Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- July 31, 2011

Recovery Job Growth Concentrated In Low-Paying Occupations - Huffington Post - Arthur Delaney - July 26, 2011 - The Great Recession destroyed all kinds of jobs, but the not-so-great recovery has so far replaced the lowest-paying jobs at a much faster pace than higher-paying ones, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data... Workers navigating the current labor market are facing a "significant good jobs deficit," said the National Employment Law Project, the worker advocacy group that crunched the Census numbers... Low-wage occupations saw job growth of 3.2 percent from the beginning of 2010 to the beginning of 2011, while mid-wage jobs only grew by 1.2 percent, according to NELP. During the same time period, higher-wage jobs fell by 1.2 percent. In other words, there are more new jobs for retail salespeople, office clerks, cashiers and food prep workers than for machinists, managers, nurses and accountants... To make matters worse, low-paying jobs pay even less than they used to, according to the report.


Even with debt, US not closing offshore loophole - Boston Globe Christopher Rowland - July 27, 2011 - Coincidentally, the aftermath of the tornadoes that tore through Western Massachusetts last month, causing an estimated $200 million in damage, offers a peek at the particular strategy on some insurance premiums that Neal and others say is unfair to US taxpayers... Many of the storm damage claims in Westfield, Springfield, and Monson will be paid by overseas reinsurance firms, most with large operations in the United States and headquarters in Bermuda and Switzerland. The foreign reinsurance companies are not required to pay federal income taxes on the estimated $30 billion a year they shift from American subsidiaries to their offshore affiliates... “It’s sophisticated tax avoidance,’’ said Neal, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax matters. “Their presence is in the United States. Their post office box is offshore.’’... Tax specialists say it is just one example of the ways corporations legally move income from the United States to offshore accounts - and out of range of the IRS. The Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan arm of the federal government, estimated last year that such shifting costs US taxpayers as much as $60 billion a year in lost revenue.



On the News With Thom Hartmann: General Electric Moving Its Entire X-Ray Business Headquarters to China, and More - Truthout - July 28, 2011 - You need to know this. Meet the new plan – same as the old plan. The manufactured crisis continues. After the Congressional Budget Office - a world-class independent credit rating agency – and even members of his own Party, dissed Speaker John Boehner’s first debt-limit plan earlier in the week – Boehner revealed his new plan last night…and it’s pretty much exactly the same. The new plan cuts $915 billion from programs for working Americans – about $65 billion more than the first one – and it’s still only a short-term deal that doesn’t balance the budget and forces Congress to hit the debt ceiling again next year – in the middle of an election. The House will likely vote on this new so-called plan today – assuming Boehner can get enough Republicans to support it. That's a task that’s proven difficult over the last few weeks as because a Tea Party insurgency has split Congressional Republicans into two camps – one that wants to prevent a default – and one that actually wants to force a default. But what both camps have in common is they want this phony debt-limit debate to pop up again during the 2012 election – and hang it around President Obama’s neck – no matter the risk to the economy. Once upon a time – if a political party tried this same tactic – crashing the economy and hurting millions of Americans just to score political points – it’d be called treason. But today – it’s called the Republican Party platform.



Gerald Celente: 'Deal or no debt deal, the debt still exists'

The debt standoff continues and still lawmakers cannot come to terms on a deal. August 2nd is the day that the US is supposed to default and many are concerned on how this will affect the US's AAA rating. Gerald Celente, publisher of the Trends Journal, tells us the numbers don't lie.





Peter Shiff: Problem is the debt, not the ceiling

The country which holds more U.S. debt than any other, has hit out at the failure of Congress to reach a deal over its debt ceiling. China says the political deadlock in Washington threatens the entire global economy.

So far Republicans and Democrats have delayed a vote over limiting what the country owes, as they haven't agreed on rival budgets. They have until Tuesday to avoid a potentially devastating default. Earlier in the week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Beijing to reassure Asian leaders, that America will not fall back on its debt payments. But Peter Schiff from investment company Euro Pacific Capital, thinks China could well dump the dollar as its main reserve currency.