Archive for the 'Economy' Category
FDIC Friday: Regulators Shut Banks in Georgia, Michigan, California, Idaho
April 25th, 2009Via: Bloomberg: Regulators seized banks in Georgia, Michigan, California and Idaho with total assets of $2.3 billion, bringing the tally of failures in the U.S. this year to 29, exceeding the total for all of 2008. American Southern Bank of Kennesaw, Georgia; Michigan Heritage Bank in Farmington Hills; and First Bank of Beverly Hills in […]
Ireland: Hundreds of People Queue for Low Wage Retail Sales Jobs in Dublin
April 25th, 2009I was last in Ireland in 1999. On the flight over from the U.S., I was discussing the economic boom times Ireland was experiencing with someone involved with the computer industry there. He said something like, “We’ll enjoy it while it lasts, but, deep down, everyone knows it’s a bunch of shite. Maybe it’ll last […]
Long-Term Unemployed More Than Double in California
April 24th, 2009Via: OC Register: The number of long-term unemployed in California has more than doubled in the last year and now make up nearly 25% of all people without jobs, reports the state Employment Development Department. In March 2008, 168,000 Californians had been out of a job 27 weeks or more — the point where marchunemploymentdurationregular […]
Spain’s Jobless Rate Soars to 17%
April 24th, 2009Via: BBC: Spain’s unemployment rate hit 17.4% at the end of March, figures have shown, with the jobless total now having doubled over the past 12 months. In the past year, two million people have lost their jobs taking the total out of work to just over four million. The Bank of Spain recently predicted […]
Merck Drew Up Hit List of Doctors Who Needed to Be “Neutralised”
April 24th, 2009Via: The Australian: AN international drug company made a hit list of doctors who had to be “neutralised” or discredited because they criticised the anti-arthritis drug the pharmaceutical giant produced. Staff at US company Merck &Co emailed each other about the list of doctors – mainly researchers and academics – who had been negative about […]
China Has Nearly Doubled Its Gold Reserves Since 2003
April 24th, 2009Via: MarketWatch: Gold futures rose Friday, and were headed for their first week of gain in five, after getting a boost from news that China has nearly doubled its gold reserves since 2003 to the world’s fifth largest. Copper is poised to lose more than 8% this week on economic fears. … Hu Xiaolian, head […]
GM to Shut Most U.S. Plants for Up to 9 Weeks
April 23rd, 2009Via: AFP: Troubled US auto giant General Motors plans to close some of its US plants for up to nine weeks this summer in a cost cutting measure to counter slumping sales, the Detroit News reported Wednesday. The embattled auto firm, which has been given 13.4 billion dollars by the US government, is set to […]
Britain: Top Income Tax Rate Increasing to 50%
April 22nd, 2009Via: AFP: The government will increase its top rate of income tax to a higher than expected 50 percent from next year, Chancellor Alistair Darling said on Wednesday as he delivered the government’s annual budget. The tax band had originally been due to rise to 45 percent from 40 percent in April 2011 as Britain […]
Britain’s Budget Deficit Threatens to Hit 12 Percent of GDP
April 22nd, 2009Via: Telegraph: That is just about the worst performance of any major country at any time in history, during peacetime. Gordon Brown’s sin as Chancellor was to run a fiscal deficit of 3pc of GDP at the top of the long boom, when other countries were prudently using their windfall tax revenues to build a […]
U.S. Recession Linked to More Abortions, Vasectomies
April 22nd, 2009This is not quite Kill Off, but it’s close enough. Via: Reuters: The recession may be a factor influencing more Americans to opt out of parenthood with abortions and vasectomies, although there is no data available yet to suggest a trend Even so, there is some anecdotal evidence that would-be parents are factoring the rough […]
