Are the Suburbs Undergoing a Metamorphosis?
The Global Economic Crash of 2008 was a watershed which is continuing to have effects in all aspects of the economy, politics and society. However, it was merely an exclamation mark within the developing trends in the U.S. that are pertinent to suburbanization in the country, such as: -The national economy will not bounce back to pre-2008 in the foreseeable future with continued slow growth -Demographics have changed (Baby Boomers retiring, smaller family sizes, more single adults, more ethnic diversity etc.) -The smaller labor force in manufacturing requiring unskilled labor -A decline in the middle class’s purchasing power due to…
May 1st is International Worker’s Day, Here’s Why it Matters:
In case you’ve missed it, today (5/1) is International Worker’s Day, also known as May Day. In America, the biggest holiday for workers is Labor Day, which falls in September. May Day is the international worker’s equivalent of labor day. Around the world, protests and demonstrations have shown the extent to which workers are outraged and are showing their ability to flex their collective muscle. In Istanbul, Turkey, demonstrators caused a city-wide shut down. In Greece, striking union workers shut down train and ferry services. In Jakarta, an estimated 150,000 workers marched on the capital, demanding an increase in pay and…
As Unemployment Persists, Employers Pick Cherries
For the unemployed, especially the “long term unemployed,” the prospects for the future look dimmer everyday. A recent NorthEastern University study regarding the affects of long term unemployment – specifically unemployment lasting six months or longer – points out, those with longer periods of unemployment, almost in a self fulfilling prophetic fashion, find their opportunities for a return to the labor force diminished, almost by the day. After sending out thousands of mock resumes in pairs to potential employers, researchers found that those with six months or more of unemployment, regardless of qualifications or experience, had less than a ten…
The Pop-up City: Making Something Out of Nothing
The city is constantly in motion. In a dynamic city, people are shopping working, interacting, eating in restaurants, drinking in a cafes, walking/driving to a destination etc. Without people, a city is merely buildings, roads, trees, parks, grass….a ghost town. However, many cities have become dull places, reduced down to their functional economic uses: retail, business, industry and residents. This functional capitalistic city is embodied in the suburbs in the U.S.Suburban life has been reduced to strip malls, fast food restaurants, big box stores, malls, car lots, endless subdivisions, parking lots, streets, expressways and the constant buzz of cars and…
Fast Food Workers in New York Stage Surprise Strike
On Thursday April 4th, for the second time in less than a year, workers at fast food restaurants in New York City staged a surprise strike. Over 400 workers at restaurants like McDonalds, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, and Burger King walked off the job. The workers, who mostly earn the federally mandated minimum wage of $7.25, demanded a living wage of $15 an hour, as well as the right to union representation. The strike was timed to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, who was killed while in Memphis, Tenn. to support striking sanitation…
The Secret Story of the World’s Oil Domination: Who Are the Seven Sisters?
Yesterday, Al Jazeera News Network aired the first episode of a four part documentary series titled “The Secret of the Seven Sisters”, which reveals how a secret pact was signed in 1928 to form a cartel that controls the world’s oil to this day. In 1928, three main global petroleum producers met in the Scottish castle named Achnacarry, to sign a secret contract in order to control and distribute the world’s oil and the profits from the oil business. The agreement is known as the Achnacarry Agreement, or “As-Is” Agreement, was signed on September 17th, 1928. Documentary depicts how the…
Cypriot ‘Haircut’ Rattles International Community
Cypriots with €100,000 euros or more in their accounts, will soon start feeling the pinch from coming bank levies, required under Cyprus’ new bailout restructuring plans. Once finalized, all depositors with accounts containing over €100,000 euros will find themselves subject to the “haircut,” with 22.5% of their account holdings being “taxed” to make up the down payment on the bailout. An additional 37.5% will be frozen for what E.U. and Cypriot officials are calling “liquidity reasons,” however unlike the previous “taxed” amount, these frozen assets will earn interest to the tune of ten percent, so long as the banks in question…
Egyptians Brace for Austerity as Govt. Seeks IMF Loan
Wednesday, representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will arrive in Cairo to enter into new rounds of negotiations, regarding a proposed $4bn loan to the country. Egypt, which has continued to struggle with social and economic difficulties since the political unrest of 2011 that resulted in the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak, is seeking the IMF aid in the hopes of bolstering its rapidly deteriorating economy. Egypt’s current President Mohammed Morsi is reported to have initiated negotiations with IMF in November. However, he was forced to delay finalization of any potential initial deals until December, due to political…
Suspended Coffee: A Simple Way to Pay it Forward
Yesterday, a friend of mine had shared a link on Facebook about “suspended coffee” which led to an article in The Examiner, “’Suspended coffee’ movement ignites widespread interest.” What is this all about I wondered? The featured picture in the article was of a disheveled man in a café. Accordingly, I assumed this was a sentimental Horatio Alger type story about some miraculous event that had happened to a poor person, such as finding a one thousand dollar bill, inheriting a million dollars or winning the lottery. This type of story seems to pervade the Internet, along with memes of…
China’s Takeover of South America
According to China Times Magazine, China will replace the European Union as South America’s most important trading partner by 2015. Currently, Asia accounts for more than 25% of South America’s total trade. With poverty levels dropping to their lowest in 20 years in the region, Latin America is fast becoming an open market for both investors and consumers. As Europe and USA battle with political and economic turmoil, they are falling behind in taking advantage of South America’s ongoing development. In addition, China’s swift industrial growth is causing the country to be in a perpetual quest for natural resources such…
Downtown Green: The “Islands of Sustainability”
Sustainability is an overwhelming amorphous goal on a global, national, or regional scale. However, when it is broken-down to small areas and focused projects, it becomes real and tangible. Instead of grand plans, little ones can be made which may have a fractal or ripple effect on the region in which the project is located. This above statement is the essence of an “island of sustainability” (Walner et al.). Specifically, the term refers to the redevelopment, usually through a public/private partnership, of a designated derelict area into one that enhances the physical environment. It could be the redesign of an…
Cyprus Crisis Deepens as the Country Rejects Bailout
The Cypriot Parliament has voted unanimously to reject the negotiated E.U. bailout package, offered last week. The vote, cast yesterday at 4 p.m. GMT (11 a.m EST,) was taken by hand, with 36 voting against the measure, 19 abstaining and none voting in favor. The widely unpopular bailout proposal, which included a 10% levy or “haircut,” on deposits nationwide, led to long lines at ATMs nationwide, while also inspiring protests throughout the country.. News of the decision has sent shock waves through the already troubled European Union as worries over a possible collapse of the Cypriot financial sector troubled their…
HSBC Faces Criminal Charges in Argentina
British banking juggernaut HSBC, which was recently derided by U.S. lawmakers as “Too Big To Jail” after a settlement deal was reached regarding exposed money laundering practices, is now facing fresh allegations of criminal activity by Argentinian authorities. Argentinian tax chief Ricardo Echegaray, in a public statement about the investigation, said that an Argentinian subsidiary of the bank was found to have helped its clients illegally evade over $100 million in taxes, in addition to participating in other money laundering activities connected to criminal enterprises. Official charges were filed against the bank’s local subsidiary in February, following a six month…
Cyprus Bailout: Banks Relieved, Cypriots Squeezed
In the latest of the E.U. financial crises, the island nation of Cyprus has had a EuroZone bailout “successfully negotiated” on its behalf. However Cypriots themselves, as well as the members of the Parliament are less than pleased. The Eurozone bailout package, agreed upon today in Brussels between Eurogroup ministers and IMF officials, has in addition to the typical austerity measures demanded of nations accepting bailout money, such as deficit reduction and higher taxes, comes with another condition. Requiring a 9.9% deposit levy on all Cypriot bank accounts to stave off outright national bankruptcy, the deal is a first of…
HSBC Settlement Case Raises Legal Hackles
In December, U.S. Federal Authorities stirred controversy for having reached a financial settlement deal with British bank HSBC, allowing the bank to avoid criminal prosecution for taking part in money laundering operations for Latin American drug cartels, suspected terrorist networks and rogue states such as Iran. As a means to avoid prosecution, the bank agreed to pay $1.9 billion in fines, after having reached the arrangement with the Department of Justice. However regardless of their agreement and written arguments by both federal prosecutors and HSBC filed in January arguing in favor of the deal , U.S. District Court Judge John…
It’s Time for a Worker’s Movement in USA
The labor movement has a history that is marked by violence, bloodshed, employer intimidation and oppression. The deck has always been stacked against the unions. It has never been easy for workers to have their voice be heard in the workplace. The modern American labor movement can be traced directly back to the 1930s and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislation which created a real social safety net for the working class and the poor. Social Security, which the labor movement helped lobby into law, was a major development for the working classes. It meant that the elderly in this…
“Road Diet”: Losing Width by Retrofitting
For most of the last century and continuing into this century, transportation planning in the United States has been mainly concerned with accommodating vehicular transportation. This automobile-oriented bias was embedded in travel demand forecasting models, transportation funding, zoning/subdivision regulations, street design ordinances, the general public and the general mindset of policy makers. The result in most cities has been a continual process of widening, and building new roads to alleviate traffic congestion due to increasing automobile ownership. What was not accounted in this automobile bias oriented transportation system was the detrimental impact that it would have on neighborhoods; making them…
The Main Street Economy
Economic reports over the past week have been largely dominated by the seemingly good news of record highs in the DOW Jones Industrial Index (DJIA,) accompanied by a decline in the filing for new unemployment benefit claims. Core Logic, which specializes in monitoring and analyzing home pricing and real estate markets, reported this week that housing prices have improved by 9.7% over their averages this time last year, making it the biggest recorded increase since 2006. Thus potentially explaining both the records being posted in the DOW, as well as the general surge in the financial markets. The typical players…
Our Courts Are In Ruins (And Justice Is For Sale To Highest Bidder)
For the purported most powerful and greatest nation on earth, we should feel shamed by the state of our judicial system. What is happening with our Courts is directly related to our self-absorbed and broken government. Riddle me this: how does a democracy function if two-thirds of its legislative-executive-judicial trifecta fails to function? As related to our Courts, we have a three-pronged problem. (1) Our Senate cannot confirm even pro-forma judicial nominees anymore; it has become that broken and that partisan. I won’t even mention who gets the blame on this (his name starts with Harry and ends with Reid)….
Sequester On Sanity
“Perhaps no words more accurately and succinctly illustrate the confusion about economics than “Monetary Sovereignty.” It is not a theory or a hypothesis or a philosophy. In its essence, it merely is a description of the way federal financing actually works.” ~Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Back in 2011, the idea of “sequestration,” or the implementing of harsh spending cuts that would automatically go into effect on March 1st, was floated in an effort to force the two political parties to get together and make a deal to work towards decreasing government debt. A telling sign for many of the increasingly broken…
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