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Economics of Everyday Greek Life Is Eroding - (www.nytimes.com) Gregoris Skouros stepped out of the sawed-off
cargo container that hard times have forced him to make his home in on an
agricultural plain near this tiny village, a two-hour drive south of Athens. When
a visitor raised the issue on everyone’s minds — Greece’s future in the euro
zone — Mr. Skouros pursed his lips for a long moment before speaking. “The
problem has now gone beyond whether we remain in the euro or
not,” said Mr. Skouros, 54. “The issue is, Can Greece be fixed?” That question
has taken on new urgency as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras makes a renewed
effort this week to assemble an austerity budget package that can persuade
Greece’s creditors to release a 31.5 billion euro ($41.1 billion) loan
installment for the country in October.
Crony capitalism, American style - (www.economonitor.com) So far as corruption at the
top goes, India is a piker. You cannot read a newspaper or serious blog without
finding yet another example of US crony capitalism, aided and abetted by
Washington. As we approach the first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement’s
origins, Washington remains steadfast in its refusal to do anything about Wall
Street’s crimes. It’s a poster child for crony capitalism. Oh, sure, the Obama
Administration has slapped the hands of the crooks a few times, by imposing
inconsequential fines. Much ado was made of nothing last year when Washington
forced state Attorney General to go along the $25 billion settlement that
amounted to little more than a public relations move (here’s a sure bet: much
of the pittance will not even be collected). As “the London Whale” proved, any
good trader at the biggest banks can lose more money in a few hours than
Washington will demand in fines for fraud that screwed the globe out of
trillions of dollars of wealth and tens of millions of jobs. It’s as if we
fined a bank robber ten bucks for stealing a thousand, then sent him on his
merry way to hold up more banks.
Fed’s latest stimulus may have little impact on mortgage
borrowers - (www.washingtonpost.com)
The Federal Reserve took aim at the nation’s wobbly
housing market last week with its biggest stimulus action in two years, but
that firepower is doing little to lower mortgage rates or make home loans more
available for Americans. Instead, banks are set to see a windfall since the
Fed’s actions will immediately lower the cost of issuing loans. It may take
months or longer for benefits to trickle down to consumers, analysts say. The
emerging scenario highlights the limitations of the Fed’s ability to jump-start
the housing market on demand: Rather than intervene directly with consumers,
the Fed must rely on banks, brokers and other industry actors to offer
borrowers better terms. Banks say they are keeping rates high right now because
lowering them any further would overwhelm them with customers. They say that
over time, as volume thins out, rates could come down to attract new borrowers.
American
Airlines Plans to Lay Off Staff and Cut Flights - (www.cnbc.com) American Airlines said on Tuesday it has
notified more than 11,000 workers they could lose their jobs as part of its
bankruptcy reorganization, and said it was cutting flights by 1 to 2 percent
for the rest of September and October. The U.S. carrier
expects fewer than 40 percent of those it sent notices to, or 4,400 people,
will actually be laid off in November and December, spokesman Bruce Hicks said.
The layoff notices were required under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification Act, which requires employees to be informed 60 days before major
layoffs or plant closures. "The notices will look worse than the actual
layoffs,'' said Jamie Horwitz, a spokesman for the Transport Workers Union,
which represents workers that received WARN Act notices. Horwitz said about 800
employees had agreed to leave American voluntarily, a move that will further
reduce the number of expected layoffs.
American
cancels flights as pilots call in sick - (money.cnn.com)
American
Airlines has canceled more than 300 flights since Sunday and will cut back on
the number of flights through the end of October, because pilots, unhappy
with their labor contract, have started to call in sick, the airline said
Wednesday. The pilot's union had new rules imposed on it by the bankruptcy
court after 7,500 pilots last month overwhelmingly rejected the tentative deal that their
union, the Allied Pilots Association, had reached with management. The new
contract imposes more flying hours on pilots and allows American to have more
flights flown by partner airlines instead of American flight crews. It also
doesn't give them the equity stake in the airline or the profit sharing plan
that were part of the tentative agreement the union rejected in August.
American has also stopped making contributions to the pilots' pension plan and
is considering freezing or terminating it.
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