(29. August 2014)
Die nach den Attentaten vom 11. September in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika dem Präsidenten vom Kongress persönlich ausgestellte Vollmacht, der ein nun fast dreizehn Jahre andauernder weltweiter Terrorkrieg a.k.a. „war on terror“ folgte, ist in Deutschland immer noch weithin unbekannt.
Radio Utopie dokumentiert dieses in jeder Hinsicht verheerende historische Ermächtigungsgesetz im Wortlaut.
The eleven-year persecution of Julian Assange was extended and escalated on Friday morning. The British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, approved the U.S.‘s extradition request to send Julian Assange to Virginia to stand trial on eighteen felony charges under the 1917 Espionage Act and other statutes in connection with the 2010 publication by WikiLeaks of thousands of documents showing widespread corruption, deceit, and war crimes by American and British authorities along with their close dictatorial allies in the Middle East.
This decision is unsurprising — it has been obvious for years that the U.S. and UK are determined to destroy Assange as punishment for his journalism exposing their crimes — yet it nonetheless further highlights the utter sham of American and British sermons about freedom, democracy and a free press.
(09.06.2022)
Auch im zweiten Jahr der Corona-Pandemie sind die Vermögen dank des Börsen-Booms gestiegen. An dieser Entwicklung wird wohl auch der Ukraine-Krieg wenig ändern.
(09.06.2022)
Mehr als 3000 Superreiche besitzen in Deutschland ein Fünftel des Privatvermögens. Eine neue Studie prognostiziert: Ihre Zahl wird weiter deutlich steigen.
n der Schweiz ist die Inflation allerdings wegen des starken Frankens vergleichsweise gering. Im Mai lag sie bei 2,9 Prozent. Für das Gesamtjahr 2022 wird nun nach SNB-Angaben eine Teuerung der Verbraucherpreise um 2,8 Prozent erwartet. Ohne die Leitzinserhöhung würde die Prognose „deutlich höher“ ausfallen, so die SNB.
„Es wäre fahrlässig, wenn man inflationäre Entwicklung nicht berücksichtigt“, sagte SNB-Präsident Thomas Jordan.
Eigentlich sind die Notenbanken schon vor Jahren dazu übergegangen, die Finanzmärkte nicht zu überraschen. Es wurde immer angedeutet, wohin die Reise geht. Sie haben die Finanzmärkte jetzt aber doch überrascht, mit einer früheren und stärkeren Zinserhöhung als man das gedacht hätte. Ist das ein Indiz dafür, dass der Entscheid erst in den letzten Stunden gereift ist?
Nein.
With inflation still climbing, today the Bank of England has brought out the big guns, raising interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 1.25 per cent – pushing the cost of borrowing to its highest since February 2009. It joins the US Federal Reserve, its cousin across the Atlantic, which yesterday raised rates by 0.75 percentage points – its biggest rise in almost 30 years.
Democrats knew the first midterm election of President Biden’s tenure in office would be a challenge.
But the cascade of catastrophe that has so dented what little American optimism remained in the waning days of the pandemic and the associated economic recovery has even the most optimistic Democratic Party strategists and pollsters staring into an unprecedented abyss. Their standing, about five months before voters head to the polls, is worse than it has been for any president in modern times, by almost any indicator.
That means a monthly mortgage payment on a roughly median-valued $400,000 home, after a 20 percent down payment, would now be $1,874. Last year, the monthly payment on the same home would have been $1,335 — a difference of more than $500.
President Biden on Thursday said that a recession is not inevitable in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates at the quickest pace in nearly 30 years.
“First of all, it’s not inevitable,” Biden told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. “Secondly, we’re in a stronger position than any nation in the world to overcome this inflation.”
Each rate hike means higher borrowing costs for consumers and businesses. And each time would-be borrowers find loan rates prohibitively expensive, the resulting drop in spending weakens confidence, job growth and overall economic vigor.
“There’s a path for us to get there,“ Powell said Wednesday, referring to a soft landing. „It’s not getting easier. It’s getting more challenging”
It was always going to tough: The Fed hasn’t managed to engineer a soft landing since the mid-1990s.
Using the Federal Reserve‘s rule of thumb that for every $1 loss in wealth, households reduce spending by 4 cents, the decline in asset prices to date will almost certainly result in consumers cutting back spending.
Such a prospectively large decline in consumer spending is the last thing that an already slowing US economy needs. This is especially the case at a time when consumer spending is already being constrained by sky high gasoline and food prices.
(15.06.2022)
“The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is causing tremendous human and economic hardship. The invasion and related events are creating additional upward pressure on inflation and are weighing on global economic activity. In addition, COVID-related lockdowns in China are likely to exacerbate supply chain disruptions,” the FOMC said in a statement announcing the interest rate hike.