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U.S. Job Cuts Rose 20% From Year Ago, Challenger Says
Employers in the U.S. announced more job cuts in February than in the same month last year, led by a surge at government agencies.
Planned firings increased 20 percent to 50,702 last month from February 2010, the first year-over-year gain since May 2009, according to a report today from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Announcements at federal, state and local government offices almost tripled from last year.
“More job cuts at the federal level are expected in the months ahead as pressure mounts to cut costs and rein in the soaring national debt,” John A. Challenger, the outplacement company’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Dismissals of government workers may contribute to a slowdown in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy. Combined with the highest gasoline prices in two years, the threat of a pause in purchases may already be causing retailers, which had the second-biggest number of announcements last month, to pare payrolls, said Challenger.
“If gasoline tops $4 per gallon in the coming weeks, consumers may be forced to make significant changes to their spending habits,” said Challenger. “At this stage of the recovery, that could be an extremely damaging setback.”
Compared with last month, which saw the fewest firings for any January since record-keeping began in 1993, job-cut announcements climbed 32 percent. Because the figures Read more…
DHS To Begin Testing Portable DNA Scanner (Video)
A National ID Card For American Citizens? Get Ready – The Real ID Act Goes Into Effect On May 11
For a moment, imagine a future where you are not able to drive a car, get on a plane, get on a train, vote, enter a federal building, open a bank account or get a job without a national ID card. You don’t think that could ever happen in America? Well, you might want to brush up on the Real ID Act because it is going to go into effect on May 11, 2011 unless something is done to stop it. When I first learned this, I was absolutely stunned. After all, wasn’t the Real ID Act supposed to be “dead”? A few years ago state legislatures across the nation were in an uproar over this law. The Department of Homeland Security was forced to delay implementation of it several times. But now it is back. You see, this is what the federal government often does. They will try to push something very unpopular through, and if they meet resistance they will “play dead” until the uproar has died down and then they will come right back and implement it anyway. This is what is happening with the Real ID Act.
As of May 11, all driver’s licenses across the United States will be required to Read more…
Dollar Declines to Lowest Since November on Wagers Fed Will Lag Behind ECB
The dollar fell to its lowest level since November against the currencies of six U.S. trade partners on bets the European Central Bank will be more aggressive than the Federal Reserve about controlling inflation.
The euro rose against the dollar on speculation ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet may indicate this week a readiness to increase borrowing costs while Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may signal economic stimulus will continue. Sweden’s krona climbed to a 30-month high after Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves said interest rates may be raised at every meeting this year.
“The big driver for the euro has been short-term interest- rate differentials, which had moved against the dollar,” said Paresh Upadhyaya, head of Americas G-10 currency strategy at Bank of America Corp. in New York. “Since the beginning of the year it’s been pretty much a one-way trend.”
IntercontinentalExchange Inc.’s Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against six currencies, decreased as much as 0.7 percent to 76.756, the lowest level since Nov. 9, before trading at 76.893 at 5 p.m. in New York, down 0.5 percent. The gauge, which is weighted 57.6 percent on euro movements, fell 1.1 percent in February. Read more…
GOP budget cuts would kill 700,000 jobs: report
WASHINGTON – The Republican budget proposal to sharply cut federal spending would cost 700,000 jobs through 2012, according to the independent analyst Moody’s.
In a new report obtained Monday by the Washington Post, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi analyzes the House Republican budget proposal cutting spending by $61 billion this year and projects that it will curtail job growth.
“The House Republicans’ proposal would reduce 2011 real GDP growth by 0.5% and 2012 growth by 0.2%. This would mean some 400,000 fewer jobs created by the end of 2011 and 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012,” Zandi concluded.
The numbers challenge the Read more…
Proof the government is preparing for a catastrophe
58% Favor Government Shutdown Until Spending Cuts Are Agreed Upon
As Republicans and Democrats in Congress haggle over the budget, most voters would rather have a partial shutdown of the federal government than keep its spending at current levels.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 33% of Likely U.S. Voters would rather have Congress avoid a government shutdown by authorizing spending at the same levels as last year. Fifty-eight percent (58%) says it’s better to have a partial shutdown until Democrats and Republicans can agree on what spending to cut. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The partisan differences are striking. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Democrats prefer avoiding a shutdown by going with current spending levels. But 80% of Republicans — and 59% of voters not affiliated with either major party — think a shutdown is a better option until Read more…
U.S., NATO worry about European defense cuts
BERLIN — First, Germany announced that it would suspend its draft, ending one of the touchstones of its post-World War II society. Then Britain and France, frequent rivals since at least the Norman Conquest, announced plans to share military equipment and research. And smaller countries across Europe are cutting defense budgets and shrinking militaries that were never large to begin with.
European policymakers say that the cuts are necessary given their financial straits, and that training, not sheer numbers, is what matters in a post-Cold War world.
But some top officials, including the U.S. defense secretary and the NATO secretary general, worry that the changes could burden the United States by reducing the number of European troops available for NATO missions and other military efforts around the world. NATO’s ability to function as a collective defense pact may be Read more…
Court case warns EPA could ‘own’ your land!
By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily
 Mike and Chantell Sackett |
A legal team asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in an Idaho controversy is warning landowners that under the compliance order procedures being used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency virtually anyone could be told to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in permit fees – or face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and penalties – over ordinary home construction work.
A petition for certiorari has been submitted to the court by Pacific Legal, an organization working on behalf of the Sackett family of Idaho.
They own a half-acre lot in a residential area near Priest Lake and wanted to build a home. But after excavation work was begun the EPA “swooped in” with a “compliance order” that requires them to undo the excavation and restore the “wetlands,” and then leave it for Read more…
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