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TSA officers 'desperate' to unionize - (money.cnn.com) With many of them stifled by part-time pay and unpleasant airport pat downs, officers for the Transportation Security Administration are trying to unionize. "These are people who desperately need a union," said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which has 600,000 members from different federal agencies. "We want a union and we want collective bargaining rights." The 40,000-plus officers with the TSA could be voting to unionize in the next few months, according to both Gage and Dina Long, spokeswoman for the rival union, the National Treasury Employees Union, which has 150,000 members. "There are 43,000 employees in the TSA workforce and they have been excluded from basic workplace rights including collective bargaining rights," said Long. "Administrator [John] Pistole is reviewing whether these employees will be granted collective bargaining rights."
Tom DeLay Found Guilty - (www.huffingtonpost.com) Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay – once one of the most powerful and feared Republicans in Congress – was convicted Wednesday on charges he illegally funneled corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002. Jurors deliberated for 19 hours before returning guilty verdicts against DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces up to life in prison on the money laundering charge. After the verdicts were read, DeLay hugged his daughter, Danielle, and his wife, Christine. His lead attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said they planned to appeal the verdict. "This is an abuse of power. It's a miscarriage of justice, and I still maintain that I am innocent. The criminalization of politics undermines our very system and I'm very disappointed in the outcome," DeLay told reporters outside the courtroom. He remains free on bond, and his sentencing was tentatively set to begin on Dec. 20.
In European Debt Crisis, Some Call Default Better Option - (www.nytimes.com) Ireland has finally taken its medicine, accepting the financial rescue package European officials have been pushing for several weeks. But even as Europe moved to avert this latest debt crisis, economists and policy experts are increasingly debating whether it would be better, and fairer, for the Continent’s weakest economies to default on payments to lenders. Many experts now say that bailouts only delay the inevitable. Instead of further wounding their economies with drastic budget-slashing, the specialists assert, governments should immediately start talks with bondholders and force them to accept a loss on their investments. The risk, of course, is an investor panic that would seize financial markets at a time when the global economy remains on tenterhooks. But an organized restructuring of debt that would reduce the amount of money troubled countries owed, especially in conjunction with a financial aid package, might provide a quicker path to recovery and avoid the trauma of a forced default down the road, some economists argue.
Recovery a mirage for most - (www.boston.com) More than three-fourths of Massachusetts residents surveyed say the recession has not ended, a compelling sign that benefits of the 17-month economic recovery have yet to reach a vast number of households, according to a Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll. Although the recession officially ended in June 2009, the poll portrays Massachusetts families as struggling with layoffs, uncertainty, and diminished circumstances. Many said they are spending less, saving less, and expecting to work longer before they retire. The reason most frequently given: “No money.’’ And they don’t expect conditions to get better any time soon. More than half said the recession would last at least another two years. More than 60 percent said neither the re-election of Governor Deval Patrick nor the Republican ascendancy in Congress would help the economy.
Portugal next as EMU's Máquina Infernal keeps ticking - (www.telegraph.co.uk) The Portuguese seemed baffled - and pained - that investors should link their country in any way with Greece or Ireland. I am afraid they must come to terms very soon with some unpleasant facts. So must Europe’s leaders, who comfort themselves that Greece is a special case because it cheated, and that Ireland is a special case because it allowed its "Anglo-Saxon" banks to go berserk. They have yet to acknowledge the deeper truth that monetary union has insidiously destabilised much of Europe and trapped a ring of largely innocent countries in depression. In my experience it is hazardous for English-speaking journalists to write about Portugal without being accused of betraying the Aliança Velha, or pursuing a perfidious Palmerstonian agenda. It is an article of faith - an Iberian trait - that Portugal is the victim of an orchestrated calumny intended to divert attention from a bankrupt Britain, or America. The rating agencies are deemed agents of Anglo-Saxon hegemony.
OTHER STORIES:
International bailout for Irish banks takes shape - (www.bloomberg.com)
Feinberg pays oil spill claims faster than BP - (money.cnn.com)
Thanks for nothing, Corporate America - The Buzz- (money.cnn.com)
Bill That Would Have Sped Foreclosures Killed - (www.huffingtonpost.com)
Fail and Grow Rich on Wall Street - (www.huffingtonpost.com)
Matt Taibbi: Fact-Checkers Almost Killed My 'Vampire Squid' Line About Goldman Sachs- (www.huffingtonpost.com)
99-weekers: The unemployed need help! - (money.cnn.com)
Europe's new contagion worries - (money.cnn.com)
N.J. man arrested in insider-trading probe - (money.cnn.com)
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