Low-wage workers finding poverty harder to
escape NYT - (www.cnbc.com) At
7 in the morning, they are already lined up—poultry plant workers,
housekeepers, discount store clerks—to ask for help paying their heating bills
or feeding their families. And once Metropolitan Ministries of Chattanooga,
Tenn., opens at 8 a.m., these workers fill the charity's 40 chairs, with a
bawling infant adding to the commotion. From pockets and handbags they pull out
utility bills or rent statements and hand them over to caseworkers, who often
write checks—$80, $110, $150—to patch over gaps in meeting this month's
expenses or filling the gas tank to get to work. Just off her 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
shift, Erika McCurdy needed help last month with her electricity and heating
bill, which jumped to $280 in January from the usual $120—a result of one of
the coldest winters in memory. A nurse's aide at an assisted living facility,
Ms. McCurdy said there were many weeks when she couldn't make ends meet raising
her 19-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter.
China
Developer With $567 Million Debt Said to Collapse - (www.bloomberg.com) A
closely held Chinese real estate developer with 3.5 billion yuan ($566.6
million) of debt has collapsed and its largest shareholder was detained, said
government officials familiar with the matter. Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate Co.
doesn’t have enough cash to repay creditors that include more than 15 banks,
with China Construction Bank Corp.
(939) holding
more than 1 billion yuan of its debt, according to the officials, who asked not
to be named because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter. The
company’s majority shareholder and his son, its legal representative, have been
detained and face charges of illegal fundraising, the officials said.
Russian
Troops Seize Gas Plant Beyond Crimean Border, Ukraine Says - (www.nytimes.com) Tensions
mounted on the eve of a secession referendum here in Crimea as helicopter-borne
Russian forces made a provocative incursion just outside the peninsula’s
regional border to seize a natural gasterminal, while American and European officials
prepared sanctions to impose on Moscow as early as Monday. The military
operation by at least 80 troops landing on a slender sand bar just across from
Crimea’s northeast border seemed part of a broader effort to strengthen control
over the peninsula before a referendum Sunday on whether its majority
Russian-speaking population wants to demand greater autonomy from Ukraine or break away completely and join Russia.
Whatever its tactical goals, the seizure of the terminal sent a defiant message
to the United States and Europe and underscored that a diplomatic resolution to
Russia’s recent takeover of Crimea remains elusive.
EU
imposes sanctions after Crimea moves to join Russia - (www.reuters.com) The
United States and the European Union imposed sanctions including asset freezes
and travel bans on a small group of officials from Russia and Ukraine after
Crimea applied to join Russia on Monday following a weekend referendum. Crimea's
leaders declared a Soviet-style 97-percent result in favor of seceding from
Ukraine in a vote condemned as illegal by Kiev and the West. The Crimean
parliament formally proposed that Russia "admit the Republic of Crimea as
a new subject with the status of a republic". Russian President Vladimir
Putin will address a special joint session of the Russian parliament on the
issue on Tuesday, aides said. The move would dismember Ukraine against
its will, escalating the most serious East-West crisis since the end of the
Cold War.
[Bloomberg] Fischer Says Bailout of Financial Firm Should Never Happen Again - (www.bloomberg.com) Stanley Fischer, the nominee to be Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s top lieutenant, said governments must devise measures to ensure taxpayer dollars are never used again to save a failing bank. “It is critical to develop now the tools needed to deal with potential future crises without injecting public funds,” Fischer said in the text of remarks prepared for a speech today in Stanford, California. Efforts to avert future crises are driven “by the view that we should never again be in a situation in which the public sector has to inject public money into failing financial institutions in order to mitigate a financial crisis,” he said. Fischer, 70, has spent much of the past quarter century involved in global policy making as a former World Bank chief economist and top official at the International Monetary Fund. Yellen -- sworn in as central bank chief last month -- urged the White House to ask Fischer to succeed her as vice chairman.
Russia
supporters in eastern Ukraine pose challenges to pro-Western government - (www.washingtonpost.com)
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