iPad打機‧10分鐘花8千

（英國‧倫敦4日訊）英國一對父母上星期日經不起其5歲兒子基欽的苦苦哀求，讓他借去他們的iPad玩免費遊戲。豈料兒子在遊戲中買下19次收費武器，於短短10分鐘內花去父母約1千700英鎊（約8千令吉）。雖然蘋果公司已退還全數款項，但其父母稱已上了嚴厲的一課。

在讓基欽花去巨款的遊戲中，玩家扮演的忍者需以飛鏢和炸彈等武器打敗眾多喪屍。遊戲雖然免費， 但如要增添額外彈藥，則要付上真金白銀購買。蘋果公司指出，旗下平板電腦和智能手機均設有專門系統，讓家長限制子女的操作。至於今次玩遊戲玩出禍的基欽就 可憐地說：“我已被禁止玩iPad了。＂

（星洲日報／國際）

“汽車之城”變“最悲慘城市”‧欠債433億‧底特律快破產

  

“汽車城”瀕臨破產邊緣，加上大量人口外移，昔日生機蓬勃的景象如今已不復見。圖中通用汽車總部大樓（左後）和一棟荒廢的民居形成強烈對比。（圖：法新社）

（美國‧底特律3日訊）世界聞名的美國“汽車之城”底特律風光不再，不僅躍居全美“最悲慘城市”榜首，高達140億美元的長期負債，使其陷入財政緊急狀態，已迫使州政府宣佈從民選官員手中接管這座汽車城，很可能成為美國史上最大的破產城市。

州政府謀接管

底特律目前有3.27億美元（約10億令吉）預算赤字，長期債務達140億美元（約433億令吉），基本上以借貸度日，而市府資金將於6月前用罄。

財困已令底特律社會日常運作大受影響，治安變壞。由於資源不足，警員因人手嚴重短缺被迫每天工作12小時，當地警員去年發起抗議，派傳單稱“進入底特律責任自負”，突顯治安問題。

高犯罪率、高失業率、人口外流、財政危機及破產風險等諸多負面因素，導致底特律去年被《福布斯》評為“美國最悲慘城市”，現時更因負債纍纍，滿街遺下垃圾，甚至街燈也因沒電而不亮。

底特律財政拮据，共和黨藉的密歇根州州長斯奈德上週五宣佈，底特律市進入財政緊急狀態，委任財務經理接管該市，財務經理有權下令官員減薪、裁員及賣資產，甚至宣佈破產。

民主黨人斥“惡意接管”

但民主黨籍市長戴夫．賓表示不支持接管決定，但願意與州政府合作，穩定底特律的財政狀況。有民主黨人形容此舉是“惡意接管”，該市有10天上訴期反對接管計劃，大部份市議員透露，希望挑戰這項決定。

一旦底特律被迫破產，將成為美國史上規模最大的地方政府破產案，並可能衝擊其他州的信用，引發骨牌效應，美國舉國正密切關注底特律的命運。

數據顯示，自1981年以來美國共有40餘起地方政府宣佈破產的案件，此前最大一起發生在2011年，阿拉巴馬州最大城市伯明翰所在的傑弗遜郡申請破產，負債42.3億美元（約131億令吉）。

倚重汽車業大派福利引“衰亡”

事實上，底特律從象徵工業繁榮的美國第5大城市退居到18位，其“衰亡”之路已經走了數十年。

汽車業是底特律的長期經濟支柱，近10%職位從事汽車業。但汽車業長期萎縮導致失業率急升，人口近10年更大跌四分之一，影響政府稅收，僅靠發債維持基本的政府運作，導致債台高築。

除了收入減少，龐大福利支出亦拖垮政府，以消防警察部門為例，未來數年超過82%開支就只是用於退休金，當年風光日子大派福利，最終拖垮這座“汽車之城”，反映一座城市依靠單一產業以及胡亂增派福利的風險。

在人口結構上，底特律是以白人為主的密歇根州中少有的“黑人城市”，市內80%人口是黑人，現任市長是曾效力市內NBA勁旅“底特律活塞”的黑人名宿戴夫．賓。

如今州政府接管將升高底特律的政治種族緊張情勢，因密西根州政府是以以白人和共和黨員為主，換來市內黑人反彈，質疑此舉是白人“對付”黑人所為。

（星洲日報／國際）

I THINK SHE IS BIG TIME TICKED OFF!

(Not my foul language)
I don't think TICKED OFF really covers it!!!!
Alan Simpson, Republican Senator from Wyoming and co-chair of President Obama's deficit commission, calls senior citizens the "Greediest Generation" as he compared Social Security to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats.
Here's a response in a letter from Patty Myers, a career school teacher in Montana ... I think she is a little ticked off! She also tells it like it is!

"Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight!!!!!
by Patty Myers

1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole (tit) for FIFTY YEARS.
   
   
2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).
   
   
3. My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.
   
   
4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and "your ilk" pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your "shill commission" are proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.
   
   
5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now "you morons" propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because "you idiots" mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal our money from Medicare to pay the bills.
   
   
6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you "incompetent bastards" spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.

To add insult to injury, you label us "greedy" for calling "bullshit" to your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU:

1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?
   
   
2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?
   
   
3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?
   
   
4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?

It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the "greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow nutcase thieves who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes and your job and retirement security at our expense, you lunk-headed leech.
That's right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic, political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.
And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son-of-a-bitch. NO, I did not stutter.
If you like the way things are in America delete this. If you agree with what a Montana citizen Patty Myers says, please PASS IT ON!!!!
P.S.
And stop calling Social Security benefits "entitlements" WHAT AN INSULT!!!!
I have been paying in to the SS system for 45 years. It's my money; give it back to me the way the system was designed and stop patting yourself on the back like you are being generous to be dolling out these monthly checks.

Claire Rivero's Music - Lord Help Us Make This World A Better Place

Great idea! Pay cuts for Congress

SOTT – by Dianne Russell, MoveOn
Congress is about to impose furloughs amounting to a 20% across-the-board pay cut for 800,000 federal employees, more than 44 percent of whom are veterans.
And yet, where is the same 20% cut for Congress and the president? Are they not federal employees? Aren’t these the people who keep telling us that everyone must share the burden? 
The across-the-board cuts set to go into effect at the end of the week will hurt the economy and they should be stopped.
But if Congress insists on cutting anyone’s salary, they should cut their own paychecks first. We pay their salaries.That’s why I created petitionon MoveOn.org’s petition site, SignOn.org, which says:
Any across-the-board pay cuts for federal employees must include the same pay cuts for all members of Congress and the president of the United States.
It’s up to us to demand that if members of Congress pass these unnecessary and harmful cuts—despite overwhelming public opposition—that they start with themselves.To be delivered to: The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama

Petition Statement Any across-the-board pay cuts for federal employees must include the same pay cuts for all members of Congress and the president of the United States. Petition Background

In fact, they have proposed a 20% across-the-board pay cut for 800,000 federal employees – all while leaving their salaries safely intact. If hard working employees will see an unexpected pay cut because Congress can’t get its own job done, shouldn’t our Congress members also see a pay cut?
After all, we pay their salaries.
As a state politician in Maine, I am seeing first-hand the devastating impact these cuts will have on our local communities. Why should our Congressional representatives not feel some of the pain, if they’re so convinced that cuts are the answer? The least they can do is cut their own salaries first.
Because of the 27th amendment, Congress can’t change their salaries until 2014, but if the sequester happens, it’ll cut public services for the next 10 years. So Congress needs to make sure that the next Congress, and every one after that, also feels the cut. Instead, they specifically exempted their own salaries.
There are currently 204,673 signatures NEW goal – We need 225,000 signatures

Ron Paul: 'The Sequester Is A Joke, There Are NO Cuts!'

Dr. Paul dishes out the truth.
'There aren't any real cuts.  It will do nothing to fix our debt problem.  The budget is growing automatically at about 7% per year.  With the sequester it will grow 6.9%.'
---
Ron Paul on CNBC's Fast Money late Friday.
Selected quote:
"It's just a fear tactic to raise taxes.  Heck, the Fed spends $85 billion per month all on its own.  The proposed increase in spending the next 10 years is $2.5 trillion.  If the sequester goes through, they will instead increase spending $2.4 trillion in the next 10 years.  It means nothing.  The budget is growing automatically at about 7% per year.  With the sequester it will grow 6.9%.  Let's just freeze the budget at 2012 levels, then no one can complain about a cut.  Don't be fooled by the rhetoric.  Both parties are against cutting anything in the military budget."


The actual numbers are here:

The Truth About The Sequester Cuts

BUY WiLLiaMBaNZai7 FiNe ART PRiNTS

‘Screw the Troika’: Hundreds of thousands protest austerity measures across Portugal

Hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Portuguese cities protesting austerity measures that the government hopes will help to avoid the bailout and lift the country out of recession.
Protests, coordinated through social media by nonpartisan groups, have swept across the country with the biggest mass demonstration taking place in the capital Lisbon.
IMF,
According to rally coordinators, some 500,000 protesters filled a Lisbon boulevard leading to the Finance Ministry. Many of them were carrying placards and chanting "It's time for the government to go!" and "Screw the Troika, we want our lives back," referring to the lenders from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
People in the crowd sang 'Grandola,' a protest song from the 1974 'Carnation Revolution' that ousted the dictatorship established by Antonio Salazar, and brought an end to military rule in the country. During the past few week activists have sung the song to heckle government ministers making public speeches. 
What the protesters are demanding is a complete change of the government’s policies aimed at reviving Portugal’s economy as the country faces its worst recession since the 1970s.

FULL STORY + PICS: http://rt.com/news/thousands-protest-austerity-portugal-734/

Kerry says US releasing millions in aid to Egypt

Fox News
CAIRO –  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the Obama administration is rewarding the Egyptian government with financial aid because of Cairo’s promises of economic and political reforms.
Kerry says the U.S. is providing $190 million immediately as part of a larger pledge of $450 million over time.
Kerry says the money reflects Egypt’s “extreme needs” and President Mohammed Morsi’s commitment to satisfying conditions to close a $4.8 billion package of International Monetary Fund loans.
Kerry also says that a separate $60 million is for a new fund to provide direct support to Egyptian entrepreneurs and young people.
The announcement of the aid came after Kerry’s meeting Sunday with Morsi.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/03/kerry-says-us-releasing-10-million-in-aid-to-egypt/#ixzz2MV0jS7Bb

Booming payday lenders to face ban on 'rollover' loans: Celebrity-endorsed cash companies branded 'legal loan sharks' face curbs

A clampdown on controversial payday lenders is due this week by the Office of Fair Trading, with dozens expected to be reprimanded for their behaviour.
A report by the watchdog after a year-long investigation will centre on fears that many customers taking these expensive, short-term, unsecured loans of up to 4,000 per cent APR cannot repay them.
The OFT is expected to tackle the practice of ‘rolling over’ debt into larger loans, which means problems can spiral out of control.  
The market has exploded in the past four years as mainstream banks rein in lending. Payday loan specialists – often criticised as ‘legal loan sharks’ – have been quick to fill the vacuum.  
The OFT found that the majority of firms it visited during its investigation breached guidelines. Some  of the practices that were uncovered have already led to formal investigations into several individual companies.
It is not yet clear whether the OFT plans to ‘name and shame’ firms, but they are thought to include many household names.
Campaigners are hoping the clampdown will be severe. They argue that payday lenders operate in a largely unfettered market,  adding that major lenders and smaller opportunist outfits have descended on Britain as other countries, such as the US, keep them on a tight leash.

Damon Gibbons at the Centre For Responsible Credit said: ‘These companies make loans knowing that a significant proportion of consumers can’t pay them back. The ones that can cover that cost and allow the companies to make a healthy profit.
‘The OFT’s current guidelines are loose and a self-imposed industry code only really commits firms to following those loose guidelines.’
According to the firms, the number of borrowers unable to pay back loans within the agreed time is typically between 15 per cent and 20 per cent. This will mean they incur penalty fees on top of charges of up to £36 for a month-long loan of £100.

Promotion: TV presenter David Dickinson backs Dollar Financial's The Money Shop

The lenders say they are satisfying demand for quick, emergency loans and figures compiled by Financial Mail show huge increases in turnover at payday loan firms as desperate consumers struggle to find ways to make ends meet.
One of the largest three firms is American conglomerate Dollar Financial, which operates Payday Express and PaydayUK. Turnover from internet lending rose 22.3 per cent to £40.5 million in the three months to the end of December. The total turnover in that period is almost five times more than it was two years ago.

Vocal support: Nicholas Parsons did a voiceover for Wonga

However, it described this rate of growth – which many companies in the current tough economic climate could only dream about – as only ‘moderate’. It said regulatory scrutiny had forced it to ‘take a more conservative stance’ to lending during the period.
It complained that many smaller firms had taken advantage and moved in. However, the company said the situation would slow its business for only a few months and that growth would pick up again next year.
Such statements leave many campaigners sceptical that the OFT will go far enough to restrict lenders.
The watchdog says 240 loan firms operate in the UK. These include Dollar Financial’s giant US rival Cash America, which operates QuickQuid and Pounds To Pocket. Its revenues from the UK have increased from £26million in 2009 to £139million in 2011, the most recent data available.
In 2011, one of the best-known payday firms, Wonga, saw sales increase at a similarly eye-watering rate to £185million, which would make it the biggest payday lender.
According to the Treasury, a cap on interest rates that was passed in a Bill last November is unlikely to come in to force until the Financial Conduct Authority starts work in April 2014. The branch of the OFT concerned with consumer credit will be absorbed into the new watchdog.
‘We have legislated for the FCA to have the power to enforce a cap on interest rates if they see fit,’ said a Treasury spokesman.
‘It will also have the power to enforce a cap on other charges associated with taking out a loan
The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has described the most expensive payday loans as ‘usury’. Financial Mail has reported almost 100 payday loan firms and loan-brokering sites to the OFT and the Advertising Standards Authority with concerns that they have breached rules.
National Debtline said complaints about payday firms doubled last year while the University of East London has banned the firms from advertising to students on its campus. The NUS said payday loans ‘often makes students’ financial situation worse rather than better’.
Smaller firms have proliferated in the past two years. Among them is CashLady, owned by Israeli husband and wife Avner and Michal Brodsky. They control PDB UK, which includes loan sites KwikCash, Fast Pony and Payday Bank. The owners will be expecting a boost to sales after paying singer Kerry Katona to front Cash Lady.
Other celebrities who promote payday firms include antiques expert and TV presenter David Dickinson, who backs Dollar Financial’s The Money Shop, and Nicholas Parsons, former presenter of Sale Of The Century and currently Radio 4’s Just A Minute, who was employed to do a voiceover for Wonga.  
Other recent entrants include Swift Sterling, a subsidiary of Northway Broker, which has an office on the Isle of Man and headquarters in Malta. Both are tax havens.
Peachy Loans, registered as Cash On Go Limited, is linked to Momo Capital in Tallinn, Estonia, and includes Russian and Estonian nationals on its board.

Battling MP warns of crisis point this year

Fears: MP Stella Creasy

The MP spearheading the campaign to curb payday lending has warned of a ‘crisis point’ this year as economic pressures mount on communities.
Stella Creasy, Labour member for Walthamstow in North East London, has told Financial Mail that reductions in benefits, rising taxes and an increase in the cost of living may force people to consider taking out toxic loans that they cannot pay back. She hoped the Office of Fair Trading would take drastic action in its report this week.
But she added: ‘I am concerned this is only going to give us the illusion of progress.
‘I think the Government is being naive or lazy and that it doesn’t really understand the way companies in this market work.’
Payday lenders argue they do not like customers that cannot free themselves from debt  and use the loans only  for emergencies.
But Creasy said there was increasing evidence that payday firms made significant portions of their profit from small numbers of regular borrowers under extreme financial pressure.
A study in the US found that the average payday borrower takes 11 loans a year.
Creasy said: ‘This is a worrying time. It is this year that the pressure will rise to crisis levels in communities like mine with taxes rising, benefits falling and cost of living going up.’
Creasy wants the Office of Fair Trading to define what level of interest rates should be regarded as detrimental to consumers and to require lenders to report lending in real time so that debt can be tracked.

US Economic Collapse 2013 – Be Prepared!

Economic collapse is coming!!!

 Special Forces Lt. Gen. W.G. Boykin Warns of Engineered Economic Collapse, Martial

China Turns Prisoner Executions Into Reality TV

China broadcast the final moments of four foreign drug traffickers yesterday, right before they were put to death by lethal injection for the 2011 killings of 13 Chinese fisherman.
The coverage, which lasted almost two hours, showed the prisoners being led from their cells to a final check-up by a doctor. Commentators for CCTV (the state television network) remarked, "From the appearance of these criminals, you can clearly tell our prison has carried out humanitarian spirit. These criminals clearly look healthier ... with better skin complexion than when they were arrested." The drug traffickers were the subject of a multinational manhunt which ultimately led to their arrest in Laos last spring.
The coverage, which did not show the actual injections, but did include live images of the prisoners just minutes before their death, drew criticism from human rights advocates. Prominent blogger lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan (who defended Ai Weiwei) wrote, "This carnival on CCTV was a violation not only of ethics, but of the criminal code regulations that the death penalty not be carried out in public."
China executes 4,000 prisoners a year, although coverage of this kind is unprecedented. In an interview this week, also broadcast on Chinese television, trafficker ringleader Naw Kham said, "I am afraid of death. I want to live. I don't want to die. I have children. I am afraid."
State officials confirmed his death by lethal injection yesterday afternoon.

Ernst Zundel Warns The Jews About Doing To America What They Did To Germany

The second video below was made by Ernst Zundel in 2000. It is an interview with an Israeli reporter. Early into the interview he tells the reporter that voracious Jewish appetites will create Weimar like conditions in America. And this will lead to A Final Solution of the Jewish problem in the United States.
In 1999 the Jews had their Gentile kept politicians repeal Glass Steagall which had protected Americans from commercial banks speculating with their depositors money on wild investments.
Also at the same time four Jews (Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers and Arthur Levitt) told the Gentile CFTC Chairwoman Brooksley Born that she was not allowed to regulate Credit Default Swaps. CDS are a hybrid between insurance and derivatives which are bets on the future value of a bond or a commodity.
Today there are over a quadrillion dollars in these wild and unregulated bets which the bankers and their kept politicians say taxpayers from Greece to Ireland to Germany to America must pay. This despite the fact that the entire world GDP of 60 trillion dollars could only pay 4% or so of the total amount of potential losses.
To put this in perspective Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan has taken 80 trillion dollars in bets that interest rates in America will never go up. If interest rates did go up, I have no doubt that kept politicians would rather Americans suffer like the Germans in the Weimar Republic than the Jewish bankers not continue to receive the money they stole.
The other day I mentioned Jim Willie’s statement to Max Keiser that the US Treasury in the 1990s sold 2.2 trillion dollars more in bonds than were needed to fund the US deficit. Does anyone doubt that Jews were involved in this theft? Need I remind you that Jim Willie has a PhD in Statistics?
Catherine Austin Fitts once found a single block in San Diego that had 20 million dollars in Housing and Urban Development guaranteed loans on buildings that did not even exist. Donald Rumsfeld told us on September 10th, 2001 that he could not trace 2.3 trillion dollars in military spending. He said, “We spent it. We just don’t know where it went.” His Comptroller of the Pentagon who was in charge of tracking down the missing trillions was Rabbi Dov Zakheim. Remember that name. We will get back to him in just a minute.
Does anyone doubt that the Jews have been stealing billions of dollars every week from federal government spending which we are not allowed to audit? All we are allowed to do is to shut up and to pay taxes to support the Jews.
Zundel made this video before 911. We now have substantial proof that Israel did 911. They killed 3,00 Americans on 911. They killed many more Americans since then with the six wars they have gotten America into solely for the benefit of Israel. Dr Alan Sabrosky who is of Jewish descent and was a former Director of Studies at the US Arny War College says Israel did 911 [See VIDEO Below]. He points to World Trade Center Tower 7 as proof. WTC 7 was never struck by an airplane but collapsed in 6.5 seconds. Glass melts at 800 degrees Fahrenheit (in metric terms that is about 4 times the boiling point of water) but none of the windows were melted. Steel melts at 2,200 degrees (in metric terms that is 10 times the boiling point of water) and concrete at 3,000 degrees. No open air carbon based fire can get to 2,200 degrees which is why we have never in history seen (until 911) a skyscraper’s steel columns melt. In two seconds 400,000 cubic yards of concrete were turned into powder. There was no rubble at the foot of the building. For the benefit of those (in metric countries one meter is 10% longer than a yard.) It must have taken a considerable number of high powered charges to turn all that concrete into powder and melt all those 100 plus story steel columns. A lot more than contained in one passenger jet’s fuel tank which had exploded into a fireball on impact.

Dr. Alan Sabrosky Details "Israel Did 9/11"

We have been told the story of 19 Arabs with box cutters hijacking 4 airplanes. But I went to the original passenger and crew lists CNN published. No one could find even one Arab on any of the planes.
Now we come to rabbi Dov Zakheim. In the 1990s he was President of SPC International which had a device called a Command Transmitter which could remotely fly and control up to 8 planes at one time. It is far more likely that the 4 planes were electronically hijacked than 19 Arabs were able to get passed the ticket agents without either tickets or boarding passes.
Does anyone doubt that the Israelis with the help of Jewish traitors in America were the only ones capable both of doing 911 and of covering it up in the Jewish media, the Jewish courts and the Jewish owned Congress?
Zundel says, in the video below, "We are soon approaching a point where Americans will live under Weimar Republic like conditions". Ernst Zundel warned us 11 years ago that this will lead to a Final Solution of the Jewish problem in America.
"What form will it take? Expulsion? Genocide? I do not know even if it will happen. I just think you should be aware that the coming Greater Depression will be caused by voracious Jewish appetites" in Zundel’s opinion.
Zundel at the conclusion of his interview tells the young Israeli reporter to go back home and warn the Jews that they have another holocaust coming which they will bring upon themselves by their behavior.
Here then is Ernst Zundel in his own words:
 

Italy paralysed as Grillo plots exit route from euro

Italy plunged deeper into political chaos this weekend after Beppe Grillo, the quixotic former comedian who holds the balance of power in parliament, suggested that the country may have to abandon the euro and return to the lire.

Mr Grillo warned that 'if conditions do not change' Italy 'will want' to leave the euro and return to the lire Photo: Getty Images

 

 

 

The rebel comic's warning came amid a growing rebellion among grass-roots supporters of his Five Star Movement, with 150,000 signing a petition calling for him to open up dialogue with the centre-Left Democratic Party, the biggest force in parliament.

With the country in political paralysis, there were also questions over his eccentric behaviour, after the surreal public appearance of a man, either Mr Grillo or one of his supporters, with his face obscured by a zipped up puffer jacket and a pair of ski goggles.

The bizarre figure, resembling a human fly, waved at photographers from the deck of Mr Grillo's beach house at Marina di Bibbona on the coast of Tuscany.

In an interview with a German magazine, Mr Grillo warned that "if conditions do not change" Italy "will want" to leave the euro and return to the lire. The 64-year-old comic-turned-political activist also said Italy needs to renegotiate its €2 trillion debt.

At 127 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), it is the highest in the euro zone after Greece. "Right now we are being crushed, not by the euro, but by our debt," he told Focus, a weekly news magazine. "When the interest payments reach €100 billion a year, we're dead. There's no alternative."

He said Italy was in such dire economic straits that "in six months, we will no longer be able to pay pensions and the wages of public employees".
The comments will further hamper efforts to resolve the crisis caused by Italy's general election last week, in which Mr Grillo's web-based, anti-establishment movement won more than a quarter of the vote .
He is refusing to contemplate any sort of power-sharing deal with the centre-Left Democratic Party, which has shaky control of the upper and lower houses of parliament but lacks a big enough majority to form a government.
In the Focus interview, he said that an accord with the big parties would in theory be possible if they acceded to key parts of his movement's agenda, including limiting MPs' parliamentary service to two terms, an overhaul of the election system and the slashing of the lavish perks enjoyed by politicians. "But they will never do that," he said. "They are trying to make us believe that they will, just to gain time."
Mr Grillo, renowned for his blistering attacks on Italy's established political caste, last week called Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of the Democratic Party "a dead man talking".
In the interview published yesterday he predicted the annihilation of both the centre-Left and the centre-Right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi, the 76-year-old playboy who has been prime minister three times. They would be around for another "six months" but then they would be "finished", he said.
He also insisted that his party would not take part in any "horse-trading", describing the overtures from the Left as "the usual whorish way of doing politics."
But he faces a growing clamour among his grass-roots supporters, however, to open up dialogue with the Democratic Party in order to break the log jam and form some sort of credible government.
An online petition begun on Wednesday by Viola Tesi, a 24-year-old member of the Five Star Movement from Florence, had by yesterday gathered nearly 150,000 signatures.
Miss Tesi wrote an open letter to Mr Grillo on the website, www.change.org, appealing to him not to "waste" her vote but to give a confidence vote to the Democratic Party so that a reforming government can be formed.
Grillo supporters should harness their unexpected triumph at the polls to compel the centre-Left to adopt the policies that would make Italy a better country, she said. "We should embrace the challenge and start changing Italy straight away, for the benefit of all," she wrote in the letter.
But with Mr Grillo apparently ignoring those appeals, the three-way deadlock has raised fears about Italy's ability to maintain desperately needed economic reforms initiated by Mario Monti, the former technocrat prime minister.
The comedian has said that his movement will remain outside any government, voting on individual bills in parliament on a case-by-case basis.
Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that Mr Grillo refuses to talk to Italian journalists or to appear on current affairs television talk shows.
Italian reporters who have telephoned him and asked to speak to the general secretary of the party claim he has told them: "Hang on, I'll just pass you to my 12 year old son."
The new parliament has to meet by March 15 at the latest, after which formal talks with Giorgio Napolitano, the octogenarian Italian president, are scheduled to begin on the formation of a new government.
In the space of just three years, Mr Grillo's movement has come from nowhere to place him in the role of kingmaker. During the election campaign he travelled Italy in a camper van in what he dubbed his "Tsunami Tour", filling piazzas with cheering supporters as he railed against entrenched political and business interests.
One prominent supporter is Dario Fo, the 86-year-old playwright and satirist, whose best known works include Accidental Death of an Anarchist and We Can't Pay, We Won't Pay – an apposite title given Mr Grillo's threats regarding Italy's debt.
Mr Fo said yesterday: "Satire can uncover big ideas and bring about huge upheavals. Beppe Grillo is a man of satire, that's where he came from, and that is his strength."
Mr Grillo's success means his party is poised to send more than 160 members into parliament's two chambers. Many are in their twenties and thirties and very few have any political experience, raising fears of legislative chaos if a government is eventually formed.
The "Grillini", as they are known, include nurses, teachers, students, lawyers, engineers, molecular biologists, bank clerks, and architects.
Some are unemployed. All are under 50 – a novelty in a country in which many politicians are well into their seventies.
Critics say they will be clueless in parliament and that their reliance on internet-based democracy to determine policies will be a recipe for disaster. Mr Grillo says their lack of political experience means they are untainted by corruption and cynicism.
One new MP, Ivan Catalano, 26, who works at a metal machining factory north of Milan, told The Sunday Telegraph: "I am a normal citizen like any, who thanks to this new way of doing politics, will enter into parliament.
"The message is that change is possible. We don't have to put up with the same old methods, and the same old people."
He acknowledged there were differences of opinion within the movement but denied it was an open schism. "It is a healthy dialogue," he said.
The movement's policies include tax cuts, a big increase in health spending and investment in the "green economy", but it has struggled to explain how this will be paid given Italy's mountain of debt.
Mr Grillo also wants deep cuts in defence spending and the scrapping of a high-speed rail link to France beneath the Alps.
The movement's newly-elected MPs and senators will meet one other for the first time in Rome on Monday to discuss whether to ignore their leader and support some sort of coalition.
Italians are divided as to whether the movement promises fresh blood for an anaemic, corrupt system, or political and economic disaster for a country already mired in recession.
"Beppe Grillo is a pistol pointed against Italy's head," was the front cover headline in last week's edition of Panorama, a conservative news magazine. Another news weekly, Oggi, ran a photograph of Mr Grillo with the words "Now what?"

Russian banker claims he is granted asylum in UK

A prominent Russian banker claims he has received political asylum in Britain after claiming he was being subjected to a campaign of persecution led by former President Dmitry Medvedev.

Andrei Borodin, 45, the former president and co-owner of the Bank of Moscow  Photo: ALAMY

 

 

Andrei Borodin, 45, the former president and co-owner of the Bank of Moscow who is wanted in Russia for alleged fraud, told the Vedomosti daily that he had been granted asylum by UK authorities in the last few days.

The news drew a sharp condemnation of the British government from Mr Medvedev's spokesman.

If true, the asylum decision is likely to cause fresh tension in the already fraught UK-Russia relationship. The Kremlin was furious when Britain gave asylum to fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky and Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev.

"My lawyers put in an application for political asylum to the UK Home Office indicating that the pursuit of me and my colleagues in Russia is politically motivated," Mr Borodin told the newspaper.

"Behind it are politicians including the former president, Dmitry Medvedev, who is the chief initiator of all this persecution and victimisation. We said that all the criminal cases against me in Russia are nothing but a weapon of that illegal, politically motivated persecution, and the British government decided to give me asylum." Mr Medvedev served for one term as president from 2008 to 2012 before handing back the Kremlin to his ally, Vladimir Putin. He is now prime minister.

His spokesman, Natalya Timakova told Vedomosti: "Unfortunately, the practice of receiving political asylum, especially in England, has got to the point that it doesn't matter what the applicant did, it doesn't matter that Interpol is looking for him or what kind of criminal prosecution awaits him. What's important is to announce as loudly as possible that you are being politically persecuted and that will be a guarantee of receiving political asylum."
Mrs Timakova added: "If this information is confirmed, then we can only regret that such a crude mechanism has worked once again in Britain."
The Home Office does not comment on individual cases.
Mr Borodin was close to Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow who was ousted three years ago after falling out with the Kremlin, and Mr Luzhkov's billionaire construction magnate wife, Yelena Baturina. He fled to London in 2011 after his bank – which was controlled by Moscow city government - was accused of making a £270m loan to a small company which then used the money to buy a plot of land from Mrs Baturina. Another fruad charge was brought last spring.
Mr Borodin says he is innocent of wrongdoing, and that he was forced to sell his share at the Bank of Moscow for a knockdown price in exchange for a promise from a Kremlin envoy that he would be left alone by tax and police authorities.
The banker is known for buying Britain's most expensive house in 2011, paying £140m for Park Place Estate, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. Last year he claimed he had been the target of a surveillance operation there, which he said might have been led by Russian security services.
Russia requested Mr Borodin's extradition from Britain last year.
Interpol issued a "red notice" for him on its website in August.

 

France's Hollande to raise human rights in Russia

 

By Julien Ponthus

(Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande will raise concerns about Russia's human rights record with Vladimir Putin on Thursday but he sought to play down differences that might undermine trade ties.
Hollande, who began his 24-hour debut trip to Moscow by giving a radio interview, hopes to strike a balance between a robust defense of human rights and the desire to boost France's economy by increasing business links with Russia.
An encounter in Paris last June between President Putin and the newly elected Socialist bristled with tension, unlike the cozy meetings between Putin and Hollande's conservative predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac.
Aides on both sides want to avoid the full-frontal clash on rights that marked German Chancellor Angela Merkel's trip to Moscow last year, when she accused Moscow of stifling dissent.
"We will discuss this with President Putin. I would not like to take a provocative approach," the French leader told the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio station in an interview dubbed over with a Russian translation.
"Questions of democracy and human rights are just as important as other aspects of our cooperation."
He said Paris always sought to raise such questions with foreign partners in a friendly way and went on to describe Russia and France as old allies united by history and culture.
Hollande is under pressure in France to raise human rights concerns including the fate of Putin critics such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 49, once Russia's richest man and now serving 13 years jail on fraud and tax evasion charges.
The French leader said he would also discuss with Putin foreign conflicts including Afghanistan and Syria, reiterating that Paris was respecting a European arms embargo to Syria.
He indicated that he favored a gradual lifting of the arms embargo, suggesting that "in a few weeks we will be able to find a political solution (on the arms embargo issue) which could stop the escalation of the conflict."
PUTTING DIFFERENCES ASIDE
With the French economy edging closer to recession and domestic demand moribund, Hollande needs all the outside help he can get to kick-start growth.
At around 1 billion euros, investment by Russian companies in France accounts for only a 12th of the French money that has flowed into Russia, a balance Paris wants to redress.
Yet everything - from Moscow's support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Putin's relish at French actor Gerard Depardieu's decision to take Russian nationality for tax reasons - means the scope for misunderstandings is great.
Depardieu visited the Chechnya region at the weekend where human rights groups accuse security services of extrajudicial killings and other abuses. Hollande deflected questions about the actor during the interview with Ekho Moskvy, making clear he did not want the passport issue to affect relations with Russia.
"I am sure that the President of Russia made a decision that doesn't infringe on our interests," Hollande said.
"If he (Depardieu) decided to leave the country, if he loves Russia and Russia so loves Gerard Depardieu, then it is understandable. But still Depardieu loves France, which recognizes him as a great actor."
Hollande aides say that Paris and Moscow have similar views in several areas - notably on Mali, where Russia backed a U.N. resolution key to French efforts to extricate its soldiers and put African troops in the front line against al Qaeda allies.
Russia also saw Tuesday's offer by world powers of some sanctions relief to Iran in return for suspension of some atomic work as a sign Western states are moving closer to its views on an issue that has long divided the U.N. Security Council.
The two leaders may broach delicate energy issues, with the European Union seeking to wind down its gas reliance on Russia and Moscow angry over EU efforts to force dominant suppliers such as Russia's Gazprom to sell off infrastructure.
(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel and Thomas Grove, Writing by Mark John and Timothy Heritage, Editing by Jon Boyle)

Obey – The Rise of the Corporate State (Full Version)

This is a film based on the book “Death of the Liberal Class” by journalist and Pulitzer prize winner, Chris Hedges.
It charts the rise of the Corporate State, and examines the future of obedience in a world of unfettered capitalism, globalisation, staggering inequality and environmental change.
The film predominantly focuses on US corporate capitalism, but it is my hope that the viewer can recognise the relevance of what is being expressed with regards to domestic political and corporate activity.
It was made completely of clips found on the web.

It's time to deal with the New Hampshire road and bridge crisis

By David B. Campbell |

New Hampshire’s state and municipal roads and bridges are in terrible condition. The problem is getting worse and more expensive each year. The recent unanimous, bipartisan endorsement of House Bill 617 as amended by the Public Works & Highways Committee is an acknowledgement of the dire need to repair our crumbling infrastructure.
For the last 22 years, consecutive Legislatures have neglected this problem by declaring the state and its taxpayers could not afford to raise the gas tax. The fact is we can’t afford not to. New Hampshire’s highway system is its economic life blood through supporting commerce, tourism and our everyday lives. A good infrastructure is imperative for New Hampshire to compete with other states for new businesses and new jobs.

Today, by not properly funding or maintaining New Hampshire’s roads and bridges, we face an infrastructure crisis that is on its way to becoming a catastrophe. How big is the crisis?
1) Interstate-93 widening (the main transportation artery into the state) is $250 million underfunded. Without new revenue it will not be completed.
2) More than 1,660 miles of state roads are currently rated in poor condition, needing major work (that’s more than one-third of the state’s 4,500 miles of state roads); ranking New Hampshire ninth worst nationally in rural roads. Without investing in our state roads, the miles in poor condition will continue to increase, as will the cost to repair them — exponentially.
3) New Hampshire ranks 11th worst in bridge condition. There are currently 140 Red List state bridges, and without investments that number will grow to over 200 by 2020. The state’s number one Red List bridge is Sarah Mildred Long Bridge connecting Portsmouth to Kittery (which was recently closed for 4 days), will cost $85 million to repaid, and is unfunded.
4) New Hampshire’s cities and towns are in worse shape, with 353 Red List bridges with 10-to-12 being closed each year. Their roads continue to deteriorate, and, with dwindling state highway and bridge aid, towns must rely on property taxes for the revenue to fix problems that are too big for local property taxpayers to bear.
HB 617 directly addresses these problems. It raises the gas tax by 4 cents per gallon of gasoline in each of the following three fiscal years and 3 cents per gallon in the fourth fiscal year for a total of 15 cents by 2017. This user fee was last raised in 1991. New Hampshire has the lowest gas tax in the Northeast.
Importantly, this bill sets up a separate protected fund, within the already constitutionally protected Highway Fund, so that every penny will be used to fund the maintenance, construction and reconstruction of New Hampshire’s state and municipal roads and bridges.
This new revenue over the next decade will strengthen the New Hampshire economy by finishing I-93 and reducing the number of state Red List bridges and state Roads in poor condition.
HB 617 will also significantly help towns and cities fix their roads and bridges by increasing municipal aid by 70 percent. This bill doubles state bridge aid and state highway Aid for municipalities and municipal block grant aid by 50 percent.
Once the increase is fully phased-in, and, if every penny passes through to the consumer (which testimony indicates it will not), a New Hampshire motorist who drives 12,000 miles per year at 22.5 miles per gallon will pay $80 more per year. Those who drive less, pay less, and those who use the roads more, pay more. Compare this number to the recent study indicating the average New Hampshire driver now pays annually $323 in added automobile repairs (up from $259 four years ago)!
This bill will have a direct positive economic impact by creating or saving over 1,000 construction jobs and hundreds of millions of construction dollars invested within New Hampshire, putting the state back on an 8-10 year repaving cycle, thereby saving taxpayers millions of dollars more. This legislation funds no additional government jobs.
It is fiscally irresponsible for the Legislature to once again neglect adequate funding of our infrastructure; because over time, inflation, and the rate and scope of decay make repairs increasingly expensive. Without immediate investment, our crumbling infrastructure will put a stranglehold on New Hampshire’s economy.
New Hampshire’s present and future taxpayers, the driving public, the state’s tourism industry and its overall economy cannot afford to further delay raising sufficient funds to properly fix our roads and bridges.
David B. Campbell, a Democrat from Nashua, is chairman of the House Public Works & Highways Committee.

Americans renouncing citizenship to become British thanks to tax rise

The number of people giving up their US citizenship to become British has surged thanks to complex tax rules introduced by the American tax authorities.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in 1963 Photo: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

 

 

 

London-based American lawyers, who specialise in tax and immigration, report a threefold increase over the last five years in the number of American citizens who are giving up their citizenship - a process known as “renunciation”.

Across the world 1,781 Americans renounced their citizenship in 2011 compared with just 231 in 2008, when US tax laws changed, although it remains unknown how many are adopting British rather than any other nationality.

Many decide to give up their American citizenship after tiring of the lengthy US tax return process, which requires them to pay tax on their total income regardless of where they live.

“There’s no question that the number of people renouncing their US citizenship is increasing,” said Diane Gelon, a US tax and immigration lawyer based in London.

“I probably get a dozen cases a year now when before 2008 when the tax laws changed it was just three or four.”

The process can be costly. Applicants must complete five years’ of US tax returns, which can cost £1,000 a year if professional help is obtained, plus another £2,500 for legal assistance with the immigration process, excluding VAT.
Even if a US citizen earns all their income in Britain they are liable for tax in their home country which can lead to unusual tax situations arising, said Ms Gelon.
For example, US citizens are expected to pay capital gains tax to the US government if they sell a property in Britain which is their main residence, even though a similar tax is not imposed by the British Inland Revenue.
The US rules make concessions for tax paid overseas but there is still a risk that their citizens will be hit with a large tax bill, she added.
“Actually giving up your citizenship is dead easy - once you have an appointment with a consular official it takes a matter of minutes.
“But getting an appointment in London can take three months and that is largely because of the tax issues,” she said.
“It can be an emotional thing, to give up one’s citizenship. I’ve had clients cancelling their appointments at the embassy on the day they were due to renounce because they just couldn’t go through with it.”
Susan McFadden, another London-based US attorney who specialises in immigration matters, said: “I’ve definitely seen a surge. In the last few years it’s gone up threefold and I see through about two dozen cases a year.
“The US Embassy in London has responded to that demand - and quite a long queue for renunciation appointments - by streamlining the process.
“We are told they have trained additional officers to reside over renunciation processes.”
The 2011 census found 177,185 people living in England and Wales were born in the US.
All American citizens are required to file a tax return on their world-wide income. The rule applies even if they have not visited the US for decades.
The US Internal Revenue Service is likely to discover tax returns have been missed in a number of different scenarios. For example, it may come to light if a citizen applies to renew a passport, is named as a beneficiary in a will or their foreign-based bank complies with new legislation which requires them to notify the US government about all American customers.
A US Embassy spokeswoman said: “US Embassy, London, can confirm that we process renunciations, provide information on renunciations on our website and are committed to providing good customer service to renunciants.”

Eurozone crisis: Portugal protests against austerity

The BBC's Alison Roberts says there are a number of different groups including health workers marching through the centre of Lisbon

Continue reading the main story

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in protests across Portugal against government austerity measures.

Huge crowds gathered in the capital Lisbon to demand the government resign.
Many carried placards condemning the "Troika" of the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, which demanded budget cuts in return for a financial bailout.
The conservative government has introduced steep tax rises as it tries to reduce a huge budget deficit.
Unemployment is at a record 17.6% and the economy is expected to contract by 2% this year - the third straight year of recession.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

This government has left the people on bread and water”

Fabio Carvalho protester in Lisbon

The demonstrations organised on social media also have the backing of Portugal's main trade union federation.

'Austerity kills' On Saturday, organisers said as many as 500,000 protested in Lisbon, and hundreds of thousands more in other towns and cities.
The rallies coincide with a visit by inspectors from the EU and the IMF, which demanded austerity measures as a condition for a 78bn-euro (£64bn) bailout in 2011.
Protesters carried banners with slogans such as "Austerity Kills" and "Screw the Troika".
They also chanted a popular song "Grandola" associated with the 1974 "Carnation Revolution" that brought an end to dictatorship.
"This government has left the people on bread and water, selling off state assets for peanuts to pay back debts that were contracted by corrupt politicians to benefit bankers," film director Fabio Carvalho, who was among the protesters in Lisbon, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
"If not today, things have to change tomorrow and we need to remain in the streets for the government to fall."
The demonstrators are demanding a complete change of course from the government, but it says further spending cuts are necessary to revive the economy.
This year's budget was Portugal's toughest in living memory, imposing tax rises that for many workers amount to a month's wages.
But the gloomy economic outlook means it will almost certainly have to find more saving, the BBC's Alison Roberts in Lisbon says.

Swiss referendum backs executive pay curbs

Swiss voters have overwhelmingly backed proposals to impose some of the world's strictest controls on executive pay, final referendum results show.

Nearly 68% of the voters supported plans to give shareholders a veto on compensation and ban big payouts for new and departing managers.
Business groups argued the proposals would damage Swiss competitiveness.
But analysts say ordinary Swiss are concerned about a growing economic divide in the country.
The vote came just days after the EU approved measures to cap bankers bonuses.
'Fat cat initiative' The final results showed that all 26 Swiss cantons backed the proposals.
In all, 1.6 million voters said "Yes" against 762,000, who rejected the idea.
The BBC's Imogen Foulkes, in Berne, says multibillion dollar losses by Swiss banking giant UBS, and thousands of redundancies at pharmaceutical company Novartis, have caused anger in Switzerland - because high salaries and bonuses for managers continued unchanged.
The new measures will give Switzerland some of the world's strictest corporate rules, our correspondent adds.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

We had the support of the people of Switzerland because you know not everybody in Switzerland is rich”

Brigitte Moser Harder Referendum organiser

Shareholders will have a veto over salaries, golden handshakes will be forbidden, and managers of companies who flout the rules could face prison.

The "fat cat initiative", as it has been called, will be written into the Swiss constitution and apply to all Swiss companies listed on Switzerland's stock exchange.
Support for the plans - brain child of Swiss businessman turned politician Thomas Minder - has been fuelled by a series of perceived disasters for major Swiss companies, coupled with salaries and bonuses staying high.
Our correspondent says the main example is banking giant UBS, which wrote off billions in the wake of the 2007 sub-prime mortgage crisis, and then had to be bailed out by the Swiss government.
A further incident came in February when it was announced that the outgoing chairman Novartis', Daniel Vasella, would be receiving a 72m Swiss francs (£51m; $78m) "non-compete" pay off over six years, designed to stop him working for other related industries.
The payment was later scrapped, but it provoked anger and amazement in Switzerland, because his salary had been regarded as too high and the firm had been cutting jobs, our correspondent adds.
One of the organisers of the referendum, Brigitte Moser Harder, told the BBC she thought the Swiss people agreed with the proposals because the gap between rich and poor had become wider.
"From the beginning, 2006, we had the support of the people of Switzerland because you know not everybody in Switzerland is rich.
"It's also a social problem because the high wages got higher and the small ones sometimes just got lower. I think people have the support of the Swiss people because of that."
Meanwhile, under an EU deal agreed last week by the bloc's 27 nations, bonuses will be capped at a year's salary, but can rise to two year's pay if there is explicit approval from shareholders.
The UK argued the EU bonus rules would drive away talent and restrict growth in the financial sector.

Stopping the Failed War on Drugs Would More than Pay for the Sequester Cuts

Washington’s Blog
Painless and Easy Ways to Cut $83 Billion
Eric Zuesse notes that this year’s subsidy to Wall Street – $83 billion -  exactly equals the amount of the this year’s sequester cuts.
Spiegel reports that ending the failed “war on drugs” would pay for the sequester cuts by itself:

Harvard University professor Jeffrey Miron has advocated the legalization of drugs for decades.
***
Miron: [P]rohibiting drugs is expensive.
SPIEGEL: How expensive?
Miron: If it legalized drugs, the United States could save $85 billion to $90 billion per year. Roughly half that is spent on the current drugs policy and half that is lost in taxes that the state could have levied on legal drugs.

(Of course, stopping government support for drug dealers might be one place to start.)
And there are many other painless and easy ways to cut $83 billion per year.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/03/stopping-the-failed-war-on-drugs-would-more-than-pay-for-the-sequester-cuts.html

The global economic crisis is staged: Unemployment skyrockets in the EU – Incomes crash in the USA – China ‘fully prepared’ for currency war – Billionaires, traders, and hedge funds are betting against economy, stock markets and currencies

Unemployment Hits New Record in Euro Zone, Personal Income Plummets in US  Economic statistics released this week reflect a further weakening of the world economy and a further fall in the living standards of the international working class.
Reports on unemployment, manufacturing activity, economic growth and personal income in Europe, China and the United States point to an overall slowdown in economic growth and a rise in unemployment and poverty. They coincide with new moves by the European Union and the Obama administration in the US to slash social spending and public-sector jobs and wages. These measures mark an escalation of the class-war policies that have fueled the economic slump and already brought untold suffering to hundreds of millions of workers.
On Friday, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat reported that unemployment in the 17-nation euro zone hit a new record in January of 11.9 percent, up from 11.8 percent in December. For the 27-nation European Union as a whole, the official figure for January was 10.8 percent, up from 10.7 percent the previous month.
There were nearly 19 million unemployed people in the euro zone, an increase of 200,000 from January, according to official figures. In the whole of the EU, there were 26.2 million jobless workers, 222,000 more than in December. The real situation is even worse than these staggering figures indicate, since they do not take into account millions of people who have dropped out of the labor market.
…
Alasdair Macleod: Europe is in Worse Shape Than Everyone Thinks

EU governments are getting desperate

China ‘fully prepared’ for currency war

Just in case Lagarde (and everyone else except for the Germans, who have a very unpleasant habit of telling the truth), was lying about that whole “no currency war” thing, China is already one step ahead and is fully prepared to roll out its own FX army. According to China Times, “China is fully prepared for a looming currency war should it, though “avoidable,” really happen, said China’s central bank deputy governor Yi Gang late Friday.” We look forward to the female head of the IMF explaining how China is obviously confused and that it is not currency war when one crushes their currency to promote “economic goals.” Of course, that same organization may want to read “Zero Sum for Absolute Idiots” because in this globalized economy any attempt to promote demand (by an end consumer who has no incremental income and stagnant cash flow) through currency debasement has no impact when everyone does it. But then again, this is the IMF – the same organization that declared Europe fixed in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and so on.

Billionaires Continue To Dump Stocks, Traders Are Betting Against The Economy, Hedge Funds Preparing For Market Sell-Off, And Now They Start Betting Against Currencies As World Plunges Into Recession

Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Economist Knows Why

Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is selling roughly 42 percent of his stake in the Internet search

Urgent! Hedge Funds Preparing For Market Sell-Off.


Some of The Biggest U.S. Hedge-Fund Investors Score Big by Betting Against Yen
Some of the biggest U.S. hedge-fund investors have made billions betting against the yen, exploiting Japan’s determination to weaken its currency and boost its economy.
World Plunges Into Recession

…

Fed’s Evans – “I don’t think we are anywhere near the end of the program”
“It is in fact that specter of repeating the Japanese experience that now keeps me up at night,” Evans said.

Peter Schiff predicts: US Debt Crisis Will Be Worse Than Europe’s

Imminent stock market crash – Get READY

 

The Money Masters ~ Full Movie