Daily Digest 3/10 - Greek Swap of Its Debt Appears to Be Secure, Dairy Farming's 1%, Brazil Overtakes UK Economy

• Greece Confident Of Bond Swap Approval
• MF Global Trustee Giddens Asks Customers To Release Legal Claims In Return For Their Money
• This “Economic Recovery” Is About To End and More Pain Is About To Begin
• Mayor of Ailing Detroit Resists Outside Takeover
• Even Dairy Farming Has a 1 Percent 
• Life Of The Party
• Brazil 'Overtakes UK's Economy'
• Japan’s Nuclear Energy Industry Nears Shutdown, at Least for Now
• The Last Famine

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Economy

Greece Confident Of Bond Swap Approval (jdargis)

Given all the twists and turns in the recent negotiations, and the ups and downs in Greece’s long debt struggle, something could still go wrong at the last minute, participants said. But most bond investors and government officials were expecting a positive outcome on the deal, which would help buy additional time for a European crisis that has recently shown signs of cooling down.

Greek officials said the total number of participants in the deal would be announced at 6 a.m. Friday, London time — 1 a.m. Friday in New York.

MF Global Trustee Giddens Asks Customers To Release Legal Claims In Return For Their Money (June C.)

It is hard to believe that the Trustee Giddens intends to ask customers to surrender their right to sue Jon Corzine and other parties in return for only a partial repayment of their stolen money.

This “Economic Recovery” Is About To End and More Pain Is About To Begin (David B.)

The Obama administration would have us believe that unemployment in the United States has declined, but the truth is that the percentage of working age Americans that are employed has stayed very, very flat for more than two years and now there are some measures of unemployment that are actually getting worse.

Mayor of Ailing Detroit Resists Outside Takeover (jdargis)

With Detroit, the state’s most populous city, at risk of running out of money as early as next month, Mr. Bing’s administration has scrambled to reach tentative deals for concessions with the 48 unions that represent city workers. Those deals still need to be ratified, though, and some City Council members have said that even contract concessions and deep cuts — the city work force has shrunk to 10,800 from 13,400 — may not be enough.

Even Dairy Farming Has a 1 Percent (jdargis)

How could Robert and Fred — who produce so much more milk than their dad — end up making less money? There are a number of reasons, some obvious, others less so. Milk went from a local industry to a national one, and then it became international. The technological advances that made the Fulpers more productive also helped every other dairy farm too, which led to ever more intense competition. But perhaps most of all, in the last decade, dairy products and cow feed became globally traded commodities. Consequently, modern farmers have effectively been forced to become fast-paced financial derivatives traders.

Life Of The Party (jdargis)

he shift to the right has brought new, highly energized voters into the Party, which took over the House and gained six seats in the Senate in 2010. But it has also brought risks. In 2010, the Tea Party helped nominate oddball ideologues in Colorado, Delaware, and Nevada who probably ruined the Party’s opportunity to control the Senate; in 2011, brinkmanship by the new class of House Republicans nearly brought about a government default.

Brazil 'Overtakes UK's Economy' (jdargis)

In 2010, the Brazilian economy was worth $2.09tn, compared with the UK's $2.25tn total output, in current US dollars, according to the International Monetary Fund.

However, according to NIESR, using the IMF's figures at current exchange rates, Brazil's economy is now $2.52tn and the UK's is $2.48tn.

Energy

Japan’s Nuclear Energy Industry Nears Shutdown, at Least for Now (jdargis)

Japan has so far succeeded in avoiding shortages, thanks in part to a drastic conservation program that has involved turning off air-conditioning in the summer and office lights during the day. It has also increased generation from conventional plants that use more expensive natural gas and other fossil fuels in a nation already uneasy about its reliance on foreign sources of energy.

Environment

The Last Famine (jdargis)

"We have no education," he said, knocking his bony forehead with a fist. "If the Daasanach go to school, then all these troubles will end. But we are stupid." He talked at length about abandoning the nomad life altogether.

But I'd heard such declarations before. They weren't credible. For the Daasanach, owning animals means everything -- status, wealth, life. And like many disempowered minorities, they frequently said what they thought outsiders wished to hear. Trudging behind him for hours, I became convinced that the surer measure of Mister Inas's future lay at the opposite end of his anatomy.

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