More than seven in 10 US teens jobless this summer

Once a rite of passage to adulthood, summer jobs for teens are disappearing.

Fewer than three in 10 American teenagers now hold jobs such as running cash registers, mowing lawns or busing restaurant tables from June to August. The decline has been particularly sharp since 2000, with employment for 16-to-19-year olds falling to the lowest level since World War II.

And teen employment may never return to pre-recession levels, suggests a projection by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The drop in teen employment, steeper than for other age groups, is partly a cultural shift. More youths are spending summer months in school, at music or learning camps or in other activities geared for college. But the decline is especially troubling for teens for whom college may be out of reach, leaving them increasingly idle and with few options to earn wages and job experience.

READ MORE:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/12/more-than-seven-in-10-us-teens-jobless-in-summer/?test=latestnews

Memo To Obama: It's Government That Is Doing Fine

President Obama's claim Friday that "the private sector is doing fine" sparked a firestorm of attacks from Republicans and prompted a quick retraction, of sorts, from Obama, who later said "it is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine."

But what has gone largely unnoticed was Obama's complaint that it's the government that's hurting these days. "Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy," he said Friday, "have to do with state and local government."

Even when he tried to walk back his comment later that day, Obama said that the private sector is showing "some good momentum" but the bigger problem is state and local government cutbacks.

READ MORE:  http://news.investors.com/article/614516/201206120801/state-and-local-governments-growing.htm

Home Stock Research eIBD News IBD Editorials Education Community Leaderboard Store Private Jobs Down 4.6 Million From January 2008; Federal Jobs Up 11.4%

President Obama’s statement Friday that the private sector is “doing fine” drew so much ridicule that he was forced to backtrack hours later. But it’s clear that Obama and many other Democrats see job problems — and solutions — starting and stopping with government employment.

A quick look at payroll stats shows that’s not the case.

Private-sector jobs are still down by 4.6 million, or 4%, from January 2008, when overall employment peaked. Meanwhile government jobs are down just 407,000, or 1.8%. Federal employment actually is 225,000 jobs above its January 2008 level, an 11.4% increase. That’s right, up 11.4%.

READ MORE:   http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3814089687891528629#editor/src=dashboard

The Heart of the Matter

Over the past 13 years, the S&P 500 has underperformed even the depressed return on risk-free Treasury bills. Real U.S. gross domestic investment has not grown at all since 1999, and even as a share of GDP, real investment remains weak.

The ongoing debate about the economy continues along largely partisan lines, with conservatives arguing that taxes just aren't low enough, and the economy should be freed of regulations, while liberals argue that the economy needs larger government programs and grand stimulus initiatives. 

Lost in this debate is any recognition of the problem that lies at the heart of the matter: a warped financial system, both in the U.S. and globally, that directs scarce capital to speculative and unproductive uses, and refuses to restructure debt once that debt has gone bad. 

Specifically, over the past 15 years, the global financial system - encouraged by misguided policy and short-sighted monetary interventions - has lost its function of directing scarce capital toward projects that enhance the world's standard of living. Instead, the financial system has been transformed into a self-serving, grotesque casino that misallocates scarce savings, begs for and encourages speculative bubbles, refuses to restructure bad debt, and demands that the most reckless stewards of capital should be rewarded through bailouts that transfer bad debt from private balance sheets to the public balance sheet. 

READ MORE:  http://hussman.net/wmc/wmc120611.htm

Hey Brother, Can You Spare $500 Billion for America's Banks?

It may be spring in much of the country, but the air in the financial world carries a definite chill reminiscent of the fall of 2008.

So we have to ask again: is the world's banking system  strong enough to withstand the forces of a global recession? A number of prominent people - more on them below - are dubious that the banking system is as strong as it should be. They believe that "systemic risk" - defined as the risk that most of the financial system will fail together - is on the upswing again.

If you forgot the term "systemic risk" from your 2009-vintage financial crisis dictionary, it refers to the state of affairs when the financial system as a whole is "undercapitalized" - which means that banks don't have enough money to continue doing business. The whole system becomes at risk - thus, "systemic risk." Systemic risk could be prompted when something -- usually a shock like the fall of Lehman Brothers - causes banks to stop lending to each other and investors like money market funds to pull their money out of the banking system. Right now, Europe's financial crisis is seen as a potential systemic risk that could wound the banking system.

READ MORE:  http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/easy-street/hey-brother-can-you-spare-500-billion-americas-banks

Greek unemployment hits 21.9 pct in March

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's unemployment shot up to 21.9 percent in March, rising sharply from the 15.7 percent rate in the same month last year and up from 21.4 percent in February, the country's statistics agency said Thursday.

Greece has been struggling through a financial crisis for the past two years, and has been relying on billions of euros in international rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund since May 2010. In return, it has made deep spending cuts and imposed major tax hikes, leaving the country mired in a deep recession.

The statistics agency said Thursday that unemployment was up 37.8 percent in March compared with the same month last year. Compared with February 2012, there were 21,625 more people unemployed this March, a 2.1 percent increase.

Young people have been the most affected by the job losses, with more than half — 52.8 percent — of those in the 15-24 age group out of work in March, compared to 42 percent in the same month last year.

READ MORE:   http://finance.yahoo.com/news/greek-unemployment-hits-21-9-093038028.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CTQjtBPNScAxjvQtDMD

David Goldman: ‘Extreme Risk’ of Deflation Ahead

Weak gold prices, softening oil prices and a lackluster stock market while the euro zone crisis could increase demand for U.S. dollars — but is deflation the next stop?

“It’s an extreme risk, though I don’t think it’s an inevitable outcome,” David Goldman of financial research firm Macrostrategy said Wednesday on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report.” 

Goldman, the former global head of fixed income research for Bank of America, pointed to substantial risk — and a possible domino effect across the Atlantic. 

READ MORE:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/47623254