Economy
A new Wall Street Journal survey finds, barely over one-third of Americans even have enough money to cover a minor car repair or a quick trip to the ER. This means, upwards of 60 percent of the country has to take out a loan or pull out their credit card to cover the cost of any unexpected emergencies.
The absolutely stunning decision by the Swiss National Bank to decouple from the euro has triggered billions of dollars worth of losses all over the globe. Citigroup and Deutsche Bank both say that their losses were somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 million dollars, a major hedge fund that had 830 million dollars in assets at the end of December has been forced to shut down, and several major global currency trading firms have announced that they are now insolvent. And these are just the losses that we know about so far. It will be many months before the full scope of the financial devastation caused by the Swiss National Bank is fully revealed.
In less than two years, if current trends continued unchecked, the richest 1% percent of people on the planet will own at least half of the world’s wealth. That’s the conclusion of a new report from Oxfam International, released Monday, which states that the rate of global inequality is not only morally obscene, but an existential threat to the economies of the world and the very survival of the planet. Alongside climate change, Oxfam says that spiraling disparity between the super-rich and everyone else, is brewing disaster for humanity as a whole.
Following disappointing results from JPM and Wells Fargo yesterday, it was Bank of America’s turn to “surprise” investors with its disclosure just how bad its quarter was. And with the bank reporting a 50% collapse in its sales and trading from Q3, down $600 million from a year ago to just $1.7 billion in Q4, it should come as no surprise that the bank just reported Net Income, before the usual spate of amusing addbacks, of $0.25 well below the $0.31 expected. And while one may argue whether ot not BofA’s EPS deserve non-GAAP adbacks, it was the Revenue of $18.96 billion, which missed expectations of $21.03 billion by over $2 billion (!) and down $2.7 billion from a year ago, that was truly a showstropper and shows that without the Fed’s visible hand manipulating markets every day, banks are a ticking time bomb just waiting to blow.
Homeless Homed: ‘The Daily Show’ Features Utah’s Awesome Initiative That Gives Homes to the Homeless
The way Utah is addressing the homeless issue caught the attention of “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. It’s helping shed light on an important issue while also making people laugh. It all started with the many housing units set up to help get homeless off the street. It’s a program called Housing First, and it’s working so well, the state says it has decreased homelessness by 72 percent since 2005. Now, even more people are hearing about its success, thanks to the popular show.
When the stock market starts to behave like a roller coaster that is a sign that a major move to the downside is right around the corner. But when the waters start getting really choppy, that is a clear indication that stocks are about to plummet. In early 2015, volatility has returned to Wall Street in a big way. At one point on Tuesday, the Dow was up more than 300 points. But then the bottom dropped out. From the peak on Tuesday, the Dow plunged nearly 700 points in less than 30 hours before recovering more than 100 points at the end of the day.
Shouldn’t it be a trade violation to threaten to move someone’s job to another country? Shouldn’t we negotiate trade agreements that increase people’s wages on both sides of a trade border? These are the kinds of agreements we would make if We the People were negotiating trade agreements with representatives of the working people in other countries. Unfortunately that is not the kind of trade agreements that our current trade negotiation process produces.
The wealth gap between the country’s upper-income and middle-class families has risen to a record high, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. “The latest data reinforce the larger story of America’s middle-class household wealth stagnation over the past three decades,” the report states.
Despite positive economic indicators, ‘America’s middle class is in deep trouble,’ says progressive senator Elizabeth Warren.
On Monday, the price of oil fell below $50 for the first time since April 2009, and the Dow dropped 331 points. Meanwhile, the stock market declines over in Europe were even larger on a percentage basis, and the euro sank to a fresh nine-year low on concerns that the anti-austerity Syriza party will be victorious in the upcoming election in Greece.
The oil price drop that has dominated the headlines in recent weeks has been framed almost exclusively in terms of oil market economics, with most media outlets blaming Saudi Arabia, through its OPEC Trojan horse, for driving down the price, thus causing serious damage to the world’s major oil exporters – most notably Russia. While the market explanation is partially true, it is simplistic, and fails to address key geopolitical pressure points in the Middle East.
There are millions of psychopaths/socipaths in the world. They are without the ability to feel emotion and do not feel or care about others. They tend to rise to top positions of organizations, medicine, politics and military, and tend to pursue power. They are creating the new world order, and do not experience regret over what they have done or concern over what they will do. Their methods are always justified as rational.
Before they were great leaders, they were great employees. Most accomplished entrepreneurs and executives built their success on a solid foundation.
Brookings Fellow Richard Reeves explores inequality and opportunity in America with Legos, using them to explain the chances for economic success of Americans born at the bottom of the economic ladder. Reeves shows the chances that the poorest fifth of Americans have to rise to the top, based on their race, the marital status of their mothers, and their level of education.
Democratic ownership, localized food production, and a shift to renewables are key principles in this growing movement to re-envision our economy.
