UK Slides Back Into Recession in First Double Dip Since 1970s

CNBC
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Britain's economy slid into its second recession since the financial crisis after official data unexpectedly showed a fall in output in the first three months of 2012, piling pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron's embattled coalition government.
The Office for National Statistics said Britain's gross domestic product fell 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 after contracting by 0.3 percent at the end of 2011, confounding forecasts for 0.1 percent growth.

Most economists had expected Britain's $2.4 trillion economy to eke out modest growth in the early 2012, but these forecasts were upset by the biggest fall in construction output in three years coupled with anaemic service sector growth and a fall in industrial output. MORE.....................

For first time since Depression, more Mexicans leave U.S. than enter

The Washington Post  by Tara Bahrampour

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 A four-decade tidal wave of Mexican immigration to the United States has receded, causing a historic shift in migration patterns as more Mexicans appear to be leaving the United States for Mexico than the other way around, according to a report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

It looks to be the first reversal in the trend since the Depression, and experts say that a declining Mexican birthrate and other factors may make it permanent. MORE...................

Spain and Italy borrowing rates soar in latest auctions

 RTE NEWS/Business 

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Borrowing costs for both Spain and Italy rose today in their latest auction of government bonds.

Spain's borrowing rate nearly doubled in a short-term debt auction as investors fretted over the euro zone's determination to deal with its debts. 

And Italy raised nearly €3.5 billion in a short-term bond sale today but at sharply higher interest rates amid fresh concerns over the euro zone outlook, the Bank of Italy said.

The Spanish treasury said it raised €1.933 billion but the timing could hardly have been worse, with financial markets slumping on concern that Europeans are wavering in their commitment to austerity.

The sale of three-month and six-month bills came a day after Spain's central bank declared the country had plunged back into recession in the first quarter of 2012.  MORE........................

US home prices drop for 6th straight month

Yahoo! Finance 

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Home prices fall in most US cities for sixth straight month, as housing struggles to recover.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Home prices dropped in February in most major U.S. cities for a sixth straight month, a sign that modest sales gains haven't been enough to boost prices.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index shows that prices dropped in February from January in 16 of the 20 cities it tracks.
The steepest declines were in Atlanta, Chicago and Cleveland. Prices rose in Phoenix, San Diego and Miami. They were unchanged in Dallas.
The declines partly reflect typical offseason sales. The month-to-month prices aren't adjusted for seasonal factors. MORE.........................                   

Shift on executive power lets Obama bypass rivals

The New York Times by Charlie Savage
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COMMENT:   When the judgment of many is replaced by the judgment of one man, we're heading into very dangerous territory for both the economy and our freedoms.

One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism.


“We had been attempting to highlight the inability of Congress to do anything,” recalled William M. Daley, who was the White House chief of staff at the time. “The president expressed frustration, saying we have got to scour everything and push the envelope in finding things we can do on our own.”
For Mr. Obama, that meeting was a turning point. As a senator and presidential candidate, he had criticized George W. Bush for flouting the role of Congress. And during his first two years in the White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, Mr. Obama largely worked through the legislative process to achieve his domestic policy goals.   MORE.........................

  

Eurozone cuts deficits but overall debt rises

Yahoo! NEWS by Gabriele Steinhauser

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BRUSSELS (AP) — The 17 countries that use the euro still face an uphill struggle to control their debts in spite of managing to slash government deficits to 4.1 percent of economic output in 2011, official data show.

Figures reported Monday by the European Union's statistics office confirmed the effects of harsh austerity programs on the eurozone members' economies, which in 2010 ran an overall deficit of 6.2 percent of gross domestic product. Yet despite these efforts, overall debt rose from 85.3 percent of GDP to 87.2 percent — the highest level since the euro was created in 1999.

After a financial crisis that has now dragged on for close to five years, Monday's figures underline how difficult it will be for the eurozone to bring its deficits and debts back below the EU-stipulated limits of a deficit of 3 percent and debt of 60 percent of GDP.

This task will become even harder if the eurozone's economy has fallen back into recession. Separate data also released Monday indicated that the private sector in the 17-country block continued to shrink in April. The purchasing managers' index for eurozone, compiled by private data firm Markit, fell to a five-month low of 47.4, down from 49.1 in March. A level below 50 means that the private sector is contracting.  MORE.........

President Obama's Economic Programs Have Failed

USNews by Mortimer Zuckerman

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The recovery has not yielded job vacancies, but here are five ways to cure our labor woes.

America has long been a country where almost everyone, including the poor and unskilled, could get a job. Given the will to do a reasonable day's work, a job was a passport to economic and social well-being; it was the fount of self-esteem and the foundation of family life. Indeed, work was Life.
More than 15 million Americans no longer have that passport to Life. Think of it as roughly the entire population of the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Arkansas, Iowa, and Oklahoma, all standing idle—every man, woman, and child. The traditional breadwinners, namely men between the ages of 25 and 54, are among those hardest hit. According to an Investor's Business Daily/TIPP poll, some 25 percent of households include someone who is unemployed and looking for work. As well as laying waste to work, to the equivalent of losing every job created in the last decade, the Great Recession has visited us with reduced incomes, declining home equity, and a growing contraction in credit.  MORE.......................