Radioactive
water leaks at Fukushima as operator underestimates rainfall - (www.reuters.com) Highly
radioactive water overflowed barriers into Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,
its operating utility said on Monday, after it underestimated how much rain
would fall at the plant and failed to pump it out quickly enough. The utility,
Tokyo Electric Power Co, also known as Tepco, has been battling to contain
radioactive water at the nuclear complex, which suffered meltdowns and hydrogen
explosions following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Dealing
with hundreds of tonnes of groundwater flowing through the wrecked nuclear
plant daily is a constant headache for the utility and for the government,
casting doubt on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's promises that the Fukushima water
"situation is under control."
Where are the shoppers? Blame Congress - (www.cnbc.com) Although
the prolonged shutdown has ended, its effects continue to ripple through the
economy far beyond employee furloughs. Retail store traffic fell an average 7.3
percent each week of the shutdown compared with the same time period last year,
ShopperTrak reported Friday. The area around Washington faced an even more
drastic decline of 11.4 percent in the week of Oct. 6-12 versus the same week
last year, the analytics group found. "This time of year a certain number
of people really like the Halloween cards, and I found that was definitely cut
back," said Suprabha Beckjord, owner of a 30-year-old gift shop,
Transcendence-Perfection-Bliss, near the National Zoo.
Twice paid for no work likely for some
furloughed USAToday - (www.usatoday.com) Some
fortunate federal employees will likely get paid twice for not working this
month. Several states are expected to allow federal workers who collected
unemployment insurance during the government shutdown to keep both those
benefits and the back pay they're set to receive, according to the Labor
Department. Their decisions may add at least a few million dollars more to the
shutdown's still-untallied costs to taxpayers. Those include billions of
dollars in federal workers' lost productivity as well as lost fee income and
other revenue from government services and functions that weren't performed.
The shutdown's cost to the U.S. economy is even bigger -- as much as $24
billion in the October-December period, economists estimate, About 400,000
federal employees were furloughed during the 16-day shutdown. The legislation
that reopened the government last week provides retroactive pay for the
furloughed workers.
Families
with kids going homeless - (www.bloomberg.com) When
Montoria Freeland separated from her husband of 15 years in 2008, she left a
four-bedroom house and economic security. Before long, her pay and hours as a
pharmacy technician were cut and she found herself and her son facing
homelessness. Freeland lived with family for a time, she said, and four months
ago moved into transitional housing funded by the city government in Washington, D.C., while searching for work that pays more
than her $8.25-an-hour retail job. Having lost her oldest son in a 2000
homicide, Freeland said she insists on looking for housing in a safe
neighborhood for her surviving one, now 17. She found that’s available only at
an increasingly steep price.
“You’re trying to pay car insurance, rent,
electric, cable and if you’re using public transit, putting money on your card,
groceries,” said Freeland, who was accepted into a program that provides
temporary housing, financial planning and job-placement counseling. “It’s hard
to survive out here.”
More young people are out of school...and out
of work - (www.cnbc.com) Almost
6 million young people are neither in school nor working, according to a study
released Monday. That's almost 15 percent of those aged 16 to 24 who have
neither desk nor job, according to The Opportunity Nation coalition, which
wrote the report. Other studies have shown that idle young adults are missing
out on a window to build skills they will need later in life or use the
knowledge they acquired in college. Without those experiences, they are less
likely to command higher salaries and more likely to be an economic drain on
their communities. "This is not a group that we can write off. They just
need a chance," said Mark Edwards, executive director of the coalition of
businesses, advocacy groups, policy experts and nonprofit organizations
dedicated to increasing economic mobility. "The tendency is to see them as
lost souls and see them as unsavable. They are not."
Draghi
Challenges EU Bank-Aid Rules Over Forced Losses - (www.bloomberg.com)
China Seeks Clearer View of Government Debt Mountain - (online.wsj.com)
China Seeks Clearer View of Government Debt Mountain - (online.wsj.com)
Sharp
Japan export slowdown dents 'Abenomics', flags Asia weakness - (www.reuters.com)
London House Prices Surge by an ‘Unsustainable’ 10%: Economy - (www.bloomberg.com)
London House Prices Surge by an ‘Unsustainable’ 10%: Economy - (www.bloomberg.com)
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