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Dewey files for chapter 11 in record law firm collapse - (www.reuters.com) The crippled law firm Dewey & Leboeuf LLP
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday night and will seek approval
to liquidate its business after failing to find a merger partner, marking the
biggest collapse of a law firm in U.S. history. Once one of the largest law
firms in the U.S., Dewey has been hit by the loss of the vast majority of its
roughly 300 partners to other firms amid concerns about compensation and a
heavy debt load. Dewey had warned employees earlier this month of the possibility
the firm may shut down, and a person familiar with the matter had told Reuters
that the firm was considering a bankruptcy filing. "Dewey's failure is
rocking the industry in the sense that most firms are saying to themselves, if
Dewey could go down, could we?" Kent Zimmermann, a legal consultant at the
Zeughauser Group, said in an email Monday night.
U.S. Winds Down Longer Benefits for the Unemployed - (www.nytimes.com) Hundreds of thousands of
out-of-work Americans are receiving their final unemployment checks sooner than
they expected, even though Congress renewed extended benefits until the end of
the year. The checks are stopping for the people who have the most difficulty
finding work: the long-term unemployed. More than five million people have been
out of work for longer than half a year. Federal benefit extensions, which
supplemented state funds for payments up to 99 weeks, were intended to tide
over the unemployed until the job market improved. In February, when the
program was set to expire, Congress renewed it, but also phased in a reduction
of the number of weeks of extended aid and effectively made it more difficult
for states to qualify for the maximum aid. Since then, the jobless in 23 states
have lost up to five months’ worth of benefits.
Greek Euro Exit Aftershocks Risk Reaching China - (www.bloomberg.com) Greece, responsible for 0.4 percent of
the world economy, now poses a threat to international prosperity as investors
raise bets its days using the euro are numbered. A Greek departure from the
currency would inflict “collateral damage,” says Pacific Investment Management
Co.’s Richard Clarida, a view echoed by
economists from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase & Co. At
worst, it could spur sovereign defaults in Europe as well as bank runs, credit
crunches and recessions that may spark more euro exits. Global trade and
financial ties mean the pain wouldn’t be confined to the euro area. JPMorgan
Chase estimates a 1 percentage point slump in the euro countries’ economy drags
down growth elsewhere by 0.7 percentage point. Exporting nations from the U.K.
to China would suffer and commodity producer Russia would face falling oil
prices. While the U.S. may fare better, even it would feel echoes
similar to the financial infection following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc.
The
British Government Is Forcing People To Work For Free Or Lose Their
Unemployment Benefits – (www.businessinsider.com)
Thousands more unemployed
people will be forced to work for free or lose their benefits under
controversial plans to be announced by the work and pensions secretary, Iain
Duncan Smith, as the government is warned its drive to get people back into
work appears to be floundering. The scheme, under which the jobless are obliged
to accept an unpaid work placement for a month to keep their benefits, will be
"significantly extended" within the next two weeks, according to
Whitehall sources. The government believes forcing people to work or lose their
benefits is inculcating a work habit in the 10,000 people currently on the
programme and will be effective for others. Ministers are also looking at
rolling out a national trial under which the unemployed must work for up to six
months for free to avoid their benefits being docked.
Most Aid to Athens Circles Back to Europe - (www.nytimes.com) As Greek membership in the euro currency
union hangs in the balance, it continues to receive billions of euros in emergency
assistance from the so-called troika of lenders overseeing its bailout. But
almost none of the money is going to the Greek government to pay for vital
public services. Instead, it is flowing directly back into the troika’s
pockets. And so, the €130 billion, or $162.2 billion, European bailout that was
supposed to buy time for Greece is
mainly only servicing the interest on the country’s debt — while the Greek
economy continues to plummet. If that seems to make little sense economically,
it has a certain logic in the politics of euro-finance. After all, the money
dispensed by the troika — the European
Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European
Union’s member governments — comes from European taxpayers, many of
whom are increasingly wary of the political disarray that has beset Athens and
clouded the future of the euro zone.
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