NEWS,23.09.2012

Obama, Romney tussle over economics

Republican challenger Mitt Romney, slipping in the polls in critical battleground states, opens an intense campaign focus in three of them on Sunday with a rally in Colorado, before heading to Ohio for a three-day bus tour and ending with a stop in Virginia.President Barack Obama, who was not campaigning on Sunday, won all three of those states in the 2008 election that swept him into the White House.With about six weeks remaining before the 6 November election, the handful of so-called swing or battleground states appear likely to determine the outcome of what has been an extremely close contest between Obama and Romney. Those states become even more critical to the Republican candidate as recent polling shows Obama opening a lead in many of them.The president is not chosen by the nationwide popular vote but in state-by-state contests. While most states reliably vote for the candidate of one party or the other, swing states like Colorado, Ohio, Virginia and five others are seen as toss-ups.Obama enters the weekend with polls showing him in a near tie with Romney nationally, but a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist Poll shows the president with leads among likely voters of 8 percentage points in Iowa and 5 points each in Colorado and Wisconsin, all battleground states. Polls published last week pointed to leads for Obama in Virginia and Ohio. While he and Romney are neck-and-neck in North Carolina, Obama has an edge in Florida and New Hampshire.With those factors pressing hard on Romney, he is intensifying his swing-state campaigning to counter criticism from Republican heavyweights that his bid for the nation's highest office is mismanaged and misdirected.PressureWall Street columnist Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, wrote recently: "The Romney campaign has to get turned around."I called it incompetent, but only because I was being polite. I really meant 'rolling calamity." Romney's evening rally at a Denver-area high school represents his first public event of the weekend.As the November vote draws near, he also is facing pressure to spend less time raising money and more time explaining his plans to voters in swing states.The schedule shift comes in the last full week before the presidential debates move the campaign into a new phase - one which Romney advisers suggest could prove pivotal following several weeks marked by negative attention, missteps and Republican concerns.Already facing reports of internal finger-pointing and foreign policy questions, Romney suffered another setback a few days ago when a secretly recorded video surfaced showing the Republican standard bearer declaring that almost half of Americans are dependent upon government and see themselves as victims.He released his 2011 tax returns on Friday, showing income of $13.6m, largely from investment income. He paid federal income tax at a 14.1% rate, lower than that of most middle-income Americans.That feeds on the Obama message that Romney is among America's super-wealthy and out of touch with the concerns of average voters.In an interview set to air Sunday night, Romney told CBS television his campaign is moving in the right direction."It doesn't need a turnaround. We've got a campaign which is tied with an incumbent president to the United States," Romney says, according to remarks released in advance by CBS.Romney spent much of his weekend in high-dollar fundraisers in southern California, a state that has gone Democratic in the last five presidential elections.As the Republican courted wealthy donors at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Saturday, Obama worked to squash Republican hopes for a resurgence in Wisconsin, where the president assailed Romney's economic approach before an energised gathering of 18 000 in Milwaukee, Obama's biggest crowd of the campaign.Obama faulted Romney for advancing a top-down economic approach that "never works.""The country doesn't succeed when only the folks at the very top are doing well," Obama told the massive crowd."We succeed when the middle class is doing well."

America's hidden unemployed

 

When Daniel McCune graduated from college three years ago, he was optimistic his good grades would earn him a job as an intelligence analyst with the government.With a Bachelor of Science degree from Liberty University in Virginia, majoring in government service and history, McCune applied for jobs at the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies.But after a long hunt that yielded only two interviews, the 26-year-old threw in the towel last fall, joining millions of frustrated Americans who have given up looking for work. There’s nothing out there and there probably won’t be anything for a while,” said McCune, from New Concord, Ohio. He has moved back home to live with his parents, who are helping him pay off his college debt of about $20 000.“I don’t like it, it’s embarrassing. I don’t want to be a burden to my parents,” said McCune, adding that he felt like a high school dropout.Economists, analysing government data, estimate about 4 million fewer people are in the labour force than in December 2007, primarily due to a lack of jobs rather than the normal aging of America’s population. The size of the shift underscores the severity of the jobs crisis.If all those so-called discouraged jobseekers had remained in the labour force, August’s jobless rate of 8.1% would have been 10.5%. The jobs crisis spurred the Federal Reserve last week to launch a new bond-buying program and promise to keep it running until the labour market improves. It also poses a challenge to President Barack Obama’s re-election bid.The labour force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one has fallen by an unprecedented 2.5 percentage points since December 2007, slumping to a 31-year low of 63.5%.“We never had a drop like that before in other recessions. The economy is worse off than people realise when people just look at the unemployment rate,” said Keith Hall, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia.The participation rate would be expected to hold pretty much steady if the economy was growing at a normal pace. Only about a third of the drop in the participation rate is believed to be the result of the aging US population.Slow progressThe economy lost 8.7 million jobs in the 2007-09 recession and has so far recouped a little more than half of them.Economists say jobs growth of around 125 000 per month is normally needed just to hold the jobless rate steady. Given the likelihood that Americans will flood back into the labour market when the recovery gains traction, a pace twice that strong would be needed over a sustained period to make progress reducing the unemployment rate.Last month, employers created just 96 000 jobs. Roslyn Swan lost her job in 2007 as a portfolio associate at a financial firm in New York. After submitting hundreds of applications, the 44-year-old is taking a break.“Maybe after the elections,” Swan said of her next attempt to get work. “I know that I will be employed again. I don’t know when, but I know it will happen.”Americans of all ages are leaving the workforce, but the problem is most acute in the 20-24 age group, where the participation rate has plunged by 4.4 percentage points since December 2007.Many Americans typically start working in their teens, taking part-time jobs after school and over summer vacations, a tradition that is supposed to instill a work ethic.With many failing to secure jobs after graduating from high school and college, analysts worry about US competitiveness."Because of delays to their career, the skills set accumulation that normally happens in the first or third job is not happening,” said Paul Conway, president of Generation Opportunity in Washington, a non-profit, non-partisan organisation that works with 18- to 29-year-olds on economic issues.Tough on young workersLast month, the proportion of 20- to 24-year-olds in the labour force was its lowest since 1972. Other age categories are faring little better. The 25-54 age group has seen a decline of 1.8 percentage points since December 2007. Some, like 27-year-old Casey Potts, have gone back to school. She is studying nursing in Kentucky after losing her medical sales job.“If I had stayed in medical sales, I would be job searching now,” said Potts.But separate surveys by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and Generation Opportunity found little evidence that young people were going back to school when unable to land a job.One deterrent is the rising cost of education and record levels of student debt. About two-thirds of 2012 college graduates left school in debt, owing on average $28 700 in student loans, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org. “Young people dropping out of the labour force to go back to school would be a silver lining if it were true,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior EPI economist, adding that enrollment had gradually been increasing for decades.A Generation Opportunity survey published in August showed a third of young people were putting off additional training and post-graduate studies because of the sour economy.“This is significant. People are making the decision to put those off because the assurance of a return to investment is not there,” said the non-profit’s Conway, a veteran observer of the labour market as a former Department of Labour chief of staff.He said his organisation found that young people were doing unpaid internships at nonprofit groups and businesses to prevent their skills from atrophying. Others were joining the military.Some economists say the participation rate does not paint a true picture because people find work in the informal sector, ranging from legal activities such as child care to crime in some cases“People are picking a buck here and there and not being reported in anybody’s payroll,” said Patrick O’Keefe, head of economic research at JH Cohn in Roseland, New Jersey.“They will say they are not doing anything, even as they have a job and are being paid under the table,” said O’Keefe, a former deputy assistant secretary at the Labour Department. “We do not know to what extent that is going on.”

France backs more time for Greece

Greece should be allowed more time to meet deficit targets set by international lenders provided it is sincere about reforming its economy, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on SundayNear-bankrupt Greece needs the European Union and International Monetary Fund’s blessing on spending cuts worth nearly €12bn ($16bn) to unlock its next tranche of aid, without which it faces default and a potential exit from the euro zone. The answer must not be a Greek exit from the euro zone,” Ayrault said in an interview with news website Mediapart. “We can already offer it more time... on the condition that Greece is sincere in its commitment to reform, especially fiscal reform.”Tough fiscal medicine prescribed by Greece’s international lenders has provoked widespread popular anger there that forms part of a broader backlash - spearheaded by French President Francois Hollande - against German-led austerity measures across Europe.So far, Greek officials have said agreement on €9.5bn of the €11.5bn package of spending cuts had been reached.That includes €6.5bn in cuts to wages, pensions and benefit payments and a further €1.1bn in savings planned from an increase in the retirement age.Responding to doubts over Hollande’s ability to deliver on his pro-growth, anti-austerity platform, Ayrault told Mediapart that a planned €120bn ($155.87bn) European Union stimulus package for the bloc as a whole was one of his successes - but that even this should only be a first step."We need to go further...120bn is not enough,” he said. “But it is better than nothing.”A poll released earlier on Sunday showed that Hollande’s approval ratings had tumbled to their lowest level since he took office in May, reflecting French impatience with his perceived inability to fight the crisis and stop job cuts. At a European level, the European Central Bank could do more to help growth, added Ayrault. “We would like to see (the ECB) go further...in playing the role of a real central bank,” he said.The ECB has over the past year brought out extra firepower in a bid to calm financial markets and spur growth in Europe, including the issuance of some €1 trillion in cheap funds to the banking sector and its recent announcement of a government-bond purchase programme.

NEWS,30.04.2012.

 

Obama and Clinton join forces for presidential campaign

Former United States President Bill Clinton gave a rousing endorsement of fellow Democrat Barack Obama in his first 2012 campaign appearance with the president today, and helped him raise more than $2 million.A white-haired and svelte Clinton, 65, pounded the podium and pointed at the crowd while addressing about 500 Obama supporters outside the Virginia home of his friend and Democratic adviser Terry McAuliffe."I think he's done a good job," he told the crowd in his signature raspy voice, warmly introducing the man who beat his wife, Hillary Clinton, to win the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and then made her US secretary of state. "We are going the right direction under President Obama's leadership."Clinton's support could be pivotal for Obama's efforts to raise money and to sell voters on his economic plans, which Republicans have denounced as fiscally reckless and rooted in populism instead of good business sense.Clinton oversaw one of the most prosperous times in recent American history and managed to balance the federal budget, something Democrats are keen to remind voters before the November 6 election.When he took the backyard podium, Obama, 50, noted Clinton's "remarkable" economic record in his two White House terms and referred frequently to the political powerhouse standing behind him, who stands to be a huge fundraising force in the final months of the presidential campaign."I didn't run for president simply to get back to where we were in 2007. I didn't run for president simply to restore the status quo before the financial crisis. I ran for president because we had lost our way since Bill Clinton was done being president," Obama said.The state of the US economy is expected to be the pivotal issue for voters in November.With unemployment still relatively high and growth showing signs of slowing, Obama is under pressure to defend his string of big budget deficits and prove the soundness of his proposals to keep spending on infrastructure, clean energy and education and to raise taxes on the very rich.Neither Obama nor Clinton referred to George W. Bush, the Republican who served two presidential terms in between their tenures, nor the presumptive Republican nominee for this year's White House race, Mitt Romney, by name in their outdoor remarks.But Clinton said Obama's likely White House opponent this year wanted to revert to the policies that plunged the United States into crisis, but "on steroids, which will get you the same consequences as before, on steroids."Clinton applauded Obama's efforts in healthcare, clean energy promotion and student loan reform, and argued that US employment levels were rebounding quickly from the financial and mortgage crises that took hold before Obama took office."Look, the man's not Houdini, all he can do is beat the clock. He's beating the clock," he said, comparing the pace of US recovery to Japan's extended weakness after its own crisis. "The last thing you want to do is to turn around and embrace the policies that got us into trouble in the first place."Fresh from the previous night's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, where he took several digs at Romney, Obama was clearly in good humor at the Virginia event.Turning to foreign policy, Obama said he and Hillary Clinton had "spent the last three and a half years cleaning up other folks' messes," and made fun of Romney's recent comment that Russia was the United States' "No. 1 geopolitical foe.""I'm suddenly thinking, 'What? Maybe I didn't check the calendar this morning. I didn't know we were back in 1975,'" he said. The comment echoed Vice President Joe Biden's criticism last week of Romney as being stuck in a Cold War mindset.Clinton had not appeared with Obama this election cycle. But last week the Obama campaign released a video of Clinton praising Obama for approving the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last May.Tickets to Sunday's outdoor reception cost $1,000 and up, and Obama and Clinton later addressed a more exclusive dinner at McAuliffe's home for 80 people who paid $20,000 each.The money went to a fund supporting Obama's re-election, the Democratic National Committee and several state Democratic parties.

Aus billionaire to build Titanic II

Sydney - One of Australia's richest men, Clive Palmer, on Monday unveiled plans to build a 21st century version of the doomed Titanic in China, with its first voyage from England to New York set for 2016.Palmer, a self-made mining billionaire, said he had commissioned state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to construct Titanic II with the same dimensions as its predecessor."It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic but of course it will have state-of-the-art 21st century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems," Palmer said in a statement."Titanic II will sail in the northern hemisphere and her maiden voyage from England to North America is scheduled for late 2016."He added that he had invited the Chinese navy to escort the Titanic II to New York.The announcement comes just weeks after the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic, which went down on April 15 1912 after striking an iceberg on its first voyage, from Southampton to New York.Palmer said the new ship would be a tribute to the spirit of the men and women who worked on the original, which sank with the loss of 1 514 passengers and crew."These people produced work that is still marvelled at more than 100 years later and we want that spirit to go on for another 100 years," he said.Titanic was commissioned by White Star Line and was the largest liner in the world at the time.Palmer said he has established his own shipping company, Blue Star Line, with the new vessel having the same specifications as its predecessor - 270m long, 53m high and weighing some 40 000 tonnes.It will have 840 rooms and nine decks with design work in conjunction with an historical research team underway. No figure was given on how much it would cost.The only changes to the original would be below the water line including welding and not riveting, a bulbous bow for greater fuel efficiency, diesel generation and enlarged rudder and bow thrusters for increased manoeuvrability."Titanic II will be the ultimate in comfort and luxury with on-board gymnasiums and swimming pools, libraries, high class restaurants and luxury cabins," Palmer said.The ship would also include an exhibition room which will be located in the space of the original's coal boilers which will showcase his home state of Queensland.Palmer is estimated to be Australia's fifth richest person, worth more than Aus$5bn, thanks to his vast coal and other mining assets in Queensland and Western Australia.He has also branched out into tourism and owns the luxury Coolum resort on the Sunshine Coast, while recently saying he wants to move into the media industry, a sector dominated byFairfax and Rupert Murdoch's News Limited.His decision to commission a Chinese shipbuilding yard, which will also construct other luxury liners for the tycoon, reinforces his ties to the country, which is a key buyer of his coal and iron ore."The Chinese are renowned for building commercial cargo and container ships," he said."China currently produces around 2 to 3% of the world's luxury ships but is looking to challenge the Europeans who have around 75% of this market."The Chinese ship building industry with our assistance wants to be a major player in this market."The original Titanic was built in Belfast.

Head of UN mission urges peace in Syria

The head of the UN observer mission in Syria on Sunday called on President Bashar al-Assad and the country's opposition to stop fighting and allow a tenuous cease-fire to take hold.Major General Robert Mood spoke after arriving in the Syrian capital, Damascus, to take charge of an advance team of 16 UN monitors trying to salvage an international peace plan to end the country's 13-month-old crisis.Under the plan, a cease-fire is supposed to lead to talks between Assad and the opposition on a political solution to a conflict that has killed more than 9 000 people.On Sunday, Syrian troops killed at least 28 civilians, including 14 in a village in the central Hama province, said an activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Opposition fighters shot dead three Syrian soldiers in a clash and four soldiers were killed while handling explosives, the group said.The Observatory also said several explosions were heard in Damascus, but provided no details.Mood told reporters that the 300 observers the UN has authorised for the mission "cannot solve all the problems" in Syria, asking for co-operation from forces loyal to Assad as well as rebels seeking to end his rule."We want to have combined efforts focusing on the welfare of the Syrian people," he said, "true cessation of violence in all its forms".The cease-fire began unravelling almost as soon as it went into effect 12 April. The regime has kept up its attacks on opposition strongholds, while rebel fighters have continued to ambush government security forces. Defying a major truce provision, the Syrian military has failed to withdraw tanks and soldiers from city streets.Despite the violence, the truce still enjoys the support of the international community, largely because it views the plan as the last chance to prevent the country from falling into civil war — and because it does not want to intervene militarily.Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that while he is still hopeful, "unfortunately, I am also aware how much this plan is at risk"."That's why it's especially important for this mission to expand quickly," Kellenberger told the Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag. He met with Syrian leaders earlier this month.Most analysts say the plan has little chance of succeeding, though it could temporarily bring down the level of daily violence.That has largely been the case in Homs, Syria's third largest city, which has emerged as the heart of the uprising. Regime forces pounded parts of Homs for months, leaving large swaths of the city in ruins, before two UN monitors moved into an upscale hotel there last week.Since then, the level of violence has dropped, although gunbattles still frequently break out. "The shooting has not stopped in Homs," local activist Tarek Badrakhan said on Sunday.An amateur video posted online on Saturday showed the observers walking through a heavily damaged neighbourhood, where residents collected a body lying in the street and put it in the back of a pickup truck.Mood, a Norwegian, was appointed head of the observer mission by UN chief Ban Ki-moon. One hundred monitors should be in the country by mid-May, said mission spokesman Neeraj Singh. It is unclear when or if the full contingent of 300 monitors will deploy to Syria.Mood brings a wealth of Middle East experience to the job, including stints with UN peacekeepers in Lebanon in 1989-1990 and as the head of a UN peacekeeping mission known as UNTSO from 2009 to 2011. That mission was the UN's first-ever peacekeeping operation, starting after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to monitor a cease-fire. It now watches cease-fires around the Middle East.The Syrian state news agency said observers visited the embattled Homs neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh on Sunday but provided no further information.The Observatory, an activist group monitoring the situation in Syria, said government snipers shot and killed two people in the neighbourhood of Joret al-Shayah, which borders Khaldiyeh.The group said an additional 26 civilians were killed by troops across Syria, including 14 in the village of Hamadi Omar in the central Hama province and a child in the southern province of Deir el-Zour.Ban has blamed the regime for widespread violations of the truce - prompting Syria to fire back that his comments were "outrageous" and accuse him of bias.The spat has further stoked concerns among the Syrian opposition and its Western supporters that Assad is merely playing for time to avoid compliance with a plan that - if fully implemented - would likely sweep him out of office.