Poverty consumes so much mental energy it's like a drop in IQ

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- People preoccupied with making ends meet had a drop in brain function similar to a 13-point dip in IQ or the loss of a night's sleep, researchers in Canada say.
The study, published in the journal Science, suggested a person's thinking and reasoning ability could be diminished by the exhausting effort of tasks like scrounging to pay bills and surviving from day-to-day. As a result, less "mental bandwidth" remains for education, training, time-management and other steps that could help break out of the cycles of poverty, the study said.
Jiaying Zhao of the University of British Columbia, who conducted the study as a graduate student at Princeton University, said poverty consumes so much mental energy that those in poor circumstances have little remaining brainpower to concentrate on other areas of life.
As a result, those with few resources are more likely to make bad decisions that perpetuate their financial woes, Zhao said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2013/08/29/Poverty-consumes-so-much-...

I don't disagree that struggle saps your mental energy, but- something about how these findings are laid out here just feels dangerous. Maybe better read the original article in Nature.

Labor Participation Rate Hits 34-Year Low

Labor Participation Rate Hits 34-Year Low
by Wynton Hall  29 Aug 2013, 7:28 AM PDT

The percentage of Americans who have a job or are looking for one, known as the labor force participation rate (LFPR), has plunged to a 34-year low, according to a new report from staffing company Express Employment Professionals.



...
"Following the Great Recession, we've entered into the Great Shift," says Express Employment Professionals CEO Bob Funk, who previously served as chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. "This is a period defined by the Boomer retirement, Millennial frustration, and growing reliance on government programs. All indicators suggest this shift is not sustainable."

The New York Times reported on the study and suggested that "another cause [of the Great Shift] may be the rise in the number of workers on disability."

A record 8,733,461 people now receive disability benefits, a figure greater than the population of New York City.

Today, nearly 90 million Americans are no longer in the labor force.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/28/Labor-Participation-Rate-Hits-34-Year-Low

US exports wealth-creating jobs to China

Watch the full Keiser Report E492 on Tuesday.
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert present an American Labor Day special in which they compare the situation for the American worker and consumer with that of the Chinese. They also look at the headlines from China regarding ‘secret gardens’ and contaminated soil. In the second half, Max talks to Dan Collins of TheChinaMoneyReport.com about housing bubbles, infrastructure, food safety and more in China.

Massive Expansion: Pakistan, India, Afghanistan likely to become SCO members

Source: APP
Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Mongolia are expected to become full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at its next summit, said former Secretary General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Akram Zaki on Wednesday. Speaking at an international conference entitled “SCO’s Role in Regional Stability: Prospect of Its Expansion” organized by Islamabad  Policy Research Institute here, Akram Zaki said China and the Russian Federation had supported Pakistan, India and other countries’s membership of the SCO.

The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic and military organization, which was founded in Shanghai in 2001 replacing the Shanghai Five that came into being in 1996. At present Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are members of the SCO while Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia and Iran have observer status and Turkey, Sri Lanka and Belarus are dialogue partners. The upcoming summit of the SCO will be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on September 13.
Zaki said the criteria for admission of new members was decided in 2010 and 2011.  Pakistan, which was admitted to the SCO as observer in 2005, has attended its several meetings and pleaded the case for full membership.
Participation in the SCO meetings has provided Pakistan the opportunity to increase contacts and cooperation with the Russian Federation, Zaki noted.
Experts and officials from Pakistan, Germany, Tajikistan, Belgium, Kyrgyzstan and China participated in the seminar.
Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Cooperation Organization Mirzosharif Jalolov said people-to-people contacts were important to make multilateral cooperation at SCO meaningful.
He said besides focusing on security issues, the SCO had cooperative arrangements in areas of banking, trade and business.
The experts observed that the SCO, which started as an organization  to resolve security concerns, cross border terrorism, and extremism, gradually moved towards political issues and economic and cultural cooperation.
They agreed that the SCO had played a positive role in reducing tensions, settling border disputes, maintaining stability and developing cooperation among the member states.
They termed the withdrawal of ISAF and US forces from Afghanistan  in 2014 an important timeline, saying that maintaining peace and stability in that country was vital to ensure regional security.
Thomas Renard, senior research fellow at the Royal Institute of International Relations, Belgium, said the European Union was willing to engage the SCO but at present no mechanism of cooperation existed between the two organizations.
Wang Shida, Assistant Research Fellow at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, Beijing, emphasised that China  wanted to ensure peaceful environment outside its borders for its own economic development.
China keenly wants peace and stability in Afghanistan, he said and added that it increased its bilateral trade with Afghanistan from $ 250 million in 2002 to $ 500 million in recent years.

Congressional hawks tie Syria to military budget cuts

Washington (CNN) -- It always comes back to the budget.

With Congress facing a crucial debate on attacking Syria over chemical weapons use, conservatives are signaling their price for support may be increased funding for a shrinking military budget.

Two hawkish Republicans -- Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- went to the White House on Monday to argue their call for a robust military campaign against Syria intended to significantly weaken the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Implicit with such a campaign would be the needed restoration of military funding cut by austerity measures and transformation policies in recent years, including the forced spending cuts known as sequestration imposed by Congress for the current fiscal year.

"We cannot keep asking the military to perform mission after mission with a sequestration and military cuts hanging over their heads," GOP Rep. Buck McKeon of California, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told CNN on Monday. "We have to take care of our own people first."

While McKeon made clear that his concern is about future preparedness rather than current capability, he argued a bedrock conservative stance against having the military be a major contributor to cost-cutting in Washington.

"I have no concerns of their capability. They're the strongest, best equipped, best trained military," he said. "What I'm looking at is what they've been hit with the last couple years. Where will they be the next time they're asked?"

Noting that "the world has not gotten safer," McKeon complained that "we're cutting back $1 trillion out of our military, asking them to do more with less."

Obama looks to Congress to bolster legal case for Syria strike

McKeon: stop asking the military to do more with less

"That has to stop," he said, calling for President Barack Obama to "fix" the across-the-board spending cuts on the military and other discretionary government spending that doesn't include entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

After meeting with Obama, both McCain and Graham said they were encouraged by the president's intended approach, which includes more military aid for Syria's opposition while degrading the capabilities of al-Assad's forces.

However, they said they need more detailed assurances that the U.S. strategy would be sufficiently strong and sustainable before they could recommend it to their colleagues, who will vote in coming weeks on whether to authorize military action.

"There seems to be emerging from this administration a pretty solid plan to upgrade the opposition" in Syria and to "get regional players more involved" in shifting the balance of the Syrian civil war against the al-Assad regime, Graham said.

Both McCain and Graham said congressional rejection of a resolution authorizing U.S. military force in Syria would be catastrophic and undermine the credibility of the nation and the president.

Syria vote could have consequences for 2016

Syria issue exacerbates budge wars

The Syria issue exacerbates an already hostile budget environment between the two parties.

With fiscal year 2013 ending in four weeks, Congress has yet to pass a 2014 budget and is expected to consider a short-term measure to extend spending at current levels for weeks or months to allow time for further negotiations.

A major issue of the budget debate is whether to recalibrate spending to soften or eliminate the impact of the forced cuts of sequestration. While both sides say that is the right move, they remain unable to agree on how to make it happen.

Obama and Democrats want to maintain or increase spending on education, technology and infrastructure, while Republicans seek to shrink overall government spending. The two sides also differ on tax reform, another key component of spending policy.

In addition, the government says it needs an increase in its borrowing limit -- the debt ceiling -- sometime next month.

Some Republicans advocate a government shutdown unless Democrats capitulate on spending cuts, especially to a call by tea party conservatives such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to eliminate from next year's budget the funds needed to implement the 2010 health care reform law.

Opinion: Obama on war -- a realist and risk taker

Congress to debate Syria resolution

Congress will not vote on Obama's request to authorize the use of force against Syria until sometime after it officially returns from recess September 9. To launch the debate on Capitol Hill, Senate and House committees will hold hearings this week.

Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey will appear at the first hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, sources said.

In addition, Obama will meet Tuesday with House Speaker John Boehner and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, as well as leaders of national security committees in Congress.

Conservatives have increased references to overall military spending in recent days when commenting on the Syria situation.

"I have watched what's happened in the last 4 1/2 years with the president downgrading our military," Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN on Friday. "And it's to the point where we're in a position right now where we don't have the assets to get involved in another intervention."

He warned that firing cruise missiles at Syria would inevitably lead to greater involvement and that administration officials must "make sure that you tell us how you're going to pay for it, what resources you're going to use, what assets you're going to use and that they're there."

GOP Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, argued Monday for a bigger mission than the limited strikes Obama has said he has been considering.

"It does us no good to just lob a few missiles into Syria," Pompeo said. "This is in the context of an Iranian-backed enterprise with Bashar al-Assad, with Hezbollah. You have al Qaeda now having the ability to move on the ground and perhaps get chemical weapons. America has interests that are much more broad than some short strike could possibly accomplish and so we need a strategic vision with real definable and achievable goals."

Military has concerns about Syria mission

The administration's "flood the zone" strategy

Obama and his team also emphasize the national security angle when arguing for a military response to what they call a major chemical weapons attack by al-Assad's regime on August 21 on Damascus suburbs.

The president, along with Vice President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, was making phone calls to House and Senate members to try to firm up commitments ahead of the congressional vote.

A conference call with House Democrats also was planned as part of what a senior administration official called a strategy to "flood the zone." In the calls, the official said, the White House will be making the same case it did during a classified Capitol Hill briefing Sunday.

The argument is that failure to take action against Syria would undermine the deterrent of international action against chemical weapons use, emboldening al-Assad and his key allies -- Hezbollah and Iran -- who will see a lack of consequences for such a flagrant violation.

On the administration side, there is no mention -- yet -- of the military budget.

 Could Syria strike back if United States, allies, attack?

Italy imposes tax on high-frequency trading

Business & Money

Italy is first country to impose a levy on derivatives deals. Photo: ehnmark/Flickr.

Italy implemented a new tax on high-frequency trading on Monday, becoming the first country to impose a levy on an opaque and little-regulated market.

The 0.02-percent levy applies to derivatives deals lasting less than half a second and is the second part of new financial transaction taxes being imposed in Italy.
It applies to transactions involving Italian stocks or indices and is calculated based on the product's overall value.
A tax on all share transactions was installed in March.
"This is a complete novelty because no country had yet gone so far," business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said.
Investors have been concerned it could cut trading volumes and there have been delays with the new law because of confusion about how it would be applied.
Market operators on Monday noted that trading volumes had gone down, Il Sole 24 Ore said, adding however that it was "premature" to draw conclusions.
"The volumes on contract for difference (a type of equity derivative) with the FTSE MIB index have gone down 12 percent compared to the first few hours of trading last Monday," one operator said.
The report said the estimated yearly intake from the tax is €200-250 million - lower than previous estimates - and there could be additional costs from investor flight to avoid the tax.
Ten other European countries are preparing to introduce similar taxes on financial transactions, a prospect that has concerned experts worried about a possible wider impact on the economy.
AFP (news@thelocal.it)

Labor Day: 90 Million Americans Without Jobs; 36% Of the Population

This weekend President Obama delivered his weekly radio address commemorating the Labor Day weekend:

Over the past four and a half years, we’ve fought our way back from the worst recession of our lifetimes. And thanks to the grit and resilience of the American people, we’ve begun to lay a foundation for stronger, more durable economic growth.

Except like everything else coming out of Washington, President Obama loaded his speech with platitudes and wishful thinking, failing to mention the reality of what’s happening in our economy – and especially our labor force.
According to a report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, we’re far from having a laid a foundation of recovery and are, in fact, on a trajectory not of durable economic growth, but one of a complete collapse of our way of life.
If the health of our labor force is to be an indication of America’s economic health and survival, then the only plausible assessment is that we are about to flat line as a nation:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported alarming unemployment figures that are reaching the most desperate levels since the Department of Labor began collecting the data during the Truman administration three years after the end of World War II.
On Aug. 2, the BLS reported nearly 90 million Americans were not currently in the labor force in July, with the percentage of the civilian non-institutional population not in the labor force now registered at 36 percent.
…
According to John Williams, an economist known for arguing the government reports manipulated “shadow statistics” of economic data for political purposes, the real unemployment rate for July was 23.3 percent, not the 7.4 percent reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
WND

Over one-third of able-bodied Americans are not working. That is the stark reality of the situation.
The President and his Sirens would like us to believe that they have taken the necessary steps to increase the number of jobs and improve wages, but nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, if anything, it’s a fact that the President’s mandates, such as his healthcare legislation, are turning us into a part-time nation:

The Obama administration continues to discount the huge impact its health overhaul law is having in turning America into a part-time nation, calling reports anecdotal and not based on complete data.
To paraphrase Groucho Marx:  Who are you going to believe?  Me, or your own eyes?
An avalanche of “anecdotes” continues to pile up as workers across the country are having their hours cut and their health benefits slashed across a broad range of industries.

For every full time job created in the United States in 2013, we’ve created four part-time jobs. Historically, during times of economic growth and progress, the situation was reversed.
Everything, from the President claiming we are recovering from the worst recession of our lifetimes to American job creation, is upside down.
The worst part of it?
While Americans celebrate the resilience of the American economy over their barbecue grills today, our nation is being systematically decimated through Obamacare mandates, taxation and a destruction of our currency.
Over the last four years the individual wealth of our nation has been vaporized, and given the policies being implemented by our government, that’s only the beginning of the destruction of the middle class.
We are on a path of pain and impoverishment, and unfortunately few of our fellow countrymen realize what’s really happening.
The next stage of collapse is in our sights, and it isn’t going to be pretty.
Millions of Americans who failed to prepare and insulate themselves from the coming destruction will be blindsided when it hits. Now is the time. Develop manageable and sustainable strategies that will ready you for what’s coming.
All signs point to serious trouble ahead.