Rejecting mediator’s proposal, New York’s transit agency insists on a wage freeze

Alan Whyte
RINF Alternative News
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has vehemently rejected a non-binding mediators’ recommendation that Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) employees receive a wage increase tied to concessions, insisting instead on a three-year wage freeze.
The agency’s intransigence toward the nearly 6,000 workers on the commuter rail line linking Long Island’s suburbs to New York City has much wider significance. It signals not only how the same agency intends to deal with 34,000 bus and subway workers in the New York City Transit Authority, but also how New York City’s newly installed Democratic mayor, Bill de Blasio will confront some 300,000 municipal workers. Both transit and city workers have been working without contracts for years.
The mediators’ recommendation would have hardly represented a victory for LIRR workers. The six-year pact, back-dated to June 2010, included nominal wage hikes of 2.83 percent annually, offset by a first-ever requirement that workers pay a portion of their health benefits amounting to about 2.25 percent of their gross pay beginning in the final year of the proposed contract. The panel rendered its decision based on various considerations such as MTA finances, what other railway workers in the region earn, and the cost of living in the New York area.
The MTA is a quasi-independent public agency that runs two commuter railway lines, the LIRR and Metro-North, which links New York City and its northern suburbs; and two subway systems, the New York City Transit Authority which covers four of the five boroughs in New York City, and the subway system in Staten Island, which is the city’s fifth borough.

Sick girl claims 1Malaysia clinic dispenses expired medicine

IPOH, Feb 19 — A young girl who sought treatment for diarrhoea at a government health clinic here on Monday saw her symptoms dramatically worsen after she was allegedly given medicine past its use-by date.
K. Keerthana, 10, of Taman Pengkalan Jaya, started to vomit after she consumed a dose of diphenoxylate and atropine suplhate together with Panadol and oral rehydration salts.
She was rushed to a private clinic the same day to receive alternative treatment and was given two days' MC.
She and her mother, housewife R. Punithadevi, 35, came to the Perak DAP office yesterday to highlight the issue.
Also present was Buntong assemblyman A. Sivasubramaniam.
According to Punithadevi, her daughter had been suffering from diarrhoea since Thursday and sought treatment at a 1Malaysia Clinic at Pengkalan but showed no improvement.
Keerthana's uncle, K. Sri Ganesh, 20, then took her to the government health clinic at about noon on Monday.
The girl took the medicine when she got home, but “was vomiting after some time”, said Punithadevi.
On checking, it discovered the prescribed medication had expired in October 2013.
“By then, it was late in the evening and we took to her to a private clinic for treatment,” she said.
Sri Ganesh lodged a police report on the same day.
Subramaniam said: “It is negligence on the part of the clinic, which should check its stocks regularly before dispensing the medicine.
“The Health Ministry should also take responsibility for supplying expired medicine to clinics.”
He said he would write a letter to the Perak State Health Department to conduct an investigation.
Department director Datuk Dr Nordiyanah Hassan had asked the family to lodge a complaint so that appropriate action can be taken.

Dr M afraid of 'immoral' Anwar becoming MB

His arch nemesis wants to be the Selangor menteri besar and Dr Mahathir Mohamad admits that the prospect unnerves him.

Speaking to reporters, the former premier said the people would not feel safe if Anwar Ibrahim becomes menteri besar due to the latter's "immoral behaviour".
"As for me, Anwar is not qualified to be MB or PM. He formed a party just to become PM, and not to champion the race, religion or anything else.
"Even when he entered Umno back then, it was to become PM," he added.
Responding to Anwar's remarks during a ceramah last night where the opposition leader questioned why Mahathir was afraid of him becoming MB, he said: "Of course I am afraid (if he becomes MB)... People will not feel safe when he is around. Look what happened to his staff."
It is obvious that Mahathir was referring to Anwar's former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who accused the opposition leader of sodomising him.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court had acquitted Anwar in 2012 of the sodomy charge and this now being appealed by the prosecution.
Like his first sodomy charge, Anwar claimed that the second was also fabricated as part of a political conspiracy against him, an allegation which his rivals have denied.
Mahathir had sacked Anwar, who was then considered his heir-apparent, in 1998, claiming that he was morally unfit to be deputy prime minister.
Anwar, who is now the parliamentary opposition leader, is poised to contest in the March 23 by-election for the Kajang state seat.
Should he retain the PKR seat, the 66-year-old politician is expected to replace Khalid Ibrahim as menteri besar.
'BN must field a candidate'
Mahathir also stressed that BN must field a candidate in the polls against Anwar.
"BN should contest. Whether it is Umno, MCA, MIC or Gerakan, a BN representative must contest," he stressed.
He also welcomed the presence of independent candidates such as former de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim and dangdut singer Herman Tino who Mahathir said was "qualified" to contest in the spirit of democracy.
"The former minister and people like Herman Tino are all qualified to contest if you follow our system. They might lose their deposit but it's okay," he said.

5 Signs America’s Super-Rich Are Going Off the Deep End

Inequality seems to have made the wealthy very upset…for themselves.

Is it us, or have America’s ultrawealthy been sounding increasingly unhinged lately? Despite the fact that the wealth of the 1 percent jumped 31 percent from 2009 to 2012 while the other 99 percent of America saw a gain of only 0.4 percent, the rich are very upset, and they need to tell us about it. Maybe it’s all the talk about income inequality that’s gotten them so stirred up. Whatever it is, here are five signs that the zillionaires seem to be losing it.
1. The rich are mouthing off in epic rants.
They’re going on talk shows, writing editorials, bitching and moaning, and taking every opportunity to tell us just how fed up they are.
Wealthy upper-eastsiders in New York arescreaming that progressive Mayor de Blasio is punishing them by not plowing their streets of snow. Billionaire Home Depot founder Ken Langone warned Pope Francis that if he doesn’t shut it about income inequality, the charitable contribution spigot will be turned off. Nutcase venture capitalist Thomas Perkins just claimed that there is a war on the rich comparable to the Holocaust and that the wealthy deserve more votes. Bill O’Reilly warned, ”Every affluent person in America is in danger. Every one.” He asks you to pray for them.

Another Fine Mess: Consumer Debt To Income Keeps Falling, But So Does Household Income

The Federal Reserve pinned it’s economic recovery hopes on a simple premise: credit growth leads to rising real GDP by increasing consumption.
The problem is … bank credit growth has slowed to just over 1% (YoY) and the consumer debt to disposable income keeps dropping like a rock.
Here is a chart of Household Debt Service Payments as a Percent of Disposable Personal Income. It keeps dropping and is already below the lowest level since 1980.

Bank credit growth remains at a level below any data prior to 2009. And below levels from 1980.

Historically, bank credit growth is typically higher than real GDP growth, except for a few occasions. Like now.

And if I compare YoY bank credit growth to real median household income (green line), we see the reason for stalled credit growth. Declining then stagnant household income.

Now, let’s chart household debt service as a percentage of disposable income against real median household income. I think I see a pattern.

Now let’s chart mortgage credit growth YoY against the U.S. homeownership rate. Government housing policy encouraged lowering of credit requirements and a surge in mortgage lending.

In fact, government “affordable” housing policies (led by President Clinton and HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo and HUD Assistant Secretary Susan Wachter) led to house prices more than doubling … before foundering.

Government responded to the credit crisis by passing massive financial market legislation like the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act . Which begat the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Great. Congress and the Administration ignored the collapsing household income (which makes borrowing more difficult) and then layered phone books of new laws regulating lending.
Notice that both Barney Frank (D-MA) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) fled Congress after they passed their Magnus Dopus. But we still have Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) whooping it up along with Richard “Robocop” Cordray.
The Federal Reserve’s massive quantitative easing program has done nothing for the middle class household.

And “the thrill is gone” for bank credit growth with the advent of QE3.

But at least stock market investors are thrilled with massive Fed intervention, particularly with QE3.

Now you know why M2 Money Velocity is so bad. Declining/stagnant real median household income.

Another fine mess Federal housing policy and The Fed has made.

And here is the theme song for HUD and the Federal Reserve.

Doctors protest as Greek Health Minister closes down Primary Health Care units for one month

Primary health care doctors, administrative personnel and patients ‘occupied’ several EOPYY units on Monday morning to protest the unprecedented: the closure of primary health care provider 380 units for at least one month.

The protesters hindered the handing over of the health facilities to representatives of the health ministry.

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis warned the protesters that any damage in the facilities will be paid by the protesters’ own pockets.

Health Minister: doctors’ protest have been initiated by SYRIZA

Deputy Healh Minister: only 10% of the insured seek the facilities of EOPYY

(lol)

The Health Minister had decided to close down the units of Primary Health Care (EOPYY) as of Monday and for at least one month until the new health care provider (PEDY) opens.
More than 8,500 doctors and EOPYY personnel will be sent home with 75% of the salary, will undergo evaluation of their work and will be assigned to new work places eventually several hundred kilometers away from their old work places.
The Health Ministry demands that EOPYY doctors close down their private offices, await for the new posting and resign from the public health care if they disagree with their new appointment. That is doctors will have eventually close and reopen their private businesses within a couple of weeks.
The latest Greek health care reform threatens to make patients’ access to primary health care more difficult as many facilities will close down. Especially in the country side and on islands, patients are at risk to have to cover long distance in order to get the obvious in a country that claims to belong to Europe.
Furthermore, the health ministry applied a prescription cap to doctors, a cap which is 20% less than that of 2013. In real Greek life, this means: doctors have more patients but are allowed to prescribe less medicine.

Health Ministry announced on Monday that:

patients will have to turn to public hospitals or private doctors assigned with EOPYY and get treatment and prescription medicine free of extra charge.

While the overhaul – the second since Greece flew into the IMF – of the public health care is taking place, the troubled Greek patient is seeking ways to have his medicine prescribed or find a doctor who will not charge him for services he used to get for free. “Free ” in the sense he had paid for them through the obligatory social contributions.
Since the IMF-imposed austerity and the increasing “decrease” of health care service provisions to insured patients, especially the chronic ill  saw their monthly health expenses skyrocket. My mom, for example, needs to pay 80 euro per month. for medicine and prescription. Before September 2012, her monthly cost was just ,  8 euro. By a monthly pension of 460 euro net, guess who comes up for these expenses….
More on the “Greek health reform” that will leave patients without easy access to primary health care read here.
More protests pictures here and here.
PS we should not complain. Christine Lagarde and Angela Merkel could cut all together the health care provisions….

If You Have Been Waiting For The “Global Economic Crisis” To Begin, Just Open Up Your Eyes And Look Around

Soros doubles a bearish bet on the S&P 500, to the tune of $1.3 billion

Soros Fund Management has doubled up a bet that the S&P 500SPX  is headed for a fall.

Within Friday’s 13F filings news was the revelation that the firm, founded by legendary investor George Soros, increased a put position on the S&P 500 ETF   SPY -0.04% by a whopping 154% in the fourth quarter, compared with the third. (A put or short position basically gives the owner the right to sell a security at a set price for a limited time, and in making such a bet, an investor generally believes the security is going to decline.)

The value of that holding, the biggest position in the fund, has risen to $1.3 billion from around $470 million. It now makes up a 11.13% chunk of all reported holdings. It had been cut to 5.14% in the third quarter, from 13.54% in the second quarter, which itself marked another dramatic lift on the bearish call.  The numbers can be found at Whalewisdom.com, which makes them slightly easier to digest than the actual SEC filing.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/02/17/soros-doubles-a-bearish-bet-on-the-sp-500-to-the-tune-of-1-3-billion/

Japanese GDP and Exports Seriously Underperform Expectations

The huge string of unexpectedly sour economic data continues to pour in. Add Japan to the spotlight. The BBC reports Japan’s Quarterly Growth Disappoints Ahead of Sales Tax Hike.

Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/02/japanese-gdp-and-exports-seriously.html#4bCUoPrxqT6MLmZy.99

ART CASHIN: Central Banks Have Built Up ‘A Very, Very Dangerous Situation’

In a new interview with King World News, Cashin warns that financial market conditions remain very risky. From the interview:

What I am saying is:  They thought they were going to solve a desperate problem by desperate measures.  I don’t believe it’s having the effect they wanted, and it’s building up a very, very dangerous situation.  If that money were suddenly to get velocity, inflation could break out.

Conversely, by pushing on a string and not getting anything done, they may wind up being in a spot where, if the economy moves to stall-speed, we’ll get deflationary pressure.  Yes, they’ve begun treating the patient with very, very drastic remedies, and my concern is:  Is it ultimately damaging the body in a way that will bring back some of the horrors they tried to avoid?

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/art-cashin-a-very-dangerous-situation-2014-2#ixzz2tavmt3ZF

The following are 20 signs that the global economic crisis is starting to catch fire…

#1 The unemployment rate in Greece has hit a brand new record high of 28 percent.

#2 The youth unemployment rate in Greece has hit a brand new record high of 64.1 percent.

#3 The percentage of bad loans in Italy is at an all-time record high.

#4 Italian industrial output declined again in December, and the Italian government is on the verge of collapse.

#5 The number of jobseekers in France has risen for 30 of the last 32 months, and at this point it has climbed to a new all-time record high.

#6 The total number of business failures in France in 2013 was even higher than in any year during the last financial crisis.

#7 It is being projected that housing prices in Spain will fall another 10 to 15 percent as their economic depression deepens.

#8 The economic and political turmoil in Turkey is spinning out of control.  The government has resorted to blasting protesters with pepper spray and water cannons in a desperate attempt to restore order.

#9 It is being estimated that the inflation rate in Argentina is now over 40 percent, and the peso is absolutely collapsing.

#10 Gangs of armed bandits are roaming the streets in Venezuela as the economic chaos in that troubled nation continues to escalate.

#11 China appears to be very serious about deleveraging.  The deflationary effects of this are going to be felt all over the planet. The following is an excerpt from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s recent article entitled “World asleep as China tightens deflationary vice“…

China’s Xi Jinping has cast the die. After weighing up the unappetising choice before him for a year, he has picked the lesser of two poisons.

The balance of evidence is that most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong aims to prick China’s $24 trillion credit bubble early in his 10-year term, rather than putting off the day of reckoning for yet another cycle.

This may be well-advised for China, but the rest of the world seems remarkably nonchalant over the implications.

#12 There was a significant debt default by a coal company in China last Friday…

A high-yield investment product backed by a loan to a debt-ridden coal company failed to repay investors when it matured last Friday, state media reported on Wednesday, in the latest sign of financial stress in China’s shadow bank sector.

#13 Japan’s Nikkei stock index has already fallen by 14 percent so far in 2014.  That is a massive decline in just a month and a half.

#14 Ukraine continues to fall apart financially…

The worsening political and economic circumstances in Ukraine has prompted the Fitch Ratings agency to downgrade Ukrainian debt from B to a pre–default level CCC. This is lower than Greece, and Fitch warns of future financial instability.

#15 The unemployment rate in Australia has risen to the highest level in more than 10 years.

#16 The central bank of India is in a panic over the way that Federal Reserve tapering is effecting their financial system.

#17 The effects of Federal Reserve tapering are also being felt in Thailand…

In the wake of the US Federal Reserve tapering, emerging economies with deteriorating macroeconomic figures or visible political instability are being punished by skittish markets. Thailand is drifting towards both these tendencies.

#18 One of Ghana’s most prominent economists says that the economy of Ghana will crash by June if something dramatic is not done.

#19 Yet another banker has mysteriously died during the prime years of his life.  That makes five ”suspicious banker deaths” in just the past two weeks alone.

#20 The behavior of the U.S. stock market continues to parallel the behavior of the U.S. stock market in 1929.

Yes, things don’t look good right now, but it is important to keep in mind that this is just the beginning.

This is just the leading edge of the next great financial storm.

The next two years (2014 and 2015) are going to represent a major “turning point” for the global economy.  By the end of 2015, things are going to look far different than they do today.

None of the problems that caused the last financial crisis have been fixed.  Global debt levels have grown by 30 percent since the last financial crisis, and the too big to fail banks in the United States are 37 percent larger than they were back then and their behavior has become even more reckless than before.

As a result, we are going to get to go through another “2008-style crisis”, but I believe that this next wave is going to be even worse than the previous one.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/20-signs-that-the-global-economic-crisis-is-starting-to-catch-fire

Why The Next Financial Crisis Could Be Worse Than 2008

Last year the Federal Reserve celebrated its 100th birthday. Only two days before Christmas in 1913, deep into the night when many legislators had already left for the holidays, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, creating a “non-governmental” central bank – a bankers bank if you will – and charged it with the responsibility of controlling the nations monetary system. In all those years, the Fed has never engaged in a monetary explosion like it is today. We are truly in uncharted territory. In this article we’ll discuss the real reason behind the Feds easy money policy and how its could create an economic disaster, even more severe than 2008. First, some background on the Fed.

U.S. Monetary System: The Changing Of The Guard

The Fed was created on December 23, 1913, largely as a result of the Bank Panic of 1907. When Congress amended the Federal Reserve Act in 1977, it created what has come to be known as the Feds dual-mandate. Basically, the Fed is responsible for full employment and stable prices. The tools of the Fed include: adjusting short-term interest rates; regulating the money supply; establishing bank reserve requirements; and a few less-utilized tools. The current “Chair” of the Federal Reserve is Janet Yellen. Note: “Chairman” has been changed to “Chair” due to the first woman appointed to this position. The Fed Chair is appointed by the President to serve a four-year term. Next , we’ll discuss how a specific piece of legislation which emerged during the Great Depression, could have saved us in 2008.

Bank’s Risk Redemption: The Glass-Steagall Act

…

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2014/02/11/why-the-next-financial-crisis-could-be-worse-than-2008/

Jim Rogers Tells Us What Everyone Keeps Getting Wrong About China

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-rogers-worries-on-china-2014-2#ixzz2tbAUVZ6S

How healthy is the real estate market today?

The Subprime Majority.   Recently, I came across a report by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) titled Assets and Opportunity Scorecard.  Some of their findings are quite interesting.  According to the CFED Scorecard, 56% of all consumers have sub-prime credit.  Sub-prime is “earned”. A consumer has to miss a few payments, or default on a loan or two to earn that status.  These 56% cannot, or should not, be taking on more debt, especially a large debt like a mortgage.  They may also be struggling with a mortgage that they should not have taken out in the first place.

Liquid Asset Poor.  CFED found that 44% of households in America are Liquid Asset Poor, defined as having saved less than three months of expenses.  As one would expect, 78% of the lowest income households are asset poor, but 25% of middle class ($56k to $91k) households also have less than three months of expenses saved.  Pertaining to real estate, the report suggests that there are little savings to buy and a small cushion for changes, such as job loss.

Income Inequality.  The Center for Household Financial Stability of the St. Louis Fed recently released a study titled Inequality, the Great Recession, and Slow Recovery.  Skip the 43 pages of academic mumbo jumbo and you will find half a dozen of very simple and informative charts, such as the two below.   I will leave the inequality debate to others.  With regard to a real estate stress test, it appears that households are not exactly well prepared to weather even minor economic setbacks.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-17/how-healthy-real-estate-market