full text.
According to Peace Action, sponsor State Senator Toni N. Harp from New Haven has said,

“The proposed Futures Commission will set up a framework that allows us to convert many of our military related jobs and infrastructure into non-military industries.”

This is a remarkable breakthrough that didn't just come out of nowhere:

"In November 2012, a ballot referendum passed in New Haven that called for moving the money from war to jobs rebuilding our infrastructure and human needs. This referendum won support nearly 6 to 1! This winter in Connecticut, the US Peace Council, No Nukes No War, the City of New Haven Peace Commission with the support of the state AFL-CIO and International Association of Machinists worked to get  SB619 introduced in the state legislature calling for a Futures Commission whose goals is to investigate how to convert the weapons manufacturing industries to producing civilian, green products and retain and develop manufacturing in the state. The Commission that this bill creates will include representatives of labor, peace and environmental organizations."

In February, Bill Shortell, an official with the International Association of Machinists in Connecticut, explained what's needed this way:

"Diverse forces are now converging in an attempt to carve up the military budget. These are (1) those who would cut it to reduce the deficit. There is considerable logic on their side. The solvency of the nation, in many people's eyes, is threatened by the size of the debt compared with our GDP. About 30% of our government runs on borrowed cash. The same proportion can be applied to the military budget.

"Then there is growing group (2) that wants to "Move the Money" to much-needed social services, like health and education, and also to repair our crumbling infrastructure.

"There is also a powerful group (3) who would not reduce the military budget at all. This group somehow imagines the continued military usefulness of fighter jets, nuclear subs, etc, even though they rarely argue this. They instead generally justify continued military spending because of the millions of jobs and billions in profits that it creates.

"TIME FOR CONVERSION

"Finally, there is a small group (4), which sees the dismantling of the military budget as inevitable, and is making plans for alternative uses of the "procurement" part of the budget. This is about $100 billion of the $700 billion budget. We advocate re-assigning workers and switching capital to products, which have a peacetime use. This does NOT mean abandoning factories and retraining manufacturing workers to be nurses, teachers, and construction workers.

"We don't need any more construction workers right now, and most military manufacturing workers are not suited or inclined to training in the social services. In addition, folding up this significant sector of US manufacturing, with no replacement products would have a disastrous impact on the US economy.

"Economic Conversion means designing peacetime manufactured products that are in demand, and re-tooling military facilities to produce them. The growing market for green technology is most often cited.

"The two other groups who would cut the military budget seem unaware of the impact of eliminating so much value-adding industry.  Nor are they focused on the plight of the military production workers or the many millions more, soldiers, administrators, security personnel, who stand to lose their job with the shrinking of the military budget. These last, however,  are not represented by unions.

"Union-based organizations like USLAW and LLP have no choice but to take into account the ideas of Economic Conversion, as we set policies and phrase our peace message. Calling flatly to "cut the military budget,"  spurs opposition from the manufacturing unions. These, in turn, have enough influence in the AFL-CIO to considerably weaken its vital input in the struggle over the reduction of the military budget.

"Economic Conversion is a difficult, complex question. There is little precedent for using government funds to manufacture anything but weapons. But if we don't try to understand it and embrace it, the likelihood of achieving other benefits of the peace dividend fades, as the military workers and our unions cling to militarism.

"The military budget is so enormous that the goals of all three of the groups who would reduce it can be addressed. To fully achieve them, we need new taxes on people who can afford to pay."

Confirming Matt Taibbi: The Conspiracy Theorists Were Right

A few weeks ago Matt Taibbi said in a 14 page article in Rolling Stone said that the Conspiracy Theorists were right and that every market was rigged by the bankers. And that included interest rates. commodities, Credit Default Swaps and the gold and silver markets. This has been confirmed by the courts and the securities markets. BP and Shell are being investigated in Europe for rigging oil prices. If the CEO of a small company were arrested, the stock price would go down. But BP and Shell stock prices remain unchanged. JP Morgan, HSBC, Wells Fargo-Wachovia and Goldman Sachs have all had legal difficulties but walked away from the courts with no jail time and fines that were a miniscule fraction of the money involved.
This confirms that the courts, the regulatory system, the politicians and the media are fixed and it is not just the 2.2 trillion dollar petrochemical markets that are run by the banks. The oil company executives and the bankers know they are not going to jail.
Stacy Herbert made mention recently of 40 charts that used to correlate and give us an idea of what is happening in the real world. In the old days unemployment used to indicate economic activity and hence stock price levels. No more. Now stock prices and employment do not correlate. We are in the midst of the greatest recession in decades with record breaking low employment levels yet the DOW 30 and S&P indices could not go higher. That is without even more help from the Federal Reserve.
Total company debt and the interest rate they have to pay bear no relation to each other. In fact some companies with the greatest debt levels pay the lowest rates. The Federal Reserve loaned out 7 trillion dollars at 0.01% interest. I doubt that money was loaned to the most credit worthy organizations with plans for innovation and expansion who wanted to hire thousands of new employees. Instead the money was loaned to speculators who wanted to double the price of food and energy. Blythe Masters of JP Morgan bought older electrical generation plants while Obama and the EPA shut down her competitors doubling utility rates in some areas. Also money the FED loaned to news organizations like MSNBC that lie to us. Their ratings are faked but even those phony rates are plummeting. They are a poor credit risk but that does not matter. The Banker Occupied Government does not want you to ever hear the truth. If you did hear the truth on TV, the bankers and the politicians would be in jail.
Dr Michael Hudson was made famous by his book Super Imperialism in which he explained how the US was paying for its wars and military occupations by printing dollars. People overseas paid for their occupation by accepting US Federal Reserve Notes as if they were gold coins because they are printing an international reserve currency. Today the US admits to have troops engaged in combat related activities in 74 countries.
Hudson’s latest book is The Bubble And Beyond. He correlates obvious market manipulation with the creation of a lifetime of debt. He says we have moved past industrial capitalism to Finance capital. We used to make things. Now the product is money. The object of Finance Capitalism is to create mountains of Unpayable Debts to enslave us.
Hudson in an interview mentioned the US trillion dollar student debt as holding down working people  who want to make a living sufficient to buy a house. Of course student loans were abused by the system to give educations and even scholarships to people who might to have been learning a skilled trade so we could get back to making things.
Half of today’s American college grads cannot find full time jobs. The average college grad has $28,000 in student loans and almost $4,000 in additional credit cards.
Obama and Bush have been allowing their man Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve to create money by the tens of trillion not to create jobs but to raise the prices of assets. To do this Hudson points out that Bernanke must keep interest rates low. At 3% you can handle 6 times as much debt at 18%.
A 3 bedroom  house in San Jose that could have been bought for $25,000 in 1964 this month sold for $805,000. Catherine Austin Fitts in an interview once said that one reason for all the legal and illegal immigration was to drive up housing prices and to keep that Bobble going.
Another source of outrageous interest rate burdens on taxpayers is government debt. Total US federal and local debt is more than 21 trillion dollars. The government gave the right to privately owned banks on 1913 to issue out currency as a loan at interest. Since the money to pay the interest was never created at the time of the originating loan, the banks must create additional money to pay for the interest in the second round of loans. Interest on the federal debt is 535 billion dollars. And there is an additional 100 billion dollars in local and state government interest rate payments making life unbearable for working people and small businesses.
Obamacare raised the cost of medical care and required everyone to buy over priced insurance.
Dr Hudson gave an example of a young couple with high paying jobs and mortgage and student debt who next year under Obamacare will be lucky to keep 25% of their gross income after taxes and payments. That is all you have to buy food, gasoline, utilities and  clothes. All but the last have been deliberately kept expensive which further enslaves us to Unpayable Debts. If you add up federal. state and local taxes, payments on student loans and mortgages plus mandatory over priced health insurance, you will understand why Hudson said the economy can never recover until we have Debt Cancellation.
The purpose of this system is to lower our wages and further enslave us to debts even though they created all that money out of nothing.
This situation cannot last. The Japanese are printing yen with wild abandon, They have cut the value of the yen by a third and doubled the interest rate on long term government bonds. Raising interest rates and and lowering the value of the currency is how this Bubble will end. As Professor Steve Keen said, we have the greatest Bubble of Unpayable Debts in 500 years. Depressions cancel debts, we can only conclude that we are therefore headed to the worst Depression in 500 years.
I will conclude with what I have said before.
The Fundamental Fact of Your Existence as a modern man or woman is that the bankers of New York and London want to reduce you to Debt Slavery.
Accept that fact and move on to the solution.
That is their plan for you.
What is your plan for them?
Related Articles:
This Is Your Final Warning: The Worst Financial Disaster In 500 Years Is Nigh
http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/this-is-your-final-warning-the-worst-financial-disaster-in-500-years-is-nigh/
Blythe Masters Tells How The World Really Works
http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/blythe-masters-tells-how-the-world-really-works/
Catherine Austin Fitts On Genocide And The Looting Of America
http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/catherine-austin-fitts-on-genocide-and-the-looting-of-america/
$43 Trillion + $36.5 Trillion + 1 Computer Virus = 1 Big Fraud
http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/43-trillion-36-5-trillion-1-computer-virus-1-big-fraud/
Joe Cortina, Gaza And The Limits Of The Israeli Empire
http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/joe-cortina-gaza-and-the-limits-of-the-israeli-empire/

Asian Gold Premiums Hit New Highs as Europe Urged to Start “Aggressive QE”

London Gold Market Report
from Adrian Ash, BullionVault
Weds 22 May, 08:45 EST

Asian Gold Premiums Hit New Highs as Europe Urged to Start “Aggressive QE”

BULLION prices rose throughout Asian and early London trade on Wednesday morning, touching $1398 per ounce for the third time this week and recovering 4.4% from Monday’s one-month low.

Silver rose more steadily, and was capped below $22.80 as energy prices slipped and agricultural commodities held flat.

Tuesday’s retreat in the gold price today pushed gold bar premiums in Hong Kong to new record highs says Reuters, hitting $6 per ounce over and above international benchmark prices.

“Singapore premiums rose to $5 per ounce,” the newswire adds, with Asian demand continuing to outstrip local supplies of gold kilo bars – the preferred investment form in the Far East.

“Expect to see more choppy trading in gold heading into Bernanke’s speech,” says one bullion broker in a note, pointing to the Federal Reserve chief’s testimony to Senate today on US monetary policy.

Asked yesterday on Bloomberg TV whether the Fed will start to cut its $85 billion program of monthly quantitative easing, New York Fed president William Dudley said “It really depends on how the economic outlook evolves…It’s too soon to make that determination.”

Even if the US central bank does slow its purchases of government debt and mortgage bonds with newly created money, Dudley said the Fed would only be “adding less stimulus” rather than actually “tightening” monetary policy.

“[Bullion] market participants, reading between the lines of Bernanke’s testimony, might infer a signal about an early end to quantitative easing,” warns Standard Bank in London.

“That would keep gold under pressure.”

“Given the level of negativity in the atmosphere,” says London market-maker UBS, “a much stronger move is needed [in the gold price] to materially threaten the resolve of shorts” – meaning speculative traders who now hold a record number of bets that gold will fall on the US futures market.

“Many shorts still feel comfortable given the persistently weak sentiment. There may well have been a good chunk of shorts initiated or re-established near this week’s highs.”

Dudley’s colleague James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, meantime warned Europe yesterday that it needs to start quantitative easing to avoid a long, Japan-style depression.

“You should worry about it, and then take policy action to avoid it,” said Bullard. “One way to get stuck would be to be passive in this situation and not take some aggressive action to try to get inflation back.”

“Europe can draw lessons from Japan on the dangers of half measures,” agreed Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney yesterday in his final speech before moving to lead the UK’s Bank of England in July.

Japan’s banking crisis began in 1989. More than two decades later, “to end its debilitating legacy,” says Carney, “Japan has just embarked on a bold policy experiment” – doubling its balance sheet with the most aggressive ‘quantitative easing’ yet seen.

“Governments have [already] been engaging in…printing money,” says Marshall Gittler, former head of forex at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management and now head of forex strategy at UK brokerage IronFX, writing for CNBC.

“But until [bank] loans have been made, [new central bank] reserves are just potential money.”

Challenging former UBS analyst and now precious metals strategist John Reade at Paulson & Co. – who wrote in the Financial Times last month that “the expectation of global paper currency debasement makes gold an attractive long-term investment” – Gittler says that

“While the gold bugs wait for hyperinflation, the global economy slides first into disinflation and then, who knows, perhaps deflation.”

Gold trading in India – the world’s No.1 consumer nation – meantime eased off Wednesday, according to local reports.

After last month’s festival season and the imposition of new import controls by the central bank in a bid to cut India’s trade deficit, gold prices edged lower today, even though “supplies are difficult to get and premiums are still high” for gold bars according to one major dealer

Adrian Ash

China Platinum Imports Rise – Bullish Platinum and Palladium Fundamentals

by GoldCore


Today’s AM fix was USD 1,385.25, EUR 1,071.43 and GBP 917.75 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,378.75, EUR 1,070.21 and GBP 908.39 per ounce.
Gold fell $6.50 or 0.47% yesterday to $1,377.80/oz and silver finished down 0.56%.
The fundamentals of the platinum and palladium markets are beginning to receive market attention and not before time. The positive supply demand dynamics are leading to increased investment demand as seen in the ETF data and Chinese demand rising again due to both industrial and jewellery demand.


Source: Bloomberg, China Customs General Administration – (UBS)
Net platinum imports into China jumped to 8.9 metric tonnes last month, marking the strongest inflow in about a year according to UBS.
This reflected a 14% increase from March, and year-on-year growth of 29%. The trade data coincides with strong platinum volumes on the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), which coincidentally also totalled 8.9 tonnes for the whole month of April, the strongest turnover since September 2011. The fall in prices towards $1,400/oz prompted a pick-up in physical buying.
Jewellery demand was cited by UBS as the main source of the physical buying.
While gold is still the more popular precious metal in China, platinum jewellery has also enjoyed an improvement in demand. Johnson Matthey estimates a 14% increase in net global platinum jewellery offtake last year, with China accounting for a large portion of the increase. The expansion in the number of retail outlets across second and third tier cities in China has contributed to the growth in platinum jewellery demand.
Although platinum’s discount to gold in 2012 did not necessarily translate into relatively cheaper platinum jewellery at a retail level, better margins would have encouraged sellers to exert more effort in promoting platinum. The surge in China’s platinum imports and increased SGE activity in April is a reflection of the physical demand response to the price drop, similar to that seen in gold.

Avg Known ETF Platinum Holdings – (Bloomberg)
Investment demand is likely to have received a boost from the announcement in March that Russia and South Africa, which together control about 80% of the world’s reserves of platinum group metals, plan to create a trading bloc similar to OPEC to control the flow of exports of the precious metals.

Source: Various ETFs – (UBS)
The increase in the holdings in of the platinum and palladium ETFs has been significant but the holdings remain very small compared to the far more successful gold and silver ETFs.
Platinum Group Metals (PGM) are seeing broad base global demand. Besides investment demand, they are widely used to make catalytic converters that filter car exhausts, in jewellery where increasing demand has been seen in Asia, and in many military applications.
The majority of the world’s platinum reserves are found in just one country, South Africa which is home to 75% of global platinum production and 95% of known reserves. Neighboring Zimbabwe also sits on large reserves.

Resource nationalism as has been seen in Zimbabwe, Russia and Latin American countries in recent years is a real risk. This seems likely to lead to serious supply issues in the coming years which mean that the fundamentals of the PGM remain very attractive.
Both are trading well below their record nominal highs and way below their inflation adjusted highs.

Platinum in USD/oz, Monthly, 1983-2013 – (Bloomberg)
We believe that due to the very favourable supply demand dynamics in the platinum market, it should rise well above the inflation adjusted record high from 1980 at $2,700/oz in the coming years from $1,468/oz today.
Palladium could see similar returns and should rise above both its nominal high and inflation adjusted high in the coming years.
The Platinum Group Metals are more volatile than gold and therefore merit a lesser allocation of one’s wealth but platinum and palladium coins and bars in allocated accounts remain a prudent diversification for anyone wishing to preserve and grow wealth in the coming years.

Palladium in USD/oz, Monthly, 1983-2013 – (Bloomberg)
Many studies have shown that, precious metals are one of the few asset classes with a positive correlation coefficient with inflation. According to Ibbotson Associates, precious metals are the most positively correlated asset class to inflation. From a strategic point of view, Ibbotson determined that portfolios with a 7-15% allocation to gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion could reduce risks and improve returns.
The bullish supply demand fundamentals of the platinum and palladium markets is something we have long highlighted. Both metals remain attractive and important diversifications which can protect investors and store of wealth buyers from inflation and currency devaluation.
They also have the potential for sizeable capital gains given the unstable outlook for supply from primary producer countries, Russia and especially South Africa.
Real diversification means including allocations to gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion in your portfolio.

Trader Alert: The Euphoria Phase of The Bull Market Is Now Entering Its Final Parabolic Phase That Always Crash

We Are Headed Directly Into A Brick Wall Where Everything Just Stops

Every market is going in the wrong direction in preparation for what is coming.  Yes I know, this is always how it works when bubbles are being blown. Money is pouring into bonds in particular, stocks are being propped up and margin balances swollen, people are also being prodded into “selling” their Gold (paper obligations).
As I see it, we are headed directly into a brick wall where everything just stops.  “Just stops” as in all markets are closed and you have what you have- which will either be marked up…or down on the day that the music starts again.
Submitted By Bill Holter, Miles Franklin Ltd,:
The global economy(s) has decidedly slowed down everywhere you look and at best is treading water.  The GDP calculations done of course are bolstered by $ trillions of new debt so without the “debt growth” we would be in full fledged depression.  Yet, stock markets nearly everywhere are ebullient and making either all time or multi year highs.  A disconnect for sure but is explained because of central bank easy money.
Some have even looked at this phenomenon (myself included) and concluded that rising stock markets are a result of easy monetary policy. … Which hasn’t/won’t kick start the real economies.  This is a classic sign that hyperinflation is in the cards, and this conclusion is based not on opinion…but history.
…

Charting Irrational Credit Bubble Exuberance Euphoria

If there is one market that represents the sheer unbridled lack of respect for risk it is the Greek Government bond market. In the last year, GGB prices have surged 380% from under EUR 14 to almost EUR 67% of par today! That is a plunge in yields from over 29% in May 2012 to a mere 8% currently (US Treasuries yielded 8% in 1994)… The driver for all this exuberance? Every major macro data point for Greece has worsened from a year ago – from unemployment to GDP growth… behond the ‘wretch’-for-yield. Or perhaps we are overthinking it: it appears that Greek bond prices are merely matching Greek youth unemployment almost tick for tick: expect GGBs to hit par when every single Greek between the ages of 16 and 25 is out of a job.

US Macro Data At Its Worst In 8 Months And The Markets Are Just As Stunned By Equity Exuberance

US Macro data is its worst in 8 months…
(note – the US Macro index is Bloomberg economic surprise index which not only tracks absolute performance but relative to consensus – so we missing expectations and macro data is dropping…)

and the markets are just as stunned by equity exuberance…



Charts: Bloomberg

Stock Market Will Crash Within 2 Months! Here’s Why

Connor goes on to say in further edited excerpts:
Depending on how far above the 200 day moving average it ends up stretching, I think there’s a pretty good chance we will see the entire intermediate rally wiped out in a matter of days or even hours when this house of cards finally comes tumbling down. That is how these runaway moves terminate. They crash! Parabolas always crash.
[Runaway moves]… can go on and on for months and months with savvy investors becoming more and more nervous the longer the move persists. The longer the trend continues the more professional traders all position right next to the exit, until finally one day everybody tries to get out the door at the same time. It’s that mass exodus to lock in profits that triggers the crash. The magnitude is determined by how far and how long the market stretches above the 200 day moving average.
…

Evidence mounts on slower U.S. economic growth
Bernanke’s ‘recovery’ is no recovery at all. The US economy is on Fed life-support and can’t regain enough momentum to escape growing deflationary pressures.
Eurozone sinks into longest recession
France leads EU slump after weak exports and Germany posts slow start to year as austerity continues to bite.
Car burnings rise as France threatens to take euro crisis to ‘higher plane’
The billionaire boss of CQS, one of London’s biggest hedge funds, has written to investors warning them that the France could trigger another more dangerous phase of the debt crisis and rock the fragile global recovery.

Global Slump, Continued Stagnation of US Economy. Sharp Increase in Jobless Benefit Claims

Signs of growing economic and social distress in the US coincide with an accelerating downturn in Europe and slowing growth in China. On Wednesday, the European Union’s statistics agency said that the economy of the euro area contracted for the sixth consecutive quarter, after having posted record unemployment rates earlier in the month.
The number of people in the US who filed new claims for unemployment benefits grew by 32,000, hitting 360,000 in the week ending May 11—significantly higher than economists had predicted.
US industrial production fell last month, registering its sharpest decline in eight months, according to figures released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve. American factories, mines and utilities reduced their output by 0.5 percent in April, compared to a predicted drop of 0.2 percent.
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said its economic index for the Mid-Atlantic region fell dramatically in May, to minus 5.2 from plus 1.3 in April, indicating an economic contraction.