Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Spain jobless rate hits new eurozone record
MADRID (AP) -- Spain's unemployment rate jumped in the first quarter to 21.3 percent, a eurozone record and the country's highest since 1997, with over 4.9 million people out of work, the government said Friday.
Joblessness during the January-March period jumped 1 percentage point from 20.3 percent at the end of 2010, and adds pressure on Spain as it tries to recover from nearly two years of recession and convince investors that it can handle its heavy debt load.
"This data is very negative and grave," said Labor Minister Valeriano Gomez.
The country is struggling to shift away from dependence on the construction sector, which supported growth for years until the financial crisis popped the Spain's real estate bubble, as well as make the economy more competitive and reduce national debt.
The number of unemployed people in Spain stood at 4,910,200 at the end of March, up about 214,000 from the previous quarter, said the National Statistics Institute, or INE.
In an unemployment line in a working-class Madrid neighborhood, people grimly waiting to sign up for benefit payments said they saw little hope of finding new jobs for years.
Johnny Albuja, 29, was laid off from his job cleaning offices when the company he worked for lost a contract, but only expected to get unemployment benefits for three months since he worked for the company for just one year.
Over the past year, his father and brother were laid off from a metal works company as demand plummeted.
"The situation is really difficult right now," Albuja said. "You can't live well, you still have to pay the mortgage and it's tough to get by."
The jobless rate is now at its highest since the first quarter of 1997, when it was 21.3 percent, although officials have since changed the way they measure unemployment, said an INE official who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with agency policy. But the overall number of people unemployed is a record, the agency said.
Jobs were lost across the entire Spanish economy, with services, manufacturing, agriculture and construction all taking hits.
Adding to the bad news for households, consumer prices rose sharply, INE said Friday. The consumer price inflation rate jumped to an annual 3.8 percent in April, up two-tenths of a point from March. Higher fuel prices prompted by unrest in the Middle East and North Africa have been pushing the rate up since January.
Spain must hold a general election by March 2012, and polls show the governing Socialists trailing badly. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has stated he will not seek a third term.
While Europe and Germany in particular recovers from the global recession, Spain is forecasting meager growth of just 1.3 percent for itself in 2011, and even the Bank of Spain says that prediction is too optimistic.
AP
MORE:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Spain-jobless-rate-hits-new-apf-1807370128.html?x=0
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Syria braces for 'day of rage' protests
The looming showdown comes as the UN Human Rights Council prepared for a special session on Syria in Geneva, and the European Union was meeting in Brussels to consider a wide range of sanctions against the Arab state.
The call for mass demonstrations was made in a statement on the Facebook page of Syrian Revolution 2011, a motor of the protests in which demonstrators inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world are seeking greater freedoms.
"To the youths of the revolution, tomorrow we will be in all the places, in all the streets ... We will gather at the besieged towns, including with our brothers in Daraa," said the statement.
It said demonstrations would also be staged in other flashpoint towns such as Homs in the centre of the country and Banias in the northwest.
Information Minister Adnan Mahmud told AFP that the crackdown on protesters would continue, setting the scene for violent confrontations later Friday.
Similar protests after Friday prayers a week ago ended in chaos, with more than 100 people killed when the security forces fired on demonstrators with tear gas and live rounds. Hundreds of people were detained.
"The authorities are determined to restore security, stability and peace to the citizens," Mahmud said. "In Daraa, the army intervened at the request of the population to restore security."
According to the minister, more than 50 soldiers and dozens of police have been killed and hundreds injured since the revolt began.
Syria has been rocked since March 15 by increasingly strident pro-democracy demonstrations, which the authorities have tried to crush through violence that rights groups say has killed at least 453 civilians.
In the southern town of Daraa, epicentre of the protests that have shaken Assad's once uncontested rule, water and power have been cut and the death toll has risen to 42 as a military siege enters a fifth day, rights activists said.
A rights activist reached by telephone said the situation was worsening in Daraa, stormed on Monday by between 3,000 and 5,000 troops backed by tanks and snipers.
"We have neither doctors nor medical supplies, not even baby milk. The electricity is always cut and we haven't any more water," Abdallah Abazid told AFP in Nicosia by telephone from Daraa, 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Damascus.
At least 42 "martyrs" have been killed since Monday, Abazid said. Their families, he added, had been unable to bury them because "security forceswere firing on anybody visiting the cemetery," which is controlled by the army.
In Washington, three key US senators urged President Barack Obama to declare that his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad has squandered his legitimacy and must step down.
"We urge President Obama to state unequivocally -- as he did in the case of (Libyan leader Moamer) Kadhafi and (Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak -- that it is time for Assad to go," Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham and independent Senator Joe Lieberman said in a joint statement.
The UN Human Rights Council meeting, requested by 10 European nations, theUnited States, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Senegal and Zambia, will open at 11.00 am (0900 GMT).BREITBART
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Some questions to the FED
Today the Federal Reserve is doing their first ever press conference. We have one question we would like to contribute, if anyone has a media contact please forward them this email.
Question: Mr. Bernanke, despite everything going up in price you continue to show a lot of concern for deflation, not inflation. Can you please review the chart below and explain how this inflation chart is deflationary?
The Illusion
Gas Prices and the Double Dip
Gas prices are starting to become a major problem for policy makers, the U.S. is about to enter a double dip according to our calculations. With Japan still trying to recover from one of the largest natural disasters in history, certainly the largest natural disaster to hit an industrialized nation, the world economy will begin to see the effects of Japan in the coming weeks and months. That of course could be just the final straw that breaks the camel's back.
When it comes to fuel and food prices, we are definitely heading for the second wave down in the economy. Food costs are now taking up 15% of consumer spending, 2 years ago when the official recession ended (not something we accept) food costs took up 12.7% of consumer spending. Looking at other modern day recessions, food only took up 8% of consumer spending. We are already nearly double that percentage amount. When it comes to energy, historically, average energy costs are about 4% of consumer spending, however, when they cross 6%, it has always led to a recession. Today, energy costs are exactly 6%, now rising food and fuel is pretty much mandatory spending.
So, it is safe to say that Americans will have less to spend on everything else? The math is simple, Americans are going to spend less in a consumer driven economy which will equal a recession or what we would refer to as the next leg down in the long recession we have been in that never ended. Gas prices have risen over a dollar in the last year, 33 cents in the last 30days! Suncoast Energy in Orlando, the highest gas station in the country, is already charging$5.69 a gallon for regular. Gas has risen 35 straight days and currently has a national average of $3.87 a gallon. AAA has reported that since March, they have seen an 18% increase in roadside assistance calls for people running out of gas. Now most analysts agree that gas prices will go down as a result of people driving less. However, we believe any contraction in driving will be offset by the FED printing currency and dollar devaluation from a reckless government. We do see short term deflationary forces, especially in non needed items, but the reason we tend not to focus on them is because we are looking at the bigger picture of a U.S. dollar crisis. Our definition of a crisis is the dollar losing reserve status, no longer needed, no longer loved, and no longer of any value to the world. Now this may take 10 years or 10 days, we are not about to even try and put a date on one of the biggest financial scares in history, certainly the biggest financial crisis in our lifetimes.
Judging by Tim Geithners Recent Statements, Dollar Devaluation Could Be Imminent!
U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner stated yesterday that he would never follow a strategy to weaken the U.S. dollar. He said, "our policy has been and will always be, as long as I will be in office, that a strong dollar is in the interest of the country." In fact, he really upped the ante and said, "we will never embrace a strategy to weaken the dollar." Translation, get ready for one of the biggest dollar declines you have ever seen. Anytime a Treasury Secretary comes out with a strong dollar policy speech, it usually means they are getting ready to trash it. The more they advocate for a strong dollar policy, the more they plan to destroy it. Let's just say their words have about as much backing as the dollar. So far year to date, the dollar verses other currencies has lost 6.5%. Gold, which is real money by definition, has risen substantially along with silver. In fact, commodities across the board have been rising due to monetary inflation of the global reserve currency. The dollar index, just in anticipation of what the FED is going to say, has dropped to a new year to date low of 73.58. It should be noted that in the last 10 years the dollar index is down 41.5% and gold has risen 473%. During this time, Treasury Secretaries have always made it a point to let us know that they believe in a strong dollar policy. Right...
Don't worry, everything is under control.
Our official prediction when it comes to QE3 is that it will happen, it just may not be called QE3. They may repackage it and call it something else. For instance, QE is just another name for printing currency. Ending it now is really not an option for the Keynesians, especially with the FED responsible for purchasing 70% of our treasuries, it is not going to just end with an annual1.6 trillion dollar deficit.
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