Headlines of the day: Class, theology, union?

From Salon:

Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class

Kodak employed 140,000 people. Instagram, 13. A digital visionary says the Web kills jobs, wealth — even democracy

From Haaretz:

Israel has highest poverty rate in the developed world, OECD report shows

Israel is the most impoverished of the 34 member countries, with a poverty rate of 20.9%, according to a report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

From the BBC:

Pope Francis hits out at global ‘cult of money’

Gee, maybe there’s something to this one from the London Telegraph:

Pope Francis elected after supernatural ‘signs’ in the Conclave, says Cardinal

The surprise election of Pope Francis came about because of a series of supernatural “signs”, one of the leading Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church has claimed

From McClatchy Newspapers:

In Mexico, fears for democracy as threatened journalists curtail coverage

From The Independent:

François Hollande calls for ‘European political union’ within two years

Headlines of the day: Recessions and Big Agra

From EUbusiness:

Eurozone trapped in austerity-led recession

From Keep Talking Greece:

Recession here: Greece economy shrank by 5.3% in 1Q of 2013

From Svenska Dagbladet via Presseurop:

‘Inequality growing fastest in Sweden’

From The Guardian, reporting on something we’ve covered extensively:

Diplomatic cables reveal aggressive GM lobbying by US officials

Review of more than 900 cables reveals campaign to break down resistance to GM products in Europe and other countries

And, from Mother Jones, something else from Big Agra to worry about:

Mysterious Poop Foam Causes Explosions on Hog Farms

Chart of the day: How Europeans see each other

From a new poll by the Pew Research Center, “The New Sick Man of Europe: the European Union”:

A 1000-word graphic image: The capitalist spring

From cartoonist Patrick Chappatte of  Le Temps in Zurich via Presseurop:

Headlines of the day: Of corporations and cash

From The Atlantic Wire:

How the Maker of TurboTax Fought to Keep Your Taxes Complicated

From Common Dreams:

Disaster Capitalism Strikes as Hedge Funds Circle Near-Bankrupt Municipalities Like Vultures

A troubling pattern emerges as private funds seek to profit from beleaguered cities

From ANSAmed:

Greece: youth unemployment reaches a grim record of 64.2%

From World Socialist Web Site:

IMF demands further austerity in Greece

From Raw Story:

Mao Zedong’s grand-daughter worth more than $815 million according to China’s ‘New Fortune’ magazine

Headlines of the day: It’s a simple matter of class

First, from Bloomberg, a story by a fellow doing quite well, thank you very much:

Gore Is Romney-Rich With $200 Million After Bush Defeat

And from Business Insider, news about others not doing as well:

The Worst Unemployment Crisis In Modern History Is Unfolding Right Now

And from the London Telegraph, a story about a change of heart:

 

German euro founder calls for ‘catastrophic’ currency to be broken up

Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister who launched the euro, has called for a break-up of the single currency to let southern Europe recover, warning that the current course is “leading to disaster”.

And back home to California, where the fruits of a clever neoliberal property tax scheme are continuing to bear fruit for the one percenters, reported by the Los Angeles Times:

Prop. 13 loophole gives edge to big players

Change of ownership, key to reassessment, is cut-and-dried for homeowners but not businesses. It means a loss of tens of millions of dollars a year in tax revenue.

Headline of the day II: And it’s not from 1939

From Radio France Internationale:

French far-right march through Paris amid rising popularity

Chart of the day: What economic recovery?

The latest jobless numbers from Eurostat for both the full 27-member European Union [black line] and the 17-member common currency [euro] zone [blue]:

Headlines of the day: Economics and illnesses

We open with Europe with this from the Irish Times:

IMF trims global growth forecast and warns of bumpy recovery

Warns Europe not to relax efforts to tackle debt crisis

From Spiegel:

Capital Study: Chinese Investment in Europe Hits Record High

From El País:

IMF sees Spain’s jobless rate climbing to 27 percent this year

Closer to home, there’s this From ProPublica:

FDA Let Drugs Approved on Fraudulent Research Stay on the Market

And finally this from the Sacramento Bee:

Nevada buses hundreds of mentally ill patients to cities around country

Chart of the day: Back to the ‘Good Old Days’

From Deutsche Welle, alarming evidence of the resurgence among the young [especially in the former East Germany] of xenophobia to levels held by folks raised under the swastika flag. Click on the image to embiggen:

A video tale, news and our first response

First the story, from euronews:

And our immediate reaction, via James Whale:

Headlines of the day: More patterns that connect

First, atop a tale of an ex-bureaucrat’s lament in the London Telegraph:

Financial crisis caused by too many bankers taking cocaine, says former drugs tsar

David Nutt, the former Government drugs tsar sacked after claiming that horse riding was as safe as taking ecstasy, has said that the banking crisis was caused by too many workers taking cocaine

From World Socialist Web Site:

Sharp decline in employer-sponsored health coverage in US

From Ekathemerini:

Study finds spike in heart attacks since start of Greek debt crisis

From The Guardian:

Portugal’s fed-up youth pack and go as their nation slides into reverse

Job prospects are grim, health and education are in crisis and, with more austerity to come, emigration is increasingly the only solution

From MercoPress:

Madrid’s city council to vote naming a street after Margaret Thatcher

Headlines of the day: With a song in our heart?

From The Independent:

‘Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead’ closer to number one spot as it reaches midweek top ten following Margaret Thatcher’s death

From RT America:

‘Irreparable’ safety issues: All US nuclear reactors should be replaced, ‘Band-Aids’ won’t help

From ENENews:

TV: Gas release from U.S. nuclear site covered up? — Continued for several days — “Spontaneous, not controlled”

From McClatchy Newspapers:

Obama’s drone war kills ‘others,’ not just al Qaida leaders

From CNN:

Syria rebel group’s dangerous tie to al Qaeda

From Greek Reporter:

Labor Cost in Greece Drops Dramatically

From Spiegel:

Brain Drain: 120,000 Professionals Leave Greece Amid Crisis

Headlines of the day: Another day, more patterns

From Forbes:

Unemployment Is Really 14.3%–Not 7.6%

From the Los Angeles Times:

Budget cuts force California courts to delay trials, ax services

The courts have lost about 65% of their state general fund support in the last five years, a new study says, and the effect of the cuts is growing

From Deutsche Welle:

Risk of social unrest rises in EU

From the London Telegraph:

Helmut Kohl: I acted like a dictator to bring in the euro

Helmut Kohl, Germany’s former chancellor, has admitted that he acted like a “dictator” to bring in the single currency to the country, otherwise he “would have lost” had he held a referendum

Chart of the day: What European recovery?

From Eurostat, the latest grim unemployment numbers for both the 27-member European Union and the smaller 17-nation common currency [euro] zone, where official unemployment has hit a new high of 12 percent. Click on the image to enlarge:

Quote of the day: High praise for Assange

Stefan Lindskog, chair of the Sweden’s Supreme Court, told an Australian audience Wednesday that Julian Assange is, quite simply, a benefactor of humanity, as Al Jazeera reports:

“He’ll be thought of as a person who made public some pieces of classified information to the benefit of mankind,” he said.

“It should never be a crime to make known [a] crime of a state.”

Headlines of the day: Looking for patterns?

From the London Telegraph:

Europe’s leaders paralysed as EMU jobless rate hits record high

Eurozone unemployment reached a record 12pc in February and looks certain to ratchet higher as fiscal cuts deepen and manufacturing continues to struggle, raising the spectre of social explosion across southern Europe

From the London Daily Mail:

U.S. sees highest poverty spike since the 1960s, leaving 50 million Americans poor as government cuts billions in spending… so does that mean there’s no way out?

From The Independent:

Pregnant women ‘more likely to miscarry as result of cuts to Government spending’

From The Guardian:

Extreme poverty could be wiped out by 2030, World Bank estimates show

World Bank head speaks of ‘auspicious moment in history’ amid criticism rhetoric is not being matched with detailed policies

From the Irish Independent:

IMF wants faster home repossessions

From Ekathemerini:

Golden Dawn wants death penalty for violent migrants

From Keep Talking Greece:

German policemen at Greek airports to check travellers bound to Germany

Things that go bump in the Swedish night

From vlogger ari nobunaga via Metafilter, “What happens when you scream in Sweden at night”:

Headlines of the day: Forests, being eaten away

From Al Jazeera:

Ireland mulls selling forests to pay debt

Controversial new scheme is part of efforts to meet IMF demands to reduce debt

From the Washington Post:

China’s disposable chopstick addiction is destroying its forests

Headlines of the day: The two Europes

First, the good news from Deutsche Welle:

Carmaker Porsche looks back on record year

And then the bad news, from Deutsche Presse-Agentur:

Greece to sack 5,000 state workers to appease lenders – reports

Finally, from Keep Talking Greece:

Juncker warns of “Social Rebellion in Europe” if Growth, Jobs not Addressed