Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/news/2012/02/09/food-prices-soaring-in-iran-as-us-sancti

Every new round of sanctions takes a toll on the civilian economy of Iran and, increasingly, soaring food prices.Corn and rice shipments are down, This has fueled inflation, unemployment.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29147

There are many ways for sovereigns to sell their bonds or roll over existing bonds, and one of those wrinkles we mentioned last week. We saw European banks buying US Treasuries and that is happening. These euro banks buy Treasuries and then put them up for collateral with the ECB and purchase the three-year 1% yield repos being offered by the ECB. This is really another form of quantitative easing. It may be debt but it is also an expansion of the money supply. This little game allows US Treasury financing and if something goes wrong the ECB, the public, gets caught holding the bag. Obviously this is another part of the Ponzi scheme that the elitists are using to keep the monetary system afloat.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/gree-f08.shtml

Talks held Tuesday night between the three parties making up the Greek government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos failed to finalise the cuts demanded of it in return for a €130 billion rescue package.The coalition parties met in the midst of a nationwide one-day general strike, with tens of thousands protesting in Athens despite torrential rain.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/food/154041/i%27m_on_food_stamps%3A_my_shame_and_pride_in_signing_up_for_the_most_stigmatized_benefit_/

I call myself frayed white collar -- part of the privileged poor. I'm a semi-accomplished, mid-career journalist and writer, but now I'm hurtling precipitously toward poverty. “Mister Cook! Chris Cook? Mr. Cook! Window three!”

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/kuci-f07.shtml

As for Kucinich’s remarks about “freedom,” he defends a president who has declared his right to imprison or assassinate US citizens without trial.In its manic drive for ever-greater profits, the American ruling class is putting into place the machinery of a police state to crush popular resistance to social inequality.The attempt to massively reduce the living conditions of the working class can only be re-imposed in the US through dictatorship.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/07-7

January’s increase in hiring is good news, but it masks a bigger and more disturbing story – the continuing downward mobility of the American middle class. Most of the new jobs being created are in the lower-wage sectors of the economy – hospital orderlies and nursing aides, secretaries and temporary workers, retail and restaurant. Meanwhile, millions of Americans remain working only because they’ve agreed to cuts in wages and benefits. Others are settling for jobs that pay less than the jobs they’ve lost. Entry-level manufacturing jobs are paying half what entry-level manufacturing jobs paid six years ago.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096799/Nicolas-Sarkozy-spends-10k-day-food-keeps-121-cars-palace.html

Nicolas Sarkozy has been promising to cut back on his presidential spending, but he’s actually splashing out £10,000 a day on food and keeps 121 cars under the Elysee Palace, according to a new book. Socialist MP Rene Dosiere, in L'argent de l'État (Money from the State), sets out what he sees as extraordinary excesses by the French President. In the explosive book, he accuses Sarkozy of ‘ignoring the most elementary principles of the separation between private and public accounts’.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9067332/Alcoholic-drinks-to-get-weaker-says-minister.html

Alcoholic drinks should be made weaker under in Britain under Government plans to tackle the "deadly problem” of binge-drinking, a health minister has said. ."In the strategy, ministers are expected to unveil measures to increase the price of alcoholic drinks according to how strong they are. This could be done through higher taxation per unit, minimum pricing per unit or simply higher levels of duty for strong drinks. Ministers will also encourage companies to produce weaker alcoholic drinks.

Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106684

More than a decade ago, solar electricity changed the lives of several mountain communities in Cuba. Now this and other renewable power sources are emerging as the best options available to develop sustainable energy across the island.If the world's clean energy potential exceeds our consumption needs, why do we insist on using the polluting kind?"

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/07/mans-body-found-in-foreclosed-home-years-after-death/

The body of a man was recently discovered in his Milwaukee, Wisconsin home some four years after he killed himself, according to local media. David Carter reportedly used a 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun to shoot himself in the head some four years ago, shortly after quitting his job and telling neighbors that he was moving to New Mexico. That was in 2007. His body was discovered on January 23, 2011 —

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Monday blasted General Motors over a snarky advertisement for GM trucks run during the Super Bowl broadcast, but stopped short of taking any kind of legal action. The ad, during what proved to be the most-watched US television broadcast in history, showed Chevrolet Silverado trucks and their drivers surviving a 21st century apocalypse.Where’s Dave?” asked one of the survivors. “Dave didn’t drive the longest-lasting, most dependable truck on the ro

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29109

Americans have been detained in responder camps as a consequence of demonstrating with the Occupy Wall Street movement launched in New York City. Under the guise of protecting Americans from a largely contrived threat of violence, citizens have been denied the right of peaceful assembly and placed in detainment apparatuses, managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Documents have been released by the American Civil Liberties Union detailing the Pentagon’s monitoring of public demonstrations and targeting of individual activists under threat of national security. Co-authored by Senator Joe Lieberman, the Enemy Expatriation Act (HR 3166) gives the US government the power to detain nationals and revoke their American citizenship under suspicion of behavior perceived as terrorism.
This legislation becomes increasingly dangerous as citizens can be labeled extremists based on their personal political leanings.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/good-f06.shtml

The decision by the UK's Honours Forfeiture Committee to strip former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Fred Goodwin of his knighthood has led to howls of outrage from the corporate and political elite.Goodwin was awarded the knighthood in 2004 for his services to banking. The financial crisis revealed that Goodwin’s achievements were built on sand. With a loss of £24.1 billion, RBS was rescued from collapse with £45 billion of public funds, its debts nationalised— dumped onto tax payers.Goodwin walked away in 2009 with a £2.8 million tax-free pension .The former banker joins Soviet spy Anthony Blunt and Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe in having his knighthood annulled.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/asio-f06.shtml

Alarmed by the “Arab Spring”—the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that last year ushered in a new period of class struggle internationally—Australia’s six civilian and military intelligence agencies are preparing for unpredictable political upheavals, abroad and at home.An official review of the “Australian Intelligence Community”, released last month, warned the Gillard government that the events of 2011 had revealed how difficult it was for intelligence agencies to anticipate the collapse of seemingly stable social and political orders. “With such fragility, it will be unknowable what exactly will tip the system over the edge

Link: http://www.wsws.org/

Leaders of the political parties comprising the Greek coalition government will meet the premier, Lucas Papademos, later today to give him their reply to demands for sweeping austerity measures in return for a further €130 billion in bailout loans.The measures are believed to include a 25 percent cut in the minimum private sector wage and a 35 percent reduction in supplementary pensions. In addition, 100 state-controlled enterprises could be closed, leading to immediate jobs losses and the sacking of 150,000 public sector workers by 2015

Link: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/776429/%E2%80%9Ceverything_goes_up_but_our_paychecks%22%3A_talking_to_real_people_who_live_on_the_minimum_wage/#paragraph6

Everything goes up but our paychecks. We have to live! Before there was middle, low, high class, now there’s either low or high. We have to keep up with the cost of living.”“I don’t make enough to support myself. At this point I’m living on beans and bread. If [the minimum wage] were raised I’d be able to eat better food, I’d be able to get health care, I could finally get glasses.”

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/06-0

Patenting seeds has led to a farming and food crisis - and huge profits for US biotechnology corporations.Corporations defined a problem - and for them the problem was farmers saving seeds. They offered a solution, and the solution was to make it illegal for farmers to save seed - by introducing patents and intellectual property rights [PDF] on those very seeds. As a result, acreage under GM corn, soya, canola, cotton has increased dramatically.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/06/romania-prime-minister-resigns-spy-chief-takes-over/

BUCHAREST — Romania’s spy chief was appointed prime minister on Monday after the centre-right government resigned following wide protests over austerity cuts.The 43-year-old, who has a master’s degree from Oxford, was foreign minister between 2004 and 2007 speaks fluent English, French and German.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096110/Romanias-population-falls-12-million-flock-richer-European-countries.html

Romania's population has fallen by more than 12 per cent since 2002 as hundreds of thousands leave the poverty-stricken nation for richer countries such as Britain.The country’s National Statistics Board said nearly 1million Romanians were working abroad.

Link: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/02/cashless-society-bank-of-america.html

In another example that we appear to be rapidly moving into a cashless society, Bank of America in California refused to accept cash for a mortgage payment. The manager of the bank said it was against their policy to accept legal tender physical currency (aka U.S. dollars) as payment for BoA mortgages.
The customer attempting to pay his mortgage, firefighter Robert Somerton, recorded the ordeal in Lakeport branch which made the bank manager so upset that he called the police.manager so upset that he called the police. The police detained Somerton for a half hour with a warning that he may never return to that BoA branch or he'll be arrested. Since when does a bank not accept cash?" "They won't accept cash when they know it's about to be devalued and worthless.
They just sent a very clear message that the dollar is going to be dumped."

Link: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1559.htm

A grim report just issued by the Finance Ministry that is circulating in the Kremlin today says the United States Clearing House Interbank Payments System (CHIPS) has ground to a virtual halt signaling that a major global economic collapse is currently underway and could very well likely enter into the dreaded “freefall zone.”Virtually unknown to all but the global financial elite, CHIPS is the main privately held clearing house for large-value transactions in the United States, settling well over $1 trillion a day in around 250,000 interbank payments that together with the Fedwire Funds Service, which is operated by the Federal Reserve Banks, forms the primary US network for large-value domestic and international US dollar payments where it has a market share of around 96%.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/224797.html

US Senate's latest package of sanctions against Iran seeks to shut out the Iranian financial sector form a global banking system used to transfer money between banks across the world. The new bill would also give the US legal authority to sanction foreign companies that buy oil from Iran.
In addition, the new legislation would penalize US companies that conduct business with Iran

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/wkrs-j28.shtml

About 100 Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) members at BHP’s coal terminal in Port Kembla and 300 at the company’s West Cliff coal mine have threatened a seven-day strike Port Kembla terminal employees are demanding a 4.5 percent pay rise with enhanced entitlements, stronger job security

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/wkrs-j28.shtml

Japanese-owned Schweppes Australia has offered 150 striking employees at its Tullamarine plant in Melbourne bonuses of up to $5,000 if they cross the picket line and return to work. The United Voice members turned down the offer saying they would maintain the 24-hour picket.Schweppes wants to abolish the eight-hour working day and implement 12-hour shifts to reduce overtime penalty payments.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/wkrs-j28.shtml

Field staff at Parks Victoria imposed state-wide work bans on January 26 to protest the Baillieu government’s annual 2.5 percent wage rise ceiling. Last year the state government granted police close to a 20 percent pay rise over four years, but has refused to offer similar increases to nurses and other public sector employees unless they agreed to productivity gains.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/wkrs-j28.shtml

Nearly 900 employees at the Shimano Cambodia footwear factory in Kampong Speu province returned to work on January 24 after the company agreed to reinstate a disabled administration chief. Workers walked out on January 20 after discovering that the administrator, Touch Manin, who had encouraged the hiring of people with disabilities, was being moved out of his position. Manin said that 127 of the factory’s 887 workers, including him, were disabled.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/wkrs-j28.shtml

Nine hundred employees of the German-owned PT Varta Microbattery Indonesia plant in Batam on Riau Island walked off the job on January 19 over housing allowances.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/wkrs-j28.shtml

Tens of thousands of workers in West Java’s Cikarang industrial area walked off the job on January 19 to oppose the Indonesian Employers Association’s (Apindo) lawsuit against the West Java government’s decision to lift the minimum wage in the Bekasi district by up to 30 percent. Demonstrators rallied in the streets, stopping traffic throughout most of the Cikarang industrial area.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/cana-f04.shtml

Caterpillar subsidiary Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) has announced that it is transforming the lockout at its London, Ontario diesel-locomotive manufacturing facility into a plant closure.Six weeks ago, Caterpillar locked out the 465 production workers at its London plant after they overwhelmingly rejected the company's demands for a 55 percent wage cut, the elimination of their pension plan, and other sweeping concessions.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/hung-f04.shtml

Millions of people in the largest and wealthiest city in the US struggled to afford food last year, according to a report released last month by the Food Bank for New York City.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/post-f04.shtml

An unknown number of the 18,000 casual workers employed by Royal Mail over the Christmas period did not receive their pay, or were short-changed for weeks.. Some complained that they had only received part of their pay—sometimes, as low as one pence for a week’s work—or no pay at all. Others described how they had worked in excess of 50 hours a week, been given wrong shifts or paid at rates lower than advertised. Still more revealed how they were turned away at the gates because they did not appear on staff listings or had not received security badges.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/pers-f03.shtml

Germany leaked news that it was demanding an EU-appointed “budget commissioner” for Greece with the power to override Greek budget policy as a precondition for any further loans.It could not threaten its creditors with default and would have to accept whatever cuts financial authorities demanded of it, even if the banks withheld agreed-upon bailout payments.

Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106635

- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's visit to Cuba served to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, leverage the South American giant's investments in the Caribbean island, and deepen political ties. In what was her first trip to Cuba, Rousseff judged as wrong "a blockade that denies a people access to food," in reference to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, and said her government would be granting 350 million dollars in credit for food purchases from Brazil. On Feb. 1, Rousseff travelled to Haiti, where she was set to meet with government officials to discuss a number of issues, According to official press accounts, during her stay in the capital she signed several agreements with Cuba, but no details of their content were released. "We also agreed to finance the purchase of equipment, machinery, small tractors, and harvesters, with a 200 million (dollar) credit to boost food production in Cuba," Rousseff said, and insisted on a partnership between the two nations that will help the island's development and ensure better living conditions for its people.

Link: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Obama-PrayerBreakfast/2012/02/02/id/428302?s=al&promo_code=E184-1

President Barack Obama linked his economic policies to his Christian faith, saying on Thursday that meeting the nation's challenges requires strong values as much as smart policies. Obama, making his third appearance as president at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, used his remarks to justify many of his actions, such as his call for the wealthy to pay more in taxes and his health care overhaul. He said they were not only economically sound but also rooted in his Christian values. "When I talk about shared responsibility, it's because I genuinely believe that in a time when many folks are struggling and at a time when we have enormous deficits, it's hard for me to ask seniors on a fixed income or young people with student loans or middle-class families who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone," Obama said. "But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus' teaching that, for unto whom much is given, much shall be required," he said.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/detr-f02.shtml

Detroit city union leaders said Tuesday that they had reached concession agreements in 25 of the 48 bargaining units for city employees, including huge cuts in the health benefits for thousands of workers.
According to a report Wednesday in the Detroit Free Press, the deals include a $20 million cut in prescription drug benefits and what the newspaper called “substantial” reductions in pension benefits.

Link: http://whatreallyhappened.com/

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -- Ronald Reagan (1986)

Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/news/2012/02/02/petrodollar-pumping-us-policy-on-iran-ba

As tensions between the US and Iran heat up, author Michael T. Winter believes the main reason behind America’s harsh stance is Tehran’s move to seek an alternative to the dollar as an oil currency. - Economic sanctions, spearheaded by the US and, less willingly, the EU could have a disastrous effect on both of their respective economies. If Iran cannot sell their oil to Europe, there are plenty of customers waiting in the wings, and if they come bearing not petrodollars, but gold and sovereign currencies, then all the better for Iran. These sanctions, if enforced, will in effect place a serious dent in the power of the petrodollar. Any rhetoric regarding Iran’s nuclear program and the insistence on crippling it is nothing more than a US attempt to force regime change for one more receptive to maintaining the hegemony of the petrodollar.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29033

China's near-exclusive access to terbium and yttrium sent prices soaring in 2011, potentially hobbling clean energy industry. Shortages of a handful of rare minerals could slow the future growth of the burgeoning renewable energy industries, and affect countries' chances of limiting greenhouse gas emissions, business leaders were told at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. Last year, prices of many scarce minerals exploded, rising as much as 10 times over 2010 levels before dropping back, said PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).Terbium, yttrium, dysprosium, europium and neodymium are widely used in the manufacture of wind turbines, solar panels, electric car batteries and energy-efficient lightbulbs. But because these "rare earths" are mined almost exclusively in China, it is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to source them in the required quantities. In a survey of some of the largest clean energy manufacturers, 78% told PwC said they were already experiencing instability of supply of rare metals, and most said they did not expect shortages to ease for at least five years. Currently, 95% of the rare earth minerals needed by clean tech industries come from China which has set strict export quotas. Last year China reserved most for its own for its domestic wind, solar and battery industries, shifting costs to the US and Europe which do not mine any of the minerals.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/category/perspectives.shtml

After a wave of strikes and protests by truck drivers and fishermen paralysed Italy early last week, protests continue against the harsh austerity measures the unelected government of Prime Minister Mario Monti is imposing on the Italian working class.Last Friday, a 24-hour national strike was called by main transportation unions in response to a series of tax and fee increases affecting broad layers of the population: IVA (value-added, or sales, tax) from 21 to 23 percent, taxes on individuals, health care co-pays, fuel taxes and the reinstitution of the tax on first homes (ICI).

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/31/gingrich-romney-kept-kosher-food-from-holocaust-survivors/

In an automated “robocall” to Florida voters, the Gingrich campaign claimed that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney prevented Jewish Holocaust survivors from eating kosher food.“As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney vetoed a bill paying for kosher food for our seniors in nursing homes,” a recorded voice says. “Holocaust survivors, who for the first time, were forced to eat non-kosher, because Romney thought $5 was too much to pay for our grandparents to eat kosher. Where is Mitt Romney’s compassion for our seniors?”As tasteless as the ad may be, The New York Post reported last week that that Romney had used his veto in 2003 to reject $600,000 in funds that would have allowed poor Jewish nursing homes to get Kosher meals.