• More unemployed Americans to lose jobless benefits
• Record drop in retail sales adds to Spain's woes
• NBG: Greeks would lose half income with euro exit
• Social Security Disability Insolvent Unless Congress Votes
• Spain hit hard by record debt risk in bank crisis
• The future of the euro is at stake: Spanish deputy PM
• Spain Said to Consider Backing Regional Bonds With Taxes
• Food Shortage in Peloponnesian Prisons Due to State Budget Cuts
• California colleges cut way back on summer classes
• TSA security fees to increase
• Egan-Jones Cuts Spain’s Debt Rating to B From BB- on Outlook
• Warning lights flash red over Spain
• Greek Exit Aftershocks Risk Reaching China as Growth Hurt
• In escape from Japan doomsday, capital takes flight
• Tuition Will Top $10,000 At Ohio University
• Universities' summer enrollment drops with Pell grant cuts
• 6 Out Of 10 Are Long Term Unemployed
• Insurers forcing patients to pay more for costly specialty drugs
• Increasing crisis of confidence in the EU
• Europe’s debtors must pawn their gold for Eurobond Redemption

Own the Crash Course Special Edition Set with Presenter’s Pack (NTSC or PAL)

Economy

More unemployed Americans to lose jobless benefits

Unemployment checks will soon run out for many people who've been hit the hardest by the recession: the long-term unemployed.

Thousands are expected to lose their jobless benefits this summer, pushing the number who have been cut off this year to nearly half a million. The irony is that cutting people from benefits lowers the official unemployment rate. Only those who are officially seeking work are counted by the government.

Record drop in retail sales adds to Spain's woes

Retail sales dropped 9.8 percent year-on-year in April as the country battled against its second recession in three years and a 24.4 percent jobless rate that is expected to rise. The fall in sales was the 22nd straight monthly decline, and was more than double the 3.8 percent year-on-year fall posted in March, the National Statistics Institute announced.

NBG: Greeks would lose half income with euro exit

The National Bank of Greece study was published Tuesday as Greece heads to new general elections on June 17, amid Europe-wide concern of broader financial turmoil if Greece's place in the single currency is threatened by a victory for an anti-austerity party....The bank report also warned that if Greece did exit the euro, unemployment would rise to 34 percent while inflation would hit 30 percent and then higher. Unemployment in Greece currently stands at around 22 percent while inflation is 2 percent.

Social Security Disability Insolvent Unless Congress Votes

A U.S. government entitlement program is headed for insolvency in four years, and it's not the one members of Congress are talking about most.

The Social Security disability program's trust fund is projected to run out of cash far sooner than the better-known Social Security retirement plan or Medicare. That will trigger a 21 percent cut in benefits to 11 million Americans -- disabled people, their spouses and children -- many of whom rely on the program to stay out of poverty.

Spain hit hard by record debt risk in bank crisis

Spain's sovereign risk premium shot to a fresh euro-era record Tuesday as Madrid announced new bonds to finance debt-struck regions and as banks scrambled to clean up bad loans.The debt premium -- the extra return investors demand to hold Spanish bonds over their safer German counterparts -- leapt to a euro-era record of 5.16 percentage points.

The future of the euro is at stake: Spanish deputy PM

Europe must move quickly with measures to pull Spain back from the brink of a debt crisis, with the future of the euro common currency at stake, Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said.

Saenz, a long-time politician in the centre-right People's Party, spoke with Reuters Editor-at-Large Harold Evans during a critical week for Spain as it seeks to fund a 19-billion-euro rescue of one of its biggest banks and the country's autonomous regions face a liquidity crunch. Spain's borrowing cost hovered close to an unsustainable level on Tuesday - the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond was 6.5 percent - as investors worry costly rescues of the regions and banks will push Spain's finances over the edge.

Spain Said to Consider Backing Regional Bonds With Taxes

Spain is weighing how to help regions regain access to markets as the rate on its 10-year debt approaches the 7 percent level that led Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The government is trying to avoid allowing the regions, which owe a combined 140 billion euros ($175 billion), to add that burden as its liabilities swell following the bailout of Bankia group, owner of Spain's third-biggest lender.

Food Shortage in Peloponnesian Prisons Due to State Budget Cuts

Amidst the deepening financial crisis, the state budget for many prisons has decreased to a minimum for some months now resulting in hundreds of detainees being malnourished and literally surviving on the charity of local communities, a Proto Thema article reveals.

The latest example is the prison in Corinth where there’s a supply stoppage from the nearby military camp, and prisoners are about to starve reports prison staff, since not even one grain of rice has been left in their warehouses. The prison staff reports they haven’t received any state funds for the last three months.

California colleges cut way back on summer classes

In an informal survey of about half of the state's 112 community colleges, conducted by the chancellor's office, more than a third reported reduced offerings this summer and eight campuses planned no summer sessions at all. Overall, enrollment and course offerings have plummeted and are at their lowest level in 15 years. From 2008 to 2011, the number of students served fell nearly 43 percent.

Santa Monica College found in a recent study that 15 Los Angeles-area community colleges this summer are offering only a third of the courses they offered in 2008, equivalent to a loss of 6,000 teaching assignments and 168,000 classroom seats.

TSA security fees to increase (Video)

There's yet another fee to fly in the works, but this time it's transportation security officials who want fliers to pay more.

The agency backed by Democrats in the senate wants to increase the security fee you pay with a ticket from $2.50 a flight, to $5 per one-way ticket and $10 for a round trip. TSA's budget, like many in Washington, is set to be cut and the agency says boosting this fee would help cover the increasing price of security like costly scanners.

Egan-Jones Cuts Spain’s Debt Rating to B From BB- on Outlook

Spain’s sovereign credit rating was cut by Egan-Jones Ratings Co. to B from BB- on the country’s deteriorating economic outlook. The nation’s 9.6 percent budget deficit, 24 percent jobless rate and bank losses of as much as 260 billion euros ($324 billion) weigh on the economy, the ratings company said in an e- mailed statement today.

Warning lights flash red over Spain

Athens, Dublin and Lisbon lasted just 12, 24 and 34 days after the premium they pay to borrow over Germany reached 500 basis points before seeking international help. Spain hit 500bp on Monday.

Greek Exit Aftershocks Risk Reaching China as Growth Hurt

A Greek departure from the currency would inflict "collateral damage," says Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Richard Clarida, a view echoed by economists from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase & Co. At worst, it could spur sovereign defaults in Europe as well as bank runs, credit crunches and recessions that may spark more euro exits.

Global trade and financial ties mean the pain wouldn't be confined to the euro area.

In escape from Japan doomsday, capital takes flight

"If Japan's finances collapse, social order would collapse as well. That would be a tough environment to raise children." The Japanese have been buying real estate overseas in the past, but what has changed since last year's earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear crisis is that it is no longer the province of the rich and the retired. Increasingly, the middle class and younger people are opening bank accounts in Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore to buy condominiums and homes that they plan to rent out for a few years before they eventually move in themselves.

Tuition Will Top $10,000 At Ohio University

Ohio University students and their parents will have to open their wallets and purses even wider for the next school year. For the first time, tuition and fees at OU will be more than $10,000 a year.

Universities' summer enrollment drops with Pell grant cuts

Cuts in the federal Pell grant program means fewer students are registering for summer school, including at two universities in Utah County.

Utah Valley University has seen record enrollment in fall and winter. But now that Pell grants, which support low-income students, have been cut from three semesters to two, many students are cutting out the summer term.

UVU expects 600 fewer students in the first seven-week session of summer classes than it had last summer, when 11,600 students attended summer school.

6 Out Of 10 Are Long Term Unemployed (Georgia)

Nearly six out of every 10 unemployed workers in Georgia have been out of work for more than six months. That is believed to be the highest rate of long-term joblessness since the Great Depression.

Insurers forcing patients to pay more for costly specialty drugs

Thousands of patients in California and across the nation who take expensive prescription drugs every month for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other ailments are facing sticker shock at the pharmacy.

Until recently, most of these patients typically paid modest co-pays for the advanced drugs. But increasingly, Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna and other insurers are shifting more prescriptions to a new category requiring patients to shoulder a larger share of the drug's cost.

Increasing crisis of confidence in the EU

Majorities in most countries now blame EU integration for damaging their economies, but the figures hit 70pc in Greece, 63pc in France and 61pc in Italy, all countries once regarded as staunchly pro-European.

Just one third of people – 34pc – believe that economic integration, a central plank of the EU's raison d'etre, is a benefit.

Europe’s debtors must pawn their gold for Eurobond Redemption

Germany would have a lockhold over the fund, able to enforce discipline. Each state would have to pledge 20pc of their debt as collateral. "The assets could be taken from the country’s currency and gold reserves. The collateral nominated would only be used in the event that a country does not meet its payment obligations," said the proposal.

This demand could enflame opinion in Italy and Portugal. Both states have kept their bullion, resisting the rush to sell by Britain and others. Italy has 2,451 tonnes of gold, valued at €98bn in March.

Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to dd@PeakProsperity.com. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."