Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- October 16, 2011

Student banned after debit card/student ID card complaint is reinstated - NBC - Bob Sullivan - October 14, 2011 - A North Carolina community college student who was banned from campus after complaining about being forced to use a school-branded debit card has been reinstated. Reversal of the decision leaves a critical question unanswered, however: Why are schools around the country forcing students to get into bad financial habits by using MasterCard-branded debit cards laden with booby-trap fees?.....      Catawba Valley Community College student Marc Bechtol was suspended for two semesters earlier this week after complaining about the debit card on the school's Facebook page, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Bechtol's Facebook complaint included a suggestion urging readers to find "good viruses" to send to the school or register it for porn sites. On Oct. 4, Bechtol was pulled from class and told he was no longer allowed on campus.....      After the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) intervened, Bechtol was reinstated. The school viewed Bechtol’s post as a threat, but FIRE argued that it was protected free speech and not a serious threat.



US budget gap widens, tops $1 trln for 3rd year - Reuters - Pedro Nicolaci da Costa - October 14, 2011 - The U.S. budget gap widened slightly in fiscal 2011, staying above $1 trillion for a third straight year and providing fodder for a political battle over taxes and spending ahead of next year’s presidential election. The Treasury Department report on Friday comes just over two months after an epic showdown over the nation’s debt ceiling that pushed the United States close to a debt default and led to a downgrade of America’s prized AAA credit rating. The shortfall in September, the final month of the fiscal year, widened to $64.57 billion compared to the same month a year earlier, although it came in at a few billion dollars less than economists had projected. The annual deficit was $1.299 trillion, up from 1.294 trillion in fiscal 2010.


Energy firms' profits per customer rise 733%, says Ofgem - Terry Macalister, Dan Milmo and Lisa Bachelor - October 14, 2011 Energy regulator proposes 'radical reform' of energy market and simpler tariffs as it reveals net margin for typical customers has risen from £15 in June to £125 in October - The Guardian - Terry Macalister, Dan Milmo and Lisa Bachelor - October 14. 2011 - A furious row has broken out today between the energy regulator and the "big six" power companies after Ofgem in effect accused the utilities of profiteering by increasing their profit per dual-fuel customer by 733% – from £15 to £125 – through a slew of price rises.....



“It’s Going to Get a Lot Worse”: ECRI’s Achuthan Says New Recession Unavoidable - Aaron Task - Yahoo - Daily Ticker – Fri, September 30, 2011 - Weakness in leading economic indicators has become so pervasive the Economic Cycle Research Institute now predicts a new recession is unavoidable. "The vicious cycle is starting where lower sales, lower production, lower employment and lower income [leads] back to lower sales," co-founder Lakshman Achuthan declares in the accompanying video. Whereas Achuthan said the jury is still out in late August, the weakness in leading economic indicators — and ECRI uses a dozen for the U.S. alone, he notes — has become a "contagion" that is spreading like "wildfire."


U.S. Collapse Predicted - GoldSeek - October 14, 2011 - Casey Research Chief Economist Bud Conrad believes the United States is acting as a late-stage empire, acting aggressively on the world stage, lowering its moral standards and debasing its currency. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report at the Casey Research/Sprott Inc. "When Money Dies" Summit, he explains the options for how the inevitable collapse will occur. The Gold Report: At the Casey Research/Sprott Inc. Summit, you gave a presentation called, "A Crisis of Confidence." After all the government stimulus from the U.S. and the rest of the world aimed at injecting liquidity and keeping interest rates low, why didn't any of it work? Why is the economy still hurting? Bud Conrad: First, printing money doesn't create wealth. Putting bits in a computer doesn't create wealth. When politicians hand out money, they are the ones who get powerful and the banks get wealthy. The middle class with savings gets hurt. What creates wealth is people working and creating things. Internationally, the Chinese are papering over their slowing growth rate by providing liquidity, but paper money systems will collapse. That is the reality. The global financial system is supremely unstable. When people wake up to the fact that this is a "king ain’t got no clothes" economy, we will see a run to the exits.



The Officials in New York are out of Control - These protests will not stop!!!