Europe’s financial crisis lurched into a perilous new phase as dire predictions emerged of a collapse in Greece’s economy, with a run on its banks bringing an inevitable end to its membership of the euro.
The statistics agency data showed unemployment rose from 20.7 percent in the previous quarter and 15.9 percent in the same period in 2011. Greece is now fast approaching the jobless plight seen in Spain, where unemployment hit 24.4 percent in the first quarter.
Young Greeks in the 15-24 age group the jobless rate was 52.7 percent, the data showed, up from 39.6 percent in the same period a year ago.
As the Greek jobless rate hit 22.6 percent in the first three months of the year – double the euro zone average.
(Reuters) – Another showdown between Republicans in Congress and President Barack Obama over debt could be in the making, and some investors are already taking steps to prepare for it.
Image: (Pete Souza/White House)
Members of the Institute for Truth in Accounting are often asked what important issues face the nation. Here’s a list of several we consider important.
1. The accumulating federal debt of more than $59 trillion dollars. This includes explicit debt, debt internal to the federal government and the net present value of the current statutory entitlements. What’s worse, the debt grows at $2-3 trillion each year. The debt grow $5 trillion in 2008 alone.
2. The aging baby-boomers will put extraordinary pressure on the nation’s economy as they begin to collect on the social programs to which they are entitled. The combination of increasing medical costs, the extension of life expectancies and the sheer number of beneficiaries makes this situation unsustainable.
3. The trade imbalance with the rest of the world. Essentially we are consuming more than we produce and the consequence is that we must spend about 1% of all the wealth America has ever accumulated to foreigners, every year. Symptoms of this problem include a falling dollar, higher oil prices, and a long-term decline in national living standards.
4. Accounting principles and metrics our government uses to explain our financial condition are deficient and do not provide objective and comprehensive understanding of our fiscal challenges.
5. The lack of solutions to solve these problems indicates the largest problem—a lack of political will to solve them. This leadership vacuum is the biggest challenge we face and it occurs because no constituency for sustainability exists.
Did You Know: Congress Exempts Itself From Including the Cost of Promised Retirement Benefits in Stating Debt?
Source: Institute for Truth in Accounting (IFTA), an organization dedicated to promoting honest, accurate, and transparent accounting at all levels of government.
Draft David Walker for President
Who We Are
The Institute for Truth in Accounting is an unaffiliated, nonprofit organization created by Sheila Weinberg, a former Certified Public Accountant, in 2002. Its goal is to ensure that public and private organizations provide truthful financial information useful to a wide variety of users. The Institute is dedicated to the development of standards and awareness that timely, informative and reliable information is the basis for knowledgeable economic and political decisions.
The Institute is particularly interested in governmental accounting, at all levels. As the world’s largest fiscal organization, the U.S. government must be the leader in providing complete and understandable financial information. State and local governments’ accounting standards no longer adequately report the scope and scale of obligations assumed by these jurisdictions.
SOURCES: Data from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s Long-Term Model of the Federal Budget, Baseline Assumptions; the Congressional Budget Office, Long Term Budget Outlook: June 2009; and the Office of Management and Budget, The Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2013: February 2012. Compiled by PGPF.
Cramer and Welch Predict Light in the Tunnel, Finally!
Is the worst real estate crisis nearly over asks this observer? With mortgage resets nearly over and the talking heads linning up perhaps the boom is just around the corner.
The U.S. housing market has shown strong signs of bottoming and could soon turn around, “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer says, at least if recent housing data and bullish comments from prominent businessmen are any indicator.
Jack Welch, meanwhile, has joined the group of notable businessmen who think the housing market is looking up. Earlier this month, the former General Electric chairman said a combination of low prices and record-low interest rates have helped the battered real estate market hit bottom and get ready to rebound, perhaps even stronger than many economists expect. ”Housing has pretty well bottomed and rental prices are going up. Vacancies are almost nonexistent,” Welch said. “So you’ve got a lot of forces driving toward the housing market. Prices are down, interest rates are down, the affordability index is good. … We think it could be a blowout. Housing could be really good based on all the dynamics that are out there.” By Drew Sandholm, Posted 20 January 2012
“The monthly release from the investment bank found that 53% of a global panel of managers surveyed believe a ratings downgrade of the U.S. could take place before the end of 2013, with about 36% predicting a rating change in 2012. The survey covered 258 panelists with $665 billion of assets under management in all, while the global survey panel consisted of 188 managers in charge of $514 billion in assets.”
[Via: marketwatch.com]
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