Rates of unemployment for lowest-income families in the U.S. – those earning less than $20,000 a year – have topped 21 percent in 2013, according to a report by the Associated Press on Monday, matching the level of unemployment suffered during the 1930s Great Depression and creating a wide employment gap between the rich and the poor.
Even with broad and prolonged support for raising taxes on the rich, tax reform regularly ranks near the bottom of America’s priority list. According to a Bloomberg poll, only 4 percent of respondents saw tax reform as the most important issue of the year (2012).
America’s love-hate relationship with taxation is hardly news. The country was birthed in a tax-induced revolution. The selection of its governments, as well as the difference between its two main political parties, has consistently revolved around tax issues.
The Federal Reserve warned on Monday that some of the country’s largest banks still fall short in areas critical to risk management and capital planning, raising speculation that banks could be pushed to increase their capital or curtail dividends and share buybacks to satisfy regulators.
While the United States had added more jobs in recent months than economists had been expecting, several studies suggest that the U.S. labour market has lost at least 3 million well-paid “good jobs” forever. The bulk of new jobs being created is in fact a huge swathe of part-time work which offers no long term security and is generally low paid work – nothing there to fuel a consumer-led recovery.
70 million iPhones were sold in 2011 and not one of them was made in the USA. Why does Apple prefer to keep their production offshore? Contrary to popular belief, the top reason for outsourcing is the productivity gains achieved, followed by cost savings. Did you know that it only takes 15 days to hire 8, 700 engineers in China to manage 200,000 factory workers, while in the U.S. the process could go for as long as nine months?
U.S. missions across the Middle East and Africa will remain closed until the end of the week for fear that terrorist cell al Qaeda will launch an attack to mark the end of Ramadan. Calling it one of the most specific and credible threats since 9/11, U.S. lawmakers say the preemptive move would not have been possible if not for electronic intercepts by the National Security Agency. Do such threats legitimise the need for NSA’s surveillance programme which has become hotly debated since the revelations made by former contractor Edward Snowden?
The U.S. economy grew at an annualised pace of 1.7 percent in the second quarter of the year, beating analysts’ expectations and raising the likelihood that the U.S. Federal Reserve will end its monetary easing programme sooner rather than later.
The better-than-expected report was almost twice as fast as many economists had predicted due to the impact of federal spending cuts and also from the continuing weakness in the global economy.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly rejected a proposal to drastically restrict the National Security Agency’s ability to collect electronic information of millions of Americans, after a tense debate on the balance between privacy and national security.
In a 205-217 vote that created unusual political alliances in Washington, the U.S. House rejected an amendment to the defence appropriations bill, which would have blocked funding for the NSA’s programme to collect electronic information, including details of every call made by or to a U.S. phone.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday pledged to unveil “big and bold” ideas to help America’s struggling middle class, focusing on job creation and the economy, as he attempts to shift the debate to what he deems as more substantive matters impacting the livelihood and long-term interests of tens of millions of families.
Detriot, once a symbol of U.S. industrial power, has become the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, laying the groundwork for a historic effort to bailout a city that is sinking under billions of dollars in debt and decades of fiscal mismanagement, population exodus and loss of tax revenue.
