Daily Digest 11/7 - Fed Borrowing Mounts While Household Debt Shrinks, Zombie Wars, Coal On A Roll

• 1) Italy Yield Surge Sets Berlusconi on Bailout Path

"Italy’s record bond yields are sending the nation down the same path taken by Greece, Portugal and Ireland in the days before they were forced to seek rescues.

Italy’s 10-year notes traded above 5.5 percent for 40 days before breaching the 6 percent mark on Oct. 28 and reaching as much as 6.68 percent today. The bailed-out nations followed a similar trajectory, consistently averaging above 6 percent for about a month before crossing the 6.5 percent barrier. After that, it took an average of 16 days for yields to pass the unsustainable 7 percent level."

...................1A) Berlusconi’s Majority Unravels as Allies Push Him to Resign

"Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s majority is unraveling before a key parliamentary vote tomorrow, with allies pressuring him to step down as Italy’s borrowing costs surged to euro-era records.

Giuliano Ferrara, editor of newspaper Il Foglio and a former Berlusconi spokesman, reported today that the premier may step down within hours and push for early elections."

• 2) San Jose faces December decision on pensions

"But Reed is equally apocalyptic about the consequences of failing to pursue his ballot-measure plan, much of which he argues is legally beyond question. He wants the city to formally declare a fiscal emergency to strengthen its case. But he concedes that courts may strike half the $60 million in savings he hopes his measure would deliver next year, when the city faces an 11th straight deficit, which could climb to $115 million.

"It's a risk we have to take," Reed said. "We're talking about fiscal insolvency.""

• 3) Pension Trusts Strapped

"Retirement trust funds created to cover billions of dollars in medical costs for unionized workers and their families are running short, forcing the funds to cut costs, trim benefits, and ask retirees and companies to pony up more cash.

The biggest such fund—a trio of United Auto Worker trusts covering benefits for more than 820,000 people, including Detroit auto-maker retirees and their dependents—is underfunded by nearly $20 billion, according to trust documents filed with the U.S. Labor Department last month."
 

 Other headlines:

Papandreou steps aside for unity government

 Kentucky budget outlook bleak

Germany: Greece must reform or quit euro, no third way

It's simple.  We can all agree that, whatever else must be done, we must prosecute the lawbreakers and we must start at the top.  Once that's underway, we can coalesce around other necessary actions.  Prosecute the fraud! 

Good question!  The fraud laws already exist (and they've been blatantly broken), so we don't have to demand they be written (or worse, we don't have to grab the offenders ourselves and try them on the street!).  A number of elected and appointed officials are already in place who by themselves as individuals could take courageous steps to begin the process.  ( There are probably more, but there are at least these: President, US Attorney General, NY Attorney General, SEC Chair, FBI Director. Even a local D.A. could prosecute mortgage fraud in his/her county/city.) But, so far these elected and appointed officials (from the President on down) have not initiated any of these actions.  I say we just keep beating the drum ("Prosecute the fraud!") until we get someone in office to get moving, or until we get new people into office who made promises to prosecute and then keep that promise.  If OWS would start demanding this, I think it would grow quickly and the current officials would act or we could easily unseat them for not acting.  If I was KING, I would appoint Bill Black (currently a professor, but helped get 1,000 felony convictions in the '80's Savings and Loan crisis) as Attorney General or Special Prosecutor and give him every resource he asked for.  Just appointing him would cause 500 people to flee the country to non-extradition countries!  For me, this would be a litmus test to put to any US Senator or Representative candidate or Presidential candidate I would vote for.  It would be an irresistable force: liberals and conservatives, OWS and Tea Party people, Democrats and Republicans, young and old, rich and poor could all agree and demand the same thing.  PROSECUTE THE FRAUD!

What do you think?

Re" "What do you think?"
It would be great if the world works via idealistic principles and truth/justice prevailed.  But, forget  about it.   The rich by definition are well financed and well experienced.  This is nothing new.  Even attempts to point out injustice issues get quickly drowned by the power of the 1% (4  protesters got injured at DC OWS this week, so the police are saying that the OWS  movement has become violent and somehow protesters are injuring OTHERS - just the opposite).  It is hopeless.  Just read some history.  Even the US revolution was about land owners who fought like hell to omit the majority (non-land owners) from having any rights.  Instead of dreaming for justice that will never come, we need to develop community/interpersonal relationships and build self-sustaining local communities that do not need the 1% for "financing" or other such stuff.  If there were any justice, the present government would get replaced with a new government but likely would become something that is far worse.  But if we mostly are self sufficient, we can thrive. Nice thing about modern society: we have tons of excellent technology to become self sufficient and develop communities easier than ever before (internet, solar electricity, extremely cheap and easy to use metal work tools, electronics tools, etc aquaponics etc) so let's just DO IT.  Much of the present website provides guidance..........  OK, that is what I think.  Anyone agree?

I like your vision, but it may not be feasible.  The World Trade Organization trumps national and certainly local sovereignty. If local trade cuts into corporate profits, it will likely be eliminated.

//Public health is losing out to corporate profits in other WTO regulations as well. The pharmaceutical industry heavily influenced the WTO's pact on intellectual property rights so it mirrors U.S. laws granting monopolies to individual patent holders for extended time periods. Now Third World countries trying to purchase or develop generic drugs for internal consumption are being threatened with WTO action if they proceed. If governments want those drugs to save the health and lives of their people, they must pay whatever price demanded by the transnational corporation holding the patent.

Another ruling was an attack on the poor, devastating small farmers in favor of transnational corporations. As part of a "trade, not aid" treaty the European Union has with its former colonies, the EU guaranteed some Caribbean countries it would buy a certain amount of bananas from them. The U.S., on behalf of the Chiquita Banana Corporation, filed a complaint with the WTO claiming this guarantee was a trade baffler to it selling bananas in Europe. The Caribbean growers, small-scale farmers who own and work their land, are hardly competition for Chiquita's large plantations, but the EU guarantee gives them a chance to make a decent living. Nonetheless, the WTO decided the practice was a trade barrier and imposed sanctions on the EU.

The fact that the U.S. grows no bananas--Chiquita's are grown in Latin America--shows that the WTO process is geared not to protect national interests, but the profits of transnational corporations. In each of these cases and running through everything the WTO does, is the abdication of national sovereignty--each participating country gives up the right to make laws governing its own affairs. It doesn't matter the people of a country vote a pass laws to protect their environment, health or local economy. a ruling by an obscure, nameless three person WTO panel on the the other side of the planet trumps their democratic decision.//

http://www.ilwu19.com/history/wto/agenda.htm