Archive for the 'Economy' Category
From the Pentagon to Life in a Van
January 7th, 2014Alternate headline: How Someone with Retirement Benefits of $40,000 Per Year Winds Up Homeless. Via: The Philadelphia Inquirer: After a 30-year military career in which he earned three graduate degrees, rose to the rank of colonel, and served as an aide to Pentagon brass, Robert Freniere can guess what people might say when they learn […]
Beijing Seals Manhole Covers to Prevent People from Living in Sewers
January 5th, 2014Via: Reuters: Zig-zagging left and right through a maze of dark, narrow corridors in a high-rise’s basement, 35-year-old kitchen worker Hu has joined the many thousands of Chinese fleeing fast-rising property prices by heading down – down underground. Hu lives here beneath an affluent downtown apartment building, in a windowless, 4 square-meter (43 square-foot) apartment […]
The Business of War: SOFEX
January 4th, 2014Via: VICE:
U.S. Waived Laws to Keep F-35 on Track with Parts Made in China
January 4th, 2014Via: Reuters: The Pentagon repeatedly waived laws banning Chinese-built components on U.S. weapons in order to keep the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program on track in 2012 and 2013, even as U.S. officials were voicing concern about China’s espionage and military buildup. According to Pentagon documents reviewed by Reuters, chief U.S. arms […]
Ex-BP Engineer Found Guilty in Oil Spill Cover Up
January 3rd, 2014Via: Reuters: An engineer charged in connection with the 2010 BP oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico was found guilty of one count of obstructing justice by a federal jury on Wednesday, officials said. Kurt Mix, 52, now a former BP Plc employee, had faced two counts of obstruction for deleting hundreds of […]
Mercury Levels Rising in Expanse Around Alberta Oilsands
January 3rd, 2014Via: Postmedia News: Mercury wafting out of oilsands operations is impacting an area – or “bull’s-eye” — that extends for about 19,000 square kilometres in northeast Alberta, according to federal scientists. Levels of the potent neurotoxin found near the massive industrial operation have been found to be up to 16 times higher than “background” levels […]
IMF Paper Warns of ‘Savings Tax’ and Mass Write-Offs as West’s Debt Hits 200-Year High
January 3rd, 2014Via: Telegraph: Much of the Western world will require defaults, a savings tax and higher inflation to clear the way for recovery as debt levels reach a 200-year high, according to a new report by the International Monetary Fund. The IMF working paper said debt burdens in developed nations have become extreme by any historical […]
Billionaires Dumping Stocks
January 3rd, 2014Via: Money News: Despite the 6.5% stock market rally over the last three months, a handful of billionaires are quietly dumping their American stocks . . . and fast. Warren Buffett, who has been a cheerleader for U.S. stocks for quite some time, is dumping shares at an alarming rate. He recently complained of “disappointing […]
Recovery: Retirement Unlikely for Many Blue-Collar Americans
January 1st, 2014Via: AP: Tom Edwards grew up in a family that’s been cutting trees and hauling timber in the Pacific Northwest for more than a century. The Spanaway, Wash., resident says he has worked as a logger since he was a kid — it’s just what an able-bodied youngster was expected to do. Now, at 53, […]
The Online Education Revolution Drifts Off Course
January 1st, 2014Via: NPR: But by all accounts, the San Jose experiment was a bust. Completion rates and grades were worse than for those who took traditional campus-style classes. And the students who did best weren’t the underserved students San Jose most wanted to reach. It wasn’t really proving to be cheaper, either, says Peter Hadreas, the […]
