Economics

The International Monetary Fund’s director, Christine Lagarde, caused outrage in May 2012 when she said that what Greeks should do is help themselves collectively by all paying their taxes. Few days after, The Guardian made public that her salary –$467,940 a…

The United Nations is calling for a number of new taxes in a bid to help aid the world’s poor. In a new report, the World Economic and Social Survey calls for proposals including taxes on carbon emissions, financial transactions, and on the world’s billionaires. Robert Vos of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs unveiled the report.

When it becomes clear to everyone that the all-powerful economists have little to offer other than more cuts, more austerity measures, more insults (“go pay your taxes” or “you’re poor because you are lazy”), then people realise it’s up to them, and real human creativity takes over. That’s how a crisis becomes an opportunity.

The economy in the euro zone, formed by the 17 countries linked to the euro, registered a unemployment level of 11 percent of the active population according tolocal sources today.
The Statistics office Eurostat, said that the level is similar to the one reported last month, although it represents 1.1 percent more than the one in the same period of 2011.

Editor’s Note: This story was written for New America Media as the first in a series of columns by Dr. Sanjay Basu called A Doctor’s Word, exploring the impact of the recession on health care for poor people. It appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Insight and on SFGate.com, media from where Pressenza obtained it.

Goldman Sachs’s executive director’s resignation made big headlines. Accusations of corrupt and immoral practices appeared to suggest that this was a particular, perhaps isolated, case. Grateful as we are to Greg Smith for highlighting the shortcomings of the financial giant we should not be distracted from the fact that this is how the present system works.

A groundbreaking report released today by ICAN identifies more than 300 banks, pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers in 30 countries with substantial investments in nuclear arms producers. We print here ICAN’s letter to World Without Wars(1) and a link to this very important report that shows the banking system’s support to the biggest danger facing humanity.

New York – A lack of job opportunities, inadequate education, vulnerable working conditions and insufficient government investment are some of the main concerns of young people around the world, according to a United Nations report on youth published yesterday.

Banks are lending very little to help the real economy – businesses and mortgages – but there are no shortages of bonuses for top executives. Huge payments to lobbying firms at home and in the US (whose activities are not covered by the Freedom of Information Act) have been used to influence policies that may curtail the financial sector’s licence to cream.

For innovative young folks, angels are by no means mythical beings or messengers of God as depicted in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles and the Quran. They are flesh-and-blood source of equity capital at the seed and early stage of company formation, particularly when banks are reluctant to lend.

Article by Ramesh Jaura