Public Sector Strike to Save Pensions Starts in the UK

Riot police is prepared to face with large masses, beat them up if need be.

Mail Online
June 30, 2011

Thousands of people gathered in cities across the UK today to take part in mass demonstrations against pension reforms – with fears that the protests could turn violent.

Pickets were formed outside schools, courts, job centres and airports as public sector workers walked out over the Government’s plans.

The marches will rub salt into the wounds of parents forced to stay at home with an estimated one million children off school, as 750,000 teachers and other public sector workers go on strike.

Riot police were put on standby in anticipation of trouble in Central London, as anarchist group Black Bloc threatened ‘a day of rage’ and 10,000 officers have had their leave cancelled.

There was some pushing and shoving this afternoon outside Charing Cross railway station and a crowd of people followed police through the station demanding the release of man who had been arrested.

In a desperate bid to keep the country moving, civil servants have even been told they can take their children to work with them and David Cameron urged private sector bosses to do the same.

The workers are protesting against plans to increase the age of retirement to 66 and raise the amount they pay in pension contributions.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said today he is ‘disappointed’ at strike action by teachers but remains confident that a bitter dispute over pensions can be resolved.

Along with schools minister Nick Gibb he visited primary school Durand Academy in Lambeth, London, this morning, which has remained fully open today.

He said: ‘I feel disappointed that people have chosen to go out on strike today. I understand that there are really strong feelings about pensions and we absolutely want to ensure that everyone in the public, especially teachers, have decent pensions.

But I just don’t think it’s a good idea to have gone out on strike today.

‘We’re still in negotiations and the people who really lose out as a result of today’s strike are children who are not in school enjoying their lessons, and in particular hard-working parents, who have been put to quite a lot of inconvenience as a result of this action.’

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Bilderberg Attendee, Bill Clinton, has a new Plan to solve Debt problem

Wait no, it is the same old solution: Taxing the people to death.

ABC
June 30, 2011

Former President Bill Clinton sees a possible way past the bipartisan impasse over raising the debt limit: agree to cut spending AND raise taxes, but do neither until later, after the economy improves.

“If they [the Republicans] said, look, that now is not the time for big tax increases to harm the recovery, they would be right,” Clinton told ABC News in an exclusive interview at the Clinton Global Initiative America conference in Chicago. “But it’s also right to say that now’s not the time for big spending cuts.

“What I’d like to see them do is agree on the outlines of a 10-year plan and agree not to start either the revenue hikes or the spending cuts until we’ve got this recovery underway,” Clinton added. “The confidence that the Republicans say would be given to investors with a budget plan, they’d get whether we started this year or next year or the year after that, for that matter.”

For the first time, the former president is focusing his Clinton Global Initiative on creating jobs here in the United States. He suggested waiting for the recovery to take hold before pushing spending cuts and tax increases will make the issues clearer.

“We’ve got to get the jobs back in this economy again,” Clinton said. “The more people we get going back to work, the more businesses we start, that’ll bring up the revenue flow, and it will cut down on the expenses. Then, we’ll see what the real dimensions of our problem are.”

Unfortunately, however, Clinton fears Republicans’ “ideological conviction” about never raising taxes recalls the lead-up to government shutdowns in the ’90s, adding that the pressure on GOP candidates to toe the ideological line could hamstring their bids to unseat President Obama.

“They were in a similar anti-government fever, anti-tax fever in 1995 until, you know, the struggle went on for a year and they shut the government down twice,” Clinton said. “The public made a judgment that that was not right. And then we finally broke through. It wound up with the balanced budget act and forced surpluses and real prosperity.”

Could the dispute this time push past the Aug. 2 deadline when, officials say, failing to raise the nation’s debt ceiling could lead to America defaulting on its loans? Clinton didn’t discount the possibility.

“When I passed my budget in 1993, they routinely said it would bring on a terrible recession, [that] it was the end of capitalism as we knew it,” he said. “And we had the best eight years in our history. But they just kept saying it. You’ve got to give them credit. The evidence doesn’t deter them. … It’s an ideological conviction. So, I don’t know that it can be resolved until there’s some break in the action.”

Bill Clinton Expects Obama Re-Election: Here’s Why

Public opinion, Clinton said, swung against the Republicans when they pushed their anti-tax arguments over the line in the mid-1990s. But the possibility of the same thing happening again isn’t the whole reason he believes that President Obama will be elected to a second term in 2012.

“I’ll be surprised if he’s not reelected,” he said. “I’ve always thought he would be.”

For one thing, Clinton believes the economy will be better by Election Day than it is now, though unemployment still will be relatively high and the improvement in the economy won’t be as dramatic as the emergence from a shallower recession during his first four years as president.

“The circumstances are different,” Clinton said. “When President Obama took office, we were in the midst of avoiding having a financial collapse turn into a depression. So, the unemployment rate was higher and people were scared to death about what was going to happen. The so-called stimulus bill actually outperformed expectations, not underperformed, but it wasn’t big enough to lift this whole economy out of the hole it was in. The auto restructuring is working. And I think he’ll be able to point to that.”

He also believes whichever Republican gets nominated to face Obama will get boxed in by ideology.

“Since they, apparently, ideologically, will not permit their candidates to do some of the things that would be most effective in creating jobs and in balancing budget, I just don’t think they’ll be able to get away with what they got away with in the election in 2010,” Clinton said. “You won’t just be able to say, ‘Vote for me, I’m the non-Obama.’ I think he’s going to be able to point to a lot of very specific things that are better. I think that he’s going to be able to convince people that it takes a little longer after that kind of collapse to recover. It took Japan a decade to recover. … We’re coming back quicker than that.”

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California will begin Taxing the Internet in July

by Marc Lifsher
Los Angeles Times
June 30, 2011

Shopping at Amazon.com Inc. and other major Internet stores is poised to get more expensive.

Beginning Friday, a new state law will require large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make on the Internet — a prospect eased only slightly by a 1-percentage-point drop in the tax that also takes effect at the same time.

Getting the taxes, which consumers typically don’t pay to the state if online merchants don’t charge them, is “a common-sense idea,” said Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed the legislation into law Wednesday.

The new tax collection requirement — part of budget-related legislation — is expected to raise an estimated $317 million a year in new state and local government revenue.

But those taxes may come with a price. Amazon and online retailer Overstock.com Inc. told thousands of California Internet marketing affiliates that they will stop paying commissions for referrals of so-called click-through customers.

That’s because the new requirement applies only to online sellers based out of state that have some connection to California, such as workers, warehouses or offices here.

Both Amazon in Seattle and Overstock in Salt Lake City have told affiliates that they would have to move to another state if they wanted to continue earning commissions for referring customers.

“We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive,” Amazon wrote its California business partners Wednesday. Amazon has not indicated what further actions it might take to challenge the California law.

Many of about 25,000 affiliates in California, especially larger ones with dozens of employees, are likely to leave the state, said Rebecca Madigan, executive director of trade group Performance Marketing Assn. The affiliates combined paid $152 million in state income taxes last year, she pointed out.

“We have to consider it,” said Loren Bendele, chief executive of Savings.com, a West Los Angeles website that links viewers to hundreds of money-saving deals. “It does not look good for our business.”

The larger bite from buyers’ pocketbooks will be eased only a bit because California’s basic sales tax rate also will drop to 7.75% on Friday when a 2-year-old temporary increase expires. The basic rate in the city of Los Angeles falls back to 8.75%.

Brown’s signature on the budget bills is aimed at closing a loophole that freed Amazon and other out-of-state retailers from collecting sales taxes for California.

Read Full Article…

 

 

Obama wants the Rich and the Poor to Fight amongst Themselves

‘Divide and conquer’ seems to be the way to go for a president that, in just one term, has managed to fail on everything.

NationalJournal.com
June 29, 2011

Kids versus corporate jets.

If President Obama’s news conference accomplished anything on Wednesday afternoon, it underscored, in striking tones, his strategy for winning the debt ceiling fight with Republicans: Make it a clash of classes.

  • Rich versus Poor.
  • Us versus Them.
  • Those who support children, food safety, medical research and, presumably, puppies and apple pie versus the rich fat cats who don’t.

In Obama’s world, Democrats are for kids and Republicans are for corporate jets. That is a sharp distinction that could help put the GOP on defensive, but it may not be enough to persuade Republicans to change their posture on the debt-ceiling talks.

The deceiver in chief will blame everyone else before assuming responsibility himself. -The Real Agenda

Republicans have cast Obama as a tax-raiser and a Big-Government spender. This was his jujitsu move to turn their arguments against them. With a hint of disdain, Obama even dredged up the death of Osama bin Laden to score a political point.

“I’ve been doing Afghanistan, bin Laden and the Greek crisis,” Obama said, jabbing Congress for being out of session so much. ”You stay here. Let’s get it done.”

(WATCH: Obama’s Frustration with Congress on Display at Press Conference)

In his first full-scale news conference since March, the president insisted that Democrats had compromised in private talks by agreeing to billions of dollars in budget cuts that would hurt their voters. But, he said, Republicans were refusing to bend by not agreeing to eliminate tax breaks to owners of corporate jets and profit-rich oil companies. If Republicans get their way, Obama said, the end result would be unbalanced deal that lifts the debt limit but forces the government to make deeper-than-necessary cuts.

“If we do not have revenues, that means there are a bunch of kids out there who do not have college scholarships,” Obama said. ”[It] might compromise the National Weather Services. It means we might not be funding critical medical research. It means food inspection might be compromised. I’ve said to Republican leaders, ‘You go talk to your constituents and ask them, “Are you willing to compromise your kids’ safety so some corporate-jet owner can get a tax break?” ‘ ”

Just in case any viewer missed his class-clashing message, Obama referred to corporate-jet owners at least three more times before he took his second question.

This was not the first time Obama has spoken in grim terms about the consequences of cutting too deeply in order to strike a bargain that wins enough votes to raise the debt ceiling. But his rhetoric was sharper, even harsher, than in the past — and it threatens to anger Republican leaders just as he’s supposedly reaching out to them in compromise.

(RELATED: Obama Comes Close to Endorsing Gay Marriage)

Obama is gambling that public pressure will force Republicans to bow to his demand. But Republicans face pressures of their own; the influential tea party movement won’t accept any tax increases and wants draconian budget cuts. Obama’s rhetoric may only back them into a corner.

Normally, the constitutionally pragmatic Obama seeks a middle road in his rhetoric, keeping his options open and burnishing his image as somebody always willing to find a bipartisan solution. Look at his response in the same news conference to a New York law allowing for gay marriages. With liberal activists demanding that he support the measure and make gay marriage a cause of his presidency, Obama demurred. It’s a states-rights issue, he said.

“Each community is going to be different,” Obama said. “Each state is going to be different.”

Obama and GOP leaders in Washington must soon come to grips with the fact that the nation’s sluggish economy will almost certainly take a major hit if Congress doesn’t soon increase the amount of money the U.S. can borrow. Raising the debt limit was once a routine affair, but it’s been caught in the increasingly partisan Washington maw. Republicans are demanding steep budget cuts and no tax increases as the price for a few votes in favor of raising the limit. Obama hopes to save face, as well as some government programs.

“The question now is, are we going to step up and get this done?” Obama said. He knows the answer is yes, and the only question is how.

“Call me naive,” Obama said, “but my expectation is leaders are going to lead.” Obama is naive only if he thinks a single news conference is going to change the political paradigm.

 

Robbery and Swindle in Greece

RT
June 29, 2011

On the streets of Athens the voices of discontent are growing louder. From the next bailout installment the Greek politicians are eager to receive, the people will not get a penny, experts believe.

“Not a cent of this bailout money actually comes into the Greek economy,” author and economic analyst Nick Skrekas told RT. “It all goes out into interest payments and repayments.”

Whilst the battle is on to save the banks and prevent a large-scale financial crisis, for the Greek people the price is simply too high.

“They see their income going down, they see taxes, taxes, taxes and nothing else,” said journalist Stylianos Chrysostomidis. “The money does not go to the real economy.” 

A year of struggling against harsh austerity measures has meant the government now faces an electorate vehemently opposed to another bailout.

According to RT correspondent Sarah Firth, who is currently in Athens, people on the streets of the Greek capital are questioning when the Three – the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank – will stop looking at ways to push more bailout money towards Greece and really come to a plan B.

Firth said that when it comes to the Three, many people now in Greece simply do not want their help – viewing their actions as being borne out of self interest.

“They try very simply and in a practical way to get as much as they can. So they are going to get all the state property … from the Greek people,” said economics expert Yiannis Tollios. “It is incredible but that is the situation.”

The bailout would certainly come at a high cost – further cuts in public spending, a raise in taxes and an aggressive privatization program that would mean the sale of many Greek public assets.

“This is robbery, this is theft, this is [a] swindle,” believes Stylianos Chrysostomidis.

Tension on the streets of Athens continues to mount. The violent scenes witnessed recently come as a disturbing testimony to just how far the situation has deteriorated.

However, the country’s government is pushing for the cuts.

“One of the reasons that everybody is so determined to keep Greece in the euro is so that the banks do not have to take a serious hit on their faulty lending policies,” said Nigel Farage, Member of the European Parliament from the UK Independent Party. “It is almost as if there is an unholy alliance of politicians and bankers versus ordinary people.”

Financial journalist Demetri Kofinas agrees that what is happening in Greece now is “a hostile takeover”. He says that raising taxes will in no way help steer Greece out of the crisis.

“You are not going have capital investments in the country if you raise taxes. You are not going to have capital investments in country if you are only interested in liquidating assets, liquidating prices and not reforming laws. What does it matter if the public utility companies or monopoly companies are owned by the state or monopoly companies are owned by some company in Germany or France? It makes no difference. In fact it will be worse,” Demetri Kofinas said. “In fact, we want privatization. We want real privatization. We do not want liquidation and hostile takeovers which is what we have now.”

It is a fight that the people say they are not prepared to lose and journalist Zarkadoula Eirini witnessed clashes between police and protesters becoming increasingly angry after the austerity cuts were voted for by the Greek parliament.

“Protesters continue to fight with the police. They are throwing stones at the police and the policemen are answering by throwing grenades and tear-gas. There is dense smoke in the sky but also in the metro station of Constitution Square. Even inside the metro station there are people who are trying to hide, but there is smoke in there.”

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