Tag Archives: Middle Class Dismissed

Freedom Train Rolls? Legitimate ‘Color’ Revolution in Brazil

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“The Free Brazil Movement, a growing force that is more focused than the 2013 unrest that expressed a wide range of middle-class anger. Brazil’s new wave of protests are seen as a right-leaning movement clearly channeled against Rousseff and her Workers’ Party. A widening kickback scandal at Petrobras, the state oil company, is one of several complaints undermining the administration. Kataguiri and others are striking a chord with Brazilians fed up with soaring inflation, a high and growing tax burden, and those who blame government intervention for hobbling Brazil’s economy, which grew just 0.1 percent last year and is expected to shrink in 2015.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36202/Freedom-Train-Rolls-Legitimate-Color-Revolution-in-Brazil-/

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Venezuela Runs Out of Toilet Paper, Achieves True Socialism

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“Venezuela’s product shortages have become so severe that some hotels in that country are asking guests to bring their own toilet paper and soap, a local tourism industry spokesman said on Wednesday.  Says Xinia Camacho, owner of a 20-room boutique hotel in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada national park, ‘For over a year we haven’t had toilet paper, soap, any kind of milk, coffee or sugar. So we have to tell our guests to come prepared.’  Recently, Venezuelan officials have been stopping people from transporting essential goods across the country in an effort to stem the flow of contraband. So now Camacho’s guests could potentially have their toilet paper confiscated.”

http://fee.org/blog/detail/venezuela-runs-out-of-toilet-paper-achieves-true-socialism

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IRS apologizes after seizures hammer small businesses

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“Top IRS officials, under intense pressure from Congress, apologized on Wednesday to small business owners for seizing their bank accounts after they structured bank deposits that just barely avoided federal reporting requirements.  The seizures, actions that are usually aimed at stopping drug dealers from moving large amounts of cash out of the country, cost the business owners tens of thousands of dollars to undo.  The tax agency said it is changing its policy so that businesses that obtain their money legally would not have their accounts seized. By law, bank deposits and withdrawals over $10,000 must be reported to the IRS. It’s a felony to ‘structure’ transactions to avoid that law.”

http://nypost.com/2015/02/11/irs-apologizes-after-seizures-hammer-small-businesses/

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‘Beats paying $10K’: Uninsured opt for Obamacare fine over coverage

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“A moratorium for uninsured Americans to avoid paying a tax penalty under the Affordable Care Act may not be accomplishing its desired goal, as many citizens appear to be opting to pay a fine rather than sign up for coverage.  Although it’s still early in the process—the extended deadline lapses in April—a senior executive at H&R Block said that ‘a significant percentage of taxpayers’ are opting to pay the penalty.  Separately, only 12 percent of uninsured people would buy policies if informed of the penalty, according to a survey of 3,000 adults polled by McKinsey & Co.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102524819

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ECB’s Celebration of Its New $1.4 Billion Tower Is Spoiled by Protesters

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“Anti-austerity protesters seeking to spoil the inauguration of the European Central Bank’s new headquarters in Frankfurt’s east end set vehicles alight, erected barricades and left a trail of destruction across the city.  Police deployed water cannons to restore calm and keep the demonstrators at bay in the area surrounding the 1.3 billion-euro ($1.4 billion) tower, after setting up barbed wire and road blocks. Nine days after the ECB started buying sovereign debt in a 1.1 trillion-euro plan to revive inflation and rescue the economy, protesters are laying the blame for recession and unemployment in the 19-nation euro area at the doors of Draghi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-18/ecb-besieged-by-protests-as-draghi-celebrates-1-4-billion-tower

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Attacking Payday Predators Misses the Point

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“Holder wants to prosecute Wall Street bankers and Bloomberg wants to regulate payday lenders. Neither approach deals with the fundamental issue of the business cycle and central banking’s role in it.  Holder’s latest initiative targets Wall Street banking. The CFPB believes a similar level of exploitation lurks within the payday loan industry. It would be far more productive to try to understand why such payday loans are necessary, why poverty is increasing in the US and throughout the West, why some 40 million US citizens use food stamps while tens of millions more cannot find a job. These are deep and serious issues that would demand scrutiny of the US’s basic economic model.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36100/Attacking-Payday-Predators-Misses-the-Point/

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France Considers Scrapping Its 35-Hour Working Week

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“The shorter working week was implemented in 2000 by the then-Socialist government as a way to stimulate job creation. But according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, French employees work an average of 39.5 hours per week, just shy of the eurozone average of 40.9 hours per week. According to the Times, the shorter working week hasn’t kept unemployment down — which is at 10.2 percent in France — and might even have led to the rise in part-time contracts, which employers increasingly use to avoid having to pay full-time staff overtime.”

http://time.com/3608782/france-considers-scrapping-its-35-hour-working-week/

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Venezuela’s poor sour on Maduro as prices, shortages sting

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“Increasing numbers of low-income Venezuelans are souring on Maduro as they suffer a declining economy, the highest inflation in the Americas, chronic shortages of basic goods and one of the world’s highest murder rates.  Swelling frustration in the tough slums dotting Caracas’s rolling hills means Maduro is much more vulnerable, especially as oil prices fall to around five-year lows.  Currency controls have fomented a black market where dollars now fetch over 27 times the strongest official exchange rate, hitting imports of basic goods.  Wealthier Venezuelans dodge the long waits by hiring people to shop for them, buying goods abroad, turning to high-end stores or simply leaving the country.”

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/10/us-venezuela-chavistas-idUSKBN0JO1C820141210

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So It Begins: Congress to Cut Pension Plans

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“A measure that would for the first time allow the benefits of current retirees to be severely cut is set to be attached to a massive spending bill, part of an effort to save some of the nation’s most distressed pension plans.  The rule would alter 40 years of federal law and could affect millions of workers, many of them part of a shrinking corps of middle-income employees in businesses such as trucking, construction and supermarkets.  The measure is now before the House Rules Committee and is likely to be moved as an amendment to a massive $1.01 trillion spending bill, perhaps by late Wednesday. It is expected to pass the Senate by Thursday.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/35903/So-It-Begins-Congress-to-Cut-Pension-Plans/

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Hungarian savers say government is stealing their pensions

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“Soon after he was elected in 2010, Orban’s government ended mandatory payments into the private funds and nationalised most of the money they contained. That effectively allowed the government to take $12 billion in private pension assets. Poland has since made a similar change to its pension system.  The government said savers could choose to stay in the private funds, although the mandatory contributions would not go to them. About 60,000 people stayed in the funds. The change the government has now submitted to parliament is that the funds will be closed down, and their assets absorbed into the state pension system.”

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/27/hungary-pensions-idUSL6N0TG2MP20141127

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