The data comes from national statistics institute ISTAT, which published an annual report demonstrating, among other issues, that Italy is witnessing youth unemployment of nearly 40 percent – the highest in Europe.A reported 23.9 percent of young Italians are neither in the job market nor receiving education, the report stressed. In southern Italy, one in three young people aged 15-29 fell into this category.Just over half (57.2 percent) of youths who graduated were currently employed, with the Europe-wide average standing at 77.2 per cent.Fourteen percent of Italy’s population – 8.6 million people – is living on food assistance, a number that has doubled over the past two years, according to the report.Nine poverty indicators were taken into account while carrying out the study; if a family meets more than four, it is considered to be seriously deprived. Some 15 million people – 25 percent of Italy’s population – are living in families that meet three or more of the poverty indicators, the research found.For instance, one poverty indicator is being unable to heat one’s home, something one in five Italians cannot afford. Also, 16.6 percent of the Italians cannot afford a protein-based meal such as meat every two days, from just 6.7 percent in 2010.Over half of the Italian population is unable to afford a one-week vacation, including a staggering 69 percent of southern Italians, according to ISTAT.The recession, which has now lasted almost two years, has taken a heavy toll on Italians, who are increasingly digging into their savings, ISTAT stressed. The savings rate, traditionally high in Italy, is currently far below that of France and Germany, Reuters reported.Italians’ purchasing power also fell by 4.8 percent last year, an “exceptionally steep” decline caused largely by aggressive tax hikes aimed at battling the economic crisis gripping the country. The study results come just a few days after thousands gathered in Rome to protest austerity measures and high unemployment. Demonstrators urged Prime Minister Enrico Letta to create jobs to pull the country out of recession. Protesters held banners reading, “We can’t wait anymore” and “We need money to live.”According to a Friday poll conducted by the SWG institute, the government’s approval rating has dropped to 34 percent, down from 43 percent at the start of May. … Read More
Former finance minister Kudrin blames United Russia for economic stagnation
According to the former financial minister “even if we roll up our sleeves right now, we’ll have to sweat our guts out for three years or five years in order to achieve the new elements of effectiveness.” Kudrin put all the blame on United Russia in his speech at the so-called Open Tribune in the Duma. After the session, when asked by RIA-Novosti how he evaluates the performance of Dmitry Medvedev’s government, Kudrin said it was “unsatisfactory.” United Russia’s Andrey Isaev found the former minister’s comments “cynical and hypocritical.” The MP said that his party can only be blamed for not pushing for Kudrin’s resignation from the government earlier. Isaev said it was the ex-minister himself, who laid the foundations for the current financial difficulties as he refused to “use natural resources for the development of the country” during his time in office in 2000-11. The parliament’s speaker, Sergey Naryshkin, backed Kudrin, saying United Russia like any “political party must take responsibility for the decisions it makes.” Fair Russia party MP, Oksana Dmitrieva, stressed that United Russia has “no political will” as the party only reflects the will of the government in power. She claimed Kudrin himself was responsible for all the losses, “the great economic conditions in the last 13 years were lost largely because of Kudrin’s actions,” Dmitrieva added. In his recent interview with Komsomolskaya Parvada, Dmitry Medvedev confirmed that Russia’s economic growth was insufficient and has to be increased to 4 or 5 per cent per year. At the same time, the head of the Russian government has called the current world economic conditions “more or less acceptable” for the country. Medvedev promised that Russia wouldn’t see a repeat of the 2008-09 economic crisis, reassuring that there was no need to “squirrel away stewed meat, soap, matches and salt” this time. … Read More
GERALD CELENTE on the Next BANKING CRISIS and CURRENCY Manipulation [PRIME INTEREST]
http://www.youtube.com/v/K0i8oZNh95E?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Original source: GERALD CELENTE on the Next BANKING CRISIS and CURRENCY Manipulation [PRIME INTEREST]
OECD paints grim picture in new inequality report
In an update to its 2011 report ‘Divided We Stand’, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been describing a widening gap between the developed world’s rich and poor in the thirty years until 2008. But in this latest report it claims the process has accelerated in the three years since 2007. The paper explains that many countries had already been in a dire state of economic inequality – their highest in decades – and all the economic crisis did was exacerbate that to the extent that the already existing economic gaps were multiplied by the crisis between the years 2007-10.The report reveals an increase in the difference of how much the wealthy were able to increase their wealth compared to the poor. This means that if in 2007, the rich were becoming richer 9 times faster than the lowest 10 per cent, the difference in what they accumulated in 2010 compared to the poor was already 9.5 times. Of the 34 OECD countries, it appears that “the top 10 percent has done better than the poorest 10 percent in 21 countries,” with the widest gaps seen in the United States, Turkey, Chile and Mexico. In the three years described above, their income status had been continuously plunging by 2 per cent every year. A majority of the countries experiencing the harshest rise of inequality were in Europe, where tough EU austerity policies took hold. Italy and Spain were hit worst. However, a 5 per cent decrease was seen annually in Iceland, Ireland, Estonia and impoverished Greece – which still remains on the verge of economic collapse.One factor shared by all 34 countries surveyed by the OECD is children and young people. Whether it is due to unemployment or poor family living standards, they appear to have it have the worst. “Households with children were hit hard during the crisis. Since 2007, child poverty increased in 16 OECD countries, with increases exceeding 2 points in Turkey, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia and Hungary.”What makes the news grimmer is that cash injections into the world’s financial elite, via banks and markets, as well as Wall Street, essentially only helped the uppermost 10 per cent multiply their wealth. In the years since 2007, their financial portfolios are said to have grown by a large margin. But OECD’s data also explains that the economic crisis could not have been the sole factor in the widening gap between segments of society and in their redistribution of wealth. There has been a process that has been exploiting these economic conditions since 2008, via the bankrupting and impoverishment taking place in the developed world, most likely for the purpose of competing with the developing world’s working classes and their cheap labor. So there is a widening base of severely underpaid working class workers across the entire world. But they don’t get nearly the kind of social, economic or healthcare benefits the upper layers of society do.In the end, it will not get better – the report says. The only reason that 2010 seemed like the worst year is because the growth of the conditions of inequality was somewhat halted by many social state provisions, mostly across Europe. Without them, the report says the real trouble we are in would be more evident, and so would its growth in the years to come. What we are seeing now is only the beginning. … Read More
Looming Health Crisis: Wireless Technology and the Toxification of America
A major health crisis looms that is only hastened through the extensive deployment of “smart grid” technology. … Read More
Federal Reserve: rising inequality jeopardizes economic recovery
Fed Board of Governors member Sarah Bloom Raskin was in Washington, DC on Thursday, and during an address before the Society of Government Economists and the National Economists Club she said the widening gap between the rich and poor is just one of the issues being investigated as attempts are made to rebound from the financial crisis of 2009.“In my view, the large and increasing amount of inequality in income and wealth, which has been an ongoing development for decades, may have exacerbated the crisis and I think more research is required to determine whether it may also pose a significant headwind to the recovery from the crisis for years to come,” Raskin told the crowd. “So, while I am hopeful that pressures will ease further as home prices continue to rebound, I also believe that some of the restraints on the recovery may be quite long-lasting.”When the Pew Research Center released their findings on inequality last month, they concluded that the wealthiest 7 percent of Americans saw their average net worth surge by 28 percent when the great recession ravaged a majority of US households. In that same span between 2009 and 2011, those on the bottom 93 percent saw their net worth drop 4 percentage points.“It has been a very good recovery for those at the upper end of the wealth distribution,” Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Center wrote of his report, “But there has been no recovery for the lower 93, which is nearly everybody.”And as that trend is obvious to pollsters, economists are worrying that a widening gap between sectors will reduce the likelihood of a rebound anytime soon. Before Raskin touched on inequality during this week’s address, she admitted that the recovery process in the post-recession years has been “a very weak one.”According to Raskin, the problem stems from massive lay-offs in the wake of the recession’s start that primarily had an impact on workers of certain sectors that have been unable to find employment elsewhere. Raskin said “currents of globalization and technological change” meant that many Americans fired in 2009 have been unable to adopt for the jobs that are in demand today.“About two-thirds of all job losses in the recession were in middle-wage occupations — such as manufacturing, skilled construction, and office administration jobs — but these occupations have accounted for less than one-fourth of the job growth during the recovery. By contrast, lower-wage occupations, such as retail sales, food service and other lower-paying service jobs, accounted for only one-fifth of job losses during the recession but more than one-half of total job gains during the recovery. As a result of these trends in job creation, which could well have been exacerbated by the severe nature of the crisis, the earnings potential for many households likely remains below what they had anticipated in the years before the recession,” she said.“The increase in economic activity and the decline in the unemployment rate are, of course, welcome, but we still have a long way to go to reach what feels like a healthy economy. In fact, the pace of recovery has been slower than most had expected. The gap between actual output and the economy’s potential remains quite large, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, and the unemployment rate today remains well above levels seen prior to the recession, and well above the level that the Committee thinks can be sustained once a full recovery has been achieved,” added Raskin.Thursday’s remarks by the Fed board member was actually the third time in as many months that she warned of what widening inequality was doing to America. During an event in New York City last month, Raskin said, “Of course, it is not part of the Federal Reserve’s mandate to address inequality directly, but I want to explore these issues today because the answers may have implications for the Federal Reserve’s efforts to understand the recession and conduct policy in a way that contributes to a stronger pace of recovery.” … Read More
Money to be Made on Immigration Reform? Gerald Celente Blasts The Temple of Money Lenders [PR E12]
http://www.youtube.com/v/v0CWI2PG6y4?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata See original: Money to be Made on Immigration Reform? Gerald Celente Blasts The Temple of Money Lenders [PR E12]
